Academic Literacies 2

Lecture Week 11
Assessment
 Worksheets and lab participation 30%
 Worksheet 5 to be completed in lab in Week 11
 Argument analysis (20%)
 Portfolio (50%)
 Submit final drafts
 Complete critical reflection

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Portfolio
 Initiate and develop an academic writing and research plan,
including a detailed timeline for these two writing assignments.
Prepare an outline of each of theses writing assignments, identifying
the organising principle of each and the method of development and
organisation (300 words per assignment). Week 6 submission
(10%)
 Submit drafts of each of these two assignments for peer review and
tutor review. Drafts must comprise a minimum of three pages.
Grades will be rewarded for participating in the peer-review session
as both a writer and a peer-reviewer.
Week 7 and Week 9 in class (20%)
 Revise both of your writing assignments based on the feedback
given to you by your peers and your tutor. Include this redraft of
both in your portfolio.
Week 12 submission (5%)
 Write a reflection on this process-approach to writing (800 words
max).
Week 12 submission (15%)
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Reflective writing
 Think critically about past events and your
own learning journey.
 Allows for objectivity to do things
differently and better without seeing
problems as a result of personal
inadequacy.
 Supports you in making sense of diverse
sets of experiences.

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Key elements to include
(Wilson & Bedford, 2009)

 An analysis of what went well, why it worked and

what you achieved.
 What could have been better and how you would
achieve this. Be honest – knowing what went
wrong shows you have learned from the situation
– explain rather than blame!
 Links that you can make between the theory that
you have learned and what happened in practice
 What you have learned and what you will do
differently in the future – may be a formal action
plan or an informal note about changes you would
make and how you will know you have improved

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Model of reflection – Driscoll (2000)
What is the purpose of returning to
the situation?
What?
What exactly happened?
Returning to
What did you do?
the situation
What did other people do?

What were you feeling at the time?

So what? What are you feeling now?
Understanding Are there any differences?
the context What were the effects of what you did
or did not do?
What emerged from the situation?

Now what? What are the implications for you?

Modifying future What needs to happen to alter the
outcomes situation?
What are you going to do about it?
What would you do differently?
Reflective writing – key tips
 Writing style
 Reflective
 Logical
 Personal Balance
 Hypothetical
 Critical
 Balance between theory/academic evidence and
experience/personal
Reflective writing – key tips
 Modes of writing and language:
 Descriptive
 Explanatory
 Expressive
Some examples
 http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/stude
ntsupport/ask/resources/handouts/written
assignments/filetodownload,73259,en.pdf
The writing process
For example:
Writing and
research plan
Timeline
Outlining

Other
reflections
???
Reflection: Grading criteria
 Critically reflects on how the strategies developed
throughout the module and in the compilation of
the portfolio can help advance their writing.
 Addresses changes in their writing process,
including adjustments to any ineffective
strategies.
 Gives specific examples of how the process was
useful/not useful.

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Problematic sentences
Building effective sentences
Word choice
Clarity and conciseness
Punctuation

“Residents refuse to go in the bins.”

(Truss 2009:ix)

“A woman, without her man, is nothing.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.”
(Truss 2009:9)

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Punctuation
Dear Jack, Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows I want a man who knows
what love is all about. You what love is. All about you
are generous, kind, are generous, kind,
thoughtful. People who are thoughtful people, who are
not like you admit to being not like you. Admit to being
useless and inferior. You useless and inferior. You
have ruined me for other have ruined me. For other
men. I yearn for you. I have men I yearn! For you I have
no feelings whatsoever when no feelings whatsoever.
we’re apart. I can be forever When we’re apart I can be
happy – will you let me be forever happy. Will you let
yours? me be. Yours,
Jill Jill
(Truss 2009:9-10)
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The comma (,)
 Leonora walked on her head, a little higher
than usual.
 The driver managed to escape from the
vehicle before it sank and swam to the
river bank.
 Don’t guess, use a timer or watch.
 The convict said the judge is mad.
(Truss 2009:97)

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Punctuation
 The colon (:)
 Africa is facing a terrifying problem: perpetual
drought.
 The semicolon (;)
Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937; the first
volume of The Lord of the Rings followed in 1954.
 The apostrophe (‘)
The boy’s hat. Vs The boys’ hats.
The baby’s bib Vs The babies’ bibs
One week’s notice Vs Two weeks’ notice
 The dash (–) (not a hyphen!)

