John Bean (2001) argues that when it comes to reading required material, professors and students are caught in a vicious circle: students do not do the reading, and so professors explain what the reading says. Writing requires practice. The pros, the charlatans hawking writing e-courses, they all say you’ve got to write practice, a lot. If you do not understand why we need to learn this skill, let’s break it down into sections of importance. Writing is hard. Writing is hard. Practice your craft, they all advise. I read and reread my writing … The first week or so, that’s easy. If you are able to adhere to instructions, have an academic tone when writing and write high quality content, you are an academic writer. Even the best writers think so. But writing is hard, and writing in college may resemble playing a familiar game by com-pletely new rules (that often are unstated). So here’s the secret. Scientific writing, like most writing is effective when one follows a particular outline which is also used in giving effective speeches or presentations: 1. The second week, not so much. It has a formal tone and style, but it is not complex and does not require the use of long sentences and complicated vocabulary. Academic writing is like an assignment and each task comes with its own instructions. If you finally got good data, then actually most of the work is done. Academic writing is clear, concise, focussed, structured and backed up by evidence. Helping students learn to read difficult and challenging material Suggestions for Faculty . But that’s not always the case. 1. So where do you find good models of writing? This chapter is designed to introduce you to what academic writing is like, and hopefully ease your transition as you face these daunting writing challenges. Sometimes the texts that we read are simply hard to grasp. That’s because their writers are dealing with difficult ideas, it’s not because the texts are poorly written. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Anything that requires bloodshed is not easy — trust me, I’ve had children! Instead of merely describing the work of other people, students have to think about why it has been carried out and which uses its findings may have for the future. 2. Obviously, from good writers — not necessarily in the sciences, but anywhere 2 . No one can read hard stuff for hours at a time, so be nice to yourself! Its purpose is to aid the reader’s understanding. Hemingway once said “There is nothing to writing. And post frequently, here on Medium or a platform of choice. Academic writing usually requires students to look at somebody else’s work or ideas and then form an informed opinion on it. I’m the type of writer who agonizes over word choice. 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