Essay Writing Workshop 1

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Essay Writing Workshop 1

• Lawrence Cleary, Íde OSullivan
• Regional Writing Centre

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Plan of workshops

• Workshops Weeks 4, 5, 6 and 7 (C1-067)
• Tuesday 1400 1500
• Thursday 1400 1500
• Drop-in/One-to-one sessions
•    Mon                    24 pm
•    Tues       1012    24 pm
•    Wed       1012     24 pm 5-7 pm
•    Thurs     1012     24 pm 5-7 pm
•    Fri          1012     
• Writing Centre www.ul.ie/rwc

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Workshops

• Session 1 Understanding the essay question.
  Planning and organising your essay.
• Session 2 Developing an effective argument.
  Structuring your essay.
• Session 3 Citing and writing a reference page.
  Strategies to develop writing.
• Session 4 Academic writing style. Editing and
  proofreading your essay.

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Criteria on which assessment is based

• What is expected?
• That the student addresses the assignment
  question
• Does the essay deal with the topic that was set?
• Does the essay answer the question that was set?
• Does it cover all the main aspects and in
  sufficient depth?
• Is the content accurate and relevant?
• Is everything in the essay relevant to the
  question?
• See handout, Checklist.

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Criteria on which assessment is based

• What is expected? Continued
• That the writing is appropriate to the intended
  audience.
• That the quality is ambitious and mature.
• That the writer has read widely.
• That the writer is able to draw on personal
  experience.

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Criteria on which assessment is based

• What is expected? Continued
• That the writing is marked by a range of
  stylistic features appropriate to a given writing
  situation (Neuleib, 1997 97).
• That the writer has allowed time for revision,
  both globally and locally, and that the paper is
  neatly typed, well presented, and free from
  mechanical and grammatical error.

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Key stages in the process

• Planning
• Drafting
• Revision
• Editing and Proofreading

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The Rhetorical Situation

• Occasion
• Topic
• Audience
• Purpose
• Writer

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Analysing and understanding the assignment
question

1. Analyse the components of the assignment
   question.
2. If the assignment question is not in an
   interrogative form, convert it into a question
   you can answer (What question(s) need be answered
   in order to satisfy the requirements of this
   assignment?).
3. Think about the assignment question in relation
   to the rhetorical situation.

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The components of the assignment question

• Identify the topic.
• Ask yourself if the question is asking you to
  limit your conversation to a certain aspect of
  the topic.
• Identify the instruction. (Most assignments
  contain an instruction word such as discuss,
  compare, analyse, or explain.)
• Ascertain if the professor is asking you to write
  from a particular point of view.
• Identify any assignment words that restrict, or
  expand on, your subject.

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Analysing and understanding the assignment
question

• Example Explain Chomskys idea of Universal
  Grammar (UG).
• Topic Universal Grammar
• Instruction Explain
• Aspect Chomskys idea of
• Restriction or expansion none
• Viewpoint none

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Analysing and understanding the assignment
question

• Think of an assignment question as an invitation
  to participate in the discourse already taking
  place in the community that shares in your
  academic interests.
• Recall that you have joined an already on-going
  conversation.
• Think about the particular conversations already
  taking place with respect to both your topic and
  the particular aspect of your topic that you have
  been asked to write about.

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Analysing and understanding the assignment
question

• Keep in mind the assignment question, any
  questions you need to answer in order to answer
  the assignment question, and the instruction word
  as you plan your essay.
• From beginning to end, the point of order is the
  initial question, claim or hypothesis.
• Do not write down all you know about

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Researching the essay

• Deciding on appropriate resources for research
• What questions do we need to answer before we can
  answer the assignment question?
• Where is the best place to source the answers to
  those questions?
• What do we need to know in order to answer this
  question?

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Researching the essay Asking the question
questions

• Example Our assignment question asks us to
  discuss a statement in R. Trasks LanguageThe
  Basics, p. 78
• Language provides a powerful way of maintaining
  and demonstrating group membership.
• What questions do we need to answer before we can
  answer the assignment question?

