Showing posts with label Prewriting. Show all posts
Thesis Sentences vs. Blueprint Sentences
“Dear, Kacy. This is a blueprint sentence, not a thesis.”This succinct comment stands out in my memory because it’s one of the first true pieces of constructive criticism I ever received on my writing.
The sentence was written in the margin of the first page of my first real research paper. As an end-of-year project, each student in my sixth-grade class selected a country to write a report on, and then we created poster boards and made traditional food from the country to share at an international day at my school. I picked Bermuda because at the time I was a little obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle. I remember cutting out pictures of business people wearing shorts with their suit jackets, and baking some really good cookies that seemed like sugar cookies to me but were also apparently very Bermudan.
For the first two weeks, I received every possible point for the project. I’d come to school with six (beyond the requirement of five!) books on the day our sources were required. I’d diligently written out the assigned number of index cards with individual facts. After turning in the outline I’d crafted using my index cards, I was fully prepared to collect another perfect score.
“What?? What’s a blueprint sentence?” Probably I should have asked what a thesis sentence was, because I had an example of a blueprint sentence right in front of me: Bermuda is located on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean and this paper is about its history, economy, and culture. Like the blueprint of a building, I’d provided a layout of the contents of my paper, but I hadn’t produced an argument or put forth any idea. My reader would know to expect a paragraph on Bermuda’s history, a paragraph about its economy, and a paragraph about the culture. But what did I want to say about the country?
I think my thesis statement ended up being something about the Bermuda Triangle, but I can’t say for sure. And I had to double-check that Bermuda is indeed in the Atlantic Ocean while drafting this post. So, the actual information I obtained during the project clearly hasn’t stayed with me too well. But I still think about this experience when teaching, tutoring, or writing myself. It’s great to give your reader an idea about the general format of your paper, but the most important part isn’t a list of the different topics you’ll cover.
The advantage of hindsight (and a few additional decades of writing experience) tells me I should have realized this from the beginning. After all, I had picked Bermuda because of its mysterious Triangle, so why shouldn’t I use what peaked my own interest to grab my reader’s? And why is it that I can so vividly remember the picture I copied from a book, of a group of men holding briefcases and wearing shorts under their suit coats, but I can’t remember Bermuda’s capital? Or where I left my phone?
Hmmm. Can someone try calling it?
Kacy Walz is a Minnesota native currently living in St. Louis, MO. She has been a Writing Instructor at Walden since 2016 and spends most of her free time trying to complete her PhD, seeking out adventure, and playing with her puppy dog.
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Prewriting Strategies From the Very Beginning
Many students believe that the writing process begins when they sit in front of their computer and start typing. Although getting those first few words onto the page is an important step in the writing process, there are some things you can do before you type to make the process easier. In fact, the act of writing begins when you start reading your assigned articles.
One of the easiest ways to streamline your writing is to be a good reader. But what makes someone a good reader?
A good reader makes smart use of their time by actively reading the text. Most of us have probably had the experience of reading an article or a chapter in a textbook late at night and having no recollection of what we actually read the next day! This often means that we were passively reading; our eyes might have been moving across the page, but we weren’t really taking in the information in a meaningful way.
One way to make sure you are being an active reader taking in necessary information is through note-taking. Effective note-taking could mean paraphrasing ideas from various articles, highlighting key passages, or keeping track of key terms that authors use across articles. The most important thing about note-taking is to write down information that you think is important and to be sure to include where the information came from. No matter how informal your notes are, you should always include a citation at the end, just to be safe. There is nothing worse than having the perfect piece of information to support your thesis – and realizing that you forgot to write down which article it came from!
You don’t need to keep highly detailed, encyclopedic notes on every article you read, but it helps to jot down a few key ideas to help refresh your memory when you are ready to write that big course paper. For instance, what was the main argument? What methodology did the researchers use? What conclusions did they come to? What were some of the main themes? Keeping track of this material will help your brain actively take in the information, rather than defaulting to scanning the pages passively and not truly taking in the information.
If you are reading multiple articles for one paper, you can also start synthesizing the main ideas by as you read by thinking about how these articles relate to one another. Do the authors of Article A agree with the Authors of Article B? Do they take different approaches? Was something less effective in one article? These notes may feel random or disjointed at first, but they will help you start to see patterns in your readings and will help you build your thesis before you even sit down to type.
Another important element of being an effective reader and, by extension, an effective writer, is to stay organized. Your notes won’t be of any use to you if you can’t remember where you put them! Thus, once you get into the habit of taking notes as you are reading, try to keep your notes in a single notebook or in a separate Word document to keep the most important information readily available. Keeping these notes all in one place you don’t waste precious time hunting through multiple notebooks or multiple documents in your computer.
By making sure you are being smart about how you read and how you keep track of what you read, you will make the writing process just that much easier for yourself! As daunting as academic writing can seem at times, you can make the process smoother and saving yourself time before you even sit down to write!
