In what areas in your writing have you needed to do the most revision so far?
Review past comments made on your papers by your instructor and on peer review forms by classmates.
Identify areas where you have had to make the most revisions so far.
Write a summary of the areas you need to concentrate on the most in the future (700-800
words, every other line).
Vocabulary
| optional | precise | closing remark | feedback |
| background | opinion | framework | restatement |
| to vary tedious | classical approach to bungle | revision misspelling | intuitive editing poorly worded phrase |
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Unit 1
Effective Academic Writing
Script 1
Effective Academic Writing
Writing is necessary for all students in higher education. It is a process. It starts from understanding the task. It then goes on to doing the research and reading. The next stage is planning and writing various drafts. This is followed by proof-reading and editing. All this should lead to the final text.
Academic writing is a social practice. By a social practice I mean that it is what people do together. This means that you always write with a readership in mind. You always write with a purpose: to explain, to persuade etc. It also means that what is right and wrong, appropriate or inappropriate is defined by the users in the social community. In your case these are other students, lecturers or examiners. There is nothing natural about the organization and the way language is used in a scientific report, for example. It is as it is because that is the way it has developed through centuries of use by practitioners. For that reason it has to be learned. No-one speaks (or writes) academic English as a first language. It must be learned by observation, study and experiment.
Academic writing is clearly defined by having a clear audience; a clear purpose, either an exam question to answer or a research project to report on. It is also clearly structured.
Academic writing in English is linear: it starts at the beginning and finishes at the end, with every part contributing to the main line of argument, without digression or repetition. Whatever kind of writing you are producing, you, the writer, are responsible for making your line of argument clear and presenting it in an orderly fashion so that the reader can follow.
Your written work should have the following sections: Preliminaries, Main text, End matter.
The preliminaries and end matter will depend on the kind of text you are writing. The main text will, however, generally contain an introduction, a main body and a conclusion. The introduction will usually consist of some background information, which will give the reason for the writing and explain, to some extent, how this will be done. This must be closely connected to the essay or research question. The main body will then contain some data either experimental, from ideas or from reading and some argument. This will then lead to the conclusion, which will refer back to the introduction and show that the purpose has been fulfilled. The actual form of the main body will depend on the type of writing.
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(http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm)
Script 2
Essays are a major form of assessment in higher education today, a fact which causes poor writers a great deal of anxiety. But essay writing is simply a skill to be learned. Anyone can learn to express themselves coherently and effectively, and this book explains precisely how. If you are dissatisfied with your essay grades but don't know where to start, read on.
Writing Essays reveals the tricks of the trade, making your student life easier. It tells you:
- how to impress tutors with minimum effort
- exactly what markers look for when they read your work
- how to become proficient in every aspect of composition from introductions and conclusions, down to presentation and printing out.
In addition, this book explains stress-free methods of revision; effective library management; word processing and the internet. Demystifying the whole process of composition, Writing Essays is the ideal study aid; giving you practical examples and confidence to improve your grades from the word go.
(Marggraf Turley, R. (2003) Writing Essays: a guide for students in English and the humanities, New-York)
Audience and tone
Script 3
There is one important part of the process of writing, however, that you must complete before you set the first word of your first draft on paper: you must decide what audience you are writing for. If you were writing an oral presentation, you would consider your audience and adjust your style accordingly. The same procedure applies to writing. Your audience will influence your choice of vocabulary, sentence structure, and even the kind of evidence you use to support your thesis. Writing a paper for a university professor obviously requires a greater level of stylistic polish than writing a letter to your friend. However, writing for one professor as opposed to another may require nearly as much variation in method. You would be well advised to keep in mind the preferences of the instructor, as well as the requirements of the essay. Even within the relatively narrow limits of the English essay, there are still a variety of approaches that may be taken and the appropriate path to follow depends to a great extent upon the person who gave the initial directions.
