Yes - Academic Writing can be taught, and like any other educational aspect, we need to see it from teachers as well as students perspective.

Teaching Writing - should be in a more applied manner, which is through workshops and iterative feedbacks. Revisiting ones worknotes and changing it according to different academic requirements is also key.

Studying Wriring - should be more application oriented. Requires more reading, reflecting, and reacting (writing). Every student has their own style of writing and these academic forms are more linguistic in nature when it comes to novice writers. Therefore, students studying writing require to revisit their work and practice, take opinions of multiple evaluators, and should be encouraged to do more publications to gain academic credibility.

Sir you are right, it's the need of time for researchers specially the new comers because we suffer a lot when then and even now learn something new everyday that if we were taught in the beginning might be very good, but still it's never too late to mend :)

In general, an academic text that appears attractive and innovative beats and writing his first letter, but it is important to the next level is important.

I believe the first task is to teach composition skills. Once that element is mastered, one can acquire the skill to write in an academic style. The first is the foundation for the latter. Of course, there are different types of writing. For example, technical writing is different from writing about literature, and while there can be some crossing of these streams it behooves us all to master both of these styles.

I came to this realization during my capstone process--I was not entirely ready to accept that my own style of writing was diametrically opposed to my adviser's expectations. I would have liked to have mastered technical writing beforehand, but it is pretty much a moot point as those studies have concluded. I am looking forward to starting a Masters program in Literature, which will involve switching from APA to MLA style. One thing is certain: I will relish the opportunity to widen my skill set.

Academic writing requires lots of previous reading in order to familiarize with its main features. Once you internlize this process, then it is time to set to write, rewrite and be open to innovation.

Yes - Academic Writing can be taught, and like any other educational aspect, we need to see it from teachers as well as students perspective.

Teaching Writing - should be in a more applied manner, which is through workshops and iterative feedbacks. Revisiting ones worknotes and changing it according to different academic requirements is also key.

Studying Wriring - should be more application oriented. Requires more reading, reflecting, and reacting (writing). Every student has their own style of writing and these academic forms are more linguistic in nature when it comes to novice writers. Therefore, students studying writing require to revisit their work and practice, take opinions of multiple evaluators, and should be encouraged to do more publications to gain academic credibility.

yes it required to teach especially new researchers and it is advisable to read daily one research paper and get art of academic writing.

Teaching is parially required for academic writing when it comes to chronologically placing of ideas. Writing it down and make the content reflect you r meaning is much more a personal issue that requires much reading.

I agree with what most people have mentioned before about having a good foundation in grammar and writing styles. I would add that scientific writing should not only be practised, but reading of scientific/technical articles also is needed. I find it is difficult to write for a scientific article if I don't know how to articulate the right words for the topic. Before I was great a writing general papers needed for English classes, however, now with a project and data, I am having to learn how to write all over again. I think it would be helpful to include how to read techinical articles, because much of the reading is between the lines and that is not an easy skill to pick up.

That academic writing can and should be taught, has been a part of the US-american higher education system for decades. Europe is catching up only very recently.

In my opinion, some writing skills apply to all forms of writing - like those taught in the classic "The Elements of Style" by Strunk & White.

It is of particular importance for academics to acquire the vocabulary of a field, but to not let their style degenerate into nothing but buzz-words and stereotypic phrases.

You might want to check out the website of the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell University: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/

I checked the link. The program is impressive. Thanks.

Academic writing can be taught. However, our experience indicates that it should be taught early (second, third semester) so that students will be able to practice throughout the remainder of their course. That way we can ensure the quality of theses and publications they produce.

I recently did the following exercise with my undergraduate research methods class. I had them write the introduction to their forthcoming paper as BADLY as they could. I encouraged them to use colloquial language and jargon, to abandon any attempt at clarity or precision, to ignore citations, etc. I heard some giggles as they did this. Then I asked them to write the same paragraph in APA style--that is, to correct all the mistakes they had just made.

When I collected the papers I asked if any students were brave enough to let me read theirs. A few volunteered. The bad writing examples were fun to read and discuss, because it gave students an opportunity to say WHICH guidelines they were trying to violate. The corrected paragraphs were also illustrative-- I was able to brag on their revisions and offer even more suggestions for tightening up the writing.

I'd be curious to hear how this exercise goes for anyone else who tries it.

Now think of scientists who were tarained to work on their labs, collect data and all of a sudden they learn that they have to report those data in order to become knowledge. These people never gave much importance to English grammar, discourse, do not write on a daily basis because they feel that Google translate is going to do the job for them. Can courses have any effect if these people are not first convinced that they need a strong knowledge of English, scientific discoursal preferences and so on.

In my experience, only a few can profit from courses designed for them. Online course, in-class courses, blended courses, I feel, have little effect in general.

I have recently learned that a good number of scientists whose publications are visible in, say, Google Scholar, are not necessarly good English writers. They use "good publishing strategies" including translations by third parties, the use of paid proofreaders and editing personnel, or and this my favorite one, they team up with colleagues to collaborate in publications. Ideally, one of the teams members does the writing, the other the reading for content. Courses and knowledge of scientific, academic writing isn't always a priority for some populations. There's no time at that stage for course work. The argument, however, is moot. Noone can be too busy to fail to notice a YouTube video on how to structure a paragraph. May be we should distinguish between course types to respond to bigger question on the effect of course taking on any given population.

Have a look at REF-N-WRITE scientific paper writing tool. This tool allows you to import text from previous papers relevant to the subject area in MS word. While you are writing your paper, you can just search for similar statements from other authors and inherit their vocabulary and language to improve your paper. It also comes with a library of academic phrases that you can readily use to polish your paper. Here is the link for the site.

http://www.ref-n-write.com

They have some nice tutorials here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7qyyKtbyQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hlXzqO3r4