Webinar Transcripts:

Scholarly Writing for Undergraduate Students

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Presented December 12, 2018

Last updated 2/18/2019

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Housekeeping 

• Recording
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• Interact
  • Polls, files, and links are interactive. 
• Q&A
  • Now:Use the Q&A box.
  • Later:Send to writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu or visit our  Live Chat Hours. 
• Help
  • Ask in the Q&A box.
  • Choose “Help” in the upper right-hand corner of the webinar room

Audio: Kacy:  Hey everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Kacy Walz. And I’m a Writing Instructor joining in from St. Louis, Missouri, and I just want to thank you all for joining us for this webinar about scholarly writing for undergraduate students. 

Before we get started and I hand things over to our presenter, Claire, I just want to mention a few things. This webinar is being recorded and it a day or two you’ll be able to access it through our website. You’ll also find various webinars on different writing topics in our webinars archive. There will be several chances to interact with your colleague and our presenter, Claire. So please be sure to participate during the chat section in the large chat box just like you did before the webinar started, today. 

Also, all of the links in the slide show are active, so you can click directly on them for access to more information now or later if you’re watching the recording. We also have a few helpful files in our Files pod and you can download them by clicking on the download files bottom at the bottom of the pod.

There’s going to be a lot of information in this webinar. And if you have any questions you can use the Q&A box. I’ll be watching the Q&A box throughout the webinar and I’ll try to answer your questions as quickly as I can. If we run out of time, however, or you have questions later on, please send them to writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu and you will get a response through email. I apologize if you can hear my dog barking in the background. 

Finally, if you encounter any technical difficulties, there’s a help button in the upper right-hand corner of the webinar screen. You can also reach out to me in the Q&A box and I can try to help you out there. So thank you so much for joining us and I am going to turn it over to our presenter, Claire Helakoski. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the title of the webinar, “Scholarly Writing for Undergraduate Students” and the speaker’s name and information: Claire Helakoski, Writing Instructor, Walden University Writing Center

Audio: Claire:  Hi, everyone. As Kacy said, I’m Claire Helakoski, a Writing Instructor here at the Walden Writing Center. And today I’m going to be presenting on scholarly writing for undergraduate students. It looks like we have a small in person group today, which is great. I hope you all ask a lot of questions, because I will be sure to make plenty of time to respond to those questions. And if you're watching the recording, you can always send us questions at a later time, as well. So, let's go ahead and get started.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Webinar Objectives:

•      Identify how scholarly writing (at Walden) is different than other kinds of communication

•      Understand the ADAPT framework for your writing at Walden

•      Learn the Writing Center resources available to you

Audio: Our objectives today are to identify how scholarly writing at Walden is different than other kinds of written communication, understand the ADAPT framework for your writing at Walden -- and that's a handy little acronym that I will go over during the presentation and to learn what Writing Center resources are available to help support you during your Walden coursework.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Scholarly Writing

Audio:So first, we're going to focus on scholarly writing. There are many different kinds of writing and at Walden, we engage in scholarly writing. But how is that different than other kinds of writing you might do? Some types of writing that you might navigate already is writing for the job you already have, whatever that might be -- writing email, sending text messages, creative writing, jotting notes down to your children, your spouse, on social media, and writing for school which is the writing you’ll do for Walden.

All of these forms of writing have this sort of baseline intent, right, to communicate something to your intended audience. So, we'll talk little bit about how scholarly writing, in particular, differs from other forms of writing that you might engage in. And, the good news is that you're already navigating through multiple forms of writing in your daily life and you're just not aware of these small switches and shifts you do because of the format of the writing that you're doing. So, we’ll focus on what shifts you need to make for that scholarly writing for school writing at Walden.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: There’s good news!

• You already navigate different contexts in your everyday life.
  • Police officer
  • Boss
  • Friend

Audio:As I mentioned, you navigate these different contexts in your daily life, already. So, you would talk or write differently to a police officer, to your boss, and to a friend. Right? And it would depend on the format, as well. You might write differently in a letter then you would in a text message, for example, even if it was to the same audience. 

