[MUSIC] In this module, we'll look at different aspects of writing and composing your assignments. We'll discuss techniques for early drafting of written assignments, refining and editing your draft, and incorporating visual aids. We spoke to some academics in the field of communication about these aspects of writing assignments. Let's hear what they have to say. [MUSIC] >> To write a good first draft, there are many things you can do. The first thing that comes to mind is to get started, because getting started's the most difficult thing. Students often sit there and they think what to write, what to write so they get distracted, they go to the fridge, they watch television, they call a friend. They do anything but start their assignment. So my advice is to just give yourself permission to write anything. It doesn't have to good, it can be complete rubbish, but just get started. And then things will probably go more easily. My second piece of advice is to plan. Of course, writing a plan is a very conventional piece of advice. So my advice would also be to flexible about your plans. Because research actually shows that writers who are flexible with their plans, that means that they're willing to change their plans, produce better text than writers that make a plan and then just stick to it. So don't be afraid to change your plan. And my third piece of advice is, particularly when writing a first draft, be far more focused on content than language use. Don't worry about the language use, you can fix that up later. Focus on the ideas, the content, the message that you want to get across to the reader. [MUSIC] >> So, often students think that a first draft is enough. And especially when they are trying to get something in at the last minute. So it's very, very important to plan your time management for submitting an assignment. And that means starting pretty early in the day, doing your researching, looking at when the deadline is. And then working backwards and working at, when am I going to do my researching? When am I going to do my first draft? And how am I going to give myself enough time to redraft for that final submission? And often students don't really give themselves enough time. I think we're all probably guilty of this as well, even academics. So in those last phases of the redrafting process, you actually come to understand your topic much better. because you've got down a first draft, and you've got a bit of distance from that first draft. And when you revisit it again, you do find that there are other things that perhaps you haven't thought about, that you've left out, or that you need to reorganize some of the ways of presenting the information. So it's a chance to think about possibly information that you've left out. But it's also a chance to think about the structure. It's really important, in that final editing phase, to look at the structure. To think about, how have I structured my introduction? Is it logical? Does it flow well? Is it predicting what the conclusion is about? Does my conclusion fit in with my introduction? Often students don't see that, that their conclusion has to really match the introduction. And looking at the body of the assignment. So what are your topic sentences? And do they predict what's going to happen in the paragraph? And is there a logical flow from one sentence to the next, and then from one paragraph to the next? So these are the places to look in particular. Introduction, conclusion, topic sentences in each paragraph, and do they all develop towards the position that you're trying to argue? Do they all support that position? [MUSIC] >> So today written assignments ask for more than just words on the page. You might think of work you've done in high school with PowerPoint or maybe making a web page. But when you write assignments, you can actually use visuals as part of your evidence. Not just decoration, like you might on a web page or a brochure, but it serves as evidence for your argument. So, what you want to do is select it rhetorically, with attention to what purpose it serves. You want to cite it authoritatively and responsibly. Someone produced that text. So when you talk about academic honesty and learning the conventions of responsible citation and referencing, you'll use that in working with visual text. It's very exciting because the whole process of communication is inter-genre, inter-multimodal, using visual texts and multimedia texts. So there's great creativity, but also great responsibility, because you're not just sharing this on Facebook with your friends, you're presenting it to an academic audience. And that rhetorical situation mandates proper referencing and purposeful use. [MUSIC]
