Showing posts with label Revising. Show all posts
WriteCast Episode 59: How to Set and Stick to a Writing Goal
In this podcast episode, we discuss how to create an effective writing goal as well as how to keep yourself accountable in whatever goal you set!
Click the player below to listen. You can access all our episodes in our archive on our WriteCast show page.
Resources mentioned this episode:
- Writing a Paper: Goal Setting (includes Why Set a Writing Goal, How to Set a Writing Goal, How to Avoid Ineffective Writing Goals, Examples of Effective Writing Goals, How to Achieve Your Writing Goals)
- Search "goal" and "goal setting" on the Walden University Writing Center website
The Walden University Writing Center produces WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers to support the community of scholarly writers at Walden University.
.png "\"send me new posts by email\" button")
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
WriteCast Episode 58: Steps for Revising, Part II: The Small Stuff
A companion to Episode57: Steps for Revising Part I: The Big Stuff, this podcast episode focuses on line edits and smaller concerns like APA formatting and comma use.
To listen to this episode, click the player below. You can also visit our WriteCast Podcast show page to access our complete episode archive.
Recommended resources:
- Grammar resources
- Interactive grammar modules
- Grammarly
- Revision journals
- "When/How to Conduct Revision and Proofreading" blog post
- "Top 10 Preproposal and Proposal Fixes for Capstone Writers" blog post
- Walden University Writing Center Blog posts on grammar and mechanics
- Interactive modules on APA style
- Paper reviews
- Microsoft Word help for Walden students through the Academic Skills Center
The Walden University Writing Center produces WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers to support the community of scholarly writers at Walden University.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
WriteCast Episode 57: Steps for Revising, Part I: The Big Stuff
Revision is a major part of the writing process, and different types of revising warrant different strategies. Claire and Kacy give tips and resources for how to revise your writing for bigger patterns and issues in your current drafts as well as your future coursework.
To listen to today's episode, click in the player below. You can also visit our WriteCast Podcast show page to access our complete archive of episodes and view transcripts of all our WriteCast episodes. Enjoy!
Recommended Resources Mentioned in This Episode
The Walden University Writing Center produces WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers to support the community of scholarly writers at Walden University.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
To listen to today's episode, click in the player below. You can also visit our WriteCast Podcast show page to access our complete archive of episodes and view transcripts of all our WriteCast episodes. Enjoy!
Recommended Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- Walden University Writing Center website resources on revision
- Live Webinar Recording of "Improving Your Writing: Strategies for Revising, Proofing, and Using Feedback"
The Walden University Writing Center produces WriteCast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers to support the community of scholarly writers at Walden University.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
So You Want to Revise?
As we’ve discussed in many of our resources and blog posts, revision is an important part of the writing process for all writers. You may have already decided to incorporate revision into your work—great! But even after deciding to revise, you may be wondering, where do I start? Today, I’ll go over some techniques to help you answer this question.
First, I suggest finding some patterns in your writing. You might have help doing this if you have feedback from a faculty member or Writing Center instructor, or, you may feel confident in identifying some patterns on your own. Either way, step one to any revision process is re-read your draft.
After you’ve read back through your work, reflect and write down some areas you want to work on. Think of these as larger patterns in your writing first, narrowing down to more minute details. If you have feedback from the Writing Center or your faculty, you can use this as a guideline as well. I recommend identifying larger patterns and making a list for yourself, which can even have sub-categories depending on how detailed you want to be.
First, I suggest finding some patterns in your writing. You might have help doing this if you have feedback from a faculty member or Writing Center instructor, or, you may feel confident in identifying some patterns on your own. Either way, step one to any revision process is re-read your draft.
After you’ve read back through your work, reflect and write down some areas you want to work on. Think of these as larger patterns in your writing first, narrowing down to more minute details. If you have feedback from the Writing Center or your faculty, you can use this as a guideline as well. I recommend identifying larger patterns and making a list for yourself, which can even have sub-categories depending on how detailed you want to be.
Example List of Revision Items
1.) Organization
a.) Thesis
b.) MEAL Plan
2.) Evidence incorporation
a.) APA
b.) Citation frequency
3.) Reference formatting
Once you have your list, I suggest going back through your current draft again one item at a time. In my example above, then, I would read through my draft and think about organization. I could check all my paragraphs for the MEAL Plan and make sure they relate back to my thesis. After I’ve finished working on the MEAL Plan and my thesis, then I can read through again and focus on evidence incorporation and making that smoother. Then, I can read through to be sure I’m citing often enough, then review my references.
This may sound a bit tedious, but it will get easier as you go, I promise! The benefit of having a list like this is that you can keep it in mind (and on record) as you write new drafts as well—that way you can start incorporating small changes and revisions as you write. From paper to paper, you may find that your focus and list of revision topics changes and shifts, and that’s fine too! You can use a revision journal to assist you as well. This process can be as complex or broad as works for you—but I suggest starting out at a broader scope so that you know more specifically what patterns are showing up in your writing. And, remember, the Writing Center is here to support you with our feedback as well as part of this process.
Review of today’s techniques
1.) Re-read your draft/feedback
2.) Make a list of broad to narrow topics to address
3.) Go through your draft and make changes one topic at a time
4.) Keep the list for future reference
Using these techniques and keeping yourself organized will help empower you as you work towards revision! You might also like our two WriteCast episodes that go more into detail about using this method. How are these revision strategies working for you? Let us know if you have any particular successes or other revision tricks!
