Transcript Document
Writing for Women’s Studies: A Workshop on Academic Writing
Íde O’Sullivan and Lawrence Cleary The Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre, UL
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Assessment
• • For H13101: – Presentation: Text Analysis, 40% – Written Assignment—The location and interrogation of an historical source for women’s history, 60% For SO33111 – Oral Presentation 1, 20% – Oral Presentation 2, 20% – Written Research Proposal, 60%
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The Writing Assignment
• • • Anything that you do for the oral presentation will help you with the written assignment. Both require a textual analysis. Texts can be written or oral. Homer’s
Odyssey
was at one time a spoken text. Ireland is the Mecca for oral texts—just spend a night in the pub!
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The Rhetorical Situation
• • • Author—what kind of writing have you done up to now? How will your past writing experiences help you with this task? What are your strengths as a writer? What are your weaknesses?
Topic—what have you read on this topic? What do you already know? Will you have to do some research on this topic for this task?
Occasion—What is the length of this paper? How much time do I have? Do I read or write slowly? How much time should I allow for research?
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The Rhetorical Situation
• • Audience—who am I writing for? What tone should I adopt? Is it formal or informal? Subjective or objective? What knowledge does this audience value? Purpose—why am I writing? What do I hope to accomplish? Am I writing to express myself? To expose the topic? Or am I writing to persuade someone of something or to move people to action?
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The Assignment: Some Key Words and Phrases
• • • Let’s put key words on the board. Assignments include: For H13101: – Presentation: Text Analysis, 40% – Written Assignment—The location and interrogation of an historical source for women’s history, 60% For SO33111 – Oral Presentation 1, 20% – Oral Presentation 2, 20% – Written Research Proposal, 60%
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Written Assignment
• • • • Locate a historical source relevant to the study of womens’ history in Ireland Submit a 1500 word analysis of this historical source Come to conclusions about the usefulness of the study of the historical experience of Irish women Use the guidelines provided
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Guidelines
1.
Introduction:
A. Explain why you have selected this source. What is your interest in this topic? B. Where does this source come from? C. What is it? i.e. a primary or secondary source?
D. How did you find it, and where?
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Guidelines
2.
Interrogation
A. Guidelines for interrogating a document 1) Who wrote / created the document? Why?
2) When did they write it? What else was happening at the time?
3) For whom did they write it?
4) How or why did this document survive?
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Guidelines
B. Guidelines for interrogating a living source 1) Who is this person?
2) What is it that you spoke about with this person?
3) What did you ask her?
4) Notes and questions are handed in as a sort of appendix to your essay.
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Guidelines
3.
Personal reflection
A. How does this document contribute to our understanding of Irish women’s history in the twentieth century? Can you relate it to some of the topics on our course? B. Suggest some other secondary (for example some of the suggested texts on the course outline ) that you have looked at for background to the topic.
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Reflective Essays
• A well-done reflective piece will tell the story of your learning; it gives you a platform "for explaining what [you] did and did not learn, for assessing [your] own strengths and weaknesses as learners, for evaluating [your] products and performances, for showing how that learning connects with other kinds of learning (in the classroom and without), and for using the review of the past to think about paths for future learning" (Yancey, 2001).
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about a about a
process context
about the
future Exemplary
"I can see exactly how you came to your conclusion"
Satisfactory
"I not quite sure how you arrived at your understanding.
"
Lacking
"I have no idea how you came up with that idea!" "I understand why you find this so interesting/imp or-tant, etc." "Sounds great, but how does this fit into 'the big picture'." "I have no idea why you find this relevant!" "I can see how you are planning to use this in the future." "I can see that you have thought about this, but it's not clear how you are going to go about it." "So, where is all of this leading to?“
Game Plan
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• • • • • So, what are you going to do first?
Next?
After that?
One of the benefits of reflective writing is that it allows you to reflect on your learning and writing processes as well.
What is your writing process?
