MPA 8002 Organization Theory-1-
There is an old dictum that states, “The better one writes, the better one speaks.” If this dictum is true (or, at least, accurate), one of the best ways to learn to speak well requires learning to write well.
Applying this concept to the training of public administrators at the graduate level, it would be foolish to believe that one distinguishing characteristic of successful leaders—good communication skills—is learned simply through osmosis, by earnestly hoping, or through fervent prayer and divine intervention. No, good communication skills are learned at the graduate level, first, through learning to write well.
A word about the Publication Manual of Style of the American Psychological Association (6th edition)...
So how is “well” to be judged? Isn’t it a matter of personal preference?
Sorry, but differentiating between what is “written well” and “not well written” is not a subjective endeavor. Instead, differentiating between the products of writing is guided by rules—the rules of grammar and the mechanics of style—that are specific to various academic disciplines. In the social sciences—which is the domain subsuming public administration—those rules of grammar and mechanics of style are specified by the American Psychological Association, whose Publication Manual of Style (6th edition) (APA-6) identifies exactly what constitutes good writing for this applied academic discipline. While there are many other manuals of style (e.g., MLA, Associated Press, the Chicago Manual) that MPA students may have learned and mastered and good as these may be for differentiating “good” from “not so good” writing, they are not the manuals social scientists use to judge writing in their academic discipline.
For this reason—MPA students are seeking to become “masters” of public administration—they are required to learn and apply APA-6 in their writing. Learning and applying APA-6 is not the end, but a means to the end, namely, to communicate in one’s writing and speech as is expected of leaders, in general, and “master” public administrators, in particular. Like it or not—and, at first, many MPA students do not like learning and applying APA-6—the disciplines associated with this manual of style facilitate achieving that end.
Which version?
There are many versions of APA-6 but there is only one version that MPA students should purchase. That version is the spiral-bound version (ISBN: 1-4338-0562-6) that can be purchased directly from the American Psychological Association or online sites like Amazon.com. It is highly recommended that students do not purchase the “heat-bound” version because it has a tendency to close once the student has found a particular rule and turns to the computer to revise one’s writing in conformity with that rule. The spiral-bound version lies flat and will not close unless the student closes it. In addition, it is highly recommended that students do not purchase a “short form” or “pocket edition.” These versions do not contain the details that students will need to produce memos, essays, papers, and projects that conform to the Manual.
Students should not be seduced into believing that any website will provide for free APA-6. The materials of the Manual are copyrighted and, although some websites offer “tips,” it is not only illegal to duplicate and distribute any material from APA-6, it is also unethical to do so. Many MPA students have “fallen” for this gimmick and have discovered, much to their chagrin, that it is patently obvious to the reader that the student does not own and has not used the Manual when producing a memo, essay, paper, or project. “Caveat emptor!”, that is, “let the buyer beware.” A student will get what one pays for and nothing begets nothing.
Learning to write “APA”
For many MPA students, learning to write according to the rules prescribed by APA-6 represents a formidable undertaking.
Yes, writing according to the rules of APA-6 feels “artificial” and “foreign” in contrast to how many students have previously been taught to write.
Yes, the rules of APA-6 seem to be nit-picking and overly constraining of one’s “voice.”
Yes, the rules make the writing of memos, essays, papers, and projects more difficult at first.
Yet, despite all of these objections, the rules of APA-6 challenge MPA students to write more concisely and precisely as well as more cogently and clearly. In short, APA-6 teaches students to write not just as successful social scientists write but also as successful leaders write and, if the old dictum is true (or, at least, accurate), to speak as successful leaders speak. That is to say, APA-6 fosters the development of a public administrator whose written and spoken words command attention and respect on the part of one’s followers. This characterizes successful leaders.
One of the reasons MPA students find undertaking writing according to the rules prescribed by APA-6 so foreboding is that they approach the Manual as if it is a textbook. However, this is nothing more tedious than reading APA-6 in this way. Instead, MPA students should begin using APA-6, first, by writing a memo, essay, paper, or project. Once this task is completed, students should, second, open the Manual to page 41 (and following) and compare the format of their written product to the examples provided and edit the product of their writing to conform with APA-6. Especially important in this regard is the format of the cover, abstract, running head, pagination, and subheadings. Students should then turn to page 49 (and following) and make sure their references are formatted correctly. Lastly, students should go back to the body of the product of their writing and check the cites to ensure that they conform with the references.
