One aspect of online learning that has been a difficult transition for me is academic writing. I chose to do a blog post about the process and purpose of academic writing because it is something that challenges and intrigues me. There are some major differences between the writing taught in high school and the writing expected at the college-level. Gocsik (2005) defines academic writing as "moving beyond what you know about a topic and beginning to consider what you think." A few ways in which academic writing is different from all other types of writing is that it is writing done by a scholar for scholars and the academic community. Instead of being personal, it leans more toward analytical. When I write it is very hard for me to not include my personal opinions. I think this was the hardest transition for me when I began writing on an academic level. The Dartmouth Writing Program (Gocsik, 2005) suggests picking an audience, taking a stance, and being confident in what you are writing. Topics need to be provocative, startling, controversial, or fresh! If you aren't interested in what you are writing; no one else will be interested enough to read it!
No wonder I'm struggling with academic writing - in the article "Demystifying Academic Writing: Reflections on Emotions , Know-How, and Academic Identity, the authors outline some of the challenges of writing as being self-doubt, creating ideas, doubt of relevance, lack of skills, and fear of critique (Cameron, J., Nairn, K., & Higgins, J., 2009)! That is only a few of the examples of why it is hard for people to start writing! I know that I struggle with most of these challenges. These authors also note that "developing an identity and voice as an academic writer results from the process of coming to terms with writing emotions and developing procedural and technical writing know-how."
Often students are thrown into academic situations where they have to write scholarly papers, and are never formerly taught the proper format. More focus needs to be placed on instruction of academic writing and research. One group of people are developing an idea that could change the way academic writing is taught - it is called writing consultations (Murray, R., Thow, M., Moore, S., & Murphy, M., 2008). A writing consultation takes place between two academic writers placed together to help improve writing practices. The partners will take turns being the writer or the consultant. The consultant leads the writer through six steps while filling out a template to keep notes. After filling out the template, they switch places and work on the other person's writing. The process is meant to change writing behavior. I think this is a wonderful idea, because it is always easier to bounce ideas off of someone else and share different expertise. I hope that more online learning environments think about using this process when students are presented with big academic writing assignments. I would not have felt so overwhelmed and alone during the writing process if I could have been paired up with another classmate to do a writing consultation!
Sources
Cameron, J., Nairn, K., & Higgins, J. (2009). Demystifying academic writing: Reflections on emotions, know-how, and academic identity. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33(2), 269-284. doi: 10.1080/03098260902734943
Murray, R., Thow, M., Moore, S., & Murphy, M. (2008). The writing consultation: Developing academic writing practices. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 32(2), 119-128. doi: 10.1080/03098770701851854