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• • • •
Key Stages in the Writing Process
Prewriting Drafting Revision Editing and Proofreading
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Prewriting
• • • • Considering the rhetorical situation Brainstorming a topic Considering a topic Reading and Note-taking – Summarizing, paraphrasing, recording quotations in texts that you read – Documenting the source of your summary, paraphrase or quote (Author, date of publication, page numbers)
• •
Prewriting
Taking stock – Beginning to synthesize a variety of sources: • Your experience • Readings—how they agree or disagree with one another • Lectures—how relevant is a particular reading or experience to the lecture topics and issues?
Narrowing and choosing your topic
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Prewriting
• Focusing your reading to coincide with your purpose – Expressing your feelings – Reporting on a topic – Answering a question – Proving a claim – Confirming a hypothesis
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Drafting
• • • Just write!
Write to learn.
Focus on big issues: – Organization of your ideas – The method by which you develop your ideas – Consider how you can organize your ideas so that one thought leads logically to another – Consider your tasks: reporting, analyzing, evaluating, reflecting…concluding
Revising
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• • Sometimes, you just need to start over—this is a natural part of the process; leave enough time to reorganize, do some additional research, if necessary, and to rewrite.
It is rare that you completely rewrite an essay, but it does happen and it should be an option that is available to you—rarely does anybody get it completely right the first time.
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Editing and Proofreading
• Focus on smaller issues— – the clarity of the expressions of your thoughts, – paragraph coherence and cohesion, – sentence structure and variety, – style and word choice, – grammar, – and mechanics: spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
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Style Features Peculiar to a Reflective Essay
• • an introduction, the body, and a conclusion, plus a references list.
In your introduction, acknowledge the disciplinary context in which you’re writing. If it’s Gender Studies, for example, you need to acknowledge how your issue affects gender and society (patriarchy, women, men, oppression etc.). If it’s political science, you need to reflect on how your issue relates to power relations (e.g., who has power, who doesn’t?)
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Style Features
• • Remember that there are (at least) two sides to every issue; in other words, there is a debate, and you need to persuade your reader to accept your point of view. Don’t ignore one side of the debate at the expense of the other.
You need to include your own reflection ('I think,' 'I believe' …) and the reasons for that reflection. One way of thinking about this task is imagine you’re having an intellectual chat with your lecturer and you need to demonstrate to them that you understood the course and have thought about it.
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Style Features
• Include evidence (references/citations) and examples to support your claims. Check the assignment requirements as to what referencing system you should use. • Both description and reflection are necessary pieces of narrative that should be found in your e portfolio.
– Description provides context. – Reflections share meaning!
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Style Features
• • • Use an honest, upbeat, sincere tone, when you assess the experience's value to you personally. Favour short paragraphs over long ones. Short paragraphs tend to be focused; long ones tend to be cumbersome. Consciously build your paragraphs around topic sentences, even very simple sentences such as "My daily activities fell into three categories." Your readers will be thankful that you spelled your paragraph topics out clearly, and it will help keep you focused as well.
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Style Features
• Selectively use transition words at the beginnings of pivotal sentences and paragraphs, remembering that transition words provide simple ways for you to guide the reader's thinking. Opening a sentence with a word such as "Specifically" tells the reader that you are about to provide elaboration, while a transition such as "Clearly" implies writer contemplation.
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Style Features
• • Take advantage of the most powerful punctuation marks-the semicolon, colon, and dash-to present material efficiently. Pay special attention to subject/verb agreement and verb tense, the two most common sentence-level problems in technical writing.
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Style Features
• • • • You will be used to writing in the third person but in reflective writing the first person is preferred Practise writing in the first person but do not allow your work to become chatty? Express your feelings in a clear, well thought out way Learn to write the analysis of your experiences in an articulate way that relates, where appropriate, to the topics and theory that guides your course.
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Persuasion and Truth in Academic Writing
Academic inquiry is a truth-seeking pursuit.
Facts are distinguished from opinions.
Subjective truths are distinguished from objective truths.
Relative truths are distinguished from absolute truths.
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•
Persuasion and Truth in Academic Writing
Academic writing tends to be argumentative.
