Hotseat with Gillian Lazar on academic writing now open

Hi
I am about to submit my needs analysis for the start of the MA Inclusive Education. What is the correct way to refer to the documents in the appendix in your text?

Thanks Donna

Dear Donna, I'm glad that you are making progress and ready to submit the first section. (See notes above)
Referring to documents etc that you would put in appendices -
I would put e.g. As noted in Ofsted Report (see Appendix 1a) etc.
Make sure that ALL names of schools and children etc have been removed or changed.
I look forward to reading your Needs Analysis soon.
Kind Regards,
 Ruth
I

Is it possible for me to send a draft copy of my need analysis for feedback before I submit the final copy? If that is possible, then whom should I send it to?

Barbara

Hi Barbara, No need to send a draft copy. The purpose of sending in sections of yur work at a time is so that we can give you some feedback at each formative stage. The 'final' at this stage is therefore still a draft so please don 't worry about making it perfect. You will be going back and threading it all together for the complete portfolio.
 I look forward to receiving your first submission soon. You can put it in your folder and then email me to say its there. Let me know if you have any problems with making a folder.
Kind Regards,
Ruth
r.x.green@mdx.ac.uk

Hi Ruth

I have sent my first submission to you by post as I was experiencing difficulty in transferring it to my folder. I have sent it to you at the Trent campus.

I hope this is acceptable.

Nicki

Hi Gillian,
 
I am trying to write my professional autobiography for my dissertation - ie experience, values and bias. I find that when I write using 'I' the quality of my writing goes down. Do you think it it would be acceptable to write using 'the researcher'? The rest of my disseration I think will refer to this.

I have now read that I should write from the first person as it positional.

Another question - should the whole dissertation be in past or present tense?

Another good question!

You should probably describe any past experiences that you have had by using in the past tense. However, if the findings from them or the views that you have developed from these experiences are still relevant now, you might want to put these in the present. Similarly, when mentioning other writers, you would use the present if their ideas/views are still current, as in:

Smith (1990) mentions/notes/claims that....

Although Smith's work was published in 1990 it is still valid now. In fact, you would use the past tense in the above example if you wanted to demonstrate that Smith's views had somehow been superseded.

Can you give me a few more details about the piece of work, and why you are unsure of what tense to use?

I'll be available until Friday, and then will be away on holiday until 5th January, so will not be checking these messages until then.

Have a good evening!
Gillian

Hi Marion,

Thanks very much for this. You have raised a really interesting question - the use of 'I' in academic writing.

In general, when writing academically we avoid 'I' in order to make the writing sound more objective and distanced. However, there are times when it seems odd not to use 'I', e.g. when writing about one's own personal experience. My advice would be to use 'I' in the assignment, but if possible, to avoid over-using it, by finding other ways of giving your point of view. For example, could you use the passive voice instead? So, rather than saying:

'I collated the information and I concluded that this was too small a sample.'

You could say:

'The information was collated and it was conclused that this was too small a sample'.

Of course, if you are writing an assignment which is purely based on other people's research, and does not include personal experience, then you would need to avoid 'I' as much as possible.

There are some tips on avoiding 'I' in the 'Academic style' tutorial in ELLS on Oasisplus. To access this, please go to our module and click on the 'Writing' icon on the homepage.

Personally, I would avoid 'the researcher' as I find this use a little strained, but perhaps Ruth doesn't mind it. Ruth, what do you think?

Hope this helps!

Gillian

OOps, forgive my typo in the example above! It should say

'it was concluded', rather than 'it was conclused'.

Gillian

Hi Gillian
Thank you for the comments above.

Regarding the past present I was thinking about when writing the introduction. We have to write it as we go along - what we propose to do and why - but by the time we get to the end it is in the past, therefore I assume I should write it in the past tense from the beginning.

Would it be possible to have an email contact for future academic writing question? Maybe pass it on through Ian.
Marion

Hi Marion,

In answer to your question, although the essay may be in the past in real time, it is still the convention to write in the present tense. Thus, introductions typically say:

This essay considers the effect of.....and explores.....etc.

Do feel free to email me in January if you have any further questions. My address is G.Lazar@mdx.ac.uk

Best wishes
Gillian