All entries for February 2012

Final summary of Writing For Arts and Social Sciences Seminar

Follow-up to Follow Up 2 from Matt's blog

Alrighty, so I thought I'd leave this final entry on the writing for arts and social sciences section until I received feedback on the exam I took near the start of this term, to reflect on the progress I have made since starting this process!

I have continued with my emphasis on results sections of journals, to get me more into the scientific writing style. However, the main thing I felt necessary to work on (partially through seminars, involving examination of published papers in journals), is going one step further and criticising/evaluating as I go along. I feel that I have reached the stage where I know enough to not only be learning from other journals, but also imposing my own knowledge on them, and seeing where I feel they are going wrong. Through this, I am learning more and more about what should be included in papers, and what shouldn't, and this is something I aim to continue developing long into the future.

In the examination in january, I tried to put into practice all the action points that I have set out so far. These included being succinct and to the point, planning out an essay before writing it, imposing time limits that I feel will allow me to complete all tasks, as well as general structuring of the essay. In reflection, I feel most of these were achieved to great success. I didn't run out of time, I wasn't going crazy with the asterisks (as I have been known to do in previous exams), and I felt calm in the knowledge that I had an action plan with each question! I recently gained my mark, and this reflection was accurate, as I obtained 68% (which I am very pleased about, considering the number of case studies involved!).

In each of the written pieces of work, I was precise in my analysis of the papers, and really feel like I now know how to write in a critical manner. With one mark in the 60s and the other in the 80s, the progress made through attending the writing seminar (and all the reflection involved) is really beginning to show!

I fully intend to keep developing my writing style, learning from journals containing published articles, and planning each piece of work fully before diving in and writing all parts of it in one sitting!

Many thanks for the seminar, and all the comments made on each blog post :)

Matthew Cairnduff : 13 Feb 2012 00:17 |  Tags: A3 Portfolio |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem