Purposeful Writing

Writers must have a purpose in mind when they begin to write, even before they consider the nature of their intended audience. Ask most college students why they write papers and most will tell you that the purpose of their latest paper was to meet the requirements of a particular course. Even in a highly experiential curriculum, some amount of formal writing, often research-based writing, is required. So the purpose of academic writing is, at heart, to please your teachers and get to the promised land of that diploma, right? 

Well, partly. But writing to pass a course isn't the most exciting reason to write and that external reward you're seeking may actually be making it harder for you to get the writing done. That's because we are typically more motivated--i.e. purposeful--when we are intrinsically motivated rather than driven by external demands or requirements.

So why write that paper or thesis chapter that's due by the end of the semester? Among the best intrinsic reasons are these:

• "I have something important to say or teach to a particular audience on the topic I've selected."
  
• "Writing this paper will allow me to analyze or synthesize what I've learned from my research/fieldwork/reading this semester so that I can retain it better."
  
• "My writing will bring new questions/answers/issues into focus for my audience that are not expressed elsewhere in the literature."

The purpose of this post is to remind you that every successful piece of expository writing has a unique purpose of which the writer is fully aware. First, the effective writer decides what work her or his piece of writing must do in the world by answering the question "What do I want to accomplish with the words in this paper?" Only then can the writer contemplate "Who do I want to reach with my writing?" which leads to the equally important question of audience awareness. 

Without a goal beyond filling the page or meeting a requirement, your writing is bound to be dreary and difficult. Make academic writing more fun by selecting topics and themes that are meaningful to you and that serve a purpose you are passionate about. Finding your purpose for a piece of writing needs to happen near the beginning of your writing process--it is not something you can 'revise in'. 

To get started on setting intrinsic goals for a paper, chapter, or thesis, talk out your intent with a writing coach before you begin to write in earnest. This is a great way to encourage yourself to do important work with words and meet your deadlines.

Clean1982 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Must Writing Be Hell?

You don't often find people who dislike writing asking themselves this question. For them, it's a foregone conclusion that the less time spent writing the better. Those who love to write, especially those who write for a living, seem to enjoy one-upping each other over the question of whether writing is primarily pleasure or pain. 

Ben Yagoda, a regular contributor to the blog Lingua Franca, collects some of the most searing laments about the writing life in a recent post titled "The Agony (or Not) of Writing." If you're one of those who has experienced the special stress of trying to get something you need to say in print, imagine yourself asking newly retired novelist Philip Roth how he views writing, as quoted in Yagoda's post:

I would quit while you're ahead...You write and you write, and you have to throw almost all of it away because it's not any good. I would say just stop now. You don't want to do this to yourself.

One can argue that Roth can afford to be dramatic about writing precisely because he has made a life of it, lives being held to be more noble when marked by suffering. Certainly, when we take any writing task seriously it becomes challenging work because it is cognitively and therefore emotionally demanding. Writing is not just copying down what we hear in our heads. It is social behavior requiring attention to the poetics of the medium (written language) as well as to the politics of creating messages that escape our control once they are published. Then there's that ideal reader we have to conjure in our writing brains if our message is to reach our intended audience.

Committing messages to print is risky behavior--What if I'm wrong? What if I sound 'dumb'? What if they hate it? What if my ideas are rejected? It's pretty certain that even confident, prolific writers struggle to cope with the risks inherent in writing things others will read and judge. That fear--that we will be exposed or diminished by what we dare to say in print--is enough to make writing a special, high-risk kind of human work. 

In a society as literate as ours, however, it doesn't make sense to create an atmosphere of personal crisis every time we write. Competent writing does not require gnashing of teeth or cosmic despair. For each writing task you take on, you choose how hard you want to work at it. The saying 'garbage in garbage out' applies as in all human endeavors. On the other hand, if we care too much and psyche ourselves out with fear or denial, we can get overwhelmed and seek out that old enabler, Friend Procrastination. 

Yagoda, who teaches English and journalism at the University of Delaware, has taught countless college students to keep their feet firmly planted on fertile rather than infernal ground. His short book How Not to Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Errors and How to Avoid Them (2013) is a practical, upbeat tipsheet written to help you write in a level-headed manner without spiritual distress. His theme is that most often we need to write things that are good enough to get something done in the world. Having realistic yet informed expectations of ourselves when we are required to write a paper or business document takes the hellfire out of writing for those who dread it. 

