for postgraduate taught students

Descriptive versus critical/analytical

"Literature and the Writing Process: Summary & Description vs. Analysis & Argument"

"Anthropology and the Writing Process: Summary & Description vs. Analysis & Argument"

A basic principle of style in academic and workplace writing is that the writer should make the text as easy to read as possible. Readers expect quick access to what the writer has to say. Never mind that the principle seems to be honored more in the breach than the observance; it still stands. An essential aspect of readability is coherence. Coherence literally means "sticking together." The elements of coherent writing -- the words and the information they convey -- are related to one another so that readers can follow the flow of thought easily from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. The problem with the term coherence is that it sounds static, as if coherent writing just sits there sticking together. Coherence in writing actually has a dynamic quality, because it has to do with movement: movement of information and ideas, movement of the reader's changing perceptions and knowledge.