1. Introduction to Academic Writing
Lawrence Cleary , Co-director
Regional Writing Center, UL

2. Writing What is writing? Define ‘writing’. What is it for?
What are its component parts?
What are its various forms?
What are its stages of development?
This conversations is to instigate some exploration of the depth and breadth of ‘writing’. If we are to think in terms of Plato’s ideal forms, the images conjured in the minds of those contemplating ‘writing’ ranges from ‘penmanship’ or ‘calligraphy’ to ‘poetry’ or ‘writing to express one’s emotions, ideas, and thoughts’.
What is it? A way of communicating?
What are its components?—letters/sounds, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, essays, books, volumes, libraries. Its forms?—taking notes, reporting what others have said, responding to their ideas, recording where you got a bit of information, a way of thinking or a quote, reporting how two authors agree on some of the larger issues, but not on some of the less obvious issues, evlauting an argument, concluding. What does it involve? What are the stages of its development?—planning, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading; handing it in, having it read, receiving feedback, and carrying that feedback forward into the next assignment: taking control of your learning; scaffolding your learning; setting learning goals.

3. Material Covered Process to Product Rhetorical Context
Characteristics of Academic Language

4. 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.
Ways of organizing your thoughts around any given writing exercise and around your development as a writer.
As it is with ideas that you try to organize for your reader, you need to have ways of ordering your ideas about how you will approach each occasion for writing, how you will develop strategies that allow you to accomplish goals as you write and how you evaluate those accomplishments in terms of how suitably you met your goals in relation to the context into which you write.
The right way to write is the way that works. If it ain’t working, what are you going to fix? Examining one’s own process and how well one evaluates the situation into which one writes will inevitably help the writer to identify strategies that are not working and which need revision. Evaluating strategies, like evaluating the rhetorical situation, is a cognitive skill.

5. Writing Strategies Cognitive Metacognitive Affective Social
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6. Process
Writer-based writing
Reader-based writing

7. Writer-based Writing
Pre-writing
Drafting

8. Pre-writing Assess the context into which you are writing
Identifying a topic
Gathering information: reading and taking notes

9. The Rhetorical Situation
Occasion
Writer
Topic
Audience
Purpose
The occasion in this case is TM1
Time: 6th of Sept. to 22nd of Sept.
Space: 2000 words
Nature: Academic essay: argumentative/balanced
Purpose: to persuade
Audience: Academic audience/assessors of your understanding of the discourses/topic and of your ability to communicate appropriately (to an academic audience that studies the same topics that you study).
Topic: change in the work environment (in the context of the discipline of Project Management—discourses: Business/Managment/Project Management/the work environment/change in the work environment)
Writer: What writing do I do now? What kind of writing do I do? What do I know about academic writing? How quickly do I learn? How quickly do I read? How well do I express my understanding of something that I have read? How quickly do I write essays? What do I know? What do I need to know? And how long is going to take to get me up to speed? Knowing the answers to these last three will help to determine the time one needs to factor into your plan or strategy for completing a quality essay that meets or exceeds the expectations of the intended academic audience in the time alloted.

10. Drafting
Developing the topic and locating a problem (your thesis statement)
Formulating a stance and defending your turf
Developing your understanding of the context and developing a structure for your argument

11. Reader-based Writing Revision: re-seeing the paper
Structuring the argument so that the audience will get it.
Refining the logical flow of ideas
Editing and Proofreading: preparing for submission as a product
Explaining it to other people
Who are you talking to?

12. Order
What organises your text?

13. The Thesis Question  Answer Claim  Defence Problem  Solution
Hypothesis  Text  Affirmation/Negation
16 days to write 2000 words.
Subject matter or topic. What, in the most general terms, is the question about?
Aspect or focus. This is the angle or point of view on the subject matter. What aspect of the subject matter is the question about?
Instruction or comment. This refers to the instruction word or phrase. These instructions tell the student exactly what to do.
Some questions also contain the following components:
Restriction or expansion of the subject matter. This is the detailed limitation of the topic. What, in specific terms, is the question about?
Viewpoint. This refers to the requirement, in the question, that the writer writes from a point of view dictated by the setter of the question.
What is this assignment asking us to do? What is the topic, the aspect, if any? What is the instruction or comment,. Is there any thing in the instructions that indicate that the assignment wants you to limit or expand on the topic to any assigned degree? Do the instructions ask you to adopt any particular point of view?