Unlike the APA or MLA manual, How Not to Write Bad is readable from cover to cover in addition to being a guide to refer to in moments of doubt. Adorned with page flags or highlights on your favorite pages, this little helpmate can walk you through most kinds of writing tasks without stumbling into common but embarrassing mistakes.

No one learns to write well or even well enough from reading a single book. However, if you need some constructive solace in those low moments while you're stressing over yet another paper, Yagoda's friendly tone is welcome competition to that devilish voice whispering "Abandon all hope." He provides instead a healthy dose of "You can do it!" There's nothing tormented or more necessary than that when your confidence wanes.  

Photo credit: szeke / Foter.com / CC BY-SA 

Audience Awareness: Using What You Know by Skye Anicca

Facing a new writing task can bring on classic fight or flight symptoms: sweaty palms, immobility, the sudden compulsion to do laundry or wash dishes. Professional and academic writing can certainly be intimidating, but what few people realize is they are already well versed in the fundamentals.  Have you ever tried to get out of a speeding ticket? Attempted to convince a friend to go out with you when they’d rather not? Had to give a public presentation? Kindly refused a family member’s advice? In these everyday situations, we know exactly how to respond because, since even before we could speak, we have been learning to communicate with one another, to essentially step outside ourselves in search of someone else’s understanding. This communication is based on our innate sensitivity to three social cues: audience, purpose, and context. 

Our intuitions about our audience when we speak or write are perhaps the most elemental. For example, bring to mind a humorous conversation you recently had with a close friend. Now picture having the same conversation with your 83-year-old grandmother. Imagine using the same language, mannerisms, and tones. Likely, this new picture is absurd. You already know you could never speak to your grandmother in the same way as you do your friends. You might even discover that the topic of your conversation has to change significantly in order to imagine your grandmother taking part at all. Therefore, an understanding of audience begins simply as this: What you say (or write) and how you say (or write) it depends entirely on the person or group you are addressing.

Could the basis of effective writing—know your audience—really be this simple? The answer is actually yes! And yet of course, there is more. This basic understanding can go a long way in deciding where to begin, how to focus, what information to seek, and the language and tone you will choose. Where it gets a bit more complicated is what it means to know your audience, especially when that audience is a group—say, of academic professionals—that are widely varied and unknown to you. However, with a little research, you can apply the same tactics you would use in everyday situations to an understanding your audience in academic and professional settings. 

Questions to Ask When Considering Audience

• Where is your audience coming from? What do they know about your topic? What are their likely assumptions? What might they not know? 
• What does your audience care about? Is their focus on the same aspect of the topic as your own? If not, where might their focus lie? Are their priorities likely the same as yours? How might they be different? 
• What outcome is most important to your audience? In the complicated mix of priorities, what is the bottom line for your audience? What are their most important concerns? Are they essentially the same as yours? How might they be different? 
• What are the best ways to negotiate any differences of priorities or opinions amid you and your audience? Is your audience likely to respond to logic? To emotional appeals? To your credibility or the credibility of your sources? Are there points on which you can “agree to disagree” and still move on to mutual priorities?

With some thought, research, and the basic communication skills you have already spent your lives perfecting, you will soon be on your way towards being a clearer communicator and more effective writer. Next time the panic sets in, think about how much you already know and who you want to share that with. Tackle some of these questions, and soon that empty page will transform into an intelligent, articulate expression of your unique perspective. Happy writing!

Photo credit: Unknown / Foter.com / Public domain

Quoting Sources in an Academic Paper: Part 2

Well chosen quotes can enliven your papers but only if they are properly executed. Poorly executed quotations send up red flags that distract readers from the points you are trying to make. To keep your readers' attention and build their trust in you as an analyst, you have to do more than choose the right quotes and frame them properly. You have to avoid common mistakes that tempt your readers to think you might be misusing or abusing your sources. When we intentionally obscure the authorship of a source that's plagiarism; we misuse sources when we fudge the citation or introduce errors of logic or form that are not in the original. 

The following quote has numerous flaws in it. It does not clearly show the source of the quote; there are spelling and punctuation errors in the quote itself; it is not clear how the content of the quote relates to the writer's point; the syntax of the quote does not fit into the frame to form a complete sentence. 

Some professors resent the fact that the students take up their precious time. Dan Smith writes in an article about how some of his colleagues go out of their way to avoid their students. They go as far as making strange office hours to avoid contact. (p. 9) “There is no decent, adequate, respectable education, in the proper sense of that much-abused word, the personal involvment by a teacher with the needs of and concerns of students is at odds with the everyday reality confronting universtiy professors in the United States.“ (p. 10).

