Daniel’s Response to Swales & Feak(Unit Two)

With regard to writing general-specific texts

Generally speaking, writing a serious paper is considered a process to follow certain steps required in the academic field. To my interest, I found through this article that writing general-specific texts is a fantastic way of presenting an idea, moving from broader concepts to narrower ones (Swales & Feak, 1994, p33). The reason why I acclaim this way of writing is that it is thought to be very effective for drawing and maintaining the attention of the audience at the same time. In fact, this way of writing a text is a little bit different from the routine procedure that most of us are familiar with that mostly consists of an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion separately. I do not know which one is more effective in terms of the effectiveness for carrying an intended message. But I think academic writers can use both approaches flexibly, depending on the context given. Another thing that strikes me is that there are many grammar rules to keep in mind for academic writings so that writers can show their knowledge of academic vocabulary and how to use it as well as the complexities in the field. Comparative, contrastive and extended definitions can also be taken very useful for academic writings. However, as to the questions such as whether I should begin with a definition or with a generalization to write an academic text and what difference my choice can make, I think I need more time to answer myself.