Strategies to Develop your Writing Íde O’Sullivan Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre

Regional Writing Centre2 Academic-writing workshops Strategies to develop your writing Analysing the assignment title and developing a plan Developing an effective thesis statement. Methods of development and organisation of ideas Using evidence to support your argument Tuesday, 16-17, CG-054

Regional Writing Centre3 Writing support: Drop-ins for students Visit our website ( to check out our tutors and make an appointment. Drop-in to the Writing Centre, C1-065 Mon —2.30 – 4.30 pm Tues – 4.30 pm Wed – 5 pm Thurs – 5 pm Fri —

Regional Writing Centre4 Difficulties associated with writing Anxiety and fear of writing Lack of confidence and motivation Cracking the codes of academic writing Getting started Lack of guidance, practice and feedback Misconceptions of writing –Good writing skills are innate X –Think first, then write X

Regional Writing Centre5 Cracking the codes Analysing the genre/text and modelling Generate a list of –The most important features of academic writing –Criteria to make your writing more effective –The important conventions in your discipline –What is/is not acceptable in your discipline Journal guidelines for contributors

Regional Writing Centre6 Discipline-specific conventions What organisational features/patterns are in evidence? How are arguments and counterarguments presented and structured? What types of evidence are important in this discipline? What stylistic features are prominent? Is the text cohesive? How does the author achieve such cohesion? What kind(s) of persuasive devises does the author employ? Are there noticeable features that can be transferred to other disciplines?

Regional Writing Centre7 Getting started Writing is a process Create time and space for writing Freewriting –Keep writing non-stop for 5 minutes –Write in sentences –Do not edit or censor your writing Prompt –“How I go about writing…” How do you feel? Other prompts: –“The aim of this assignment…”

Regional Writing Centre8 Dialogue about writing Peer-review Generative writing The “writing sandwich” (Murray, 2005:85): writing, talking, writing Writing “buddies” (Murray and Moore, 2006:102) Engaging in critiques of one another’s work allows you to become effective critics of your own work.

Regional Writing Centre9 Strategies that work for you Writing is a personal process Learning diary (Moore and Murphy, 2005:61) Process journal (Elbow and Belanoff, 2003:19) When do you feel most/least motivated to write? What strategies have/have not worked in the past?

Regional Writing Centre10 Strategies that work for you Write a little bit every day (Moore and Murphy, 2005:117) “we learn to write through writing” (Hyland, 2002:81) Writing can be a positive experience Get stuck in

Regional Writing Centre11 Works cited Elbow, P. (1998) Writing without Teachers (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press. Elbow, P. and Belanoff, P. (2003) Being a Writer: A Community of Writers Revisited. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hyland, K. (2002) Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Pearson Education Ltd. Moore, S. and Murphy, M. (2005) How to be a Student: 100 Great Ideas and Practical Hints for Students Everywhere. UK: Open University Press. Murray, R. (2005) Writing for Academic Journals. UK: Open University Press. Murray, R. and Moore, S. (2006) The Handbook of Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. UK: Open University Press.