Goals: You will be able to...
- Identify and discuss common stumbling blocks and bad habits for academic writing (e.g. procrastination, daily distractions, perfectionism, fear of criticism, jumping too quickly to writing without planning)
- Discuss and recognize good writing habits and strategies to overcome difficulties in academic writing (e.g. writing regularly, making plans, outlining, pre-writing)
- Recognize an effective process of writing
Task 1: Stumbling blocks in academic writing
We're going to discuss five different types of writing habits and stumbling blocks in writing and fill out this discussion handout.
Helpful resource on pre-writing techniques
Helpful resource on pre-writing techniques
Task 2: Writing process
One of the most important strategies you need for successful writing experience is to approach your writing task as a "process" that involves several "steps" instead of doing it all at once (i.e. dividing it into smaller, manageable chunks while paying attention to different things in each step). Based on your previous experience, draw/fill in this chart in pairs to turn in at the end of the class.
Homework: Write a reflection paper based on the questions below:
What was the most positive writing experience in your academic (school) life, either in your own language or in English? What kinds of events, actions, or help from others, led to such experience? What process did you go through?
Note: If you have never had any positive writing experience before, you may answer the same questions above based on a bad writing experience.
Name your paper as "reflection1_your first name" and upload it in the Dropbox folder you shared with me. The length of the paper should be approximately 300-500 words. You may refer to this sample if you like.