Misuse of sources spills into downright plagiarism when a direct quote from a source lacks any formal indication that it is a direct quote. Quotation marks must appear at the start and end of all direct quotes; a citation at the end of a paragraph is not sufficient credit for phrases and sentences that come from another source. Careful readers can often detect that a writer is using someone else’s words without credit because of a significant change in writing style in a single paragraph or section. The highlighted sentence in the following example is suspicious because it lacks the errors of grammar, diction, spelling, and punctuation found in the neighboring sentences.

Students that do sports really like there schools and enjoy playing even if they've got tests the next day. Their very competative people. These athletes identify more closely with their college and tend to be more competitive than other students.This competitive nature is not only seen on the sports field, but in other social circumstances that require teamwork and patience. It is also recognized that for many of the athletes their success on the sporting fields will also increase their attractiveness for the opposite sex including cheerleaders and none sporting males and females, which we must remember may put a strain on their academic studies. (MacDonald 128)

Writing handbooks and websites frequently advise students to “avoid plagiarism” in academic writing. We recommend instead that you make an effort in your writing to demonstrate that you understand that properly quoting and citing material in your paper adds excitement and authenticity, makes you a more credible source by association with respected authorities, and showcases your grasp of the issues you are addressing. Proper quoting of relevant sources does more than avoid plagiarism: it makes your paper original and classy, like you. 

Photo credit: Difusa / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Quoting Sources in an Academic Paper: Part 1

Quotes, used correctly, add drama and authority to your paper. They give the reader a glimpse of the scholarly or disciplinary literature that bears on your topic. Your ability to select and skillfully use quotes makes you a more credible witness to the scholarly conversation on the topic of your paper, even if you are not yet an authority on the topic.

When to use a quote

Paraphrase an author in your own words when you want to convey and summarize a complex point, show a consensus among several sources, or give necessary background before you lead the reader to your conclusions. Use a quote only when the author’s words are so concise or appropriate to your argument that you cannot improve on them or because the author’s credentials add special import to his/her statement. Excessive quoting weakens your argument. Remember, readers expect to hear from you in your paper, not just a string of quotes by other writers.

How to use a quote

There are two aspects of quoting a source that need attention.

First, the function of a quote must be carefully considered. A quote is but one method of achieving your goal for the paper and is not a substitute for the idea development, argumentation, and language you must create as the writer of your paper. The function of a quote is to provide background for your argument, support your argument, or initiate a debate that relates to your argument. Using a quote shows that not only have you read the sources but that you understand them and have integrated their ideas into your thinking about the topic. Avoid thinking that quotations state the right answers and that you only have to choose between agreeing or disagreeing with them.

The other key aspect to quoting sources is the form quotes should take. Professional style guidelines (e.g. APA, MLA, CMS) will vary slightly in this area, but the following practices are common in all styles:

Frame your quote 

Clearly identify who you are quoting, preferably in the same sentence as the quote. Follow the quote with a sentence or two that reveals the significance of the quote, in a specific context. This example in APA style shows proper framing (the frame is highlighted in blue):

In “Are Multi-hospital Systems More Efficient?” economists Dranz and Thanley (1987) write that although “the conventional wisdom is that horizontal mergers will generate efficiencies in the production of services, surprisingly little systematic evidence exists to support this view” (p. 13). The three researchers show that horizontal integration improves efficiency in marketing systems more than it improves production services. This finding has consequences for hospitals whose primary concern is to improve production services. 

Size your quote

Quotes should not exceed several lines or 40+ words in your text. Longer quotes should be offset in single-spaced, indented paragraphs known as block quotes. They still require framing, as above, but are typically punctuated differently from in-text quotes. See your style manual for specifics about block quotations.

Punctuate your quote

As you add a quote to your paper, check with the style guide you are using for all of the punctuation rules—quotation marks, commas, periods, dashes, capitalization, italics, brackets, etc.—around and within each quote. Letters and punctuation within the quote should be identical to the original unless you must omit or change them for fluency. The punctuation of quotes in indented, block quotes will differ from that used with quotes in the running text.

Next week…why misusing your sources is a form of plagiarism.

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Logical Fallacies in Written Arguments

While it is  important that you choose topics you are passionate about, the ultimate goal of your academic writing is to persuade the reader of your point, or, failing that, to inform. Logical fallacies are mistakes in reasoning. They may be intentional or unintentional, but in either case they undermine the strength of your argument in an academic paper. 