Claire Helakoski is a writing instructor at the Walden Writing Center. Claire also co-hosts WriteCast, the Writing Center's podcast. Through these multi-modal avenues, Claire delivers innovative and inspiring writing instruction to Walden students around the world.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
1.) Organization
a.) Thesis
b.) MEAL Plan
2.) Evidence incorporation
a.) APA
b.) Citation frequency
3.) Reference formatting
Once you have your list, I suggest going back through your current draft again one item at a time. In my example above, then, I would read through my draft and think about organization. I could check all my paragraphs for the MEAL Plan and make sure they relate back to my thesis. After I’ve finished working on the MEAL Plan and my thesis, then I can read through again and focus on evidence incorporation and making that smoother. Then, I can read through to be sure I’m citing often enough, then review my references.
This may sound a bit tedious, but it will get easier as you go, I promise! The benefit of having a list like this is that you can keep it in mind (and on record) as you write new drafts as well—that way you can start incorporating small changes and revisions as you write. From paper to paper, you may find that your focus and list of revision topics changes and shifts, and that’s fine too! You can use a revision journal to assist you as well. This process can be as complex or broad as works for you—but I suggest starting out at a broader scope so that you know more specifically what patterns are showing up in your writing. And, remember, the Writing Center is here to support you with our feedback as well as part of this process.
Review of today’s techniques
1.) Re-read your draft/feedback
2.) Make a list of broad to narrow topics to address
3.) Go through your draft and make changes one topic at a time
4.) Keep the list for future reference
Using these techniques and keeping yourself organized will help empower you as you work towards revision! You might also like our two WriteCast episodes that go more into detail about using this method. How are these revision strategies working for you? Let us know if you have any particular successes or other revision tricks!
Claire Helakoski is a writing instructor at the Walden Writing Center. Claire also co-hosts WriteCast, the Writing Center's podcast. Through these multi-modal avenues, Claire delivers innovative and inspiring writing instruction to Walden students around the world.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Catch Your Reader's Ear: Simple Scholarly Voice Fixes
Note: This post has been updated per APA 7.
Scholarly voice is an important component of APA Style which involves being clear, precise, and formal in tone. If you’re worried your voice may not be scholarly or want to do some quick checks through your work, here are some fast tips and fixes.
If you feel lost regarding what scholarly voice looks or sounds like, re-read your course materials! Reading peer-reviewed journal articles can help you hear and see what scholarly tone looks like in your particular discipline. Look back over your course readings to get a feel for that tone. You might find it helpful to read aloud and/or circle/highlight areas which seem scholarly to you as you read.
Once you feel you understand how scholarly tone may sound in your discipline, read your draft aloud. Listen to how your work sounds. Do you stumble over a complex sentence or lose your train of thought? Do you find yourself saying something a little differently than you wrote it? These can be good indicators of clunky work. Additionally, do you hear your work sounding informal or casual? Do you hear shifts in tone or voice—whether this is the types of words you’re using or sentence structure? These are great ways to find places to revise for clear, direct writing that works towards scholarly voice.
As you read aloud, keep your eyes open for some of these patterns that make your writing sound less than scholarly. Once you get the hang of it, these patterns are easy to spot and easy to fix. It just takes some practice!
Adverbs
Adverbs (like "interestingly," "clearly," "ideally") are unnecessary qualifiers you’re placing in your work and don’t enhance meaning but instead highlight how you’d like the reader to feel. By revising to remove these adverbs, you streamline your work and create an objective scholarly tone.
Casual Language
Some common casual language might be phrasing like “a lot,” “sort of,” “very,” “really,” “just like” or other qualifiers (see again suggestion 1).
Lack of Specificity
As a writer in the social sciences, being precise and specific is important so your reader knows exactly what you’re writing about. Instead of writing “you” or “they,” for example, replace those terms with the specific population you mean. Replace “it” and “things” whenever possible with the more specific term.
Expressions
APA states to be as literal as possible and avoid expressive language. Some expressions might be “shines a light on”, “on the other hand”, “in the light of day”. All of these are perfectly fine expressions in conversation, but they aren’t compliant with scholarly tone because there aren’t literal lights, changes in the time of day, or two hands. Ask yourself if you’re being literal in your descriptions and explanations, and revise if not.
With these quick revision strategies, you can work towards revising for and achieving scholarly voice in your writing! For more on scholarly voice, review our scholarly voice webpages, our Use of First Person and Avoiding Bias webinar, and our APA Style modules.
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and hosts the Writing Center's podcast, WriteCast. Claire holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Scholarly voice is an important component of APA Style which involves being clear, precise, and formal in tone. If you’re worried your voice may not be scholarly or want to do some quick checks through your work, here are some fast tips and fixes.
If you feel lost regarding what scholarly voice looks or sounds like, re-read your course materials! Reading peer-reviewed journal articles can help you hear and see what scholarly tone looks like in your particular discipline. Look back over your course readings to get a feel for that tone. You might find it helpful to read aloud and/or circle/highlight areas which seem scholarly to you as you read.
Once you feel you understand how scholarly tone may sound in your discipline, read your draft aloud. Listen to how your work sounds. Do you stumble over a complex sentence or lose your train of thought? Do you find yourself saying something a little differently than you wrote it? These can be good indicators of clunky work. Additionally, do you hear your work sounding informal or casual? Do you hear shifts in tone or voice—whether this is the types of words you’re using or sentence structure? These are great ways to find places to revise for clear, direct writing that works towards scholarly voice.
