Biblical Studies and Academic Writing

1. Biblical Studies and Academic Writing Class 18 Drafting a Paper

2. Aim • At the end of this session you should: • Know why you write • Know how to draft a paper • Know how to respond to a question

3. Outline • Why Write? • Drafting a Paper • Responding to a Question • Pulling it Together

4. Why Write? • You write to communicate • Your thoughts • To yourself • To others • Your reading • To yourself • To others • Your conclusions • To yourself • To others

5. Why Write? • To communicate your thoughts • Reflections on what you have read • What you are thinking about something • May not be well thought out but is your own thoughts • What you have experienced • It is not right or wrong it just is • Where you are at so far in coming to a conclusion about something

6. Why Write? • To communicate your reading • Also known as research • To demonstrate your understanding of what you have read • Should be structured and not random quotes on the topic cobbled together • To show you have read the expected material

7. Why Write? • To communicate your conclusions • You have thought about something • You have read about something • What do you now think? • This may or may not be the same as when you started

8. Why Write? • Sometimes to understand what you know about a topic • These are the writings you should not hand in • Rework them as these are for you only and not for other people such as your markers • There is a difference between writing to understand and demonstrating understanding • Know how you write

9. Outline • Why Write? • Drafting a Paper • Responding to a Question • Pulling it Together

10. Drafting a Paper • You need to know the following: • What is the expected format • What is the expected length of the paper • What is style of the paper

11. Drafting a Paper • Expected formats vary • Essay • Introduction, Body, Conclusion • Discussion Paper • Body, Short Conclusion • Portfolio • Answers to specific questions • Book Review • Book Details, Review, Conclusion

12. Drafting a Paper • The word, page or paragraph length • Affects how much you are expected to write • Helps you determine how much you should write on each area

13. Drafting a Paper • Guidelines to use your words wisely • Essay • 10% Introduction, 80% Body, 10% Conclusion • Discussion Paper • 90% Body, 10% Short Conclusion • Portfolio • 100% Answers to specific questions • Book Review • (N/A) Book Details, 90% Review, 10% Conclusion

14. Drafting a Paper • The style of the paper • Reflective • You usually can use the word “I” • Formal • You usually do not use the word “I” • The exception to this may be the Introduction or the Conclusion • Informal • You may use the word “I”

15. Drafting a Paper • Guidelines to use your words wisely • Essay • Usually formal • Discussion Paper • Usually informal though may be reflective • Portfolio • Usually informal though may be reflective • Book Review • Usually formal

16. Drafting a Paper • Create a structure • Use headings • You can delete them before you hand in the paper • These are for your benefit • Work out how many words in each section • Try and stick to this

17. Outline • Why Write? • Drafting a Paper • Responding to a Question • Pulling it Together

18. Responding to a Question • What are you asked to do? • For an example look at: • http://edorigami.edublogs.org/2010/06/01/evaluation-rubric-exemplars/ • Different styles of answers based on what is required

19. Responding to a Question • What are you asked to do? • Look at the Harvest Form and Style Guide

20. Responding to a Question • Make sure you cover all you are asked to complete • Multi-part questions require multi-part answers • Read the question (over and over) • Underline the important words • Circle the important concepts • In your structure do you address these?

21. Responding to a Question • Your draft structure • The overall structure for an essay • Introduction • Body • Conclusion • The structure for the specific essay question • Introduction • Body • Part 1 of question • Part 2 of question • Part 3 of question • Conclusion

22. Outline • Why Write? • Drafting a Paper • Responding to a Question • Pulling it Together

23. Pulling it Together • When there is an introduction • It should say what you intend to do • When there is a conclusion • It should say what your writing decides upon • No new information • You are writing to understand when you add new information

24. Pulling it Together • Alignment • Does your introduction say what the body does? • Does your conclusion say what the body points to? • Do the introduction and conclusion talk about the same material in the same way?

25. Pulling it Together • Look at an assessment task from another unit • What are you being asked to do? • What structure should your answer have?

26. Aim • At the end of this session you should: • Know why you write • Know how to draft a paper • Know how to respond to a question