Thursday, July 18, 2013

Writing Effectively, Getting Done

Organize what you write so that if I read the first paragraph of each paper, the first paragraph of each section, and the first paragraph of each subsection, I get the gist of what you are saying. This means that these paragraphs are likely written after you have written the paper, section, or subsection. And that you have organized the work into chapters, sections, subsections.

Make you main point (your contribution to scholarship or practice) clear in those first paragraphs, and make sure that what is most important in the paper or the chapter, or the thesis/dissertation, is up front. Don't hold back.

Last point, be sure you refer to sources carefully, use quotation marks around direct quotes, and spellcheck. And get the work in before the deadline. Plagiarism or Late won't work.

Don't worry too much about your personal issues about writing, learning styles, etc. If you do the above, and you work every day on your projects, you will get done and it will at least be readable. There's lots written about writing, and it may be of help to you.  No end of workshops etc. Even my new book has lots. But the above in bold is the main point.

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