WriteCast Episode 31: Taking Your Academic Writing Outside of the Classroom
Have you ever wondered when you are going to use the academic writing skills you gain in college in "real life"? This is something many of us wonder, and our podcast hosts, Brittany Kallman Arneson and Beth Nastachowski, decided to discuss this very topic in their 31st episode of WriteCast. The title of this podcast? Taking Your Academic Writing Outside of the Classroom.
In this episode, Brittany and Beth discuss with Claire Helakoski how a writer might use their academic writing skills outside of academia. Their thought-provoking conversation proves that your academic writing skills will be useful both in and out of the classroom for years and years to come.
If you're curious about this topic, take a listen. Hit the orange play button below.
For a list of all of our WriteCast episodes, visit the Writing Center website for Interactive and Multimedia writing resources. Here, you can also access download information and transcripts for each of our podcast episodes.
Happy Listening, WriteCasters!
WriteCast is a monthly podcast written, produced, and published by staff in the Walden University Writing Center. WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers offers listeners the chance to sit in on a dialogue between two experienced and trained writing instructors. Possible episode topics will always be considered from listeners, just let us know in the comments.
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In this episode, Brittany and Beth discuss with Claire Helakoski how a writer might use their academic writing skills outside of academia. Their thought-provoking conversation proves that your academic writing skills will be useful both in and out of the classroom for years and years to come.
If you're curious about this topic, take a listen. Hit the orange play button below.
For a list of all of our WriteCast episodes, visit the Writing Center website for Interactive and Multimedia writing resources. Here, you can also access download information and transcripts for each of our podcast episodes.
Happy Listening, WriteCasters!
WriteCast is a monthly podcast written, produced, and published by staff in the Walden University Writing Center. WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers offers listeners the chance to sit in on a dialogue between two experienced and trained writing instructors. Possible episode topics will always be considered from listeners, just let us know in the comments.
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How Not to Write Like a Politician
Here in the United States, there’s an election happening soon, and I noticed while watching some of the coverage three common forms of phrases politicians often use that also come up sometimes in academic writing—the imperative, sweeping generalizations, and the presumption. I’ll follow with some examples in a moment, but to help your writing be clearer and free of bias, it’s best to avoid these argumentative forms so often used by politicians. So yes, it’s true. Today’s election-related post shows you how to NOT write like a politician.
The Imperative
 |
| Modified Photo Courtesy of MarylandGovPics on Flickr CC License 2.0 |
“We must all band together for change!”
In a political speech, a statement like this is quite
moving. It groups the entire audience together as well as powerfully states
what “must” be done. However, in academic writing this poses a few problems:
Here’s an academic writing revision:- In academic writing, you want to avoid “we/us/our” phrasing because you don’t know the background of your readers. This is also a chance to be more precise and name the specific population that you mean. Is it educators? Nurses? Students in the United States? Who must band together?
- The imperative statement doesn’t explain why. Why should citizens band together? We the audience don’t know. Strong academic writing relies on cause and effect more than this type of sweeping statement so that readers can’t possibly misunderstand. Also, unlike a political speech, you as an academic writer have to allow for your reader to have a different opinion and potentially decide they disagree with what you’re saying.
“Writing instructors at Walden University should attempt to
be as specific and positive as possible in order to support their students’
writing and capacity for growth.”
See how this revision is so much more specific and clear?
And it tells readers what impact a certain action will have—what results it
will achieve.
The Sweeping
Generalization
“All children want to learn.”
Although statements like this are certainly powerful, from an academic perspective they are less useful because we can’t actually prove this. Academic writing relies on using evidence to support claims, and this one is just impossible to support. This statement is also logically false. Surely, not all children in the entire world do actually want to learn, right? In academic writing, rather than broad generalizations
like this one, you again want to be as specific as you can and avoid sweeping assumptions or generalizations.
Here’s an academic writing revision:
“Since students’ enthusiasm for learning directly impacts
their learning retention (Helakoski, 2016), it is important for Walden writing
instructors to foster engagement with coursework in order to help their
students succeed.”
See how this revision uses a specific group of people, cause
and effect, and backs up its point with research?
The Presumption
“It is clear that something must change”
As a politician, it is powerful to band an audience together
behind a point of view. But as academic writers we don’t want to make assumptions about our readers or their understanding/experience. What if it
isn’t clear to them that something must change?
The phrase is vague as well
because it uses “something”—and what does that mean, exactly? So to fix it, rather than assuming the reader
sees things your way, again stick to that cause/effect.
Here's an academic revision:
“If students change their writing process to include the
Walden writing center, they will receive in-depth advice on their writing and
the tools to become accomplished scholarly writers.”
Remember in your academic writing to avoid imperatives,
sweeping generalizations, and presumptions on the reader and instead provide
clear, specific cause/effect phrasing to showcase your point of view. With all
of these aspects combined you will successfully communicate your ideas to your
audience!
So get out and vote tomorrow! And remember, for your
academic writing here at Walden University, it’s best to NOT write like a
politician.
Any tips, tricks, or other political speech tics to avoid in your academic work? Let us know in the comments below!
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
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Thursday Thoughts: November Webinar Schedule!
November is here! Can you believe it? In two months, we'll be entering 2017. During these two months, some of you will wrap up your programs and graduate, others will take their very first classes, and many of you will be somewhere in the middle. To all of you, we offer up a wholehearted congratulations! These are big moments.
To new and returning students alike, we encourage you to check out this page to learn how to set up a 1:1 appointment with a writing instructor. Here, you'll find information about our scheduling system, myPASS, and the types of documents we can review.
An especially amazing resource to you are our live, interactive webinars. This month, our topics range from writing intros and conclusions to creating engaging sentence structure. Each webinar is hosted by one of our immensely talented and passionate-about-writing instructors, and we know how excited they will be to see you there.