The best way to learn to recognize logical errors in your own writing is to practice identifying them in the things you read, be they news stories, blog posts, or journal articles. You will see for yourself how making logical errors in writing lowers the credibility of a piece of writing and weakens its effectiveness. You don't need a course in philosophy to grasp the following common logical pitfalls:

Hasty Generalization: A generalization based on too little evidence, or on evidence that is biased. Example: All men are testosterone-driven idiots. Or: After being in New York for a week, I can tell you: all New Yorkers are rude.

Either/Or Fallacy: Only two possibilities are presented when in fact several exist. Example: America: love it or leave it. Or: Shut down all nuclear power plants, or watch your children and grandchildren die from radiation poisoning.

Non Sequitur: The conclusion does not follow logically from the premise. Example: My teacher is pretty; I'll learn a lot from her. Or: George Bush was a war hero; he'll be willing to stand tough for America.

Ad Hominem: Arguing against the man instead of against the issue. Example: We can't elect him mayor. He cheats on his wife! Or: He doesn't really believe in the first amendment. He just wants to defend his right to see porno flicks.

Red Herring: Distracting the audience by drawing attention to an irrelevant issue. Example: How can he be expected to manage the company? Look at how he manages his wife! Or: Why worry about nuclear war when we're all going to die anyway?

Circular Reasoning: Asserting a point that has just been made. Sometimes called "begging the question." Example: She is ignorant because she was never educated. Or: We sin because we're sinners.

False Analogy: Wrongly assuming that because two things are alike in some ways, they must be alike in all ways. Example: An old grandmother's advice to her granddaughter, who is contemplating living with her boyfriend: "Why should he buy the cow when he can get the milk for free?"

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc: The mistake of assuming that, because event a is followed by event b, event a caused event b. Example: It rained today because I washed my car. Or: The stock market fell because the Japanese are considering implementing an import tax.

Equivocation: Equates two meanings of the same word falsely. Example: The end of a thing is its perfection; hence, death is the perfection of life. (The argument is fallacious because there are two different definitions of the word "end" involved in the argument.)

Tips on MLA Documentation Style by PC Librarian Michaela Willi Hooper

If you are a student of the humanities, you will likely be asked to use the MLA documentation style. These guidelines for formatting papers and crediting sources were established by the Modern Language Association, and are widely prescribed for both college papers and scholarly publications. As a student, you should consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7^th edition)when writing in this style.

All documentation styles are somewhat arbitrary.  They are agreed-upon sets of rules that allow us to understand each other, just liked punctuation and spelling rules. Some scholars spend their careers debating what should and should not be included in a citation. Unless you desire to make this your life struggle, resisting citation styles is futile. Below are some tips and principles that might make MLA Style seem less burdensome.

• Start early. Don’t leave your Works Cited page until the last minute. Formatting your sources is a time-consuming, exacting process that adds credibility to your writing.
• Keep track of sources and page numbers as you go. You don’t want to be frantically searching for the name of an author or the page number for a quote at the last minute. Some people do better with visual examples (I know I do!). Take a look at the annotated MLA Example Undergraduate Paper at the Purdue OWL.
• Word processor defaults are generally appropriate. Use 1” margins, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman, double-spaced. You can use another standard serif font such as Cambria, but avoid decorative fonts such as Brush Script or Comic Sans. These can be difficult to read and lead to eye fatigue for your reader.
• Citations consist of two parts, an in-text citation within the body of your paper, and a more complete entry in the Works Cited page. The in-text citation generally consists of the author and the page number of the source (e.g., (Gomez 24)). Of course, there are exceptions to this. To find answers to these exceptions, see chapter 6 of the MLA Handbook, or this page of the Purdue OWL. Similarly, a standard MLA works cited entry contains certain predictable elements such as the author, title, date of publication, page numbers and medium of publication (e.g. web or print) in a prescribed order. A very helpful list of components is found on p. 136 of the MLA Handbook.

Because of the many different sources used in research papers (articles, books, images, podcasts, YouTube videos), citing is undeniably challenging.  But you are not alone.  Here are some people, pages, and programs that can help you.

§  There are copies of the MLA Handbook (7th ed.) available in both the reference and circulating collections at the Prescott College Library. It is also widely available through booksellers and your local library.

§  Guides on MLA Style are available from the Prescott College Library and the Purdue OWL at Purdue.
 
§  Use citation management software like RefWorks. Contact the library for the group code. If you want a less robust tool that simply formats your works cited entries, check out KnightCite from Calvin College. Be wary of online tools that are not affiliated with an educational institution. Many will lead you astray.

