What is the notion of “writing as conversation” and its role in academic writing?

Purpose

The purpose of this project is explain the topic of academic writing based on the class readings so far and on your experience in this and other college classes. The readings to use in this paper are:

What is Academic Writing (Links to an external site.)? by Lennie Irvin.
Parts 1 and 2 of They Say/I say.

We have read and discussed both of these texts, so you should be familiar with them.

Here are some possible items/ideas you may want to consider structuring your essay around (this is not to say that you want to write the paper as just a list of answers to these questions).

According to the course readings so far, what are the main characteristics of academic writing, and what is the role of the term “writing situation” in this?
What is the notion of “writing as conversation” and its role in academic writing?
Based on these ideas and these sources, try to name and describe some key features of academic writing genres (kinds of writing)

You must use the course readings as your main source of evidence and support.

Audience

As your primary audience for this paper, you should think of someone who has less experience with academic writing than you do. A recent high school graduate who has not yet entered college, perhaps

Procedure

To restate, the purpose of this paper is to explain the term “academic writing.” Here is how you might go about achieving that purpose.

Here are some questions to get you started. Please make sure, though, that your paper is not just a list of unconnected answers to these questions.

Why is this question important/relevant for your audience? (explicitly explain why your audience should care about this subject. We do not simply assume that they do or that they should)
According to Irvin and the authors of They Say/I Say, what is academic writing? How can you use the notion of “conversation” explained in the book to explain academic writing?
Are there any misconceptions about what it is among people?
In your experience so far, what has academic writing been? Do your experiences confirm or contradict Irwin’s ideas and the ideas in the book?
You must use both texts ad evidence for all the claims you make. The texts should be the main source of evidence. Your personal experiences–a distant second and only when addressing the last question.

Length and format of the finished essay

The final draft of the essay should be about 3-4 double-spaced pages long. You MUST use MLA style, both for source-citations and for the formatting of your paper. If you are new to MLA, our lab course has a lot of guidance on it. In the meantime, you can also use this quick reference sheet (Links to an external site.). Please note that for this paper, you will be citing and documenting two types of sources: a chapter in a book/anthology (Irwin), and a book (They Say/I Say). Those are the only two kinds of sources you need to worry about for this project.

Last Completed Projects