Transcript Slide 1
Grad. Dip Nursing:
Introduction to
Academic Writing
Íde O’Sullivan and Lawrence Cleary
Regional Writing Centre, UL
Freewriting
• What I like/dislike about writing………
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Keep writing non-stop for 5 minutes.
Write in sentences.
Do not edit or censor your writing.
Private writing -- no one will read it.
Discuss what you have written in
pairs.
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Workshop outline
• Differences between academic and
non-academic writing styles
• Thoughts and feelings about writing
in general and this kind of writing in
particular
• Observing your process and
developing healthy, effective writing
strategies
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Academic writing
• How important is writing?
• What kind of writing do you do now?
• What kinds of issues are you likely to
encounter?
• What is different about academic
writing?
• What is involved? Where does academic
writing begin? When does life begin?
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Academic writing
Higher order practice in nursing is
dependent on appropriate evidence being
generated and applied.
Critically evaluate this statement in the
context of the research endeavour in
nursing.
– Identify the topic.
– Search for the aspect.
– Identify the instruction.
– If the topic has a restriction or
expansion, identify it.
– Check whether there is a viewpoint.
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Key stages in the process
• Planning
• Drafting
• Revision
• Editing and Proofreading
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The rhetorical situation
• Occasion
• Topic
• Audience
• Purpose
• Writer
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Organising principles
• Thesis
• Questions
• Hypothesis
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Organising principles
• Unity
• Coherence
• Cohesion
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Our boys may be facing real war –
and I for one am scared
By Kevin Myers
Irish Independent, Wednesday October 31 2007
Look, I'm not trying to rock the boat here, but I
can't be alone in worrying about the Army's new
mission in Chad. I don't worry about the capability of
the Army itself, for it is composed of the best
people in Ireland: I admire patriotism, and the
soldiers of the Army are true patriots who loyally
serve their country and their flag.
But who will they end up serving in Chad? Because it
seems to me that a mightily complex command-chain
is involved here. This, after all, is a UN-authorised
EU operation, under the command of our own Major
General Pat Nash. However, Pat will be based in Paris
and the French have been involved in the region for
over a century.
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Example:
(Meei-Fang et al. 2007, p.471)
People with dementia are particularly vulnerable to
malnutrition: they have a decreased ability to understand
directions and to express their needs verbally, are easily
distracted from eating, prone to become agitated, and may
use utensils incorrectly. Inability to feed oneself (eating
dependency) is a major risk factor for malnutrition among
older people living in long-term care settings (Abbasi &
Rudman 1994, Durnbaugh et al. 1996). When people with
dementia can no longer take food voluntarily, assistance is
required although, as the disease progresses, even taking
food with assistance can become difficult and, in some
instances, tube-feeding may be required to supply nutrition.
This form of feeding can, however, cause distress and
anxiety, not only for the person being fed, but also for
caregivers (Akerlund & Norberg 1985, Burgener & Shimer
1993).
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Stylistic differences
that mark
academic writing
• Complexity
• Formality
• Objectivity
• Explicitness
• Hedging
• Responsibility
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Persuasion and truth in
academic writing
• Because they are argumentative, academic
writing tends to be persuasive.
• An argument should be persuasive, but
don’t sacrifice truth in favour of
persuasion.
• Academic inquiry is a truth-seeking
pursuit.
• facts are distinguished from opinions.
• relative truths are distinguished from
absolute truths.
• The integrity of the conclusions reached in
an academic essay or report is based on its
honest pursuit of truth.
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Essay structure
• Organise the essay so that the
argument unfolds in a clearly stated,
detailed, logical, linear progression
and arrangement of ideas.
– Introduction: present the thesis,
hypothesis, or question that you will try
to defend, prove or disprove, or answer.
– Sections: to support the thesis
– Conclusions
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The introduction
• In academic writing, an introduction, or
opening, has four purposes:
To introduce the topic of the
essay/report
To indicate the context of the
conversation through background
information
To give some indication of the overall
plan of the essay/report
To catch the reader’s attention, usually
by convincing the reader of its
relevance.
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The introduction
• The introductory paragraph is
funnel-shaped:
It begins with broad statements.
The statements become more and
more specific as the writer
narrows the scope of the topic,
until…
The topic is narrowed to a point
that can be handled in an
essay/report.
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Key tasks for
academic writers
• Participating in academic conversations
• Developing and advancing balanced
arguments
• Exploring your personal writing process
• Developing strategies that work for you
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Cracking the codes
• Analysing the genre/text and modelling
• Generate a list of
– The most important features of academic
writing
– Criteria to make your writing-strategies
more effective
– The important conventions in your discipline
– What is/is not acceptable in your discipline
• Student handbooks and guides for written
submissions
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Getting started
• Create time and space for writing
• Freewriting
• Writing to prompts
– “What writing have you done for this
assignment, what writing would you
like to do……”
– “The aim of this assignment…”
• Experiment with different types of
writing
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Other types of writing
• Keep a learning diary (Moore and Murphy,
2005:61) / writing diary / process journal
(Elbow and Belanoff, 2003:19).
