University of Limerick
Book of Abstracts
The role of higher education in preparing writers for the workplace: encouraging real engagement with writing at third level
Abstracts
Damien Clancy
Managing Director
RUSAL Aughinish Alumina Ltd
Our Experience of Graduate Report Writing
Sally Mitchell (Thinking Writing, Library and Employability Directorate) and Dr. Guy Westwell (School of
Languages, Linguistics and Film)
Queen Mary, University of London
Thinking Writing and the Writing Machine
Dr. Trevor Day
Writing Consultant, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office
University of Bath
Embedding Writing Development in STEM Disciplines: from theory to practice
Dr. Ciara O' Farrell
Senior Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice and eLearning
TrinityCollege Dublin
Embedding writing in curriculum design and beyond
Prof. Sarah Moore
Associate Vice-President
University of Limerick
The cognitive and affective importance of academic writing: putting writing at the heart of the development of graduate attributes at UL
Keynote Paper: Damien Clancy
Managing Director,
RUSAL Aughinish Alumina Ltd
Our Experience of Graduate Report Writing
9.30–10.20
HSG-037
As a key (technical) employer in the Mid-West, Aughinish has a vested interest in employing graduate engineers, or indeed any engineers, that have more than a good grasp of the written word! One overriding reason for this is that young engineers/graduates get responsibility quite quickly in Aughinish.
Responsibility often comes with a need to spend money, to improve, fix or add and the sums can be rather large. So we expect our engineers to be able to justify their solutions or ideas in a clear succinct fashion that travels well.
This is why we have, on the first line of our Job Competencies for Engineers, “strong report writing and presentation skills”. Other related competencies include “good communication skills” coupled with “an ability to conduct efficient and effective meetings and reviews” and “to work with speed and accuracy”.
Our organisation relies heavily on Knowledge Management and the use of reports as an everyday part of working like. This requires the engineer to have a succinct approach, be accurate, show a good use of text and as a given produce the correct grammar and spelling.
What we can get is a lack of clarity from the individual of what’s expected in the world of work in relation to the written word. Common problems include the use of jargon and technical words, (very) poor spelling, poor grammar, no key message or poor awareness of target audience, not following templates and guidelines, mixing nouns and verbs and an overuse of adverbs.
We need Engineers to assume the reader has only a limited knowledge of the “project”, does not know the Aughinish plant, knows little of the process in the plant and is not an engineer. Therefore he/she needs to be simple but precise – think of the reader, what the key message is and who the target audience are
Continued failure on the above will certainly be career limiting but in all likelihood will not get an employee fired; however an overall lack of social skills will. Employees need to integrate and be a good fit for the organisation, introverted geniuses may have their place, but they are unlikely to find it in a modern organisation that relies on people to communicate, explain and persuade, not only with their peers, but the entire spectrum of disciplines, technical and non-technical, that they interact with.
The recent work on the UL Graduate Attributes, namely being responsible, articulate, proactive, creative, collaborative and knowledgeable, is very welcome and while not exact fit on the subject we are talking about, good writing skills are very much covered. This, along with the very successful Cooperative Programme, will go a long way to ensuring graduates from UL continue to be highly valued.
Damien A Clancy holds a B.A. and B.A.I. in Engineering Science and an MSc in Quality & Change Management. He is a Chartered Engineer, Member of I P D (Personnel), Chartered member of I O D (Directors) and the Managing Director in Rusal Aughinish Alumina, Co. Limerick. Rusal Aughinish Alumina Limited is the biggest alumina refinery in Europe with approximately 450 direct employees plus a daily contractor workforce of 250 employees. Damien holds Directorships in IBEC Limited; Governing Authority in the University of Limerick; Limerick City Coordination and To Russia with Love, an Irish based charity organisation supporting Russian orphanages. He has previously held Directorships in Jamaica, Italy and CMC (Columbia). Damien is also Chairman of the Trustees of both the Aughinish Alumina DB and DC pension plans.
Keynote Paper: Sally Mitchell (Thinking Writing, Library and Employability Directorate) and Guy Westwell (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film), Queen Mary, University of London
Thinking Writing and the Writing Machine
10.20–11.10
HSG-037
This session will look at how Queen Mary’s Thinking Writing team works with academic colleagues to develop effective and interesting approaches to writing, assessment and course design. With a sideways glance to how we might respond to high-level institutional imperatives, such as those around employability and graduate attributes, we’ll then turn to our recent Research-based Learning and Writing project and focus in some detail on the module Guy developed as part of this. In ‘Mapping Contemporary Cinema’ Guy involves students in processes of writing, selecting, editing and publishing; By modelling the ‘real world’ workings of a peer reviewed journal and by writing for wider non-academic audiences, he and his students have come to rethink conventional approaches to teaching and assessing written work.
