Using the WriteSite
There are a number of ways the WriteSite can be used.
- You may be directed to units in the WriteSite by one of your academics after he or she has reviewed a piece of your writing
- An academic may ask all students in a class to read part of the site (e.g. if it is particularly relevant to the unit of study or if you will be asked to peer-review another student's work).
- You may choose to use the WriteSite independently to identify problems and improve your academic writing.
You have been directed to the WriteSite via feedback on your writing
First, take an overview of the areas of the site you have been directed to.
- How many units have you been asked to complete?
- Are all of your identified writing issues from the same WriteSite module (e.g. grammar), or are there different types of problems?
- How much work do you think will be needed to make an improvement? For example, perhaps some errors are caused by carelessness and could be fixed by reading over your work before you hand it in. These will be easy to improve on. Some errors may be fixed once you have some information (e.g. understanding the difference between it's and its). Other errors may need information, practice exercises and revision before you can write without making the same mistakes.
Once you have the answers to these questions you can make a plan.
Decide which problem/s you will concentrate on first. If your marker has indicated that you should read multiple units of the WriteSite, you need to work out whether you will tackle your biggest problem (if it is obviously the most important), or whether it makes most sense to concentrate on the area you can make the quickest improvement in (if you have many problems of equal importance but some will take a long time to improve).