Correcting these simple formatting matters indicate to the reader that, at a minimum,studentshave consulted APA-6. More importantly, correcting the product of one’s writing in this way will teach students how to format a memo, essay, paper, or project correctly for public presentation. These lessons are facilitated by the Manual itself. For example, if students are unclear about how to construct a list of references, the page providing an example of a correctly constructed list of references (p. 49) provides a “call out” indicating where in the Manual students can find the information that they need in order to construct a list of references. Now—not before writing a memo, essay, paper, or project—is the time to read the Manual and to begin grappling with and understanding its rules, and in this instance, correctly formatting references. Furthermore, if students should discover that they keep returning to a particular page in the Manual, it would then behoove these students to use a “Post It” note to mark the page. Why? They won’t have to go back to the examples or to search through the Manualin order to find the page where the explanation of the rule is provided.
The next step involves correcting for grammar errors.
Some very common errors to avoid
APA-6 provides complete sections concerning correct grammar and mechanics of style. To reiterate: Reading the Manual prior to writing a memo, essay, paper, or project is not helpful. Why? Most students keep committing the same errors in grammar and the mechanics of style. If students could identify those most common errors, it is quite likely that they could eliminate 95% of those errors and produce a much better written product. Think about it this way: If every one of those errors was highlighted by the reader, most of what was highlighted would disappear!
The problem is that most students are not consciously aware they are committing these errors in grammar and mechanics of style. Consequently, students do not “see” those errors. Yet, for the reader, they do stand out and, sometimes, egregiously so. Worse yet, because students do not see those errors, they do not learn to discipline themselves as writers so that they will “self correct” as they write. Then, too, many students simply throw up their arms in disgust, asserting the erroneous claim, “I can’t write!”
The fact is that most students can write but are not willing or have not been challenged (or, yes, forced!) to learn to write well by identifying their common errors in grammar and the mechanics of style and, then, correcting them. After engaging in this learning exercise for several iterations in a course and across the MPA program, students will become self-correcting as they write.
Helpful in learning what constitute the most common errors in grammar and mechanics of style—through the use of irony—are the “50 rules for writing gooder”proposed by Richard Lederer (n.d.). Most students have been taught to avoid these errors in their elementary and high school Language Arts classes but did not think much of them then. However, as graduate students, it is not time for students to be alert to these common errors and use these 50 rules as they edit and revise their memos, essays, papers, and projects:
1.Each pronoun should agree with their antecedent.
2.Between you and I, pronoun case is important.
3.A writer must be sure to avoid using sexist pronouns in his writing.
4.Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
5.Don’t be a person whom people realize confuses who and whom.
6.Never use no double negatives.
7.Never use a preposition to end a sentence with. That is something
up with which your readers will not put.
8.When writing, participles must not be dangled.
9.Be careful to never, under any circumstances, split infinitives.
10.Hopefully, you won’t float your adverbs.
11.A writer must not shift your point of view.
12.Lay down and die before using a transitive verb without an object.
13.Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
14.The passive voice should be avoided.
15.About sentence fragments.
16.Don’t verb nouns.
17.In letters themes reports and ad copy use commas to separate
items in a series.
18.Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.
19.“Don’t overuse ‘quotation marks.’”
20.Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (if the truth be
told) superfluous.
21.Contractions won’t, don’t, and can’t help your writing voice.
22.Don’t write run-on sentences they are hard to read.
23.Don’t forget to use end punctuation
24.Its important to use apostrophe’s in the right places.
25.Don’t abbrev.
26.Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!!!
27.Resist Unnecessary Capitalization.
28.Avoid mispellings.
29.Check to see if you any words out.
30.One-word sentences? Never.
31.Avoid annoying, affected, and awkward alliteration, always.
32.Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
33.The bottom line is to bag trendy locutions that sound flaky.
34.By observing the distinctions between adjectives and adverbs,
you will treat your readers real good.
35.Parallel structure will help you in writing more effective
sentences and to express yourself more gracefully.
36.In my own personal opinion at this point of time, I think that
authors, when they are writing, should not get into the habit of
making use of too many unnecessary words that they don’t really need.
37.Foreign words and phrases are the reader’s bete noire and are
not apropos.
38.Who needs rhetorical questions?
39.Always go in search for the correct idiom.
40.Do not cast statements in the negative form.
