UoK_FoS_ACLT I August, 2022

Worksheet: The Writing Process and Genre Analysis

Overview:
This final worksheet of the academic literacy foundation unit will help you discover the
writing process and the skill to identify different genres of text available in your disciplinary
contexts. It begins by introducing the academic writing process, with which you will be able
to understand how to approach and compose the undoubtedly vast number of writing
assignments you will get in your academic programmes. This worksheet also briefly
introduces you to genre analysis, an academic literacy skill required to identify and
understand different genres of writing assignments that you will encounter in your academic
programmes. Keep in mind that you will be required to follow the academic writing process
to successfully complete writing assignments.

Part 1: The Academic Writing Process

Task 1: What is ‘academic writing process’, and why is it important?

First, watch this video (up to 5:03 in class, and the entire video as homework) and note down
answers to these two questions.
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While the academic writing process may not be identical in every academic context it is
adopted worldwide, the following are six stages that many academic writers go through to
produce effective academic papers:

Stage 1: Understand your audience, genre, and purpose

Before you start organizing your ideas for a writing task, you need to consider your audience,
genre, and purpose. If you consider these three factors, it will help you engage critically with
your topic and write in an appropriate style.
Audience:
Your audience is the person or people who will read your writing. At university, this
includes your lecturers who have expert knowledge of your subject and who expect
you to write in a certain way. The first step of stage 1 is to ask yourself two questions:
UoK_FoS_ACLT I August, 2022

- Who is my audience?
- What are the expectations of my audience?
Genre:
Genre refers to different text types, for example, a summary, a lab report, a reflective
report, or a structured essay. Each type of text follows different genre conventions or
rules about the organization and style of writing. Before writing, you need to ask
yourself the following questions:
- What kind of text am I writing?
- What are the genre conventions of this text type?
Purpose:
The purpose is your reason for writing. Are you taking lecture notes? Is the essay a
first draft? Are you writing an assignment for a grade? In each case, you need to think
about the following questions:
- Why am I writing?
- Should I take risks or play safe?
Stage 2: Understand your topic, focus, and task
There are two common types of writing assignments: open assignments, in which you can
choose your own question to write on, and closed questions that are assigned by a lecturer.
In either case, you need to keep your writing in focus and on task. You can do this by breaking
questions down into these three components:
Topic:
The topic is the general subject that you are writing about. You should not write too
much about the general topic; simply mention it briefly in the introduction of your
writing product.
Focus:
The focus is the specified aspect, or aspects, of the topic that you will write about.
Most of what you write in the paper should be about the specific focus.
Task:
The task is what you have to do, for example, analyze, compare, or summarize. Again,
most of what you write in the paper should follow the specific task.
Stage 3: Gather information and ideas
The next stage is to begin the process of gathering information. This is usually done in one of
two ways: (a) searching for information online or in books and then adding your own ideas or
UoK_FoS_ACLT I August, 2022

(b) gathering ideas from your existing knowledge and then searching for information online or
in books.
A) Searching for information online:
Do a keyword search in a general or academic search engine using the following
strategies.
I) Use combinations of keywords from the assignment question:
Ex: EMI students, academic writing, English, difficulties, support
II) Use combinations of synonyms of the keywords:
Ex: EMI / English as a Medium of Instruction, university writing, academic
essays, problems, solutions
III) Use quotation marks to narrow the focus:
Ex: "academic writing support"; "academic writing support for EMI students"
IV. Assess the reliability of the sources:
Make sure the information you select is from recognized academic journals
or other reliable sources.
B) Gathering ideas from existing knowledge:
You can gather ideas from your existing knowledge before, during, or after your
search for sources. Three strategies for gathering ideas are free-writing, concept
maps, and linear notes.
I) Free-writing:
Write as many ideas as you can about the question. You can do this in any
form or style. The main aim is to generate ideas.
II) Concept maps:
Gather ideas with a concept map, fill bubbles with different ideas, link the
bubble with arrows, or lines, add more bubbles as needed, and describe the
relationship between each group of ideas.
III) Linear notes:
Gather ideas with notes written in a line-by-line format, list categories, and
take notes under headings and subheadings.

Stage 4: Form an outline

The fourth stage is to organize your information and ideas into a coherent outline ordered
logically. Different types of written answers or papers require different structures, for
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example, the way you compare two elements is different from writing about a problem and a
solution. You can then keep your outline as a focus to guide your writing.
Stage 5: Write the paper sections
This is the stage to start writing your paper. Most written work requires an introduction,
several main body paragraphs (based on the outline), and a conclusion; include a reference
list if you have brought others' ideas into your work. Consider your writing as "drafts" through
a series of which you will finalize your writing. As you write, remember to keep your writing in
focus and on task.
Stage 6: Review and edit your work
Remember to edit your work as you write and after you have finished writing. You should edit
for the following: content (did you answer the question?); accuracy of grammar, vocabulary,
and punctuation; and appropriate style for the genre of writing (this includes formatting).
[Adapted from Marshall, 2019]

Task 2:
A) Think back to your ‘old way’ of completing writing assignments, and reflect on how this
‘new way’ of approaching writing assignments will help you in your academic programmes.
Write down 2 take-away messages you were able to extract from this lesson.

