Be a Productive Writer: Goal-Focused Writing

Matthew T. McCruddenVictoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

matt.mccrudden@vuw.ac.nz

Prioritize Writing

• Publications are the “coin of the realm”– Gold is used throughout the world as a vehicle for

monetary exchange.

– Publications are used throughout the academic world as a vehicle for tenure and promotion.

• “Deans can’t read, but they can count.”

• “Publications travel.”

• What are your professional goals and are they reflected in your use of time?

Be strategic

• Type of thinking– When you write

• Identify large & small blocks of time that can be used for writing

– What you write• Match time block with type of thinking required

• Write complementary sections close in time– Increases consistency across sections– Increases writing efficiency (less “start-up time”)

Be strategic

• Write the manuscript in sections (e.g., Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion) & save as separate documents

• If you write multiple version of each section, add date to file name– Protects against “ripple effect”

– Enables more efficient revisions

– Lessens “sunk cost fallacy”

– Minimizes “split-attention effect”

• Combine sections when preparing last draft

Find “model articles”

• Articles that have common elements with your manuscript– Seek topics and authors

• Argument structure & framing

• Specific methods

• Specific analyses or results

Accessible Writing: Micro

• Define key terms

• Use illustrative examples– (e.g., XYZ)– For example…, For instance…

• Use signaling

• Use active (rather than passive) sentences

• Limit sentence length

Article referenced in examples

• McCrudden, M. T. (2012). Readers’ use of online discrepancy resolution strategies. Discourse Processes, 49(2), 107-136.

Define key terms

• Throughout this article, the term misconception will be used to refer to “knowledge that is incorrect as compared to some normative or scientifically-based information” (Chi, 2008, p. 66). Conceptual change learning occurs when learners modify their initial conceptions or replace them with new ones (Chi, 2008; Chinn & Brewer, 1993, 1998).

Define key terms

• “In this article, the term online discrepancy resolution strategy, or resolution strategy for short, is defined as a comment made during reading for the purpose of controlling or modifying a discrepancy between one’s prior knowledge and new information.”

Use illustrative examples

• “Discrepancies between a reader’s prior knowledge and text information can interfere with comprehension (CITES). For example, the term fitness conjures up thoughts of physical education for many students. However, fitness has a specific meaning in evolutionary biology: the number of offspring an organism has that survive to adulthood. If students read a biology text and encounter the concept fitness, they may be unaware that it has a different meaning in evolutionary biology than other contexts, and may not develop a conceptual understanding of fitness that is consistent with this meaning.”

Use illustrative examples

• Online data, in which the term online refers to readers’ moment-by-moment processing during reading, has shown that refutational texts influence strategy use. For instance, think-aloud data has shown that readers with misconceptions experience and respond to cognitive conflict more frequently while reading a refutational text than a non-refutational text (CITES).

Use signaling

• The purpose of this study was to investigate why some individuals demonstrate conceptual change learning whereas others do not by investigating their resolution strategies while reading a refutational text.

Use signaling

• To address this topic, the data were analyzed in two phases. In the first phase, we analyzed readers’ initial and subsequent conceptions of fitness in evolutionary biology. This enabled us to identify readers who did and did not demonstrate conceptual change learning. In the second phase, we analyzed their think-aloud and interview data. This enabled us to…

Use signaling

• The present study contributes to the existing literature on refutational text and conceptual change in two ways. First, it provides insights into why some individuals who read refutational text demonstrate conceptual change learning whereas others do not...Second, these data demonstrate that…

Use active sentences

• Passive: Discrepancy resolution strategies were used by participants with low prior knowledge while reading the refutational text.

• Active: Participants with low prior knowledge used discrepancy resolution strategies while reading the refutational text.

Limit sentence length

• Manageable chunks for reader

• Generally speaking, sentences should not exceed four lines (excluding internal citations)

Additional Resources

• (2008) Special Issue: Advice for Beginning Educational Psychologists. Educational Psychology Review, 20(1).

• Kiewra, K. & Creswell, J. W. (2000). Conversations with three highly productive educational psychologists: Richard Anderson, Richard Mayer, and Michael Pressley. Educational Psychology Review, 12(1), 135-161.