|
Good writers are good readers. They have absorbed a vast inventory of words, idioms, constructions, tropes, and rhetorical tricks, and with them a sensitivity to how they mesh and how they clash. Steven Pinker, A Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century When students ask me how to become better writers, I often suggest that they work on becoming better readers. I point out that the Ten Writing Priorities are a good place to start: the questions we ask of our own papers throughout the writing process can also be asked of published writing in our disciplines. In other words, as you read books and articles for class or for your dissertation, don’t just read for content. Examine how an author constructs their argument. Asking questions of the texts you read will not only solidify your mastery of their content, but will enable you to see what makes good writing in your field. The Ten Writing Priorities can help you critically examine writing; however, going through all of the Ten Writing Priorities for each reading assignment can be overwhelming. Instead, you can target your reading to one of the priorities. Try some of the following exercises:
These points can be collapsed into three main things to read for:
As you read for style, structure, and intertextuality, mark your copy of that book or article. In other words, reverse-outline whatever you are reading! As you turn the Ten Writing Priorities into the Ten Reading Priorities, you will create models for your own writing. You’ll not only become a better reader, but also a better writer, and a master of the rhetorical situations in your discipline. Tori Dalzell, PhD Tori Dalzell holds a PhD in ethnomusicology (UC Riverside) and a BA in Music and English (Hollins University). She has worked with both undergraduate and graduate students in writing centers since 2012, and views writing as an integral part of professional development for any chosen field. Tori conducted her dissertation research in Nepal on a Fulbright IIE grant (2012-2013), and remains involved as an alumna in UC Riverside’s Latin American Music ensemble, which performs folk and popular music from the Andean region of South America.
Today’s blog describes how weaknesses in main verbs can be compounded when certain “monsters” follow them (burying them). Before we see examples of this burial of weak verbs, though, let us first identify the special, strange parts of speech burying those weak verbs.
Nominalizations Languages evolve in simultaneously dynamic and complex ways. They constantly grow and change, and they always have. One interesting facet of language emerges when we examine how new words get formed by adapting a root word from its original part of speech to be used as some other part of speech. While people might debate the effectiveness of these various specific developments, they (almost) always serve well-established functions. Though they are exotic parts of speech, nominalizations (words turned into nouns from another part of speech) can be very clear at times. Many common nominalizations result from changing verbs into nouns in order to identify their property rather than their action.
How a Verb Becomes “Buried” The action of a more specific word overpowering the verb is sometimes called burying the verb. In many cases (as in the example below), the simplest editing approach involves replacing the relatively empty verb with the original verb form of the nominalized word that follows ir.
Evaluate Your Nominalizations Bad news: as academic writers, complex topics sometimes force us to use exotic parts of speech and some of our most complex descriptions might benefit from their use in moderation. Rather than opposing these complex grammatical forms outright, perhaps we academic writers might find better results when distinguishing between where they function well and where they instead weaken the expression or confuse the reader. We can then not only limit their number but also increase their overall impact. Wherever we detect a nominalization, then we should check its strength and detail in order to compare those measurements against using the related verb instead. Nominalizations are stronger when:
Searching for Buried Verbs Good news! The fact that nominalizations are formed with suffixes can help us to find them more easily, especially if we use the FIND command (control-f on a PC, command-f on a Mac). SEARCH TARGETS -tion, -ment, -ure, -ance, and -ison Happy hunting! May all your buried verbs find new life and power. Daniel Roberts, MAR Though Dan loves to study all different forms of communication, he finds the unique qualities of printed text fascinating. Because of that fascination with printed communications, he thrives when helping students to find ways to review the clarity of their phrasing and wording at the sentence level. His studies in religion, philosophy, history, doctrine, and ecclesiology allow him to help students coming from a wide variety of faith backgrounds to tackle their faith integration concepts in ways that produce clear and detailed text. Some of his research interests include theology, philosophy, religious history, comparative study of world religions, neuropsychology, diet and nutrition, logic (and logical fallacies), organic gardening, slow food, fine cooking, cinematography, screenwriting, and open source software. It was 3:34 p.m. . . . 3:35 p.m. . . . 3:36 p.m., and I was unsure how to move forward in my text. I wrote the words “I was unsure how to move forward,” deleted “forward,” then rewrote “forward” because I didn’t have a better word. I had about 30 minutes before my next appointment, and since I was at work, I needed to spend that time working.
