Academic Arguments
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Academic Arguments
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Much of the writing you will do in college (and some of what you will no doubt do later in your professional work) is generally referred to as academic discourse or academic argument. Although this kind of writing has many distinctive features, in general it shares these characteristics:
It is based on research and uses evidence that can be documented.
It is written for a professional, academic, or school audience likely to know something about its topic.
It makes a clear and compelling point in a fairly formal, clear, and sometimes technical style.
It follows agreed-upon conventions of format, usage, and punctuation.
It is documented, using some professional citation style.
Academic writing is serious work, the kind you are expected to do whenever you are assigned a term essay, research paper, or capstone project. Manasi Deshpande’s proposal “A Call to Improve Campus Accessibility” in Chapter 12 is an example of an academic argument of the kind you may write in college. You will find other examples of such work throughout this book.
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