Kuliah Umum MKU Bahasa Indonesia | Peningkatan Keterampilan Menulis Akademik Bagi Mahasiswa UNTIRTA

Summary

The lecture explains how students can plan, write, and revise a short academic essay. Dr. Rahmi Yulianingsih emphasizes that writing improves through regular practice, careful observation of social issues, clear organization, and support from credible evidence—not simply by stringing sentences together.

What an Academic Essay Is

An essay is a brief prose composition that discusses an issue from the writer’s point of view. It may express agreement or disagreement, respond to a problem, or propose a solution. A personal viewpoint is welcome, but a scientific academic essay must support its claims with reliable facts, data, research, or other credible sources.

The lecture distinguishes academic essays from other scientific papers mainly by their format: an essay is written in connected paragraphs rather than divided into chapters, numbered sections, and subsections. Its basic structure is:

1. Introduction
2. Body
3. Conclusion

Three paragraphs is the minimum; the body may require several paragraphs depending on how many points the thesis statement introduces.

Qualities of a Strong Essay

A good academic essay should be:

• Complete and developed: It explains the issue and its main ideas sufficiently.
• Formal: It follows standard spelling and uses appropriate academic language rather than slang or casual expressions.
• Objective and evidence-based: It uses arguments and evidence rather than unsupported personal assertions.
• Precise: Its word choices and claims are accurate, not based on guesses or assumptions.
• Cohesive and coherent: Sentences and paragraphs connect logically and consistently.
• Academically accountable: It cites sources and includes references, using the format required by the assignment or institution.

Academic conventions vary by institution, competition, publication, or scholarship. Writers should check requirements such as word limits, font, spacing, citation style, and bibliography format; failing to follow them can jeopardize an application or submission.

A Step-by-Step Process for Writing

Dr. Rahmi presents this general workflow:

1. Understand and choose the topic

   • Read the assignment or competition instructions carefully.
   • Identify what the topic is actually about.
   • Choose an angle suited to your interests, prior knowledge, and academic background.
   • Gather relevant information and evidence, then narrow the scope.

2. Find an idea by observing problems

   • Pay attention to social issues and events around you, rather than focusing only on a phone or social media.
   • Read news and consult varied sources.
   • Ask what is happening, why it is happening, and what the underlying problem may be.
   • Use a social phenomenon as the starting point for a response or proposed solution.

3. Use design thinking to develop an idea

   • Empathize: Observe or gather information about the people affected and the problems they face.
   • Define: Identify the central problem and its root cause.
   • Ideate: Generate possible responses or solutions.
   • Prototype: Develop the chosen idea into a possible product, program, service, or application.
   • Test: Consider how the proposed solution could be assessed or improved.

The lecturer illustrates this with an advertisement about a small-shop owner who struggles to balance childcare and running her shop. The exercise is to identify the difficulties, pinpoint the underlying issue, and consider a possible solution.

1. Formulate a title

   • Make the title accurately represent the essay’s focus and attract the reader’s interest.
   • Do not use the broad topic or theme as the title without refining it.
   • Prefer a clear phrase rather than a sentence.
   • Avoid unfamiliar abbreviations; the lecturer advises that scientific essay titles are usually no more than 12 words.

2. Create an outline

   • Plan what the introduction will establish, including the background and thesis statement.
   • Map the body paragraphs to the points in the thesis statement.
   • Note the evidence, facts, theories, findings, or examples each paragraph will use.
   • Plan how the conclusion will reinforce the central claim and, where appropriate, offer suggestions or recommendations.

3. Draft the introduction

   • Explain the background and current situation.
   • Show why the topic matters and what problem motivates the essay.
   • End with a thesis statement that makes the essay’s focus clear.

A thesis statement may be phrased as a question or a statement. Unlike a research problem statement, it does not have to be a question. It guides the body: each major point it contains should be developed in the following paragraphs.

1. Develop the body

   • Answer and expand on the thesis statement.
   • Support the main ideas with relevant evidence, examples, data, research, or credible references.
   • Keep the reasoning systematic and make sure each paragraph connects to the essay’s overall argument.
   • Use suitable paragraph-development patterns, such as chronology, examples, definition, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, classification, analogy, or illustration.

2. Write the conclusion

   • Reinforce or restate the thesis in fresh wording.
   • Summarize the main points that support it.
   • Add a recommendation or suggestion if appropriate.
   • Do not introduce new evidence, theories, or major ideas in the conclusion.

3. Revise and edit

   • Check that the main idea and supporting sentences are clear and logically ordered.
   • Review paragraph unity, coherence, and connections between paragraphs.
   • Check sentence effectiveness, diction, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and affixes.
   • Verify citations, notes, and references against the required style.
   • Check originality and ensure that sources and borrowed ideas are properly acknowledged.

Thesis Statements and Assessment

The thesis statement is the essay’s organizing guide. If it contains several distinct points, the body should develop each one. The conclusion then returns to the thesis and confirms how the body has addressed it.

The lecturer identifies six common areas in essay assessment:

1. Organization and structure
2. Clarity of the thesis statement
3. Development of the thesis in the body
4. Effectiveness of the conclusion
5. Grammar and language use
6. Originality

AI, Plagiarism, and Paraphrasing

The lecturer treats AI as a tool students may use collaboratively—for example, to explore a topic, locate possible facts or theories, or develop an outline. However, students should not simply copy and paste AI-generated writing. They remain responsible for checking the evidence, following the essay’s logic, and producing the final work themselves.

The discussion also warns that plagiarism concerns may involve copied ideas as well as copied wording. The lecturer notes that AI detectors and similarity checks may flag writing even when a student says they only used AI to revise spelling. Her practical advice is to understand and restate source material in one’s own language, change the sentence structure while preserving the idea, and cite sources appropriately. She also suggests consulting foreign-language sources and expressing their ideas in one’s own words. Regardless of the language of a source, the underlying idea still needs proper attribution.

Questions Raised by Students

• Getting stuck while writing: Start with a topic sentence, then choose a paragraph-development pattern—such as examples or cause and effect—to guide the paragraph.
• Repeating the introduction in the conclusion: The conclusion may restate the thesis, but it should not repeat the introduction’s background information. Instead, it should summarize the points developed in the body.
• Including a personal viewpoint: Essays allow a point of view, but a scientific essay must support it with credible evidence. Unsupported claims make the writing closer to an opinion essay.
• Using AI: AI can assist with research and planning, but the writer should verify its output, avoid copying it, and retain responsibility for the argument and final text.
• High similarity scores: Paraphrase ideas thoughtfully, write in one’s own words, and cite sources rather than transferring source text or data without acknowledgment.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Dr. Rahmi Yulianingsih, M.Pd. — Guest lecturer and main presenter on academic essay writing.
• Robita/Rovita — Event moderator; the surname is not clear in the subtitles.
• Student participants who speak or ask questions:
  • Keysha Abigail Kristanto
  • Marsya Syaqina Laudia
  • Arkan, who introduces himself in the subtitles as “Aqila Kan Syahir” (the name is unclear in the auto-generated transcript)
  • Tommy Sudianto
  • Lia Mulyaningsih
  • Denis
  • Elisa
  • Luluk Pita Waka
  • Aidila Fitria
  • Ida Faidah Aprilia
  • Rizki Nur Fajar
  • Putri Nur Alisyah
• Embedded source: A Tokopedia Partners advertisement featuring Warung Rofi and shop owner Rofiatun, used as an example for the design-thinking exercise.
• Other people mentioned but not clearly featured as speakers: Maya and Islam, international students; several Untirta lecturers and event staff.