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Writing 2lk From UCSB California's public university

This article is about writing2lk which is has a focus on psychology and APA style writing. For other writing classes see List of writing classes at UCSB.

Writing2lk is the second in a series of writing classes offered at UCSB. It has a special focus on psychology and APA (American Psychiatric Association)format of writing. It should be noted that because of this emphasis on psychology it is required that a student be enrolled in psych1 concurrently. In addition to that the availability is limited due to its small class sizes which offer a more personal learning experience.

History Writing2lk dates back to the fall quarter of 2003. Historically it has been available every quarter since 2003 with the exception of the summer quarters of 2005 & 2006.

Characteristics Topics covered in the class range from the pre-writting process all the way till revision. The class has been known to focus on 1st order thinking which leads to 2nd order thinking. The class uses a variety of tools to aid the students during these processes such as the Toulmin grid, Genre analysis grid, and freewriting. Other tools that are used in the class include the peer response form, metacognitive reflections after drafts, and several different in class writings. The focus on APA comes from the extensive use of citations in that format. To get an introduction and a better grasp on how to use APA students are requried to use A pocket style manual (Hacker, D, Sommers, N, 2012)

1st order thinking This is when a student is meant to get out as much as they can think of. The most important part is that they do not restrain themselves in their writing so they can see where they want to go with their paper. As an aid to the students writing2lk provides several opportunities for them to freewrite before actually starting on any of their papers.

2nd order thinking This is almost the opposite of first order thinking in a way because students are meant to think in a more organized manner. In this process students begin to categorize their ideas and have more concrete support for their claims. They can begin organizing everything from how to format their essay with the help of the genre analysis grid; to how they will support their ideas by using the Toulmin grid.

Freewriting Through this process students get out as many ideas as they can to get a sense of where they want to go with their writing. To freewrite all that is required is a student sit down and continuously write on the topic their paper will be on for whatever period of time they have specified. The most important part is that the student does not feel like they have to restrain any thoughts or stop writing if they “run out of ideas”. If that were to happen they should continue writing on anything and digress when they get another idea.

Toulmin Grid A Toulmin grid is used by students to begin to organize their ideas and understand what argument they will make. The grid contains four columns labeled: Major claims, Warrants, Major data, and textual reference; In that order. The major claims section is where students write down their assertions. They then proceed into the next column, warrants, where they write down the reasons to link their evidence to their claim. They then write down all the evidence that supports their claim in the major data column; followed by noting where they found the evidence for their argument in the textual reference column. This grid helps a student spot flaws in their assertions before they get too deep into their writing saving them time which they can use to come up with other assertions.

Genre Analysis Grid This grid is simply used for students to get a better idea of the type of genre they will by writing about or using to write. ex. if a student wanted to write a paper in the format of a wiki article they would use the genre analysis grid to understand the basic formatting and then be able to write their work in the proper formatting. The grid asks basic questions such as In what settings does this genre appear? Where are texts in this genre usually found? What subjects does this genre usually include? What questions, ideas, and issues does this genre usually address? To which the student responds to on a separate sheet of paper.

Peer response forms During the revision process students bring in drafts of their work and have it revised by other students critically. On this form the author is the writer and another student acts as the reader. The writer asks specific questions they have about their paper on the form and gives it to the reader along with their draft. The reader than looks through the draft and writes comments on what they thought of the paper and responds to any questions the writer may have written down.

Metacognitive reflections After every revision section the students leave class and revise their work at home. When the students are done with their revisions they are asked to write a metacognitive reflection of what they just did on their work so they can understand what changes they had to make. This should help with their future drafts to avoid making the same mistakes.

Other writings in class At times students will have other writings in class to help them in the process of writing their paper. Some times it could be an idea map or a venn diagram to make comparisons between two things they may be writing on. Other times it could be writing revision plans in class after other students go over their works. During every revision workshop the students highlight their works to see where they have certain things such as enough analysis or too much or too little of some other aspect required in the work.

APA and using A pocket style manual To get a better grasp of APA students are required to use A pocket style manual when revising their essays to make sure they have cited properly in APA to avoid plagiarism. From this manual students learn how to cite in text using different sources such as physical material and online material. They are also taught the basic formatting for a paper written in APA. In addition to that they learn how to properly create a reference page.

https://my.sa.ucsb.edu/gold/CourseDetailInfo.aspx