CAEX 6050: A Reflective Essay on Scholarly Writing Skills Development

This essay presents a self-assessment of scholarly writing skills, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement. The author identifies strengths such as word selection, creativity, and logical sentence progression, attributing these to a passion for language. Areas needing improvement include character writing and argument plotting. The author aims to become a proficient writer through imagery and a comprehensive understanding of scholarly writing. Learning resources are seen as valuable for guidance, emphasizing definitions, prompts, essay plotting, and referencing. Actions taken to enhance writing skills include proofreading, using supporting evidence, and avoiding clichés. The author acknowledges the importance of informing the audience and working towards scholarly writing improvement. Desklib offers a wealth of resources, including solved assignments and past papers, to support students in their academic endeavors.

Scholarly writing
Scholarly writing
Name
Professor
Institution
Course
Date
1

Scholarly writing
Scholarly writing
Scholarly writing involves a style of expression known as academic writing that
researchers utilize to evaluate and define various aspects regarding specific disciplines and major
areas of expertise (Bean,2011).Scholarly writing helps one to develop and organize a research
paper in fields such as linguistic and social sciences. Observing academic writing skills and rules
helps writers to analyze different contents effectively. I have been handling academic work for a
long time and for now I think I have a lot of strengths.
My strengths in scholarly writing
Some of these strengths include the ability to select appropriate words when writing. I still
remember my instructor praising my 10th grade creative writing paper in class. He was so pleased
on the way I used the word “scurried” in my assignment. In addition to this I still believe I also
exhibit high note of creativity when writing. I am always vivid when writing my assignment
(Bean,2011).To me I feel language is something to play with and that’s why I always use vivid
imagination .For example ,using the word “theme” to me means a lot. Thirdly, the other
strength I have is the ability to use organized sentences and logical progression when writing. I
have achieved this through the passion I have for words when writing. Have not fully specialized
in writing but I have tried a lot to cope with writing skills. I believe all the points have mentioned
are my strengths and they have enabled my writing skills and that’s why I possess adequate
masterly in writing.
Areas of improvement in writing
2

Scholarly writing
Despite these strengths I also have some areas which needs a lot of improvement. Honestly
speaking, I need some improvement on issues such as character writing in essay and plotting of
arguments in the story (Canagarajah, 2013). Mostly, they are the main areas where I need
assistance at least to boost my writing capabilities. I can’t say they are the main areas but they
are the basics of writing. My future dream is to be a proficient writer who will be having
masterly in writing, a writer who will be appreciating the use of imagery language when writing
and also a writer who will comprehend all aspects that entails the field of scholarly writing.
Guidance from the learning resources.
From the areas identified in the class I believe the learning resources have appropriate guidance
needed by anyone who may wish to be an excellent writer (Cargill & O'Connor, 2013). The
resources articulates more on issue of general information when it comes to academic writing.
Therefore, the guidance involves appreciating definitions of written assignments, emphasizing on
the prompt of written assignments in class, understanding essay plotting and use of appropriate
references when supporting ideas. All these resources assists in taking actions needed in boosting
my academic writing.
Actions to develop my scholarly writing
Some of the actions which I believe the resources have assisted in writing skills include; use of
proofreading strategies to correct errors in my academic writing, Use of supporting evidence that
is appropriate references when supporting my arguments and also avoiding the literary clichés
when writing my assignment. Babcock & Thonus (2018) argues that the purpose of academic
3

Scholarly writing
writing is to inform audience. Therefore, by having this approach and understanding audience to
address challenges me and thus trying to work towards the improvement of scholarly writing.
4

Scholarly writing
References
Babcock, R. D., & Thonus, T. (2018). Researching the writing center: Towards an evidence-
based practice. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking,
and active learning in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.
Canagarajah, A. S. (2013). Critical academic writing and multilingual students. University of
Michigan Press.
Cargill, M., & O'Connor, P. (2013). Writing scientific research articles: Strategy and steps. John
Wiley & Sons.
5