Irma Khairunnisa 11150140000026 7A

Criteria for a Good Academic Essay

Writing and speaking are different skill, but it could be connecting each other when we talk
about expressing feeling. Writing and speaking also connecting if we talk about the way to
deliver it, there are formal and informal. In writing, there is Academic Writing that used formal
style. Academic writing not only use formal style but it has own set of rules and practices
(Jordan, 2003). The important rules; it present the ideas with supported by the author citations.
Academic writing and personal writing has different rules and style so we cannot use formal and
informal style together in one literature because it has their own vocabulary context. As Bailey
said in her book that academic writing is adopted an traditional order and rules such as
punctuation, grammar and spelling so it make academic writing has its own style (Bailey, 2011).
In order to make a good academic essay, there are some criteria that should be fulfilled. So in
this essay the writer will explain about structure, style, reference and grammar which categorized
good in academic essay.

First is the essay structure. It cannot be denied if we want to write an essay, we must pay
attention to the structure or composition of the essay, such as the beginning, middle, and end.
Moving from one point to another must use sequential order. In Academic writing, there are
three parts or structures that make the essays that we make are good criteria. The first is the
Introduction. The opening part is the most important part of the essay, why is it said like that?
Because in the opening section the reader knows about the topic discussed and the basic
information from the essay and to be explained more in the body of the paragraph. So the writer
must explain clearly, not long-winded. In the second sentence of the introductory paragraph also
includes the position of the reader in the problem discussed which is discussed later in the body
paragraph. The second part is the body of paragraphs. Paragraph bodies must be well organized
and cohesive (Abrams, 2009)

In the body paragraph, there is a topic sentence that serves the main points in each
paragraph. If in the introduction paragraph there is basic information that shows the reader about
the idea being discussed, in the body paragraph the writer provides supporting details related to
the idea initiated. And the last part is conclusion. In conclusion the writer has to summarize the
ideas that discuss in a whole essay which use linking words. The writer should give a clear
statement to close the essay by repeating words or phrases from the topic sentence.

The second criteria of a good essay are writing style. As stated in the introduction,
academic writing has its own style which different in all type of writing such as word selection
and phrasing. Its main characteristics are the absence of conversational features and the use of an
appropriate academic vocabulary (Yakhontova, 2003). The words that use in academic writing
are often academic words and rarely use daily words. In academic writing, the writer must think
that the target audience is the general public so that the essay must not offend or provide
arguments that cause debate for some groups. The writer also has conscious of academic tone
suggests to aware of the audience and respect the formality normally associated. Academic
writing is used to be objective and scholarly tone, so the writer should avoid use personal
pronouns instead appropriate point of view.
Next criteria are reference. Reference made an academic writing and other writing
genre different because the author has to put referencing sources and citation form published
author. Reference is important in academic writing because it can make the essay credible which
is used the accurate and concrete support. Concrete support is information from outside sources,
such as books, articles, and websites, that you insert into your essay to strengthen your
arguments. Expert statement also can be sources of the author statement because without the
expert statement, the author statement is weak. And the use of evidence is to support the author's
claim about something (Hunter, 2009). Author cannot copy paste the material or ideas from the
sources to make a reference instead they do summarize, quoting and paraphrasing from the
sources.
If we talk about writing we also talk about grammar, so the third criteria of a good
writing are grammar. Grammar is the rules in a language for changing the form of words and
joining them into sentences (Hashemi, 2011). In academic writing, the author grammar is
considered make the essay is bad or good because when readers skimming and find improper
grammar rules, they will not sure about the essay. Beside the grammar rules, the author also has
to pay attention for punctuation because it can make ambiguous expressions if the author does
not use a proper punctuation. So that, Academic writing typically aims to be: objective, concise,
formal (e.g. avoiding slang, exclamation marks, contractions).
 The conclusion of this essay is reference to be an important criteria of a good essay.
Reference make your essay is good or bad, with the concrete support and strong evidence the
essay can reflect whether the essay is credible or not. Besides reference, there is some rules that
should be followed in write academic writing such as grammar and punctuation because it can
avoid ambiguous words. Moreover the author should use the formal and clear language
remembering the target of the readers is general people from various background.
Bibliography

Abrams, E. (2009). Essay structure. Retrieved on June 15, 2009, from

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/documents/Structure.html

Bailey, S. (2011). Academic Writing A Handbook for International Students. New York: Taylor&Francis
eLibrary.

Duffi n, K. (2009). Overview of the academic essay. Retrieved on June 15, 2009, from http://www.
fas.harvard.edu/documents/Overvu.html
Hashemi, Z. (2011). The Impact of Journal Writing on the Correct Use of Grammar Among EFL Students
of Rafsanjan Vali-e-Asr University. The English Teacher , 48-59.

Hunter, C. (2009). Planning and Writing University Assigment. New Zealand: University of Otago.

Jordan, R. (2003). Academic Writing Courses. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Witaker, A. (2010). Academic Writing Guide. Bratislava, Slovakia: University of Seattle.

Yakhontova, T. (2003). English Academic Writing for Students and Researchers. Russia: International
Research and Exchange Aboard.