Annotated Bibliography
2. Title: Worlds of Writing
Edited by: Carolyn B.Matalene
Author : Kristen R.Woolever
Publisher: Random House /New York
Chapter: 1(Pg 3-16)
Summary
This is a 2 part article focusing on 2 different issues.
1.The major differences between academic and non -academic writing .
2.The inherent difference in discourse communities.
In the first section, an example was provided to illustrate this difference. Basically, a topic, presenting the same information to the same audience, was given to 2 writers, one a literature specialist, and the other a technical writer. They were then given the task of writing it. It turned out that the 2 articles, although presenting the same topic to the same audience, differs vastly.
This example was given to make a point that the writing style of each individual writer is different .How they present their writing, depends on their personal style of writing.
The second half focused on the problems which a student writer encounter, highlighting issues such as their areas of emphasis, choice of format for efficient reading, as well as what should be included and excluded when writing to an audience.
A set of recommendations were also included on how to come to turns on these issues.
Review
This is an unique article whereby the differences between academic and non-academic writing were brought up. By giving a real life example, it showed how the same topic ,when written by a different writer ,to same set of audience can differ so much.
Thus it made us think about how to use the most efficient and friendly way to present our writing. At the same time, the article gave an very interesting justification on why student writers encounter problems. As professionals set down specific procedures to follow, imposing one set of standards, it hinders the student writer from the freedom to express.
This article is particularly helpful to understand the problem student writers faced, while composing a text.
