Molly Brooks – Writing Development

As a postgraduate student, being an academic writing advisor for the University of Lincoln has been a highlight of my journey at university. I have a part-time role within the Writing Development Team, based in the Library Support Services – we offer a range of on-campus, online and chat appointments.

The role requires giving one-to-one feedback per appointment on different forms of writing, most commonly I give feedback on essay drafts, essay plans and how to improve feedback from tutors. Though I also see a lot of students who want help with longer term projects such as case studies or dissertations.

During this feedback, I give my general thoughts on a piece – applying the strengths and weaknesses of each assignment, and then we use the session to focus on a part of the assignment that the student feels they would most benefit looking over. The most common things I look at in this regard are introductions, conclusions and applying secondary criticism to individual research.

My most given piece of advice is to be confident in your writing, which I know sounds self-explanatory, but more often than not appointments offer reassurance over anything else. Confidence can be manifested through highlighting parts of your essay in line with the mark scheme, checking your grammar yourself and through readily available tools such as Word Editor, and reading your work aloud. Once you feel that the reading is smooth (as in you don’t have to stop or pause because of awkward expression) it should sound like your own voice.

Applying worthwhile explanations can also be achieved by comparing your writing to a scenario where you are making a contribution in a seminar – would you say this aloud? And how would you explain your point if pressed by a peer or a tutor? Gradually by applying these ‘real world’ contributions to your essays, the content and voice will naturally strengthen.

In terms of introductions and conclusions, they should be treated in conjunction with one another. The conclusion should be a reflection of the introduction, and a summary of the main content of your essay. This can be achieved once you master the art of writing the introduction. Number one – no surprises. DO NOT surprise your examiner, in your introduction you will want to very clearly pinpoint what you will be discussing in your essay. You also need to include context about your topic, how it applies to your subject and the thesis of your argument. Often students seem unsure on how to do this when trying to maintain an academic, third-person tone – here are some phrases you could use:

‘This essay will discuss….’
‘In relation to YOUR TOPIC, the idea of YOUR THESIS STATEMENT, can be seen in YOUR KEY EXAMPLES’
‘This assignment will draw on YOUR EXAMPLES to discuss YOUR THESIS STATEMENT’

Once you get used to formal writing, it will be easier to draw on stock phrases and examples to help you push forward with other assignments. However, this only goes so far – the most noticeable question I always get asked is how can I be more critical in my writing?

This relates to use of secondary material and how you engage with it. What you choose to feature in your essay says a lot to the examiner about the amount of research you’ve included in your assignment, this doesn’t mean have an overwhelming long bibliography – nor does this mean tackle all the most recognised theories in your field. It means applying it to your argument – where do your ideas fit in relation to your subject? Make sure to compare and contrast their ideas, it is not simply about quoting people but using their ideas to expand your own. Though it might seem scary, to get the higher marks it is also worth including ideas that you don’t agree with – but make sure you use evidence not just opinion! This brings nuance to your argument, and authority to your ideas.

It’s worth bearing in mind that this differs across disciplines, and different tutors always have a different idea of what should and shouldn’t be included. First and foremost, get to know your mark scheme – and if in doubt, always check in with your tutor or subject librarian for academic queries. As far as writing is concerned, the main differences are between referencing, how you engage with sources, and what sources are appropriate. For example, in a nursing report it is ok to use first person as long as it is in a formal way, reflecting on your own experiences and applying theories to support this. However, in an English literature essay, you should always use third person and evidence from the text – engaging with multiple sources to both undermine ideas you reject and expand your own. Commonly though, essay structures are all the same as in the fact you need to engage with theory and use plenty of evidence – whether that’s from a text, a study or a set brief.

One of the benefits of being a student whilst being a student writing advisor is that I can use my own current experience to give tips and advice, I understand the frustrations of the mark schemes and the delay in feedback from academic tutors. While it has been easier for me to help people in a similar situation because of my own, this job has also given me value experience of working within a small team environment that is academically focused. More so, it is the first time I have ‘led’ an appointment – I have learnt how to structure my time and focus my energy in a more valuable way for my own sake, and those I am advising.

