Category Archives: academic writing

Navigating the Prompt

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The prompt is as much a part of the assignment as the paper itself.

Navigating a prompt can seem daunting to a student, but some simple guidelines, that can be applied to most assignment descriptions, can help. An action plan, leading to the paper’s action plan, is not so daunting because it is based on common sense questions:

  • Did I read it? Read it-all the way through, before anything else.
  • What is the overall objective of this assignment? The prompt probably contains a statement to that effect. Highlight or label it.
  • What are the “givens,” the technical stuff? Make a list of to-dos, such as length, style, due date, etc. These become a simple checklist. Save it the for last, after the work is done. (Don’t wrap the box before the present is inside.)
  • Who is the audience? Who, other than the instructor, are you writing for? (This might be a real audience, or it might be a “made-up”one for the purposes of the paper. Either way, it doesn’t matter; it gives you focus, and helps you strategize.)
  • What is this? Highlight anything that just isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense, and ASK. (The teacher and/or the writing center are there to help.)
  • What materials will I need (research, texts, etc.)?
  • Are there any special rules or exceptions for this assignment (e.g. an author’s note, or an exception to an MLA or APA rule, etc.) If not, then forget about it.

Get all these things “sorted,” as they say in England, then, think about a tentative thesis, and finally, begin that outline. Breaking it down into bits, eliminates the scary. They’re just things to do.

Here’s some more detailed information from Purdue and UNC:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/688/01/

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/understanding-assignments/

 

The Three Index Cards

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One of the most challenging times for a student, especially in a First Year Writing course, or in any class with writing, is navigating the assignment., Often, they don’t think about doing a critical reading of the assignment description, or annotating it, like any other text they encounter. And, oftener still, they don’t ask for help when they are confused.

Several years ago, I came up with a simple activity to get them to talk with each other about the assignment itself. It takes three index cards, and something from which they can be drawn, like a bag, or a cap, or envelope.

After they have read over the assignment description (say for a paper), and the instructor has gone over it, the index cards are employed to get them talking about the doing of the work:

  1. Each student gets a card.
  2. On the lined side of the card, they write the single thing about the assignment they think will be the most challenging. Ask them to be concise and write only that one thing.
  3. All the cards go back in the bag.
  4. Then, everyone draws a new card.
  5. They then respond to what the card says. This could be identifying with the concern, an answer, or suggestions, etc.
  6. The cards go back in the bag.
  7. Each student draws a new card.
  8. This time, on the blank side, the last student builds on what the first two have said.
  9. The third student presents to the class. They read the original concern, the response, and then what they wrote to build on it.
  10. Discussion will begin organically because others will want to respond, etc.; the instructor just needs to guide it.

This not only gets them taking abut the paper they must write, but about studying/writing/reading habits that work, and it eases some of that tension about “looking dumb,” or that “everyone but me gets it” feeling they might have.

Some Thoughts on “Academic Writing”

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The semester has just begun. I cannot help but think of the new Freshmen because I have taught First Year Writing for the last three years. On the first day of class, I always ask them to write their definition of ”academic writing.” The usual answers are things like, “it’s more formal… it is precise…it is better language…” then, we talk about the definitions of ”formal, precise, and better.”

I give them an example from Q’s Legacy, by one of my favorite writers, Helene Hanff. She tells the story of how she, “wanted instruction in how to read and write English” (7). She went to the library, and discovered Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s On the Art of Writing. In it, he offers two sentences, one jargon, and one “good English prose”:

He was conveyed to his residence in an intoxicated condition.

He was carried home drunk.

Guess which one most of them choose. We then begin the discussion on “academic writing” and Standard American English, how good writing is not good mechanics, as well as an assortment of myths that need busting. L. Lennie Irvin talks about this in “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?”. He advises: “ Your success with academic writing depends upon how well you understand what you are doing as you write and then how you approach the writing task” (3).

Finding a voice for academic writing is a challenge to navigate, especially as a Freshman. Oftentimes, students are sure they are terrible writers, or they are superb, depending on their previous knowledge and experiences. The answer for each student is different. But, learning to write with more confidence makes a space for your academic voices (yes, there are more than one) to flourish. Here are some ideas on writing with confidence.

Works Cited

Hanff, Helene. Q’s Legacy. Penguin Books, 1985.

Irvin, L. Lennie. “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?”. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1. Edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 3-17.