So, navigating those small changes is something that you're probably not aware that you're doing, but you're doing it all the time. You're making little shifts and changes in how you approach that communication, what your tone is, how you convey your overall purpose, how formal you might write or present the information.  And being able to make those shifts means that you already have the skills that you need to shift into a mindset for scholarly writing here at Walden.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Scholarly Writing

Academic writing: Writing performed in an academic context.

•      Discussion posts

•      Course papers

Chat:

How is writing for your assignments different than other kinds of writing?

Audio:So academic writing or scholarly writing is writing performed in an academic context. And scholarly writing includes discussion posts and your course papers, which will be the two main types of assignments you will have here at Walden.

So how is writing for your Walden assignments different than other kinds of writing? And those can be some of the other kinds of writing that I've already gone over verbally, or any other sort of writing that you might think of. So, let us know in the chat box, I will give you a minute or so to respond.  

[silence as students respond]

And don't be shy, we have a very small group.  

[silence as students respond]

I am seeing that your approach might vary depending on the different topics that you're discussing. Definitely. In academic writing, you're talking about really different subject matter than probably other forms of writing that you are doing. 

I am seeing a good distinction, too, between discussion posts and course papers. Those discussion posts can be a little more casual, right, because they're a little bit less formal. Usually, they are more intended to kind of engage you throughout the week and connect you with your fellow students. 

Yeah, those are great distinctions.

So, I want to think about, too, how writing for Walden is probably a lot different than the other forms of writing you're doing every day, right? Writing an assignment for Walden is probably much different than a text message or an email that you may be sending, right, and that has to do a little bit with the content, as somebody mentioned. So, we are writing about these really research-heavy disciplines and dealing with incorporating research into our work which is something that we don't typically do in our general everyday lives. Right? You're probably not citing research and notes to your friends, your spouse, or even in, you know, a letter to a police officer. You're probably not citing research. You're probably not dealing with this really content-heavy and specific information you're trying to convey to your audience. So that's a big difference and were glad somebody mentioned that difference.

We're also thinking about your tone, right? So, your tone in your courses for Walden, in your course work, even in discussion posts where you might be a little more, you might be a little less formal, your tone is going to be more formal overall than it would be just chatting with a friend or texting someone that you know well, right? Because you want to convey yourself in a professional way.  It’s a professional environment. So that has an impact, too, on how you're conveying that information in the approaches you're taking to writing. And even though you may not consciously realize you're making that little switch, you are. From week to week. And to help you consciously ingrain that shift, we are going to talk you through some of these approaches, today.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Scholarly Writing

Generally, includes: 

•      A central claim 

•      Evidence

•      Formal tone 

•      Clear organization

Audio:To clarify, as well, scholarly writing usually includes a central claim, evidence, so I talked about evidence, and by evidence, I mean additional supplements will research or in some cases like a personal reflection. You might have personal evidence like experiences that you had. But usually, evidence refers to research. You can have a formal tone. I like to imagine writing to someone in your field who you admire but have never met in person. You want to impress them a little bit. And, having a clear organization. Scholarly writing is really meant to be accessible to any reader in your field. So, you need that clear organization so that they can follow along. Whereas for example, in an email to a friend, you don't have to be as clearly organized, because the purpose is different. Your audience is different. You know each other. You're going to cut each other some slack if you go off and talk about something and then come back. In scholarly writing, your piece needs to stand completely on its own, and your readers are probably strangers. So, it's important to think about that, too, as you work to communicate formally with evidence and with a clear organization.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Academic Writing Expectations (AWE)

• You may or may not see these in your classroom.
• Tips about AWE from the Writing Center

