Academic Performance – My Blog

Academic Performance
Writing Style: Improving
Writing Competencies
WEEK 3
Academic Performance
Session
Outline
Academic Performance
• 15 Minutes
• Announcement
• Recap from last week’s session
• Questions from last week’s session
• 45 Minutes
• Focus of this week: Improving Your Writing Competencies
• 15 Minutes
• Class activity
• 15 Short Break
• Check your phones, take a walk!
• 60 Minutes
• Seminar activity
• 30 Minutes
• Q&As
• One to One inquiries
• Take home exercise
Academic Performance
DHICT
Three component of
reading
• Decoding
• Comprehension
• Retention:
Why reading is
important?
• Is a vital skill in
finding a good job
• Develops creativity
• Develops the mind
some of the reading
problems
• Cultural, linguistic,
educational
experience
• Reading deficiency
Writing Styles
Improving Your Writing Competencies
DHICT
Writing Style
Academic Performance
What is writing style?
• A students particular way of writing
• The type of writing needed for a particular piece
of work
• Writing well
Improving your writing style
• Writing structure
• Writing syntax
• Writing texture
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Improving your writing style
Writing structure
The organisation of your content
• Paragraphing
• Punctuations
• Vocabularies
• Keywords and key terminologies
Writing syntax
The appropriate development of your content
• Transition words / linking words / smart words
• Sentence length
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Improving your writing style
Writing texture
The appropriate construction of your sentences
• Grammar
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Improving your writing style
• Accurate punctuation will make your work easier
to read
• Appropriate paragraphing will make the structure
of your work easier to follow.
• The appropriate use of key terminologies and
vocabularies will provide clear understanding of
the different contexts embedded in your work
and the sentences functions will be invaluable.
Improving Your Writing
Competencies
Punctuation
DHICT
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
The organisation of your content
• Punctuations
• Full Stops are used to separate one statement (and
any closely related qualifications of it) from the next.
• Commas are used solely to make your meaning clear
and guide necessary pause’s.
• Commas are used to separate parts of a list:
For example
I went shopping and bought pencils, notebooks,
markers, and English text books.
• Commas are used to separate descriptive words
For example;
Franca stared at the long, tiring queue.
A loud, banging, windy sound was heard at the stream.
DHICT
Add commas, where necessary, to the following sentences:
1. Marian has travelled in France Spain Australia India and the USA.
2. We were watched by a lean ageing kangaroo.
3. After two weeks on buses and trains it was a relief to smell sea
air
4. Jason our guide walked fast and spoke little.
5. Air disasters it is well known are fewer than accidents on the
roads.
6. Taking a foreign holiday despite problems with accommodation
currency and language can be a liberating experience.
7. Day after day the grey rocks dotted here and there with small
plants formed a backdrop for our trek.
8. Taking a foreign holiday can be a liberating experience.
1
DHICT
Add commas, where necessary, to the following sentences:
1. Marian has travelled in France, Spain, Australia, India and the
USA.
2. We were watched by a lean, ageing kangaroo.
3. After two weeks on buses and trains, it was a relief to smell sea
air
4. Jason, our guide, walked fast and spoke little.
5. Air disasters, it is well known, are fewer than accidents on the
roads.
6. Taking a foreign holiday, despite problems with accommodation,
currency, and language, can be a liberating experience.
7. Day after day, the grey rocks, dotted here and there with small
plants formed a backdrop for our trek.
8. Taking a foreign holiday can be a liberating experience.
ANSWERS
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
The organisation of your content
• Punctuations
Semicolons indicates a slightly shorter pause than that
given by a full stop.
• Semicolons when applied, shows whatever you write on
each side of it must function as separate sentences.
For example
Many Intercontinental dishes like Afro-Caribbean food;
Indian restaurants and Chinese take aways, for example,
have opened in most part of Brentford.
The working verb in the first sentence is like and its
subject is many Intercontinental dishes. In the second
statement, the working verb is have opened and its
subject is Indian restaurants and Chinese takeaways.
DHICT
In the following paragraph, it would be possible to replace two of
the full stops with semicolons. Which two? Why?
Many people have strong opinions on the use of the private car.
Some feel that it has liberated the individual and brought with it
a new level of personal freedom. Others feel that the threat to
the environment posed by fuel emissions must be curtailed.
Governments can find themselves caught between these
mutually exclusive standpoints. They don’t want to be seen as
autocratic and reactionary. At the same time, they are aware, of
global warming and of the fact that they are likely to be held
2 responsible for environmental decline.
DHICT
In the following paragraph, it would be possible to replace two of
the full stops with semicolons. Which two? Why?
Many people have strong opinions on the use of the private car.
Some feel that it has liberated the individual and brought with it
a new level of personal freedom; others feel that the threat to
the environment posed by fuel emissions must be curtailed.
Governments can find themselves caught between these
mutually exclusive standpoints. They don’t want to be seen as
autocratic and reactionary; at the same time, they are aware, of
global warming and of the fact that they are likely to be held
ANSWERS responsible for environmental decline.
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
The organisation of your content
• Punctuations