Arguments can be explicit or implicit.
Academic arguments require justifications for their claims.
Arguments are both a process and a product: ‘the written argument (product) enters a conversation (a process)’ (Ramage and Bean, 1998: 10).
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• • • •
Persuasion and Truth in Academic Writing
Because they are argumentative, academic essays tends to be persuasive.
Expository writing emphasizes the topic. It focuses on facts and ideas.
Persuasive writing emphasizes the reader. This type of writing focuses on changing the reader’s mind or moving the reader to action.
However, academic writing never sacrifices truth in its effort to persuade.
Arguments Combine the Search for
Truth
and
Persuasion:
• Arguments operate along a spectrum/continuum of
Truth<--------------------->Persuasion
• Questions of subject matter/truth (What is the best solution?) • Questions of audience/persuasion (What will most persuade people?) From ‘Introduction to Arguments, Scott Hale, University of Oklahoma, at http://www.ou.edu/englhale/English1213.html
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• • •
Persuasion and Truth in Academic Writing
The integrity of the conclusions reached in an academic essay or report is based on its honest pursuit of truth. Its persuasive quality is based on the quality of its appeals. Although largely dependent on logic, proof, and method, academic texts do appeal to the reader’s emotions and regard for authority as well as to reason.
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The Rhetorical Triangle
from Robert Scholes
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• • • • • • •
The Thesis and Persuasion: Academic Argument
Advance your argument by giving evidence.
Do not reiterate evidence already provided, but refer back to something you have already stated in your essay.
When referring to the opinions of those you have read, be clear that you defer to the opinion, or that you object to it (be critical but polite).
Present counter-arguments and explain both the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments.
Concede points, even when you know that such a concession weakens your argument. The goal is not to be right-at-all costs, but to honestly explore the question.
Qualify your statements.
Expose questions that your opinion begs.
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Drafting the Essay: Essay Structure
• When drafting your plan, always keep in mind that an essay always has to contain the following elements: Title Page Introduction Body Conclusion References
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The Introduction
•
In academic writing, an introduction, or opening, has four purposes:
To introduce the topic of the essay
To indicate the context of the conversation through background information
To give some indication of the overall plan of the essay
To catch the reader’s attention, usually by convincing the reader of its relevance.
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The Introduction
• The introduction has two parts: General statements.
General statements attract a reader’s attention, and give background information on the topic.
A thesis statement States the main topic.
Sometimes indicates sub-topics.
Will sometimes indicate how the essay is to be organized.
Is usually the last sentence in the introduction.
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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. This is your thesis statement.
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The Introduction
Example Thesis Statement:
The status of women in Zanadu has improved remarkably in recent years in the areas of economic independence, political rights, educational opportunities, and social status; yet, when compared to the status of women in developed countries, it is still pretty low (Oshima and Hogue, 1999: 105).
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Main Section
• • • Essays are divided into paragraphs in a meaningful way.
Every sentence in a paragraph develops one topic or idea, and each paragraph in an argumentative essay, likewise, develops the line of argument that supports the thesis statement.
The topic of one paragraph should follow logically from the topic of the last paragraph and should lead on to the topic of the next paragraph.
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Main Section
• • • Just as an essay is guided by a thesis statement , a paragraph is guided by a topic sentence .
A topic sentence informs the reader of the topic to be discussed.
A topic sentence contains controlling ideas which limit the scope of the discussion to ideas that are manageable in a paragraph.
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Topic Sentence: Example
• The Arabic origin of many English words is not always obvious.
The topic is ‘English words’ .
The paragraph is limited to a discussion of ‘English words with Arab origin’ .
The paragraph may be organized through a comparison of those English words that have an obvious Arabic origin and those for which the Arab origins are not so obvious
(Oshima and Hogue, 1999: 20)
.
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• •
Unity and Coherence
‘ Unity means that only one main idea is discussed in a paragraph. The main idea is stated in the topic sentence, and then each and every supporting sentence develops that idea’
(Oshima and Hogue, 1999: 18).