Audio:Some of this may sound familiar in regards to your Academic Writing Expectations or AWE – A.W.E.  You may or may not see this in your classroom, that kind of theories, but that's sort of the expectation that Walden has for undergraduate students like yourself. So, we have some tips about these guidelines on our webpages. And again, that's an active link, so you can check these out if you would like more information. I will go over some of the basics of these today. But if you see AWE in your classrooms or see it mentioned elsewhere, that's what we're talking about, those Academic Writing Expectations for undergraduates at Walden University.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: ADAPT Approach to Scholarly Writing

1.    Audience

2.    Directness

3.    Authority

4.    Purpose

5.    Technique

ADAPTInfo and Exercises

Audio: All right, so I'm going to focus, as well, on another acronym, which is ADAPT. Which is a nice way to kind of break down the main approaches and things to consider in your scholarly writing. So, you want to consider that Audience, Directness, Authority, Purpose and Technique. And we have some information on ADAPT and exercises for you on this link in our Writing Center pages, as well.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Audience

You are writing for

•      Your instructor and classmates but also

•      A hypothetical outside reader

Requires:

•      Appropriate background

•      Clear and logical organization

Audio:So, we're going to start with audience. We’ve talked a little bit about Audience already, because Audience is one of the main differentiators between scholarly writing and other forms of writing that you're doing from day to day.

In academic writing, you're writing for your instructor and classmates, but also that outside reader. Right? That person who is in your field who you don't know, who doesn't have a connection to you, at all. So that's important to kind of consider and I think will help you kind of hone your scholarly voice and tone over time.

So, your audience requires the appropriate background. So whatever information they might need to kind of help follow the connections that you're making in your work. And, they need that clear and logical organization so they can follow along.

What I often see with students is because your assignments are all the same from week to week and by the same I mean everyone in your class is writing the same thing there is kind of assumed knowledge or understanding of what you're writing about and why. But I will challenge you as scholarly writers to try to write as though your reader hasn't seen your assignment prompt, right, because that outside reader isn't in your classroom. They're not part of your assignment. They don't know what you're writing about or why it's important or the necessary background information. They are not in your course, so you can't rely on them having read the same things you’ve read or have the same information that you have. And, instead, need to think about it as its own, unique, stand-alone piece.

And that's more for your coursework then it is for discussion posts, which often involves that kind of back-and-forth conversation with your fellow students.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Audience

For this assignment, I chose methamphetamine addiction. Because methamphetamine addiction is on the rise, something has to change.

What assignment?

What about methamphetamine addiction?

Audio:All right, so thinking about your audience, and this is sort of what I was talking about, you might write something like this: "For this assignment, I chose methamphetamine addiction. Because methamphetamine addiction is on the rise, something has to change." So, as an outside reader who is not in your course, I have no idea what assignment you’re talking about. What assignment? What about methamphetamine addiction? You chose methamphetamine addiction as an issue you want to discuss? As a policy that needs to change? I’m really lost as an outside reader. And it can be hard to put yourself in those shoes, and we'll talk about some resources to help you get that secondary set of eyes. But it's also good to keep in mind, you want to give your reader all the context they need, so even if they weren’t in your classroom, they will really understand what the main, core purpose of your paper is.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Audience

In the United States, an estimated 1.2 million people are addicted to methamphetamine (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], n.d.). There is evidence that pharmacological treatment alone is not effective. Rather, the most effective treatment plan for methamphetamine addiction may be a combination of pharmacological and cognitive therapy (NIDA, n.d.). 

Background Statistics

Audio: And, your reader might need background statistics. They might want to understand why methamphetamine addiction is relevant. What's going on with methamphetamine addiction? Even if you read about it in your course that week, you can't rely on your reader knowing all that information and remembering it on their own, because they probably aren't in your course and so they may not be as well versed as the research you have done. So, you need to reiterate it for them like in this example. 

[READING SLIDE]

In the United States, an estimated 1.2 million people are addicted to methamphetamine. There is evidence that pharmacological treatment alone is not effective. Rather, the most effective treatment plan for methamphetamine addiction may be a combination of pharmacological and cognitive therapy. 

So, you will see here that have source information -- and that's the evidence that we talked about, and we will talk about that a little bit more -- and I'm giving the reader some context, and explaining why this is an issue and giving them the information, they may need to understand me when I say, "This is a problem.” 