§  Contact a PC reference librarian or a writing coach as you begin work on a documented paper so that you can record the information you need from your sources at the outset. 

APA Black & White Blues

Very few people enjoy compiling their list of references according to the conventions set down in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, known simply as the 'APA manual'. Writing a well researched paper is a great way to learn deeply, but following strict documentation rules...? That task, often left to the last minute, gets a lot of students, graduate and undergraduate, singing the blues.

Frustrated students make all kinds of claims about APA documentation style. That the guidelines found in print and web handbooks all say different things, making it impossible to know, let alone adhere to, APA rules. That the APA manual is out of date so there's no need to follow it, really. That the APA manual is too expensive, which means that students who can't afford it are plain out of luck.

More often than not, the biggest gripe students have--and it's the only one that isn't easily refuted--is that APA rules seem arbitrary and are especially hard to follow when it comes to citing electronic sources, today's norm for college students.

Like heartbreak and taxes, APA documentation style is here to stay. The APA manual squeezes all the traditional practices and patterns of documentation style used by researchers in the social sciences into its 275-odd pages of final-say-so to forestall debate, not to encourage it. Sure, the punctuation of reference entries is arbitrary but so is driving on the right side of the road or using the sound sequence [kætʰ] for 'domesticated feline' in English. Shared conventions have their uses even while as individuals we might want to defy them.

Ultimately, it is more efficient to apply the rules in all their byzantine glory and get on to the next writing task. You don't so much have to 'learn APA'--although this will happen if you write a lot of documented essays--as learn to adjust your writing process and schedule to include plenty of time for formatting references and making citations match the references. Here are the very best, up-to-date, free or nearly so resources to keep on hand while writing a paper or thesis with APA-style documentation:

è Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. Available in paperback for $25.00 or less. Buy a used copy or find one in the reference section of your local library. Chapters 6 & 7 focus on crediting sources through in-text citations and the reference list. 

è Use citation software such as RefWorks to guide you to collect, organize, and punctuate your references as you select them. Ask a PC librarian how to get a free RefWorks account for all your research-based writing.

è Bookmark reliable websites and articles so you can find them easily when you start your research. We recommend the Purdue OWL, PC Library Resources, and Bedford/St. Martin's Research and Documentation Online.

Two other bits of advice. As you are finalizing your references list, always check each entry one at a time, getting each one correct before moving onto the next. This means identifying what type of source you have (book, article, website, etc.) and checking your entry against the samples for that type of source in the APA manual or guide. Approximations aren't good enough because the APA rules do speak to every possible circumstance, if you look hard enough.

Also, since most students find their sources electronically, many cling to the belief that providing a url is all that is required in a citation or reference entry. Instead, read Sections 6.31-6.32 (pp. 187-192) of the APA manual on electronic sources before you start saving source information. Take particular note of this statement on electronic sources on p. 187:

"In general, we recommend that you include the same elements, in the same order, as you would for a reference to a fixed-media source..."

There's no escaping it: APA traditions are black and white and 'read' all over. If you are required to use APA documentation style, the tools are available to you to get the job done right. 

How to Write an Outline by Audrey Clark, former PC Writing Coach

Why Outline?

An outline is an ordered list of the main points of your essay.  Outlining helps you define and organize your topic and subtopics so that you bring the reader on a logical journey from your thesis, through your supporting evidence, to your conclusion.  Many writers use outlines to better visualize their ideas and to have a way to share them with others in the planning stage of their writing process.

Before You Outline

• Define the purpose of your essay.  Why did the teacher assign this paper?  What do you want to learn from this?  What do you want your reader to understand?
• Define the audience of your essay.  Knowing your audience allows you to focus your paper.
• Write your thesis statement once you have read the primary materials on your topic. This will take several drafts until you get it just right. To develop a working thesis statement ask yourself: 

What gaps are there in the literature on this subject?

What is controversial or unresolved?

What changes in methods, analysis, or data have occurred that might shed light on a previously studied topic?

What applications are there to another topic that others may not have considered?

What social, economic, or other impact has previous research had in this area?

What unanswered questions do I have now that I have researched the topic?

Why should anyone care about the literature I am reading for this paper?

Once you have a consequential thesis statement, write it at the top of your outline-to-be.

