Download - MSc. Psychology Professional Skills
Regional Writing Centre 1
MSc. PsychologyProfessional
Skills
Íde O’SullivanRegional Writing Centre, UL
www.ul.ie/rwc
Regional Writing Centre 2
Writing Critiques of presentations Reviews of articles Literature reviews
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Key Considerations
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The writing process Prewriting Drafting Revision Editing and Proofreading
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Prewriting Planning
Evaluating the rhetorical situation, or context, into which you write
Choosing and focusing your topic Establishing an organising principle
Gathering information Entering the discourse on your topic Taking notes as a strategy to avoid charges of
plagiarism Evaluating sources
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Planning: Assessing the rhetorical situation Occasion Topic Audience Purpose Writer
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Stylistic differences that mark academic writing
Complexity Formality Objectivity Accuracy
Precision Explicitness Hedging Responsibility
(Gillet 2008)
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Planning: Analysing journals Cracking the codes of academic writing Analysing the genre/text and modelling Identify important criteria that will make
your writing more effective Ask yourself the following questions:
How is the paper structured? How is the contribution articulated? What level of context is provided? What level of detail is used? How long are the different sections?
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Planning: Analysing journals What organisational features/patterns are in
evidence? How are arguments and counterarguments
presented and structured? What types of evidence are important? 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? Voice?
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Drafting Try to visualise your report. Work toward that
vision. Begin to structure it—establish your section
headings; give them titles. These do not have to be permanent.
Examine the logical order of ideas reflected in those titles.
Do not get hung up on details; elements of the draft are subject to change in the revision stage.
Start to write the sections that you are ready to write.
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Drafting Continue to reassess your rhetorical
situation. Does what you have written so far
contribute to the achievement of your purpose?
Experiment with organisation and methods of development.
Don’t get bogged-down in details; focus on the big issues: organisation and logical flow.
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Revision Is your paper logically organised?
A good way to check the logical flow of your ideas is to outline your report AFTER you’ve completed your draft.
How did you introduce your topic? By giving it definition? Describing its development? Explaining what it is?
Does each section contribute to your reader’s understanding of your topic? Does your report service your purpose, aims, and objectives?
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Revising Outline each section. How does each
paragraph contribute to our understanding of the topic of that section?
Take a close look at paragraphs: Does each paragraph have a central idea? Does it have unity? Is it coherent and well developed?
Is there a correspondence between the title of your report, your section headings and sub-headings and the central ideas in your paragraphs?
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Revising Do the methods used to illuminate your topic lead
to logical discovery? No truths are self-evident. Claims have to be defended with evidence.
Processes have to be described and explained; Design features and research methods have to be
justified; The justification for generalisations and conclusions
need to be made explicit; The criteria used to qualify our results also needs to
be explicitly put forward and evaluated for objectivity; Underlying assumptions need to be evaluated for
their objectivity.
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Editing and proofreading Once the report is cogent, it must be made
to be coherent. Work methodically, checking one feature
at a time. Do not exclude formatting issues. Editing and proofreading is more than just
grammar and punctuation; it is also about voice, rhythm, tone, style and clarity.
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Editing and proofreading Check for ambiguity Check for comma splices, run-ons, stringy sentences and
fragments. Check for how sentences introduce new information: is it in
the beginning of the sentence or at the end? Check that you use sentence types that are appropriate for
your discipline. Check word order and usage. Check for agreement: Subject/verb; pronoun or noun
substitute/ antecedent or concatenation. Check for bias. Check for obstacles to clarity:
Poorly chosen words Vague references Clichés and trite language Jargon Inappropriate connotations
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Editing and proofreading Check for plagiarism
Check the form of your in-text citations and of your full references in your References page.
Check the content of your citations. Is everything that should be there there?
Check that paraphrases are not too close to the original.
Check that all figures, tables and graphs are captioned and cited (below figures and graphs; above tables)
Check that any borrowed ideas, words or methods of organising information are referenced and clearly marked.
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Logical choices and unity of purpose Every choice serves to defend a claim,
answer a question, or confirm a hypothesis Word, phrase, sentence-structure
Does the choice satisfy audience expectations Does it speak to your authorial credibility Does it further your argument, analysis,
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Arguments & logic A good argument will have, at the very least:
a thesis that declares the writer's position on the problem at hand;
an acknowledgment of the opposition that nods to, or quibbles with other points of view;
a set of clearly defined premises that illustrate the argument's line of reasoning;
evidence that validates the argument's premises; a conclusion that convinces the reader that the
argument has been soundly and persuasively made. (Dartmouth Writing Program 2005)
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Flow Logical method of development Effective transition signals Good signposting Consistent point of view Conciseness (careful word choice) Clarity of expression Paragraph structure
Unity Coherence
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Writing a Critique
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Writing a critique Making a claim Argument Evidence Counterargument Audience Reference to the literature Critical reading Evaluation Synthesis Credibility
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Useful Strategies
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Getting started Where and when do you write? Why are you not writing?
“I don’t feel ready to write.” Writers’ block
Getting unstuck Writing to prompts/freewriting (write
anything) Set writing goals Write regularly Integrate writing into your thinking Break it down into a manageable
process
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Outlining (Murray 2006) Title and draft introduction Level 1 outlining
Main headings Level 2 outlining
Sub-headings Level 3 outlining
Decide on content
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Writing in layers (Murray 2006: 125-27)
Outline the structure: write your section heading for the research paper.
Write a sentence or two on the contents of each section.
List out sub-headings for each section. Write an introductory paragraph for each
section. At the top of each section, write the word
count requirement, draft number and date.
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Writing a ‘page 98 paper’ My research question is … Researchers who have looked at this subject
are … They argue that … Debate centres on the issue of … There is work to be done on … My research is closest to that of X in that … My contribution will be …
(Murray 2006:104)
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Dialogue about writing Peer-review Generative writing The “writing sandwich” (Murray 2005:85):
writing, talking, writing Writing “buddies” (Murray and Moore
2006:102) Writers’ groups Engaging in critiques of one another’s work
allows you to become effective critics of your own work.
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Resources Ebest, S.B., Alred, G., Brusaw, C.T. and Oliu, W.E. (2005)
Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference Handbook, 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hacker, D. (2006) A Writer’s Reference, 6th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.
Regional Writing Centre, UL http://www.ul.ie/rwc/ Strunk, W. and White, E.B. (2000) The Elements of Style,
4th ed. New York: Longman. Using English for Academic Purposes
http://www.uefap.com/index.htm The Writer’s Garden http://www.
cyberlyber.com/writermain.htm The OWL at Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/depts /wcweb/handouts/index.html
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Works cited Dartmouth Writing Program (2006) “Logic and
Argument” [Online], available: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/toc.shtml [accessed 08 Jan. 2008].
Elbow, P. (1998) Writing without Teachers (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
Murray, R. (2005) Writing for Academic Journals. UK: Open University Press.
Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis (2nd edition). UK: Open University Press.
Murray, R. and Moore, S. (2006) The Handbook of Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. UK: Open University Press.