‘ Coherence means that your paragraph is easy to read and understand because (1) your supporting sentences are in some kind of logical order and (2) your ideas are connected by the use of appropriate transition signals’
(Oshima and Hogue, 1999: 18).
Transition Signals
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• • Transition signals do exactly what it says on the tin: they ‘signal’. They can signal relationships between sentences, just as they can signal relationships between paragraphs.
Example: ‘ F inally, there have been numerous women altogether outside the profession, who were reformers dedicated to creating alternatives’ (Gillet, 2005: Online).
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CONCLUSION
• • • How you conclude your paper, like everything else in writing, thesis. largely depends on your purpose . Generally, though, a conclusion ends by reminding the reader of the main points of the argument in support of your Otherwise, you may end with a reflection, a call to action, an impact question (indicating, perhaps, that you see scope for future research), a quote, or advice.
‘Whatever kind of conclusion you decide on, it should not introduce new topics, apologize for any real or perceived failings in the paper, or merely stop or trail off. Make sure your paper has a clear sense of closure’ (Ebest et al., 1997: 129).
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Referencing
• Plagiarism is taking another person's words or ideas and using them as if they were your own. It can be either deliberate or accidental. Plagiarism is taken very seriously in higher education institutions throughout the world. If even a small section of your work is found to have been plagiarized, it is likely that you will be assigned a mark of '0' for that assignment. In more serious cases, it may be necessary for you to repeat the course completely. In some cases, plagiarism may even lead to your being expelled from the university (Gillet, 2004: Online).
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Referencing
• Why do we document sources accurately?
Doing so allows readers to find materials that you’ve used.
Doing so enhances your credibility as a writer.
Doing so protects you against charges of plagiarism.
[From the Department of English, Illinois State University, ‘Course Guide for English 101: Language & Composition 1’, (1997: 109)]
49 Referencing: Citing a reference in the body of the text
• • • ‘If you read a relevant point in a book and want to use it in your essay, you must reference it (say where it came from)’ (LSU / MIC, 2004: Internet).
http://www.mic.ul.ie/lsu/ http://www.uefap.com
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Referencing: Citing a Reference in the Body of the Text
• • • • • • • Go to http://www.uefap.co.uk/ Click on ‘Writing’ Click on ‘Citation’ Click on ‘Exercises’ Click on ‘Exercise 4’ Insert the quote into the text with documentation information.
Check your answer.
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• •
Referencing: Citing a reference in the body of the text
• Sometimes the author you are quoting from will quote another author to support his or her argument, much in the same way that you do when writing assignments. Sometimes you want to use the same quote that the author of the source has used. When you do this, use the format below.
Eisenberg and Smith (in Bolton, 1986: 85) agree that ‘it is hard to assign general meaning to any isolated nonverbal sign’ ( Geraghty, 2005: Online).
http://www.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harv ard_referencing.htm
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• • • • • • •
Referencing: Writing a List of References
Go back to http://www.mic.ul.ie/lsu/intro.htm
Go to the Library Homepage Go to Library Catalogue Do an ‘Author / Title’ search for
Describing Language
, by Graddol, D., Cheshire J., and Swann, J.
Click on ‘Title’ Click on ‘Title Details’ Write a reference for this book according to Harvard System specifications
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Your Entry Should Look Like This:
References Graddol, D., J. Cheshire, and J. Swann, 1994.
Describing Language
, 2 nd Edition. Buckingham: Open University Press.
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• • • •
Inserting Footnotes / Endnotes
In your Word ® document, click ‘Insert’ on the standard toolbar.
Scroll down and click on ‘Footnote…’.
The ‘Footnote and Endnote’ box will appear. Choose ‘Footnote’. You can also format how the footnotes will be listed by engaging the ‘Numbering’ option, or you can choose ‘AutoNumber’.
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Examples:
• • For examples of how to reference a source in footnotes, see ‘The Footnoting System’, on Mary Immaculate College’s ‘Learner Support Unit’ web-page at http://www.mic.ul.ie/lsu/intro.htm
For an example of footnotes used for explanation or comment, see excerpts from ‘Suicide as a Sort of Present’, from
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
(Wallace, 2000: 283-84), in the public folder: .
