ESSAY WRITING FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Students of the English language often show an inability to express them­selves in the target language. They find it easier to translate thoughts and ideas word for word from their native language into English. This way, however, they are inevitably led to incorrect language patterns caused by a difference in style of language patterns of expression in their native language and the target language.

Teaching writing is undoubtedly more difficult than teaching other lan­guage skills, especially for ESP students who have limited knowledge of the target language. Students should be able to recognise how a sentence is formed and functions in English, how a number of sentences can be linked together to form paragraphs centralising in a certain topic and, finally, how a number of paragraphs composes an essay that defines, exposes or explains a certain topic in the target language. Reading, on the other hand, is a skill that helps students acquire information and knowledge and use this information and knowledge in expositions of their own.

Bearing all that in mind, the writer of this book has collected a number of essays from various books, newspapers or magazines and analysed them in such a way that would help students understand the main rules that underlie academic essay writing. The approach followed, then, is that of reading -> analysing -> writing, an approach that can be very helpful in the early stages and especially with students who spend some time in the University libraries and often use bibliography written in the target language.

The writer has concentrated mainly on expositions (explanations, definitions, discussions) as they have been considered closer to the University stu­dent's field subject, secondly on note-taking and summaries, and thirdly on technical / scientific reports.