General Introduction to Academic Writing
On February 17, 2020, the Women's Scientific Research Committee of the Bachelor of Arts in English program organized the first session of the Academic Writing series of Workshops by Department of English Supervisor, Dr. Nada Alqarni.
"Effective academic writing depends on interactional elements which supplement propositional information in the text and alert readers to the writer's opinion," said Dr. Alqarni.
She explained the importance of employing hedging, whose job is to make things fuzzier, implying that the writer is less than fully committed to the certainty of the referential information given. She further illustrated that hedging can be expressed through the use of a variety of structures. Additionally, she explained when to use hedges, emphasizing that their appropriate use is central to developing an academic, communicative competence as it assists the writers in establishing "a relationship with the reader and with the authorities in the field."
Following this introductory section, Dr. Alqarni moved to explain the parts of the academic research paper. The introduction, the purpose of introduction and common mistakes that the authors should steer clear of in writing the introduction as well as the main parts in the introduction were the main ideas covered in the second section. She emphasized that in the introduction authors should establish why the topic is important, outline the past-present history of the study of the topic, indicate the gap in knowledge and possible limitations, state the aim of the paper and its contribution, explain the key terminology in the field of the study and how the terminology and acronyms are used in the paper, and indicate the structure of paper - what is and is not included.
The workshop included practice on the three main parts of an introduction (i.e., the general research area, the gap in the literature and the purpose of the research paper). The workshop was a big success, and it was attended by many graduate students, staff members and scientific research committee members.
Of noteworthy mention, the series of academic writing workshops consists of seven sessions on Mondays 17 Feb to 30 March 2020 at 9:00 am at the Faculty of Languages and Translation, King Abdullah Road Campus.
Date: 2/20/2020
Source: Dr. Amal Metwally – Scientific Research Committee Coordinator
