Center for Project
Management: Responding
Academically to TMAs
Lawrence Cleary, Patricia Herron, Dr.
Íde O’Sullivan, Research Officers
for the
Regional Writing Center, UL
Material Covered
• Writing
• Satisfying Academic Audiences
• Understanding and Addressing an
Academic Assignment
• Essay Writing
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Writing
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What is writing? Define ‘writing’.
What are its components?
What forms can writing take?
What are its stages of
development?
Ways of Ordering
• Writing Process—Planning, Drafting,
(Discussing / Consulting), Revising, Editing
and Proofreading.
• Rhetorical Situation—Occasion for
writing, writer, topic, audience and purpose.
• Writing Strategies—cognitive,
metacognitive, affective and social.
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The Rhetorical Situation
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Occasion
Writer
Topic
Audience
Purpose
Me, an Academic Writer?
• When given an ‘academic’ writing
assignment, or any kind of writing
assignment, what are your
immediate feelings and thoughts?
• Freewrite
– Write for five minutes without stopping
– Private writing
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Freewriting
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Write for 5 minutes
In sentences
Without stopping
Private writing -- no one will read it
Write about about paper topic or sub-topic
Like brainstorming in sentences
Structure and coherence not required
Explore many angles, do ‘open’ writing
(Murray 2006)
Satisfying
Academic Audiences
When someone says academic
writing, what features
characterize that kind of writing
for you?
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Academic Writing
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Complexity
Formality
Objectivity
Explicitness
Hedging
Responsibility
An Academic Assignment
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Topic?
Aspect or focus?
Instruction or comment?
Scope?
Viewpoint?
Writing Prompt
Given what you have learned about the
assignment question, how will you
approach this essay? What will you do
first? What then? Include thoughts on
what you think you might read? What
aspects of your organization might
come into your essay?
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Generative Writing
• Same as freewriting, but more
‘closed’.
• Generative writing exercise focuses
on one part of your writing
assignment.
• To be read by ‘writing buddy’; ask for
specific feedback.
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Essay Writing
• Purpose:
– to persuade using appeals honored
by academics
– to explore and explain your
understanding of change in the work
environment
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Essay Writing
– to explain and argue, for or against,
the reductionalist versus the
systemic approach to future
management problem solving
– to use, if appropriate, your existing
organisation as an example for such
an application
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Organization and Structure
• Preliminaries—Title page
• Body Text
– Introduction
– Main body
– Conclusion
• End Matter—References/Works
Cited page
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Body Text and Balance
Present the arguments for A
•Who argues for A? Who else? Do they agree on everything? Are their arguments
exactly alike? How are they similar; how different?
•What are the claims and the evidence that supports the claims.
•Who makes which claims?
Present the arguments for B
•Who argues for B? Who else? Do they agree on everything? Are their arguments
exactly alike? How are they similar; how different?
•What are the claims and the evidence that supports the claims.
•Who makes which claims?
Evaluate the Opposing Arguments
•By what criteria will you evaluate the evidence?
•Can you use your experience as criteria? Logic and reason? Previous studies?
•What are the limits of the value of your evaluations given the criteria used?
Conclude with your opinion. Base your opinion on what you discovered during the
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evaluation of the opposing arguments.
Reporting
• Summaries
• Quotes
• Paraphrases
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Works Cited
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Bryde, J.D. (2003) “Modelling Project Management Performance”.
International Journal of Quality& Reliability Management 20(2): 229-254.
Critical Thinking—Demo, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of
South Florida (2005) “Bloom’s Taxonomy Pyramid” [online], available:
http://www.cte.usf.edu/materials/institute/ct/index.html [accessed: 15 Aug.
2008].
Ebest, S.B., Alred, G.J, Brusaw, C.T. and Oliu, W.E. (2005) Writing from A
to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference Handbook, 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis, 2nd ed. Maidenhead, England:
Open University Press.
Senge, P.M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the
Learning Organization. London: Random House.
UEfAP.com (2008) Writing: Rhetorical Functions, Comparing and
Contrasting Exercise 2 [online], available:
http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/function/compcon2.htm [accessed
Aug 16 2008].