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Audience

Clear organization:

•      Introduction

•      Body

•      Conclusion

 

This is the introduction paragraph that introduces your reader to the overall topic of the paper and explains your specific focus. 

This is the first body paragraph that explains your first point or idea.

This is the second body paragraph that explains your second point or idea.

This is the third body paragraph that explains your third point or idea.

This is the conclusion paragraph. A conclusion paragraph is similar to an introduction paragraph, but instead of introducing ideas it recaps ideas. You should not repeat entire sentences or introduce new ideas, but remind the reader of the points you made.

Audio: All right, so when thinking about your audience in that clear organization, a general paper structure and I recommend trying this out for your discussion posts, as well is to have an introduction, a body paragraph or body paragraphs, and a conclusion. So, in your introduction, you want to give your reader an overview of the topic and what your specific focus is. In your body paragraphs, you're going to want to explain different points and ideas that you have which support and link back to your introduction or overall purpose. And then, in your conclusion, unlike other forms of writing you may have done in the past, your conclusion isn’t making new statements. Instead, it's kind of a review and a recap of what you went over in the paper. I like to think of it as sort of a finish summary. And it's something I like to think about, as well, is considering if a reader read just your introduction or just your conclusion, they should have a really good idea about what exactly your paper was about. Not just generally what your assignment was about, but what your specific paper was about.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Audience

Sample: 

Let’s look at a template that you can use to guide your organization.

Audio:Let's look at a template that we have to guide you in your organization. And this template is also available in our files pod, it's called Handout Sample Paper Template. Let’s take a look at this.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Template

Title of Your Paper, Centered, and Using Both Upper and Lower

Your Name Here

Walden University

Instructor’s Name

Course Title and Number

Date

[Visual of APA template paper being shown]

Audio:This is a template you can download which is there for your use it has the general APA formatting for the title of your paper, your instructor's name, and everything that you need -- you know, your page numbers. The nice thing about a template is you can keep that information, too, and just plug in what you're already working on. So here, we have some information about introductions and thesis statements. Then, we have some information about scholarly voice and tone. And you can see how the paragraphing is kind of looking, so that's how your paper should sort of like. We have resources on transitions, headings, all sorts of resources are embedded in the template, which is really helpful. And then conclusions, as well. And we have a sample reference list with some information. So, this is a really, really helpful resource to kind of get you started if you're feeling a little lost on how to organize your paper or would just like some additional tips and resources from the Writing Center as you're working. And again, you can go ahead and download that in our Files pod. You just click on handout and then the download files button will activate for you.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Audience

Sample: 

Let’s look at a template that you can use to guide your organization.

Audio: So, we will get back to our main presentation, but that's a really great resource to kind of help you think about your audience and the general academic writing expectations for a course paper. I will say I know that template was quite long and I know your coursework will be much shorter until you progress further along in your program. Don't worry about that. You should worry about meeting these page limits set by your assignment. It's just more of a visual and has a lot of advice in there for you.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Directness

Academic writing is:

•      Straightforward

•      Concise

•      Formal in tone

Audio: So now we're moving on to the second aspect of ADAPT. We talked about audience and now we’re going to talk about Directness. Academic writing is a little bit different than other forms of writing because it's straightforward, it's concise and it's formal. Think about this as opposed to haw you might chat with a friend. As I mentioned before, you might meander, you might talk about this and that. In academic writing, you want to be really straightforward. You want to be as concise as you can and you want to keep that formal tone. Because you are writing to this mystery audience who you don't know and haven't met, they are relying on you to inform them about this information and this idea. So, they really need you to get to the point clearly and maintain that concise, straightforward tone. 

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Directness

            Avoid idioms, slang, or metaphors

                        My discussion post this week was a piece of cake. 

                                    My discussion post this week was easy.

