Essay Writing: Tertiary Essay Writing - Pt. 2

 Continued from Page 1

4. BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming involves thinking about the topic and generating as many ideas about it as you can. At this stage, you may not know a lot about the subject matter of your academic essay, but it is still important to think about what you need to address and jot down your preliminary thoughts and ideas.

You can draw upon both your general knowledge and the information from your lectures, tutorials and subject reading. Through the brainstorming process, you will become aware of ideas you want to pursue and information you need to locate during the research and reading stages.

It is important not to narrow your thinking at this stage; you should explore your ideas in an open and uncritical way. To brainstorm, use a large piece of paper. Have the question in mind and write down all the related issues, theories, arguments and evidence that you are aware of at this stage.

When brainstorming, include…

·         any ideas triggered by the question

·         questions you need to answer in order to write the academic essay

·         possible lines of thought, research or argument

·         any evidence you are aware of to support possible arguments

·         words you must define.

At this stage, you may need to think about how much breadth or depth your academic essay can have. The word limit is a factor here but you should also ask yourself how many main ideas you can address and how much information you can present.

You might also think about whether it would be appropriate to include personal opinion or experience. This is more appropriate for some subjects than for others. However, it is important to be aware of any preconceived ideas or biases you may have. Allow yourself to be open-minded to new ideas and possible directions the essay's argument might take.

Why is brainstorming an important step?

Brainstorming gives you the beginnings of a writing plan – at a time when you are close to the question and therefore less likely to miss parts of it. You should notice a central theme or argument emerging. This process also helps you to focus your research by raising more specific questions to answer (this helps to minimize unfocused meandering through the set reading). It further helps by giving you some ideas about what you might want to write about. Keep in mind that, as you discover more about the topic, your ideas will shift and change. This is part of the process.

5. PLANNING

After brainstorming, develop a tentative plan to guide your research. The degree of detail in the plan depends on the question itself and how much knowledge you have at this stage. Even if you have only limited knowledge, you are still likely to be able to create an outline of possible sections. Include subheadings and note down background information and definitions you may need to write in.

A plan helps you formulate the central argument or theme of your academic essay, as well as generate sub-arguments. It also makes it easier to stay on track as you start to research and write. If you have an argument at this stage, organise your points to support it, and arrange your ideas or sections into a logical order. You may also be able to identify some of the evidence you could use to support your points.

If you have very little knowledge about the topic and no argument yet, generate some headings and sub-questions using the essay question as your starting point. For example, if your question is:

Discuss and evaluate the legal approach to euthanasia and criminal responsibility in

Victoria. (2000 words)

You might tentatively break this topic down into the following parts:

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1.      Introduction (150 words).

2.      Discussion of the current state of the law on euthanasia and criminal responsibility in Victoria (400 words).

3.      Evaluation of the current situation:

A.    What are the problems with the current law? What/who are the drivers of reform? Include detailed discussion of the most recent/influential case (600 words).

B.     What reform proposals are there? Are they viable? How have these problems been addressed elsewhere? What conclusions/recommendations can I make about the current state of law (700 words)?

4.      Conclusion (150 words).

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Breaking the task down into smaller sections – each with its own focus and purpose – makes the task more manageable. And generating sub-questions within each of the sections helps you stay focused as you read for your academic essay. If you estimate how many words you might spend on each part, it will also give you an indication of how much reading you need to do for each section.

As in the previous example, academic essays often ask you to describe or outline a theory, or the current practice in a field, and then to critically analyse or evaluate it. Remember that the latter part – the critical analysis – is the more important part of your essay. Its relative importance should be reflected in the number of words you allocate to it.

While the process of writing an academic essay is fundamentally the same for an essay in any discipline, you should be aware of discipline-specific expectations as well. These are provided in any guidelines to essay writing given by your department or faculty. This is the stage at which you want to check these guides. Each department has slightly different expectations and requirements.

 Because you are preparing your essay for a particular subject, you need to engage with and to address that subject's key concepts and objectives. It is therefore useful at this point – and certainly before you begin writing – to re-read the course description and course objectives.

6. RESEARCHING THE TOPIC

While you will often receive detailed reading lists as a starting point for research, the onus is on you to develop skills as an independent researcher. This requires becoming familiar with the various university libraries, journal databases and search engines, with periodicals, newspaper collections and other reference materials.

Searching Advice

Working out where to find information and who to contact for advice is one of the most important skills to learn at university. Taking the time to become familiar with the university's information services and library branches will serve you well throughout your tertiary education. You will be several steps ahead if you learn early and well how to access the information you may need to carry out your literature research.

Exploring Encyclopaedia, Bibliographies

The university libraries have brilliant reference collections. While internet searching is increasingly effective, not all sources have been put online. Browsing along the reference shelves is an important component of finding and sifting information. Subject encyclopaedia, dictionaries and bibliographies will help you gain a grasp on research and concepts used in your field.

