The Writing
Process
FASTP1015 Academic Writing
CRICOS Provider No. 00103D
Product or process?
• Common approach: product over process
• Knowing the rules vs practicing the skills
• Inborn talent vs learning the craft (the tools)
A big-picture approach
• Process and structure first, details last
• Assessment designed to develop through the process
Essay plan
Essay draft
Final essay
The process
Prewriting
Publishing
Editing
Drafting
Revising
Pre-writing
Analyse
task
Research
Read
Think &
brainstorm
Discuss &
question
Plan
Analyse the task
To ensure you understand the task, look for:
• Instruction words
• Topic words
• Focus words
• Limiting words
(McMillan & Weyers, 2011, pp. 31–33)
Examples
“What are the most significant challenges facing mature-age students
entering university today? Discuss in relation to Australian higher
education.” (Education)
• Instruction: discuss
• Topic: challenges facing mature-age students
• Focus: entering university, today
• Limiting: most significant, Australian higher education
Examples
“Discuss the management of health needs within a population group
in the Primary Care setting.” (Nursing)
“Discuss the management of health needs within a population
group in the Primary Care setting.”
“What is bribery and can it be justified as an acceptable business
practice?” (Business)
“What is bribery and can it be justified as an acceptable
business practice?”
(Greetham, 2018, p.5)
Research
• Why do students need to research at university?
• What are the different types of research?
• What are academic sources?
Academic sources
Secondary sources generally used
Secondary sources generally
avoided
• Books in a university library
• Articles in journals in a university library
• All articles listed as ‘scholarly’ in an academic
database
• All conference papers in an academic database
• All statistical and other information gathered
from an academic database
• All academically suitable web pages (if
permitted), e.g. Australian Bureau of Statistics
•
•
•
•
•
Newspapers
Magazines
Encyclopaedias
General reference books
General dictionaries (as sources
of definitions)
• Textbooks
• Lecture notes
• General web pages
(Turner et al., 2011, p. 70)
Finding sources
• Use the reading list for your course
• Use the university library
• Search on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
• Avoid using the basic version of Google
Using task analysis to begin research
“What are the most significant challenges facing mature-age students
entering university today? Discuss in relation to Australian higher
education.” (Education)
• Key phrase/words: challenges for mature-age university students
• Additional parameters: look for discussion of starting university,
look for Australian sources, look for current/recent sources,
challenges can be academic or social
Activity: Analyse and research
“Social media has negatively impacted young people’s ability to
effectively communicate face-to-face.” Do you agree or disagree?
• What is your first response to this question? Why?
• Identify the key words: Instruction, Topic, Focus, Limiting
• Generate a phrase or words that you can use to begin researching
the topic
References
Greetham, B. (2018). How to write better essays (4th ed.). Red Globe
Press.
Grellier, J. & Goerke, V. (2018). Communications Toolkit (4th ed.).
Cengage Learning Australia.
McMillan, K. & Weyers, J. (2011). How to write better essays &
assignments (2nd ed.). Pearson.
Turner, K., Ireland, L., Krenus, B., & Pointon, L. Essential Academic
Skills (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.