Last week, you were introduced to effective writing process and examined your own writing for strengths and opportunities. You also shared your thoughts and goals with your colleagues.

This week, you will begin to compose your evaluation of a scholarly article by critically assessing the author’s main points. After reviewing the Learning Resources for this week, you will post a reflection on your research methods and ways in which you evaluate an essay for its author’s main points. You will select one journal article from a preselected group of articles to review. (Please note that for the rest of the course, you will base your assignments on your one selected journal article.)

The activities this week mirror the beginning stages of the writing process for an evaluative essay. In the following weeks, you will continue with the more iterative processes of drafting and revising but for now, you are at the prewriting stage.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Examine overall writing process
• Apply prewriting principles to critically read and research one online journal article
• Apply prewriting principles to identify three main ideas from one selected journal article

Discussion: Reflecting on Your Writing: Reading and Research Strategies

Beginning an essay can often be the most difficult portion. However, when separated into small steps, this process becomes well defined and much more manageable. During these first steps, any writing that takes place is likely to be minimal and rough. This is acceptable, as you realize you are in the prewriting stage and that you have more writing and revising ahead of you.

For this Discussion, you will reflect on your own approach to reading and how you have (or, perhaps, have not) used a strategy, such as note-taking, underlining, highlighting, etc., in the past to gather and assess the main ideas from a journal article. Based on what you have learned from the week’s Learning Resources, you will share your thoughts and experiences on reading and researching.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review the Learning Resources on arguments and critical reading, and the infographic on Analysis.
• Reflect on your research process in relation to understanding an author’s argument or main idea.
• You may reflect on past or current examples of your reading and research process.

By Day 3

Post a 1- to 2-paragraph reflection on your reading and research process, describing strategies that you currently use, as well as any strategies that you could use more effectively. (Note: You may choose to reflect specifically on your approach to this Discussion in relation to reading and research.)

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