Writing Scholarly Literature
The way to incorporate the lessons of Exhibit 4.1 into scholarly writing is to constantly refine your original purpose and pointto question your own argument as objectively as possible. The key in doing so is to root out your assumptions so that you are not proceeding from an inherent bias. In every article, argument, or conclusion, a point is madeand it must be justified by evidence. In scholarly writing, one must be able to support every argument with evidence. Therefore, there are steps all along the way that one can take to ensure such support is given.
For instance, when first asking a question, one should ask oneself if this is in fact the right question. Sometimes scholarly writing gets off on the wrong foot because it proceeds from a question that is too cluttered or unclear. One should consider why this question matters. One should if this question truly gets to the heart of the problem. To answer that, it is helpful...
This will help one to engage in critical thinking with regard to the problem. It is important to think critically about the problem, first, and then to try to ask the right question, second (Erstad, 2018). And,...
…and embrace the conclusion anyway. One has to conclude from the evidence presentednot from the claim itself. The claim is the arrow on the signpost. The evidence provides the directions or roadmap to the final destination. If the evidence is too jumbled or leads to tangents or dead-ends, the final destination will be different from what the arrow on the signpost originally indicated. For this reason, the best scholarly writing is that which compiles the evidence, interprets it to form a conclusion, and then clarifies the claim. This requires one, in a way, to work backwardsbut by revising, refining, and critically analyzing ones text and ones thoughts, the lessons of Exhibit 4.1 can be applied…
