Richards & Miller Doing Academic Writing: Types and Purposes

Richards, J. C. & Miller, S. K. (2005). Doing academic writing in education: Connecting the personal and the professional. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Chapter 2: Types and Purposes of Academic Writing
•    Recounting Early Experiences With Academic Writing
    o    Most, if not all, writing instruction occurs in the freshman year of college.
    o    Teacher education needs to do a better job of preparing and teaching future teachers to be good writers.
•    Identifying the Reasons Educators Write
    o    Job-Related Writing
        •    "Work-related writing is audience-specific and creates high expectations for effective writing (p. 32)."
    o    High-Stakes Writing
        •    High-stakes writing includes writing for a specific purpose that is related to our professional advancement.
•    Publish or Perish: Tim Morse
    o    Writing to Tell Stories and Report Research About Teaching
    o    Writing in Graduate School
        •    Graduate students must write for others. They have struggles, too, as they transition from student to faculty member.
•    Exploring Traditional Expectations of Academic Writing
    o    In academic writing, you will need to make claims and your research and substantiate those claims with compelling evidence. It is important to never make absolute claims leave the door open for possible error. Be sure to acknowledge opposing viewpoints using phrases such as "on one hand" or "on the other hand."
•    The Impact of the Personal on Academic Writing
    o    Know yourself as a writer and use that knowledge to your advantage.
•    Objectivity Versus the Personal "I" and Passive Versus Active Voice
    o    The norms of academia may be changing especially in the U.S. where adding the personal experience into academic writing may be accepted.
•    When Objectivity Suppresses Truth
•    Consider Class Papers a Prewriting Exercise
•    We Can Become Our Own Worst Enemy
    o    Unfortunately, most people don't have the luxury to write for themselves, which often times results in a loss of personal voice.
•    Debating Opposing Notions of Writing in the Academy
•    The Polarization of Viewpoints
    o    Debate exists about the personal voice, the use of "I," in academic writing and in the preparation of undergraduates to become writers.
•    Use of the Personal in Academic Writing
•    Expressing Your Individual Voice
•    The Narrative Voce May Pose Problems
•    Meeting the Challenge of the Dissertation
    o    Completing a Dissertation Can Be a Positive Experience
    o    Challenges to the Traditional Dissertation
    o    Electronic Dissertation Initiatives
        •    Electronic dissertations could be the norm of the future.
    o    Collaborative Dissertations
        •    While collaborative dissertations are a possible next step for the future, they face many bureaucratic barriers that have so far succeeded in keeping them off of the team.
•    Publishing in Professional Journals
•    Summary