Books Review

“Academic Writing at College Level”

By: Cayo Islami Musmar El Akhir

            I have read some books that deal with writing term in the last few weeks. The topics that catch my attention so much are building up vocabulary, academic writing in college, integrating technology in writing class and the use of Internet in writing task. Here, my focus is in the topic about academic writing at college level that will be explained in the first book and its relation with the other topics in the other books. The first book is arranged by Lennart Björk, et.al, Teaching Academic Writing in European Higher Education. He is an expert in writing field and a professor from Department of Languages and Literatures in University of Göteborg, Sweden. He also has written many books that focus on writing at college level like Academic Writing a University Writing Course. Yet, the first chapter that I will focus on, Getting Started: Academic Writing in the First Year of a University Education, is written by his partner, Otto Kruse from University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt, Germany.

In this chapter, Cruse (2003) clearly explains the role of academic writing both in academic study and professions. Academic writing in college level has different demand from that in high school. The function of academic writing in college is more complex because it is used as communication and social interaction tools. Cruse uses simple words that can be understood easily and he gives an illustration to make his explanation more interesting. He mentions Johanna’s case as an example of many college students do not realize that academic writing need more skills than usual writing. May be there are many books that have mentioned about this case before but by reading this book I more realize about how important academic writing in college level is. According to me this book will be a good guide for the first year college students. It will make them realize that writing academic essay in college level is not as easy as they thought before. It needs complex skills like summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting that they never learned before in high school.

Before college students start to write an academic writing, they have to know about the elements of an academic essay and how to make a good thesis statement. This information is provided in the next book, Techniques for College Writing: The Thesis Statement and Beyond by Kathleen Muller Moore and Susie Lan Cassel. Kathleen Muller Moore has an MA and PhD from the University of California Riverside. She has been teaching composition for more than ten years and is currently an Associate Director in the University Writing Program at the University of California, Riverside. Her partner, Susie Lan Cassel is Professor of Literature and Writing Studies at California State University, San Marcos. She has an MA from Harvard University and a PhD from the University of California. Her first book, The Chinese in America: A History from Gold Mountain to the New Millennium was nominated for the Association of Asian-American Studies Book Award in History.

In the first chapter of this book, Defining the Thesis Statement and the Academic Essay Moore and Cassel (2011) explains about the brief history of academic essay and its elements. It also explains the important of thesis statement. The points that they want to deliver can be caught by the readers easily because they use subheadings when it comes to important information. For example, they use it when explain the elements of academic essay. From this book, the readers including me can realize that although I have already known thesis statement, actually I do not know the exact meaning of it or I would hard to define it. This book gives me the lesson that knowing without mastering or applying is useless. I can bravely say that this book will help the college students in comprehend the important role of thesis statement in writing academic essay and suggest reading this book more seriously.

Building up vocabulary will be next key point in producing a good academic essay after students know about thesis statement. Having good knowledge about thesis statement without enough vocabulary will be ineffective way of learning writing. That is why before start writing students have to enrich themselves with many vocabularies. The third book, Effective Reading in a Changing World, arranged by Rose Wasman and Lee Ann Rinsky, will give explanation about how to build up vocabulary that help students in writing academic essay. This is a book that was released in 2000 by Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River in New Jersey. In chapter 2, Building Vocabulary through Context and Structured explains how easy in building up vocabulary if we know the contexts and structures of the words.

When students know the types of vocabulary and the use of it according to the context it will really help them in writing. The wrong use of words that is not appropriate with the context can be avoided. This chapter gives a very essential knowledge about the types of word and the strategy to build up vocabulary. I say like that because even though I have already known about the context, I still confuse about the application of it in writing. Luckily, this book gives the readers including me tips to make it easier know and use the words based on the context. It also gives example of every type of words and eases the readers to understand the book. In my opinion the writers, Wasman and Rinsky, are success to deliver their points to the readers. 

