101 Chips and Salsa and Academic Writing Professor Ramos Blog

101 Chips and Salsa and Academic Writing Chips and Salsa Chips and Salsa Don’t you hate it when you have too much of one and not enough of the other? There has to be the appropriate amount of chips to salsa for it to work, to taste good. What are we talking about? What is Academic Writing? The article â€Å"What is Academic Writing?† is a brief introduction to the writing you will be expected to do in college. The article begins by addressing common myths about what academic writing is.  Which ones have you heard before?  Think of one or two more myths, or ideas of writing, that you have heard before. Myth #1: The â€Å"Paint by Numbers† myth Myth #2: Writers only start writing when they have everything figured out Myth #3: Perfect first drafts Myth #4: Some got it; I don’t- the genius fallacy Myth #5: Good grammar is good writing Myth #6: The Five Paragraph Essay Myth #7: Never use â€Å"I† Irvin quotes a study by Lee Ann Carroll about the writing students do in college: What are usually called ‘writing assignments’ in college might more accurately be called ‘literacy tasks’ (7). What do you think she means here? In a short paragraph, write what you think the author is saying. What is academic writing according to our article? What does Carroll mean by literacy tasks? Chapter 8  Ã¢â‚¬Å"As a Result†: Connecting the Parts Chapter 8 covers what to do when connecting the parts of your essay together. They explain that creating connections between sentences and ideas increases sentence variety and helps construct a more convincing argument. Consider transitions both  within  a paragraph and  between  paragraphs. Look at  pages 108-109  for transition words. They give four principles: Using transition terms (like â€Å"therefore† and â€Å"as a result†) Adding pointing words (like â€Å"this† and â€Å"such†) Developing a set of key terms and phrases for each text you write Repeating yourself, but with a difference