\n\tIn a workshop hosted by the Chemistry Department this semester, a group of 25 JSU graduate students asked, "What is 'scholarly writing'?" We love questions like this, especially when students look to us for an explanation. The students said they heard about scholarly writing a lot and weren't sure what their professors meant.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tInstead of explaining, however, we turned the question back to the students and asked what they thought scholarly writing might be. We also asked what might be one aspect of non-scholarly writing. One woman said, "Sometimes I write the way I speak." We then discussed how we often write like this when we're first getting our ideas down on paper, but when we write for a scholarly audience, we need to develop a more formal voice.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWe talked about what being formal might include. In general it means to be more specific with our word choice. We then talked about using vocabulary<\/em> specific to the field, which includes words students might not yet recognize, and about the importance of learning those words and using them accurately. Each field, we also mentioned, has different conventions for the use of personal pronouns.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe also discussed that formal writing is straightforward and specific in descriptions of an issue or process. Scholarly writing has clear organization<\/em>: The introduction includes an identifiable thesis statement and "map" (brief outline of main points), and each section or body paragraph follows that map.\n<\/p>\n \n\tOne student said she thought non-scholarly writing meant that there was not enough evidence<\/em> to support<\/em> an idea. So we talked about how it is important to seek credible<\/em>, scholarly evidence and use it to support whatever we assert in our papers or presentations as well as how it is important to cite and document sources according to the style for our particular field.\n<\/p>\n