Steps in Outlining

• Brainstorm all of the ideas you want to include in your paper.
• Group related ideas.
• Sequence the ideas in a logical order.
• Label your ideas with headings and subheadings.  The labels should be precise enough that they help you develop a topic sentence for each section of the outline.  An effective outline is not a list of topics, but rather a framework for a set of ideas.
• ­Write your outline.

Characteristics of Outlines

Crafting your outline with these four characteristics will help you write more clearly.

• Parallelism.  That is, the headings should match in form.
• Coordination.  The headings should all have the same level of significance.  Same goes for the subheadings, which should be less significant than the headings.
• Subordination.  The headings should be more general than the subheadings.
• Division.  Each heading should be subdivided into at least two subheadings.

 Level of Detail

Outlines can be simple or detailed, depending on your needs.  A simpler outline might be appropriate if you just need an organization guide and are ready to write.  On the other hand, a more detailed outline can show you gaps in your logic or knowledge.  Probably, the most helpful outline details the main idea of each paragraph, without going overboard.  The trick is to capture the essence of the paper; too much detail as well as too little detail can limit the usefulness of your outline.

Outline Structure

Thesis statement: _________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

1.  Introduction

            a. What is the controversy? Who? What? Why? When? Where?

            b. What analytical tool(s) will be used to analyze it?

            c. What claim(s) will be defended?

2.  Body

            a. Evidence from science/methodology → conclusion

            b. Evidence from the theoretical literature→ conclusion

            c. Evidence from parallel fields → conclusion

            d. Relevance to the analytical model → conclusion

            e. Problems or weakness in the evidence or model

3.  Conclusion

            a. Review and synthesis of the evidence

            b. Appropriateness of the approach to the research question

            c. Call for additional research in specific areas

            d. Restatement of the thesis and its significance

Sample Outline

Thesis statement: The conduct and outcome of the O.J. Simpson murder trial reveals the status of race relations in the United States at the end of the 20^th century.

1.  Introduction

            a. What is the O.J. Simpson murder trial? When? Where? Why?

            b. What analytical tool will I use to analyze it?

            c. What claim will I defend?

2.  Body

            a. Evidence from trial transcripts à conclusion

            b. Evidence from media reports à conclusion

            c. Evidence from jurors à conclusion

            d. Relevance to the analytical model à conclusion

            e. Problems or weakness in the evidence or model

3. Conclusion

            a. Review and synthesize evidence and conclusions

            b. Was my approach to understanding the trial appropriate?

            c. What else do we need to know in order to accept my thesis?

            d. Why should we accept my thesis anyway?  Why is the trial significant?

Adapted in part from the Purdue OWL webpages on “Developing an Outline” as follows:

Tardiff, E., & Brizee, A. (2010). Four main components for effective outlines. Retrieved March 25, 2010  

Tardiff, E., & Brizee, A. (2010). Why and how to create a useful outline. Retrieved March 25, 2010

Tardiff, E., & Brizee, A. (2010). Types of outlines and samples. Retrieved March 25, 2010

Backwards Through the Looking Glass

Facing an academic writing task, students often start their writing process with a back-of-the-envelope outline. Or not. Some people decided long ago that making an outline doesn't work for them. Maybe those who don't like to write outlines find they always turns out to be just a long list of ideas or titles. Or they get overwhelmed with the task of writing an outline instead of moving ahead to the next stage of writing. There's definitely an art to crafting an outline, so if it is not helpful to you, there are other planning techniques you can use (more on this in a future posting) in a writing process that for all of us looks more or less like this:

Plan → Draft → Revise → Edit 

In the spirit of the title of this post, we're going to suggest writing an outline after you have written a complete draft of your paper or chapter. This step, known as backwards outlining is not intended to jump-start a draft, but to power the revision phase of your writing. Here's how to do it:

Make a list of topic sentences of each of your paragraphs (one per paragraph only) to see how they look without all the other stuff vying for your attention. Do these sentences-in-a-list reflect the logical flow of your paper? If not, what is keeping them from doing so? Is there a problem with the way they are written or are they out of order? If you are not sure what a topic sentence is, this is a great time to ask a writing coach. The paragraphs of your paper/chapter are the building blocks of your paper. If their topic sentences don't convey a strong skeleton holding up your draft, then you need to rethink the way your paper/chapter is built.

If you did write an outline before you started your draft, you can compare your backwards outline to the original one. You can decide if you have justifiably junked the original outline or if you have unwittingly strayed from a good plan. Because people don't usually turn in an outline with their finished paper, it isn't necessary to rewrite the original outline if your draft shows a different organization. The point is for the organization of the paper to reflect in the most effective way what you have to say.

