Throughout the process of working on your thesis, dissertation, or piece for …
Throughout the process of working on your thesis, dissertation, or piece for publication, you are asked to transition from understanding yourself as a novice learner to understanding yourself as an expert learnerand an academic. The activity below will help to guide this change in perspective using metaphors, which are stories we tell about our relationship to the world, or in this case our writing and academic identity.
In writing, synthesis describes the relationships among sources, such as academic literature …
In writing, synthesis describes the relationships among sources, such as academic literature like published research or scholarly books. When writers synthesize, they connect themes or ideas to emphasize how articles agree or disagree with one another. Synthesis is more than summary: whereas summary simply repeats information from sources, synthesis explores similarities and differences among sources. Synthesis is required in many academic genres, such as literature reviews, research articles, grant proposals, and program evaluations.
Scaffolding is a means of breaking down assignments or tasks into manageable …
Scaffolding is a means of breaking down assignments or tasks into manageable chunks in order to promote student learning and success. A well-scaffolded writing assignment should help students understand your expectations, learn course content, communicate with audiences, and write with a purpose in mind. Structured deadlines can get students working on meaningful chunks rather than writing the paper from beginning to end in one sitting.
However, scaffolding is not a one-size-fits-all tool. The kind of scaffolding you use will depend on your discipline, the level of the course and kinds of students enrolled, and the learning objectives you have set for them. This handout details three approaches to scaffolding you might use in your course: checkpoints, parts of the whole, and upping the ante.
Like all writing, grants are a complicated genre. This document compiles some …
Like all writing, grants are a complicated genre. This document compiles some of the most common tips and advice into a handy reference. The list is organized according to the rhetorical situation, in which someone (author) is communicating to someone else (audience) in some form (genre), for some purpose, in some context
Writing emails is an art, and writing emails to faculty doubly-so. There …
Writing emails is an art, and writing emails to faculty doubly-so. There are many things you can keep in mind to address your audience more effectively.
Writing a successful IRB protocol is more than just filling out the …
Writing a successful IRB protocol is more than just filling out the form; it requires dutiful attention to your audience and your purpose: the protection of participants in research. Here are some tips to help you accomplish that goal more effectively, with the aim of gaining IRB approval as written.
Long writing projects can be daunting, but training yourself to write regularly, …
Long writing projects can be daunting, but training yourself to write regularly, well in advance of the deadline, can reduce your stress. Silvia (2007) and Sword (2017) studied the habits of academic writers and categorized writing habits into two categories - binge writing and snack writing. Binge writers completed a project in one very long stretch of writing. They reported being more stressed and producing less high-quality work; additionally, binge writers spent a lot of time feeling guilty about not writing (Silvia, 2007). On the other hand, snack writers wrote daily or several times per week for short periods of time between other tasks, such as during a short break between classes; snack writers reported that they could easily dive back i nto their writing because they never fully left it behind (Sword, 2017). Both authors urged writers to train themselves to write frequently, using shorter sessions like snack writers, to reduce stress and increase the output of high-quality writing. This handout helps you create a weekly writing schedule using shorter writing sessions, a step toward training yourself to write regularly.
Refresh your writing assignment by asking students to address a new audience, …
Refresh your writing assignment by asking students to address a new audience, purpose, genre, or medium of communication as they explain their knowledge of content. This handout will explain what it means to create a new rhetorical situation for your assignment.
This handout explains some of the causes of writer’s block and writing …
This handout explains some of the causes of writer’s block and writing anxiety, and it offers reflective prompts you can use to manage writing challenges.
Writer’s Block is most commonly thought of as a mental obstacle—caused by …
Writer’s Block is most commonly thought of as a mental obstacle—caused by any number of issues—that prevents people from producing writing. Too often writers blame writer’s block when they are actually guilty of procrastinating—putting a writing task off for later. Before blaming writer’s block, be honest with yourself about whether you are really stuck or just avoiding writing.
An abstract is a brief summary of a piece of writing — …
An abstract is a brief summary of a piece of writing — typically research writing — that includes all the essential information a reader might need to understand your approach to a problem, issue, question, or hypothesis and the results of that approach. They are used both in applications (for conferences, proceedings, or edited collections) and at the beginnings of journal articles in many fields.
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