EDU7001+Understanding+the+Writing+Process


 * ** EDU7001-8 ** ||  ||
 * ** Foundations of Educational Scholarship ** || ** 1 Understanding the Writing Process ** ||
 * Stephen, **
 * Overall, you have submitted an excellent critique. You have supported your train of thought well and cited appropriately in APA format, we just need to fine tune a few of the citations. This really was a very well written paper. Keep up the great work. **
 * Stephen, **
 * Overall, you have submitted an excellent critique. You have supported your train of thought well and cited appropriately in APA format, we just need to fine tune a few of the citations. This really was a very well written paper. Keep up the great work. **
 * Overall, you have submitted an excellent critique. You have supported your train of thought well and cited appropriately in APA format, we just need to fine tune a few of the citations. This really was a very well written paper. Keep up the great work. **

=The Writing Process= This author has determined from his own professional experience that there are two kinds of teachers; those who want to demonstrate their own expertise – focusing on how smart they are, and those motivated to ensure that their students understand and can use the material provided to improve their understanding and lives. In the readings regarding poor academic writing the arguments propounded by the various experts remind one of these selfsame divergent motivations. This paper will explore the common mistakes that contribute to, the criticisms of, and suggested solutions for, poor academic writing. In addition a brief discussion regarding how a picture of good academic writing is formulated will be included.

Common Mistakes in Writing
The purpose of written communication is to convey information, and to some extent emotion, from one person or group to another. Even when communication is “dense, obscure,. . . [and] incomprehensible” ( “Bad Blood”*, 1999, para. 1 ) it conveys information. The articles specified for this paper identify the common mistakes of academic writing as being incomprehensible, unintelligible, obscure, indecipherable, impenetrable, unclear, mystifying, dense, ponderous, and turgid, having lightweight ideas, and filled with jargon ( “Bad Blood”, 1999; Rector, R., 2010; Smith, 1990 ). This appears to break the common mistakes down into two categories; being unsuccessful in transmitting meaningful information that is accessible to the reader, and the use of language in a manner that conveys a patronizing attitude from writer toward reader.

Criticisms of Poor Academic Writing
In the given articles academic writing was lambasted as poor prose, without “ sparkling wordplay [or]. . . language well used ” ( Rector, R., 2010, para. 1 ).* This may be an accurate assessment, but an extended question is should academic writing be either pithy or prose? Academic writing should encourage scholarly discourse, and further the cumulative learning of mankind. It is intended for an informed and critical audience, usually has an objective stance, and should be written such that others can replicate the findings, and disagree with or corroborate the results. One criticism of modern academic writing is that many authors engage in language that does not encourage scholarly discourse, but instead engages in “ increasingly lightweight ideas wrapped up in indecipherable prose ” ( “Bad Blood”, 1999, para. 1 ). This is simply the application of the old adage “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">”. Rather than presenting information in a form where an informed judgment can be made as to its importance and relevance to the discussion at hand, all too often writers “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">set up a whole new world of language and [then] these people say they’re the king or queen of it <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Smith, 1999, para. 29 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Many modern academicians are therefore similar to a favorite character in Lewis Carroll’s //Through the Looking Glass//: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">.” (p. 72) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">If one controls the meaning of the words in a discourse, then one controls the argument, and therefore the result.

Where Do Ideas about Good Writing Begin
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Several contributors in the articles specified identified that a major reason for this use of dense, turgid, and obscure academic writing is because it is drilled into graduate students that such is expected. For example, Sanford Pinsker, the editor of Academic Questions, stated that “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">without the jargon and ponderous content students quickly find themselves on the fast track to academic oblivion <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">“Bad Blood”, 1999, para. 15 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Martha Nussbaum, in an issue of The New Republic attacking Judith Butler’s writing, says “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">scholars are sometimes encouraged to write in obscure language. . . [because if they] write in a way that is accessible to nonspecialists, it means [they] are going to hurt [their] career <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Smith, 1999, para. 21 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Another professor, Michael Berube, agrees that he’s been called “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">under theorized <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">“Bad Blood”, 1999, para. 16 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">) because he writes clearly and often in the mainstream press. Scholarly writing does not seem to be about sharing information and advancing arguments, but about establishing and maintaining position and standing in the academic community. Dr. Pinsker noted, “you can’t disagree with something unless both sides know what they are talking about” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">para. 18 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">).*

Solutions for Poor Academic Writing
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Though 15 years have passed since the Sokal hoax, it does not appear that the lesson was learned. Until scholarly writing becomes more about discovery and advancement, rather than the turf of academic gangs warring over their specific street corner or ally, it will continue to be mysterious and use language “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">as a smoke screen through which no argument. . . can be seen <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">“Bad Blood”, 1999, para. 18 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). The solution is for academic journals to not only provide rigor in vetting articles for their contributions, references, and APA standards, but as Dr. Berube suggests, be “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">hard-nosed <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” in their editing and no longer tolerate bad writing in any form ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">para. 17 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[U1]Quotes not needed here, please refer back to APA 6thedition. Here is a very helpful link http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ [Actually quotes are needed there because APA 6th edition says that if I shorten a heading in a non-paginated source, the paragraphs are counted from each heading, and the shortened heading is in quotes. (APA 6th ed., p. 172, para. 6.05, 3rd example, " <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In some cases in which no page or paragraph numbers are visible, headings may be too unwieldy to cite in full. Instead, use a short title enclosed in quotation marks for the parenthetical citation <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">." )] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[U2]excellent. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[U3]Very good content.


 * = References ||
 * * Bad blood over bad writing: Critics say US academic language has become so convoluted that it is largely incomprehensible to the point where argument is becoming impossible. Richard Kelly reports. (1999, April 8). //Irish Times// [City Edition], p. 15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/310535955?accountid=28180
 * Carroll, L. (1871). //Through the looking glass//. London: Macmillan Publishers.
 * Rector, R. (2010, April 3). Bad writing gets its just reward. //San Gabriel Valley Tribune//. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/379815984?accountid=28180
 * Smith, D. (1999, February 27). When ideas get lost in bad writing. //The New York Times//. Retrieved from []


 * Note from seven months later:** The citations referencing the proquest database are incorrect and should reference the doi if available, and if not available should reference the journal home page. (These particular articles came from the syllabus.) ||