Assignment: Evaluating Scholarly Writing

Authorities in every academic discipline share certain expectations and norms for publication in their scholarly journals and texts. While specialists in some disciplines uphold a strict standard of academic writing, other experts allow a more flexible rhetorical style. In general, however, academic writers strive to influence their discourse communities by following the expected norms.

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While communities of scholars strive to ensure quality in their disciplines, they also recognize a certain level of subjectivity in determining the quality of academic writing. Analyzing each author’s quality of evidence, awareness of the target audience, and potential for personal bias will help you determine the appropriateness of books, articles, and other documents that you read. For this Assignment, you evaluate a scholarly article. As you review articles, consider the ways that the different backgrounds of the authors and their readers may affect both the creation and the interpretation of the writing.

To prepare:

Select an article from either the Walden Library or the Internet related to public policy and administration and your field of interest.
Consider how different audiences could interpret the selected article. Pay particular attention to the quality of evidence that the author presents.

BY DAY 7

Submit a 1-page evaluation of the article you selected. In your evaluation, be sure to do the following:

Evaluate the quality of evidence, appropriateness of the content and writing style for the target audience, and the author’s potential bias. Then, explain whether the article meets professional standards for scholarly writing and why.
Explain how various audiences might perceive the author’s intent and message.
Explain how you might revise the article to make it more appropriate for an international audience.

After writing your draft, be sure to complete the following steps before submitting your final draft to Assignment:

Submit your paper to Assignment, using the Assignment Draft links provided in the Academic Integrity area of the course navigation menu, in order to check your work for plagiarism. You can check up to six drafts without penalty. Do not make your final Assignment submission for this assignment without completing the rest of the steps.
Go to the Walden Writing Center and create a login for Grammarly.

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

REQUIRED READINGS

President & Fellows Harvard University. (2010). Interrogating texts: Six reading habits to develop in your first year at Harvard. Retrieved from http://guides.library.harvard.edu/sixreadinghabits
Note: The navigation links on the Harvard site may not be functioning properly, so please scroll down the page manually to access the information.

Ware, M. (2008). Peer review: An introduction and guide. Retrieved from http://publishingresearchconsortium.com/index.php/prc-documents/prc-guides-1/47-prc-peer-review-guide-final-2013-07-22/file

Walden University. (2014) Library. Retrieved from http://library.waldenu.edu/

Walden University. (n.d). Writing Center. Retrieved from http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/

REQUIRED MEDIA

Laureate Education (Producer). (2012g). Walden University: Introduction to scholarly writing: Purpose, audience, and evidence [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.