How My Writing Has Improved

In this How my writing has improved essay I am going to share personal story that maybe can motivate someone to change his or hers writing skills. My academic writing journey started when I pursued a diploma at Republic Polytechnic (RP) in 2006 after completing my Ordinary Level examinations. Republic Polytechnic takes on a Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach which requires students to present their learning in a form of PowerPoint presentation as well as have them complete a reflection journal after every class. As a first-year student, I was assigned generic modules which gave me the time to ease into writing beyond my composition days in secondary school. Though it is termed as a reflection journal, facilitators advised me on the style and structure of writing. It gave me the opportunity to practice organizing my thoughts and present them in a cohesive manner by paragraphing them in three components: introduction, body and conclusion.

In my second year, I was required to submit group reports to fulfil the coursework requirement in my specialization modules. On top of adapting my writing style to suit the field of sport science, I had to find reliable sources of information. Hence, I had to deviate away from websites as a source of information. Instead, I was encouraged to use journal articles to substantiate claims made in my presentations and reports. I was also put through the grind of being questioned on my understanding of the resources. Though this academic rigour, I was exposed to various journal publications to gather information. Moreover, I had to cite all references and in-text citations using the American Psychological Association (APA) format which is widely accepted as a form of referencing in sport science research. I was introduced to the Purdue Online Writing Lab website by Purdue University, which till date, is still my preferred guide in formatting the references in my academic reports. Reports were submitted through a program called Turnitin, which made me learn more about plagiarism and the need to paraphrase.

I remember detesting my facilitator, and now colleague, for setting such high standards and penalizing my efforts when I did not meet her expectation. But it was through the process that I learnt how to source for reliable information, understand the implications of the research in our practices. Beyond the theories in the field of sport science, I learnt to improve my sentence structure and my flow of writing to make it understandable for my target audience. I am really thankful now for that guidance and exposure to kick-start of the academic writing process.

My interest in writing made me explore a creative writing class as a freely chosen module during my polytechnic years. However, the plan did not go as well as I hoped as I was constantly graded C and D for my effort which made me fear to go for the class. Expectations were different as it was a module taught by another faculty and they were not open to other ways of writing. I felt that the system dampen my interest in writing and because my grade point average (GPA) was badly affected, I told myself to stick to “regular modules” in the future.

My final year in RP required me to complete two final year projects (FYP). The process was comprehensive. I had to come up with a topic of interest by formulating a topic through my literature review, applying for ethical clearance from the in-house Institutional Review Board (IRB), exploring methods to execute the data collection, reporting and analysing results and ending with my recommendations in the conclusion section. It is the first time my team and I were left to be independent in executing the research process as well as accounting for our findings in our individual report. We were also required to present it in an A1 poster at the end of the semester. I was sending sections of my report to my supervisor for advice throughout the semester. However, it would need corrections on grammar and sentence structuring which sometimes led to me feeling frustrated due to time-sensitive deadlines. I modelled after research papers that I have read previously and looked up for websites or applications that could help me be effective in my writing. I was introduced to “Grammarly” by my teammates, which provided suggestions to enhance my writing. I also came across APA referencing machines where we could input the title of the article and it would generate the references in APA format. My second FYP process was better as I understood the process from my first experience. However, I was still hindered by my language skills.

During my polytechnic days, my eldest sister was pursuing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the National University of Singapore. I remembered looking up to her for her ambition to do her PhD upon completing her Degree. She proof-read my FYP reports and advised me to keep my sentences short. She encouraged me to use words such as 'furthermore', 'in addition' and 'nevertheless' to follow up on the previous sentence. An article by Pirsl & Pirsl introduced commonly used words and phrases that serve as discourse and metadiscourse markers in sports literature. In particular, they highlighted the use of markers such as at the same time, equally, in like manner, likewise, similarly, above all, again, also, and aside from, in serving its’ purpose of either revising or further elaborating on the content from the previous sentence. Looking back, I am glad my sister introduced words which similarly, help me expand and communicate my ideas in writing. In addition, she introduced a brief framework in academic writing by rationalizing the purpose of writing each sentence in my report and where I should place key information such as research aims, gaps and hypothesis. She was and still is a big influence on my academic writing journey thus far.

After taking a gap year, I enrolled in the Degree in Sport Science and Management (SSM) course at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). I retained what I had practised in my polytechnic days to complete my assignments in NTU but felt stagnant in my academic writing skill. I sensed that the priority in academic research in sport science is on the methodology section as I had a statistics module that taught the SPSS software for quantitative statistical analysis and a research method module that went through the process of designing a research project. However, I was not exposed to a course that would help improve my academic writing. This structure in the curriculum could be explained by the fact that the science field is a niche area and its knowledge is progressively built upon than arts topic. I did want to attempt to take a writing module at the degree level as I was taunted by my experience in my polytechnic days.