Sally Mitchell is the Co-ordinator of Thinking Writing ( an educational development team at Queen Mary, University of London that focuses on writing and its relations to thinking, learning and disciplinarity. Her 2009 EATAW keynote ‘‘Now you don’t see it: now you do. Writing made visible in the university’ was published in the journal Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 9 (2) 2010, for which issue she also wrote ‘‘Beyond the schooled form and into the discipline: an introduction to writing-intensive courses in UK Humanities’.
Guy Westwell is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of War Cinema: Hollywood on the Front Line (2006), co-author of A Dictionary of Film Studies (2012), and editor-in-chief of the Mapping Contemporary Cinema website:
Keynote Paper: Dr. Trevor Day
Writing Consultant, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office,
University of Bath
Embedding Writing Development in STEM Disciplines: from theory to practice
11.40–12.30
HSG-037
Most employers of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates expect their employees to have strong and flexible writing abilities. That being the case, how might STEM students best develop these abilities on undergraduate programmes? Trevor Day considers some theory, evidence and practice to highlight key challenges, and appropriate responses, in empowering STEM students to be effective writers. Key attributes of being an effective writer should prove valuable whatever career a STEM graduate enters. Trevor draws upon research data and identified good practice from recent UK initiatives, including those in which the University of Limerick’s Writing Centre has played a part.
Dr. Trevor Day was originally a marine biologist before embarking on careers in teaching and scientific writing. Author/coauthor of more than 40 books, plus numerous peer-reviewed papers and articles for the national/international press, his more recent interests lie in writing development in STEM disciplines and in reconciling writing-related academic and employability challenges. Trevor was a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund at the University of Bath 2007-2011, where he currently undertakes writing-related teaching, research and curriculum development. He is a member of the UK Royal Literary Fund’s national think tank and leads the UK National HE STEM project ‘Developing Writing in STEM Disciplines’ ( and the associated special interest group ‘Writing and Communicating in STEM Disciplines’ (
Keynote Paper: Dr. Ciara O' Farrell
Senior Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice and eLearning,
Trinity College Dublin
Embedding writing in curriculum design and beyond
13.30–14.20
HSG-037
The perspective from the literature is that graduate attributes, such as writing, need to be taught within the discipline, embedded in the curriculum. However, a decade on, integrating graduate attributes is still proving to be a challenge in higher education. Why is there not more success? And how can we successfully embed ‘writing’ into an already overcrowded curriculum? I hope to show here the value of curriculum design and constructive alignment for integrating and assessing attributes such as writing, when designing or developing programmes. And I will share with you a case study of an example of engaging students with writing in a module developed by a colleague in the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. But am I presupposing that the academic community has a shared understanding of curriculum theory? And to what extent should the curriculum seek to prepare writers for the workplace? These are some of the questions and challenges I wish to unpack here and identify for discussion.
Dr. Ciara O’Farrell is the Senior Academic Developer in the Centre for Academic Practice and Student Learning (CAPSL) in Trinity College Dublin. She also lectures in the CAPSL/School of Education M. Ed (Higher Education) and co-ordinates modules on ‘Curriculum, Assessment and Supervision’ and ‘Reflecting on Practice in Learning and Teaching’. Her current educational research, publishing and teaching interests focus on: supporting academic publishing and writing; Scholarship of Learning and Teaching; reflective practice/narratives of practice/reflective writing; teaching portfolios; and academic development professional practice. Ciara is currently co-editing Emerging Issues III: From Capacity Building to Sustainability.
Keynote Paper: Prof. Sarah Moore
Associate Vice-President,
University of Limerick
The cognitive and affective importance of academic writing: putting writing at the heart of the development of graduate attributes at UL
14.20–15:10
HSG-037
This paper will explore how academic writing needs to be treated as a vital, multi dimensional activity which generates and nourishes learning in higher educational settings. It draws on research and literature that points to the deeply generative nature of academic writing, and it suggests ways in which this generativity can be placed at the heart of teaching, learning and curriculum strategies in a range of contexts. The paper also draws from UL’s recent articulation of a graduate attributes statement which identifies inter-disciplinary learning goals, graduate attributes, curricular foundations, learning orientations and pedagogical climate all of which puts writing at the heart of the educational environment. The paper draws on proven techniques and ideas that promote the development of excellence in academic writing and crucially recognise that writing, like learning, is a matter of the heart as well as the head.
Professor Sarah Moore is the Associate Vice-President Academic at the University of Limerick. Her research interests span a range of domains including: Learning orientations and environments in work and education, gender in education, cognitive style, student adjustment and retention in third level environments, emotional dimensions of teaching and learning, teaching innovation, academic writing and professional development in academia. She is responsible for the continued development of teaching and learning strategies at the University of Limerick, and was Strand leader of the Shannon consortium’s teaching and learning strategy. She regularly publishes books and journal articles in the areas of academic practice, student development, and learning dynamics. She is a member of UK’s SEDA papers committee, is on the editorial advisory board of the UK’s Journal of Further and Higher Education, and has been a reviewer for many educational journals including the Oxford Review of Education, Educational Studies and The International Journal of Academic Development.
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