Week 4 - Writing Skills (Essay Writing) PDF

University of Birmingham Dubai Campus LC Developing Skills for Psychologists/Neuroscientists 1 Writing skills: Essay writing What’s the point of writing essays?!  What is an essay? An activity to sharpen your thinking and improve your writing Develop your generic written communicati...

University of Birmingham Dubai Campus LC Developing Skills for Psychologists/Neuroscientists 1 Writing skills: Essay writing What’s the point of writing essays?!  What is an essay? An activity to sharpen your thinking and improve your writing Develop your generic written communication skills Writing with a particular purpose, structure, and layout, typically in response to a question Written in a formal, academic style A way to demonstrate your understanding and critical thinking skills > tutors can check your progress Essay marking criteria Knowledge and Analysis understanding Reading and Essay referencing structure Use of language Essay assessments in LC to LH Introduction to Psychobiology (an outline of a full essay) L Lifespan Psychology A (100%) Lifespan Psychology B (100%) C Topics in Social and Differential Psychology – coursework (50%) Language and Communication – exam (50%) LI Social and Cognitive Development – exam (50%) Several LH optional modules include an essay as L coursework and/or examination (min. 50%) H Marking Criteria Range How to write an essay 1. Analyse the essay title Check the process (or task) words and essay type 2. Develop the main argument (or thesis) What is the big message I want to communicate to readers? What is the overall point I am trying to make that underpins what I say throughout my essay? 3. Organise your essay in a way to best convey the main argument  To give an observational account of something and Critically evaluate would deal with what happened, where it happened, when it happened and who was involved. Investigate or examine by argument; sift Summarise and debate; give reasons for and against; examine the implications Draw out the main points only; omit Describe details and examples Weigh arguments for and against something, Explain assessing the strength of the evidence on both sides. Offer a detailed and exact rationale behind an Discuss idea or principle, or a set of reasons for a situation or attitude.  Weigh arguments for and against something, Critically evaluate assessing the strength of the evidence on both sides. Draw out the main points only; omit Summarise details and examples To give an observational account of something and Describe would deal with what happened, where it happened, when it happened and who was involved. Offer a detailed and exact rationale behind an Explain idea or principle, or a set of reasons for a situation or attitude. Investigate or examine by argument; sift Discuss and debate; give reasons for and against; examine the implications Knowing what to write about “… while there are mark schemes, they’re far less prescriptive about what to include, or how to structure answers …” Knowledge and understanding: The essay demonstrates evidence of sound knowledge of the topic and makes accurate use of the appropriate terminology “Shows evidence of relevant and sound knowledge and understanding of the topic.” Lectures and essential reading as important starting points Example: Assess the usefulness of adult attachment theory for understanding experiences in young adults’ romantic relationships Breadth and Depth Assess the usefulness of adult attachment theory for understanding experiences in young adults’ romantic relationships Essay structure The essay is structured so as to make the argument and discussion clear and coherent 2(i) “Structure is clear and supports coherent discussion and argument. Is basically logical, but could be more persuasive in places. Introduces the aim of the essay, but this may be done in a perfunctory manner. Comes to a conclusion which follows from the main points of the essay, but may not be fully justified or may not fully address the essay title.” The Introduction Explain how you interpret Self-assess: the question and Does the introduction tell you summarise the what the essay is about? conclusion Does it give an indication of the arguments and the order they will appear? Identify issues that you Does it highlight the major are going to explore debates behind the question? Does it define terms where Give a brief outline of necessary? how you will deal with If appropriate, does it define a each issue and in which position? order Example… These are teaching and learning materials. They are not templates. Do not cite, quote, or copy from these documents. Main body Integrated Basic Paragraph Paragraph Structure Transitional phrase or 1. Introduce the point sentence linking paragraph to previous paragraph or thesis 2. Discuss the evidence that supports the point 1., 2., and 3. of basic paragraph structure 3. Restate the point and relate it to the thesis / Transitional sentence or section of the main phrase linking paragraph body to next paragraph Main body Transitional words Transitional and phrases start sentences start a a sentence… paragraph… To present your own To illustrate idea/argument Specifically It seems plausible For example that It seems As one example reasonable that In particular It seems logical that It could be argued that Synthesis To what extent does online trolling cause psychological harm? Combining separate elements to form a whole Jones (2019) proposed that online Separate elements e.g., Research studies trolling on Facebook causes lower self- Concepts esteem … summary of method, Points in an essay results, discussion. Evaluation of study. Similarly, Nielson (2020) The whole e.g., hypothesised that online trolling on Summary of what is Instagram causes self-loathing … known Conclusion in an essay summary of method, results, discussion. Evaluation of study. Synthesis To what extent does online trolling cause psychological harm? Experimental studies are required for Combining separate elements determining the consequences of online to form a whole trolling. In a sample of North American Separate elements e.g., college seniors, those randomly assigned Research studies to receive negative comments on their Concepts Facebook page reported lower self-esteem Points in an essay relative to a control group (Jones, 2019). The whole e.g., Similarly, in a sample of female university Summary of what is students in Denmark, those who received known (fake) negative comments below their Conclusion in an essay selfies on Instagram reported higher self- loathing than those who received positive comments (Nielsen, 2020). Compare and contrast. Evaluate the group of studies. Summarise  These are teaching and learning materials. They are not templates. Example… Do not cite, quote, or copy from these documents. Mini Task Read the two mini articles Synthesise the articles in no more than 50 words (around 4 sentences) Think about the key message/argument Does it answer the question?  Is AI good or bad for society? We’ve reached ‘peak humanity’, an era in which the greatest number of Nowadays, AI systems have roles in people worldwide have attained generating text and high standards of education, images, diagnosing disease, and reasoning, rationality, and even in autonomous weapons creativity. systems. However, the rapid adoption of One could make such systems as Artificial Intelligence (AI) may followers of humans or as creative reverse that progress, stripping supports for humans; we can look away our incentives to grow and at the relationship between advance ourselves, both machine and human as based in individually and collectively. As a command and control – or as based result, there is a “grave risk” that in collaboration, figuring out what humans will become “de-educated people do best and what the and decoupled from the driving seat computer does best so that they to the future”. can work fruitfully together. Knowledge and understanding Implications Recommendations How and why are the What solutions or research findings suggestions important? emerge from your What do they mean? essay? Could be Theoretical Need to be Practical Clear Social Specific Political Realistic Technological, etc. The Conclusion Summarise the Self-assess: argument and main Is the conclusion an themes State the general effective summary of conclusions the main points? Make it clear why those Is it the right length conclusions are for the assignment? important or significant Does it express a In the last sentence, reasoned opinion, or sum up the argument very briefly, linking it to indicate the the title significance of the argument (position)? Example… These are teaching and learning materials. They are not templates. Do not cite, quote, or copy from these documents. Referencing: How to indicate your sources Reference – journal In-text citation article Parenthetical citation: Fletcher-Watson, S., & Bird, G. (2020). Autism and empathy: (Fletcher-Watson & Bird, What are the real 2020) links? Autism, 24(1), 3-6. Mid- or end-of-sentence https://doi.org/10.1177/13623 61319883506 Narrative citation: References (not bibliographies) Fletcher-Watson and Bird (2020) Familiarise yourself with formats for other sources Start of sentence (e.g., books, book chapters, Research in the Journal of Emerging websites) Adulthood suggests that Consistency adolescence continues to… is key! Sue Fletcher-Watson and Geoff Bird (2020) argued that … Example… These are teaching and learning materials. They are not templates. Do not cite, quote, or copy from these documents. Any questions?