My English 1310 course was taught by Professor Daniel Stuart. He taught us the concept of academic writing and why it is important. Academic writing is the process of breaking down ideas, using a formal tone, deductive reasoning and third person. Writing done to carry out the requirements of a college or university on a research based level. It requires a starting point or introduction, followed by a thesis on the preferred topic, then comes proving and disproving of the evidence based arguments. It is important because it is a way to communicate our thoughts clearly and originality. It helps us think and see what evidence we can come up to contribute to that thinking. This course approached this idea of academic writing by exploring further …show more content…
This essay required us to develop an argumentative analysis that explains what you are expected to do in order to complete the assignment. The argument must center on how the specific writing assignment defines the work of writing. The assignment given to us was called a Problem/Solution essay. I had to write this essay, explaining what requirements the teacher had and how the students were to complete this assignment. The prompt for this assignment was called “Intercultural Viewpoints within Asian-American Studies”. To complete this assignment, the students were asked to introduce a solution to the problem they specified. The teacher requested the students to turn a 2 page typed rough draft to turn in on Monday, November 16thand a 2 copies of the 3-5 page final revised essay turned in on Tuesday, November 23rd. This teacher didn’t want this use of online material incorporated in the essay nor did the instructor want the thesis too general. When I turned in my essay, I could see the professor’s corrections and feedback was getting shorter. I still had the typical grammatical errors and sentence fragments, but there were not as many. I could see my writing skills were improving based on me actually taking the instructors corrections and advice into consideration. When I created my revision memo for this essay, I attempted to finally perfect the common mistakes I had made. Making my sentences a little longer …show more content…
Professor Stuart used a lot of discussions in the class. Everyone in class offered their opinion on all the material we encountered during the course. The class discussions contributed to helping me learn because it provided me with extra information and different viewpoints of how others interpreted the material. Also, we ended up going to the library and taking a tour. This experience added to my learning in this course because it taught me how to find the proper materials in the library and how to accurately benefit from the sources available in the library. Another contributing factor was the individual conferences scheduled by the professor. The conference contributed because the teacher discussed the current grade I had in that class and helped me understand what I needed to do to improve my academic writing along with my grade. The Prezi PowerPoints encouraging my learning by providing me with accurate information, further helping me understand the underlying material. Peer review also played a role in my learning because it allowed us to get outside ideas or criticism for our paper, allowing us to fix the mistakes, before turning it in. In addition to all these contributing factors, the hupomnemata really benefited me the most. The hupomnemata is a journal used for writing down notes on the material and some things the professor said in
In this article written by David Bartholomae, the author discusses problems basic writers make and about how they must use the discourse (communication style) of the academic community they are writing to, to be an effective writer. Bartholomae believes that “Inventing the University," is being able to assemble and mimic the universities language(5). Which means, if a student wants to be an efficient writer, he or she must be able to speak the language of his or her audience. Bartholomae writes that a common mistake of basic writers is that they don’t use an authoritative voice, and tend to switch into a more passive voice. This could be due to the fact that students have difficulty establishing their mindset or attitude for an audience
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
In “Writing to Learn: Writing across the Disciplines,” Anne J. Herrington finds different sources stating that writing is to be taken serious. Janet Emig says, "writing represents a unique mode of learning-not merely valuable, not merely special, but unique” (1) meaning that writing is far more essential than we ought to make it seem. Anne Herrington wants educators teaching in economics, history, chemistry or any other subject to guide their students into understanding why progressing their writing skills will be more helpful to them. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the educator; whether he/she wants their students to use writing as a way for students to adapt to different disciplines.
What do you think of when you think of complex writing? Many people would think of something that they couldn’t read because it was to hard to read. That issue is exactly what is being addressed in the world of academics today. Academics today are writing to a level that is very hard to understand, sometimes even to fellow academics. To the advantage of those who hate reading complex writing, other writers and researchers are starting to speak out on the topic. A newer style of writing is becoming more popular through the controversy. That style of writing is clear and concise writing. It is still controversial as to what is the “best” or what should be used as the common writing style, but there could be a time in the near future that writing by academics and less scholarly people, alike, are writing in the same way.
My English 1310 course was taught by Professor Daniel Stuart. He taught us the concept of academic writing and why it is important. Academic writing is the process of down ideas, using a formal tone, deductive reasoning and third person. Writing done to carry out the requirements of a college or university on a research based level. It requires a starting point or introduction, followed by a thesis on the preferred topic, then comes proving and disproving of the evidence based arguments. Learning academic writing is important because it is a way to communicate our thoughts clearly and originality. It helps us think and see what evidence we can come up to contribute to that thinking. This course approached this idea of academic writing by
It would be foolish to claim that I have never overanalysed and disregarded conveying ideas and theories properly, in the interest of impressing my reader. Nevertheless, this aspiration indicates there is more to academic writing than simply passing information.