As you read aloud, keep your eyes open for some of these patterns that make your writing sound less than scholarly. Once you get the hang of it, these patterns are easy to spot and easy to fix. It just takes some practice!
Adverbs
Adverbs (like "interestingly," "clearly," "ideally") are unnecessary qualifiers you’re placing in your work and don’t enhance meaning but instead highlight how you’d like the reader to feel. By revising to remove these adverbs, you streamline your work and create an objective scholarly tone.
Casual Language
Some common casual language might be phrasing like “a lot,” “sort of,” “very,” “really,” “just like” or other qualifiers (see again suggestion 1).
Lack of Specificity
As a writer in the social sciences, being precise and specific is important so your reader knows exactly what you’re writing about. Instead of writing “you” or “they,” for example, replace those terms with the specific population you mean. Replace “it” and “things” whenever possible with the more specific term.
Expressions
APA states to be as literal as possible and avoid expressive language. Some expressions might be “shines a light on”, “on the other hand”, “in the light of day”. All of these are perfectly fine expressions in conversation, but they aren’t compliant with scholarly tone because there aren’t literal lights, changes in the time of day, or two hands. Ask yourself if you’re being literal in your descriptions and explanations, and revise if not.
With these quick revision strategies, you can work towards revising for and achieving scholarly voice in your writing! For more on scholarly voice, review our scholarly voice webpages, our Use of First Person and Avoiding Bias webinar, and our APA Style modules.
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and hosts the Writing Center's podcast, WriteCast. Claire holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Use the Paramedic Method to Resuscitate Your Writing
The point of this blog post is to introduce a method of revising writing that will include a discussion of the paramedic method to help writers reduce the wordiness in papers.
Does something seem a little off about that first sentence, but you just can’t put your finger on it? The sentence is grammatically correct, and the idea progression is logical. However, the length of the sentence doesn’t seem to match the simplicity of the topic. I used 32 words to introduce the topic of this blog post, but it’s possible that not all of those words were necessary to the meaning of the sentence. Let’s look at a sample revision:
Using the paramedic method can help writers reduce wordiness.
Whoa. I reduced the word count of the sentence from 32 words to 9 words and clarified the topic of the blog post in the process. Some of the words in the first sentence definitely weren’t necessary! This brings to light the importance of writing concisely—readers need to be able to easily decipher the topic of each sentence without having to read through it multiple times. Writing concisely can help writers clarify the ideas in their writing for readers. However, how can writers decide what to remove from their sentences when a course instructor or writing instructor suggests improving concision in writing?
One method for reducing wordiness is to apply the paramedic method, which Richard Lanham introduced in Revising Prose. The paramedic method can help you reduce word count, eliminate passive voice, and clarify your prose with a simple underlining and italicizing method. To begin using the paramedic method, open a paper that you’re revising and apply these steps to your first paragraph:
1. Italicize the prepositions (e.g., in, on, of, to, from, at, with, etc.).
2. Underline the is verb forms. These verb forms, which Rachel called the buzzing to be’s in her blog post about passive voice, include a “to be” verb (e.g., am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, have been, will be, etc.) added to the beginning of another verb (e.g., was researched, will be provided, is featured).
3. Once you have completed steps 1 and 2, look at each sentence and determine the actor for the action in the sentence. Ask yourself, “Who is kicking whom?” If the actor of the action is missing, add it to the sentence. If the actor is placed after the verb rather than before the verb, move it to before the verb to highlight the actor of the action rather than the object of the action.
4. Change the action into a simple verb. Eliminate those buzzing to be’s whenever possible.
5. Eliminate any slow wind ups. In other words, eliminate any information that the reader doesn’t need to understand the sentence.
6. Eliminate any repetitive words or phrases.
You can repeat this process as necessary to reduce wordiness in your paper. Let’s return to the first sentence of this blog post and apply the paramedic method to it:
- The point of this blog post is to introduce a method of revising writing that will include a discussion of the paramedic method to help writers reduce the wordiness in papers.
I count six prepositions and two “to be” verbs in this sentence. In addition, I begin with a slow wind up in this sentence; I don’t need to say what the point of the blog post is when I can just show the reader the point of the blog post. Using the paramedic method also helps me to see that some of the words are redundant. I don’t need to use “method” twice in the sentence, and I can tell readers how to reduce wordiness in their papers without referring back to revision.
To recap, using the paramedic method helped me to see areas of redundancy within this sentence, and I was able to remove all “to be” verbs and prepositions in my revision: Using the paramedic method can help writers reduce wordiness.
While the paramedic method is a radical way to rethink revision that you can use in any paper, please keep in mind that passive voice is sometimes useful and necessary. You may need to conceal the actor in a sentence, or you may want to emphasize the object of the sentence rather than the actor. As Brittany and Beth discussed in WriteCast Episode 22, passive voice and concision are both grey areas in APA style, so you should use your best judgment as well as the feedback of your instructor in revising your writing for clarity and conciseness.
I’d like to leave you with another chance to practice before I sign off:
In the research there was a discussion of the different variables by the researcher (Doe, 2016). The variables were provided by the researcher in order to better illustrate in what manner the research was to be conducted (Doe, 2016).The sentences above could use resuscitation, so I invite you to use the paramedic method or your preferred method of revision and then share your results below by leaving a comment. There isn’t one right answer, so we’d love to see how you would revise these sentences, along with any tips or suggestions you have for writing concisely!
