Transcript Grad.Dip./M.A. in Educational Mentoring

Grad.Dip./M.A.
in Educational Mentoring
Lawrence Cleary, Patricia Herron,
Dr. Íde O’Sullivan
The Regional Writing Centre, UL
le tour du jour
• Academic writing—what is it and why
are you doing this to me?
• Academic writing—now what?
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What is this academic writing and why are you doing this to
me?
ACADEMIC WRITING
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Features of Academic Writing
• What are some of the typical things that
mark academic writing as academic?
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Complexity
Formality
Objectivity
Explicitness
Honesty (not overstating the value of evidence or
conclusions)
– Responsibility (acknowledging the work of others)
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Features of Academic Writing
• Writing tends toward the
argumentative,
• All writing is rhetorical,
• Arguments tend to be balanced and
critical, and
• Conceptual frameworks tend to be
intricate.
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Writing to a Prompt
• Freewriting Prompt: Write openly about
the topic of your paper. Perhaps talk
about the critical argument you wish to
make.
– Write for five minutes without stopping.
– Write in full sentences, but do not worry about
grammar or mechanics.
– If you do not yet have an argument, speculate on
possibilities.
– Write freely, knowing that no one will read your
writing.
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Critical Inquiry
• What do we mean by critical thinking?
– You are able to clarify your thoughts on a
subject.
– You tend to demonstrate a healthy
scepticism and verify claims that others
make.
– You state things precisely. You do not
settle for approximations of what you
mean.
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Critical Inquiry
• There is unity between what you talk about
and your purpose for writing. All that you
offer is relevant to your argument.
• The complexity of the issues are addressed.
• All significant points of view are presented
without distortion or bias.
• You are consistent and logical in your
thinking.
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CLARITY:
• Could you elaborate further on that point?
• Could you express that point in another
way?
• Could you give me an illustration?
• Could you give me an example?
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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CLARITY:
• Clarity is the gateway standard. If a
statement is unclear, we cannot determine
whether it is accurate or relevant. In fact,
we cannot tell anything about it because
we don't yet know what it is saying. For
example, the question, "What can be done
about the education system in America?"
is unclear.
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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CLARITY:
• In order to address the question adequately, we
would need to have a clearer understanding of
what the person asking the question is
considering the "problem" to be. A clearer
question might be "What can educators do to
ensure that students learn the skills and abilities
which help them function successfully on the job
and in their daily decision-making?"
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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ACCURACY
• Is that really true?
• How could we check that?
• How could we find out if that is true?
A statement can be clear but not accurate,
as in "Most dogs are over 300 pounds in
weight.“
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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PRECISION
• Could you give more details?
• Could you be more specific?
A statement can be both clear and accurate,
but not precise, as in "Jack is overweight."
(We don’’t know how overweight Jack is,
one pound or 500 pounds.)
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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RELEVANCE
• How is that connected to the question?
• How does that bear on the issue?
A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but not
relevant to the question at issue. For example, students
often think that the amount of effort they put into a course
should be used in raising their grade in a course. Often,
however, the "effort" does not measure the quality of
student learning; and when this is so, effort is irrelevant to
their appropriate grade.
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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DEPTH
• How does your answer address the complexities in the
question?
• How are you taking into account the problems in the
question?
• Is that dealing with the most significant factors?
A statement can be clear, accurate, precise, and relevant, but superficial
(that is, lack depth). For example, the statement, "Just say No!" which is
often used to discourage children and teens from using drugs, is clear,
accurate, precise, and relevant. Nevertheless, it lacks depth because it
treats an extremely complex issue, the pervasive problem of drug use
among young people, superficially. It fails to deal with the complexities of
the issue.
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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BREADTH
• Do we need to consider another point of view?
• Is there another way to look at this question?
• What would this look like from a conservative
standpoint?
• What would this look like from the point of view of . . .?
A line of reasoning may be clear accurate, precise,
relevant, and deep, but lack breadth (as in an argument
from either the conservative or liberal standpoint which gets
deeply into an issue, but only recognizes the insights of
one side of the question.) (“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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LOGIC
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Does this really make sense?
Does that follow from what you said?
How does that follow?
But before you implied this, and now you are saying that;
how can both be true?
When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together into some order.
When the combination of thoughts are mutually supporting and make
sense in combination, the thinking is "logical." When the combination is
not mutually supporting, is contradictory in some sense or does not
"make sense," the combination is not logical.
(“Universal Intellectual Standards”)
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The Research/Writing Link
• Reading, Thinking, Writing
– What in your reading has surprised you?
– When reading, has anything struck you as
stupid, odd or illogical?—for instance, the
way things are done or the way they are
viewed.
– Is there anything in the reading that
offends your intellectual or emotional
sensibilities?
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Now what?
ACADEMIC WRITING
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Where are you now?
• What are you currently doing?
– Writing Prompt:
• What are you currently doing? What have you done?
What will you do next?
• Talk about what you are currently doing in terms of your
short-term plans—goals you intend to reach in the next
few weeks—and your medium and long-range plans?
– Write for five minutes
• Write in sentences, but do not self-edit
• No one else will read this, so it does not have to be
perfect
• Talk to the paper; speak as if you were explaining this to
one of your peers
• Continue to write, even if you think that you have
nothing to say
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What is your strategy?
• Talk to your colleagues:
– What is your strategy?
– What is your long-term plan?
– What will you have finished by summer’s
end?
