{"id":183,"date":"2017-07-09T22:57:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/?p=183"},"modified":"2017-07-09T22:57:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:57:01","slug":"my-academic-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/my-academic-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"My academic writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8216;essay&#8217;. \u00a0I 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&#8217;m taking on each topic. There were a few key things that I took away from the Writing Centre&#8217;s tutorial on Academic Paragraphs that I&#8217;d like to share.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>focus on facts not opinions<\/li>\n<li>the reader should not be forced to interpret what you&#8217;re saying. \u00a0I 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<\/li>\n<li>use transitions at the end of paragraphs to link what was just mentioned to what is coming next<\/li>\n<li>make connections between ideas throughout in a way that is logical and easy to follow<\/li>\n<li>Always be thinking about &#8212; \u00a0Why did I choose this evidence? \u00a0How does it support my claims? Why should the reader care?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Back to my writing. \u00a0I 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&#8230; \u00a0The Writing Centre has an excellent resource on\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/library.royalroads.ca\/writing-centre\/how-write-graduate-level-essay\">How to Write a Graduate Level Essay<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and in particular the aspect on\u00a0<strong>Creating\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>Finalizing\u00a0<\/strong>a <strong>Document Plan<\/strong> come to mind as areas I can learn from this resource.<\/p>\n<p>I also would like to improve my ability to critically analyze both a topic itself, as well as literature written around it. \u00a0This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dItUGF8GdTw\">video<\/a> from Ted Ed is useful in providing 5 tips to get us thinking this way.<\/p>\n<p>On a general note, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8GWybcZmy_Q\">video<\/a> from an online university in the UK talks a bit about what it&#8217;s like to write at a Master&#8217;s level. \u00a0I, like many of my classmates, feel that I need to make an adjustment in my approach to writing in this program. \u00a0As mentioned above, I need to dig deeper, and really plot the path of my argument. \u00a0I also need to learn to question the &#8216;experts&#8217; and start to walk alongside them through my own well structured and supported arguments.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Resource<\/p>\n<p>Royal Roads University Website. (2017). <em>Paragraphs.\u00a0<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>Retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/library.royalroads.ca\/writing- centre\/writing\/structure\/paragraphs<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/my-academic-writing\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21,30,31],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt522","tag-rrumalat","tag-academic-writing","tag-graduate-level"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}