Katherine McKinney is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. She received an M.A. in English from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at Walden. Katherine's goal as an instructor is to show students that the best writing results from practice, and she aims to provide feedback and resources that will guide students through the invention, composition, and revision process.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Third Time's the Charm: Strategies for Your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Paper Review Appointments
Did you know that using the Walden Writing Center’s paper review service three or more times can impact your academic success much more than using the service once or twice? New research has found that visiting a writing center more than twice positively impacted student success. Maybe you are new to academic writing or returning to writing. You might feel a little uncertain about your writing skills or have received feedback that indicates you have skills to work on. Or, perhaps you feel confident about your writing skills but still want to advance those skills. Maybe you just aren’t sure about your writing and would like a secondary reader, and you’d like to schedule some Writing Center appointments. You may be wondering how to fit the Writing Center into your already busy schedule to take advantage of this service and enhance your skills. Well, we have some options for you!
Here’s what three appointments in a term might look like for you:
Appointment One
You can make an appointment at the next available opening on the appropriate schedule and submit something you’ve recently written for class, even if you’ve already turned it in. Your writing instructor will provide positive, encouraging feedback and links to additional sources we think will help you work towards your learning and writing goals. You can even let us know in the appointment form that your document has already been turned in and you’re looking to see how your writing is going so far. Or you can always submit whatever you’re working on that week.
Appointment Two
We suggest, at this stage, that you review your first appointment and look into some of the additional resources provided by your writing instructor. Using that feedback, you can work to implement changes in your document and reflect on skills you’d like to focus on in the future; these skills might be organization, APA, using source information effectively, etc. For optimum scheduling, we suggest you make an appointment between a week and three days before your next assignment is due and attach a rough draft. In your appointment form, let the instructor know what skills you’d like to focus on or have worked on since your previous appointment. At the same time you can reserve an appointment for the following week so that you can submit your work again once you have revised.
Appointment Three
At this point, we recommend that you read through your instructor’s feedback and consider the additional resources they provided. You should take time to implement changes to your entire document (regardless of if the instructor read all the pages or not) based on their suggestions and what you’d like to focus on. This will look different for each student, but your instructor will provide guidelines or areas of focus they suggest as you work to revise, add on to, re-organize, add citations, or whatever else you might focus on for this particular draft. Once you’ve revised, you can attach your work to your previously-scheduled appointment for the next week prior to the required deadline.
Revision
After you receive your feedback from Appointment Three, you can revise again, based on writing instructor feedback. This revision may continue work on the same topics from the previous draft, or may shift to more focused and specific nuances in your writing. Either way, be sure to review your whole draft again with the instructor’s feedback in mind. Then you can submit your paper to your course.
Come back again!
Now you can keep making appointments ahead of time or even for each assignment as your schedule allows.
You can schedule appointments at the Writing Center up to two weeks in advance—so if you know you have papers coming up, you can plan to revise with us. If your schedule allows, two revisions of the same paper will make it even stronger! If not, then planning to visit before you turn in an assignment and keeping the patterns and resources in mind between appointments will still be beneficial. You can have up to two appointments a week, so pre-schedule whatever makes the most sense for your assignment due dates and schedule. Be sure to keep in mind that your paper will be returned the day of or after your appointment, so build that into your schedule as well. If you have a standing appointment or multiple appointments reserved in advance, you can attach whatever you’re working on that week, or cancel your appointment before the 5am EST deadline.
Here’s a few key things to remember:
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Here’s what three appointments in a term might look like for you:
Appointment One
You can make an appointment at the next available opening on the appropriate schedule and submit something you’ve recently written for class, even if you’ve already turned it in. Your writing instructor will provide positive, encouraging feedback and links to additional sources we think will help you work towards your learning and writing goals. You can even let us know in the appointment form that your document has already been turned in and you’re looking to see how your writing is going so far. Or you can always submit whatever you’re working on that week.
Appointment Two
We suggest, at this stage, that you review your first appointment and look into some of the additional resources provided by your writing instructor. Using that feedback, you can work to implement changes in your document and reflect on skills you’d like to focus on in the future; these skills might be organization, APA, using source information effectively, etc. For optimum scheduling, we suggest you make an appointment between a week and three days before your next assignment is due and attach a rough draft. In your appointment form, let the instructor know what skills you’d like to focus on or have worked on since your previous appointment. At the same time you can reserve an appointment for the following week so that you can submit your work again once you have revised.
Appointment Three
At this point, we recommend that you read through your instructor’s feedback and consider the additional resources they provided. You should take time to implement changes to your entire document (regardless of if the instructor read all the pages or not) based on their suggestions and what you’d like to focus on. This will look different for each student, but your instructor will provide guidelines or areas of focus they suggest as you work to revise, add on to, re-organize, add citations, or whatever else you might focus on for this particular draft. Once you’ve revised, you can attach your work to your previously-scheduled appointment for the next week prior to the required deadline.
Revision
After you receive your feedback from Appointment Three, you can revise again, based on writing instructor feedback. This revision may continue work on the same topics from the previous draft, or may shift to more focused and specific nuances in your writing. Either way, be sure to review your whole draft again with the instructor’s feedback in mind. Then you can submit your paper to your course.
Come back again!
Now you can keep making appointments ahead of time or even for each assignment as your schedule allows.
