Writing Skills for Doctoral Students

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Writing Skills for Doctoral Students

• Kathy Neff

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TOPICS

• The Writing Process
• Prewriting
• Writing
• Rewriting
• The Five Cs
• Common Errors
• APA Documentation

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REMEMBER THIS

• WRITING WORKS
• ONLY
• WHEN IT WORKS
• FOR THE
• READER.

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THE WRITING SITUATION

• Purpose
• Audience
• Due Date
• Content
• Format
• Length
• Documentation Style

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WRITING AND THINKING

• WRITING IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A
• THINKING TASK
• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• ANALYSIS
• SYNTHESIS
• EVALUATION

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SO..

• What IS good writing?

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Characteristics of Effective Writing

• COMPLETE
• CLEAR
• CONCISE

• CORRECT
• COMPELLING

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HOW DO YOU START TO WRITE?
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THE WRITING PROCESS

• PREWRITING
• WRITING
• REWRITING

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Purposes of Prewriting

• Generate ideas
• Do research
• Organize ideas
• Plan content and structure

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Prewriting

• Brainstorming
• Free Writing
• Mind Mapping

• Branching
• Reporters Questions
• Cubing
• Outlining

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Writing
Just DO it!
Do just IT!
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Rewriting

• REVISE
• EDIT
• PROOFREAD

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COMMON ERRORS

• DATA
• SIGNIFICANT
• THEIR

• INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
• COMMAS

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DOCUMENTATION

• Citations
• No URLs
• Author (or title) and Year
• Page/paragraph numbers with quotations
• Punctuation after citation/parentheses
• Personal communication

• Reference Page
• Alphabetical order
• Hanging Indent
• Author name
• Capitalization in titles
• Formatting in titles

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DOCUMENTATION SANDWICH

• Integrate
• source
• information
• smoothly!

Lead in or signal phrase
Information from a source
In-text citation
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VERBS YOU CAN USE

• Acknowledges
• Agrees Argues
• Asserts Believes
• Claims Concludes
• Confirms Contends
• Demonstrates
• Describes Emphasizes
• Explains Finds
• Illustrates Indicates

• Maintains Notes
• Observes Points out
• Proves Questions
• Recognizes Recommends
• Refutes Rejects
• Remarks Reports
• Says Shows
• States Speculates
• Suggests Supports

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ONLINE RESOURCES

• Purdue Online Writing Lab
• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/
• Diana Hacker Bedford Handbook
• http//bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/bedhandbook7enew/P
  layer/Pages/Main.aspx
• Brians List
• http//www.wsu.edu/brians/errors/errors.html

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QUESTIONS?