Writing assignments is about finding the right building blocks each time and putting them together in a coherent order. In the same way that using the same raw materials is unlikely to result in two identical buildings, even if you use the same sources and answer the same question no two assignments will ever be exactly the same. If we look back to the tutors’ comments we can see how repeatedly they use words and metaphors linked with building as ways of describing student writing in their own subject areas; if it is difficult to describe something one way, then coming to the same thing from another direction can often help. We can use metaphors in this way to help understand how to develop structure and argument in our academic writing. These are some of the words and phrases tutors and students use to describe writing assignments:
Structuring Building blocks Support Model Linking Mixing Body Processing
Getting underneath
Centre Construction Shaping
Using ‘building blocks’ is a metaphorical way of thinking about writing, which we hope will be helpful to you when you come to a new assignment.
As you approach each new assignment, you, the writer, are the ‘apprentice’ but your tutor is more likely to be an ‘experienced builder’. Although a more experienced academic writer may be able to describe in very general terms what a finished structure – the written assignment – could look like, that does not necessarily help you with the actual process of writing. Your tutor will be able to tell you where you went wrong with your writing after the finished structure is completed. What you have to remember is that at this stage, although you may feel like an ‘apprentice’ you are actually in charge of the building. As the writer you have to be able to identify the building blocks and put them together in a way that makes sense. In Chapter 2 we discussed brainstorming and illustrated the use of a spider diagram. These are useful techniques to use now to identify the building blocks, the different parts of your assignment. In Chapter 6 we look at the ways in which you can build from topics and themes to support your argument and illustrate this with the use of a mind map. Using these visual representations can be helpful in identifying the building blocks that you may decide to use in your particular piece of writing. Whatever piece of academic writing you are attempting, whatever subject or course you are doing, you will be putting together all the components into a structured coherent whole. You will be the one to have to make choices about the sources you will be drawing from, what to put in and what to leave out, and what are the most important points to make in answering the question. Assignment writing is never about writing down everything that you know about the subject. It is always about addressing a specific question and answering it in such a way that your tutor is able to assess how well you have understood that aspect of the course. In the next chapter we will be examining how you start from the title and begin writing.
Before we move on, it will help you to have completed the activities set in this chapter because, in themselves, they are the building blocks of what is to follow.
Notes
• There is no one way of academic writing.
• Courses may ask for a variety of ways of writing, even if they are broadly within the same ‘field of study’.
• Be prepared to write – and think – in different ways for different assign- ments and for different parts of courses.
• Tutors will have their own understandings of what constitutes a good piece of student writing.
WRITING FOR DIFFERENT COURSES 37
• Ask your tutor what he or she is looking for in your written work.
• Find out if it is possible to email your tutor as an alternative to seeing them personally.
• Visual representation (spider diagrams, mind maps) can help you identify your building blocks for writing.
• Writing an assignment is about more than knowing you have three parts to an essay.
4
Beginning with the title
Keywords • Disadvantages of just looking for keywords • Analysing the assignment
I can’t answer this. I don’t understand the question.
Students often don’t answer the question that has been set.
I can’t answer this, I don’t know anything about it.
We saw in the previous chapter how you are likely to find it necessary to write in different ways for different courses during your time at university. This chapter will look at ways of developing strategies to analyse and work with your assignments, which should help you to approach the different pieces of writing that you have to do. It builds on the activities that we have suggested so far. We will begin with the title. One criticism frequently levelled at students by lecturers is that students do not answer the question. One lecturer put it like this:
When my students ask me about essay writing, there are three main pieces of advice that I give them. One, answer the question. Two, answer the question. Three, answer the question.
At the same time, students often complain that they find it difficult to work out what the question is asking of them. When they seek advice they may find that they receive the kind of response that this student experienced:
I didn’t really understand the question, none of us did, so I went to my tutor and asked what it meant and how I should write it. She said that she
could not give me any further advice because that was the point of the exercise, to work out how to answer the question.
Despite this student’s experience, our advice to you is that initially, if you really are having difficulties answering a particular assignment question, then you should go to your tutor and ask his or her advice. We have made this point previously and we will be making it again throughout the book. However, we hope that by the time you have worked through this chapter you will feel more confident in tackling questions which seem daunting and unfamiliar.