The Walden University Writing Center creates content to help students with a range of topics related to scholarly writing, APA style, and the writing process. We host webinars, and offer paper reviews, live chat, and a podcast. You can check out all of our resources by visiting our Walden University Writing Center home page.
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One of the easiest ways to streamline your writing is to be a good reader. But what makes someone a good reader?
A good reader makes smart use of their time by actively reading the text. Most of us have probably had the experience of reading an article or a chapter in a textbook late at night and having no recollection of what we actually read the next day! This often means that we were passively reading; our eyes might have been moving across the page, but we weren’t really taking in the information in a meaningful way.
One way to make sure you are being an active reader taking in necessary information is through note-taking. Effective note-taking could mean paraphrasing ideas from various articles, highlighting key passages, or keeping track of key terms that authors use across articles. The most important thing about note-taking is to write down information that you think is important and to be sure to include where the information came from. No matter how informal your notes are, you should always include a citation at the end, just to be safe. There is nothing worse than having the perfect piece of information to support your thesis – and realizing that you forgot to write down which article it came from!
You don’t need to keep highly detailed, encyclopedic notes on every article you read, but it helps to jot down a few key ideas to help refresh your memory when you are ready to write that big course paper. For instance, what was the main argument? What methodology did the researchers use? What conclusions did they come to? What were some of the main themes? Keeping track of this material will help your brain actively take in the information, rather than defaulting to scanning the pages passively and not truly taking in the information.
If you are reading multiple articles for one paper, you can also start synthesizing the main ideas by as you read by thinking about how these articles relate to one another. Do the authors of Article A agree with the Authors of Article B? Do they take different approaches? Was something less effective in one article? These notes may feel random or disjointed at first, but they will help you start to see patterns in your readings and will help you build your thesis before you even sit down to type.
Another important element of being an effective reader and, by extension, an effective writer, is to stay organized. Your notes won’t be of any use to you if you can’t remember where you put them! Thus, once you get into the habit of taking notes as you are reading, try to keep your notes in a single notebook or in a separate Word document to keep the most important information readily available. Keeping these notes all in one place you don’t waste precious time hunting through multiple notebooks or multiple documents in your computer.
By making sure you are being smart about how you read and how you keep track of what you read, you will make the writing process just that much easier for yourself! As daunting as academic writing can seem at times, you can make the process smoother and saving yourself time before you even sit down to write!
The Walden University Writing Center creates content to help students with a range of topics related to scholarly writing, APA style, and the writing process. We host webinars, and offer paper reviews, live chat, and a podcast. You can check out all of our resources by visiting our Walden University Writing Center home page.
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Can Taking Notes Help Writers Avoid Plagiarism?
Plagiarism can seem like a scary word to students, but it
doesn’t have to be. Today, I’ll be discussing inadvertent plagiarism and
clarifying a process you can use to help you determine if you do need a
citation. For this discussion, I define inadvertent plagiarism as a writer accidentally attributing words or ideas informed by an author they read to themselves.
Help yourself out by keeping notes as you read anything
related to your subject or discipline. There are many note-keeping strategies
out there and you can read more on our prewriting pages. The intention here is to ensure that not only are you
keeping track of ideas you have while reading, but making it clear where
something is your idea and where an idea belongs to an author. This is a method
you can employ as you’re preparing to write your papers, but more importantly
as you’re reading and taking notes. This step is effective at differentiating
what you should cite and what’s your own analysis because it can be much more
difficult to separate these aspects later in the process since you’ll have all
these authors’ ideas in your brain mixing together to form larger conclusions
and it will be tough to remember where each individual idea came from.
In the case that you didn’t keep notes or you still are
unsure if you should cite, you can use the examples and checklist below to help
you!
Example 1: In this course, I learned time-management skills.
You do not need to cite this statement, because this is your
opinion and explaining your experience, and it’s a statement which is unique to
you.
Example 2: Writing centers are valuable because they improve
student confidence.
You need to check if you should cite this statement by
looking at your notes to see if a source mentioned writing centers and student
confidence improvement.
- If a source did mention this fact, then you need to cite this statement.
- If a source did not mention this fact, then you do not need to cite, but you will need to find a source to support this statement and avoid a personal opinion/generalization. For scholarly work, you want to avoid opinions/generalizations and instead support with research.
Example 2.1: Writing centers are valuable because they
improve student confidence (Helakoski, 2017). Because writing centers improve
student confidence, universities should use additional resources to support
these services.
In this case, you have added a citation to your first
statement. Do you need to cite the second statement here? If this is your own analysis,
meaning that Helakoski or another source didn’t reach this particular
conclusion, but instead it is you putting forth your analysis for the reader,
then you do not need to cite the sentence. We have some great examples of
explaining evidence on our evidence pages that go over analysis in conjunction with cited source material. In
cases where you have analysis double check that a source didn’t reach this
conclusion and that it is your own explanation for the reader to see if you
should cite or not.