14. Writing Prompt How will you address your thesis?
If a question, how will you establish that the question is important enough to try to answer?
How do you know that this question hasn’t been already answered a million times? How do you justify asking it again?
How will you establish that your way of answering the question is a valid way of answering it?
What evidence will make the answer convincing?
If you were to try to answer the question in a certain way, what would you expect to find?
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15. Organization and Structure
Preliminaries—Title page
Body Text
Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
End Matter—References/Works Cited page

16. Structuring your Argument
So how are each of these sections going to carry the argument?
Title page
Table of contents
List of tables, figures (diagrams, charts)
Acknowledgements
Abstract.
Introduction and rationale for investigation 2000 words
A concise and thorough literature review 4000 words
A research methods chapter 2000 words
Results chapter(s) 3500 words each
Conclusions, discussion and recommendations 3500 words
Bibliography
Any appendices
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17. Me, an Academic Writer?
When thinking of yourself as an academic writer, what thoughts and emotions are evoked?
Freewrite
Write for five minutes without stopping
Private writing
First, Writing prompt: feelings and thoughts…Are you up for it? Does the thought of it cause you anxiety? Do you panic? Are you lost? Are you familiar with the genre or is it something you have to learn about?
5 minutes’ writing
In sentences, but don’t worry about grammar, punctuations, spelling etc. Just express whatever comes into your head around this prompt.
Private writing -- no one will read it
To be discussed in pairs/groups

18. Satisfying Academic Audiences
When someone says academic writing, what features characterize that kind of writing for you?
Second, a discussion/ get groups to make a list of features—put on board.

19. Academic Writing Complexity Formality Objectivity Explicitness Hedging
Responsibility
Features of Academic Writing (handout)

20. Academic Writing Purpose:
to persuade using appeals honored by academics
to explore and explain your understanding of change in the work environment
Persuasion is best served in this community by an honest, scientific approach to discovering truth values.

21. Argumentative Writing
to explain and argue, for or against, the reductionist versus the systemic approach to future management problem solving
to use, if appropriate, your existing organisation as an example for such an application
Visualize this paper.
Where will you explore and explain your understanding of change in the work environment? Where will you explain and argue, for or against, the reductionalist versus the systemic approach to future management problem solving? Where will you bring your existing organisation as an example for such an application into your paper? Physically, were will it go?

22. Types of Arguments Argument from definition
Argument for similarity/difference
Argument for cause/effect
Evaluation arguments—morality/ethics, etc.
Argument for imperatives: should

23. 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?
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.
Avoid bias. If you go in preferring one side over the other, be open-minded until after you have honestly evaluated the claims made on both sides. This community does not honor the “correct” answer; they honor the answer containing evidence that supports “truth” values.

24. Reporting Summaries Quotes Paraphrases
Summarize the passage, using a reporting phrase to introduce it.
Use the summary to introduce the quote.
Paraphrase a sentence or two from the passage.

25. Write what you’re ready to write!
If you have a rough idea of what your thesis statement is, freewrite in order to work out the questions you’ll need to answer in order to answer your big question.
Write for five minutes, don’t stop
Don’t edit or sensor (private writing)
Write in complete sentences (thoughts)
Let your mind range over various angles (open)
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26. Time/Space
Good writers use strategies for filling the required space in an allotted time.
Strategies for filling space can be reduced to two tasks:
Ringfencing
Freewheeling
(Murray 2002)
Murray, R. (2002) How to Write a Thesis, Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press.
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27. Ringfencing Outlining—a way of ringfencing space
1st Level Outline
2nd Level Outline
3rd Level Outline
Outline in terms of the Research Proposal
Rationale
Objectives
A working set of questions, themes or issues
Indicative literature review
Methodology
Work with the Proposal
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28. Freewheeling
Freewriting, Generative Writing, Writing to Prompts—ways of filling space
Freewriting—for getting going, for exploring possibilities, for getting ideas out before they disappear, developing fluency, increasing confidence
Generative Writing—for getting focused, developing drafts, for working out how to best organize complex ideas, for working out complicated arguments
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29. 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.
Get some ideas of how free-writing and generative writing can be used as writing-strategies—during what stage/what situations? Put on board:
To get started
To explore possibilities
To silence the ‘internal editor’ temporarily
To develop confidence
To develop fluency
To work out a complex argument
To do rough drafting

30. Works Cited
Bryde, J.D. (2003) “Modelling Project Management Performance”. International Journal of Quality& Reliability Management 20(2):
Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis, 2nd 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 ].