The Blank Page Drafting Revising (and revising…and revising…) Presentation

College students begin to understand what academic writing really means only after they receive negative feedback on their work

To become a strong writer in college, you need to achieve a clear sense of two things:◦ The academic environment◦ The kinds of writing you’ll be doing in that

environment

What’s different about college What’s different about college writing?writing?

College instructors are much more likely than high school teachers to:◦ assign writing◦ respond in detail to student writing – or not much at all◦ ask questions that cannot be dealt with easily in a fixed

form like a five-paragraph essay You may have learned only one kind of writing genre and now find you need to master other types of writing as well

More differencesMore differences

Look for: mind mapping, speech to text

Look for: word prediction, speech to text, references

Look for: mechanics, text to speechLook for: reference management, formatting, templates

SmartArt in Word FreeMind XMind Inspiration Mindomo Mindmeister Places to look:

Wikipedia: List of concept mapping softwareTry at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.

Limited capability in Word Sphinx (Geeky!) Dragon Naturally Speaking ($79.95 - $199)*◦ I recommend the premium version for academic

work Dragon Dictate app (free – iOS only, requires internet

connection)

SpeakQ ($360)

*low end of scale is student-only pricing from AcademicSuperstore.com

Talking Word Processor LetMeType OpenOffice

Text Expander (Mac) $29.95 Phrase Express Texter (a bit geeky)

Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.

Online dictionaries Thesauri◦ FreeThesaurus◦ VisuWords

Multiple-purpose◦ Word (& other software) built-ins◦ Lingoes◦ The Sage◦ WordWeb◦ StarDict

Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.

Work that word processor!◦ Spell check◦ Grammar check◦ Find & replace

Spelling/grammar checkers◦ Jspell multilingual◦ ieSpell for online writing◦ Grammarly (7-day free trial)◦ Ginger (designed specifically for learning

disabilities)

Style checkers◦ The Editor◦ WordDog

Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.

Read back what you’ve written Listen for:◦ Mispronunciations: possible misspellings◦ Long-winded sentences: may need to break

into multiple sentences◦ Odd-sounding phrases: may be grammar

errors Cannot lie to you

BibMe Son of Citation Machine Zotero Reference management software pages on Wikipedia

Check out at least two to see which you like better. Record results on your wiki page.

Hide/show formatting Use styles! Save templates to save time

Why use a template?◦ Speed◦ Consistency

Creating your own templates◦ Save as .dot (Microsoft Word)◦ File, New select template◦ Must save under new name

Microsoft templates