Example 3: The directive feedback method is when an
instructor provides exact steps to revise a statement.
You need to cite this statement because you are clearly
defining a term or method. Defining terms you have not created means that the
definition of that term is informed by a source and therefore should be cited.
Example 4: All of the participants enjoyed visiting the
writing center.
Unless you conducted this study, you need to cite this
statement because it is a finding from a source. If it were a study you
conducted, then it would be similar to Example 1 in that your statement would
be unique to you and describing an action you completed. However, in this case,
you did not complete this study and therefore need to cite this source since you
are referencing the authors’ results.
Now that you’ve gone through some examples, here’s a
checklist to determine if you should cite:
- Is your statement an “I” statement which expresses an action you took or an opinion you have? You do not need to cite.
- Is your statement a definition or explanation of a term? You do need to cite.
- Is your statement a finding, statistic, exact wording, or paraphrased wording from a source? You do need to cite.
- Is your statement analysis explaining source information for the reader? You need to double check if you should cite.
Keep notes as you go to avoid needing to double check with
this checklist quite as much, and to have the correct citation information
ready to go if you do come across something you think may need to be cited. If
you are looking for help on citation formatting and frequency, you can review
our how often to cite examples.
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Speech-to-Text: Prewriting by Speaking
Let’s face it, scholarly writing can be
frustrating—sometimes you might face writer’s block, sometimes you might face issues juggling school, work, and other
responsibilities, and sometimes, yes, sometimes, you just don’t feel like writing. Period. I don’t mean just the mental tasks involved with
scholarly writing, but the physical one too (so much time staring at a screen and
typing!).
That said, one of the hardest parts about being in a
position as such can be when you are beginning a writing project. For this blog post, I will be discussing how you
might use your computer’s speech recognition software to enable Microsoft Word’s
speech-to-text features for prewriting
(i.e., brainstorming,
freewriting, journaling, creating an outline, or otherwise organizing your thoughts). Since this post is more theoretical, I won’t be discussing
the technical “how” of using MS Word’s speech-to-text, but rather the “why.” If
you have questions about using MS Word features and functions, you can contact the
Academic Skills Center's Microsoft Word tutoring
team. I also found this tutorial on setting up speech recognition on my computer
helpful.
My own introduction to using MS Word’s speech-to-text was as
a graduate student. More specifically, as a graduate student, I wrote three
twenty-five page papers per semester (and that’s not including, of course,
discussion board posts and other shorter assignments). Over the course of my
masters and doctoral studies, this clocks into about fifty twenty-five page
papers. It’s easy to believe how sometimes I got tired of writing but still
needed to keep the momentum up. So, I
started to use speech-to-text as a way to both get myself motivated to write
and to help with the process of writing.
Brainstorming, Freewriting, and Journaling
I sometimes used speech-to-text just to brainstorm ideas for
paper topics. For instance, when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to focus a paper
on, I would “talk through” ideas on paper without having to sit down and write.
Similarly, other times I would have a loosely articulated idea and I would use
speech-to-text as a way to freewrite, or journal, to flesh my idea out more.
For me, the physical act of writing could sometimes lead me to more writer’s
block issues, making me feel like I had to come up with something and start
drafting. Thus, speech-to-text allowed me to just freely brainstorm, freewrite,
or journal while simultaneously keeping notes, taking some of the pressure off
and leading to actual drafting as opposed to more writer’s block.
Creating and Outline and Organizing Thoughts
In addition to helping me brainstorm and flesh out ideas
further, speech-to-text was also helpful when I wanted to use an outline to
draft those larger papers. For example, those longer course papers required a
lot of planning, and outlining provided a way to layout and manage my argument which
took some of the head work and time out of the process. Thus, for me,
speech-to-text helped with time management. Like many students, I had several
other responsibilities outside of my coursework, such as teaching, so having a
program that helped me with time management, to include cutting down my typing and
drafting time, was a huge plus. To be clear, I could work on an outline while
making dinner or in-between teaching sections of classes. Then, when I was
ready to start drafting, the process went more smoothly because I there was
less struggle with starting up.
Motivation
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to use speech-to-text
in Microsoft Word to brainstorm, freewrite, outline, and organize my ideas helped
to keep me motivated to write. Rather than sit down in front of my computer and
feel blocked about what I wanted to write about, struggle with fleshing out my
loosely formed ideas, or face issues with time management and drafting, I could
use speech-to-text to keep me motivated to write because it helped break down
the process of drafting in ways that sitting at a computer often didn’t. For
me, sometimes the act of writing itself creates writer’s block because I fail
to see the trees amongst the forest. Taking some of the typing time out of
drafting relieved some of the pressure and helped motivate me when it was time
to sit down and start drafting.
