Academic Writing

This week I attended a skype session with guest speaker, Peter Thomas. The main focus of the meeting was to explore academic writing.

'writing is utter solitude, the decent into the cold abyss of oneself.'

Franz Kafka 

Firstly, he got us to experience ‘free writing’. This is where you write continuously about a specific topic for a set amount of time. This method has a number of components to remember;

  • ·         Write in sentences
  • ·         Don’t stop writing in the time period as this helps generate a flow of thought
  • ·         If you don’t know what to write, you can write ‘I don’t know what to write,’ until something comes into your head that is relevant to the topic.
  • ·         Correct language isn’t important
  • ·         Don’t read what you have written until the end.

Our topic was, ‘what is writing?’ Lots of people came up with different things to say about what writing is. But 2 points that came up consistently were;

  • ·         Communication
  • ·         Self-expression

To me it was interesting how these 2 themes came up consistently, but no one had written the exact same sentence about them. Everyone had expressed themselves in different ways but about the same topic.

We went on to talk about the process of writing. There are 3 steps we looked at;

1st- Generate

  • ·         Lists
  • ·         Mind maps
  • ·         Free writing
  • ·         Speaking about it and then noting it down, or using voice to text apps

2nd- Organise

  • ·         Group ideas together
  • ·         Find common themes
  • ·         Map the relationships between ideas

3rd – Present

  • ·         How does it sound
  • ·         Proof read
  • ·         Think about the reader

When writing it is important to ask yourself about the purpose of the text, the context of the writing and who the reader is and how the reader will respond. As Helen pointed out, this is interesting as this is transferable to many different aspects of life. When working, it is important to think about the audience (e.g. reader), the purpose (why we do something) and the context (gives it meaning for each situation).

We spoke about how writing is chaotic. There can be so many different ideas floating about all at once and getting them down and understanding them can be difficult. This is where these three steps come in to help us order our thoughts. 


References
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=OjPjn5qh&id=A4FB20A546730B78D138A1365A7D70EA8A73F0AF&thid=OIP.OjPjn5qhlnzx-VL2s01oIQHaFt&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fapalessandri.files.wordpress.com%2f2014%2f03%2fstart-writing.jpg&exph=567&expw=736&q=quotes+about+writing&simid=608055236342121110&ck=48F08B07400BA96BC6FCC81CEBFCCED4&selectedIndex=14&FORM=IRPRST&ajaxhist=0 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13148-writing-is-utter-solitude-the-descent-into-the-cold-abyss


Comments

  1. Hannah Lees16 October 2020 at 05:13

    Hello Alys, I loved this blog! The way you’ve broken everything down into the different sections, including what is involved in the different stages of academic writing. Really helps so thank you.

    I agree with the free writing section. I find that when I don’t know what to write and write nothing, nothing comes of it. But if I start, even if it’s completely off topic. I can guarantee something on topic will come of it. After being reminded of this I’m excited to try it in coming academic writing tasks.
    Hannah x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alys May-James16 October 2020 at 08:55

      Hi Hannah,
      Yes I found the free writing really beneficial. I think its quite hard to get out of the mental block of 'I don't know what to write,' and then just stare at a screen because I have no inspiration. But by writing something/anything it really helps! Thank you :) Alys x

      Delete
  2. anushkaconway20 October 2020 at 11:05

    Hi Alys! Super informative post, i wasn't able to attend the Skype but i like what you mentioned about the three steps and those are some logical ones that we can transfer into our assignment writing! x

    ReplyDelete

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