I love academia, I live for the next course to start so I can find out what the next big assignment is and how my critical thinking skills will be challenged next. I also enjoy looking for ways to draw my work experience into my academic pursuits and if I can pull the knowledge back into my worklife, all the better. The catch is finding the applicable information within your studies and the way that you conduct academic work and applying it to the real world.
I am there right now with my integrative project and OUCH!!! We had three options to select from: comprehensive exams, research proposal, and applied practice project. Me and my bright ideas thought is would be great to take a work assignment and use as the basis for an applied practice assignment - now into the second week of class and I am not so sure that was smart. How do I apply the knowledge from my education to what I am actually doing for work? Better yet, how do I put that all into words that work in both settings? Crack this nut and you have a new skill to offer:)
Seriously, there is a happy medium between academic writing and practical, applied written reports. There is a necessity to provide solid, verfiable, and reliable resources/data in both types of writing. However, as on instructored pointed out to me, there is a distinct difference between an academic paper - which has a tendency to be quite surgical and an applied paper that is more emotional (if you will). The applied paper is directly applicable to a specific work experience/environment and you have to consider the implications carefully when developing the information or providing analysis.
As an Industrial Organizational Psychology major, this is very hard. I now have to take the knowledge, skills, and assets built in my education an apply them to a real situation, ultimately attempting to provide useful and valuable material for my field. This is the same for all education - an accountant spends a great deal of time practiving formulas and calculations; however, a mistake only impacts their grade, not the bottom line. Once the education is done and the work starts, now you have to be able to analyze the calucualtions and data in relation to the bigger picture. It is difficult to move from academic to non-academic scenarios if you let the little stuff get in the way.
For now, I am going to approach this project from a very non-academic mind set and use the information that I have developed for my position and the work required, then add the academic informaiton later. Feels very backgrounds and frightening, but I am looking forward to the challenge and am going to hope for the best.
Thank you,
Nickel