Even for experienced writers, composing academic papers can be daunting. You need to take a stand, systematically build evidence for your position, and make sure each and every detail can stand up to critical review. A clever turn of phrase won’t sell your argument to a faculty member or journal editor. Instead, you need to master a well-established set of rules that govern scholarly writing.
Fortunately, Capella has developed the Writing Feedback Tool to cover the major requirements for creating a strong academic paper. Created by faculty members from each Capella school, this tool covers issues relevant to all fields. If you’re a learner, this tool can save you a lot of time and effort by showing you the essentials of academic writing. If you’re a graduate, it can be a great help in writing for academic publication.
How the tool works
The tool looks at 11 separate areas that are part of assembling a successful academic paper, moving from broad considerations to APA technical requirements.
Stone Shiflet, PhD, and James Meredith, PhD, say that graduate students need to make an attitudinal shift from their undergraduate days. They’re now able—and expected—to take a thesis and argue for it rather than merely laying out the positions of others. “That drives all of your other decisions—how to structure the piece, how to be specific, and how to understand your audience,” says Meredith, an adjunct faculty member. “Once you learn that, your academic work is a lot easier.”
Budget your time
Think of writing itself as a process, not a rushed event. “That’s a new idea for a lot of people,” says Shiflet, coordinator of the Writing Across the Curriculum program. “It’s not something that you do all at once. You have to learn to budget your time and acquire things in steps. That’s what this tool is designed to do.”
The level of specificity in academic writing is far higher than other forms of writing. To get there requires time, concentration, effort, and a process, Meredith says. The Writing Feedback Tool serves as a checklist to ensure you’re hitting all the requirements of a successful paper, he says. Meredith, who is president of the Hemingway Society, says he’s used the tool himself when writing for academic publications.
The role of creativity
Because academic writing demands objectivity and precision, it may seem to lack creativity. That’s not the case, but the creativity comes from its content and structure, Shiflet says. “The articles you chose to read, the things you consider important enough to pull out and cite—that’s your creative process,” she says. “You come into a conversation in a particular academic topic and add new knowledge to your field.”
Finding your way
Everyone has different writing challenges, so you likely will spend more time on some sections of the Writing Feedback Tool than others. Additionally, you’ll find yourself moving from one level to another as your paper progresses. The early sections are more general and the later ones focus on nitty-gritty issues such as citation details.
Take heart that while the tool won’t make writing easy, it will provide tremendous guidance for you, regardless of your starting point. As an example, Shiflet mentions one PhD learner for whom English was a fifth language. Even so, she gave a flawless presentation of her work and an exemplary dissertation.
“If you’re dedicated and willing to work hard, you can master the writing challenge,” Shiflet says. “The tool will help you do so."
Comments?
What are some of your academic writing challenges?
This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Alumni, Learners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