Feel free, as well, to check out our entire Webinar Recording Library here! If you have any questions about our webinar schedule or appointment scheduling system, e-mail us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu.
The Walden University Writing Center webinars teach APA guidelines and writing skills for all Walden students, along with webinars specifically for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral capstone students. Webinars offer live writing instruction, as well as an opportunity for students to connect via Q&A and chatting with staff and other Walden students, and each webinar is recorded for later viewing.
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To new and returning students alike, we encourage you to check out this page to learn how to set up a 1:1 appointment with a writing instructor. Here, you'll find information about our scheduling system, myPASS, and the types of documents we can review.
An especially amazing resource to you are our live, interactive webinars. This month, our topics range from writing intros and conclusions to creating engaging sentence structure. Each webinar is hosted by one of our immensely talented and passionate-about-writing instructors, and we know how excited they will be to see you there.
- Beginnings and Endings: Introduce and Conclude Your Writing
6:00PM - 7:00PM Thursday, November 3, 2016 - Welcome to the Writing Center
7:00PM - 8:00PM Monday, November 7, 2016 - Practical Tips to Successfully Write in American Academic English
12:00PM - 1:00PM Wednesday, November 16, 2016 - Engaging Your Reader with Sentence Structure
5:00PM - 6:00PM Thursday, November 17, 2016 - Preparing for the Form & Style: Common Errors and Editor Q&A
12:00PM - 1:00PM Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Feel free, as well, to check out our entire Webinar Recording Library here! If you have any questions about our webinar schedule or appointment scheduling system, e-mail us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu.
The Walden University Writing Center webinars teach APA guidelines and writing skills for all Walden students, along with webinars specifically for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral capstone students. Webinars offer live writing instruction, as well as an opportunity for students to connect via Q&A and chatting with staff and other Walden students, and each webinar is recorded for later viewing.
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Top Tips for Maintaining AcademicTone
One of the hardest
things about academic writing is staying in an academic tone. Whether you are joining the academic
community after taking years off, are new to the community, or are a seasoned
academic writer, it is still something that each of us needs to be aware of in
our own writing. So, to get to the
point— academic tone is very important and relevant to all academic writers, in
all fields, and at all levels. So here
is my quick and dirty list of tips and tricks to make sure you are easily able
to do so!
Paraphrase
Paraphrasing is a
valuable way for a writer to include specific information and data to their
writing, while still giving credit to the original researcher. This allows for the writer to have the space
needed to draw their own conclusions from the literature, and then present
those conclusions in a specific fashion using the research of experts in the
field to support their ideas. In paraphrasing
instead of directly quoting, you will also better meet the expectations of APA style,
which prefers paraphrasing to direct quotes in most cases. Also, in using paraphrasing instead of direct
quotes you, as the author, are showing the reader that you are an expert in the
field and do not need to rely on the direct quotes but rather have interpreted
the information of others. So, to sum it
up— paraphrasing makes your sound much more academic than using direct quotes.
Paraphrase Quick List:
Use
Specific Information
One of the hallmarks of
academic writing is including specific information and details. A lot of times we are so close to the
materials we are presenting that the “they” or “she” we use in our writing
makes perfect sense to us. However,
often times when readers see this information they aren’t quite sure what
author, topic, or research study we are referencing. This is why it is super important to use
specific language. You don’t want to
spend hours and hours on a paper, only to not have the reader understand your
point!
Here are some quick
examples of vague wording, and how to correct it:
Needs
Revision:
|
Revision:
|
They (2003) surveyed 500…
|
Dean (2003) surveyed 500…
|
This was to…
|
The purpose of Bill 774 was to…
|
Specific Information Quick List:
Replace Clichés
In this day and age
|
Path of least
resistance
|
Think outside the box
|
Few and far between
|
All walks of life
|
At the end of the day
|
All intents and purposes
|
Writing on the wall
|
The rest is history
|
Clichés
Quick List:
Revise,
Revise, Revise
Even though revision is
an important aspect of all academic writing, it is especially important when
you revise
your academic tone.
In having a consistent and scholarly tone you are ensuring that the
reader fully understands not only your argument but that you are an expert in the
material.
One of the best ways to
practice using scholarly writing is to write and edit your own work as
frequently as possible. In doing so you
will both find your academic voice, and develop the editing skills needed to
ensure you stay within your scholarly tone.
Hopefully this convinces you that it is important to use the strong
writing and editing skills you are developing during your time here at Walden
University.
Revision Quick List:
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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Thursday Thoughts: New and Improved, Just for You!
Alongside our grammar modules and plagiarism prevention modules, these new and improved APA style modules are another essential tool for your success at Walden. They allow you the opportunity to learn at your own pace about the aspects of APA that you need to better understand.The new APA style modules will be your key to understanding some of the trickier aspects of APA, such as avoiding bias and clarifying the actor. They will also help you to understand tricky formatting guidelines for numbers, headings, and lists.
Please, take a second to peek at one (or all!) of the new APA style modules below:
- Avoiding Bias
- Clarifying the Actor
- Emphasis and Specification
- Using and Formatting APA Headings
- Listing the Facts: Using Numbers, Hyphens, and Lists in APA
If you've pulled up our page for the new APA style modules, and you are not sure which modules will be the most helpful for you, consider taking one of our diagnostic quizzes for some guidance. These diagnostic quizzes will point you in the direction of the module(s) that will be most beneficial for you to study. The References and Citations Quiz would be a great place to start!
Finally, the biggest thanks goes to you, our students, for being an inspiration to us to always better our services and strive to be the best. This improvement is for YOU!
The Walden Writing Center offers to Walden students 1:1 writing support and offers to students and non-students alike all the writing expertise, tips, and information a writer could want.
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