Writing Strategies1

Review the writing strategies below and put an “X” next to those you use frequently. Next,
discuss these strategies with a partner and why you use the strategies you do, and you avoid
others.

____ 1. Translating, if you use English as an international language.

____ 2. Spending a lot of time gathering information or doing research

and then quickly writing your paper from your notes, data
sources or outlines.

____ 3. Referring to one or more model papers in your discipline, noticing

how those papers are organized, how phrases are used, and
where and why examples or illustrations are provided.

____ 4. Relying on a mentor who has more experiencing writing and can
anticipate how a written text might be received and can offer
advice to help strengthen your writing.

____ 5. Relying on friends who are not in your field to help you with
phrasing your argument.

____ 6. Developing a sense of the anticipated audience, thinking about

what needs to be said and what does not for the audience to
understand your argument.

____ 7. Finding useful phraseology from other papers and using it to

string your ideas together.

____ 8. Concentrating on making sure your sentence- level grammar is

accurate because that is the most important aspect of getting
your ideas across.

1
Questions for writing strategies taken from Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic Writing for
Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills (3rd edition). The University of Michigan Press.