Audio: So, some ways to achieve this and these are also tenets of scholarly voice, which is something you may hear from us or your faculty is to avoid idioms, slang or metaphors. In APA writing you really want to be direct and literal. Because the thing about metaphors is that readers can interpret them in multiple different ways that’s what’s cool about metaphors and useful in other types of writing. But in academic writing, you want your readers to have the exact picture that you are painting in your head as you do. You want them to have the exact, precise correct meaning of what you mean and not leave wiggle room for interpretation. So instead of saying, "My discussion post this week was a piece of cake," you might say that "My discussion post this week was easy.” One way to think about it is, am I being literal here, or was your discussion post an actual, physical piece of cake which appeared in front of you, and then your assignment was to eat it?  Probably not, right? So, think about being as literal as possible.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Directness

Chat:

Submit your revision for this sentence:

Life is a rollercoaster ride.

Audio: And I’ll give you a chance to practice, too. And this is what I see a lot in student writing. So, how might you revise this sentence to be more precise and literal. From "Life is a roller coaster ride." And I will give you a couple minutes to come up with a revision of that. And there's not one right answer.

[silence as students respond]

I am seeing some nice revisions here.  It's a time when you might have experienced challenges and sometimes success, so that's kind of identifying the specific, different experiences that you might have. Right? So, what you want to ask yourself is, "What do I mean by life is a roller coaster ride?" I really mean that, that there are positive experiences and negative experiences. And, that that can go up and up unexpectedly. Right? So, you guys are doing a nice job kind of pinpointing that and yeah, I would recommend even going further than just saying up and down or twists and turns, and focus on specifically, exactly what you mean. Because "ups and downs" can mean different things for different people. Just like roller coaster can mean one day I'm happy and one day I'm sad, versus, one day I get promoted and the next day my car broke down, versus many, many other possibilities. Right? 

So, to help everybody have the same picture, you really want to be sure you are being as precise as possible. So, saying something challenges and successes really clarifies. Or, emotional stress interspersed with periods of calm, so that's being really concrete, really specific, and those are nice clear revisions. 

Great job, everybody. And of course, if you were talking about literally riding a roller coaster, explaining how that is, would be perfectly appropriate, although probably is unlikely to come up in your Walden coursework.  Great job, everyone.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Directness

            Avoid contractions

                        The law didn’t go into effect…

                                    The law did not go into effect…

            Avoid questions or conversation with the reader.

When you read my paper, you’ll understand the important issue of bullying. Let’s move on.

Bullying affects 2 million students a year, making it an important education issue.

Audio:All right. So, in the spirit of directness, we want to avoid those expressions. We want to avoid contraction. So, this is part of that formality, as well. Instead of, "The law didn't go into effect," we would say, "The law did not go into effect." I know that will seem odd to a lot of you. It was a little odd for me, I come from a liberal arts kid of creative writing background myself. So, avoiding those contractions was at first was a little bit of a shift for me. But you will adjust to it, I promise.

And you want to avoid questions or conversation with the reader. So, although you’re writing to the reader, you’re maintaining this sort of professional formal distance or directness. So, instead of, "When you read my paper, you'll understand the important issue of bullying. Let's move on." That's very conversational, right? Instead, you want to just say things how they are in nice, clear statements, like this, "Bullying affects 2 million students per year, making it an important education issue." You want just the facts, right? You want to say things as they are and support those with evidence, rather than to engage your reader like you might in a blog post or other form of writing. So that's something to think about, too. And you want to avoid questioning the reader like, "Why is bullying important?" for example. Avoid that, as well. The only questions that should appear in your writing are occasional your research questions, which of course, you want to phrase as a question.

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Authority

            How will people listen to you and believe you?

•      Research the topic

•      Use sources as evidence to support your thesis statement

•      Credit those sources = 

                                                            More knowledge, authority, and 

                                                            credibility as an academic

Audio:All right, so now that we've talked about directness and audience, we'll talk about Authority. So how will people listen to you and believe you about your topic? There are some steps to prepare you for this and help make an authority on your topics and in your writing that will help achieve that authoritative and formal and direct tone. 