Next time you are faced with a writing assignment—or maybe
even the masters thesis or dissertation—you might try using your computer’s speech-to-text
programs to help with brainstorming, outlining, and keeping you motivated.
Whether you use speech-to-text or not, I do recommend prewriting
as a way to support a smooth writing process. As my dissertation chair once
said to me—slow and steady wins the race!
Let us know if you’ve tried speech-to-text for prewriting in Microsoft Word. How did it go? Have you used any other technology for prewriting? Share in the comments below!
Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.
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Avoid Procrastination and R.E.A.P. the Benefits of Proactivity
For me, procrastination often stems from feeling overwhelmed
by the amount of things I need to get done. That said, procrastination has a
way of feeding off itself—the more a person procrastinates, the more things
need to be added to a long list of to dos, Thus it becomes more stressful to face those to dos and, subsequently, the more one might
procrastinate. While it might be difficult to change one’s emotional reasons
for procrastination, it is possible to use strategies to help one move from procrastination
to proactivity. In this blog, I will discuss some strategies to help you R.E.A.P
the rewards of facing procrastination head on:
Ready Yourself by Creating a To Do List
To do lists can be a step towards proactivity since they
force a person to think about and document what they need to do. It’s a good
idea to create a to do list even for more mundane activities (like grocery
shopping) if a person has a tight schedule, such as students who, in addition
to working on their degrees, might also be working full-time and or have other
responsibilities. However, many people who create to do lists might not
actually follow through with them because, in creating the list, a person can
feel overwhelmed, thus perpetuating procrastination thinking. While I used to
create just one big list, I learned that I was less likely to get things done
because I felt overwhelmed. So, I started to create daily lists.
Evaluate Your To Do List for Priorities
What I learned from creating daily to do lists is that it is equally important to prioritize the list according to high, medium, and low priorities to include how time consuming each task is within a given priority level. This way, smaller, less time consuming lower priorities don’t build up, and larger, more time consuming priorities are gradually worked on and not left for last. For instance, I usually take care of both high and low priority emails as they come since I can often quickly respond to them as needed, then I start working on larger projects that are both time sensitive as well as more time consuming.
Adapt Your To Do List When Necessary
While it is important to work towards completing everything on a to do list in a timely, daily, manner, it is also necessary to be flexible enough that you can adapt your to do list if and when necessary (such as when a new, immediate priority needs to be added to your list). It’s all about balance and continually working on tasks while making any necessary changes. So, maybe I don’t get to all of the low priority emails I wanted to in one day, but I will be able to add them to a new day as long as I keep working on my to do list and focusing on high priority tasks first (and do low priority tasks that are quick) so I stay on track in order to have time to delegate a low priority task that are time consuming
Pamper Yourself
People often underestimate or overlook pampering themselves with self-care as a high priority. Yet, providing enough “me” time helps ensure that a person stays on track because it helps reduce stress which is another important reason for to do lists—working on tasks and completing them in a timely manner means that when it is time to relax a person is not worrying about what they need to get done. Setting time aside for self-care is important for proactivity; however, many people might not set aside such time because they have a lot to do, which brings me back to my introductory point— stress can lead to procrastination and procrastination has a way of feeding off itself and creating more stress which is self-sabotaging for one’s proactivity.
So, I suggest creating a daily to do list, prioritize that list into time consuming and less time consuming high, medium, and low priorities, adapt the to do list when necessary, and always leave time for pampering yourself to feel good about all you have accomplished!
I hope you'll join in on the conversation and tell us: What are some tips you have for combating procrastination?
Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.
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Evaluate Your To Do List for Priorities
What I learned from creating daily to do lists is that it is equally important to prioritize the list according to high, medium, and low priorities to include how time consuming each task is within a given priority level. This way, smaller, less time consuming lower priorities don’t build up, and larger, more time consuming priorities are gradually worked on and not left for last. For instance, I usually take care of both high and low priority emails as they come since I can often quickly respond to them as needed, then I start working on larger projects that are both time sensitive as well as more time consuming.
Adapt Your To Do List When Necessary
While it is important to work towards completing everything on a to do list in a timely, daily, manner, it is also necessary to be flexible enough that you can adapt your to do list if and when necessary (such as when a new, immediate priority needs to be added to your list). It’s all about balance and continually working on tasks while making any necessary changes. So, maybe I don’t get to all of the low priority emails I wanted to in one day, but I will be able to add them to a new day as long as I keep working on my to do list and focusing on high priority tasks first (and do low priority tasks that are quick) so I stay on track in order to have time to delegate a low priority task that are time consuming
Pamper Yourself
People often underestimate or overlook pampering themselves with self-care as a high priority. Yet, providing enough “me” time helps ensure that a person stays on track because it helps reduce stress which is another important reason for to do lists—working on tasks and completing them in a timely manner means that when it is time to relax a person is not worrying about what they need to get done. Setting time aside for self-care is important for proactivity; however, many people might not set aside such time because they have a lot to do, which brings me back to my introductory point— stress can lead to procrastination and procrastination has a way of feeding off itself and creating more stress which is self-sabotaging for one’s proactivity.