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Researching the essay Asking the question
questions

• Example Our assignment question asks us to
  discuss a statement in R. Trasks LanguageThe
  Basics, p. 78
• Language provides a powerful way of maintaining
  and demonstrating group membership.
• The assignment question might be rephrased as
  What is the strength of this statement in
  Trask?
• What do we need to know in order to answer this
  question?
• Hint Keep in mind the instruction word.

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Researching the essay Asking the question
questions

• Possible Answers
• What does Trask mean by language? by group
  membership?
• How does Trask back up this claim that language
  helps to maintain and demonstrate this group
  membership? In other words, what detailed
  supportive information, such as facts and
  examples, does he use to argue his case?
• Does Trask hint at any arguments against his
  claim?
• What are some of the arguments against his claim?
  
• This sounds like sociolinguistics. Who else have
  I read that has spoken on this issue?

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Researching the essay Finding the answers

• Where would I look for the answer to the first
  three questions?
• Context Finding Trasks reference
• The source of the quote Find the reference on
  the University of Limericks Library catalogue.
• Where would I find the answer to the fourth
  question?
• Try a keyword search
• Search Speech communities
• Search Socio-linguistics
• Search language and identity

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Researching the essay

• Try a database search
• Choose a database from the library database
  search page
• What other sources are available to you?
• Primary sources
• Secondary sources
• UL Library Quick-start Tutorials

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Reading and note-taking

• Reading in detail
• Reading critically
• Selecting and note-taking
• Distinguish between your words and the words of
  the author
• Paraphrasing, summarising, and synthesising
• Documenting Sources
• Record the authors name, the title of the book,
  chapter, article, etc., the date of publication,
  the place of publication, and the page(s) on
  which the borrowed information is found.

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Reporting the work of others

• Making use of the ideas of other people is one
  of the most important aspects of academic writing
  because
• it shows awareness of other peoples work
• it shows that you can use their ideas and
  findings
• it shows you have read and understood the
  material you are reading
• it shows where your contribution fits in
• it supports the points you are making.
• (Gillet, 2005)

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Planning and organising your essay

• Keep in mind the assignment question, any
  questions you need to answer in order to answer
  the assignment question, and the instruction word
  as you plan your essay.
• From beginning to end, the point of order is the
  initial question, claim or hypothesis.
• Do not write down all you know about
• The essay must have a clear structure - it should
  not be a Magical Mystery Tour!

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Planning and organising your essay

• Instruction words in the assignment question
  often indicate the method of development which
  will influence or even determine how you
  organize your paper (Ebest et al., 1997 13).
• If your instructions were to compare or contrast,
  or to show the cause or effect of something, then
  your method of development is set, and how you
  organise your paper is largely determined by
  those methods of organisation normally used to
  illuminate or explain something .

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Planning and organising your essay

• Analysis, classification, definition,
  exemplification, narration, process essays, and
  discussions, for instance, would require
  different kinds of organisational strategies
  appropriate to the particular task at hand.
• Narration or processes might be organised around
  a chronological organisation pattern.
• Descriptions might be either chronologically or
  spatially ordered, depending on the nature of
  that being described.

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Planning and organising your essay

• The instruction word will indicate that a thesis
  is either called for, or not called for. For
  instance, instructions that ask you to summarise
  or outline something are not normally interpreted
  as calling for a thesis statement.
• The method of development and organisation will
  suggest where the thesis will appear in your
  essay.

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Drafting the essay Essay structure

• When drafting your plan, always keep in mind
  that an essay always has to contain the following
  elements
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• References

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Working out a timesheet Source McMillan, K. and
Meyers, J. (2007) How to Write Essays and
Assignments, HarlowPrentice Hall.
Aspect of the task Time allocated When I plan to do this
Analysing the task
Doing preliminary reading
Planning the response to the task
Doing supplementary reading
Writing the first draft
Reviewing the first draft
Editing/ proof-reading the final copy
Printing/ writing out the final copy
Time margin for the unexpected