Overview of chapter3
Atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum:
And seek after truth in the groves of Academe.Horace
To start you thinking
Re-read past assignments and essays and take note of the feedback given to you. How could your writing be improved?
As was indicated in chapter 1, we generate more information than ever before and the skill for writers today is not to obtain sufficient information but to obtain the most relevant and useful information. Much of the information people receive is irrelevant, incomprehensible, unreliable, untimely or contradictory. Accordingly, effective research techniques are more important than ever before. As part of the academic process you must gather relevant data from a number of sources and use the different technologies to find and effectively utilise the information. The research process includes gathering data, summarising it and presenting it in a report or oral presentation.
Learning objectives
On completion of this chapter you should be able to:
- differentiate between primary, secondary and tertiary sources of information
- use notations and citations appropriately
- order information
- apply various strategies for sorting information
- outline different types of thinking
- discuss common errors in thinking
- describe writing techniques that identify the main point and indicate connections between ideas
Topics
- 3.1 Overview of academic writing
- 3.1.2 The research process
- 3.1.2 Notation
- 3.1.3 Strategies for sorting information
- 3.2 Clear and logical thinking in academic writing
- 3.3 Structure and content of academic writing
- 3.4 Writing techniques
In your text
Read Chapters 14 and 16 in your text by Dwyer, J. 2005, Communication in Business: Strategies and Skills, 3 rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, Australia and Reading 3.1 (extract from) Windschuttle, K. & Elliott, E. 2001, Writing, Researching, Communicating: Communication Skills for the Information Age , 3 rd edn, pages 97-114.