So, I suggest creating a daily to do list, prioritize that list into time consuming and less time consuming high, medium, and low priorities, adapt the to do list when necessary, and always leave time for pampering yourself to feel good about all you have accomplished!
I hope you'll join in on the conversation and tell us: What are some tips you have for combating procrastination?
Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.
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Prompted to Write: A Guide for Using Walden Assignment Prompts to Your Advantage
Expert Advice
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Learning Styles
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Organization
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Paragraphs
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Prewriting
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Revising
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Writer's Workshop
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Writing Process
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As a student at Walden, you’re often likely provided with
lengthy and descriptive prompts for your discussion board, application, and
capstone assignments. These prompts are there to guide you to think and write
about specific and complex topics. However, since the prompts are complex, it’s
not uncommon for students to write papers that don’t fully adhere to the
prompt. So, in this blog post, I’m going to offer some tips for how to ensure
that your assignments adhere to the prompt as you prewrite and also as you
revise.
Adhering to the Prompt as you Prewrite
The best way to ensure that your paper adheres to the prompt
is to start off strong with prewriting.
Prewriting includes brainstorming, taking notes, and outlining to prepare as
you write your paper. Here are some strategies you can use as you prewrite to prepare
yourself to write a paper that adheres to the prompt:
1. Identify the main questions or topics that the prompt is
asking you to address. Many Walden assignment prompts come in 3 parts: (1)
Introductory information, (2) Steps to accomplish as you prepare to write, and
(3) Directives for the paper. The first two parts are helpful and let you know
what to do to prepare, but it’s this third part that tells you what to do in
your paper. The questions or requests posed there are the directives of the
prompt that tell you what to do in your paper.
2. Read through the prompt closely and highlight important
information. This likely means that you’ll read the prompt a few times and take
notes. Highlight important information such as page length requirements,
sources you need to use, directives (like analyze, explore, argue, describe,
summarize), and the questions you should address. You can make a checklist for
yourself with this important information.
3. Reframe the directives in the prompt as topic sentences for paragraphs. For example, if the prompt states the following,
“Explain which Writing Center resources you used,” you could reframe this
directive as a topic sentence in this way: “In the pursuit of improving my
writing skills, I used Writing Center resources including webinars, paper
reviews, and website content.”
4. Outline
your paper using language from the writing prompt. Once you have identified all
of the directives in the assignment prompt and composed topic sentences for
paragraphs, you can craft an outline. Organize these topics in a way that makes
sense to you, and then plan for an introduction paragraph with a thesis statement, a conclusion paragraph, and any section headings that might be relevant. From there, start writing the essay. Using
the outline which was crafted from the prompt will help keep you in line with
the prompt.
Adhering to the Prompt as you Revise
Another way to ensure that your paper adheres to the prompt
is through revision.
Revision means re-seeing the paper and it requires looking back at ideas to
make sure that everything fits the purpose of the paper. Here are some revision
strategies which you can employ to ensure your paper adheres to the assignment
prompt.
5. Create a reverse outline of your paper and compare the outline to the prompt. Take notes and
ask yourself with each paragraph: What is this paragraph doing, and how does it
relate to the prompt and advance my ideas? If you see discrepancy between your
reverse outline and the prompt, then revise your content to more clearly
address the prompt. This might include creating a new outline, revising a topic
sentence, cutting length, or adding content.
6. Use the prompt as a checklist and compare highlighted
important information in the prompt with the content of your draft. If you see
a discrepancy between the important information in the prompt and your content,
revise to adhere to that important information. This might include expanding a
whole section of your paper, cutting content or adding content to meet length
requirements, integrating more sources, or developing some ideas.
7. Re-read the prompt and remind yourself of the audience and
purpose for the assignment. Then, re-read your paper draft and ask yourself:
Does this meet the needs of the audience and adhere to the purpose for the
assignment? If you find places where your content does not meet the needs of
the assignment and adhere to the purpose, then go back to pre-writing and do
some outlining and planning to revise your content to meet the needs of the
audience and purpose.
8. Talk to your faculty. If you’ve gone through these steps and
still aren’t sure if your paper addresses the prompt, ask your faculty!
One thing you’ll notice in all of these tips is that the
prompt is part of every step. It’s easiest to write a paper that adheres to the
prompt if referring to the prompt is an integral part of your writing process.
I hope that these tips provide you with some strategies to approach your next
assignment.