41.And don’t start sentences with conjunctions.
42.Avoid mixed metaphors. They will kindle a flood of confusion in
your readers.
43.Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate
quotations. Tell me what you know.”
44.Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
45.Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
46.Be more or less specific.
47.If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times,
exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement,
which is always best.
48.Never use a big word when you can utilize a diminutive word.
49.Profanity sucks.
50.Last but not least, even if you have to bend over backward,
avoid cliches like the plague.
A word about “learning to write”...
As MPA students encounter the reality of having to write in order to express their thoughts well, it is important to keep in mind three principles:
FIRST: MPA students should not worry so much about what their reader is interested in reading; MPA students should worry about what they want to say and how to say it in the most clear, efficient, effective, and compelling way possible. The general principle is: less is more and simple is elegant.
SECOND: At first, MPA students will experience professional writing as somewhat artificial, especially until they learn how to express their voice in the most forcible way possible, given the constraints of this particular genre of style. To get there will take trial and error, editing, and especially rewriting/revising. It also involves reading critically (i.e., among other matters, appreciating how authors express themselves for better or worse). Professional writing also demands a personal commitment to inculcating the self-disciplines associated with good writing because so many students today are afflicted by what Harris (2003) has described as “malescribism.” This disease reveals itself in “an uncontrollable urge to write carelessly and unpersuasively” as well as in “a set of dysfunctional responses to the demands of communicating in print.” Overcoming this disease, Harris argues, is akin to joining Alcoholics Anonymous and following the 12-step program to sobriety. Here, authors seek verbal enlightenment. The general principle is: good writing is the result of critical reading and dedicated effort.
THIRD: MPA students should be neither embarrassed nor ashamed to ask professors questions about what students really do not know. There is a very big difference between “sucking up” to a professor and engaging in “preventive maintenance.” The former exhibits little or no interest in learning and involves dissimulation in order to make oneself appear more intellectual than one really is; the latter exhibits an interest in learning, states the truth, and does not waste time re-inventing the wheel. The principle is: learning to write well begins by asking questions.
In light of these three principles, it should be evident that It is not enough for MPAstudents to express good ideas; as important as that is as is the foundation it provides, students must also express their good ideas well. What this means practically is that students should recall what most of them were told by their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Language Arts teachers, if not by their high school English teachers as well. Namely, a “final draft” is the result of an extensive writing process that requires writing, editing, and revising one’s thoughts...perhaps several times. Because of this, MPAstudents should realize that a final draft is not a first draft. Besides, it is unethical to purport that the latter is the former.
A word about grading…
Grading the product of writing at the graduate levelis premised upon the notion that students have already carefully revised their memos, essays, papers, and projects a minimum of two times. In this way, students endeavor to eliminate as many of the common errors associated with below-average writing as is possible before submitting those memos, essays, papers, and projects. Yet, because of the human condition, some errors are likely to evidence themselves in the written product. Thus, grading begins with careful reading and editing, much as the Editor of the op-ed page of the New York Times must do when he prepares op-ed pieces for publication (Shipley, 2005).
The first standard used to assess student achievement is entirely objective: the degree to which written products conform with rules of grammar and mechanics of style set forth in APA-6. Sometimes, a student’s writing is riddled with so many errors that the grade received on a memo, essay, paper, or projectis embarrassingly far below what a student expects. And, rightly so! Objectively speaking, the product is below that expected of anMPA student! Accordingly:
- a “C” indicates below-average achievement in the sense that the product could have been written by an undergraduate student who is unfamiliar with APA style and grammar;
- an “F” indicates a product that is wholly and entirely unacceptable, even of an undergraduate.
Thus, while an MPA student receiving a below-average grade may feel badly and attribute one’s grade to how the professor feels about the student, there are objective standards for assessing and evaluating the products of student writing. These objective standards were identified above.
The second step in grading the products of student writing builds upon demonstrated proficiency in grammar and the mechanics of style. Because the reader directs less attention to these matters when grading student writing, attention then is directed toward to the quality of the content found in the memo, essay, paper, or project. More subjective in nature, this evaluation hinges upon the clarity of the topic, the relative strength of the argument, the inclusion of supportive elements (e.g., conversancy with intellectual history as this evidences itself in citations and references), as well as a conclusion that is justified not only by all that precedes but also compels the reader to agree with the author even if the reader personally disagrees with the author’s assertion. Accordingly: