Key Academic Writing Styles and Their Importance

ASS065-1 Skills for the Social Sciences
Project one- Project Portfolio
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Project Portfolio
Unit ASS065-1
Part 1(a) –What are the key academic writing styles and why are they important? (350 words)
There are four basic categories of academic writing that a student or writer can use and
these are descriptive, persuasive, analytical and critical. All four writing styles can be used in writing
different kinds of reports like descriptive writing is used when the facts or information on a
particular thing needs to be presented (Martínez Fernández, and et.al., 2016). This generally
involves a summary or the result portion of the experiment or research that was carried out or
synthesis of any piece of writing. While writing a research paper, the method section or the results
section is generally written using descriptive technique.
Analytical is another technique that is used to write report or present written work in
Universities etc. It involves descriptive writing in them and additionally the writer is expected to re
organise all the facts in a systematic format and then formulate appropriate categories to segregate
them into various parts. Here the writer is expected to contrast, evaluate and examine the various
facts and then analyse and present them accordingly.
Persuasive style of writing is used when the writer wants to provide his own point of view in
addition to the analysis of facts and figures that have been presented in the report. In involves both
analytical writing style and descrip0tive writing style and is used generally to write essays, give
recommendations, present findings and interpretations etc. here the writer discusses what he found
out and establishes a position either in favour or against the argument presented.
Last style is critical writing where the writer develops opinion regarding the main themes or
interpretations that are presented in his work. Sometimes the writer is in favour of a certain
argument and at certain points with certain arguments, he can go against it as well. Along with his
opinion the writer is also required to present a concluding evidence and he basically critiques,
debates and argues about various points.
Part 1 (b)- Introduction
Topic: To analyse the rising level of Obesity in UK’s children and the various interventions that
can be developed to prevent obesity.

Project Portfolio
Unit ASS065-1
Part 2 – Section 1 – (approx. 300 words)
Positivistic (quantitative) articles
Article one: The views of young children in the UK about obesity, body size, shape and
weight: a systematic review
1) The type of research i.e. is positivistic or anti-positivistic?
The research carried out was positivistic in nature i.e. Quantitative data was used
and analysed to produce quantitative results.
2) Introduce the research
The rising level of obesity in children of UK and the various risks portrayed in
long and short term has been discussed where researchers analyse children’s
attitude, belief and perspective.
3) Describe the methods used
28 Case studies published after 1997 on UK children were analysed into two
categories: interpretative form the open ended questions and aggregative from
close ended questions.
4) Describe the results
It was concluded that obese people suffer from abuse and overweight child was
associated with negative characteristics and children continuously wished for
different body shop or size.
5) Describe the conclusion
Initiatives need to be formulated keeping in mind what children actually want and
they should be consulted in policy making.
Article two: The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment
(ISCOLE): design and methods
1) The type of research i.e. is positivistic or anti-positivistic?
Positivistic using quantitative data
2) Introduce the research