You can schedule appointments at the Writing Center up to two weeks in advance—so if you know you have papers coming up, you can plan to revise with us. If your schedule allows, two revisions of the same paper will make it even stronger! If not, then planning to visit before you turn in an assignment and keeping the patterns and resources in mind between appointments will still be beneficial. You can have up to two appointments a week, so pre-schedule whatever makes the most sense for your assignment due dates and schedule. Be sure to keep in mind that your paper will be returned the day of or after your appointment, so build that into your schedule as well. If you have a standing appointment or multiple appointments reserved in advance, you can attach whatever you’re working on that week, or cancel your appointment before the 5am EST deadline.
Here’s a few key things to remember:
- Plan ahead—take a look at your course schedule to see when big assignments are due and when you plan to work on them.
- Submit old papers—you can submit something you’ve already turned in to get some revision practice and general feedback on your work to use moving forward.
- Reserve—reserve slots up to two weeks in advance! If you don’t feel you need or want an appointment that week, you can cancel as long as it is before the 5am EST deadline the day of the appointment itself.
- Make Goals—between reviews, keep track of what you’re working on in your writing and what you’d like to make stronger, clearer, or more effective. Keeping these goals in mind will help you revise more effectively between reviews and help your writing instructor focus on what’s most important to you as a writer! You can read more about making writing goals on our goal-setting page.
Claire Helakoski is a Writing Instructor at the Walden Writing Center and holds an MFA in Creative Writing. She has taught writing and Composition as well as acted as a writer and editor in a variety of mediums. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and enjoys reading, writing creatively, and board games of all kinds.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Third Time's the Charm: The Magic of Multiple Paper Review Appointments
Featured , Paper Review Appointments , Revising , Writing Center Services , Writing Process No comments
Note: This post has been updated per APA 7.
Have you ever wished for a magic wand? I know that I have, especially when contemplating a new writing project for my coursework at Walden University. I’d love to wave a magic wand and magically become a more skilled writer before my next paper is due!
While magic wands may not exist (yet), there is one strategy that students at Walden can begin using today to improve their writing. This strategy is supported by research, and although it isn’t magic, there are a lot of benefits to using it. Are you ready for the not-so-magic trick? Here goes:
While it may seem common sense that three appointments would be better than one or zero, some compelling research supports the argument for making at least three paper review appointments at the Writing Center to review your writing.
While many researchers have discussed the overall efficacy of Writing Center visits in improving student writing (Learner, 2014; Robinson, 2009; Yeats et al., 2013), Irvin (2014) found that when students attended at least three writing tutoring sessions, success factors like persistence and grades improved. In addition, Williams et al. (2006) used a longitudinal study to conclude that only the frequency of writing center visits predicted grade outcomes for students. Finally, Robinson (2009, as cited in Irvin, 2014) discovered that three tutoring sessions can help students shift their motivations for improving their writing from extrinsic to intrinsic, and increasing intrinsic motivation can improve overall learning. Taken together, this research points to the third time being the charm when making Writing Center paper review appointments.
Multiple appointments allow for more breadth in reviews, and they also allow you to gain the perspective of a critical reader outside of the classroom. Writing instructors can help you pinpoint areas where readers might be confused and provide writing and revision strategies you can use in future papers. Some students prefer to work with one instructor over multiple appointments, while other students prefer to work with a different instructor for each appointment. You can listen in on the debate about continuity versus variety in writing feedback on WriteCast podcast episode 32. However, whether you choose to work with one writing instructor or many, all of our instructors are interested in helping you make the transition to a successful scholar practitioner.
Although using the Writing Center can help you work toward your writing goals, three appointments at the Writing Center will not magically improve your grades and writing. Three visits is a great start, but continuing to visit can help to improve your writing skills over time. Learning revision and self-editing skills involves hard work and effort, and our paper review appointments provide a way to focus your efforts to improve your writing rather than a shortcut to better grades. With that said, why not make it a goal to schedule and complete at least three appointments at the Writing Center this term? The staff and writing resources at the Writing Center are here to help you set and achieve your goals!
I encourage you to make an appointment at the Writing Center today, even if you don’t have any papers due right now. Remember that writing instructors can also review past work to help you with future assignments. Because writing instructors generally comment on patterns within writing, you’ll be able to use the tips and techniques in your review for future assignments as well as current assignments. If you’re unfamiliar with the Walden University Writing Center’s paper review service, you may want to stop by our website to learn a little more about our paper review policies and view samples of writing instructor feedback. You can also send any questions about our paper review service to writingsupport@waldenu.edu, and we will answer your inquiry within 24 hours.
As a final note, I've included references for the above research at the end of this post, so please feel free to peruse it and let us know what you think. We’d love to see any other resources you’ve found about the efficacy of writing center resources.
Alternatively, share your experience with using Writing Center services—have you found that the third time is the charm when it comes to making appointments at the Writing Center? Let us know in the comments!
Katherine McKinney is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. She received an M.A. in English from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at Walden. Katherine's goal as an instructor is to show students that the best writing results from practice, and she aims to provide feedback and resources that will guide students through the invention, composition, and revision process.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Have you ever wished for a magic wand? I know that I have, especially when contemplating a new writing project for my coursework at Walden University. I’d love to wave a magic wand and magically become a more skilled writer before my next paper is due!
While magic wands may not exist (yet), there is one strategy that students at Walden can begin using today to improve their writing. This strategy is supported by research, and although it isn’t magic, there are a lot of benefits to using it. Are you ready for the not-so-magic trick? Here goes:
Make at least three paper review appointments at the Walden University Writing Center this term.
While it may seem common sense that three appointments would be better than one or zero, some compelling research supports the argument for making at least three paper review appointments at the Writing Center to review your writing.