1) ….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2) ….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Part 2: Genre Analysis

[Credits to the University of Sheffield Academic Literacy Resources]

Genre refers to categories of texts that share the same features: they are organized and
worded in a similar way for the same audience and with the same purpose. News articles,
essays, and lab reports are all different genres of writing. Genres are not limited to written
texts. Genre analysis is the ability to identify a genre’s defining organization, language,
intended audience, and purpose. This is a significant academic literacy skill to develop in
your academic programmes.
Task 3: Complete this short summary written on the importance of genre analysis.

approach knowledge features analyze sample skill creating professional

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Genre analysis is an a) __________ to examining texts. For example, you can examine a b)
___________ of a particular genre e.g. a lab report, focusing on its organization and c)
___________ in order to acquire d) __________ necessary for e) ___________ your own
example of this genre. In other words, in order to be able to write a lab report, you need to f)
___________ examples of lab reports and identify what makes them lab reports. Genre
analysis is a g) _________ that will allow you to learn about genres you will encounter in both
in your academic studies and h) ____________ practice.

Discuss answers with the class.

There are dozens of genres of written texts, possibly hundreds, and you will come across
many different ones in your courses, depending on your field of study or discipline - i.e.,
industrial management, statistics, physical sciences, biological sciences, etc. However,
the generic features to look for in any genre are:
 Organization: How a text is organized (including sections, headings, layout, length etc.)
 Language: What kind of language is used in a genre (including style, vocabulary,
linguistic functions etc.)

Task 4: Which of the following genres have you heard of or are you familiar with? Tick all
that apply. At the end, think about your disciplinary contexts and try to add a couple of
more to the list.
Research proposals Reviews of books/films/websites
Literature reviews Case studies
Discussion/argumentative essays Lab reports
Product designs Data analyses
News reports Reflective recounts
Annotated bibliographies Dissertations
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

Task 5: Study the organization of the following excerpts (hyperlinked below) for one
minute each, and identify their genres.
Research poster presentation Book Lab report Journal article Book review

Text 1: _________________________________________
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Text 2: _________________________________________
Text 3: _________________________________________
Text 4: _________________________________________
Text 5: _________________________________________

Task 6: Study the following excerpts from similar sections of two different genres for one
minute each, and answer the following questions:
A) Are these extracted from two academic or non-academic sources? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
B) What can you comment on the organization and the language of the two extracts?
_____________________________________________________________________
C) Who do you think the audience these texts are aimed at? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
D) What do you think their genres are?
_____________________________________________________________________

Text A:
In this experiment, air (an ideal gas) was heated in a pressure vessel with a volume of 1 liter.
Attached to this pressure vessel was a pressure transducer and thermocouple to measure the
pressure and the temperature, respectively, of the air inside the vessel. Both of these
transducers produced voltage signals (in Volts) that were calibrated to the pressure (kPa) and
temperature (K) of the air (theatmospheric pressure for where the experiment occurred is
assumed to be 13.6 psia). In addition, the theoretical temperature (K) of air was calculated as
a function of the measured pressured values (kPa).

Text B:
Secondly I discovered that even the simplest things on earth could be turned into something
amazing if we put enough creativity and effort into working on them [1] . With the
Impromptu Design activities [3] we used some simple materials such as straws, string, and
balloons, but were still able to create some 'cool stuff' [4] . I learned that every design has its
weaknesses and strengths and working with a group can help discover what they are. We
challenged each other's preconceptions about what would and would not work. We could
also see the reality of the way changing a design actually affected its performance.

At the end, discuss answers with the class.

UoK_FoS_ACLT I August, 2022

Task 7: Homework
Choose three texts that you may have been given in the form of assignments s or
recommended reading in your own disciplinary context, and find out their audience, genres,
generic features in terms of organization and language, and purpose ( Cross reference to
Stage 1 of the Academic Writing Process). Share your findings with the class.

Texts Genres Features of Features of Audience Purpose

Organization Language

Part 3: Grammar and Sentence Structures - Types of Sentences

Sentences in English can be categorized into four main types:
 Declarative sentences or Statements [Ex: Academic writing is a cognitive process]
 Interrogative sentences or Questions [Ex: Is academic writing a cognitive process?]
 Imperative sentences or Commands [Ex: Study academic writing!]
 Exclamatory sentences or Exclamations [Ex: Academic writing! Oh!]
Out of these four types, declarative sentences are the most common, and they present
declarations or statements about anything or anyone (i.e., subject) who does something (i.e.,
predicate). This lesson focuses on the three main ways you can formulate a declarative
sentence.
 Simple sentences
 Compound sentences
 Complex sentences

Study the following example sentences from the McNamara (2018) article excerpts shared
with you in Worksheet 2, and their explanations: (Note that the sentences might not make
much sense out of context, so find them in the context for a better understanding).
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Explanations:

Keep in mind that in academic writing, you are expected to write a mix of sentences.

Task 8: In groups, use the sentence starters given below and create grammatical and
meaningful sentences. Follow the word order formula you learned in Worksheet 2 to
create detailed, grammatical, and meaningful sentences covering all three types of
sentences you learned in this lesson.

The sentence starters:

 Academic writing ______________________________________________________

 Studying sciences ______________________________________________________
 Critical thinking _______________________________________________________
 Gathering information from academic sources _______________________________
 Writing assignments at university _________________________________________
 Scientific vocabulary ____________________________________________________
 Science education ______________________________________________________

Get feedback from your study group peers.