According to Dr. Bean’s class syllabus, the primary goal for this course is to, “help you develop the literacy skills you’ll need during your academic career”. In other words, this class was designed to teach students to write like professionals in an academic discourse community. Through several writing and research assignments, we acted as researchers on a quest to examine “how discourse—written, spoken, and digital—is shaped by social practice”. Although I felt I was a decent enough writer, I had doubts that I could accomplish such a tall order of directives. In the end, I found that I could do it, and I did it rather well, thus giving me the boost I needed to continue to move forward on my dream of obtaining a college degree.
Academic Writing. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. N. pag. Print
Especially with the help of my professor Ms. Piper. I was still having trouble on material on writing, but she helped me by teaching us the writing process, how to revise our drafts, and how to use outlines to help us. She has also taught us ways of breaking down paragraphs in piece of writing to help us understand what we are reading about. I feel with this new approach it opened my eyes on a way to help me excel on my writing, and reading. I am an excellent writer and reader than I was before.
For me, being a college writer means writing well-organized essays that readers enjoy reading. Being a well rounded writer was also important. Each unit in this class challenged me to write in a well-organized, concise way. During each unit, we conducted some sort of revision activity where I was exposed to other students’ writing. As I read their work, I picked up on their use of transition words and separation of paragraphs to make the essay flow. Naturally, I began implementing more transition words in my own work and learned the appropriate ways to split paragraphs. The structure of the class was key to the organization of my ideas which was crucial to the development of my essay. During the third unit of this class, we were asked to identify an issue on campus, conduct research on the issue, and finally propose a solution to correct the issue. At first, it was difficult to get my ideas down and figure out what it was I would research. What I learned in class allowed me to first identify the issue I would research, write a rough draft, and hear what others had written before the final paper was due. This helped me to identify the main points, brainstorm and figure out what additional research I would need to find to support my argument. Being able to organize my thoughts from the beginning made writing the paper a much easier process. This course has helped me to grow as a writer and make
Writing can be very frustrating; laying your ideas out on paper so that others can grasp the concept you are trying to convey is a very difficult task. In Writing 101 I have learned how to formulate good theses that are arguable and also how to validate articles that have to do with my topic. The most important element of a paper is the thesis statement. It captures the reader's attention and tells them what the essay is about. Having a well-structured thesis along with evidence to support that thesis are the main ingredients to a well-written essay. I have also learned how important it is to research an author’s background to ensure their credibility. This is a very important step in writing because today we can find information on a topic, however, it is not valid. By researching the author, we can see if he or she is an expert in the area and so this would make his or her information more credible. There is a ...
Students in Eleventh Grade College Preparatory English classes will be able to read a writing prompt and understand what it is asking them to do. They will demonstrate this by being able to restate the prompt into a topic sentence and articulate their response with an appropriate thesis statement. In addition they will be able to organize their paper and support their ideas with evidence from the text provided.
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.
During this College Composition course, I came across numerous obstacles and educational involvements. Every factor of this course contributed to my overall learning experience. For starters, we often read out of our textbooks, “The Little Seagull Handbook” and “They Say I Say”. These books helped showcase proper writing techniques. In addition, we would have class discussions that everyone would participate in. This opened my eyes to different viewpoints that could influence my writing. I recall one class we had a debate over a topic and everyone had to choose a side to argue. Then when we wrote argument essays, even though they were on a different topic, it helped me view my topic in different ways. Lastly, the most helpful to my writing was peer review. We were told to read our paper out loud to our partner. Although personally I am quiet and dislike reading out loud, I found this very helpful. Instantly, my partner and I could find grammar mistakes that one may not pick up on while reading silently. Then we could also talk about other possible revisions for my paper. For every paper, we would have conferences with the professor. This was effective as well to have a professional giving corrections and ideas. When we would get back our graded rubrics on the assignments we completed, the instructor would leave comments to
Academic writing skill is very essential for the college students. Through academic writing, the students can express their thoughts, feelings and point of view on a certain issue or topic. In presenting ideas about variety of issues, students need to follow certain rules in writing academic essays. Academic writing is a specific type of writing that is needed in writing formal essays in a certain course. To create a well-constructed essay, it is very important for the students to use academic writing style. It has specific features which include academic tone in the essays. To achieve formality of tone, students must maintain the objectivity of their written texts. Unfortunately, some of the students tend to use personal pronouns