Writing for Academic Journals by Rowena Murray

Author:Rowena Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Open University Press
Published: 2013-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

… planning encompasses more than the cognitive process of determining ‘what to say’ and ‘what to do’ in the text to be written.

(van der Geest 1996: 9)

The first quotation is itself a model of good academic writing: the authors use the device of starting with an overstatement and then distance themselves from it, not only making it clear that they do not intend to go that far, but also making their position in the to-plan-or-not-to-plan debate seem reasonable. They also make subtle, persuasive use of the double negative in the proposition that follows: how different is the effect of their chosen expression, ‘it does not seem unreasonable to assert’, from ‘it seems reasonable to assert’ – much more effective in the context of academic argument, much less likely to provoke instant refutation.

As a result, for all that every single writer will already have formed his or her own views on the value of planning in academic writing, the authors have eased themselves into the debate without immediately drawing too much fire – cleverly done. The authors must have thought carefully not only about the subject of their writing – how planning and writing interact – but also about how they could make their case persuasively in the context of on-going debates.

We can all agree with the authors that it is a good idea, in principle, to produce plans for our writing, but not everyone will routinely put that into practice, and some will argue that they have to know what they want to write before they can outline an article:

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