If you’d like to learn more strategies for interpreting and
addressing Walden assignment prompts, you can watch our Strategies for Demystifying Walden Assignment Prompts webinar recording or listen to
our WriteCast Episode 11: "Doesn’t Meet Requirements"—Strategies for Following Your Assignment Instructions podcast.
Jes Philbrook is a Writing Instructor and the Coordinator of Doctoral Writing Assessment in the Walden University Writing Center. Jes has been a writing tutor for over a decade, and in all those years of tutoring, one of her favorite things to do with students is to help them decipher their writing assignments and then plan or revise their paper to address the prompt. This post has been percolating in her brain all those years. In her free time, you can find Jes walking her neighbor’s dogs, tending to her basil garden, or playing games with her family and friends.
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WriteCast Episode 38: The Literature Review Matrix: What it is, How to Use it, and How to Make it Work for You
APA
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Citations
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Digital Research
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Dissertation
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Literature Review
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podcast
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Prewriting
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Scholarly Writing
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WriteCast
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Writing Process
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Have you heard of the literature review matrix? It's a tool you'll want to know about if you're working on, or going to be working on, any major research and writing project. If you are familiar with the matrix but aren't yet sure how to use it or haven't found it helpful, then this episode is for you, too. Brittany shares why she loves the matrix as a researching, writing, and teaching tool, and Beth explains why she was hesitant about the matrix at first but how students can tailor it to meet their own research needs.
The Literature Review Matrix resource, the focus of this episode, is available in Word and PDF form on our website!
Click on the player below to listen to the full episode now. To download the episode, click the share button on the player, then click the download button. If you'd like a transcript of today's episode, or to access our episode archive, head over to our WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers homepage. Happy Listening!
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The WriteCast podcast is produced by Anne Shiell and the staff of
the Walden University Writing Center and delves into a different
writing issue in each episode. In line with the mission of the Writing
Center, WriteCast provides multi-modal, on demand writing instruction
that enhances students' writing skill and ease. We hope you enjoy this
episode and comment in
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The Literature Review Matrix resource, the focus of this episode, is available in Word and PDF form on our website!
Click on the player below to listen to the full episode now. To download the episode, click the share button on the player, then click the download button. If you'd like a transcript of today's episode, or to access our episode archive, head over to our WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers homepage. Happy Listening!
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Thursday Thoughts: Writing Refresh—Assignment Prompts as Outline
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Flow
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Organization
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Paragraphs
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Prewriting
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Reading & Writing
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Scholarly Writing
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Writing Process
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Hello, Walden students! Today let’s talk a little bit about
the very first part of an assignment—the prompt. Did you know that you can use
the assignment prompt (often with a little bit of tweaking) as an outline for
your paper? Read on for some tips and resources to help you stay organized and
fully answer your prompts.
As you know, your assignment or assignment prompt lets you know what you need to write about in your paper, right? But with a little bit of tweaking and re-arranging, you can also use it to begin an outline for your paper and as a checklist at the end to ensure you’ve hit all the points.
The
Walden Writing Center provides information and assistance to students
with services like live chat, webinars, course visits, paper reviews,
podcasts, modules, and the writing center webpages. Through these
services they provide students assistance with APA, scholarly writing,
and help students gain skills and confidence to enhance their scholarly
work.
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As you know, your assignment or assignment prompt lets you know what you need to write about in your paper, right? But with a little bit of tweaking and re-arranging, you can also use it to begin an outline for your paper and as a checklist at the end to ensure you’ve hit all the points.
We have a wonderful webinar on interpreting your assignment that details various strategies and multiple examples of how to interpret and break
apart your assignment prompts. You can watch it, and dozens of other helpful live webinar recordings on our Webinar Archive page.
For discussion posts in particular, we have a great blog post that goes over the steps towards organizing a discussion post from the prompt itself here. You can also use these strategies to help you in larger prompts!
Here is a link to a podcast episode about “Doesn’t Meet Requirements” that goes over what this comment might mean and how to avoid it
by outlining and carefully looking over the prompt.
Essentially, all of these resources recommend that you take
a second look at your prompt and work to visually break it down. This might
involve highlighting, bolding certain words, or creating a mini-outline. Once
you’ve separated out the different elements of the prompt, you can be sure
you’re meeting the requirements! This might take a little practice, since
sometimes one sentence in a prompt might have a few aspects to cover in your
paper, but use these tools to assist you and soon you’ll be outlining from prompts
with ease.
Do you have any tips on using prompts to help you outline,
or find any of these resources particularly helpful? Share below!
The
Walden Writing Center provides information and assistance to students
with services like live chat, webinars, course visits, paper reviews,
podcasts, modules, and the writing center webpages. Through these
services they provide students assistance with APA, scholarly writing,
and help students gain skills and confidence to enhance their scholarly
work.
