Here you are going analyze two pieces of writing, using two sets of criteria for your analysis.  Be sure to do BOTH parts of the discussion to be eligible for full credit.

Part 1 – Traits of Academic Writing 

In her article in Teaching English in the Two Year College, Teresa Thonney outlines six standard features of academic writing:

• Writers respond to what others have said about their topic.
• Writers state the value of their work and announce the plan for their papers.
• Writers acknowledge that others might disagree with the position they’ve taken.
• Writers adopt a voice of authority.
• Writers use academic and discipline specific vocabulary.
• Writers emphasize evidence, often in tables, graphs, and images. (348)

   

To complete this week’s discussion, go to this site: APUS Digital Commons@APUS Site.  There you have two choices for this assignment; you can look at student papers or faculty papers.  The direct links to those two choices are shown here:

Student papers (Master’s Capstone Theses)

Faculty papers (Collections, Faculty Publications Collection)
 

Find a paper that is related to your topic.  You can choose either a student or faculty paper.  If you don’t find a paper on your topic, just choose one that interests you. You may see the abstract of a paper and can download the paper to read it.  As you read the paper, pay close attention to the six features of academic writing noted above. Which standards are present the paper? What standards (if any) are missing? How does the presence or absence of these standards affect the quality of the paper?

To help us locate the papers you have analyzed, be sure to provide the paper’s title and recommended citation found on the paper’s website.
 

Part 2 – Source Evaluation

For the second part of this discussion, find an article from the APUS Library on your topic and evaluate the source based on the criteria below.