Reading, thinking, and writing at a graduate level

Writing at the graduate level is quite different from writing at the undergraduate level. As emerging scholars, graduate writers will need to become well-versed in the scholarly conversations taking place in the journals and at the conferences within their field. Where undergraduate writers may find themselves primarily writing for their professor as audience and to show mastery of subject matter as a purpose, graduate writers’ audience will be their colleagues in the field, and their purpose will be to engage in conversation with and to disseminate new research to those colleagues. A graduate writer’s identity as scholar requires a concurrent identity as writer. (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d., para. 2)

On this page, you'll find excerpted videos from the Writing Centre's Introduction to Academic Writing video. We're presenting a typically Western approach with a focus on telling the story of your understanding. If you'd prefer to read the transcript of the videos instead of watching them, you can read the notes in the videos or open the Introduction to Academic Writing (PowerPoint) and navigate to the appropriate slides. The transcript is in the notes of the slides.

For an explanation of academic writing that is rooted in Coast Salish Indigenous Knowledge, please visit the Four Feathers Writing Guide.

Reference

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Graduate writing overview. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/graduate_writing/introduction_graduate_writing/index.html