– What will you have done by the end of the
second week in March?
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Ground Work
• Writing Process
• Assessment of the context into which
you write
• Writing Strategies and Strategy
Development
• Research Process
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Your Writing Process
• Prewriting
– Assessing the rhetorical context
– Planning
– Gathering information
• Drafting
• Revising (Global Concerns)
– Reassessment of the paper in terms of its
rhetorical context
• Editing and Proofreading (Local Issues)
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Assessing the Context into
which you Write
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You as a writer
The occasion for writing
Your topic
Your audience
Your purpose for writing
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Writing Strategies
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Cognitive
Metacognitive
Affective
Social
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Writing is a Social Activity
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• Lexical-grammatical
choices affect the
culture of register,
which in turn
affects the culture
of genre.
• Illustration: (Martin
& Rose, 2003, p. 254
cited in BALEAP
2007).
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Logical Choices and Unity of
Purpose
• Every choice serves to defend a claim,
answer a question, or confirm a
hypothesis
– Word, phrase, sentence-structure
• Does the choice satisfy audience expectations
• Does it speak to your authorial credibility
• Does it further your argument, analysis,
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Unity and Coherence
• If information included in your
dissertation does not contribute to an
understanding of the value of your
conclusions and recommendations,
then it only serves to befuddle the logic
of your piece.
• A unified text is a more coherent text.
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Form and Content...
• ...Content and Form
– ‘Understanding organisational behaviour
has never been more important for
managers’ (Robbins, 2003:14).
– Explain why this is the case, outlining in
your answer the challenges and opportunities faced by managers, and the value
of understanding organisational behaviour
to a practicing manager.
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Arguments & Logic
• A good argument will have, at the very least:
– a thesis that declares the writer's position on the
problem at hand;
– an acknowledgment of the opposition that nods to,
or quibbles with other points of view;
– a set of clearly defined premises that illustrate the
argument's line of reasoning;
– evidence that validates the argument's premises;
– a conclusion that convinces the reader that the
argument has been soundly and persuasively
made.
(Dartmouth Writing Program 2005)
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Literature Review & Logic
• The Lit. Review that you wrote for your
proposal will not necessarily be the same
review that you submit as part of your
dissertation.
• Think in terms of your argument and the
support that you provided for claims:
– Include a review of all the literature that you read
to learn about your topic and the particular
aspect of your topic that you focus on.
– Include a review of the literature on the
methodologies that you used.
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Methodologies & Logic
• When you know what you need to know
in order to answer a question, then it is
logical to choose methods of inquiry
that will supply the reliable verifiable
data that you need in order to answer
the question.
• Don’t forget to qualify your data—what
does it tell you and what is it unable to
tell you?
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Methodologies & Credibility
• All data has to be analyzed. You need a
methodology for analyses as well.
– Quantitative data: can it be generalized?
– Qualitative data: what criteria will be used to
establish its value?
• Do not overstate your results. An honest,
quality analysis will speak volumes about
your credibility, regardless of the quality of
the data.
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Writing Strategies
• Where are you now?
– Strategies for getting started
– Research strategies v. Writing strategies
– Strategies that motivate you to write
– Strategies that help you switch from
writing for yourself to writing for others
• Where do you want to be in a month?
Two months? Six months?
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Writing Strategies
• Map your paper
– What sections or subsections are completed
(keeping in mind you still have to revise),
– Pick one or two of the holes in your paper that
you would feel comfortable filling,
– Assess the reasons for any anxiety you have over
the unfinished parts that cause you anxiety
• Do you need to read more?
• Do you need to rethink your paper?
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Writing Strategies
• Outline your paper
– Devise headings and subheadings for
uncompleted sections
• This helps you see the logical progression (or
lack of it) of your ideas
• It identifies the main ideas
• It helps detect omissions
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Writing Strategies
• Write about what you are having difficulty
with right now.
– It gets the fingers tapping and the cerebral juices
flowing
– An awareness of fears and anxieties helps you to
develop strategies to overcome those emotional
roadblocks
– You may discover that the reason that you are
having difficulty is that you still haven’t a vision
or a complete picture. There may still be things of
which you need to have a better understanding.
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Writing Strategies
• Don’t allow yourself to freeze up. When
you are feeling overwhelmed…
– Satisfy yourself with small advances until
you feel more confident and unstuck
– Seek help. Talk to friends. Talk about how
you feel, but talk about your ideas as well.
– Eat lots of ice cream and candy
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Works Cited
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Ebest, Sally Barr, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, and Gerald J.
Alred, G. Writing From A to Z. The Easy-to-Use Reference Handbook.
Mt. View, CA: Mayfield, 1977.
Leedy, P. and Ormrod, E. Practical research: Planning and Design, 8th
ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.
Murray, Rowena. How to Write a Thesis, 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open UP, 2006.
“Universal Intellectual Standards.” Criticalthinking.org. 27 Feb. 2009.
<http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/universal-intellectualstandards.cfm>.
“Describing & Analysing Language: Handouts.” 2009. University of
Hertfordshire, School of Combined Studies. 08 Jan. 2008.
<http://www.uefap.com/courses/baecc/dal/handouts.htm>.
“Using Bloom's Taxonomy in Assignment Design.” 2009. University of
Maryland University College, UMUC Effective Writing Center. 27 Feb.
2009. <http://www.umuc.edu/ewc/resources/bloomtax.shtml>.
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