The Author's Voice

I generally prefer reading more personal voices in technical academic writings, but did notice that only the big shots dared to write in that style. It's also more personal for qualitative research than quantitative research. My supervisor told me to write more formally after looking at my Chapter 1. So here, I'm convincing myself of why I should, so I convinced myself once and for all, and I will not have that debate every time I type a sentence.

"A writer's voice, when preparing a literature review, should be formal because that is what the academic context dictates. The traditional voice in scientific writing dictates that the writer de-emphasize himself or herself in order to focus the readers' attention on the content." (p. 49)

That makes very much sense. It's an act of confidence and humility, to tell others to look at what I'm writing, consider it, and decide yourself whether you can trust it. Don't look at me, look at what I have done. "De-emphasizing myself". Yes, I can do that in my writing. Direct attention not to my voice, but use my voice to direct attention to evidence and arguments.

"Notice that academic writers tend to avoid using the first person. Instead, they let the "facts" and arguments speak for themselves." (p. 50)

Quotes taken from first edition of "Writing Literature Reviews" by Jose L. Galvan. Published by Pyrczak Publishing.

The Art of Facilitation

The art of facilitation is to invite voices into the conversation and steer them towards knowledge discovery and concept building. 

For a teacher, the challenge of facilitation is how to incorporate 30 voices into this conversation? Teachers have developed different techniques to cope with this need. 

Firstly, teachers can let students share their opinions one by one, of course limited to a few more vocal students because time doesn't allow.

Secondly, teachers can try to consolidate voices so that more can be heard. Many use the written form, either using google document, butcher paper, or the whiteboard. Usually voices are grouped to come up with a refined combined voice, after grouping, if all voices speak during group time, during class time, all voices are heard. 

The teacher has to inject his or her voice to guide the direction of the conversation. Using their knowledge, their sense of what students know and do not know, and their passion for building student knowledge and understanding up, they guide student learning. 

Communicating as a creative endeavour

"The act of reading any text relies on the interpretative efforts of a reader, as well as on the communicative efforts and intentions of the author. As a system for transmitting specific factual information without any distortion or ambiguity, the sign system of honey-bees would probably win easily over human language every time. However, language offers something more valuable than mere information exchange. Because the meanings of words are not invariable and because understandings always involves interpretation, the act of communicating is always a joint, creative endeavour. Words can carry meanings beyond those consciously intended by speakers or writers because listeners or readers bring their own perspectives to the language they encounter. Ideas expressed imprecisely may be more intellectually stimulating for listeners or readers than simple facts. The fact that language is not always reliable for causing precise meanings to be generated in someone else's mind is a reflection of its powerful strength as a medium for creating new understanding. It is the inherent ambiguity and adaptability of language as a meaning-making system that makes the relationship between language and thinking so special."
- Neil Mercer in Words and Minds, p. 5-6.

The Habit of Writing

From Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches by John W. Creswell, 3rd edition, page 80-81: 

Establish the discipline or habit of writing in a regular and continuous way on your proposal. Although setting aside a completed draft of the proposal for a time may provide some perspective to review your work before final polishing, a start-and-stop process of writing often disrupts the flow of work. It may turn a well-meaning researcher into what I call a weekend writer, an individual who only has time for working on research on weekends after all the "important" work of the week has been accomplished. Continual work on the proposal is writing something each day or at least being engaged daily in the process of thinking, collecting information, and reviewing that goes into manuscript and proposal production. 

Select a time of day to work that is best for you, then use discipline to write at this time each day. Choose a place free of distractions. Boice (1990, pp. 77-8) offers ideas about establishing good writing habits: 

- With the aid of the priority principle, make writing a daily activity, regardless of mood, regardless of readiness to write. 

- If you feel you do not have time for regular writing, begin by charting your daily activities for a week or two in half-hour blocks. It's likely you'll find a time to write. 

- Write while you are fresh. 

- Avoid writing in binges. 

- Write in small, regular amounts.  

- Schedule writing tasks so that you plan to work on specific, manageable units of writing in each session. 

  - Keep daily charts. Graph at least three things: (a) time spent writing, (b) page equivalents finished, and (c) percentage of planned task completed. 

- Plan beyond daily goals. 

- Share your writing with supportive, constructive friends until you feel ready to go public. 

- Try to work on two or three writing projects concurrently so that you do not become overloaded with any one project. 

It is also important to acknowledge that writing moves along slowly and that a writer must ease into writing. Like the runner who stretches before a road race, the writer needs warm-up exercises for both the mind and the fingers. Some leisurely writing activity, such as writing a letter to a friend, brainstorming on the computer, reading some good writing, or studying a favourite poem, can make the actual task of writing easier. I am reminded of John Steinbeck's (1969) "warm-up period" (p. 42) described in detail in Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Steinbeck began each writing day by writing a letter to his editor and close friend, Pascal Covici, in a large notebook supplied by Covici.

Math-phobes

"Here's how to relax your anxieties if you have them. Understand that Mathematics is a language ruled like other verbal languages, by its own grammar and system of logic. Any person with average quantitative intelligence who learns to read and write Mathematics at an elementary level, will, as in verbal languages, have little difficulties picking up most of the fundamentals, if they choose to master the mass speak (?) of most disciplines of Science. The longer you wait to become at least semi-literate, the harder the language of Mathematics will be to master, just as again as any verbal languages, but it can be done at any age."

Some thoughts...

I've been thinking about it... I noticed I've been quite pro-dictatorship... Is it because I grew up in Singapore under a good "dictator"? And perhaps coming from a middle-class family, I have never had much economic struggles and seldom question the status quo... Is this why I am less interested in politics? Had I come from another country and I realised I am not given equal chances for education because of my skin colour, and I wanted to immigrate to a country that would give me equal chances... would I be more politically active? Because poor governance affects my life and the lives of my friends greatly? Had I come from a poorer background and am forced to consider the reality of meritocracy, whether it really works or am I destined to be stuck in poverty because of a poorer footing at the beginning of life... would I care more for equity and the disadvantaged of society? If I lived in a country with a bad "dictator", would I feel helpless to change my situation? Would I fight for democracy? Would I immigrate? Am I a phenomenon of Singapore? Or am I one of a kind? Can statistics tell me? What about being a citizen of a nation that has undergone contestation? Would it cause me to be more politically aware? Does how free the media is make a difference? Or what if people are like me who generally don't read the papers? Am I the minority that conducting a quantitative research would not reveal more people like me? Or should a qualitative research be conducted to pick out anomalies like me, should I really be an anomaly?

"I have identified four general classes of discontinuity between learning in school and the nature of cognitive activity outside school. Briefly, schooling focuses on the individual's performance, whereas out-of-school mental work is often socially shared. Schooling aims to foster unaided thought, whereas mental work outside school usually involves cognitive tools. School cultivates symbolic thinking, whereas mental activity outside school engages directly with objects and situations. Finally, schooling aims to teach general skills and knowledge, whereas situation-specific competencies dominate outside." - Lauren Resnick