I had done some research on writer’s block and procrastination the semester before. It was more a pet project than a research project with a measurable objective, but then my boss asked me to create a workshop on the topic. The beginning of a purpose! I would focus my research to put together a workshop or blog post--or a linked workshop and blog post! Yes, that could work. And so in the time between appointments, I was to begin this good, measurable, fulfilling work. Instead I filled out my timecard. In this instance, I was a perfect example of both writer’s block and procrastination. When I didn’t have a purpose, I could do research and take notes easily, but when I wanted to produce something for consumption, the fear of not having enough to say or the fear that what I would say was not good enough kept me from thinking about what I could write. This led to procrastination: putting off writing to read more, putting off writing because I had no deadline, putting off writing because I was so in my head that I could not write about anything outside of it. The common view of these writing problems is that writer’s block is a passive state that keeps you from producing material and procrastination is an active state of avoidance, but they are two parts of a cycle fueled by anxiety, shame, and fear. Often procrastination is discussed as a failing of morality or discipline, yet useful solutions are not easily had by the struggling writer. Quips to “just sit down and focus” may help the child close to finishing their spelling homework, but they don’t do anything for the root of the blocked writer’s issues. Instead of compounding shame and fear by putting off work, it is important to see the myths we perpetuate and use active tools to reduce the power this cycle has over us. The following is a list of four common myths and active tools to combat them, but the most effective tool of all is trial and error—if a tool in this list doesn’t work right away, keep trying! Myth #1: A great writer waits for inspiration to strike. If I’m experiencing writer’s block, I should just wait until the muses give me direction. Reality: Muses don’t exist and inspiration is not lightning, although it strikes the unpracticed writer just as often. Waiting to write until you feel the need to write is a recipe for sitting around until the panic of deadlines come upon you. Instead: Try Automatic Writing. Automatic Writing is a style of free writing in which you write without being fully-conscious of the text, originally through hypnotism. Since we can’t all easily find a hypnotist to help us write, try this solo version instead—respond to a writing prompt without crossing words out, erasing, or pausing for 5-10 minutes. If you cannot think of what to say next, repeat whatever word you wrote last or add in whatever thoughts you have. Myth #2: Everyone procrastinates; it isn’t a problem unless you overdo it. Reality: “If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it?” This phrase, so often uttered by TV moms in after-school specials about peer pressure, is so well known it is a cliché, but it is relevant here. While it can be beneficial to take time away from a project, it should be to avoid exhaustion or over-saturation, not to put off working on the project at all. Because at its root procrastination is a behavior born of negative emotion, even if a procrastinator finds they can produce something passable by the deadline, they are putting themselves through an unhealthy practice of increased stress. Rather than putting yourself through this stress with the mindset that your peers are doing it as well and getting good grades, you need to find a way to personalize your writing process. Instead: Form a new practice by writing a little bit every day. Many novelists have their own preferred goal, whether that is 1,000 words a day, 5 pages a day, or 15 minutes a day. For someone who has not gotten into the habit of daily writing, this can seem daunting, so take it slow. Think about what you already do and give yourself a reasonable goal. Have a fifteen minute break between classes MWF? Rather than stopping for a snack or socializing, get to class early and write until your professor starts their lecture. Have a hard time falling asleep? Turn off all screens and then write in a notebook each night until you start to feel drowsy. Find you don’t have the concentration to work on writing during the week? Schedule