Academic Writing

Academic writing generally refers to the kinds of prose used by college students, faculty, and researchers to write about subjects under study. Academic writing can be viewed as a kind of conversation, which is ongoing and open-ended: When new participants (students) join the conversation, they need to seek background information on the topic before they can understand and respond in a reasonable, informed manner. Then, other participants can respond to them. The conversation continues after these individuals have participated (Burke 110 – 11). It is crucial that participants deeply engage in the conversation, which entails listening to, summarizing, and responding to others’ views, that is, “using what others say ... as a launching pad or sounding board for your own ideas” (Graff and Birkenstein 3). Academic writing is based on inquiry and study, relies more on reason than emotion, and is intended to inform and evoke a response from a real or imagined audience (Thaiss and Zawacki 5 – 8).

Academic writing compared to other kinds of writing

This chart makes distinctions among creative, personal, academic, and professional writing in terms of the elements of rhetorical situations; however, these categories also overlap and have similarities. Sometimes a writer’s rhetorical situation may invite or require combining characteristics from more than one category. Also, a piece of writing can change categories; for example, a paper written by a graduate student for an academic course may later be published in a professional journal. Creative writing can be done in a private, academic, or professional setting. While creative writing is an academic discipline, it can be argued that many kinds of writing involve creativity.

WAC Academic Writing
Creative Writing	Personal Writing	Academic Writing	Professional Writing
Creative Writing Content is largely imaginative or fictional though based on life experiences and knowledge/research	Personal Writing Content is known from personal life experience	Academic Writing Content is known through study or research	Professional Writing Content is known as part of professional knowledge, experience, or research
Creative Writing Audience is generally friendly, seeking to be entertained, informed, or enlightened	Personal Writing Audience is generally friendly, seeking to be entertained, informed, or inspired. Can be peers/classmates, members of a group to which the writer belongs, readers of an online platform, blog, or print publication; professors.	Academic Writing Audience seeks to understand, learn from, or evaluate your ideas and knowledge and information, form an opinion, and (often) respond. Peers, classmates, professors	Professional Writing Audience Other professionals in the field or business, coworkers or colleagues, supervisors, customers, stakeholders, a targeted group or the general public
Creative Writing Purposes To entertain, inform, enlighten, move readers, make readers think	Personal Writing Purposes To express and/or share personal information and ideas; tell a significant personal story; to entertain, to enlighten	Academic Writing Purposes To inform, provoke, persuade, demonstrate knowledge about a subject	Professional Writing Purposes To inform, enlighten, and/or persuade
Creative Writing Style and conventions are diverse	Personal Writing Style and conventions can be informal, even conversational	Academic Writing Style and conventions should conform to disciplinary expectations, such as APA, Chicago Manual, or MLA	Professional Writing Style and conventions vary according to professional expectations
Creative Writing Common rhetorical approaches include narration and description, which can be prose or verse, or some combination of these. Can incorporate multiple modalities, for example, photographs or drawings	Personal Writing Common rhetorical approaches are narration, description, illustration through examples. But can also use comparative or causal analysis, etc. Can incorporate multiple modalities, for example, photographs or drawings	Academic Writing Common rhetorical approaches include summary; analysis and synthesis involving comparison, definition, cause & effect, process, etc. Sometimes referred to as expository (explanatory) writing. Multimodal, multimedia: Charts, diagrams, figures	Professional Writing Common rhetorical approaches Varies greatly but can include any
Creative Writing Examples: Poem Short story Novel	Personal Writing Examples: Personal narrative essay, (memoir) Informal response Letter, email Blog Informative or inspirational speech/multimodal presentation	Academic Writing Examples: Lab report, scientific study, summary, essay, term paper, blog or web page, research proposal, research paper, review; thesis, capstone, or dissertation; spoken or multimodal presentation	Professional Writing Examples: Article, abstract for article, blog, web page, spoken or multimedia presentation, podcast, advertisement, report, review, artist’s statement, proposal, executive summary, book

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Academic Writing

WAC Academic Writing