5.3 Getting your writing started
The activities in this course have offered you some opportunities to plan and practise writing in different types and styles.
Like many people you may find it difficult getting your writing started. You may think that you need to produce something which has a perfect turn of phrase and has flawless grammar, punctuation and spelling right from the start. This is not the case. We realise that writing in an academic style, like a lot of things, takes practise. You could start by writing down the key points you want to make (in any order) and then to organise these key points so that they fit together in a logical way. This is rather like the ‘To Do’ lists we asked you to put together for yourself in Activity 4, and for Kiran in Activity 6. The key thing is to make a start and not to try for perfection at the first attempt.
Effective report writing relies on clear objectives and structure. Each part of the report requires you to convey information useful to the solving of a problem or the evaluation of an issue which is the report's main objective. The sub-headings in the report should aim to reflect how you have analysed the issue or problem in terms of its component parts. In Activities 2 and 7 you were asked to produce brief report-style answers to certain questions which helped you assess, respectively, a task process you had performed and your time management for a specific day. Essays, on the other hand, usually ask you to answer a question or explore an issue in more extended paragraphs of writing. An essay paragraph is no less than two sentences and, in the main body of the essay, can generally be four sentences or more. In a similar way to a report, what is written in each paragraph of an essay is decided by analysing the question or issue you are being asked to tackle into its component parts. In Activities 5 and 8 you were asked to write paragraphs of varying lengths to answer brief questions about the case study using some of the course ideas. These activities have all given you some practise in writing using academic ideas and we hope you now have the confidence to try a more extended piece of writing for your next course assessment.