The flip side of this means I often struggle to take my own advice within my own academic practice, the stress of deadlines means that it is often easy to skip crucial steps. For me, I often rely on the editing – like I say to many people who are in the same situation, make sure to review your own work alongside the mark scheme, and in terms of writing, against a clear academic structure. My main takeaway from this is that there is no rule book when it comes to writing well, we all have different approaches – it is not about how you get there or how long it takes, it is about reflecting and being critical of your own ideas (not yourself!).

Editing. The part always left until the end, the part we always dread – and most often, the part that is left out. It is a crucial fragment of the academic writing process yet is most often ignored due to lack of time management, panic or sometimes not recognising its importance.

Most often in my appointments, I find that the advice I give out time and time again is surrounding editing and the value of reading through your assignment with a critical lens. Students often doubt their work, not giving themselves the credit they deserve – my view: if you have the ability to write in depth about your subject knowledge, you know what you are talking about. Step one to the editing process is all about confidence, when you read through your work you have to imagine you are reading secondary material – would you use this yourself? Why not? That’s your starting point.

By identifying the gaps in your argument, you are able to make adjustments before the deadline allowing yourself to get better marks. A quick skim read an hour before the deadline will only create panic and anxiety if you notice the mistakes but have no time to correct them. Failing that, by not editing at all, the first person to see the mistakes is your tutor.

We can break editing into three parts: academic, grammar and what I like to call, ‘easy reading.’

1. Academic – this is arguably the most important reason to edit. In an essay you are being marked on how well you can articulate your academic knowledge, but also how well you can present your own ideas. When you read through your assignment as an editor, not a writer, you must focus on identifying your key ideas and whether the way you have presented them is clear to the reader. The best way to tackle this is to read aloud (maybe not on the library third floor – but at home, or to a friend) to make sure that it makes sense. By changing the way you read your own work, you will notice things that you would have missed previously. If it doesn’t make sense, or you would not contribute this idea in a seminar then it is time to either re-word or scrap it. (Be brutal.)

2. Grammar – whether you love it or hate it, grammar is a crucial part to any form of writing but especially within the academic world. While the first recommendation will always be to familiarise yourself with grammar rules, it is not always realistic – especially when its assignment season! There are plenty of tools to help you get acquainted with these pesky rules, the most accessible at any time of the day is online grammar guides. While googling ‘is it a semi-colon or a comma?’ may help you temporarily it is not a permanent fix and can often disrupt writing flow. Use a guide that breaks it down step-by-step, but one from an academic source (universities, recognisable websites from classes etc.). As tempting as it may be AVOID AI generated editors – they may do the work for you, but not always in the correct way (Not to mention the risk of an academic offence – remember you’re the one getting a degree, not your computer!). As with academic tone, by reading your work aloud it will help you identify grammar mistakes, for instance if you are running out of breath you definitely need a comma! For more tricky issues, come and see us in Writing Development!

3. ‘Easy Reading’ – while this isn’t marked like academic argument and grammar, the way your work reads to the marker makes a massive difference in terms of how generous your marks are. This is mainly because if an assignment reads well, it is easy to identify what the student is saying. Well, what does ‘reads well’ or ‘easy reading’ really mean? There is no distinct way to define this, but essentially you want to make sure your work reads smoothly, with no clunky sentences, random capital letters or awkward spacing. This also includes following layout guides in your subject handbook. Fortunately, if you have taken the time to edit academic tone and grammar, this should naturally fall into place. The final stage of editing is to be able to read through and/or read aloud your assignment without having to pause due to awkward phrasing or clunky sentences. My top tip in this stage is to print your work and read it from paper rather than a screen – our eyes become adjusted to the laptop so much that sometimes they are unable to identify the mistakes that we spot on paper (our default settings!).

By following this step-to-step, and giving your work the editing it deserves, you should find that you will naturally benefit from a reduced word count, higher quality writing and clearer ideas which in turn generate higher marks. However, in order to get the most out of editing, you must factor in time to your writing process. Once you have finished writing your assignment, don’t look at it until the following day so you can then read it with fresh eyes. By not allowing enough time, you are not allowing yourself to edit properly – because if not properly, why edit at all?

Author: Molly Brooks

Reflections: the Student vs. the Teacher.

The Importance of Editing.