WritingCompetencies

=Writing Competencies=

//in development, 14 June 09//

Most accounts of writing competencies begin by emphasizing the analytical work that is needed as you prepare to answer a question set by the instructor or dictating the conventions of academic presentation (e.g., formatting, APA citation). These CCT guidelines, instead, begin with the relationship with yourself, then with readers and the process of revision. It is these parts that are emotionally hardest and, as you develop these first competencies, it should become easier to work on the rest.

Two themes to be mindful of: > //Take care of the process and the product will take care of itself.// > //You are not on your own. You are part of a wider community. Respect others for the work they do.//

1. Embrace the process of improving your writing and thinking > Written work is important to express your thinking and convey your distinctive voice and ideas. > Writing (the process,not the product) is important to help you develop and clarify your thinking and your voice(s). > Working on your thinking is necessary not only to address course assignments, but also to improve your impact in your life/career/the world. >> When do you know if you have this competency? Answer 1: When you can say, in a heartfelt way, that you aspire to get yourself listened to and that this is driving your work on writing, not any feeling (or resistance to a feeling) that someone else has the power to decide if your writing is good. Answer 2. When you have a regular, consistent practice of writing improvement (e.g., attending a writing support group, making time to work through the exercises of a Writing book).

2. Share drafts readily, and follow this by dialogue with readers and revision in response to comments > When do you know if you have this competency? Answer: When you can honestly say: > "I have revised seriously, which involved responding to the comments of others, which required me to share drafts early and often. I have come to see this not as bowing down to the views of others, but taking them in and working them into my own reflective inquiry until I could convey more powerfully to others what I'm about (which may have changed as a result of the reflective inquiry)."

3. Build support systems for yourself. > including: making notes on what you are reading and thinking and and organizing hem so as to be useful to you later; keeping records for your bibliography; organizing files and backing so you don't waste precious time retrieving, recovering, or recreating your work; peer readers; writing tutor and workshops; technical resources (such as pocket guides to writing),; professional copy-editor; computer skills workshops; note cards of your common spelling errors; daily freewriting,... >> Do not expect the instructor to be your support/coach/nudge on all these matters

4. Connect your work with what others have done and are doing. > Find out about what others have written; make space and time to digest it (which is quite challenging in these days as we do more skimming of websites and files on the computer screen); make notes that are useful to you later; record references fully and quotes accurately.

5. Be compelling to the readers. > Each paragraph should have a clear topic that is distinct from other paragraphs; these topics should connect one to the next, and together support or develop the topic of section. Ditto, sections should support or develop the topic of the essay as a whole. Reciprocally, the essay as a whole should grab readers' attention and orient them to overall topic of the essay and the steps you take to support or develop it. Whether you write an outline in advance or construct it from your draft by reverse outlining, the final essay should follow a clear outline--one that others could follow if that's all they were to read.

6. Be helpful to readers. > Don't make your writing hard for others to read because of mistakes in layout, spelling, grammar. Make it easy for them to follow up references you make (either to learn more or to check exactly what your source said in its original context). This means: >> Learn and use the tools of your wordprocessor so that formatting doesn't depend on the particular font or peculiarities of the printer (tools include page breaks, section breaks, use of ruler and tab formatting, page numbers) >> Learn and use the spell-check and grammar-check tools of your wordprocessor >> Proofread your work for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and coherence of paragraphs. Arrange copyediting & proofing assistance if these are not your strengths. >> Include a bibliography of references actually cited, formatted in a consistent manner.

See also > UMB Writing proficiency guide: http://www.umb.edu/academics/undergraduate/office/wpr/advice.html > CCT Study and writing competencies, http://www.cct.umb.edu/competencies.html > CCT Goals of Writing and Reflective Practice, http://www.cct.umb.edu/selfassess.html