How to get an ‘A’ on your paper!

Lawrence Cleary, Director Regional Writing Centre,

University of Limerick www.ul.ie/rwc
How the RWC talks about writing

Processes Situation Strategies

Research Process Occasion Cognitive
Writing Process Topic Metacognitive
Audience Procedural
Writer-based Writing: Purpose Affective
Assessing the situation Writer Social
Planning
Choosing a topic
Gathering information and taking
notes
Drafting
Reader-based Writing
Revising
Editing
Proofing
 Toto, I don’t
think we’re in
the Leaving
Cert anymore!
Leaving Cert Strategies?
• What were some of the strategies you were taught for doing well on Leaving Cert exams that required long writing
tasks such as for English or History?
• What worked?
• What didn’t work so well?
Context: University
• What is similar about this context to second level?
• In both cases you are being ranked (graded)
• Writing functions to provide a rationale for your rank
• The goal was to be informative and persuasive
• What is different?
• More emphasis on reason and evidence, less on pathos
• More emphasis on appealing for your own credibility and the credibility of your sources
• More balanced approach, seeking truth rather than ‘right-at-all-costs’.
• Focus on objectivity, accuracy, precision, formality?
• Engaging in on-going conversations about issues in the field.
The Context: A Writing Assignment
• What is the assignment asking you to do?
• What is are my choices of topic?
• Who talks about the problem I’m addressing?
• Why did they study the problem?
• What did they do and how did they do it?
• What did they find?
• What did they say it meant?
• Do they all agree about the nature of the problem and its solution?
• What is your position?
• How will you defend your position?
Topic: A problem
• In an academic context, the topic is a problem. Researchers
• Take a position on a point of contestation
• Fill a gap in the field of knowledge
• Papers do one of four things (maybe more):
• Claim  Defence
• Question  Answer (defence for the answer)
• Problem  Solution (defence for the solution)
• Hypothesis  Test  Affirmation/Negation (defence for the reliability of the test and the reasons for
affirming or negating the hypothesis)
The Context: A Writing Assignment

• The grading criteria?

• The module’s learning outcomes?
• The programme’s learning outcomes and assumed
attributes?
• Graduate attributes: Knowledgeable, Proactive,
Creative, Responsible, Collaborative, Articulate
• Exercising high-level cognitive processes:
What writers need to know

06.11.19
Planning

• Space/Time
• How many words?
• How much time?
• What competes for my time?
• What will I have done by the end of the week?
• Next week?
• When will I drink beer?
The Rhetorical Context: The Academic Project
• To understand the nature of our reality
• To be a good scientist:
• Remain objective
• Remain unbiased
• Follow a sound method of inquiry
• Do not overstate the value of the findings
• To follow up on the research of others in order to move the knowledge field forward
• To honestly distinguish our contributions from those who precede us (citing/referencing sources)
• To honestly represent the opinions and findings of others
• To find out who we are
What else?

• Locate the argument and enter the conversation

• Learn from poor choices
• Get better with each paper
• Everyone can write!

•
You can get an ‘A’!
• Just keep trying to develop your process, strategies
and understanding of your writing situation