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•
Comparison of Footnote Style to Harvard Style Referencing:
Footnoting System: 3 Howard Lemontree, 'Discourse markers' in Joseph Keyes (ed),
Discourse across Varieties
, (Oxford, 1980), p. 45 or: 3 Howard Lemontree, 'Discourse markers' in Joseph Keyes (ed), Discourse across Varieties, (Oxford, 1980), p. 45 • Versus Harvard Style System: Green, B., 1994. Children’s Rights – A case study of Romania. In: T. Rice and B. Nolan, (eds.),
Children’s Rights
. Dublin: Link Press, 65-87.
or: Green, B., 1994. Children’s Rights – A case study of Romania. In: T. Rice and B. Nolan, (eds.), Children’s Rights. Dublin: Link Press, 65-87.
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Formatting Your Paper
• • • Formatting Style Formatting Font, Paragraphs, and Bullets Page Set-up
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• • • • •
Spellchecker and Thesaurus
Select the document you wish to check.
Click on ‘Tools’ on the standard toolbox.
Scroll down to ‘Language’ and select ‘Set Language’.
Choose the language you wish to have checked for spelling and grammar.
Once the language is set, you can use the spellchecker and the thesaurus also found in ‘Tools’.
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• • • • •
Example:
An excerpt of an essay will be presented shortly. Citations in the text are set according to Harvard referencing style requirements. There are spelling errors.
Copy this short text in a Word document, replacing Harvard-style citations with footnotes as per the footnoting system in the LSU web-page.
Set the language to UK English.
Do a spell check.
And, finally, find synonyms for highlighted words.
60 These References Are Cited in the Excerpt That Follows. These Sources Are Listed in MLA Style. Using the Information Provided in MIC’s LSU Web-site, Copy Them Into a Word Document, Converting Them to Footnote Style.
• • • • • Aitchison, Jean, 1987.
Linguistics
and Stoughton Educational.
3rd ed. Sevenoaks : Hodder Ellis, Rod, 2000.
The Study of Second Language Acquisition
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Georges, Robert A. and Micheal Owen Jones, 1995.
Folkloristics: An Introduction.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Lyons, John, 1991.
Chomsky
. 3 rd Ed. London: Fontana Press.
Werkmeister, W.H., 1940.
A Philosophy of Science
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
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Excerpt from '
If It Looks Like Maths and Smells Like
P
rinciples and
P
arameters…'
(Cleary, 2001: 2-3).
In truth, it is often difficult for me to formulate a comprehensive definition of Universal Grammar. It is without that school’s rigid distinction between mind and body (Lyons, 1991: 125-138).
first and foremost a theory, to be proven or disproved. It is, as Ellis (2000: 430) has said, ‘a theory of how knowledge of a language is acquired’; but more , it is an evolved and evolving theory with applacation stretching across theoretical and applied linguistics, computer science, anthropology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiology, philosophy, logic and mathematics, among other disciplines. UG’s connection to anthropology is historic, in that much of comparitive linguistics independently of their empirical application”.
originates from the coming together of philology and the exploration of cultural simalarities conducted by the antiquarians, which sprang up in the late eighteenth century and endured through to the late nineteenth century (Aitchison, 1987: 21-22; Georges, 1995: 42). Much of its current relationship to mathimatics and logic, if there has been a long, though antagonistic, relationship between these two and grammar (Werkmeister, 1940: 137-39), has more to do with Chomsky’s method of formalization. In the words of Lyons (1991: 139), “Even if it were decided eventually that none of Chomsky’s work on generative grammar was of any direct relevance to the description of natural languages, it would still be judged valuable by logicians and mathematicians, who are concerned with the construction and study of formal systems Again , though philosophy may have an investment in ontological and epistemological matters relating to Chomsky’s theory, there is also a philasophical interest in his methodology, which tends to be systematic, non-deterministic and rationalistic in the tradition of Descartes, but