It’s Personal! Or Not…

Understanding the Differences Between Personal and

Academic Writing

Personal vs. Academic Writing

• Letters• Notes• Texts• Lists• Postcards

• Recipes• Emails• Essays• Magazine articles• Newspaper articles

• Fiction books• Nonfiction books• Scientific Studies• Research Papers• Reviews

We read and write every day. Think of all the different kinds of writing you encounter at home, work and play.

Most of the writing we do at

home or for fun is personal.

Writing we do for work is not

personal, but it is not necessarily

academic.

So what is academic writing? How can we tell the difference

between personal and academic

writing?

Personal WritingPersonal writing is usually subjective and informal.

Subjective •Uses personal experience as evidence Informal•Uses pronouns I or we•Not much attention to formatting

ExamplesLetters and emails to friends, recipes for home, texts, journal articles, lists, etc…

 

Academic WritingAcademic writing is writing we do for school orpublication. It is usually objective, formal and oftenresearch based.

Objective • Keeps a distance from its subject• Uses non-personal evidence

Formal• Includes no reference to I or we

Research Based•Often uses documentation like references and in-text citations

Examples• Examples of academic writing include summaries, abstracts, reports, argumentative essays or position papers, annotated bibliographies, literature reviews, proposals, literary analyses, reviews, letters and memos, research papers (Flachmann, 2014. pp. 121-122).

You Decide!

Here are some writing samples.

Decide if they are personal or academic.

“The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology”

by Stephen Hawking

An important feature of gravitation, for very large concentrations of mass, is that it is essentially unstable. This is due, in the first instance, to its r—2 attractive character. But, in addition, when general relativity begins to play a significant role, other instabilities may also arise….

This is a famous scientific paper published by

physicist Stephen Hawking.

Notice the header! Does

this look formal or informal?

Love Letter from Jimi Hendrix

From Jimi Hendrix to a girlfriend he called “little girl”

little girl…..happiness is within you….so unlock the chains from your heart and let yourself grow—like the sweet flower you are…..I know the answer—Just spread your wings and set yourselfFREELove to you foreverJimi Hendrix

What does Hendrix’s letter tell you about personal writing and formatting?

Review of Pulp Fiction by Roger Ebert

-published in Chicago Sun TimesDialogue drives Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction,'' dialogue of such high quality it deserves comparison with other masters of spare, hard-boiled prose, from Raymond Chandler to Elmore Leonard. Like them, QT finds a way to make the words humorous without ever seeming to ask for a laugh. Like them, he combines utilitarian prose with flights of rough poetry and wicked fancy.

Consider a little scene not often mentioned in discussions of the film. The prizefighter Butch (Bruce Willis) has just killed a man in the ring. He returns to the motel room occupied by his girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros). She says she's been looking in the mirror and she wants a pot belly. "You have one,'' he says, snuggling closer. "If I had one,'' she says, "I would wear a T-shirt two sizes too small, to accentuate it.'' A little later she observes, "It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.''

What kind of evidence does Roger Ebert’s review use? Is it personal experience or something else?

Apology Letter from teenager Michael Jordan

My Dearest LaquetteHow are you and your family doing, fine I hope. I am in my Adv. Chemistry class writing you a letter, so that tell you how much I care for you. I decide to write you because I felt that I made you look pretty rotten after the last night. I want to tell you that I am sorry, and hope that you except my apologie. I know that you feelings was hurt whenever I loss my necklace or had it stolen.

I was really happy when you gave me my honest earn money that I won off the bet. I want to thank you for letting me hold your annual. I show it to everyone at school. Everyone think you are a very pretty young lady and I had to agree because it is very true. Please don’t let this go to your head. (smile) I sorry to say that I can’t go to the game on my birthday because my father is taking the whole basketball team out to eat on my birthday. Please don’t be mad because I am trying get down there a week from Feb. 14. If I do get the chance to come please have some activity for us to do together.

I want you to know that my feeling for you has not change yet. ← (joke) I am finally getting use to going with a girl much smaller than I. I hope you my hint. Well I have spent my time very wisely by write to you. I hope you write back soon. Well I must go, the period is almost over. See you next time around, which I hope comes soon.

With my Best LoveMichael J. Jordan

This letter attempts to use correct letter formatting. But would you say it is personal or academic? Why?

New York Times Article on FDA Regulations

Does a news article use I or we or he/she/one? Is it likely to be objective or subjective?

Amy Winehouse Text"I’m gonna be here always xx"The last message sent by Amy Winehouse arrived on her friend Kristian Marr's phone at 3.10am. By the time Marr read it, Winehouse was dead.

Texting has become increasingly popular. Is this form of writing personal or academic? Why?

Not sure if it’s personal or academic?

Personal Writing• Likely to use I and we as pronouns• Likely to use personal experience as evidence

Academic Writing• Likely to use he, she

and one as pronouns• Likely to not use

personal experience as evidence and instead use primary and secondary sources

• Likely to use a style guide for formatting

References

Ebert, R. (2001, June 10). Pulp Fiction. Retrieved from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pulp-fiction-1994

Flachmann, K. (2014). Mosaics: Reading and writing essays (6th ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson.

Hawking, S.W. & Penrose, R., (1970). The singularities of gravitational collapse and

cosmology. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 1970, (314). doi: 10.1098/rspa.1970.0021.

Labarre, S. (2013, February 12). 12 handwritten love letters from famous people, from

Henry VIII to Michael Jordan. Retrieved from http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669022/12-hand-written-love-letters-from-famous-people-from-henry-viii-to-michael-jordan

The 10 most important text messages in history. (2012, December 3). Retrieved from

http://news.yahoo.com/ten-text-messages-that-changed-history-111139844.html