out an hour every Saturday morning. The most important part of forming a new writing practice is scheduling in dedicated time to work. Myth #3: The goal of the writing process is the product, so why put energy into anything that isn’t in the final draft? Reality: At first, writing multiple drafts may feel like busywork. In these moments, it does seem counterintuitive to rewrite something when you’re really just saying the same thing. Yet the true purpose of revision is not to find different phrasing of ideas, but to challenge your conceptualization of the topic, to rethink the depth of the argument, or to consider how the counterargument would engage with your point of view. Often, the cause of a poorly written paper is less about the writer being insufficient and more about has not been enough thought development. When you put energy into the process, you can find different directions and deepen the work, improving the quality of the final draft far more than touching up a first draft ever could. Instead: To focus on the process, rather than the product, create smaller goals within the overall project. This could mean creating a research question one day, followed by skimming research until you have a source or two per required page, creating a working thesis and outline, followed by a paragraph a day, or setting mini deadlines of when to have each draft. These smaller goals help to induce a feeling of accomplishment or, if you feel the most inspired by a deadline rush, a false feeling of working until the last minute. Myth #4: I’m not a procrastinator, I’m just soooooo busy. I don’t have time to write, so I have to put it off until the night before. Reality: Have you ever sat down to do your homework with the good intention of working ahead, but then suddenly realized that there were many other things you had to do first, requiring you to put it off? Whether you’re juggling school, family, jobs, or all of the above, something seemingly more pressing will always pop up. Sometimes these are truly necessary distractions, like if a child or roommate gets violently ill, your house catches fire, or a hurricane warning forces you to evacuate, but in other cases, the anxiety of writer’s block presents as a feeling of busyness that you cannot shake; even if everything else necessary is taken care of, there is still the show you need to watch before the website locks it, the chapter of assigned reading you have to scan through again because you didn’t understand it, the funny smell coming from the fridge that must be found by emptying, cleaning, and reorganizing the entire kitchen. If you don’t make your long term projects a priority, the busyness of life will always take over. This, however, does not mean that you have to put off the rest of your life to make sure to work for long periods of time. Instead: Try snack writing to fit your longer projects into the natural breaks of your life. It is much more difficult to fit long, drawn-out writing sessions into an already full life, but it is also much more difficult to make those long, drawn out sessions productive. Snack writing means taking smaller, bite-sized sessions throughout the day where it fits. This could be using a dictation app while you drive, taking notes on research during commercial breaks in a show, or drafting for 15 minutes, doing something fun for 15, and continuing with another 15 of drafting. These smaller writing sessions are easier to digest as a writer and easier to schedule into an already busy day, week, month, or semester. Allie Frazier, MFA Allie's passion for helping others in the writing process started with her first coaching experience as a 3rd grade tutor to 2nd graders in her elementary school. Since then, she has earned her BA in Writing from Point Loma Nazarene University and her MFA in Creative Writing Fiction from Chapman University. Now she uses her past experiences of being a paper editor, writing consultant, and grammar TA to guide APU students through the writing process and develop their writers' voices. Remember all those long nights spent staring at a cursor flashing away on your monitor? Nights filled with obsessing over the details of your contents, second guessing your word choices, and watching minutes tick by on the clock? All while your text made little to no progress at all? If you do, then I am sure that you will also remember those nights with dread (and thus hope to never repeat them).