AssignmentTutorOnline

Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Paragraphing
• Splits up a piece of writing into separate topic
sections.
• Make reading easy.
• Helps clarify what to include
Common Issues With Paragraphing
• Paragraph too long
• Reader gets too bored
• Paragraph too short
• Reader needs more context
• Indicate writer know less of the topic
Possible solution to common issues with paragraphing
• Use linking words
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Sentence Construction
Simple rules for a good sentence
• A sentence must
• Make sense
• Contain a working verb
• Contain a subject for the verb
Common Issues With Sentence Construction
• Sentence fragment
For example:
With all his writing materials.
Felix went to uni with all his writing materials
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Improving your writing style
• A first quick read
• Note-making
• Writing a first draft
• Checking your word-count and editing
• Writing your final draft
New to reading and academic at university level?
• Aim to try novels, travels writing, histories,
biographies, broadsheet newspapers and
academic journals.
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Checklist for simplicity
• Use a short word rather than a long one
• Be yourself: don’t copy style from another writer
• Write the truth as you see it
• Check your logic: have you said what you mean,
and does your writing make sense?
• Be as brief as possible without omitting essential
points
• Omit cliches (e.g. ‘in this day and age’. ‘the
bottom line’)
• Use active verbs rather than passive ones
• Use concrete nouns rather than abstract ones
whenever possible
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
Sentence Length
Writing Style:
Improving
your writing
Competencies
Academic Performance
• Find the right word: expand your vocabulary
• Describe the process: aim to make your
description clear, accuracy is essential
• Persuasive writing: get the readers on your side,
stress your main points.
• Tone: readers react strongly to tone (impatient,
upset, friendly, formal, serious, humorous). Tone
gives a clue how the writer feels about the
subject.
• Diction: the kind of words used
• Register: adjust your writing language
automatically for the needs of the particular
listener
• Follow writing instructions
• Feedback
Writing Types
Academic Performance
As Business Students, you may be asked to write:
• Summaries
• Creative writing
• Articles
• CVs,
• Letters
• Reports
• Essays
Academic Performance
Academic Performance
Writing Types:
Summaries
Academic Performance
5 Steps to writing a good summary
1. A first quick read
2. Note-making
3. Writing a first draft
4. Checking your word-count and editing
5. Writing your final draft
1. A first quick read
• Familiarise with the material and get comfortable with the task
ahead
• May skim through by reading the first sentence of each
paragraph and perhaps the whole of the concluding paragraph
• May skim through by reading the introductory paragraph and
the concluding paragraph
Writing Types:
Summaries
Academic Performance
2. Note-making
• Your note is the basis of your summary
• Copy out technical terms
• Write in your own words
3. Writing a first draft
• First version of your answers
• First draft should be written from your notes
• Avoid looking at the original content
• Keep your draft short
• Don’t worry about word-count at this stage
Writing Types:
Summaries
Academic Performance
4. Checking your word-count and editing
• Editing depends on the specific instructions
• For example, word limit
• During editing, focus on secondary texts that, if removed
will not affect the overall understanding
5. Writing your final draft
• Do a final check on the word-count
• Go through the key points and ensure they intersect
• Check for writing tone based on the writing type (informal
and formal)
Seminar Activity
See document on Blackboard | Follow instruction enclosed
DHICT
Academic Performance
Academic Performance
How can I help you?
Any question concerning the module study guide?
Any question concerning the assessment?
Academic Performance
What is Academic
Success for Academic
Performance Module?
• Academic Success is the
ability to ‘Practicalise’ the
conceptual, theoretical and
subject knowledge with a
specific goal.
Dr Francisca C Umeh
Academic Performance
Academic Performance