What does writing an academic text imply?

Writing an academic text involves a simple but organized process which implies following pre, while and post- writing steps. First of all, the pre-writing strategies included choosing and narrowing the data, outlining the text and organizing the ideas according to the components of the model of a research article given in class. I chose listing ideas as a brainstorming technique useful to write all the words, phrases or sentences that came into my head about each component of the research article. It enabled me to write many ideas as possible in a short time. After listing the ideas, I re- classified them into the components of a typical research paper such as Introduction, Methods, Results, discussion, etc. Here, a first proof-reading exercise was necessary and some sentences were crossed out because they were irrelevant, confusing or repetitive. Probably, the most difficult part was choosing the valuable findings and “knit” them with a logical and fluent discourse which is usually supported by a theory.

After writing the paper, revision was an essential part of the process. During the revision stage many changes appeared in order to refine and improve the paper’s organization, coherence, unity, punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.

Although writing this article implied following a process of writing, rewriting and checking several drafts, I think that the whole process was effective because it helped me to produce a coherent paper by following academic guidelines.

Image retrieved from http://lascosasdelualua.blogspot.com/2009/01/puzzle.html