Many factors can slow down the drafting process. Of course, sometimes, we are not sure about the exact details of our contents; delay from that kind of uncertainty is only natural. But what can you do when your comprehension is strong while you are nevertheless struggling to produce words in your rough draft? Unfortunately, more than one answer exists, and these answers range from lacking focus to being in a rush. Your first step will need to be identifying the source of your unique difficulty. Does this moment’s problem result from not finding enough sources (or from not reading them closely enough)? Was your reading sufficient but your notetaking and review less so? One particular problem plagues many adult academic writers: editing word choices while drafting a rough text. This kind of editing while drafting produces wordy constructs, confusing descriptions, and awkward grammatical structures. Remember some of those papers that you got back after those nights of cramming only to find that you missed something obvious in your first sentence? If you (like so many of us) are trying to perfect your wording when you should instead be producing a rough draft, then you might benefit from using these methods that have helped others to avoid these delays. TAKE A LOAD OFF (Allow imperfection) Often, our stress comes from thinking ahead of our immediate steps. We try to finalize a text by fine tuning word choices before the larger structures have taken shape. A sculptor only carves the fine details on a statue after the rough shape is formed. The same should be true for our papers. Don’t expect perfection when you are only sketching in the larger shapes. You are writing a draft, after all! It does not need to be perfect (yet). Consider trying:
CALENDAR YOUR PROJECTS (Planning Your Paper) Many students have drastically less time available than they would prefer for their most complex assignments. As a result, they skip revision entirely, editing text even while drafting. If you find yourself rushing in this way, then consider how our “Planning Your Paper” flier recommends producing the majority of your draft much earlier than most of us ever actually do (at a time halfway into your overall project’s timetable). Will you have all your sources yet? Maybe not. Will your ideas be finalized? Probably not. Will your thoughts be fully developed yet? Unlikely. Will the rough draft have errors? Of course. Despite all these supposed weaknesses, most students find that drafting rough text sooner allows them to better polish their final wording. Remember: drafting earlier leaves more time for review and adjustment! TRY OUTLINING/EXPLORATORY WRITING Even if you feel comfortable with your preferred method of these two, you should still try the opposite method in order to exercise your writing skills more deeply. If you prefer working from an outline, then consider also using exploratory writing to make short notes after reading each source. Vice-versa, if you prefer exploratory drafting, then consider making a simple annotated outline to split into chunks that you can draft individually in a free (but slightly more focused and organized) manner, like “Background Terminology” or “Discussion of Findings.” EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT MEDIA Sometimes the biggest source of delay in our writing is discomfort with typing at a keyboard! Try producing text in different ways:
IMAGINE A DIFFERENT AUDIENCE What’s wrong with imaging the professor (or other experts) while we draft?
These ideas (alone or in combination) should provide interesting methods for re-thinking any difficulties that have been increasing your drafting times. Good speed to you on your coming projects! Daniel Roberts, MAR Though Dan loves to study all different forms of communication, he finds the unique qualities of printed text fascinating. Because of that fascination with printed communications, he thrives when helping students to find ways to review the clarity of their phrasing and wording at the sentence level. His studies in religion, philosophy, history, doctrine, and ecclesiology allow him to help students coming from a wide variety of faith backgrounds to tackle their faith integration concepts in ways that produce clear and detailed text. Some of his research interests include theology, philosophy, religious history, comparative study of world religions, neuropsychology, diet and nutrition, logic (and logical fallacies), organic gardening, slow food, fine cooking, cinematography, screenwriting, and open source software. Doctoral students often come into the writing center with questions about formatting their dissertations. Most of them know how to navigate their discipline’s formatting and style guide, but they do not always know that they are required to follow APU’s dissertation formatting guide as well. Even when students know to use both, they might not know how to resolve potential conflicts between them. This blog both explains how a discipline’s style guide works with APU’s guide and outlines some of the advice I’ve given in appointments for using these two guides together. While I refer only to APU’s dissertation formatting guide in this text, these principles can also apply to formatting master’s theses. Why a dissertation formatting guide? You’re probably wondering why you’re required to use APU’s guide in addition to your discipline’s standard style guide. Why not just use one all-inclusive guide and call it a day?
So, now that you understand why dissertation formatting guides exist, here are some steps that you can take to ease combining APU’s guide and your discipline’s style guide. Possible steps:
Happy dissertating! Tori Dalzell, PhDTori Dalzell holds a PhD in ethnomusicology (UC Riverside) and a BA in Music and English (Hollins University). She has worked with both undergraduate and graduate students in writing centers since 2012, and views writing as an integral part of professional development for any chosen field. Tori conducted her dissertation research in Nepal on a Fulbright IIE grant (2012-2013), and remains involved as an alumna in UC Riverside’s Latin American Music ensemble, which performs folk and popular music from the Andean region of South America.