Backwards outlining as a revision technique allows you to see the organization of your draft not as you imagined it, but as you have written it. Your eventual readers will be able to see the organization of your paper as they read it. If you want to come off as knowing your stuff and being organized about it, backwards outlining is a great tool for controlling the 'flow' and 'structure' of your paper or chapter. Making a conscious effort to step away from and look back on your draft will give you more control over the creation of everything you write for academic purposes.

Seven Tips To Getting the Writing Done* by Ryan Orr, PC Writing Coach

Do not hurry; do not rest.  --Goethe

1. Create a writing space. Where do you like to work, alone in your silent study, or enveloped in the din of your local coffee shop? Every writer is different; there is no one way that works best. But if you intend to get serious writing done, establish a space where you can remain focused and productive, comfortable, and free from distraction.

2. Break up your writing tasks. Utilize small chunks of time. Spread them out over the day or the week. If you do need to get six hours of work done, give yourself breaks, get a coffee, throw the dog a ball, eat. Then re-read what you wrote, and find a way back in.

3. Use "Save As". Each time you sit down to write for the day take the existing file and "save as" a new draft. So: "Research Paper .2, .3, .4" etc. This alleviates anxieties over making major changes—you can always go back to the previous draft.

4. Transitional Drafts: Set a goal for the day's draft. Say, paragraph transitions. Work solely on paragraph transitions until you have completed the draft. Then come back the next day with another draft. Say, compression. Start small and work up to the big stuff, draft by draft. 

5. Establish a regular schedule. Whether every day or every Sunday, a regular writing schedule allows your focus to transcend mechanics so your ideas may gain depth and possibility. Many writers insist on writing at the same time of day each time as well.

6. Be patient with your process.To take writing seriously is to enter in a very long apprenticeship. If you are diligent you will probably accomplish something worthwhile each time you sit down, though many times that thing accomplished is learning what you have yet to accomplish. And that, for an author, is a good day’s work.

7. Read drafts aloud. In the editing stages, in order to get the language just right, read your work aloud to yourself, or to a friend; or, have your friend read your draft to you. Your ear knows the English language intuitively, and hearing your words aloud will help you hear what isn’t working as well as what is.

Happy writing. 
  

*Acknowledgments to Donald Murray’s, “The Craft of Revision,” and Robert Boswell’s After the Workshop; Transitional Drafts for the origins of these ideas.

WooHoo:The Purdue OWL and You

Just in case you've been living off the grid lately, we'd like to remind you that the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a free, fantastic resource for all academic writers. It's not just that the site is packed with state-of-art tip sheets, exercises, sample papers, grammar lessons, and inspirational pep talks that are designed with the student writer in mind. The beauty of the Purdue OWL is in its concise organization; you can easily search for and find help on your specific topic without being overwhelmed by the search itself. That and the fact that it is always "on", regardless of the time of day. If you are in the field a lot and aren't able to get to the PC Learning Commons for one-on-one coaching, many of your questions about research documentation (there are comprehensive files on MLA, APA, and CMS editorial conventions) and how to get started on a paper are answered there.

True, you cannot get direct feeback on a draft of your paper as you can by working with a PC writing center coach. To do that, email your draft and your concerns about it to the Writing Center coaches any time. But the information on the OWL site is always current and on target. Come out of the woods and bookmark the Purdue OWL for help with that inevitable research paper. You'll find links to it on the homepage of this blog, as well as on the Library and Learning Commons pages of the PC website.

Dyslexia and the Student Writer

Dyslexia was associated once in the popular mind as a confusion of b’s with d’s or, at best, a kind of ‘word blindness’ that seemed a primarily visual impairment. But an army of educational psychologists and neuroscientists has over the last few decades uncovered a complex picture of dyslexia that anyone who teaches scholarly writing and literature-based research should be aware of. Here’s how the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the International Dyslexia Association defined dyslexia in 2002:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.  

As Maryanne Wolfe shows in Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2007), defining dyslexia has become more difficult as we learn more about the way reading print happens in the average brain. Clearly, the dyslexic brain works differently from the typical human brain, although it does not limit a person’s general intelligence. Nor is dyslexia localized in one faulty “reading center” in the brain because there is none. Instead, the spectrum of dyslexic conditions may result from differences in visual, auditory, phonological processing;  processing speed in the motor functions of the eye or ear; connectivity of the neural structures common to the reading circuit; hemispheric engagement (i.e. right-brained reading circuitry vs. left-); or a combination of these. For all humans, the act of reading involves many structures and processes creating many points in the universal reading system where things can go wrong. Add to this the shallow orthography of English—meaning the relatively weak phonemic basis of our writing system—and dyslexia emerges as one of the most common learning disabilities reported in the U.S. today.

