Academic writing skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Academic writing skills - Essay Example The critical comparison of two academic papers requires the presentation of their strengths and weaknesses in regard to their structure and content;at the same time it is necessary to refer to their alignment with the ethical standards of academic research– especially if there is empirical research involved. Current paper focuses on the comparison of two academic pieces of work; the first of them, entitled as ‘Earning it’ will be referred to as ‘Assignment 1’, while the second one, entitled as ‘Direct Line Reviews and System Acquisition’ will be referred to as ‘Assignment 2’; the two assignments will be compared as of their structural characteristics and content, but also as of their language and referencing. The fact that the two papers will not refer to the same subject does not set barriers to their comparison, since they are of similar type, i.e. they are both essays, and of similar length (Shampoo and Resnik, 2009, p. 8) – even if assignment 1 is of more words compared to assignment 2, a fact which will be of critical importance for evaluating the two paper’s structure/ content, as analysed below. One of the first issues that should be highlighted is the difference in the research done in regard to the issues under discussion; more specifically, the first paper has been supported by a series of studies, approximately 10, which provide critical information on the issues under discussion. ... icant efforts, in terms of the nature of the paper’s subject, to cover the issues under discussion but he had limited choices in terms of literature available on the specific subject. In terms of the planning of each paper, the following comments would be made: assignment 1 is not well structured, the issues related to the paper are adequately supported in terms of references but they are not clearly presented; more specifically, it could be argued that assignment 1 is not easy to be read – providing a lot of information on the paper’s subject but the material is not appropriately categorized and cited. This difficulty in reading and understanding assignment 1 is probably caused of its presentation – sections are not clearly distinguished, instead, long paragraphs are used for presenting the material available and the author’s arguments. Moreover, in assignment 1 it is difficult for the reader to understand the coherence of information. Information from various sources is added but is not appropriately presented, as explained above. In this way, the value of the paper as an academic piece of work is reduced. On the other hand, assignment 2 is well structured; paragraphs and sub-paragraphs have been used in order to make the text easier to be read. Moreover, the sequence in the arguments regarding the issues under discussion is clearer – a fact which is proved through the appropriate (and logical) order of the paper’s sections (as they are revealed through its sub-headings). For this reason, in terms of planning, the assignment 2 has a clear advantage – taking into consideration also the fact that despite the lack of adequate references, assignment 2 is well supported in terms of the arguments involve, an issue which is also analytically discussed below