As a graduate student, you may find that many jobs, internships, scholarships, and graduate/ professional programs ask for a written personal statement. If you're feeling overwhelmed, then rest assured this blog post will explain the purpose of this type of writing and offer helpful tips to get you started on your writing journey. Getting started The first step to writing your personal statement is to understand the purpose. Although requirements vary by program, the general purpose of a personal statement is to highlight your strengths, goals, qualifications, and ability to write clearly and concisely. This is your opportunity to leave an impression on your reader and give them a feel for who you truly are. The next step is to consider the audience. I usually picture a tired, overworked reader, surrounded by essays and empty coffee cups, who longs to read something interesting. So now that you've established your purpose and audience, what's next? Working through your personal writing process, of course! Pre-Writing The pre-writing stage is your time to identify and shape the information you want to include in your essay. During this stage, many writers find brainstorming techniques such as listing, clustering, and freewriting a great way to generate ideas. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you begin gathering ideas.
Once you've come up with ideas, it's time to sort through them and plan a structure. Many students find writing an outline a helpful tool for structuring their paper. The pre-writing stage is extremely important because good writing is focused and clear, so I highly recommend deciding on the message you want to send your reader before beginning the next stage of the writing process, drafting. Drafting The drafting stage consists of putting words on paper. Your goal during this stage is to convey your message in a way that makes your message clear and memorable for the reader. However, give yourself permission to write a terrible first draft because you can always go back and revise. One genre that fits perfectly with personal statement writing is the narrative. Narrative writing focuses on sending a message through an entertaining story, so you'll want to find an experience from your life that perfectly illustrates your message. For example, if I told you that I was an honest person, you might believe me yet remain unimpressed. However, if I told you about a time when I'd found a purse with a thousand dollars inside and I returned it to its owner, you might think, oh wow! She's really honest. Letting a story convey your message will make your point more memorable for your reader than just stating it. The best way to tell a story is to think of an experience that illustrates your point and then create a movie version of that experience. You can use some narrative writing tips to help your reader feel like they are right there with you during the experience. For example, using dialogue and descriptive words are great ways to immerse your reader in your experience. Once you've told your story, you're almost done. You just need that final paragraph to conclude your writing and really cement your message. This conclusion paragraph is your place to summarize your message into one sentence that explicitly states the ideas you've implied through your story. We call this sentence the delayed thesis because it carefully articulates your main point. Often this main point is revealed through a realization that occurred during the experience you described. In the personal statement, it's important that the realization connect to the personal trait, goal, or qualification that makes you a perfect fit for the program or school in which you are applying. You can also use this space to connect your past experience with your future, showing your reader that your skills will transfer to their program and help you to accomplish your goals and be a valuable asset to their program. I know there is a lot to try to accomplish in one short essay, but keep in mind that readers will learn a lot about you without you having to tell them. That is why the next stage of the writing process, revision, is so important. Revising The revision stage, is a re-visioning, or re-seeing of ideas. This is a great time to really consider your audience and how they might respond to your words. Also, as you continue to read and reread your writing, you can look for ways to manipulate your story to show those characteristics that you want your reader to see in you. For example, if you want to show that you have a great sense of humor, even though that isn't the main message, you can sprinkle bits of humor throughout without it overtaking the story. During this stage of the writing process, many writers adopt the A.R.R.R. strategy: add, rearrange, remove, replace. Also, remember that you have more than one try at this.You can write first, second, and third drafts and show them to friends, or better yet, bring them into the Writing Center where we are happy to work with any student at any stage of the writing process. Editing This brings us to the last stage of the writing process, editing. This stage focuses on increasing clarity by going through your writing, line-by-line, keeping in mind the importance of avoiding repetition, using concise language, and eliminating grammar mistakes. Some techniques to help you in this stage are reading your writing aloud and reading from the bottom of the page to the top. Big pictures are made up of minor strokes, so carefully check the small details in your writing to leave a strong overall impression. The writing process isn't always a linear one and allowing yourself to move freely through the different stages can help reduce writing anxiety during the drafting stage. Good luck with your writing, and I hope to see you in the Writing Center soon!  Jamie Poole, MA
Jamie has both a B.A. and an M.A. in English. She’s taught writing for over 15 years to a diverse body of students from at-risk youth to the CEOs of high profile companies. She believes that writing helps students become more critical thinkers, better communicators, and more persuasive pundits. When not working as a Writing Consultant, she is working on her own writing. Most writers can improve their academic texts by re-examining the audience that the academic writing style usually presumes. This benefit can be especially useful for those new to this complex process (or newly-returned to it). While many other useful tools and reflections can help you make use of the concept of the audience at many various stages, this blog article specifically focuses on how the debate about citing Wikipedia articles reveals more than a few key goals for academic writing. Generally, citations enable readers to further explore the sources that contributed to the research. Citations of Wikipedia, in many academic writers’ minds, specifically violate a handful of best practices in our academic writing processes.
