Your attitude to writing

Your attitude to writing It is natural to think of writing for study purposes in terms of the finished product, i.e. the actual words on the page. However, in reality, writing is first foremost a process. The final result is only one of several stages. It is the ‘invisible’ steps which come before this which holds the keys to successful writing. Writing is complex process. However, probably the most important element is the writer, i.e. you! In other words, what you know about writing and what your attitude to writing is will have strong effect on how well you write. Therefore, before looking in detail; at how to construct a piece of writing, it makes sense first of all to find out as much as possible about yourself as a writer.

Task
Writing is made up of a large number of skills. Which ones have you already learned? Which ones do you need to develop further?
- Look at the list of ‘academic writing skills’ below in groups, discuss what you think each of them involves.

Academic Writing Skills Importance Level Score
1. making an outline
2. narrowing down the topic
3. reading around the topic
4. selecting relevant ideas
5. ordering ideas logically
6. making headings, subheadings, etc
7. describing tables, charts, and diagrams
8. writing an introduction
9. writing a conclusion
10. constructing a bibliography
11. including references
12. proof-reading
13. keeping the audience in mind
14. getting the tone right
15. being concise
16. sticking to the point
17. being clear
18. quoting
19. summarising
20. paraphrasing
21. spelling
22. using appropriate vocabulary
23. using correct grammar
24. punctuating correctly

- Decide how important you feel each of the skills is for you in your studies. Give each of them a number out of 5.5 = very important, 1 = not very important.
- For all the skills you feel are the most important