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Compare
 Tom locked himself in the shed. Ireland
lost to England.
 Tom locked himself in the shed; Ireland
lost to England.
 Tom locked himself in the shed: Ireland
lost to England.
(adapted from Truss 2009:129-130)

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We had one problem only Janet
knew we faced bankruptcy.
 We had one problem: only Janet knew we
faced bankruptcy.
 We had one problem only: Janet knew we
faced bankruptcy.
 We had one problem only, Janet knew: we
faced bankruptcy.
 We had one problem only Janet knew we
faced: bankruptcy.
(Trask 1997)

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Common errors
X The British are notoriously bad at learning foreign
languages, the Dutch are famously good at it.
(Trask 1997
√ The British are notoriously bad at learning foreign
languages, while the Dutch are famously good at it.
√ The British are notoriously bad at learning foreign
languages; the Dutch are famously good at it.

X Borg won his fifth straight Wimbledon title in 1980,

the following year he lost in the final to McEnroe.
√…

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Watch out for…
 Ambiguous words and phrases
 Wordiness
 Redundancy
 Repetition
 Clichés
 Jargon

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Choose the correct word
 The head of school (principle/principal)
 A prominent person (imminent/eminent)
 To quote from a book (cite/sight)
 A false statement
about a person (liable/libel)
 It belongs to them (their/there)
 To leave a country (immigrate/emigrate)
 A member of an official army (guerrilla/gorilla)
 A clever device (ingenious/ingenuous)
 To forgo a claim (wave/waive)
 A problem that
cannot be solved (insolvent/insoluble)
 He said that I was
its rightful owner. (its/it’s)

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Rewrite these phrases using
apostrophes
 The novels of Dickens _______________
 The paws of the cats _______________
 The shoes of the women _______________
 The ideas of the man _______________
 The entrance of the players _______________
 The games of the children _______________
 The engine of the car _______________
 The colour of her face _______________
 The attitude of the governments ___________
 The cover of the book _______________

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Spelling
 Make sure to set the language to BrE or AmE
but stick to one (-ise/-ize)
 Standard forms
 Double letters
 Don’t rely on spell check – it doesn’t catch
everything
- for foe
- form from
- quiet quite
- practice practise
- affect effect
- there their
- principle principal
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Grammar
 Sentence structure
 Complete sentences
 Run-on sentences
 Comma splices
 Agreement
 Tense
 Grammar check is not always correct
- passive sentences
- defining and non-defining clauses
The woman who lives in apartment No. 34
has been arrested.
Mrs. Jackson, who is very intelligent, lives on
the corner.
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Punctuation
 Commas, semi-colons, full stops
 Apostrophe
 its Vs it’s
 1920s
 Possessives
 The dog’s bone
 The dogs’ bone
 The horses’ mouths
 Seamus’ car
 Capitalisation
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Tips for editing
 Purdue OWL: Proofreading
 http://128.210.82.236/owl/resource/56
1/01/
 Personalising proofreading
 What mistakes do you typically make?
 How can you fix these errors?

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Resources
 Gillet, A. Using English for Academic Purposes
[online], available:
http://uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm [accessed
09 April 2010].
 Trask, L. (1997) Guide to Punctuation [online],
available:
http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department
/docs/punctuation/node00.html [accessed 09
April 2010].
 Truss, L. (2009) Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero
Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. London:
Fourth Estate.

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