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.

Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time