Why is it every time an assignment is due, people do something else? I had five papers due once back from Thanksgiving break and instead, I rearranged my living room, organized my closet, de-cluttered my room, decorated the walls with vinyl stickers (thank you Amazon), and now I’m writing this blog post. How can it be that when the pressure to finish an assignment before the due date makes some want to put it off even more and do other things? It sometimes feels like if one writes something else, like a blog post, it will put one in the mood to write for real. That if I can get this done, I will be able to check something else off my list and feel progress. Maybe it is the progress we need as students to feel like we have accomplished something. Ever notice the discussions in the caf about how much people got done in a certain period of time? “I read the novel for English, wrote my American Government paper, submitted the blackboard discussion, emailed my professor that pending question, and I worked out.” It seems to be the little things, the small goals and simple assignments is what constitutes progress for the college student. When the assignments get too big and the deadline nears, the small bits of progress snowball into the fifteen page research papers and final drafts of essay. Then the semester is over and it’s back to Netflix and sleeping in.
0 Comments
Do you have an academic writing goals list? I’m sure you have a reading list, all those books you want to read from the best-sellers list and literary classics. You probably even have recommended readings from your syllabus or from professors, but where is your writing list? Students are emerging scholars, even if one plans not to teach or not continue with education after graduation. What students are doing right now in those hour-long lectures is learning how to be a scholar, to write critically, and say something new. So what is it you are dying to say but do not have enough time to say it? Maybe it is a creative piece, a novella, a set of short stories, or maybe a book of poems. Write out those ideas and save that paper in a sock drawer. Put it someplace you will return to and be able to find. Maybe it is a file on your computer or Google drive, but do not lose it.
Write your writing goals down. Do not simply write ideas, write goals of how to improve your writing. Do you struggle with commas or perhaps incorporating quotes into a paragraph? Make a goal of getting help with those areas. As a scholar, one cannot continue to misuse grammar or misuse a quote. By the time a student is in graduate school, the focus is maturing the writing one does. Everyone has to be published nowadays, no one will publish a poor writer. Graduate students are in school to learn and to write, to read and to succeed. One can only hope to leave grad school a better writer than they came into it, at least that is the hope. Structure becomes a point of emphasis. Grad students should no longer have problems with grammar (although most do, work on it), creating better writing means to structure arguments in a sophisticated way. Vary the use of quotes, expand explication, do not use the same sentence structure in preceding sentences. Part of sophisticated writing is elevated language, although there are many articles for and against this “academiese,” or jargon that excludes readers, and sometimes colleagues, out of a specific subject. Most times those jargon writers put the reader to sleep. Big words do not equal heft or maturity in writing, instead focus on passing on information in a readable, approachable way. Be aware that writing is something all students have to work on, and this only comes with patience, practice, and application of the skill. Undergrads have worked at least four years growing their writing. Add two more years to that and aim for Ph.D quality writing especially if you want to further your education and teach at the university level. Not only does the structure of one’s writing count in grad school, the ideas one chooses to explore count just as much. The goal in the M.A. program is to prepare you for the thesis and then the Ph.D. Students know the purpose of the thesis is to add something new to academia, so how does one accomplish that if the ideas are undergraduate level in nature? It is our job to find what is new to uncover the unseen angle and explore it in writing. Ideas count just as much as how we write about them. If you do not know by now, writing is a skill everyone can cultivate and it is a lifelong journey. It does not stop because you graduated with your B.A., your M.A., or your Ph.D. So make that academic writing goals list, work on grammar, quotation use, conclusions, transition, and structuring arguments. Be the best writer you can be and aim to elevate your writing. My writing goal list is the following: 1. Identify comma splices in own work (I can identify them in others' works but sadly not my own) 2. Expand vocabulary 3. Publish an article before 2016 (in scholarly journal) 4. Write a seminar paper without any comma splices by end of Summer '15 classes Tip: be specific about your goals. Give dates and deadlines, assign accountability partners and seek out help for finishing goals. Maybe talk to professors at CBU about the publishing process, read articles online, and learn to do the research necessary to make those goals come true. Robert Sapunarich presented a scholarly paper on Calvinism and Moby Dick titled, Grace in the Maelstrom, Saturday, November 2 at the Pacific Ancient Modern Language Association conference in Riverside. He presented with fellow student Tara Anderson, who won last year's President's Award for Excellence in Writing for her paper, In Between the Mountaintops: A Look at Langston Hughes’ ‘Christ in Alabama.’ Sapunarich was first runner up in the same competition for the above mentioned essay.
Sapunarich is an Alpha Tau member and presented wonderfully at the conference attended by Ph.D's, M.A's, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Both Sapunarich and Anderson represented CBU academically, holding their ground amongst leaders in the field. I can only speculate at possible nervousness, but each answered questions and fostered discussion with around 15 people in attendance. Dr. Lu chaired the session and Dr. Veltman presented a paper as well. Dr. Veltman read an essay on teaching Flannery O'Connor in a Christian institution. The paper explored O'Connor's secular and religious audiences with success often times coming from the former of the two. Alpha Tau is proud of the accomplishments Sapunarich and Anderson accomplished and is delighted to sing their praises. Way to represent CBU and Alpha Tau Sigma, Robert! |
Alpha Tau Sigma at
Cal Baptist Archives
May 2015
Categories
All
Written by
|