Writing Instructor by Day, Doctoral Student by Night
During the day, I’m your usual mild-mannered writing
instructor. I review papers, chat with students, and complete other projects to help Walden University
students achieve their writing
goals. In the evening, however, I become a Walden student with my own
writing goals. I’m working toward a PhD in Education at Walden, so I experience
Walden course assignments as a writing instructor and as a student. However, even
as a writing instructor at Walden, there are times when I’m confused by
assignment instructions or unsure about how to begin writing or organize my
ideas. In these cases, the strategy I share below for tackling course
assignments has helped me to clarify my assignment instructions and start
writing.
The first step in my approach to completing Walden
assignments is to fully understand the assignment. To do this, I copy and paste
the assignment instructions into a separate Word document. This helps me to separate
the assignment from the rest of the coursework on the main course page and
focus only on the assignment elements. After I have copied and pasted the
assignment prompt into a new Word document, I then highlight all of the action
words in the assignment prompt that point to something I have to do within the
assignment.
For example, my highlighted prompt might look like this:
- In a 3-5 page paper, evaluate the importance of Learning Communities in your instructional setting. Analyze obstacles that may prevent the development of Learning Communities. Finally, offer suggestions to combat these obstacles and create strong Learning Communities.
After highlighting my prompt, I now understand that I’m
going to have to evaluate, analyze, and offer suggestions about Learning
Communities in my assignment.
The second step in my strategy is to open a new Word
document that I save and name according to the assignment instructions. This
new Word document will become the space where I complete the assignment. As a
tip for this portion of the strategy, I recommend keeping a blank course template in your doctoral program document folder. I usually
duplicate or copy the blank course template and then rename it to match the
current assignment I’m working on. At this point in the process, I now have a
better understanding of what the assignment requires, and I have a blank
template ready for my ideas.
The third step in my writing process is to organize the
blank template to better suit the assignment that I’m working on. Basically, I alter
the template heading levels to match the assignment prompt. By filling out the
cover page and the heading levels to match the assignment prompts, I create an outline
of the paper that will help me to stay on topic as I draft the assignment and
keep the length to 3-5 pages. After I finish creating the outline for the
headings, I will add each part of the prompt into its appropriate section. For
example, my outline for the above prompt might look like this:
The Importance of Learning Communities
- Here is where I will briefly introduce Learning Communities and what they look like in my instructional setting. I’ll end with a thesis statement that contains my overall argument about Learning Communities.
Evaluation of Learning Communities
- In a 3-5 page paper, evaluate the importance of Learning Communities in your instructional setting.
Analysis of Obstacles
- Analyze obstacles that may prevent the development of
Learning Communities.
Learning Community Suggestions
- Finally, offer suggestions to combat these obstacles and create strong Learning Communities.
Conclusion
- This is where I’ll wrap up my ideas about Learning Communities. I’ll summarize my overall argument about Learning Communities and then show how this information about Learning Communities can be helpful in the future. Showing the importance of the topic or discussing future application of the information are both solid choices when crafting a conclusion.
References
- Here is where I will add references to the course learning resources or to other scholarly articles that will help me make my argument about Learning Communities.
Now that I have an outline for the course assignment, I’m
almost ready to begin writing!
My final step before writing is to begin reading the course
resources for the assignment. You might be wondering why I don’t read the
learning resources before creating an outline for an assignment. While this may
not work for you, I find it helpful to understand the assignment before I begin
the readings for the week. That way, I know what I’m looking for as I read the
scholarly articles and resources. If I find quotes or ideas that I think would
be helpful in my assignment, I add them to the appropriate section in my
outline with an APA-formatted in-text citation and then add that source to my reference list as I go. This
way, once I finish reading the course resources, I have an outline ready, and I
also have scholarly support for my ideas in the appropriate sections.
Once I finish adding in any necessary paraphrased source
material during my reading of the learning resources, I’m ready to begin
writing! I can then begin crafting paragraphs around my source material, using the
MEAL plan to add
topic sentences, evidence, analysis, and lead outs that will help readers
understand my overall argument about Learning Communities.
Although my strategy may not suit everyone, I encourage you
to try it out and see what you think. Please feel free to sound off in the
comments with any strategies you find helpful in completing Walden
coursework—we’d love for you to share your tips for tackling assignments!
Katherine McKinney is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. She received an M.A. in English from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at Walden. Katherine's goal as an instructor is to show students that the best writing results from practice, and she aims to provide feedback and resources that will guide students through the invention, composition, and revision process.
.png "\"Send me new posts by email\" button")
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
The strategy is very instructive and quite handy. Thank you Katherine.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading, Alice.
ReplyDeleteAre you a doctoral student? If so, how do you balance the different phases of your day to day life?