Writing Fundamentals: Part 1

Office of Graduate Studies Author

12/19/2016 Added

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Part 1 of a 10-part Research Writing Fundamentals workshop presented by Dr. Rick Lombardo

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[00:00:03.295]Good morning everyone, and welcome.
[00:00:06.763]I'm Rick Lombardo, I'm the director
[00:00:08.147]of the Office of Postdoctoral Studies
[00:00:09.599]and Graduate Student Development.
[00:00:11.613]How many in here think that writing is an innate skill?
[00:00:17.783]That you're born with it.
[00:00:18.851]There are good writers that are born with the writing skill,
[00:00:21.748]and there are people who will never learn to write.
[00:00:24.733]How many think that writing is an innate skill?
[00:00:28.598]Anybody else?
[00:00:31.899]Okay, I hope to disprove that today.
[00:00:34.959]Every one of you in here is capable of being a good writer,
[00:00:39.169]even if you don't write well now.
[00:00:42.268]Now one of the things I'm not going to speak about
[00:00:44.191]in this workshop is things like grammar and usage.
[00:00:48.637]What I'm hoping to accomplish here
[00:00:51.149]is to change your sensibility about writing.
[00:00:54.427]Every one of you are capable of becoming good writers.
[00:00:57.934]Now, the question is, stay engaged.
[00:01:01.210]It's a two-hour workshop,
[00:01:02.550]we're gonna go through a lot of material.
[00:01:04.575]Stay engaged, and look at the main principles
[00:01:08.091]I'm presenting here.
[00:01:09.863]It will make a difference, it will save you time writing,
[00:01:13.209]a tremendous amount of time writing.
[00:01:16.019]All right, so.
[00:01:18.796]Let's get started.
[00:01:20.704]Here's what we'll be covering today.
[00:01:22.962]We're starting from the broad,
[00:01:25.029]general, and we're moving down
[00:01:27.185]into the smaller parts of the triangle.
[00:01:29.507]And that's this trip I'm taking you on today.
[00:01:32.467]So let me give you, before I move on
[00:01:34.178]to the basic principles, let me give you
[00:01:36.581]a snapshot of research writing.
[00:01:39.196]Any kind of writing actually.
[00:01:42.118]And it looks something like this.
[00:01:46.408]You might take this down.
[00:01:48.437]You might write, scribble your own diagram.
[00:01:52.808]Because it really will help you make sense.
[00:01:55.154]I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this
[00:01:57.537]but if you look at this, it starts off with what?
[00:02:02.760]Putting your problem in context,
[00:02:05.207]of your literature review, right?
[00:02:08.487]How does your problem fit in with what's been done
[00:02:12.548]or what's been researched already?
[00:02:15.604]So you go from general to specific.
[00:02:18.043]From the general field understanding of your topic
[00:02:22.088]to what it is you are gonna be researching,
[00:02:25.382]or what it is you researched.
[00:02:29.122]Then you go through your methods and materials.
[00:02:34.306]You give your results.
[00:02:36.498]And then finally you have a discussion.
[00:02:38.730]You end your paper with what?
[00:02:40.966]Here's what we found, so what?
[00:02:43.486]You answer the question at the end, so what?
[00:02:47.569]What does this all mean?
[00:02:49.238]How does this fit within the literature?
[00:02:51.647]What does it add to the literature?
[00:02:53.615]What are your future directions in terms of research, yes?
[00:02:59.822]That's the overall shape.
[00:03:04.310]I think it's important to present it to you
[00:03:06.729]because some of us don't understand
[00:03:08.740]exactly how this moves from general to specific,
[00:03:13.207]and then finally to specific to general.
[00:03:16.441]Let me show you some examples here.
[00:04:14.590]So we're gonna be talking about being intentional.
[00:04:17.730]We're gonna talk about being careful writers in here.
[00:04:23.361]It's brief and to-the-point, but how about its readability?
[00:04:27.449]Its understandability?
[00:04:29.410]It's very weak in that.
[00:04:31.625]Let's look at a more complex example.
[00:04:38.435]Would you read that out loud?
[00:04:40.711]You may have been surprised to note that classes
[00:04:43.055]are scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, 2008.
[00:04:46.874]To add to your confusion, we must inform you
[00:04:48.761]that the only classes scheduled to meet
[00:04:50.135]on Tuesday, November 14, 2008, are Saturday classes.
[00:04:54.540]In other words, Tuesday classes do not meet on that Tuesday.
[00:04:57.799]Please announce this to all Tuesday classes you teach.
[00:05:00.812]Thank you, and very good job.
[00:05:02.855]That wasn't easy to read.
[00:05:04.198]This is a short email, a brief email.
[00:05:08.954]This was sent out to 1500 faculty members,
[00:05:13.161]and the person who wrote this called me and said,
[00:05:15.584]"I've gotten 20 phone calls.
[00:05:19.303]"People don't understand what I'm saying.
[00:05:20.976]"Why don't they understand that?
[00:05:23.493]"Can't they understand this?"
[00:05:25.021]What was her problem in writing this?
[00:05:28.397]What's the bottom line, basic problem with her writing this?
[00:05:31.905]She said, "I don't understand why they don't understand."
[00:05:36.612]Anybody?
[00:05:38.224]She doesn't clearly explain what she means
[00:05:40.348]by Saturday classes and Tuesday classes, it's not clear.
[00:05:43.880]Okay, yeah.
[00:05:45.166]The other basic problem she's having here is
[00:05:48.671]because it makes sense to me, the writer,
[00:05:51.453]it's going to make sense to the reader,
[00:05:53.485]and she was appalled to hear that,
[00:05:55.063]to understand that nobody understood this.
[00:05:58.502]"I understand it," she said.
[00:06:01.446]Well why did you get 20 phone calls if it's so clear?
[00:06:05.293]So I lied to you today.
[00:06:07.296]This workshop is not about writing.
[00:06:10.422]It's about readability.
[00:06:12.643]And if you focus on the reader, and you put yourself
[00:06:15.475]on the reader's needs, and if you ask yourself
[00:06:17.939]at all times when you're writing,
[00:06:20.093]will the reader understand this?
[00:06:23.397]You will be way ahead.
[00:06:25.841]That's the paradigm shift I want you to go through
[00:06:28.586]at the end of this trip I'm taking you on.

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Writing Fundamentals: Part 1

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