IntroductionStrong skills in writing are essential for you as a doctoral learner. These skills allow you to create doctoral projects that articulate a purpose. They are characterized by strong organization, appropriate use of evidence, scholarly tone, and grammatically sound sentence structure. Creating a plan to improve these skills using selected resources will set the stage for improvements in your writing.
This assessment should be completed last.Demonstration of ProficiencyBy successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:Competency 4: Acknowledge your own strengths and weaknesses in relationship to writing as a doctoral professional.Reflect upon personal strengths and weaknesses in writing at a doctoral academic level.
Explain the choice of writing resources to improve specific writing skills.
Competency 6: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.Articulate meaning relevant to the main topic, scope, and purpose of the prompt.
Organize topics and sub-topics around a thesis statement, with body paragraphs that follow the MEAL plan.
Adhere to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.
PreparationActivity 1: Complete the Personal Writing Assessment and e-mail your results to yourself. The assessment will provide you with a list of resources to study related to documentation style, voice, grammar, punctuation, critical reading, and essay structure. Consider the categories where you answered the most and least number of questions correctly. These categories will be documented in your writing development plan.
Activity 2: Gather the feedback received via the Writing Feedback Tool in the previous assessments in this course. The Writing Feedback Tool addresses five writing skill areas, related to purpose, organization, evidence, tone, and sentence structure.
The Campus page for the tool explains the meaning and importance of relevant writing skills. Reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses in these specific writing skills, and consider why these skills are important to doctoral and professional writing in your field. Consider your performance measurements in each of the writing skills, and identify an area of strength and an area for growth.
Activity 3: Gather any writing feedback you received from Smarthinking submissions.Activity 4: Examine your results from the Personal Writing Assessment, the Writing Feedback Tool, and Smarthinking. Identify your areas of strength and three opportunities for growth. Begin to explore the resources provided to you by each of these tools, and think about your writing goals. As you prepare to begin writing, consider these reflection questions.What are your experiences writing? How will those experiences support you in meeting the demands of your doctoral program?
Why are writing skills essential to your success in your doctoral program?
What are your strengths in writing? What past experiences helped you to develop those strengths?
What are your opportunities for growth in writing? What resources provided by the Personal Writing Assessment and Writing Feedback Tool resonate with you?
How will your use of the provided resources support you in meeting your writing goals?
Activity 4: Develop an outline for your text. An example outline is provided in the file Assessment 4 Outline. Your text can fit within that outline, though the essay structure is up to you.InstructionsThis assessment should be completed last. Consider your writing strengths and opportunities for growth, as identified by the preparation steps above.
Complete a writing development plan that identifies three writing goals, the resources you will use to reach these goals, and how you will gauge your success in writing skill development.Use examples from your work in this or other program courses to explain the goals you selected and to show how the writing resources will facilitate improvements in your writing. Your paper should demonstrate the five writing skills highlighted in Writing Feedback Tool.Additional RequirementsPage Length: 3–4 pages.
Requirements: 3-4
