That Write Stuff
Graduate school is nothing if not a lot of reading, writing and money. Compared with on-site courses, distance education probably doubles the reading and writing, though not the money. Probably. The data isn’t in on that yet.
Anyway, writing especially is critical in distance education (DE) mainly because you’ll need to get your ideas across quickly, concisely, clearly, regularly and hopefully, with color.
If I could pass along any piece of advice on that, it would be to stay true to your research and content. The writing style will follow, if you know what you want to say and how you want to say it. Simplicity takes hard work. Show your effort by keeping your writing simple until you’ve learned the language of your field.
To get started, check out these books, if you haven’t already:
* Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
* The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, which is fairly inexpensive for those of us who keep losing it or lending it out.
And most of all, remember to read Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,” a short (for that time) piece that still packs a lot of writing tips into an amusing critique of Fenimore Cooper’s Deerslayer series. A few pointers from this 19th century writing tutorial that still apply in the blogosphere:
“In addition to these large rules there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:
12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.”
Check out the rest of this inimitable humorist's writing tips at the Public Broadcasting System’s (PBS) website: http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html
Comments
Thank you for commenting, Steffen.
I am familiar with Turnitin and this is a hot button for me. I find it a company with vile methods. It takes students' original work and archives it, gaining permission under duress -- such as the threat of not continuing a course -- and does this in the name of fighting plagiarism. Ironic.
I object as a student of works that have been archived under threat and as a former journalist whose work on the Internet is potentially being used for scans by a for-profit company, without reimbursement to me.
On its website, it indicates that 70% of students don't plagiarize, 1% plagiarize a whole paper and 29% significantly plagiarize. Its website used to say that the majority of those 29% simply made a mistake, in a rush or out of ignorance. Simply put, colleges need to better teach research, and we have to be careful about how far we are willing go to fight plagiarism.
I'm sorry, but Turnitin and the colleges that use it get no kudos from me.
Posted by: Anne's Blog | April 6, 2007 07:36 PM
One of the things that's killing me is that the new technologies have made it possible and almost inevitable that students will plagiarize.
I talked to an expert friend this week and he said that TurnitIn (the plagiarism application) has found that almost 505 of written projects in college classes are plagiarized to an unacceptable level.
I am depressed. :-(
Why does this stupid application not have emoticons!?
steffen
Posted by: Steffen | April 5, 2007 09:02 PM