Professor Ashok K. Mohapatra, Chairman, Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), KISS-DU spoke on “Academic Writing: Some Basic Ideas about the Composition of Paragraphs” on the fourth day (16 November 2021) of the week-long Faculty Improvement Programme at KISS-DU.
In his presentation, Professor Mohapatra said that a piece of academic writing is a dense verbal structure that follows the principles of logic to be cohesive and coherent. It is a large structure, with paragraphs as its building blocks. Hence, we need the inner structure of paragraphs and their linkages. Professor Mohapatra explained the communicative modes and functions of the sentences as these occur in the beginning, middle and ending of a large piece of writing. He took paragraphs as examples to demonstrate topic sentences and thesis statements, and their linkages through which ideas develop and progress toward desired ends.
Professor Mohapatra explained the information structure of sentences in terms of the topic and focus and showed different techniques of thematization of the focus to achieve the desired emphasis since the topic carries new information in a sentence. He discussed at length various types of logical connectors we use to link up sentences in paragraphs and paragraphs with other paragraphs. He emphasized enhancement of the reading abilities in order to improve on the quality of writing.
The session was well attended and ended with a lively question-answer round. Dr Prashanta Kumar Routray, Registrar, KISS-DU and Dr. Kanhu Charan Mahali, Director General also attended this session and participated in the discussion that followed the lecture. Professor Deepak Kumar Behera, Vice Chancellor made a closing remark, while Dr. Chittranjan Bhoi, Director, HRDC proposed a vote of thanks.
