Academic Writing Plan for Success

This assignment focuses on developing a personalized learning plan to enhance academic writing skills. It identifies specific learning goals, such as improving writing quality and mastering paraphrasing techniques. The plan also addresses potential barriers, including limited English proficiency and time constraints. To overcome these challenges, the student proposes strategies like practicing through blog writing, collaborating with native English speakers, utilizing university resources, and implementing effective time management techniques.

REFLECTIVE REPORT
Reflective Report
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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REFLECTIVE REPORT
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Academic writing skill development:..............................................................................................2
Paraphrasing skill development:......................................................................................................3
Time management:..........................................................................................................................4
Development of ability to navigate the university website:............................................................5
Recommendation:............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
Theoretically, it has still not been found how the entire process of language leaning
works inside our brains. However, several eminent linguists have proposed different theories
regarding this. Learning any new languages has always been a great pleasure to me. Language
learning is consisted of learning four different activities, reading, and writing, listening and
speaking. While I started learning a new language, my intention was to improve my skills and
develop expertise in studying. As English is not my mother tongue, I was having issues in
academic field; moreover it was acting like a huge hindrance for my professional career as well.
I had prepared a learning plan which had helped me to improve more in my career. It has also
helped me to move forward with specific learning objectives and goals. For each of the learning
objectives or goals, I had chalked out the learning barriers and the necessary strategies and
resources. In this report, we will discuss the learning objectives and its importance in my future
professional career.
Academic writing skill development:
Academic skills are very much required to go forward with my career. These skills are
comprised of several things such as writing critical essays, reports in proper English, speaking
good English, however these all are new for me. If I am being given an assignment to complete
within a week, I have to develop some academic writing skills to complete these on my own.
After coming to a new country, I have been introduced to various new kinds of writing which
were completely new to me because I had never been introduced to such writing expertise
before. However, if I lack in these skills, it will affect my grades at university level. The major
reason behind these was English is not my first language. Last month one of our teacher had

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given us an assignment of writing a report, but I had faced quite a tough time to complete the
task. We had already learnt different kinds of writing such as essay, critical reflection; however I
was not accustomed specifically with report writing skills. Therefore, I had prepared a particular
learning goal for me, so that I can improve my skills of academic writing. I had also followed
few strategies for doing so. I realized that the study guide can be very much helpful for me in
improving the academic writing skills. I had involved myself in the study guide as much as
possible. The study guide had given me the detailed idea of academic writings. I had also
identified that I should learn the new academic writing expertise from the university level study
guides, however I have to practice more hard. Therefore I started working more hard to study all
the specific academic writing skills and the basic differences about those. This has given me the
basic ideas regarding the outlines of academic writing.
Paraphrasing skill development:
While completing any assignment, sometimes it is very much necessary to paraphrase
few sections. Paraphrasing may seem very easy to some of the students as English is their first
language, but paraphrasing is a completely new kind of writing for me. I have never used this
kind of writing skills in my previous academic career. Therefore, whenever I had to paraphrase
some of the contents, I had faced plagiarism issues. This issue is a huge setback in the academic
field as we are not even allowed to have more than ten percent of plagiarism in any of our
writings. Paraphrasing is mostly the restatement of any content with the help of other words or
synonyms. This may sound easier, but being a learner of English language, it was quite difficult
for me to find different words for a specific one or finding synonyms for words. In addition to
that, while paraphrasing I also had to preserve the primary meaning of the content that is being
paraphrased. Therefore it was not at all easy for me to paraphrase English contents without

