Academic evaluation papers require objective criteria and clear reasoning.
Category: Teaching
Teaching creative writing, academic composition, and more.
An academic inquiry is a formal paper that asks questions, but does not provide clear answers. An example of an inquiry paper might be a research proposal: questions are asked and background provided to explain why further study is necessary. Rhetoric and Inquiry Shared inquiry discussion Participants are interested in…
Good Summary Concise Complete Objective Accurate Coherent Author’s Assumptions Explicit opinions: What is bluntly stated by the author. Statements of fact/truth: What must be assumed to accept the selected facts? Any biases or prejudices expressed or implied. Responding to Opinions To what does the expressed opinion relate? What is the…
There are two parallel sets of processes involved in academic composition: the mechanical and the rhetorical. The mechanical processes are those that produce writing. The rhetorical processes are those that refine ideas and their presentation to an audience. You cannot separate these activities because each act of writing reflects rhetorical…
Specialized Portals Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/ Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org/ Oxford Digital Library http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/ Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ Writing Resources APA Stylehttp://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resourceshttp://refserver.lib.vt.edu/libinst/critTHINK.HTM Bibliomania http://www.bibliomania.com/ Diana Hacker http://www.dianahacker.com Literary Encyclopedia and Literary Dictionary http://www.litencyc.com/ MLA Style http://www.mla.org/set_stl.htm The Online Writery http://www.missouri.edu/~writery/ OWL: Purdue’s Online…
Benjamin S. Bloom studied the cognitive development of students. In 1956, he published “Bloom’s Taxonomy” for cognitive abstraction. Abstraction is the ability of an individual to deal with concepts. Early in life, we understand the concrete world: things we can touch, see, and even smell. We rely upon our senses…
Academic Paper Draft Checklist Students (and we might suggest all writers) often need a checklist to help with the revision process. The checklist we provide here is only a sample, which we think a teacher could alter to match the requirements of his or her course. Checked Paper Title:…
There are many ways to calculate the estimated reading level of a writing sample. We will look at a series of methods used to determine the reading levels for different student age groups. Teachers can use these methods to determine whether new material is suitable for their class and also…
Evaluating Errors One of the challenges for teachers of composition is deciding how serious an error is. How serious we judge an error to be affects both grading and teaching. We tend to focus a great deal more on serious errors than those we know are minor oversights. This guide…
Reasoning in an Academic Paper It’s Academic Students often struggle to understand how academic reasoning differs from the reasoning processes they use in daily life. It is not the reasoning that differs so much as the requirement that all steps in the reasoning process be expressed in a written paper.…