So, research your topic. Be informed about your topic. If you don't feel informed, do some extra research. Make sure that you feel you understand the concepts that you're writing about. Use sources as evidence to support your thesis statement throughout your work. That help show that you have done your research, it's not just a unique thought that you're having, but something that is based on other things, other conversations going on in your field.  And, crediting those sources by citing gives you that knowledge and authority and credibility as an academic.  

 

Visual:Slide changes to the following: Authority

            Types of evidence from books, articles, and some websites:

•      Statistics and data

•      Studies and experimental evidence

•      Facts supported by research

Typically Avoid

•      Anecdotes: “When I was a kid…”

•      Your own beliefs or opinions: “I believe that…”

•      Emotional pleas

Our evidence incorporation pages can be a helpful tool!

Audio:So, some types of evidence might be books, articles, potentially some websites. And by websites, I mean established websites, not a person's personal blog. So, like, the CDC website or the website for an organization, a well-known organization within your field, for example. So, you might find statistics and data, studies and evidence, facts supported by research. And those will help establish your authority. We have a great evidence incorporation page as a helpful tool, as well. And you want to avoid, usually you will avoid anecdotes like, "When I was a kid," your own beliefs or opinions such as, "I believe that," and the sort of more emotional pleas. 

There are exceptions to that. I know that in particular, a lot of undergraduate assignments may ask for personal reflections. Obviously, if your assignment is, "How did you come into your field?" "What do you want to learn in the nursing school here?" Or, I’ve seen assignments, too, where it might say, "What would you do in this situation? What changes do you think need to be made?" So, in those cases where it’s specifically asking for your experience in the assignment, of course you should write that. Right? But if it doesn't specifically ask for those things, you should generally avoid it and instead, kind of state just the facts like we talked about before, where you're going to make claims about a topic and support those claims with that research and evidence.

And, with your emotional pleas I mean things like, "This is an absolute crisis. Something must be done." Instead, you want to maintain a more neutral tone, present the facts as they are, and use cause effect reasoning to explain what will happen if changes aren't made.

 

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Authority

            Opinion without example:

                        The high school curriculum is boring and unimaginative.

The high school curriculum does not engage 

students with recent examples. The current social 

science textbook, for example, is out of date. It was 

published in 2010 and thus does not include recent 

political developments.

            Emotional and passionate:

Doctors must find a cure for cancer! Too many people 

are dying a slow, painful death.

There is increased need to find a cure for 

cancer, given the continued growth of cases. In 

2015, over 1.5 million new cases of cancer were 

reported (CDC, 2018).

Audio: So, here's some more examples. An opinion without an example: “The high school curriculum is boring and unimaginative.”  Okay. That's direct. But how? We might be wanting more. Instead, we might write something more specific like, "The high school curriculum does not engage students with recent examples."   So that's what we mean by boring, right? "The current social science textbook, for example, is out of date." That's a nice, specific piece of evidence. Even though it's not research evidence, it's still specific evidence. "It was published in 2010 and thus does not include recent political developments." And that's a further explanation of why this textbook being out of date is relevant. You can see how that kind of builds here.

And this assignment is probably something like, "In your school, what is a curriculum change that you would recommend?" So, it all depends on the assignment, a little bit. But you can see how we use evidence and kind of build on it to help support our statement. 

Here's an example of that emotional and passionate language. "Doctors must find a cure for cancer! Too many people are dying a slow and painful death." So instead, we're getting emotional here, right? We're making an emotional appeal to the reader. Although that's really common in other forms of writing and probably most of the writing you’re reading, because that's what all of those clickable articles say, things like that, right? But instead, in scholarly writing, to establish your authority, you want to back that up with evidence and make those clear cause effect statements, instead. Instead example, “There is increased need to find a cure for cancer, given the continued growth of cases”. So that’s that cause and effect reasoning I'm talking about. Here's what should happen, here's why, and here's some evidence. "In 2015, over 1.5 million new cases of cancer were reported."