All that being said, feel free to use Wikipedia as a tertiary research tool. Use it for quick reminders. Use it when on the go. Use it to explore connected topics between individual article readings.I personally hope that many, many professional academic writers continue to engage with the wikis and sub-wikis in their field, offering improvements as they see fit. Then, somewhat like its bigger siblings the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and Google Scholar, this tool could also come to play a valuable role in future scholarship….just don’t cite it in your class projects!  Dan Roberts, MAR
Dan received his BA and MAR in Religion. These helped him develop a deep respect for the power of communication through the written word. His academic writings have included studies of the Magical Realism literary genre, films using multiple media, and post-existentialism. He loves to assist students in finding better ways to express their thoughts in a clear and effective style. The day I was told I would not be allowed to complete my undergraduate honors thesis, I most remember feeling my throat clenching and my advisor (then PLNU professor), Dr. Mike Clark, walking into the room shaking his head. It wasn’t far enough along. He vouched for me, but the rest of my committee didn’t believe I could manage the rest of the work in the limited time frame left. And so I would not be finishing my paper. I would not be published. I would not be graduating with honors. Senior year had been rough for me with tumultuous relationships, bouts of illness, and undiagnosed anxiety. It was this anxiety that had paralyzed my writing process the most, and, after failing something so important, it made recognizing my strengths difficult. While my failure made me fear that I was not prepared for life after academia, it is also what pushed me to learn what I needed to do to succeed in the future. Before that failure, I hadn’t realized how bad of a student I was. Now don’t get me wrong, I have always been great at school, getting good grades and ranking high in my class, but I was a terrible student nonetheless. I relied on my latent abilities instead of honing my talents. I took literature classes but didn’t read all of the texts. I saved studying until the night before an exam and memorized the facts without understanding them. I wrote assignments that required three drafts and just made the first draft worse––twice––to look like I revised it. That process got me As and the occasional B, so I didn’t see the need to question my learning style. Why question talent? Why question learning by osmosis? If I could produce an entire fiction portfolio in a single night and get an A, what could possibly stop me? But then, as life is wont to do, it gave me the answers to those questions like a push down the stairs. Talent doesn’t help you when you are staring at a blank screen or deleting pages of text that you no longer feel “flow.” You can’t gain perspective through osmosis. And you certainly cannot change directions of your year-long project in January and hope to be ready to edit and proofread by March. Realizing so late in my education that I hadn’t learned to be a better student scared me, but knowing that I was attending grad school in the fall made me determined to do better, if only to prove my worth. This meant I needed to change.  While I was not published, Dr. Clark interceded for me to present at the Honors Conference and graduate with the Honors medal. His support and faith in me helped to fuel my desire to succeed the next time. Step 1: setting an end goal The first step I took was setting my end goal. The MFA thesis requirement was a minimum of 150 pages of either a completed short story collection or an in-progress novel. We had until the end of our first year to write our thesis proposal and select a thesis director, then a semester to reach our directors’ personal requirements before beginning our mentorship. To be honest, I wrote out the timeline, the course requirements, how I could achieve my goals, and how to plan for the next semesters, but my anxiety gave me writer’s block whenever I tried to do something concrete, holding me back from completing those realistic goals. By the end of that first year, I worked too long on perfecting my proposal, and then my preferred director’s load was full. I wanted change, but the goal wasn't enough. I had to move beyond the planning to action. Step 2: taking care of yourself That summer, I then began the next step--taking care of myself physically and mentally. I realized that it didn’t matter what boundaries and schedules I set up for myself as long as I was still fighting panic attacks and the physical illness that they caused. The summer after I submitted my proposal, I went to a therapist and learned coping mechanisms. While this helped me, everyone’s self-care will take a different form, whether it is reducing stress, saying no to taking on new responsibilities, or going on a doctor-prescribed medication. Once I was given the tools to deal with my anxiety, I was finally able to work toward my goal and learn how to balance