The Importance Of Academic Writing

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Academic writing is an essential skill for students and professionals of all disciplines. It is an important practice for constructing knowledge and creating values and identity of a discipline (Luzon, 2005, as cited in Gimenez, & Thondhlana, 2012). The purpose of any academic writing is to inform, explain, compare, or persuade the readers. Specifically, research writing involves the ‘process of research, critical thinking, source evaluation, organization, and composition’ (Purdue, 2011). Thus, the use of first person pronouns and emotional language should be avoided, to a certain extent. Some of the reasons can be classified as the identity of writer, the terminology and the point of view in writing.
The most important reason is the identity of the writer. Apprentice scholars need to understand their own identities as a writer and a member of their discourse community. First person pronouns generally present personal opinion, instead of facts or scientific information. Readers may be misguided by the use of first person pronouns and viewed personal opinions of the writer as factual information. Additionally, many university students believed that they should not use first person pronouns, unless they are the authorities of the disciplines (Hyland, 2009). Although first person pronouns have rhetorical effects which are able to persuade their readers to agree with the writer’s arguments (Luzon, 2009), it can also make a research writing weaker and less credible. To support