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Literature Review Essentials: A Five-Part Blog Series
Capstone Writing
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Dissertation
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Literature Review
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News and Notes
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Organization
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Prewriting
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Scholarly Writing
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Writing Process
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Are you working on a literature review for your capstone or coursework? Literature reviews can be tricky because they have a slightly different organization, purpose, and audience than other course papers. In this five-part blog series we examine the literature review to help you through the process!
In this series we discuss narrowing down your focus, gathering your ideas/sources, synthesizing your information, and (if you're a capstone writer) aligning your review with your problem statement. For those who may be unfamiliar, a literature review is a paper or section of a work which goes over various sources concerning the paper's topic to provide an overview of pertinent research for the reader. Learn more about literature reviews on the Writing Center's webpages on that topic (writers at the capstone stage can visit our literature review webpage on the Form and Style Review website).
Sound helpful? Check out each of our posts below!
Define Goals—Editor Tara establishes the main goals of a literature review and provides some foundational information on this type of document.
Curate Information—Instructor Nicole discusses why synthesis is important for the literature review and how to curate the information you've compiled.
Identify Themes—Instructor Jes provides an easy-to-use outline for how you can organize your literature review by theme.
Construct Paragraphs—Instructor Jes returns with a sample paragraph from a theme-organized literature review using the MEAL Plan.
Align Problems—Editor and Coordinator of Capstone Resources Lydia offers some insight for capstone writers in aligning their literature review with their problem statement.
With some help from these posts, you will be well on your way to writing a clear, cohesive, and thematically organized literature review! Have some tips and tricks about literature reviews? Feel like sharing which of these posts helped you the most? Tell us below!
The Walden Writing Center provides information and assistance to students with services like live chat, webinars, course visits, paper reviews, podcasts, modules, and the writing center webpages. Through these services they provide students assistance with APA, scholarly writing, and help students gain skills and confidence to enhance their scholarly work.
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Break the Block: A Three-Strategy Series on Writer's Block
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News and Notes
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Prewriting
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Reading & Writing
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Revising
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Time
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Writing Process
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Even if you do your best to set aside time to write, do all your reading, take notes, and work on outlining, you might still find yourself staring at a blank screen when it comes time to write. Break The Block is a three-part series that will help you break free of writer’s block and achieve your writing goals!
In this series we discuss how to find a good space to write, turn off your inner critic, and set aside productive time. Our staff members provide some context, strategies, and personal anecdotes to help you break free from writer’s block and be your most productive writing self.
The
Walden Writing Center provides information and assistance to students
with services like live chat, webinars, course visits, paper reviews,
podcasts, modules, and the writing center webpages. Through these
services they provide students assistance with APA, scholarly writing,
and help students gain skills and confidence to enhance their scholarly
work.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
In this series we discuss how to find a good space to write, turn off your inner critic, and set aside productive time. Our staff members provide some context, strategies, and personal anecdotes to help you break free from writer’s block and be your most productive writing self.
Sound interesting? Check out each of our posts below!
Find a Suitable Environment—Instructor Veronica discusses the importance of finding your writing space and strategies for figuring out what works best for you in spaces you can control as well as spaces you can’t.Turn Off Your Internal Editor—Instructor Michael discusses the importance of writing without critiquing yourself too harshly to get your flow going and know that you’ll be able to refine later in the process.The Ticking Clock—Instructor Matt discusses ways to carve out that time to write, even with a busy schedule as well as fighting the anxiety that can come from experiencing writer’s block during that time.
With some help from these three posts, you can conquer
writer’s block and complete your work on time and effectively. Have some writer’s
block breaking tips you’d like to share or comments on which of these posts
worked best for you? Share below!
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Developing Your Research Writing Process
One of the most frustrating things to me, when I was starting my academic career, was determining what research to include in my writing. Not only would I spend so much time fretting over this, but I was never quite sure when to start my research or what to actually research. I would find myself writing a paper before doing any research at all, which almost always resulted in me having to rewrite large sections of the paper. It was not until I went to graduate school that I learned what it truly meant to do research writing and how this process can differ from other types of writing. Today, I’d like to share with you some of my top tips for working with research at each stage of your writing process.
Prewriting: Develop your Topic and Engage with the Existing Research As you begin your process, start with some prewriting activities. These preliminary steps will help you determine targeted, specific research that will be relevant to your project.
First, try a freewriting session. Often, if we begin our writing and research process by freewriting, we are able to more fully develop our ideas and research interests. Although this may not be thought of as part of the research process, freewriting will lead to more targeted and specific research as well as a deeper focus on your content. You can find more information to help you with this at the Writing Center’s page on prewriting.
Another preliminary step that will help you later is reading existing research pertaining to your topic. In reading current research on specific topics, you are able to find gaps in research, so you are able to more easily target your specific research topic. When you go to write your paper, you will already have your sources vetted and ready to include in your writing! Your friendly Walden University Library can be a huge help with this initial step.
