weekly blog

I found Granello’s article (2001) to be very relative to my situation when it comes to graduate writing. When I became a graduate student I worried about how to write like a graduate student and what the differences were compared to undergrad studies. I feel like when you enter the program, professors expect you to know how to write, but in reality I was never taught to write any differently then what I had done in previous courses. I can see how professors struggle with ways to teach students how to write at the graduate level. I think Bloom’s taxonomy does a great job clarifying the different stages in writing and how to get to the graduate level. This way one has something to go off of in order to evaluate the status of their work. I think it would be beneficial for professors to present this document to all of their students at the graduate level to allow them to get a better understanding of what their literature reviews should consist of. This way students will not have to question whether or not their work meets the expectation of the professor. Also I think it would be valuable to dedicate a course or workshop for grad students that teaches how to write in a more in depth manner. Although Bloom’s taxonomy is helpful, I think it can also be difficult to decipher what stage a piece is in at times because it is not always clear cut. In my opinion, this is a con in using the stages to evaluate written pieces.

Many times I feel as though career development is overlooked at this stage. Once you enter a post-secondary institution it is typically assumed that you know the career field you are going to work in. But sometimes that is not the case. I feel that it should be mandatory for students in postsecondary programs to complete some type of career development program. This way students will become more aware of the options and what their career field will look like. It is not uncommon for students to enter a specific program and change their mind a few years later realizing that the major or program they had chosen was not what they really preferred to do for the rest of their life. By implementing some of the career activities mentioned students will get to explore a bit more and have a better understanding of what they want their career path to look like (Brown, 2007).

Brown, D. (2007).  Career information, career counseling, and career development  (9h ed.).  New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

Granello, D. (2001). Promoting Cognitive Complexity in Graduate Written Work: Using Bloom's Taxonomy as a Pedagogical Tool to Improve Literature Reviews. Counselor Education & Supervision, 40(4), 292.