Reflecting on my writing

Image by Darren Wilson

Returning to the world of academia (and academic writing) nearly 30 years after completing my undergraduate degree has been a challenging transition, though it is a challenge I readily accept and will push myself to work toward improving my academic writing skills throughout the MALAT program. 

From small beginnings…

Having worked in both the marketing and design world and in post-secondary education, I am accustomed to writing to educate and also to persuade, so the combination of these two objectives in academic writing (Bell, n.d.) is a natural extension of my writing skills. It is a relief to be reminded that the goal is not merely to assemble writing from ideas we draw from our readings, but using them to support our own thoughts and analysis on the subject about which we are writing. 

While I have retained some foundational practices from my undergraduate years, the more detailed mechanics of paragraph and essay structure are not something I remember in great detail. It’s possible that I was never formally taught paragraph structure in the level of detail we are learning now, and this is important foundational knowledge to have going forward, both for my own writing, but also to help coach my own students in their writing. I would estimate that from a technical standpoint, my writing is probably at about a 60-75% level. I have a good grasp of some of the fundamentals, such as creating an overall narrative, basic paragraph structure, and linking ideas together, but I feel my writing will benefit from additional detail and structure within paragraphs themselves.

The fundamentals will be an excellent foundation for the latest “wing” of my learning architecture. While I could have benefitted from this writing guidance before writing my first Masters-level papers for LRNT521, I can also see the importance of getting our cohort excited and engaged with each other and in the world of Digital Learning Environments, Networks, Communities before going deeper into the more technical aspects of academic practice. For many of us who are returning to academia after a long absence (or who came to the MALAT program through a different pathway entirely), I feel this was a good pedagogical decision to design the order of the courses in this way.

come big endings

My goal is to build on my writing experience while also strengthening my academic discipline. I also hope to challenge the stiff and impenetrable nature of some academic writing by retaining a more “conversational” tone and voice, avoiding the trap of jargon. I consider myself a strong writer, and my knowledge of design, typography, and user experience also position me as a champion of readability and accessibility. One of the pillars of readability is the writing itself. Poor writing cannot be saved by good design – although that hasn’t stopped me from trying on numerous occasions when terrible copy was provided by a client.

In the second phase of my career, I worked for a major international technology and management consulting firm from 2001 to 2004. There, I witnessed first hand how the excessive use of acronyms and business jargon served to confuse the reader – sometimes deliberately. Consultants were notorious for this, and had built a reputation for this kind of bafflegab. Around that same time, a movement toward plain language in business began, and a competing firm actively campaigned to remove jargon and business-speak from their communications as a way of building trust with their clients. They even went so far as to publish a Microsoft Word add-on that flagged business jargon and double-speak in documents. Since then, I have adopted a “plain language” philosophy in the way I communicate, as I feel it is important to design and write for the understanding of a broad audience. I feel that any specialized style of writing is a form of privilege intended to exclude people from the audience. Plain language is accessible and inclusive.

As I heard recently, “Knowledge is the enemy of learning.” If we think we are doing things right, we stop trying to do things better. We get complacent and comfortable in our skill and ability. I hope to avoid this trap and to achieve my goals of simultaneously becoming a better writer and retaining the tone and voice and clarity of communication which I value so highly. It’ll be hard to give up by italics, which I use for emphasis and expression… I love my italics! But I appreciate the need for academic writing to impart a bit more of a neutral and unbiased tone, so that the reader is not swayed by emotion in the writing. Let’s make this happen!