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having an in-depth knowledge of the English language. Therefore I had prepared few strategies
in order to lean these basic tricks for paraphrasing. I started studying through the blackboard
study guide more and more. This has given me the primary ideas about the paraphrasing skills. I
had also realized that taking part in the academic skills will help me to improve my paraphrasing
skills; therefore I started participating in the academic skill workshops. The workshops have
been very much helpful for me to improve the skills for paraphrasing writing to a great extent.
Time management:
Time management is a very significant skill for the students. If I am not being able to
manage the time properly, it is highly possible that the plans tend to fail. Therefore the first step
of having a successful plan is to manage the times properly. When we are given assignments, it
is quite necessary to submit those on time as this will help us to get good grade. There are times
when we can also loose good marks even after submitting a good assignment if we submit late. A
huge learning barrier for a good time management is that a serious lack in the study hours for the
busy schedule at work and home both. If I am not being able to manage the time, I may miss my
schedule of writing, studying, attending classes and other works and personal activities at the
same time. Furthermore, I had also prepared few strategies for coping up with the busy schedule.
However, there were few hindrances for that as well, such as the emergency situations which
may disturb my schedule. Later I also found out my bad habit of procrastinating for no reason. I
had wasted long hours doing nothing and did not complete some of my assignments as well. This
has made my grades lower and I could not do any of my personal activities and joined my friends
at parties, movies or playing as I had to come back and study at home. Therefore, my basic
strategy for managing the time schedule was to make a time table which will help me plan
suitable time for studying and working. However, making a time table is not the end of the work,

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it is also necessary to stick to it strictly. In addition to that I also had to give sufficient time for
studies as well. I had to prioritize the work and study accordingly. I had given most of the times
to studying which is going to help me in building my career in future.
Development of ability to navigate the university website:
When I first came to the country for studying, I was clueless about how I was going to
manage my stay here. Later, one thing that I learnt that my university website can help me to
deal with the entire academic programs smoothly. In my previous academic career, I had never
used such websites and did not have any clue how I am going to use the university website.
Therefore, in this respect my primary goal was to learn and develop the capability of navigating
the university website. For any student of the university, it is very important to follow the
announcements made by the university and the teachers before attending classes, following the
reading tab before doing any assignment and access the university library before starting any
assignment. Other than that, it is also a different kind of experience to learn at the university
level, because if I do not have enough knowledge of navigating the university website, I will
have a huge setback and I may also miss several new things that I can learn from the website.
Moreover, I do have high speed internet at home and a reliable laptop which can enhance my
learning the navigation of the university website. I had identified, if I have to learn something, I
have to keep practicing it. Therefore I started browsing the university website on a regular basis.
I started accessing whatever is updated in the university website as well. Luckily I have friends
in university who are very much helpful; therefore I had continuously asked them whenever I
faced any problem and discussed with them. This had helped me a lot to understand the
university website and I got immense help from the website whenever I had to complete any of

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the assignment. It is necessary every one of us to learn navigating the site as this will be helpful
to our academic career.
Recommendation:
After a self reflect, I had identified that if I have to do better in my personal and
professional life, I have to find out where my weaknesses are and I have to work on that. I still
do not have a good English speaking skill, which sometimes act as a huge issue while expressing
views. Also I am still not comfortable in using and navigating the university website. Therefore I
have to practice and work on it more and more. The learning plan that I prepared includes all
these basic learning goals, therefore I would have to stick to these learning goals and follow the
strict schedule. I will also participate in the discussion forums which will help me using the
English language more and more. I may stammer in the initial time, but I will have to develop
this skill by using it more. If I do not use the language, I will never find out my problems and
weaknesses of it. I also have the bad habit of procrastinating, however I am still working on it
and I have to leave this habit soon and start working right away.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be said that, making the plan is not the end of it; rather it is just the
starting. Therefore it is very important to stick to the plan. It may seem difficult sometimes, but I
have to stick to the plan as I have to develop my writing skills, learn navigating the university
website, develop paraphrasing skills and manage the time properly. Therefore I will have to
follow the strategies strictly and achieve the goals as soon as possible. This will eventually
enhance my career to a great extent.