procrastination with work. Step 3: active learning tools That third step, balancing procrastination by using active learning tools, was all about retraining myself to do what my professors had lectured about in undergrad. I read novels to better understand how others who came before me created worlds. I created notecards of details and pieces of evidence so that I could plan the plot. I set a weekly page range to reach, a date by which I wanted the work completed, and a schedule in which to write. I was even able to choose my fiction workshops’ due dates around when I thought I would have sections completed. I was no longer writing for a looming deadline but instead for specific gains and in reasonable bursts of time. I was finally making progress. Step 4: forgiveness The fourth step then came at the beginning of my final semester—I needed to forgive myself when I did not always meet my new expectations. I know now that I should not have been surprised when I did not make the goal of 150 quality pages in five months; I had created a plan like someone picking up a gym membership on Saturday and expecting to run a marathon Sunday. At first as I saw the potential of not reaching the mark, I beat myself up over it—--Another week and all I did was revise? Two months left and I’m going backward in page count?—--but then I started to recognize the work I was actually doing. I remembered how much my first chapters had changed and that the character development within had been important enough to spend that time on it. I wasn’t wasting away time anymore, I was creating a better foundation. Step 5: accountability Once I met with my advisor for the first time, the final step, creating accountability, was easy to implement. I knew that I needed someone pushing me to produce and revise moving forward because I did not yet have that internal discipline. We created a plan: every two weeks, we would meet to discuss the comments on what I had turned in the meeting before, then I would give him a new chapter as well as the revision based on the previous round of notes. The timing kept me on track and the personal relationship kept me both engaged and positive about what I was producing. I found out later that other students were working primarily on their own. They did not all struggle as I would have, but they still had to look elsewhere for their accountability, either from their own internal drive, other professors, or friends who served as sounding boards and readers. As my academic career came to a close that semester, I could see how differently my grad school and undergrad experiences ended. Failing my undergraduate honors thesis was not just poignant because I had never failed so completely before; I was a Writing major with the dream of writing novels––if I could not complete a 20-30 page thesis, how could I expect to be able to complete anything larger? By setting goals, taking care of my body and mind, using active learning tools, forgiving myself, and creating accountability, I was not only able to reach the 150 page minimum for my Master’s thesis, but my finished novel was an additional 50 pages over that goal. I learned that I could not continue relying on perceived inherent talent, but instead had to learn which tools would best help me and support my learning style. Even now after finishing school, I am still on this journey of becoming a better student and I hope to continue making my mentors and myself proud.  Allie Frazier, MFA
Allie earned her BA in Writing from Point Loma Nazarene University and her MFA in Creative Writing Fiction from Chapman University. Now she uses her past experiences of being a paper editor, writing consultant, and grammar TA to guide APU students through the writing process and develop their writers' voices. A large-scale study of 70,000 students at 80 colleges and universities showed that students’ use of the writing center is one of the 15 most effective writing practices for learning (Anderson, Gonyea, Anson, and Paine, 2015). Between 22% and 42% more students who benefited from these effective writing practices, compared with students not benefitting from these writing strategies, reported greater college learning. Writing centers regularly practice most of these effective writing strategies (see chart below), especially those on the Meaning Making writing dimension.  Anderson, P., Gonyea, R. M., Anson, C. M., & Paine, C. (2015). Contribution of writing to learning and development: Results from a large-scale multi-institutional study. Research in the Teaching of English, 50, 199-235. When you visit the writing center, writing coaches can help you summarize, analyze, describe, argue, or explain your thesis, and to ascertain if it the paper is written it in the appropriate genre. The writing coaches can also help you clarify your instructors’ directions regarding your writing projects. Writing centers are part of an evidence-based model of effective writing practices associated with college learning. Visit the writing center and we can help you apply the most effective writing practices to all your writing projects.  Jesús Salazar, Ph.D.