While many researchers have discussed the overall efficacy of Writing Center visits in improving student writing (Learner, 2014; Robinson, 2009; Yeats et al., 2013), Irvin (2014) found that when students attended at least three writing tutoring sessions, success factors like persistence and grades improved. In addition, Williams et al. (2006) used a longitudinal study to conclude that only the frequency of writing center visits predicted grade outcomes for students. Finally, Robinson (2009, as cited in Irvin, 2014) discovered that three tutoring sessions can help students shift their motivations for improving their writing from extrinsic to intrinsic, and increasing intrinsic motivation can improve overall learning. Taken together, this research points to the third time being the charm when making Writing Center paper review appointments.
Multiple appointments allow for more breadth in reviews, and they also allow you to gain the perspective of a critical reader outside of the classroom. Writing instructors can help you pinpoint areas where readers might be confused and provide writing and revision strategies you can use in future papers. Some students prefer to work with one instructor over multiple appointments, while other students prefer to work with a different instructor for each appointment. You can listen in on the debate about continuity versus variety in writing feedback on WriteCast podcast episode 32. However, whether you choose to work with one writing instructor or many, all of our instructors are interested in helping you make the transition to a successful scholar practitioner.
Although using the Writing Center can help you work toward your writing goals, three appointments at the Writing Center will not magically improve your grades and writing. Three visits is a great start, but continuing to visit can help to improve your writing skills over time. Learning revision and self-editing skills involves hard work and effort, and our paper review appointments provide a way to focus your efforts to improve your writing rather than a shortcut to better grades. With that said, why not make it a goal to schedule and complete at least three appointments at the Writing Center this term? The staff and writing resources at the Writing Center are here to help you set and achieve your goals!
I encourage you to make an appointment at the Writing Center today, even if you don’t have any papers due right now. Remember that writing instructors can also review past work to help you with future assignments. Because writing instructors generally comment on patterns within writing, you’ll be able to use the tips and techniques in your review for future assignments as well as current assignments. If you’re unfamiliar with the Walden University Writing Center’s paper review service, you may want to stop by our website to learn a little more about our paper review policies and view samples of writing instructor feedback. You can also send any questions about our paper review service to writingsupport@waldenu.edu, and we will answer your inquiry within 24 hours.
As a final note, I've included references for the above research at the end of this post, so please feel free to peruse it and let us know what you think. We’d love to see any other resources you’ve found about the efficacy of writing center resources.
Alternatively, share your experience with using Writing Center services—have you found that the third time is the charm when it comes to making appointments at the Writing Center? Let us know in the comments!
References
Irvin, L. L. (2014). What a difference three tutoring sessions make: Early reports of efficacy from a young writing center. Writing Lab Newsletter, 39(1-2), 1-5. Retrieved from https://wlnjournal.org/archives/v39/39.1-2.pdf
Lerner, N. (1997). Counting beans and making beans count. Writing Lab Newsletter, 22(1), 1-4. Retrieved from https://wlnjournal.org/archives/v22/22-1.pdf
Robinson, H. M. (2009). Writing center philosophy and the end of basic writing: Motivation at the site of remediation and discovery. Journal of Basic Writing, 28(2), 70-92. Retrieved from https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v28n2/robinson.pdf
Williams, J. D., Takaku, S., & Bauman, K. (2006). Effects of self-regulatory behavior on ESL student writing. Tohoku Psychological Folia, 65, 24-36. Retrieved from https://www2.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/psychology/folia/index.html
Yeats, R., Reddy, P., Wheeler, A, Senior, C., & Murray, J. (2013). What a difference a writing centre makes: A small scale study. Education + Training, 52(6/7), 499-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911011068450
Katherine McKinney is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. She received an M.A. in English from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at Walden. Katherine's goal as an instructor is to show students that the best writing results from practice, and she aims to provide feedback and resources that will guide students through the invention, composition, and revision process.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
When/How to Conduct Revision and Proofreading
When scheduling an appointment with the Writing Center, many students request help with revising or proofreading their paper. Or is it proofreading or revising? The two terms are often used interchangeably, when in fact, they are separate steps in your academic writing process. To clear up the confusion, it may help to define revision and proofreading and take a look at their differences.
Revision means to look at your paper for large (global) errors such as: removing entire sentences or paragraphs for clarity, reorganizing ideas for better flow, or rewriting the thesis for a more streamlined argument. Do you see a pattern here? Revision, remove, reorganize, and rewrite all include the prefix “re,” meaning to do something again. The key thing to remember (there it is again) is that you are looking (vision) over (re) large components of your paper.
When you proofread, your goal should be to identify and correct small (local) grammar and mechanical errors such as missing punctuation, incorrect verb tense, and the use of passive voice. Proofreading is a tedious, but necessary step in eliminating any errors that may distract your reader.
The differences between revision and proofreading are mostly found in their processes. The revision process includes steps for editing the paper’s general themes and ideas, while the proofreading process identifies sentence-level errors that could hurt your ethos as a scholar. The main differences between revision and proofreading are when and how to perform each process.
When to Revise: Revise As You Go
Most writers revise their papers as they write, taking short breaks along the way to reflect on their words and confirm that their ideas connect with the overall purpose of their paper. Proofreading, on the other hand, is usually performed as the last step in the writing process. To save time, it makes sense to edit for grammar and mechanics after any text has been moved around, deleted, or rewritten.