– When do you feel most/least motivated to
write?
– What strategies have/have not worked in the
past?
• Write a little bit every day (Moore and
Murphy, 2005:117):
“we learn to write through writing” (Hyland,
2002:81).
• Keep a notebook with you to record ideas
when they come to mind (Moore and
Murphy, (2005).
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Writing time
• Dealing with issues of time
• Setting goals
• “Binge” and “snack” writing (Murray,
2005)
• Do I need a big block of time to write
productively?
• “Short bursts of productive writing”
(Murray and Moore, 2006:17)
• Outlining (Murray, 2005)
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Other strategies
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The importance of reading
Modelling
Images and diagrams
Mind mapping
Writing dictionaries
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Dialogue as a social strategy
• Peer-review
• Generative writing
• The “writing sandwich” (Murray,
2005:85): writing, talking, writing
• Writing “buddies” (Murray and Moore,
2006:102)
– Engaging in critiques of one another’s
work allows you to become effective
critics of your own work.
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Strategies that work
for you
• Writing is a personal process
• Learning diary (Moore and Murphy,
2005:61)
• Process journal (Elbow and Belanoff,
2003:19)
• When do you feel most/least motivated
to write?
• What strategies have/have not worked
in the past?
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Things to note
• Academic writing style
– Register
– Language
– Clarity of expression
• Different disciplines have different
conventions
• What are the important criteria for your
subject?
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Resources
• Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre, UL
http://www.ul.ie/rwc/
• Using English for Academic Purposes
http://www.uefap.com/index.htm
• The Writer’s Garden http://www.
cyberlyber.com/writermain.htm
• The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• The Writing Center at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/depts
/wcweb/handouts/index.html
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Reference List
• Elbow, P. (1998) Writing without Teachers (2nd
edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Elbow, P. and Belanoff, P. (2003) Being a Writer: A
Community of Writers Revisited. New York: McGrawHill.
• Hyland, K. (2002) Teaching and Researching Writing.
London: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Moore, S. and Murphy, M. (2005) How to be a Student:
100 Great Ideas and Practical Hints for Students
Everywhere. UK: Open University Press.
• Murray, R. (2005) Writing for Academic Journals. UK:
Open University Press.
• Murray, R. and Moore, S. (2006) The Handbook of
Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. Berkshire, UK:
Open University Press.
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Reporting the
Work of Others
Reporting the work of others
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Making use of the ideas of other people is
one of the most important aspects of
academic writing because
it shows awareness of other people’s work;
it shows that you can use their ideas and
findings;
it shows you have read and understood the
material you are reading;
it shows where your contribution fits in;
it supports the points you are making.
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(Gillet, 2005)
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Referencing
• It is very important when you do this to
make sure you use your own words, unless
you are quoting. You must make it clear
when the words or ideas that you are using
are your own and when they are taken
from another writer.
• You must not use another person's words
or ideas as if they were your own: this is
Plagiarism and plagiarism is regarded as a
very serious offence (Gillet, 1995: Online).
• Language for reporting
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Direct quotation
Example:
Swales has recently withdrawn slightly
from his original conception of the
discourse community, arguing that "the
'true' discourse community may be
rarer and more esoteric than I once
thought” (1993, p. 695).
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Direct quotation
• Direct quotation of whole sentences or
just one or two words (exact words)
• Quoted information is enclosed by doubleinverted commas (“…”).
• The text quoted is sacrosanct.
– Do not change spelling (i.e. American to
British) or punctuation.
– Do not correct spelling and punctuation.
– Sic enclosed in square brackets, [sic], is
inserted into the quote, after the error,
to indicate to the reader that the error
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Paraphrasing
‘Paraphrasing is writing the ideas of
another person in your own words.
You need to change the words and
the structure but keep the meaning
the same’ (Gillet, 1995: Online).
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Paraphrasing
Example:
• Original Text:
Memory is the capacity for storing and
retrieving information.
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Paraphrase:
Memory is the facility for keeping and
recovering data.
(Gillet, 1995: Online)
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Summary
‘A summary is a shortened version of
a text. It contains the main points in
the text and is written in your own
words. It is a mixture of reducing a
long text to a short text and
selecting relevant information. A
good summary shows that you have
understood the text’ (Gillet, 1995:
Online).
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Summary
Example:
• Original text:
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People whose professional activity lies
in the field of politics are not, on the
whole, conspicuous for their respect
for factual accuracy.
Summary:
Politicians often lie.
(Gillet, 1995: Online)
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Synthesis
• A synthesis is a combination, usually a shortened
version, of several texts made into one. It
contains the important points in the text and is
written in your own words.
• To make a synthesis you need to find suitable
sources, and then to select the relevant parts in
those sources. You will then use your paraphrase
and summary skills to write the information in
your own words. The information from all the
sources has to fit together into one continuous
text.
(Gillet, 1995: Online)
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