(http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/EssayWritingAud.html)
Script 4
The tone of your essay is dictated in part by the subject matter. An essay need not always be grim and impersonal; it may suit your thesis to be more subjective or ironic. In a university environment, it is safe to assume that a certain seriousness of tone is necessary, but there are exceptions to every rule. Another consideration is the attitude you communicate as you express yourself. Be wary of being either too timid or too aggressive. A timid essay hedges on every point, incorporating words and phrases like probably, it seems that, to some extent and perhaps. These phrases have their place, but overusing them suggests that you are not confident in what you are saying. Conversely, an essay featuring numerous examples of obviously, definitely, of course and the like is being overly confident. Often students fill essays with superlatives and flamboyant emotional outbursts in an effort to please their professors, finishing papers with sentences like "His masterful use of puns proves that Joyce is unquestionably the greatest writer in the English language." Dramatic declarations are not welcome in serious critical essays; what is welcome is carefully considered and well-supported argument. Do not shout at the reader with overstated convictions or pretentious moralizing. While many essay topics encourage an objective and dispassionate discussion, there are other occasions when it is appropriate to be critical or adversarial toward your subject. Your instructor is unlikely to be satisfied with an essay which merely regurgitates class lectures, or timidly praises to avoid controversy. If you have an opinion, declare it. Students are often afraid to write anything negative. Be honest but methodical; support your opinions and never lose sight of the opposing viewpoint.
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(http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/EssayWritingAud.html)
Effective Coherence
Script 5
Good writing needs to be a clear as possible so that the reader can easily follow sentences, ideas and details. One of the most important aspects is to show the connections and relationships between ideas. Using particular types of words and phrases, known as cohesive devices, to link individual sentences and parts of sentences, helps the reader to follow the movement of ideas without any difficulty. They help the writing to flow naturally, without unnecessary repetition.
(http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/asu/download/Cohesion-flyer.pdf)
Script 6
Coherence is product of many different factors, which combine to make every paragraph, every sentence, and every phrase contribute to the meaning of the whole piece. Coherence in writing is much more difficult to sustain than coherent speech simply because writers have no nonverbal clues to inform them if their message is clear or not. Therefore, writers must make their patterns of coherence much more explicit and much more carefully planned. Coherence itself is the product of two factors paragraph unity and sentence cohesion.
ParagraphUnity. To achieve paragraph unity, a writer must ensure two things only. First, the paragraph must have a single generalization that serves as the focus of attention, that is, a topic sentence. Secondly, a writer must control the content of every other sentence in the paragraph's body such that (a) it contains more specific information than the topic sentence and (b) it maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence. This generalization about paragraph structure holds true for the essay in particular.
Sentence Cohesion. To achieve cohesion, the link of one sentence to the next, consider the following techniques: Repetition. In sentence B (the second of any two sentences), repeat a word from sentence A. You can also use some other techniques, for example: synonymy, antonymy, collocation, enumeration, parallelism and transitions.
(http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/comp1/coherent.htm)
Unit 2
Critical writing
Script 7
Why study critical thinking?
1. Critical thinking is a domain-general thinking skill. The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research, finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a particular subject area. Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career.
2. Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge economy. The global knowledge economy is driven by information and technology. One has to be able to deal with changes quickly and effectively. The new economy places increasing demands on flexible intellectual skills, and the ability to analyze information and integrate diverse sources of knowledge in solving problems. Good critical thinking promotes such thinking skills, and is very important in the fast-changing workplace.
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3. Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way we express our ideas. In learning how to analyze the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves comprehension abilities.
4. Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a creative solution to a problem involves not just having new ideas. It must also be the case that the new ideas being generated are useful and relevant to the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if necessary.
5. Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection. In order to live a meaningful life and to structure our lives accordingly, we need to justify and reflect on our values and decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation.
(http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/ critical thinking)
Script 8
Critical thinking is an essential tool in both academic writing and reading. Good critical thinkers are able to do the following:
- sort out general and specific points
- understand the difference between facts and opinions
- synthesize information from a variety of sources
- summarize
- analyze
- interpret information
- support and defend an opinion
- make judgments
- make inferences
- draw conclusions
- view a topic objectively (unbiased)
- understand a variety of viewpoints
- think logically
- ask questions.
(Leonhard, B. (2003)Discoveries in Academic Writing,University of Missouri-Columbia)
