In This Chapter
Before we begin our work of entering the conversation about First Year Composition and Academic Writing, we need some basic concepts about how to listen to that conversation. As we already discussed, one of the primary features of academic writing is that it is argumentative. Rather than being a list of already established facts, academic writing will make logic and evidence-based claims and then support those claims with facts.
However, academic writing isn’t just something that scholars and students produce. Scholars and students also use academic articles, books, and other texts to support the arguments they make. By referring to other texts, academic writers directly address specific conversations and build their authority to speak. Experienced writers know that not all sources and texts are equal, and they take the time to evaluate the sources they use.
Imagine that you walk into a party and discover a group of people talking about music. The group is trying to decide who the greatest musical artist of all time is. You could jump in and voice your opinion, but without any evidence, whatever you say will only be an opinion–not a true argument. You take a few minutes and listen to the conversation. Some people in the group believe greatness should be determined by album sales. Others think greatness should be based on overall popularity. Still others think that greatness is defined by innovation and uniqueness. As you listen, you can get a better sense of what the entire group agrees about–the facts they’re basing their arguments upon. You can also begin to see where the group disagrees. It is only when you understand the places where they disagree that you can formulate your own claim.
But there’s more to making a claim than simply disagreeing with someone. Strong arguments will have clear reasons for why the argument is valid. They will also have solid evidence that proves the reasons are correct.
Like the conversation about music, academic writers must first understand what the conversation entails before joining in. They might begin their work by using dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other fact-oriented reference resources to gain a clear understanding of the facts about the topic, but they would need to go beyond reference resources to begin understanding the complete topic. They would need to find sources where other scholars and writers make arguments about how to interpret those facts or about the importance of the facts.
We already learned that academic writing is well sourced. Academic writers must use a variety of resources to make sure they understand the conversation they are entering as completely as possible. Often, the resources writers use are essays, academic journal articles, or books. These resources present logical and evidence-based arguments that writers can use to support their own arguments. But to use these resources, writers need to read carefully and analytically. Most of all, they need to understan