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Reference list
Attwell, G., 2007. Personal Learning Environments-the future of eLearning?. Elearning
papers, 2(1), pp.1-8.
Campbell, K. and Whitten, T., 2016. Artifact Presentation: Understanding the Professional
Learning Plan.
Chamot, A.U. and Kupper, L., 1989. Learning strategies in foreign language instruction. Foreign
language annals, 22(1), pp.13-22.
Cooper, L., 2017. Social Emotional Learning: The Impacts of an Implemented Plan at a Private
Christian School in the Urban Setting.
Dabbagh, N. and Kitsantas, A., 2012. Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-
regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet
and higher education, 15(1), pp.3-8.
Gibbons, P., 2002. Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching second language
learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Holec, H., 1979. Autonomy and foreign language learning.
Nicholls, D., Sweet, L., Westerway, S.C. and Gibbins, A., 2014. The key to using a learning or
skill acquisition plan. Australasian journal of ultrasound in medicine, 17(4), pp.141-145.
Parkay, F.W., Anctil, E.J. and Hass, G., 2014. Curriculum leadership: Readings for developing
quality educational programs. Prentice Hall.

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Reed, V.A., Schifferdecker, K.E. and Turco, M.G., 2012. Motivating learning and assessing
outcomes in continuing medical education using a personal learning plan. Journal of Continuing
Education in the Health Professions, 32(4), pp.287-294.
Shavlik, J.W., 2016, April. An empirical analysis of ebl approaches for learning plan schemata.
In Proceedings of the sixth international workshop on Machine learning (pp. 183-187).
Stevens, L.A., DiAngi, Y.T., Schremp, J.D., Martorana, M.J., Miller, R.E., Lee, T.C. and
Pageler, N.M., 2017. Designing An Individualized EHR Learning Plan For Providers. Applied
Clinical Informatics, 8(3), pp.924-935

REFLECTIVE REPORT
Appendix:
My Learning Plan – Assessment 1
Learning
Goals (4)
Learning Barriers Strategies and Resources Review and reflection
Improve my
academic
writing skill
 Introduced to a
new type of
writing skills here
which is
completely
different from my
past writing skills
 Lack of proper
practise of the
writing skills in
university level
 English not being
my first language
 Involve myself in study guide as
much as possible
 Learning the new writing skills of
university through hard practise
 Learn to edit the writings to
identify the mistakes and learn not
to repeat them.
 Blog writing would be a good
start as I will be able to
communicate with others more
freely there.
I have be friend with a native English speaking peer who will act as my pa
English writing program. He or she will personally guide and help me and w
Able to exchange our academic writings.
I must remember the university guidelines and follows them while exercisin
I will start writing daily journal about mundane activities of life that will he
Developing
skills in
 Paraphrasing is a
new system of
 Study through the study guide of  I will have to put extra effort to learn the paraphrasing as it is

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paraphrasing writing for me
 Never used
paraphrasing in my
previous study
blackboard as much as possible
 Take part in academic skills for
improvements of my paraphrasing
skills
guidelines and apply them as much as possible.
 I will have to regularly participate in the academic writings that co
knowledge about paraphrasing.
Time
management
for my study
 Lack of study
hours due to busy
time schedule at
home and work
 Difficult to arrange
time for study and
work as well as
personal activities
 Making a time table for
appropriate time to study and
work
 Follow the time table strictly and
give enough time for studies
 Giving priority to study
 I understand the value of time and will make sure that it is not bein
effective use of scheduled time. The time table will help me work
regular interval.Most time in the designed time table will be dedicat
Development
of ability to
navigate the
 New learning
experience in
 Browse the university website
regularly
 Constantly get updated with
 I can communicate with my lecturers by using the contact details giv
 The academic assignments, necessary instructions and informatio

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university
website
university level
 Lack of proper
knowledge about
the website
learning
 Slow internet
connection at home
university website
 Ask and discuss with friends
about university website
whenever facing problem to
navigate.
websites.
 The discussions on the black board will keep me updated so I will k