Help for non academic writing his first Essay (mature Student 41 !)

Hi,
I Have my first assignment for my Post Grad Dip. in Adult education and training.
I have never written academically in my life and I'm already struggling to understand the question (below) and make a plan yet alone begin to write.
I need to choose a theory or model of adult learning and 'explain how they acount for the characteristics of adult learners, the patterns of learning adopted by adult learners , and the motivation for learning/barriers to learning in adults.

I have chosen Experintial learning and I have reference to David Kolb, but i still do not know how to write this paper.

Can anyone help

With thanks

Martyn

Greetings!

I can understand that it might seem a little intimidating at first to plunge into academic writing! One thing that will help is seeing how others do it. Read some articles on your subject, paying attention not only to what they say on the subject but how they say it. For instance, any academic paper will most likely contain, in the opening paragraph, a thesis which states the basic premise of the paper. The thesis will state a position which the paper will then support.

You know that your paper will cover the characteristics of adult learners, so you might want to start your pre-writing work by making a list of those characteristics. Do the same for the patterns and motivations of learning, and the barriers. Making an outline before you begin can be very helpful; it gives you a guideline to follow, which keeps you on point.

The most important thing is to get started. You can always go back and edit, edit, edit! I'd be happy to help you with some editing once you have a rough draft.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com