Center for Project Management: Responding Academically to TMAs Lawrence Cleary, Patricia Herron, Dr. Íde O’Sullivan, Research Officers for the Regional Writing Center, UL

Material Covered Writing Satisfying Academic Audiences Understanding and Addressing an Academic Assignment Essay Writing 2

Writing What is writing? Define ‘writing’. What are its components? What forms can writing take? What are its stages of development? 3

Ways of Ordering Writing Process —Planning, Drafting, (Discussing / Consulting), Revising, Editing and Proofreading. Rhetorical Situation —Occasion for writing, writer, topic, audience and purpose. Writing Strategies —cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social. 4

The Rhetorical Situation Occasion Writer Topic Audience Purpose 5

Me, an Academic Writer? When given an ‘academic’ writing assignment, or any kind of writing assignment, what are your immediate feelings and thoughts? Freewrite –Write for five minutes without stopping –Private writing 6

Freewriting Write for 5 minutes In sentences Without stopping Private writing -- no one will read it Write about about paper topic or sub-topic Like brainstorming in sentences Structure and coherence not required Explore many angles, do ‘open’ writing (Murray 2006) 7

Satisfying Academic Audiences When someone says academic writing, what features characterize that kind of writing for you? 8

Academic Writing Complexity Formality Objectivity Explicitness Hedging Responsibility Responsibility 9

An Academic Assignment Topic? Aspect or focus? Instruction or comment? Scope? Viewpoint? 10

Writing Prompt Given what you have learned about the assignment question, how will you approach this essay? What will you do first? What then? Include thoughts on what you think you might read? What aspects of your organization might come into your essay? 11

Generative Writing Same as freewriting, but more ‘closed’. Generative writing exercise focuses on one part of your writing assignment. To be read by ‘writing buddy’; ask for specific feedback. 12

Essay Writing Purpose: –to persuade using appeals honored by academics –to explore and explain your understanding of change in the work environment 13

Essay Writing –to explain and argue, for or against, the reductionalist versus the systemic approach to future management problem solving –to use, if appropriate, your existing organisation as an example for such an application 14

Organization and Structure Preliminaries—Title page Body Text –Introduction –Main body –Conclusion End Matter—References/Works Cited page 15

Body Text and Balance Present the arguments for A Who argues for A? Who else? Do they agree on everything? Are their arguments exactly alike? How are they similar; how different? What are the claims and the evidence that supports the claims. Who makes which claims? Present the arguments for B Who argues for B? Who else? Do they agree on everything? Are their arguments exactly alike? How are they similar; how different? What are the claims and the evidence that supports the claims. Who makes which claims? Evaluate the Opposing Arguments By what criteria will you evaluate the evidence? Can you use your experience as criteria? Logic and reason? Previous studies? What are the limits of the value of your evaluations given the criteria used? Conclude with your opinion. Base your opinion on what you discovered during the evaluation of the opposing arguments. 16

Reporting Summaries Quotes Paraphrases 17

Works Cited Bryde, J.D. (2003) “Modelling Project Management Performance”. International Journal of Quality& Reliability Management 20(2): Critical Thinking—Demo, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of South Florida (2005) “Bloom’s Taxonomy Pyramid” [online], available: [accessed: 15 Aug. 2008]. Ebest, S.B., Alred, G.J, Brusaw, C.T. and Oliu, W.E. (2005) Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference Handbook, 5 th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill. Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis, 2 nd ed. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. Senge, P.M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. London: Random House. UEfAP.com (2008) Writing: Rhetorical Functions, Comparing and Contrasting Exercise 2 [online], available: [accessed Aug ]. 18