So, what is mastery? (part 2)

No. 4 (April 2025) in the 'Mastery in Writing' series of articles: https://www.paramedicpractice.com/content/mastery-in-writing. I have already discussed what isn't mastery. I mentioned the importance of being able to demonstrate understanding, criticality and synthesis, and how unparaphrased description should not be seen in Level 7 work. What I mean by paraphrasing is putting what is written by others into your own words, while still crediting the concepts to the original author and giving a citation (posh word for reference). There are two reasons for this. Firstly, if you directly copy (even if you acknowledge it as a direct quote with quotation marks, page number, etc), it is purely that, a direct copy. This will be picked up by Turnitin or whatever online submission portal you use and be flagged, giving you a high originality report. This could potentially lead to an investigation into plagiarism and a malpractice charge against you, which you really don't want! The second reason is that directly copying does not demonstrate understanding, it demonstrates an ability to cut and paste. You are studying at level 7 and need to establish that you have mastery of the subject. To evidence understanding, you need to explain concepts and ideas in your own words, justifying and supporting them while also showing critical thinking (see last month's column) and commenting on whether the ideas of others are valid.