I have been an English language instructor for more than 10 years. I have taught structured writing in many forms, one of which being essay writing. Before entering this program, I thought I was pretty good at brainstorming, outlining and creating an ‘essay’.  I now know there is a lot I can still improve on. After getting feedback in 521 on my ability to evaluate, critique, and synthesize scholarly information and place it alongside my own claims, I feel I need to dig deeper and spend more time constructing these claims in order to strengthen the angle I’m taking on each topic. There were a few key things that I took away from the Writing Centre’s tutorial on Academic Paragraphs that I’d like to share.

  • focus on facts not opinions
  • the reader should not be forced to interpret what you’re saying.  I sometimes find myself questioning why some concepts are repeated more than once in an academic article (think of the most recent Garrison reading on Self-Directed Learning), and now feel this may be purely an attempt to make sure the reader understands what is being expressed without having to interpret
  • use transitions at the end of paragraphs to link what was just mentioned to what is coming next
  • make connections between ideas throughout in a way that is logical and easy to follow
  • Always be thinking about —  Why did I choose this evidence?  How does it support my claims? Why should the reader care?

Back to my writing.  I feel one adjustment that I need to make is to give myself more time to formulate my point of view, to adjust it, then re-focus it before I proceed with gathering appropriate literature to back it up and writing…  The Writing Centre has an excellent resource on How to Write a Graduate Level Essay, and in particular the aspect on Creating and Finalizing a Document Plan come to mind as areas I can learn from this resource.

I also would like to improve my ability to critically analyze both a topic itself, as well as literature written around it.  This video from Ted Ed is useful in providing 5 tips to get us thinking this way.

On a general note, this video from an online university in the UK talks a bit about what it’s like to write at a Master’s level.  I, like many of my classmates, feel that I need to make an adjustment in my approach to writing in this program.  As mentioned above, I need to dig deeper, and really plot the path of my argument.  I also need to learn to question the ‘experts’ and start to walk alongside them through my own well structured and supported arguments.

 

Resource

Royal Roads University Website. (2017). Paragraphs.  Retrieved from http://library.royalroads.ca/writing- centre/writing/structure/paragraphs