How To Revise: Revision process strategies
There are a number of strategies you can use to revise your paper, all of which can help you to streamline your thoughts and clarify your arguments. My favorite strategy is the reverse outline. It’s easy for me to wander off topic and forget to connect my main ideas to my thesis or central argument. To keep my writing on track, I write the main idea of each paragraph in the right-hand margin of my paper. Next, I look over this list of ideas carefully. I ask myself if the paragraphs follow a logical order and if they connect back to my paper’s topic. I also consider if my paragraphs move my paper forward or if they keep introducing the same points. As I ask these questions, I may move paragraphs around, rewrite them, or delete them entirely.
Other steps in my revision process may include:
- Using the MEAL plan technique to organize the main idea, evidence, analysis, and lead out within a paragraph.
- Highlighting the topic sentence, main idea, and supporting evidence in each paragraph to verify that they connect.
- Underlining each paragraph’s lead out to make sure it works as a bridge between two paragraphs.
How to Proofread: Proofreading Strategies
Just like revision, proofreading comes with its own set of techniques and strategies that you can pick and choose from to develop you own process. My favorite proofreading technique is to read my paper backwards. After looking at the same paper for days, it is easy for my brain to skip over words and whole sentences as it anticipates what comes next. To trick my brain, I begin at the very end of my paper and read my last sentence out loud while listening for errors. I then move backwards to the next to last sentence. I again read out loud for errors and make corrections as I go. I continue this process and slowly work my way back to the beginning of my paper.
Other steps in my proofreading process include:
- Printing my paper so I can make notes, cross out words, and highlight changes.
- Reading my paper out loud to listen for any grammatical errors I may make as I go. I have even read my paper into my phone’s voice recorder and played the file back to listen for errors.
Revision and proofreading can seem daunting, especially when you just want to be finished with your paper. However, testing the techniques described here and developing your own revision and proofreading processes can make your writing feel more personal. What do your revision and proofreading processes currently look like? We’d love to hear more on the steps you take to edit your paper!
Tasha Sookochoff is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. Along with earning degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Stout and Depaul University, Tasha has written documentation for the U.S. House of Representatives that increases government transparency, blogged for DePaul University, copy-edited the Journal of Second Language Writing, tutored immigrants and refugees at literacy centers, and taught academic writing to college students.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
WriteCast Episode 43: How and Why to Revise with a Reverse Outline
Revision is a process all writers encounter at some point. It doesn't matter if you breezed through your first draft or had to drag it out of yourself one sentence at a time. Once that first, second, or third draft is on the page, it has to be revised. Revision is a difficult step in the writing process, but the feeling of completing the next version of a draft is so rewarding! Revision isn't about finding what is wrong with your writing - it is about finding what can be made even better.
In this episode of the WriteCast podcast, learn about the revision strategy called reverse outlining. This is an important skill for academic writers as it is a way to make sure the entire piece of writing aligns and focuses on developing the all-important thesis or central idea.
In this episode of the WriteCast podcast, learn about the revision strategy called reverse outlining. This is an important skill for academic writers as it is a way to make sure the entire piece of writing aligns and focuses on developing the all-important thesis or central idea.
Reverse outlining appears in several other Walden University Writing Center resources:
The WriteCast podcast is produced by Anne Shiell and the staff of the Walden University Writing Center and delves into a different writing issue in each episode. With new episodes each month, join Walden writing instructors to learn more about writing in an academic setting.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Prompted to Write: A Guide for Using Walden Assignment Prompts to Your Advantage
Expert Advice , Learning Styles , Organization , Paragraphs , Prewriting , Revising , Writer's Workshop , Writing Process 26 comments
As a student at Walden, you’re often likely provided with lengthy and descriptive prompts for your discussion board, application, and capstone assignments. These prompts are there to guide you to think and write about specific and complex topics. However, since the prompts are complex, it’s not uncommon for students to write papers that don’t fully adhere to the prompt. So, in this blog post, I’m going to offer some tips for how to ensure that your assignments adhere to the prompt as you prewrite and also as you revise.
Adhering to the Prompt as you Prewrite
The best way to ensure that your paper adheres to the prompt is to start off strong with prewriting. Prewriting includes brainstorming, taking notes, and outlining to prepare as you write your paper. Here are some strategies you can use as you prewrite to prepare yourself to write a paper that adheres to the prompt:
1. Identify the main questions or topics that the prompt is asking you to address. Many Walden assignment prompts come in 3 parts: (1) Introductory information, (2) Steps to accomplish as you prepare to write, and (3) Directives for the paper. The first two parts are helpful and let you know what to do to prepare, but it’s this third part that tells you what to do in your paper. The questions or requests posed there are the directives of the prompt that tell you what to do in your paper.
2. Read through the prompt closely and highlight important information. This likely means that you’ll read the prompt a few times and take notes. Highlight important information such as page length requirements, sources you need to use, directives (like analyze, explore, argue, describe, summarize), and the questions you should address. You can make a checklist for yourself with this important information.
3. Reframe the directives in the prompt as topic sentences for paragraphs. For example, if the prompt states the following, “Explain which Writing Center resources you used,” you could reframe this directive as a topic sentence in this way: “In the pursuit of improving my writing skills, I used Writing Center resources including webinars, paper reviews, and website content.”
4. Outline your paper using language from the writing prompt. Once you have identified all of the directives in the assignment prompt and composed topic sentences for paragraphs, you can craft an outline. Organize these topics in a way that makes sense to you, and then plan for an introduction paragraph with a thesis statement, a conclusion paragraph, and any section headings that might be relevant. From there, start writing the essay. Using the outline which was crafted from the prompt will help keep you in line with the prompt.
