msc. psychology professional skills

Regional Writing Centre 1

MSc. PsychologyProfessional

Skills

Íde O’SullivanRegional Writing Centre, UL

www.ul.ie/rwc


Writing Critiques of presentations Reviews of articles Literature reviews


Key Considerations


The writing process Prewriting Drafting Revision Editing and Proofreading


Prewriting Planning

Evaluating the rhetorical situation, or context, into which you write

Choosing and focusing your topic Establishing an organising principle

Gathering information Entering the discourse on your topic Taking notes as a strategy to avoid charges of

plagiarism Evaluating sources


Planning: Assessing the rhetorical situation Occasion Topic Audience Purpose Writer


Stylistic differences that mark academic writing

Complexity Formality Objectivity Accuracy

Precision Explicitness Hedging Responsibility

(Gillet 2008)


Planning: Analysing journals Cracking the codes of academic writing Analysing the genre/text and modelling Identify important criteria that will make

your writing more effective Ask yourself the following questions:

How is the paper structured? How is the contribution articulated? What level of context is provided? What level of detail is used? How long are the different sections?


Planning: Analysing journals What organisational features/patterns are in

evidence? How are arguments and counterarguments

presented and structured? What types of evidence are important? What stylistic features are prominent? Is the text cohesive? How does the author

achieve such cohesion? What kind(s) of persuasive devises does the

author employ? Voice?


Drafting Try to visualise your report. Work toward that

vision. Begin to structure it—establish your section

headings; give them titles. These do not have to be permanent.

Examine the logical order of ideas reflected in those titles.

Do not get hung up on details; elements of the draft are subject to change in the revision stage.

Start to write the sections that you are ready to write.


Drafting Continue to reassess your rhetorical

situation. Does what you have written so far

contribute to the achievement of your purpose?

Experiment with organisation and methods of development.

Don’t get bogged-down in details; focus on the big issues: organisation and logical flow.


Revision Is your paper logically organised?

A good way to check the logical flow of your ideas is to outline your report AFTER you’ve completed your draft.

How did you introduce your topic? By giving it definition? Describing its development? Explaining what it is?

Does each section contribute to your reader’s understanding of your topic? Does your report service your purpose, aims, and objectives?


Revising Outline each section. How does each

paragraph contribute to our understanding of the topic of that section?

Take a close look at paragraphs: Does each paragraph have a central idea? Does it have unity? Is it coherent and well developed?

Is there a correspondence between the title of your report, your section headings and sub-headings and the central ideas in your paragraphs?


Revising Do the methods used to illuminate your topic lead

to logical discovery? No truths are self-evident. Claims have to be defended with evidence.

Processes have to be described and explained; Design features and research methods have to be

justified; The justification for generalisations and conclusions

need to be made explicit; The criteria used to qualify our results also needs to

be explicitly put forward and evaluated for objectivity; Underlying assumptions need to be evaluated for

their objectivity.


Editing and proofreading Once the report is cogent, it must be made

to be coherent. Work methodically, checking one feature

at a time. Do not exclude formatting issues. Editing and proofreading is more than just

grammar and punctuation; it is also about voice, rhythm, tone, style and clarity.


Editing and proofreading Check for ambiguity Check for comma splices, run-ons, stringy sentences and

fragments. Check for how sentences introduce new information: is it in

the beginning of the sentence or at the end? Check that you use sentence types that are appropriate for

your discipline. Check word order and usage. Check for agreement: Subject/verb; pronoun or noun

substitute/ antecedent or concatenation. Check for bias. Check for obstacles to clarity:

Poorly chosen words Vague references Clichés and trite language Jargon Inappropriate connotations


Editing and proofreading Check for plagiarism

Check the form of your in-text citations and of your full references in your References page.

Check the content of your citations. Is everything that should be there there?

Check that paraphrases are not too close to the original.

Check that all figures, tables and graphs are captioned and cited (below figures and graphs; above tables)

Check that any borrowed ideas, words or methods of organising information are referenced and clearly marked.


Logical choices and unity of purpose Every choice serves to defend a claim,

answer a question, or confirm a hypothesis Word, phrase, sentence-structure

Does the choice satisfy audience expectations Does it speak to your authorial credibility Does it further your argument, analysis,


Arguments & logic A good argument will have, at the very least:

a thesis that declares the writer's position on the problem at hand;

an acknowledgment of the opposition that nods to, or quibbles with other points of view;

a set of clearly defined premises that illustrate the argument's line of reasoning;

evidence that validates the argument's premises; a conclusion that convinces the reader that the

argument has been soundly and persuasively made. (Dartmouth Writing Program 2005)


Flow Logical method of development Effective transition signals Good signposting Consistent point of view Conciseness (careful word choice) Clarity of expression Paragraph structure

Unity Coherence


Writing a Critique


Writing a critique Making a claim Argument Evidence Counterargument Audience Reference to the literature Critical reading Evaluation Synthesis Credibility


Useful Strategies


Getting started Where and when do you write? Why are you not writing?

“I don’t feel ready to write.” Writers’ block

Getting unstuck Writing to prompts/freewriting (write

anything) Set writing goals Write regularly Integrate writing into your thinking Break it down into a manageable

process


Outlining (Murray 2006) Title and draft introduction Level 1 outlining

Main headings Level 2 outlining

Sub-headings Level 3 outlining

Decide on content


Writing in layers (Murray 2006: 125-27)

Outline the structure: write your section heading for the research paper.

Write a sentence or two on the contents of each section.

List out sub-headings for each section. Write an introductory paragraph for each

section. At the top of each section, write the word

count requirement, draft number and date.


Writing a ‘page 98 paper’ My research question is … Researchers who have looked at this subject

are … They argue that … Debate centres on the issue of … There is work to be done on … My research is closest to that of X in that … My contribution will be …

(Murray 2006:104)


Dialogue about writing Peer-review Generative writing The “writing sandwich” (Murray 2005:85):

writing, talking, writing Writing “buddies” (Murray and Moore

2006:102) Writers’ groups Engaging in critiques of one another’s work

allows you to become effective critics of your own work.


Resources Ebest, S.B., Alred, G., Brusaw, C.T. and Oliu, W.E. (2005)

Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference Handbook, 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hacker, D. (2006) A Writer’s Reference, 6th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.

Regional Writing Centre, UL http://www.ul.ie/rwc/ Strunk, W. and White, E.B. (2000) The Elements of Style,

4th ed. New York: Longman. Using English for Academic Purposes

http://www.uefap.com/index.htm The Writer’s Garden http://www.

cyberlyber.com/writermain.htm The OWL at Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/depts /wcweb/handouts/index.html


Works cited Dartmouth Writing Program (2006) “Logic and

Argument” [Online], available: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/toc.shtml [accessed 08 Jan. 2008].

Elbow, P. (1998) Writing without Teachers (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Murray, R. (2005) Writing for Academic Journals. UK: Open University Press.

Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis (2nd edition). UK: Open University Press.

Murray, R. and Moore, S. (2006) The Handbook of Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. UK: Open University Press.

msc. psychology professional skills

Documents

logical flow

logical order of ideas

section headings

level of context

report service

stylistic differences

stylistic features

types of evidence