Searching Journal Indexes, Electronic Journals

Publication patterns are changing rapidly. Such changes are working in your favour! More and more full-text journals are available in digital format. Many publishers even offer personalized pages that register your research strategies and email the tables of contents of your favourite journals.

Seeking the expertise of specialist staff to help you…

·         with your search strategies

·         with getting the most out of databases

·         track down information held in other libraries

·         access rare and archived material

·         organise information

·         with advice on citing sources.

How much to Read?

Some students overestimate the expectations of academic staff regarding the quantity of research required; some underestimate. At tertiary level, you will often find that there is more reading than you can possibly get through. Ask your tutor or lecturer for guidance as to the number of references they expect you to consult and use in preparing your essay. Even when the focus of a question is on a core text, it is assumed that you will read more widely in preparation for writing an essay.

Getting Started

Begin with general reading; any text-books on your reading list will help you understand your topic in the context of a bigger picture. Then move on to journal articles on specific aspects of your topic. Recent journal articles are generally considered of more value in academic writing because 1) they contain more current information, research and discussion on the topic than do many books published years earlier, and 2) they are often peer-reviewed and cited by other academics which makes them a more reliable and  recognized source of information and ideas.

Reliability and accuracy of information is an important aspect of tertiary research; this is one reason why most websites are of limited use and have less respectability in academic writing: how can you verify that the author of the webpage is presenting accurate information?

Recording a Reference

It is most important to remember to take full bibliographic details of everything you read.

Record the page number of each passage that you paraphrase and each quotation you

transcribe. Mendeley, a bibliographic software package, is available free to all. It is invaluable for keeping records of references and you can enter your notes into the program as well making them 'searchable'. You can download Mendeley from here.

Note-Taking

Take your notes in an organised way, either in a notebook or directly onto your computer.

Don't ever write in a library book: you know how annoying it is to come across a marked up

book in the library – and how difficult it is to read! Not to mention the fact that the book

is library property!

If you are reading a book, it can be more effective to simply bookmark the relevant part of the text and keep going than to take notes as you read. At the end of each chapter assess the relative degree of importance of each marked section, and then take notes. Be selective. Excessive note-taking can be a substitute for thinking critically about what you are reading. Look for the main points of an article. What is the writer's main contention or idea? What evidence or examples are used to support that idea? What conclusion does the writer reach? Where do you stand in relation to that contention or conclusion?

It is good to take point-form notes in your own words. This is the best way of ensuring that you understand the material you are using. It also means that you have already done the work of paraphrasing the ideas from the original source.

The more you read, the more focused your ideas will become. How does your reading reinforce, contradict, or suggest alterations to your original brainstormed ideas and plan? Continue to evaluate the reading in terms of its relevance to your essay question. It helps to stay focused by keeping a copy of the topic and your tentative plan with you while you are reading. As you do more reading, you may need to change or develop your plan.

Reading Critically

You need to evaluate your reading continuously. It is not sufficient simply to reproduce, summarize, report or describe what others have found. Just because something is published, or the author is well-known or respected, doesn't mean that it is true, valid, or unchallengeable. You need to test the opinions and findings of an author against the evidence provided, against the opinions and judgements of other writers, and against your own point of view.

Questions to ask when you read critically:

·         Why has the author come to this conclusion?

·         How conclusive or valid is the proposition?

·         How sound is the methodology?

·         How practical are the author's ideas?

·         What are the strengths and weaknesses of the author's argument?

·         What cultural or intellectual preconceptions and biases does the author seem to bring to the writing?

Critically engaging with the reading involves thinking about what an author is saying, and not just looking at what he or she is writing as a source of information that you can use in your essay. While you will frequently use information other authors provide as evidence to support a point you are making, you should first evaluate their arguments and evidence for yourself.

When assessing an author's argument and supporting evidence, you do not need to rely solely on your own thinking. Authors who hold contrasting points of view on a topic are an excellent resource. They help you evaluate arguments and evidence put forward in a particular text.

How to use related texts in your essay:

·         Can you contrast different points of view?

·         Can you support what one author says by reference to another author?

·         Can you recognize the assumptions being made by an author?

·         Can you extend what the author is saying to its logical conclusion? Does the proposition still make sense?

·         Can you identify the implications of an author's proposal?

When To Stop Reading?

Finally, you need to develop a sense for when you have read enough. Part of this is determined simply by time constraints: organize yourself and start writing so that you have a completed essay by the due date (or before)! But you also need to determine when you have enough material to work with in order to develop a well-thought-out, well-researched essay. You don't want to have so much information and so many readings to integrate that the essay becomes confused and dense. And you don't want the essay to simply be a string of other sources patched together! Other readings merely support and help substantiate your own ideas. Your ideas and the development of your original argument are still going to be the bulk of the essay.

You have done enough reading when you have formulated a clear argument, supported by relevant and up-to-date research in your field.

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