Developing a Scholarly Voice through Editing, Critical Reflection, and Word Choice.

Developing a Scholarly Voice through Editing, Critical Reflection, and Word Choice.

Introduction

A child does writing in the kindergarten, while a scholar also writes at PhD level. There should be a clear difference between the writings of the two. Four step lead the way to clear and concise writing giving it a scholarly voice.

1. Prewriting

2. Higher Order Concerns (HOC)

3. Lower Order Concerns (LOC)

4. Editing

The first step involves the brainstorming activity. Make a mind map on a paper and bring the ideas in a place, then group them in to chunks of relevant ideas. After that, make a flow of ideas so that the writing is done in a manner that brings the reader in flow and makes it easy to understand. Write the main ideas, thesis statements, and organize ideas. Then comes the lower order concerns or LOC. Lower order does not mean lower importance, rather it presents the hierarchy of steps. Some academicians combine the editing and proofreading steps under the broad heading of Lower Order Concerns. While focusing on the higher order concerns, it will be a mistake to neglect the lower order concerns. Using coherent sentences, grammatically correct and successfully transferring the meaning are the goals of Lower order concern. Another important matter is of word choice. Fancy words are not the first choice of a good scholar's writing portfolio. Simple and concrete words are more effective. As the purpose of scholarly writing is to make clear statements, rather than creating an expression on the reader, regarding his or her vocabulary. Using words that express what the writer means, are the ones most effective.

Let's share the example in which the use of simple and concrete words can be illustrated. These lines have been taken from earlier assignments in academics.

Before Editing: We often think how human evolved through time, and got settled in different continents, however, One difficulty in this regard is that, there is seldom any solid evidence in this regard, which can give us satisfactory answer.

After Editing: The settlement of humans across continents is a matter of debate, due to the lacking of any substantial evidence in this regard.

Note: In this example, several editing tools are used, most highlighting is the use of a strong word “substantial”, which helped in reducing the length of this sentence. Another point worth mentioning here is that, the shorter the length, the better it is (Jack. 2012). The revised sentence is much easier to understand rather than the previous one. The word “across” also helped in bringing the comprehensiveness in meaning.

Before Editing: It might be possible that instead of directly jumping to Australia, they might have gone in steps or it may be an initial accident during fishing that led them there to one strait and from there on they would have come to figure out that this is a way to travel between straits.

After Editing: Instead of directly jumping to Australia, it ...