Writing material for educational courses

Principle 3Academic standards

Glenn MartinMarch 2017

Principle 3 Employ appropriate

academic standards of writing; the propositions in the course should be credible and defensible, and supported by appropriate authority, referencing suitable published material.

“A set of propositions” The content of the course should be

constructed as a set of propositions connected by soundly reasoned arguments.

The propositions in the course must be clearly true or constructed in a way that establishes their credibility in the context.

Overall, the writing should demonstrate that the propositions and the arguments are coherent, soundly based, relevant and useful.

A balanced stance The content should not be written

emotively, but rather, be fair and balanced. It should show, or imply, that alternative perspectives have been considered too.

Provide sources The material should cite appropriate

sources, for example, relevant experts and authorities, respected publications, and perhaps original sources.

Include a bibliography appropriate to the field, discipline, or profession that is suitable to students’ level of knowledge.

Grounded and meaningful The material should be grounded and

meaningful to the audience, and make the heart of the meaning in the arguments clear.

It should provide logical reasons that the audience can understand and respect as fair and balanced.

An introduction to the field An educational course introduces students

to the knowledge base of a field, discipline or profession, including its commonly accepted models, frameworks, theories and perspectives, its accepted repertoire of facts and propositions, and perhaps its contested areas.

The material needs to carry out this introduction in a way that is accessible to students and enables them to establish their own foundation of understanding.

Facts and opinions Care needs to be taken to distinguish

clearly in the material between what are considered to be facts and what are opinions, perspectives, assertions and claims. Establishing the context is an important aspect of this endeavour.

Starting a conversation An integral purpose of an educational

course is to introduce students to the conversation (or discourse) of a particular field or discipline. The propositions and the arguments in a course serve to contribute to this purpose.

Accordingly, the writing should lead students naturally into discussion and further reading.