Adhering to the Prompt as you Revise
Another way to ensure that your paper adheres to the prompt is through revision. Revision means re-seeing the paper and it requires looking back at ideas to make sure that everything fits the purpose of the paper. Here are some revision strategies which you can employ to ensure your paper adheres to the assignment prompt.
5. Create a reverse outline of your paper and compare the outline to the prompt. Take notes and ask yourself with each paragraph: What is this paragraph doing, and how does it relate to the prompt and advance my ideas? If you see discrepancy between your reverse outline and the prompt, then revise your content to more clearly address the prompt. This might include creating a new outline, revising a topic sentence, cutting length, or adding content.
6. Use the prompt as a checklist and compare highlighted important information in the prompt with the content of your draft. If you see a discrepancy between the important information in the prompt and your content, revise to adhere to that important information. This might include expanding a whole section of your paper, cutting content or adding content to meet length requirements, integrating more sources, or developing some ideas.
7. Re-read the prompt and remind yourself of the audience and purpose for the assignment. Then, re-read your paper draft and ask yourself: Does this meet the needs of the audience and adhere to the purpose for the assignment? If you find places where your content does not meet the needs of the assignment and adhere to the purpose, then go back to pre-writing and do some outlining and planning to revise your content to meet the needs of the audience and purpose.
8. Talk to your faculty. If you’ve gone through these steps and still aren’t sure if your paper addresses the prompt, ask your faculty!
One thing you’ll notice in all of these tips is that the prompt is part of every step. It’s easiest to write a paper that adheres to the prompt if referring to the prompt is an integral part of your writing process. I hope that these tips provide you with some strategies to approach your next assignment.
If you’d like to learn more strategies for interpreting and addressing Walden assignment prompts, you can watch our Strategies for Demystifying Walden Assignment Prompts webinar recording or listen to our WriteCast Episode 11: "Doesn’t Meet Requirements"—Strategies for Following Your Assignment Instructions podcast.
Jes Philbrook is a Writing Instructor and the Coordinator of Doctoral Writing Assessment in the Walden University Writing Center. Jes has been a writing tutor for over a decade, and in all those years of tutoring, one of her favorite things to do with students is to help them decipher their writing assignments and then plan or revise their paper to address the prompt. This post has been percolating in her brain all those years. In her free time, you can find Jes walking her neighbor’s dogs, tending to her basil garden, or playing games with her family and friends.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Instructor’s Notebook: How I Approach Paper Reviews
One of the pedagogical approaches we use during Paper Review appointments here in the Writing Center is that Instructors don’t comment on every instance of an issue they identify in a student’s writing. Students sometimes wonder why that is. In today’s post, I am going to discuss why I don’t comment on every instance of an issue in a paper review and how this relates to the revision process, information overload, and helping students with their own revising and proofreading skills.
Revision Process
Writing and writing center pedagogy support the idea of writing as a process. Writing as a process means a piece of writing undergoes a series of drafting and revising events. In terms of academic writing, it means that a strong, well-organized argument from the thesis down to the sentence-level and everything in between is the result of multiple steps of a process. Therefore, I focus my comments on some, not all, patterns of error in a paper review to encourage the idea that writing is a process and requires multiple drafts.
During the drafting process, as students are still developing their points, there might be several different issues that a student should address as they revise. However, as an Instructor, I consider where a student is at and the most pressing writing concerns they might work on for that particular draft. Since not all concerns are equal within any given writing project, Instructors must rank them and decide which ones take priority for a student. The recommendations I make for revising are all part of this drafting and revising process, a process that is often recursive as a student might revise the same section multiple times as they develop their argument and fine-tune their points.
Regardless of my suggestions during a paper review, one of my overarching goals is to help students understand that revising is a process, which is part of the reason I don’t comment on every pattern of error in a paper review.
Information Overload
Another reason I don’t comment on everything in a Paper Review is because information overload can cloud a student’s comprehension. Information overload can simply be understood to be given too much information to effectively process in a given amount of time. Even if it was possible to process all of the information, the results of the effort would be temporary as opposed to long-lasting. If I commented on every issue I notice in a Paper Review, it would lead to information overload because, even if a student was able to revise based on all of my suggestions, those revisions would likely not be internalized and transferred to other assignments. Thus, a student would likely not have gained any lasting writing skills.
Information overload does not lend well to students developing their own ability to recognize patterns of error and revise their papers on their own. To be clear, information overload does not provide a strong basis for recognizing and revising error since it cuts short the revising process which is essential for developing a strong, well-developed argument. Therefore, I don’t want to dissuade students from engaging with the writing process, which can sometimes happen if there is information overload: yet another reason why I don’t comment on every instance of an issue in a paper.
Revising and Proofreading Skills
To become strong, independent writers, students to be able to internalize feedback so they can transfer writing knowledge from one paper to the next. One method we use to achieve this goal is helping students learn to revise and proofread on their own. The more a student is able to work on their papers before and after a paper review, the more seamless the writing process can become. When students feel more confident in their ability to revise and proofread, they can feel more confident in their ability to tackle those longer documents, such as the capstone project. So, in the end, Writing Instructors want students to develop their own writing skills so that that process of writing is more pleasant and seamless for them, and so they are able to express their arguments in ways they feel confident about. Especially for those final capstone documents and any subsequent academic publication goals they might have.
Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.
Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )
