Wednesday 10th March - talking about writing.

Wednesday  March 10th 2021

Wednesday  BAPP discussion group - talking about writing with guest speaker Peter Thomas 

8:15am (time in London)

or

9pm (time in London) 

this is discussion about 'academic writing' with guest speaker Peter Thomas from the Writing Center at Middlesex University. You can join the group through the Zoom link on Unihub.

Wednesday 14th Oct - talking about writing workshop

Wednesday  Oct 14^th 2020

Wednesday  BAPP discussion group - talking about writing with guest speaker Peter Thomas 

8:15am (time in London)

or

6pm (time in London) 

this is discussion about 'academic writing' with guest speaker Peter Thomas from the Writing Center at Middlesex University. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

Talking to people

On Tuesday we had some great conversations.

AM we talked about Module Two planning and Module Three reflection. We found it really helpful to try to concisely tell each other what we were doing. When you try to tell someone what you are doing you notice the parts where you waffle!! or don’t complete a sentence!! These could well be parts you yourself have not completely worked out your thoughts on or that you don’t yet understand.

We asked each other to repeat back what they thought they heard. Doing this you can see where you have been clear, where you are going on about something that is not important and what parts you are explaining well.

You have to have it straight in your own head before you try to write it down. For many people writing helps them sort out their thoughts. (For many other people going for a walk or having a bath or dancing or doing yoga helps them sort out their thoughts). Whatever you do to think things through and understand what you think! Is fine but if your way is to write that does not mean what you write is what you hand in. It is just a means for you to get things organised for yourself. Don’t get writing-to-organise-ideas mixed up with writing-a-reflection-on-something. The way to make sure you have written the reflection / work you are handing in is that you should be able to explain it in a couple of verbal sentences to a number of different people. You should be able to explain it to someone who doesn’t know anything about the BAPP course as well as to someone who knows all about it. These would be different explanations of course but it is good practice to make sure you really understand what you are trying to communicate in what you hand-in.

We talked about how what you hand-in is always about the process of the Module/term. In each Module it is about reflection on that module and discussing what you did, what you learnt and how it resonates with your general Professional Practice.

In the PM chat we talked about the same thing of explaining your process but in that chat we also talked about Module One. Module One work to hand-in is reflecting on the process of the Module and what you have learnt about yourself as a learner. It is not about proving you have read the hand-book! And just writing what the handbook says. The important part is what you think of it all.

As so often it was really good to talk to other people on the course.

Have a look at some blogs and leave comments.

 http://josephdarbybapp.blogspot.co.uk

http://victoriamayvickers.blogspot.co.uk

http://shonabeggsblog.blogspot.co.uk

http://maddybantick.blogspot.co.uk

What do you feel? Please comment below

Adesola

Claiming You within your work...

I put up a blog post about presentation of work. It was meant to be funny but it might have seemed a bit harsh - sorry.

What I was saying was: As you are nearing the end of the module you are on, it is important to start to think about your work in a wider context. There is a lot of inner reflection thats part of the process of the modules and it is easy to start to see your work just from the perspective of your own inner reflective process of getting to where you are.

But what you are handing in is going to be read on its own terms - the person reading it does not know the process that got you to where you are to write what you hand-in. (We are not inside your head, don't leave it up to the reader to make sense of what you are handing-in).

So you need to make sure you have the wider context in your work this includes simple things like making sure your name and student number is clearly on your work. It also includes the way you introduce or begin your work. Start with an introduction that explains who you are and what it is we will be reading in the paper you are handing in. Do not assume the person who is reading your work knows all about you.

All this is about positioning yourself and having confidence in your work. The Professional Practice element of this course connects with how you present yourself and the confidence within which you do this. Just like at an audition - even if you know the directors really well you still do the audition as if they had never seem you before.

Here are some past blogs I have written about positioning of Self:

http://adesolaa.blogspot.com/2013/11/noticing-situated-you.html

http://adesolaa.blogspot.com/2010/10/positioning-of-self.html


What do you feel? Please comment below.
Adesola

Writing for Dance Professional Practice Summer Intensive

Hi,

Just a note / dates for your diary - We're holding our a Summer Intensive this August!  Some info for now, with more to follow;

The Dance and Writing Professional Practice Summer Intensive will take place August 17th-21st 2015 and will be held at Middlesex University's Hendon Campus, London.

The programme has been designed in response to feedback from students on both the  BA Professional Practice (arts) and MAPP DTP programmes concerning the transition from vocational training, performance work, independent practice, studio teaching into studying within a university environment and being able to confidently share rich bodies of experiential knowledge through academic writing.

The programme intends to address these transitions through a mix of studio (practical) dance classes and classroom sessions;  accessing and developing literature reviews, citation methods, academic writing structures and written expression of physical experiences, engaging with social media and web 2.0 online developing confidence in online learning and sharing.

