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Academic Writing
To talk about Asian students is like talking about colourful fish in the sea. We cannot make generalizations about Asian students as there are hundreds or even thousands of ethnic groups which are all culturally different to each other. (M.Wayong, ADS student)
(ADS student)
There are many processes involved in writing, such as pre-writing, writing
and revising, and within these stages students from different language
or cultural backgrounds have different strategies. They often present
written material which is inappropriate because they do not understand
the patterns. In my opinion there are many things that influence
students to make good writing. First there is a link between writing
and reading. Reading provides students with stimuli for topics.
Next, vocabulary is also important as some words have more than one meaning
and, to be clear, students need to have knowledge about vocabulary.
In addition, students need lots of practice to increase their fluency and
accuracy.
(ADS 9 student)
  Everybody
agrees that you can improve your writing by doing lots of reading.
However, if you really want to improve then you’ll need to do more than
just read. One of the most important skills is ‘noticing the gap’
between how native English speakers write, and how you and your peers write.
Notice, for example, the differences in choice of vocabulary. Where
you write ‘salah satu’, we usually write ‘a’, and not ‘one of’. Notice
structural variations. You write ‘I am difficult to understand...’,
but we don’t, and not because we never misunderstand! Notice cultural variations.
You write ‘free sex’ where we would more likely choose ‘promiscuity’.
And notice how writers first of all state their ideas and then develop
them into sound arguments. |
Much of the time you don’t even need a teacher to help you with this. What you do need however is time, patience, determination, and a genuine interest in what you’re doing. As with most of life’s challenges, try to keep in mind that it’s your attitude, and not your aptitude, that determines your altitude. (Steve Bolton, Teacher, IALF Bali)
The longer your sentence becomes, the more likely it is that your grammar will break down. So, every time you find you have written a sentence that is more than about three lines long, be careful. Check and double-check that your grammar is correct and that what you say will make sense to the reader. If you’re not 100% sure, break that complicated sentence down to two simpler ones. Don’t try to say too many things in one sentence. Remember – it is better to be simple and understood than complex and unintelligible. (Alan Brayne, Teacher, IALF Bali)
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My
advice to you is that you should keep your writing simple and always build
your sentence around the main verb. Of course, I’m not suggesting
that all your sentences consist of only five or six words, nor that you
repeat the same conjunction a hundred times in one piece of writing.
It is very important to use a variety of sentence structures, but it is
also important to make sure that you have full control of those which you
use.