Writing for Clinical Psychology
Presented by
Level 3 Library Extension learningsupport@bond.edu.au
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English Academic Skills Maths
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•Presentations, reading, listening and pronunciation, maths
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Library Extension
This session:
•Feedback from lecturers
•Achieving logical cohesion
•Problematic language
•Formatting issues
Feedback from lecturers
•Content:
–Some papers lack critical appraisal of previous research.
–Papers are descriptive, without critique.
–Students not connecting relevance of past to current research and not making it clear how their research will add to, or follow on from the findings of a past study.
Feedback from lectures
•Flow/Logical Cohesion:
–Papers lack integration and sometimes read as a series of dot points.
–Papers contain poor overall structure. This occurs when students merely summarise a list of studies, without connecting related topics.
–Problems with introductions: missing the whole funnelling approach of starting wide with the literature and narrowing it to the point of their paper.
Feedback from lecturers
•Language – vocabulary:
–Spell check frequently not used.*
–Problems with general use of the correct word such as ‘effect’ and ‘affect’.
–Overuse of brief joining phrases at start of sentences, in addition, further, also etc.
* Spell check is good, butt it doesn’t pick up everything
Feedback from lecturers
•Language – grammar:
–Noun pronoun confusion (i.e., using single noun but plural pronoun).
–Overly long sentences/paragraphs.
–Problems with possessive apostrophes (’).
–Missing the subject of a sentence, or unclear subject (e.g., starting a sentence with this or it when it’s not clear what this or it is).
Feedback from lectures
•Students should:
–read their assignments before submitting them.
–read their essays out loud to check grammar, spelling, and flow.
–learn from feedback and try to pick apart their own faults.
Achieving logical cohesion
•Always create an outline before you start writing. This will help you organise your ideas.
•Read through your writing. If it’s not cohesive:
–First check the structure
–Make sure each paragraph has a controlling idea
–Check that paragraphs are related in a logical order
–Check that transition signals and topic sentences are used to direct the reader
•Then read your paper backwards sentence by sentence to check individual sentences