Dyslexics who are not thoroughly discouraged by standard literacy instruction growing up will find a way to read and write and succeed even in literacy-obsessed realms such as academia. But it makes sense for them to be tested at key life stages to determine which neurological differences are affecting their ability to read and write at the moment. College-level instructors should take the time to update their understanding of dyslexia, especially when overseeing complex writing tasks. A first stop should be at this resource which focuses on how dyslexia affects adult student writing and reading. The information presented quickly resets writing expectations, covers the related problem of dyscalculia, and offers detailed advice on how to teach and alternatively assess dyslexic adults.  

There are also authoritative, current overviews and resources available online from The International Dyslexia Association and the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Because dyslexic adults have dealt with reading and writing challenges for years, they too can teach faculty a lot about dyslexia, if asked.  

Some Vision, More Revision

People say "Advice is cheap" to imply that at least some of it should be ignored. Writing advice is no exception. Your mother might recommend you buy a thesaurus. Friends may tell you to avoid starting sentences with 'I' or 'but'. Faculty urge you to write about something you believe in. Unfortunately, very little advice about writing will have much impact on your writing style unless you do the one thing that all accomplished writers do: revise.

Because most purveyors of writing advice are not linguists, Harvard psycholinguist Steven Pinker's perspective on revision caught my eye as I was re-reading his book The Language Instinct (1994) for a course I am preparing. In his chapter titled "The Language Mavens", Pinker swiftly debunks a couple of dozen language myths that ruffle the feathers of the self-appointed guardians of English--travesties such as slang, dialect variation, and semantic drift--all of which are endearing features of healthy, living languages. Although the language mavens are nearly always wrong about spoken language as it relates to the rise and fall of civilizations, Pinker ends his chapter with a brief but important nod to the difference between written and spoken language:

"The aspect of language use that is most worth changing is the clarity and style of written prose. Expository writing requires language to express far more complex trains of thought than it was biologically designed to do...Overcoming one's natural egocentricism and trying to anticipate the knowledge state of a generic reader at every stage of the exposition is one of the most important tasks in writing well. All this makes writing a difficult craft that must be mastered through practice, instruction, feedback, and--probably most important--intensive exposure to good examples. There are excellent manuals of composition that discuss these and other skills with great wisdom, like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and William's Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. What is most relevant to my point is how removed their practical advice is from the trivia of split infinitives and slang. For example, a banal but universally acknowledged key to good writing is to revise extensively. Good writers go through anywhere from two to twenty drafts before releasing a paper. Anyone who does not appreciate this necessity is going to be a bad writer. Imagine a Jeremiah exclaiming, 'Our language today is threatened by an insidious enemy: the youth are not revising their drafts enough times.' Kind of takes the fun out, doesn't it? It's not something that can be blamed on television, rock music, shopping mall culture, overpaid athletes, or any of the other signs of the decay of civilization. But if it's clear writing we want, this is the kind of homely remedy that is called for." (p. 401-402)

Gaines' Graduate Writing Resource

Faculty and graduate mentors often ask for writing resources tailored to the needs and issues of our graduate students. While the standards for depth-of- study and documentation of sources are typically higher for a graduate student, the writing issues of graduate students closely resemble those of undergraduate students: how to narrow my topic? organize my material? write clearly and concisely about difficult or emerging ideas? balance my personal experience with what I learn from the scholarly literature?

Writing advice for students of all levels abounds on the World Wide Web. Not all of it is equally valuable. This week we found Dr. Kendra Gaines's Graduate Writing Resource which addresses a small but well chosen set of topics that concern graduate students. Her website is uncomplicated and offers one-click access to articles that include:

• "Knocking the Research Topic Down to Size"
• "Learning the Language of the Literature Review"
• "Academic Writing: Balancing Objectivity & Persuasion"
• "Reporting Your Own Research: Principles & Practice"

Gaines' writing style is simple and to the point. She also invites visitors to email her personally with questions. There is no hint of a fee for her assistance. As some graduate students are encouraged to hire an editor to help them with writing their thesis, Gaines may be someone who would be willing to work with a graduate student in this role. Of course, all PC graduate students can work for free with writing coaches at the Learning Commons' Writing Center. Gaines and her website look to be good alternatives if a student wants additional support.