Academic and Writing Support: Approach

College students often believe writing papers and essays involves an alchemic process that can never be fully understood. Part of my objective is to help demystify the task of writing papers by providing a road map – or “process” – that students can fall back on.

Transcript

1. Prepared for Empire State College D. Johnstone August 2, 2018 Academic & Writing Support A p p r o a c h The Student Journey
2. v Learn where the student is in terms of comprehension, of not only the assignment, but of the writing process. v Understand how cognizant the student is of the mechanics of writing; rules for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar. v Finally, is the student capable of applying analytical thought to their assignments? Session Goals
3. Challenge v Many students are unable to start an assignment or generate content because they have no idea of what the writing process entails and/or they fear their ideas won’t be good or acceptable Approach v Let the student know their ideas have validity and they shouldn’t be afraid to express their point of view. v Impress upon students the fact that writing is a process. Tell them NOTHING is right the first time. v We’re not looking for perfection in first drafts. It’s okay to make mistakes.
4. • Learn how to take notes • Break the text/article into parts • Learn how to paraphrase [Double Journal Entry] • Develop an argument [or simply answer a question] • Brainstorm • Time management is necessary for all this to go smoothly The Process
5. v The most important take away for the student is to have them understand the first draft they write needn’t be perfect. They’re simply flushing out ideas from their notes – they’re “brainstorming” § We’re not looking for perfection in our first attempt. § The academic essay begins long before you start to type – or pick up a pen. Brainstorm
6. “ Part of the “process” for writing academic papers is checking your work for grammatical and structural errors.
7. • Frame comments or recommendations for revisions in a positive way by telling the student they have good ideas, but they haven’t been fully developed • Ask open ended questions about areas that are vague: “What are you saying here?” “Explain this concept to me.” • Recast to check comprehension Use Encouragement to Motivate • Frame comments or recommendations for revisions in a positive way by telling the student they have good ideas, but they haven’t been fully developed • Ask open ended questions about areas that are vague: “What are you saying here?” “Explain this concept to me.” • Recast to check comprehension Use Encouragement to Motivate
8. “ Sometimes it’s necessary to recast several times in order to understand a concept. Once the student and I agree on meaning, I ask them to rewrite the sentence or paragraph
9. o There is no perfect formula. Each student and writing project has its own logic. Every situation will be unique. There is no “One Size Fits All” Session o Identify strategies that will be most productive for each student.
10. “ Think “Triage” You can’t address every problem in a paper. It’s overwhelming for students.