Thesis Construction: Craft a Detailed and Specific Thesis that Focuses on the ResearchMany times we forget that a strong thesis allows the reader to fully understand the focus of the research. Much like the reader needing to understand this focus, the writer also needs to see the overall arch of the paper before it is completed. One of the best ways to ensure that your paper stays focused, and that the research you plan to use is addressed, is to have a clear and detailed thesis that will work with the topic sentences of your body paragraphs. The Writing Center website has lots of great information on thesis statements where you can learn more.
APA Integration: Adhere to APA Rules & Guidelines for Including ResearchAs it is with any type of writing, academic writing has some specific requirements that may take a few revisions to meet. Although the content and research included in your assignment are the most important aspects of your writing, the formatting and style of your writing are also important. In correctly referencing and citing your research, you will avoid intentional and unintentional plagiarism. You will also make your writing stronger and more accessible to your readers. You can practice this step by using our APA basics checklist.
Revision: Take Time to Revisit Your Research Writing ProcessEven though your initial draft and research methods are very important aspects of your final draft, most of your best work will come during the revision stage. After you have a completed draft of your work. it is much easier to make sure that you are providing the correct information in the correct places with relevant research to back it. This is also a perfect time to re-visit many of the different techniques you used in your drafting to ensure that you have fully developed your ideas and presented the best and most relevant research as possible. I recommend these resources about revision and self-editing to help you develop these skills.
In following these tips and tricks, you should be able to draft a detailed and research-driven essay while spending an appropriate amount of time drafting, revising, and researching. If you find these resources helpful, you can bookmark this page so that you can revisit it during your drafting and revision stages of future papers.
Happy Writing!
Meghan Barnes is an instructor and writer based in the South. She has two dogs, and a handful of composting worms that she enjoys feeding scraps to. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she enjoys playing kickball, softball, and other active sports.
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Prewriting: Develop your Topic and Engage with the Existing Research As you begin your process, start with some prewriting activities. These preliminary steps will help you determine targeted, specific research that will be relevant to your project.
First, try a freewriting session. Often, if we begin our writing and research process by freewriting, we are able to more fully develop our ideas and research interests. Although this may not be thought of as part of the research process, freewriting will lead to more targeted and specific research as well as a deeper focus on your content. You can find more information to help you with this at the Writing Center’s page on prewriting.
Another preliminary step that will help you later is reading existing research pertaining to your topic. In reading current research on specific topics, you are able to find gaps in research, so you are able to more easily target your specific research topic. When you go to write your paper, you will already have your sources vetted and ready to include in your writing! Your friendly Walden University Library can be a huge help with this initial step.
Thesis Construction: Craft a Detailed and Specific Thesis that Focuses on the ResearchMany times we forget that a strong thesis allows the reader to fully understand the focus of the research. Much like the reader needing to understand this focus, the writer also needs to see the overall arch of the paper before it is completed. One of the best ways to ensure that your paper stays focused, and that the research you plan to use is addressed, is to have a clear and detailed thesis that will work with the topic sentences of your body paragraphs. The Writing Center website has lots of great information on thesis statements where you can learn more.
APA Integration: Adhere to APA Rules & Guidelines for Including ResearchAs it is with any type of writing, academic writing has some specific requirements that may take a few revisions to meet. Although the content and research included in your assignment are the most important aspects of your writing, the formatting and style of your writing are also important. In correctly referencing and citing your research, you will avoid intentional and unintentional plagiarism. You will also make your writing stronger and more accessible to your readers. You can practice this step by using our APA basics checklist.
Revision: Take Time to Revisit Your Research Writing ProcessEven though your initial draft and research methods are very important aspects of your final draft, most of your best work will come during the revision stage. After you have a completed draft of your work. it is much easier to make sure that you are providing the correct information in the correct places with relevant research to back it. This is also a perfect time to re-visit many of the different techniques you used in your drafting to ensure that you have fully developed your ideas and presented the best and most relevant research as possible. I recommend these resources about revision and self-editing to help you develop these skills.
In following these tips and tricks, you should be able to draft a detailed and research-driven essay while spending an appropriate amount of time drafting, revising, and researching. If you find these resources helpful, you can bookmark this page so that you can revisit it during your drafting and revision stages of future papers.
Happy Writing!
Meghan Barnes is an instructor and writer based in the South. She has two dogs, and a handful of composting worms that she enjoys feeding scraps to. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she enjoys playing kickball, softball, and other active sports.
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Can You Doodle Your Way to Better Writing?
Can you really doodle your way to better writing?
Perhaps, if you’re a kinesthetic or visual learner. Students are familiar with
their academic interests but often not their learning style strengths and
preferences. Learning style refers to how a student might approach an
assignment to help them focus on and develop the skills necessary for it. Understanding
your learning style preferences can mean the difference between staring at a
blank computer screen for hours and actively engaging in the process of
writing.
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