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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
In the past, I have been told that my writing is clear and well organized. When considering the Evaluation Criteria (the Grading Rubric), I have identified Style as a strength. Each piece of work has an introduction, body and conclusion. I organize the body using headings and sub-headings. Each section is clearly stated and flows from one idea to the next. I try to inject creativity to the conclusion, since it is the final attempt to make a lasting impression.
I have always felt my biggest weakness in writing is grammar. This has been verified by past professors and by the Pre-Course Test (Athabasca University). In fact, this is the main reason why I chose to enrol in MAIS 606: Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Completing my Master of Health Studies is part of working towards a career in academia; I strongly believe writing and editing skills are an integral part of teaching. Also, I am taking this course early in my master’s program to aid in my growth and development throughout the program.
I have always felt that I lack the innate ability to write; especially, since I am poor at spelling. According to Fernsten and Reda, multiple factors may contribute to a person’s ability to write including culture and politics. They believe “writer self-awareness will provide students with a new vocabulary, additional tools, and greater confidence with which to approach the writing tasks they are asked to perform, both in the academy and beyond” (181).
After the Pre-Course Test, I am more aware of my lack of knowledge regarding the rules of grammar. In order to become more self-aware, I will include grammar; especially, pronouns, sentence fragments, dangling modifers, misplaced modifiers, and wordiness in my editing sheet (Athabasca University). I will also reflect on my past experiences with writing to discover areas to improve my writing; as well as, methods to make writing a more positive experience (Fernsten and Reda 171-182).
Works Cited
Athabasca University. "Pre-Course Test ." 2013 May . MAIS 606 - Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Web . 20 May 2013.
Fernsten, Linda A and Mary Reda. "Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing." Teaching in Higher Education (2011): 171-183. Web.
Kind regards,
Shauna Hachey
Comments
I enjoyed reading your blog Shauna. Thanks for leaving it open to your classmates! I don't think you need consider grammar a weakness any longer, your post looks pretty good to me. I have to confess, I am unclear of what we shoudl write about in our blogs. I chose a subject area for my first blog that had been touched upon in the course material and wrote a piece on that subject. I am about to do the same again for my next blog post. I'm really unclear as to whether or not that is the requirement.
I concur with your emphasis of writer self-awareness as the path to increased vocabulary but I would augment it with reading — vast quantities of reading. One can quickly spot a person who doesn't read and who just watches TV or listens to the radio, they make the most basic of grammatical errors, the most telling of all is the would of, could of, should of error that results from the mis-hearing of the abbreviated form. To me that is always the prime indicator of a person who doesn't read; the other of course is the lack of expressiveness resulting from a limited vocabulary. No amount of writing can compensate for this, reading is required! Cheers Shauna!