Popular Patterns of Texts in Academic Writing
Academic writing is a complex process, however, even articles on the most complex themes often follow very simple structures. One of the most common structures in both journal articles and essay writing is the problem-solution structure (perhaps, as Freire points out, because of the Western habit of problematising everything.)
The problem solution follows a fluid Situation-Problem-Response-Evaluation structure, where each section of the structure has a distinct function:
- Situation - Details the participants, the location and the time with (often) an indication of the problem-solution structure
- Problem - A descripton of the problem
- Response - A description of a response
- Evaluation - Says whether the response works or not
Though this is particularly common in academic writing it is also found elsewhere as in the advert below:
The advert is aimed at women in the UK (situation), and the problem is "bad hair". A solution is provided (ie. Timotei) and this is positively evaluated (naturally, since it is an advert).
How does this relate to essay writing?
The awareness that even complex texts follow a simple structure can be enlightening for students. Moreover, such a framework can help inexperienced writers structure their essays (and IELTS writing tasks) clearly and logically.
One particularly useful aspect of these structures is the idea of lexical cohesion in problem-solution texts. That is, experienced writers clearly signal the different stages of the problem-solution structure using nouns (often) or other markers that signal a problem that needs tackled, and a response to this need.
Words that indicate a problem
need, difficulty, challenge, problem, risk, danger
Words that indicate a response
way, method, measure, means, approach, response, model
The example below shows an abstract for an article from a medical journal which clearly signals a problem-solution structure:
I like to emphasise these signals to my students in order to help them scaffold their essays clearly, and to have them impose clear structures in their writing. In short essays, I feel, no topic sentence should be without an indication of a problem or solution.I have had very positive results teaching this structure with my students. Our assessments reflect this theory in that students are explicitly asked to write a problem-solution essay, and the good students clearly signal their ideas. This also has a positive impact on their critical thinking as students can positively or negatively evaluate various solutions to a given problem. Using a simple framework such as this can free students to engage in engaging in higher order thinking.
