Supporting your reader

Imagining your audience

Try to find out the particular requirements of your audience in respect of preferred conventions. It is always useful to imagine your audience as an intelligent person who is not an expert in this particular area of your field. This is not to say that you can get away with presenting inaccurate statements, but rather that you need to explain ideas or concepts and arguments clearly to your reader. You cannot assume that your reader always knows everything, and you should not feel that it is insulting to explain specialised concepts. Your reader wants to see how well you understand the issues you have chosen to discuss. Nevertheless, the reader does not want to wait for you to get along with your argument while you are showing him/her how well you know something else in the field (unrelated to your argument or main issue).

Signposting

It is a great help to your reader if you make a clearly signposted 'map' of your writing. You can do this by:

Using subheadings which indicate what you will focus on in that part of your writing. Brown (1993) recommends using verbs in headings and rewriting headings after sections are written. At all events, don't overlook the usefulness of headings in guiding your reader;
Stating explicitly the points you will focus on in the introduction of an essay or (for a longer piece) at the beginning of a major section; and
Repeating key words or further developing propositions from an earlier sentence in order to make clear the connection between the ideas discussed earlier and those discussed later.

Mapping

The use of mapping or advance organisers is very important in a long piece of work. In such pieces of writing you may insert maps at strategic points (eg beginnings of chapters/sections) so that readers reorient themselves and know where they're headed.

Examples of 'maps' will be given in the workshops.

Useful discourse markers

The ways in which parts of your writing are related to other parts are made clearer by discourse markers, which can be grouped according to their function in the discourse. Here are some groups of markers that might help you when you need a little variety.

Ordering points or sequencing	Firstly, .; secondly, .; finally,.
Adding something	Moreover, .; Furthermore,.; Further,.; In addition,.; additionally NOTE: "Besides" is mainly used in speaking
Comparing (similarity)	Similarly,.; . likewise; equally
Comparing (difference - establishing contrast)	However,.; in fact,.; On the other hand,.; ., rather,.; In contrast, .; On the contrary. Nervertheless,.; Nonetheless,.; ., yet . (MORE FORMAL)
Introducing a cause	As a result of .; Because of .; because .; owing to .; Due to.
Introducing a result	Consequently.; therefore.; hence,.; as a result,.; thus,.; so .; then.;
Exemplifying	For example,.; For instance,.; Notably,.
Re-stating	In other words,.; that is,.; namely,.
Generalising	In general, .; generally,.; on the whole,.
Summarising	In summary,.; In conclusion,.;

(Adapted from Parrott, Martin. (2000). Grammar for English Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 301-307)

Expression and grammar

This section presents some common grammatical and word usage challenges for academic writers.

Common problems (grammar, style, conventions)

The following sentences are examples of writing that may cause confusion due to grammatical or stylistic errors. See if you can work out what the problems are.