Writing Resources

Hello HEALers, 

How are you? I received a few emails expressing some anxiety over this first “academic” paper, the writing process, and learning a new vocabulary. I completely relate to your questions and comments. When I enrolled in my first doctoral course, I felt overwhelmed with the new terminology, expectations, and content. I found the easiest way to adopt and incorporate the language and literature was to merge this material with my personal and professional life. I shared my course papers with family and coworkers for feedback and exercised the language through my daily dialogue with others. My professional memberships connected me to field experts and current research. However, like ascending a mountain, I had to take time to acclimate because academia is a unique environment with a distinct language and culture.

If you’ve travelled a bit, you know that many countries share a formal language in addition to a series of regional dialects. In the academy, I think of Latin as the formal language and over generations each discipline has developed its own lingo. When I returned to graduate school, I familiarized myself with Latin and purchased the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy to learn more about key philosophical concepts and terms. I also grabbed books on the theories and theorists of education and learning. Our HEAL home page "Resources and Services" menu contains several links to journals in Health Education, Medicine, and Philosophy. I would recommend perusing these journals to learn more about leading contributors in your discipline.

As we head into the next course, I also want to share with you a series of SFU writing resources and workshops for graduate students. SFU’s dedicated writing staff assists learners with the development of their writing skills. In conclusion, I have listed a couple of websites that address questions on grammar and punctuation.

Research Commons: Writing Resources
Writing & Style Guides
Writing Resources: SFU Faculty of Education
SFU Library Help
SFU Library Workshops
Grammar Book

Grammar Girl

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.  See you soon!

Cheers,

Jacqueline