Regional Writing Centre1 FYP Law and Accounting: Writing the Research Proposal Íde OSullivan, Lawrence Cleary Regional Writing Centre, UL

Regional Writing Centre2 Workshop Freewriting / writing to prompts The research proposal The writing process Planning: Assessing the rhetorical situation Establishing an Organising Principle Strategies to develop writing

Regional Writing Centre3 Writing to prompts (Murray 2005) An area of Law and Accounting that I would like to research is …… Keep writing non-stop for 5 minutes. Write in sentences. Do not edit or censor your writing. Discuss what you have written in pairs. Joining the conversation Broad and narrow conversations

Regional Writing Centre4 Research proposal Title Background Research question and objectives Method Initial bibliography

Regional Writing Centre5 Writing a page 98 paper My research question is … Researchers who have looked at this subject are … They argue that … Debate centres on the issue of … There is work to be done on … My research is closest to that of X in that … My contribution will be … (Murray 2006:104)

Regional Writing Centre6 The writing process Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing and Proofreading

Regional Writing Centre7 Prewriting Planning Evaluating the rhetorical situation, or context, into which you write Choosing and focusing your topic Establishing an organising principle Gathering information Entering the discourse on your topic Taking notes as a strategy to avoid charges of plagiarism Evaluating sources

Regional Writing Centre8 Planning: Assessing the rhetorical situation Occasion Audience Topic Purpose Writer

Regional Writing Centre9 Occasion What has prompted you to write? What do I need to know? What are my obligations? What are the procedures? When is it due? How much time do I have? Whats involved? My guidelines tell me about procedures that I must follow. When do I submit a proposal? Do I need to submit project reports? When? When do I submit my finished document? Do I need to defend my discoveries orally? What kind of project will I choose? How do I write about it?

Regional Writing Centre10 Occasion When we consider the occasion for writing, we think about What has prompted me to write? How much writing do I have to do? How much time do I have to do it? How much time should I allot for planning and organising, and for drafting and revising? What tone should I adopt? Formal? Informal? Authoritative? Conciliatory? Assertive?

Regional Writing Centre11 Audience Your audience affects how you write. Terms that need not be explained for one audience, may need to be explained to other audiences. General audiences may not have your subject knowledge, but they are usually thought of as intelligent, thoughtful readers willing to be informed or persuaded. Your classmates make good audiences. Write for them. Let them read your dissertation and give you feedback on the ease with which they were able to read and understand it.

Regional Writing Centre12 Topic Your topic is something that will have your supervisors approval. Some things to think about: How much do you already know about this topic? How much am I going to have to know in order to do this project and report on it? To say something meaningful? How much research am I going to have to do? How much time do I have to do it?

Regional Writing Centre13 Topic Strategies for choosing topics and narrowing or broadening the coverage you will give it. Taking suggestions from your supervisor Brainstorming (individually or in groups) Listing Clustering or mind-mapping Free-writing or discussing Asking wh-questionswho, what, when, where, how and why?

Regional Writing Centre14 Topic Topics do not stand in isolation. They exist in a context. What is the relationship of your topic to your course of study? What are people saying about your topic in the literature you have read? What are the issues of concern?

Regional Writing Centre15 Purpose What is your purpose for writing? To express your feelings? To inform? To persuade? As you draft, revise and edit, make sure that every contribution to your report works to realise that purpose.

Regional Writing Centre16 Purpose If informing is the purpose of your report, then the point of order is a triangulation of your audience, your topic and your purpose. Audience analysis Relevance Rhetorical appeals

Regional Writing Centre17 Writer What do I already know about this topic? How quickly do I learn? Read? Write? How much writing have I already done? Have I developed an academic or authoritative voice? Have I addressed this audience before? What are my weaknesses? What are my strengths?

Regional Writing Centre18 The writing process Drafting Revision Editing and Proofreading We will return to these in November

Regional Writing Centre19 Dialogue about writing Peer-review Generative writing The writing sandwich (Murray 2005:85): writing, talking, writing Writing buddies (Murray and Moore 2006:102) Writers groups Engaging in critiques of one anothers work allows you to become effective critics of your own work.

Regional Writing Centre20 Resources Ebest, S.B., Alred, G., Brusaw, C.T. and Oliu, W.E. (2005) Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference Handbook, 5th edition. New York: McGraw- Hill. Regional Writing Centre, UL Strunk, W. and White, E.B. (2000) The Elements of Style, 4th ed. New York: Longman. Using English for Academic Purposes The Writers Garden cyberlyber.com/writermain.htmhttp://www. cyberlyber.com/writermain.htm The OWL at Purdue The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill /wcweb/handouts/index.htmlhttp:// /wcweb/handouts/index.html