I worked in the industry as a freelance figure skating coach for three years upon graduation and did not practice my writing since. Getting a job as a lecturer in Republic Polytechnic last year and having an interest in pursuing a Masters degree made me want to enhance my writing capabilities. I noticed that I was hesitant and cautious when sending out emails at work and hence took the initiative to attend a one day course in Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) to gain confidence in report writing. I am enjoying my courses at the Masters' programme as there is flexibility in the courses that I can take to help in my journey as a research student. It has also since benefited my role at work as I am an FYP supervisor to several students. Being able to apply my learning in my role as a lecturer and a student allow me to practice what I have learnt on a daily basis. Though the thought of grades do pose a fear-factor in my development as an academic, the environment at work and class is encouraging and people are present in the spirit of learning.

I believe in any skill, practice is essential. The platforms that presented itself before me since I started my academic writing journey has provided me with an opportunity to practice what I have learnt regularly. The pre-reading that was posted at the start of this academic discourse class on Disciplinary Difference: Language Variation in Academic Discourse by Hyland validated my learning process. Hyland shared that through the reading process when gathering background information on their topic of interest, readers are exposed to principles of academic writing base on the discipline. This would then shape their writing and help them find purpose in the process. This is due to a form of social practice which require writers to present spoken or written discourse to suit a target audience, hence ensuring language used is better interpreted and understood in the process. In addition, by learning this format and style of writing, it is easy for readers to skim for major findings and conclusions. This is prominent in my journey as I identified my area of interest in sport science at the very start of my academic writing journey. I went through a consistent moulding process to write reports to better address my audience. I believe that this is also a form of limitation as I am not exposed or allowed to explore other forms and styles of writing that restricting my creativity.

My polytechnic days has provided me with the learning platform to practice my writing in the formal education setting. However, the learning for academic writing was informal and weaved in-between obtaining theoretical knowledge and hands-on skillset. I was lucky to have constructive feedback on my writing from my facilitators, FYP supervisors as well as my sister. It started from the basics of structuring using the introduction, body and conclusion section and has slowly evolved to include the methodology, results and discussion sections. Which essentially, is a standard structure of scientific writing.

This module further enriched my knowledge in writing as it provided a framework and “checklist” to guide my writing in each section. In particular, the introduction of Swales’s framework which identifies moves in each section. Though this checklist is present, I must not forget that writing is essentially a form of art and a writer must develop flair and identity in their writing. There is a relationship between language, the writer and his or her context. The unique interaction among the three variables would differentiate writers from one another and prevent modelling behaviour that would hinder one's capability to progress as a writer. The context in which we are writing for would help guide the use of language to convince the audience of our work rather than using it as an independent skill set which would result in a breakdown in the form of written communication.

Moving forward, when publishing my thesis in the future, I have to consider that every journal has its own formatting style and I should take it into consideration when selecting journals to publish my work in. The activity in class that required me to write an abstract led me to think deeper and consider how to write an effective abstract for publication. Quality of an abstract is important as it would convince and interest reviewers and readers to explore the rest of the paper and hence determine if the paper would be admitted to the journal. The article by Liu et al. examined the structure and writing skills in 20 abstracts from two of the most reputable journals in sports science - the European Journal of Sports Science (EJSS) and Journal of Sports Science (JSS). Reading this article was an eye-opener and further illustrated previous readings by Hyland on writing for your target audience, in the sport science context.

Learning can happen formally and informally. Through this reflective essay, I was able to look back at how my writing has improved and evolved over the years. Giving people who made an impact on my writing the credit they deserve and thank them for their patience in nurturing me to the writer I am today. In a way, I have taken inspiration from them and I do hope that my journey does not stop when I complete this course or my thesis.

References

• APA Style Introduction. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html
• Grammarly. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.grammarly.com/1
• Hyland, K. (2009). Points of departure. In Hyland, K. (Eds.), Academic Discourse: English in a global context (pp. 1-19). London: Continuum.
• Hyland, K. (2006). Disciplinary differences: Language variation in academic discourses. In Hyland, K. & Bondi, M. (Eds.), Academic discourse across disciplines (pp. 17-45). Frankfort: Peter Lang.
• Kanoksilapatham, B. (2005). Rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 24(3), 269-292. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2004.08.003
• Liu. H, Gimenez-Galanes. J.V & Huan. C (2013). What makes an effective abstract in sport science?. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 13(1), 53-56. doi:10.7752/jpes.2013.01009
• Pirsl. D & Pirsl. T (2013). Words differentiate scientific papers in sports writing. Activities in Physical Education and Sport, 3(2), 195-198.
• Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Turnitin. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.turnitin.com/