Third Lesson

Getting started

We acknowledge that university writing can be difficult but believe that there are ways of approaching it that will build up your confidence and develop your competence. There are three well-known methods for beginning to write:

• Bridging a gap

• Practice writing  

• Brainstorming          

Today we are going to elaborate only first method that is bridging a gap:

Bridging a gap:

When you come to write at university you may find that there is a gap that you have to bridge. On one side there is you, with your background, sense of identity and ideas about the world, and on the other there is the subject you have to write about, based on academic disciplines. 

This can open up interesting new ways of seeing and understanding for you but it can also present problems of how to behave, and how to speak and write. So, the way is read as much as you can. The more you read the more you bridging the gap between what you came with and a different way of thinking and speaking.

In addition, familiar words are used differently and new terms are invented. Different uses of words indicate different ways of thinking about and viewing the world, thus it is important that you learn the new terms and meanings and that you are able to use them in your writing. The next activity will help you with this.

Activity Three: Make a glossary of terms

Take a subject that you are studying. Choose a few terms that are commonly used in it. Use your own words to try to pin down that the terms means for you. Pay attention on unfamiliar terms in the extracts and main body of the book. Use your computer to put together a glossary of terms, editing it as you learn more about the terms you have included. Print it off regularly so that you can use the hard copy for reference.