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.
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Vanessa Roman Paper Towns by John Green I have read everything else by John Green and reading this book would make it so that everything that he has ever written I have read. Someone also gave my this book to read and another friend suggested it saying that it was one of their favorite books by John Green, so therefore I had to read it. A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin I love the television series and I have read a couple of the books to the series however, I wish to complete the task by finishing the series over summer. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald This is one of the novels included with a couple short stories in the anthology that I own. I wanted to read this in the hopes to get a topic for my senior Capstone. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell I've been wanting to read this book for awhile, because I have seen the movie. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews This is another book (and series) that I have been wanting to read since I was younger and never really had a chance to. I also did an assignment for one of my english classes at CBU that made me interested in this book. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder I read this book in high school but now that I have take an upper division philosophy course I feel I can better understand the novel than before. I want to re-read this novel in the hopes that I will understand it in a new light. Danielle BrubakerThe Interestings by Meg Wolitzer I've heard fantastic things about this novel and how relatable it is to twenty-something year olds, so I've been wanting to read this book for a few months - I've just been so busy with school. But now I can finally read it! Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson I just took a Holocaust class this semester, so I've been eager to dive into this book! I can't wait to see things I've learned made into a good, yet informational novel. Iscariot by Tosca Lee We've all been taught that Judas betrayed Jesus and that he was a cruel and manipulative man, yet there is so much more behind Jesus' disciple that none of us know. I'm excited (and a bit nervous, to be honest) to read about the life of a man who I've grown up despising. Anna Hart1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2. 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 3. The City in Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee 4. PMLA March 2014 VOL 129 No 2 5. 1984 by George Orwell I started 1984 last summer and didn't get to finish it, so I am starting with that even though it is fifth on the list. I recently became a member of the MLA so now I get the PMLA at home and I am ready to read it. Lee's book of poetry I am most excited to read, I just finished his first book, Rose. HIs poetry books are not long so I know I can get through it before the Fall semester begins. March 8 is International Women's Day and to commemorate here are some female authors who have changed the world:
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