After enrich themselves with vocabularies, the next level that has to be passed by students in producing an academic essay is to raise their confidence in sharing and showing their writing to other friends in order to get more suggestion and correction. The next book is written by Caroline Coffine, et.al, Teaching Academic Writing: A Toolkit for Higher Education. This book was first published in 2003 by Routledge and then published again two years later by Taylor and Francis e-Library. The purpose of this book is to give general overview about integrates technology and writing is very useful. By using electronic in teaching learning process, the process of developing students writing academic skill will be easier. This book can be used by both teachers and students in writing class activities.

Coffine, et.al (2005), states by using electronic media such as computer will be useful in developing students writing skill and also will save times to print out the data and decrease the photocopying costs. It also provides the chance for students to do electronic conferencing so that they will be able to communicate with other friends in other areas to discuss their writing tasks. They also can do online writing and their friends will do peer correction for them. I always like the methods that use technology and electronic as the media in teaching learning process because in my opinion it will avoid the boredom in the classroom. Most of the students also like that kinds of task since they can do it in relax and joy situation. However, one thing that becomes my concern is this method can result a bad effect for the students writing skill. Students might learn to be a plagiarism if they always take sources from the internet but lazy to paraphrase and just copy-paste it fully. As a result, later those students will gain good ability not in academic writing but in plagiarism.   

In academic writing courses, of course, all of the students want to get a good result of their writing. Every student must want their writing to be recognized by the people around the world. One way that teachers can do to open the gate for their students is by giving Wikipedia writing project. The last book that I have read is Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in the Age of Wikipedia by Robert E. Chumming. This book was released on 2009 by Vanderbilt University. Robert is an assistant professor of English and director of first year composition at Columbus State University, as well as writing specialist for the universities quality enhancement plain which he assist teacher across campus in their curriculum. This book explores the Wikipedia movement from the perspective of a writing teacher. Since Internet is accessible for everyone in the world, many teachers begin to use it as a media in teaching learning process. Teachers or lecturers give writing task and ask the students to try to post it in Wikipedia.

This method-web based method-always popular among the students because it provides good chance to develop their academic writing skills. It also gives high motivation for the students to set the goal that someday their writing will be posted in Wikipedia and everyone in the world can access it. I suggest the students of English department to read this book because it will give good motivation in making good academic writing and make the students becomes confidence in show up their writing. This book gives me the lesson that everyone can write and able to post it in Wikipedia. One thing that has to be remembered is writing need processes that cannot be done instantly. It also demands the patience and sincerity from the writers in producing it. I know that is not an easy matter to post our writing in Wikipedia because it has to pass some evaluations by the experts but I am always sure that using Wikipedia in academic writing course will give good opportunity for the students in their academic and carrier life.

            To sum up, I really suggest the first year students of English Department to read these five books because it gives essential knowledge for the beginner of academic writers. As my previous explanation about academic writing, it is very complicated work that cannot be done just by having experience in writing at senior high school. These books connect each other and will be more significant if students read all of them. The writers of these books are the experts in writing field that must have much experience in academic writing. I think if students read their book there are many knowledge that can be obtained. It will help students to be good academic writers. In the process of learning academic writing, students are not alone. They have their lecturers who will help them in producing academic writing. That is why I also suggest the lecturers of English Department to read these five books. They can use these books in giving their lesson material in writing class. I also hope that English Department will put these books in their Library to make students easier access and read these books.

      

References

Björk, Lennart, et.al. (2003). Teaching Academic Writing in European Higher Education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Coffine, Caroline, et.al. (2005). Teaching Academic Writing: A Toolkit for Higher Education. USA: Routledge

Cummings, Robert E. (2009). Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in the Age of Wikipedia. USA: Vanderbilt University Press

Moore, Kathleen Muller & Susie Lan Cassel. (2011). Techniques for College Writing: The Thesis Statement and Beyond. Boston: Wadsworth.

Wasman, Rose & Lee Ann, Rinsky. (2000). Effective Reading In A Changing World. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River.