TEACHING ACADEMIC WRITING AS A METHOD OF IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS
TEACHING ACADEMIC WRITING AS A METHOD OF IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Summary/Abstract: Writing for academic purposes should be a compulsory topic in any academic institutions that usually provide students with courses and modules devoted to the acquisition of Academic Writing Skills. Teaching about Academic Writing is not an easy task as it calls for some prerequisites. Among these we could mention a good command of the English language. Academic environments nowadays use the English language as the lingua franca, that is the medium to communicate. That would require, besides the above-mentioned excellent command of the English language, a broad perspective on how knowledge and information are shared in international academic contexts. Being culturally aware, a researcher would try to get their message across in such a way that their written texts would be as objective as possible, being emptied of any cultural features (that have in view the researcher’s cultural background). Nonetheless, the purpose of this paper is to show how academic writing may be regarded as another form of communication, this approach seeming to be a more effective one for students’ understanding of the problem. Writing is a complex process that requires special training. Looking at this problem from this perspective may actually make it easier for students to understand the basic principles of academic writing and, at the same time to realize that, by the end of the learning process they may become better communicators. Mastering good academic writing skills definitely shapes the way in which communicate in a beneficial way. Academic writing is about being able to share knowledge and information in a concise, logical way, being always aware of the progression of the argument and being able to adapt to any environment or audience.

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