Undergraduate Writing:

First-Term/1000 Level Courses

In lower level courses, Walden students should (a) display sentence and paragraph level writing skills and (b) use evidence to support a claim in a writing assignment. 

A. Display sentence and paragraph level writing skills.

Academic writing is not automatic, and it takes time to become more comfortable composing. Grammarly is a wonderful tool to help locate grammar and punctuation errors in writing. Students who feel rusty in mechanics should review sentence-level skills, including grammar and punctuation rules.  

B. Use evidence to support a claim.

Academic writing requires that you use ideas from your research on a topic to support any claim you make in a discussion board or essay. Instead of relying on your own ideas and experiences, academic writing requires that you support your ideas with evidence. The Walden library has many wonderful tools that will help you find credible information on any topic.

Paraphrase

The main way to use your readings to support your academic writing is to use a direct quotation from the author or to paraphrase. A paraphrase occurs when you do not quote a source directly, but you use ideas from a source and restate them in your own words.

Example: According to Jensen (2011), academic writing can take a lot of practice to perfect.  Writing with an academic voice is a skill that develops over time (Jensen, 2011).