Jesús holds a B.A. (Pyschology) from Pitzer College, M.A. from UC Santa Cruz (Social and Development Psychology), and Ph.D. from USC (Educational Research). He taught five years at the USC School of Education, where he read hundreds of term papers. He worked 25 years at the L.A. Unified School District as a report writer, statistician, and database manager. He retired, but chose to work at APU’s Writing Center due to his writing background. His two passions are reading about history, economics, languages, and eschatology; and spending time with his family.  "I’m a terrible writer.” “I was writing this paper at 3am.” As writing coaches, we often hear students try to warn us that their writing is horrible, but as we read through the papers, we see that is not the case at all. Many students who meet with us in the Writing Center lack confidence in their abilities because of various factors. However, as graduate students, it is vital to learn ways to increase your confidence in order to make the writing process much more enjoyable and effective (especially because you will be doing a ton of writing throughout your program!). Here are some tips to help you develop your confidence as a writer: Understand that Writing is an Art Many students writing insecurities have been reinforced over the years by “the red pen”... you know, the one professors use to highlight all the weaknesses in our papers? While writing requires students to understand both the requirements of the assignment as well as the changing expectations and preferences of each professor, assignments don’t define writers. Writing is a creative art form in which beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others Comparing ourselves to others, in any area, more often than not leads to increased self-doubt. This is especially true for writers when they compare their first draft to someone else’s final draft. We can look to others for inspiration and motivation, but as one writer explains, “The only writer you should compare yourself to is the writer you were yesterday”. Remember that Writing Doesn’t Have to be Perfect Robert Cormier makes a great point about writing as he states, “The beautiful part about writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time… unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” You can take much of the pressure off of yourself by understanding that it’s okay if your writing isn’t perfect and that you can always make revisions later if needed. Understand that Writing is a Process If we had to eat a huge hamburger in one bite, I’m sure we would feel very overwhelmed. In the same way, we easily become overwhelmed when we approach a paper as one large project.That is why it’s vital to approach your paper as a multi-step process. Prewriting, drafting, and revising are all key pieces of the writing process that will assist you in successfully accomplishing your assignments. For more information on how to plan for your paper, click here. Take a Productive Break As you’re drafting and revising, spending time away from the paper can help give you clarity and also provides a mental break. You can make your breaks productive by doing activities that help boost your creativity or that are relaxing. Seek Helpful Feedback Visiting the Writing Center is also a good way to take a productive break. A writing coach or a peer can help you identify gaps in reasoning, unclear sentences, and other issues. You can then use this feedback to continue revising your paper. Remember that Change Happens One Day at a Time Practice makes progress, and improvement happens over time. Have realistic expectations for yourself, track your progress, and celebrate your achievements!  Laci Corzo, MA
Laci is passionate about helping students grow academically, professionally, and spiritually. After earning her BA in Communication Studies from APU, she went on to earn her MA in the same field. She has worked as a Student Advisor, an Online Teaching Assistant, a Professor, and now as a Writing Consultant in the Writing Center. |
Archives
February 2018
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
