Diagnostic writing

Preparation work for the live session

• Write a short text in response to one of the questions below.

• Upload what you've written to Eduflow.

In preparation for our live session today you're going to write a short text that you'll give to one of your classmates to read, and you will read theirs. It's not assessed so don't worry; the purpose is just to start the writing process and to allow you to think about your own writing style and what you can learn from other people. As we study various writing strategies and gather new language on the course, you'll refer back to this essay and think about how you can improve it.

General guidelines

Over the two terms we'll be looking at four important aspects of good academic writing, so you can start thinking about them now.

• Content - make sure that what you write is relevant to the topic and answers the question.

• Organisation - aim to make your writing as organised and as easy to follow as possible.

• Language - do you have a good range and level of accuracy in terms of grammar and vocabulary?

• Referencing - showing evidence of reading on the topic is essential for any piece of academic writing. However, just for today we're not going to worry about that, and are just focusing on the three points above.

Formatting

For electronic submission, it's extremely important to follow the formatting guidelines.

• Word count: 400 words (+/- 10%)

• Font: Arial/Calibri size 11/12

• Line spacing: 1.5/2.0

• Software: Microsoft Word or Google Docs