Each day will begin with a movement class followed by sessions looking at text, research skills and writing to help students develop confidence in what they have to offer as academic students and to encourage students to draw on their somatic knowing of movement to inform their ideas and writing.

The Summer Intensive will be open for booking and a full programme available through the MDX online store by the end of the month, we just wanted to flag up the dates to you now appreciating that you're probably in the process of planning your summers!


Provisional Details:
Dates: August 17-21, 2015
Costs: £350 (Full) £250 (concessions/unwaged)
Venue: Middlesex University London NW4 4BT
Facilitators: Adesola Akinleye and Helen Kindred
Bookings and Payment online: www.mdx.ac.uk/onlinestore
The programme is open to all current students, alumni and enrolling students for the coming academic year, and would be a great opportunity to come together and learn more whatever stage you are at.  

We look forward to seeing some of you there!
Let me know if you are interested, or have any questions.

Adesola

AM Skype chat

This morning group skype went well.

We talked about time management. Which James is going to post on also.

http://jamesbapp.blogspot.co.uk

Some tips were

Listen to pod casts on subjects as a way to be thinking about things on the go – like listening to a pod cast on reflection on the tube.

Learn to know times of the day or situations where you will time waste even if you have set time a side for study.  For instance maybe it doesn’t work if you block out time in the day to work on BAPP because something always comes up. But you know if you do some study at the end of the day when all your work chores are over you will be able to focus on it.

What’s App voice messages to yourself  to capture moments where you have time to think about something but you are on the go

We talked about practicing academic writing (task 2c). Lisa is going to post more of thoughts about this task. 

http://lisameiklejohn.blogspot.com

We talked about how this is really about learning a technique. Like learning a ballet technique it is somewhat about knowing the rules of the technique.

These rules include:

Knowing how to cite and why you need to

Being able to find books and use them as reference

Skills for writing Introduction and Conclusions

Jodie is going to write about this part of the conversation have a look at what she says in the comments below.

We also talked about thinking about the final work you are handing in. We said that you should be sending drafts by end of Easter if you want feedback from your advisor.

Also making sure you know what you want to say. Finding this out does not always come in the form of writing it. We talked about how going for a walk or doing a yoga class or talking to someone else are all methods of working out what you want to say (and what your point is). Then writing it down is just a form of presentation.

What do you think? Please comment below

Adesola :)

Notes on sending work for feedback

Please do not send documents called 'Proposal' or 'AOLs' or 'Reflection' because everyone doing the same tasks. The title of the document is as much for the person receiving it as it is for you. If I get three documents called 'Proposal'. I then open them and hope that the persons name is clearly on the document!! But no!!! Often it is just the written work no page numbers or footer or header with the persons name and id number. I write this for both my BA and MA courses because they are both in professional practice and it is good practice to do the above in general. Send people things with your name on them!
Akinleye_blog post.doc
then when it is opened your name again and page numbers in case they need to print it out.

I think this is important because it means what you send is intended for the person reading it. This shows you have taken a moment to think about how the thing you are sending will be experienced by the reader and it means it does not look like you did something and sent it the first moment you thought you wanted reassurance it was ok.

Get what I mean? What do you think? Have you experienced the same thing? Do you suddenly realise you did this too!!!!!!
Adesola

What you say and what other people say….

Hi

Christmas is coming!!! First, I wanted to put in a word for citations and using them!!! This is about linking your ideas to things beyond yourself. In Module One we talk about communication, reflection and networks.  These are foundational ideas that we return to each module. Think of citations in terms of them. Citing (talking about) other peoples’ work and ideas is how you show how your ideas link to the ‘network’ of ideas about a subject. This also shows how what you think links to the ‘reflections’ of others. As you do this you communicate your ideas in your own way and then share how other people have ‘communicated’ similar ideas.

Now don’t be afraid of citations just because they have a particular format. The formality of citations is just so there is a standard way of doing things; so we can all find the work you are talking about. I have talked about this in a couple of past blog posts have a look.

Starting up

What Sam and Billy say

Citations

Rubric

 

Now for word counts and editing – again don’t be afraid of these. Word counts and starting to edit your work is part of sharpening your skills in writing and being clear in your own head what you want to say.

Here are some ‘tips’ on self-editing

• Don’t get too attached to everything in the essay; nothing is ever lost; it can be used elsewhere. 
• Whatever you write, write about what is necessary to the points you are making.
• Be sure that everything in the essay contributes to what you want the Reader to experience or learn from your writing.
• Don’t read to edit immediately after you have written something. Take a break and come back to it.
• Write what you mean and stop when you’ve said it!!
• Put your ideas in order.
• Think of the essay as a whole: have only one beginning (introduction), middle (the points you want to make) and end (a conclusion drawing it all together). Don’t write a beginning middle and end for every thought you want to talk about.

Looking forward to reading your comments

Adesola