A Great Periodic Table to Enhance Students Writing Skills

December, 2014
Figurative speech is the language we use to spice up our writing. Besides their aesthetic value , figurative expressions and axioms cast a flavour of 'writerly professionalism' on the written piece. It does take so much practice for students to be adept at the use of figurative language and there are no shortcuts to learn that quickly. There are however some useful tips to help them in their learning process. Periodic table of the figures of speech is an example of a very good document students can draw on to consolidate and learn different ways to use figures of speech.

Periodic table of the figures of speech,which I discovered through a post by Lifehacker, is a work realized by designer Curtis Newbold. The visual features two main genres of figures of speech namely: tropes and schemes. Tropes cover expressions like personification, metaphor, irony, hyperbole..etc and schemes cover things like ellipsis, alliteration, parenthesis..etc. Curtis provides ample explanation of each of these genres and also offers some useful tips on how to use each of them.

This full-size graphic of Periodic table of the figures of speech is available from this link.

Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest .

Excellent Tips on Research Paper Writing

December, 2014
Here is another wonderful visual from Learning Commons on the writing process. you can use this resource with your students to teach them about the different stages for preparing a research paper. The visual also includes some useful tips on the mechanics of writing like editing, formatting and composing.

Learning Commons also provided this excellent cheat sheet featuring a number of tips on how to write a research paper. This document is available for free download from this link. You can also visit this page for more visuals and resources to use in your classroom. Enjoy

 Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest .

17 Excellent Writing Guides for Academics and Student Researchers

October 10, 2014
This post is born out of a writing assignment for my PhD course 'Focused Educational Studies". The assignment was a reflective piece on chapter 4 of Jesson et al.'s book " Doing A Literature Review". The argument I developed  in this essay revolves around  the difference between academic writing and free style writing . My point was that academic writing is usually messier and time-consuming. The kind of thinking and reflection that goes with this kind of writing makes it really a painfully time and energy-consuming task.

Academic writing is inherently critical in that the writer has to develop an argument, provides a logical path of reasoning , a body of facts, ideas theses and anti-thesis to defend or refute a claim. This process of argumentation is usually encompassed within a well-written language. The writing style here is an essential component that determines the validity and authority of the academic piece. Academic writing style is not something one can develop overnight. It requires a lot of reading and practice and this is probably why so many undergraduate and graduate students grapple with it.

For those of you keen on improving their writing style and developing a robust academic ( and non-academic) writing style, the book collection below is definitely a must read. These are books I have bought throughout the course of my graduate and PhD studies. I would highly recommend them for  student researchers. Enjoy

1. On Writing Well by William Zensser
2. The Elements of Style by William Strunkand E.B. White
3. Writing Down The Bones, Freeing The Writer Within by Natalie Golberg
4. On Writing, A Memoir of The Craft by  Stephen King
5. How to Write a Book Review by Rebecca Graf
6. The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing by Calvani, Mayra; Anne K.
7. Learn to Write Badly by Billig Michael
8. Stylish Academic Writing by Sword, Helen
9. How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times by Clark, Roy Peter. (
10. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Clark, Roy Peter
11. Writing without Teachers by Elbow Peter
12. The Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer
13. How to Write a Lot by Paul J, Silvia
14. Why I Write by George Orwell
15. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
16. They Say I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerarld Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.
17. A Canadian Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker

 Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest .