Early this week, I had the pleasure of meeting some Mechanical Engineering students who are here on a special visit from Singapore with the School of Advanced Mechanical Engineering.
Over a barbie* on Monday we chatted about numerous** things, such as the cricket at Adelaide oval; what do do when you're in Adelaide; the food; the merits of doing a day trip to Kangaroo Island and the Weather (a popular topic when it's 39 degrees).
Today the weather is cooler and I'm turning my attention to preparing for the the Technical and Advanced Writing Project workshop for our Singaporean guests over the next two days.
Most of the workshop materials are linked to the side navigation, but I just wanted to say a couple of things.
Firstly, to the Writing in the Sciences community, what is posted up here relates to universal principles of good technical and academic writing - and is not specific to any particular sub-discipline (Advanced Mechanical Engineers, in this case). In other words, all you see up here will be of some use to all writers.
Secondly, I would like to point you to the Academic Writing Triangle which encapsulates the approach Learning Advisers and other lecturers take when looking at work. There are a heirachy of elements and each one must be fulfilled. These are the building blocks of good academic writing - Scientific or not.
Thirdly, a very WARM welcome to our Singaporean students who are here for a taste of Mawson Lakes and South Australia. Please regard this as your techinical writing online 'home' and feel free to post any questions or observations. I (or others in this community) can respond in due course.
Do you have any writing questions?
* Barbie, of course, is a shortened form of barbeque. Aussies are fond of using 'ie' at the end of words. Breakie = breakfast; Pressie=present
** Numerous is a word which scientific writers should avoid. Try to use words which quantify such as 'Today we spoke about five things. These were...'
Andrea Duff
10 years ago
6 comments:
Here's where you post your questions!
Some previous groups of students have said they needed to go back to their sources after learning more about referencing and avoidng plagiarism. That can be a lot of extra work.
Is it only UniSA that requires this type of writing and referencing?
Will this approach to using sources be useful elsewhere?
Helen
The Academic writing triangle, and the presentation it comes from, are these available on line?
I've just discovered the blog. It's a fantastic resource and I will keep on using it.
Glad you like the blog, Denise. We really have fun creating the posts.
We have the academic writing triangles in a much larger form on the walls in our (Learning Adviser) offices.
Sometimes students come in with a final piece of work and ask us to check their grammar. What we often see, though, are a whole range of other elements missing in the work such as good structure, an understanding of the task, breadth of references or a lack of understanding about referencing technique. All of these things, of course, are critical elements in academic writing and attract marks.
We use the triangle as a visual aid to explain these things to students.
Best of luck, Denise.
Oh - you might also like this one:
http://learningconnectionunisa.blogspot.com/
There are lots of writing tips on here, too.
Cheers
Andrea
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