1 / 29

Becoming a Writer Some Shared Experiences

Becoming a Writer Some Shared Experiences. Helen Fallon, NUI Maynooth Helen.b.fallon@nuim.ie Anne Murphy, Tallaght Hospital anne.murphy04@amnch.ie l. Contents. Background Blended Learning Approach Feedback Outcomes. Background. One Day Academic Writing Workshops

fritzi
Download Presentation

Becoming a Writer Some Shared Experiences

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Becoming a WriterSome Shared Experiences Helen Fallon, NUI Maynooth Helen.b.fallon@nuim.ie Anne Murphy, Tallaght Hospital anne.murphy04@amnch.ie l

  2. Contents • Background • Blended Learning Approach • Feedback • Outcomes

  3. Background • One Day Academic Writing Workshops • Blended Academic Writing Programme 2011 • One Day Writing Seminar • Online Programme of writing tasks • Two peer feedback days spread over nine months

  4. Academic Writing Seminar ANLTC 23 people attended • 19 HE institutions • 2 Public libraries • 2 Health Sciences Libraries

  5. Academic Writing Seminar Posters invited for the seminar And a Writing Group for those interested...

  6. E-mentoring Programme • 2 stages • Stage 1 (tasks 1-7) over 3 months • Peer-feedback day • Stage 2 over 5 months • Peer-feedback day

  7. Model • 7 Tasks based on article The Academic Writing Toolkit http://eprints.nuim.ie/1387/ • E-mail guidance based on article in more informal language • Mentor & participant

  8. Stage 1 (Tasks 1-3) • Task 1 – Develop a working title and 3 three keywords for your article • Task 2 - What is the audience and purpose for your article? What journal/conference might you submit to? • Task 3 –Write a 80-200 word informative or structured abstract for your article

  9. March 2011: Tasks 1-3 / Anne A working title and 3 keywords Task 1 – 7 days And a May date proposed for completed first drafts Audience, Purpose, Publication Task 2 - 10 days “I'm enjoying the process and finding the structured approach invaluable.”  Abstract/Outlining Task 3 – 7 days

  10. Feedback - keywords and title Usually my writing projects have involved jumping right in to the writing phase. I rarely gave time to sitting down and thinking about my keywords or title

  11. Feedback - audience, purpose The group was a useful forum for getting suggestions on possible outlets for articles. This included suggestions on possible conferences to present at, which is a useful precursor to publishing an article

  12. Feedback - publication I appreciated one suggestion at the beginning on possible journals for the article. This made it a realistic goal and definitely helped me focus on what I wanted to say. Before I would never have thought about who the final article was intended for

  13. Tasks 4-7 • Task 4 - Outline and title • Task 5 - Draft 500 words • Task 6 - Continue to 1,000 words • Task 7 - Online Peer Feedback

  14. April 2011: Tasks 4-6 / Anne Draw up an outline for your article • Task 4 – 7 days Drafting 500 words Task 5 – 7 days “ Found this part [writing the Methods section] quite demanding and feel lots of info is missing, probably that's an entirely normal experience..” Drafting to 1000 words Task 6 - 12 days

  15. Feedback - outlining Before this, I would probably work on entire sections at a time and in chronological order. I never felt I could move on to the next section until the previous section was complete. Dipping in and out of sections in shorter bursts of time really helps me write more productively

  16. Drafting 500 words [I realised] that my experience was what was key. The lit review, analysis, etc., could all be built around that Something that stuck with me is that “bad” writing is ok at first to get the article on paper in some form initially

  17. Feedback I realised that I had worthwhile experiences to bring to the table and that perfection and starting with an expectation of a very high standard was not needed – just start writing and then develop/edit as you go

  18. Drafting 1,000 words It’s amazing how this early work can evolve over the following weeks. I found myself reading back over my work from the early tasks and making changes (to both the article and my structure. I found myself justifying any changes I made. It meant that I was considering my changes and why they were occurring. It felt like my article was evolving!

  19. Feedback - 1,000 words It didn't feel intimidating or like it was too onerous to complete All your work/ideas are exposed and that can be a very daunting thing

  20. Task 7: Online Peer-Feedback / Anne “I'm unsure what level it's at - but this I hope to discover through the peer review process!”   Guidelines • What do you like best about this piece? • What is your main suggestion for improvement? (20 words or less) • Overview of how this might be achieved (1 paragraph) • Received and provided feedback via email to 5 peers

  21. Online Peer-Feedback I never realised the benefit of getting input on my work halfway through completion After the peer feedback the focus of the article became clearer and I decided to change tack and target a professional journal and write about my own experience. I felt in more control of the article and less stressed

  22. 17th May 2011Peer-Feedback day - Task 8 / Anne • trust, openness and support between participants • demanding ... hear everyone's feedback without being defensive ... had to work at that • energising ... we experienced flow • most valuable ... taking part in the dialogue ... to reflect back ... the value of their work and experience ... to see the light in someone's eyes as they realised the worth of what they do.

  23. Peer-Feedback Day I was surprised at my own psychological behaviour in terms of acting so aggressively and defensive initially towards the feedback I received. I felt my draft was being torn to shreds by the criticism, which is all part of the learning experience. Their views and feedback were very worthwhile, and provided more focus and elucidation on the sections which needed to be developed

  24. 25th October 2011Peer-Feedback day 2 • IBTS • Writing time • Flexible timetable • Action learning sets

  25. Hard Outcomes • Participants reported high rate of conference presentations including three international conferences • One participant won AISHE poster competition • Journal articles including SCONUL Focus, An Leabharlann, Transfusion • Book review

  26. Hard Outcomes / Anne • Conference & seminar presentations • Published the journal review study • Invited to present at seminars • Invited to peer review for HILJ • Authorship w/ clinical teams

  27. Soft Outcomes • Demystify writing process • Learned about the mechanics of writing • Incremental tasks made the process more manageable • Provided a supportive community of practice – sharing of knowledge, information & insights from across different types of libraries

  28. Soft Outcomes • Allowed people choose their time for writing • People developed resilience through peer-feedback • Cost effective • Normalise writing as part of what we do – we all have valuable work experiences for posters/articles/presentations

  29. Further Resources Academicwritinglibrarian.blogspot.ie

More Related