Successful Assignments

Successful Successful AssignmentAssignment

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• Planning– Developing a topic/question– Brainstorming– Mind Mapping– Find and evaluate sources– Constructing your argument

• Writing– Correct Citing

Essay Type What you need to do How to do itExpository Investigate an idea, evaluate

evidence, expound on the idea, and present an argument concerning the idea.

Compare and contrast, definition, example, analysis of cause and effect.

Descriptive Describe an object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation

Choose vivid language, use your senses

Narrative Tell a story Introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax and conclusion.

Argumentative (persuasive)

Investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic

Clear thesis in the introduction, arguments supported by evidence.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/01/

• Main aim or purpose

• Critically examine/investigate– More than one perspective

• Argument– Take a position– Is something better/worse than another?– Why?

• Cause and Effect– What effect does something have on something else

• Critically investigate how and why YouTube as a cotemporary platform to broadcast the moving image has changed modes and methods of audio-visual reception.

• Do portable or locative media reinforce our disconnection from the urban environment or do they allow us to ‘walk the city’, to navigate urban spaces, in new and challenging ways?

• Can the integration of screens and other forms of multimedia into urban areas (like Federation Square) create a greater sense of community and place? If so, how?

Keywords and terms

What form should your answer take?

How does something affect something else.

• Scope– Size, shape, geography, number

• Open questions– ‘How far…?’, ‘To what extent…?’, ‘In what

ways…?’

• ‘About-ness’ is not an essay

• Focus– Create possible thesis/main argument

• Analyse– Evaluate; refine thesis/main argument

• Have a structure that supports thesis/main argument

• Use the language of academic argument

• Check formatting, spelling, grammar

• What you already know about the topic?• What key ideas or themes relate to the topic?• Who are the key theorists or thinkers?• What don’t you know about the topic?• Where and how you will find this information?• How long will it take?

• Authority – who is the Author or publisher. What are their credentials? Was the source peer-reviewed?

• Target audience – popular or academic (scholarly)?• Currency – is it up to date?• Bias – check for ‘hidden’ agendas. Your source should

be unbiased.• Verification – how was the information collected? Can it

be replicated?

• Ask is it:• Written by experts

Articles often provide author qualifications or academic affiliations

• Reputable - peer-reviewed (or refereed) Validated by experts pre-publication

• Abstract provided for journal articles• Objective/ unbiased• Extensive references used• Technical language used

• Introduction– Orient the reader– Indentify the focus/purpose– Outline scope– State thesis

• Body– Topic sentence – Supporting details– Concluding sentence

• Conclusion– Restate the thesis– Summarise the argument

• Introduces the topic area in a general way

• Provides background– Introduces the main issue to be covered in the

essay (i.e.. why this is happening). – What are the main ideas around the topic– Claims and evidence

• State whether you agree or disagree

• Why? State what you intend to argue

http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/essay/1.xml

1. Introduce the field or context– Why is the topic important in terms of the discipline or

field’s concerns?

2. Focus– Definition/previous research/current

understanding/scope in time & place

3. Signpost structure of the argument– How you intend to answer the question issue by issue

4. Indicate approach/thesis– Your answer to the underlying question

1. New and developing technologies are increasing the ways we can tell stories

2. (Theorist) developed the term ‘transmedia’ to describe the process of using different types of media to tell the same story

3. This essay examines theories behind the concept of transmedia and the implications for story continuity (plus, plus)of as exemplified in the Harry Potter media franchise (scope).

4. Having considered the evidence this essay concludes that the use of transmedia for the Harry Potter franchise is effective however limited by the affordances of each medium

• Use your arguments from The Matrix

• One argument/position/statement per paragraph

• Provide good reasons for your critique

• Cite them!

• Link paragraphs

• Discuss why it is difficult to arrive at a definitive answer to the question posed

• Raise other questions that could be considered in a subsequent essay

• Suggest other approaches that could be adopted in investigating the question

• Make a prediction about what will happen to the phenomenon under investigation

• Intro paragraph

• Questions

• Evaluating Websites– http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/23-

web-pages.xml• Writing

– Writing in Art & Design http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/artdesign/index.xml

• Essay example– http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/

artdesign/writing/2.5.xml • Citing and Referencing

– http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/turabian-footnote.html

• Planning– Understanding the topic– Brainstorming– Mind Mapping– Find and evaluate sources– Constructing your argument

• Writing– Correct Citing

• What are you being asked to do?– Discuss the notion of the city as a site of

control and resistance – How has technology and the creation of new

media influenced the ways in which designs are understood?

– Is the automobile the embodiment of twentieth century thought and culture?

What are the keywords and

terms



Essay Type What you need to do How to do itExpository Investigate an idea, evaluate

evidence, expound on the idea, and present an argument concerning the idea.

Compare and contrast, definition, example, analysis of cause and effect.

Descriptive Describe an object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation

Choose vivid language, use your senses

Narrative Tell a story Introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax and conclusion.

Argumentative (persuasive)

Investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic

Clear thesis in the introduction, arguments supported by evidence.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/01/

• Four great information sources:• Search• Databases• Reading lists• Subject guides

• Search tips


• Target audience – popular or academic (scholarly)?• Currency – is it up to date?• Bias – check for ‘hidden’ agendas. Your source should

be unbiased.• Verification – how was the information collected? Can it

be replicated?

• Agree, disagree?

• Why, why not?

• Supporting evidence



essay (i.e.. why this is happening). – What are the main ideas around the topic– Claims and evidence






• Cite them!

• Evaluating Websites– http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/23-

web-pages.xml• Writing

– Writing in Art & Design http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/artdesign/index.xml

• Essay example– http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/

artdesign/writing/2.5.xml • Citing and Referencing

– http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/turabian-footnote.html

• Planning– Understanding the topic– Brainstorming– Mind Mapping– Find and evaluate sources

• Writing– Constructing your argument– Correct Citing

• Introduction– Orient the reader– Indentify the focus/purpose– Outline scope– State thesis

• Body– Topic sentence – Supporting details– Concluding sentence

• Conclusion– Restate the thesis– Summarise the arguement

• What are you being asked to do?– Is excessive stress and anxiety a natural and

inevitable part of contemporary social life?– What role does popular culture play in

determining how we are to live in a complex 21st century?

– Only a crazy person would tell the truth all the time. Critically discuss this statement.

What are the keywords and

terms



• Is excessive stress and anxiety a natural and inevitable part of contemporary social life?

• What role does popular culture play in determining how we are to live in a complex 21st century?

• Only a crazy person would tell the truth all the time. Critically discuss this statement.

• Four great information sources:• Search• Databases• Reading lists• Subject guides

• Search tips


• Target audience – popular or academic (scholarly)?• Currency – is it up to date?• Bias – check for ‘hidden’ agenda. Your source should be

unbiased.• Verification – how was the information collected? Can it be

replicated?

• Agree, disagree?

• Why, why not?

• Supporting evidence

Who argues for this?How?

Who argues against this? How?

Alternatives?

Issue

Example/evidence

Implications

Orient the readerIdentify the focus/purposeOutline the scopeState thesis

Topic sentence 1Supporting detailsConcluding sentence 1

Topic sentence 2Supporting detailsConcluding sentence 2

Topic sentence 3 etc.Supporting detailsConcluding sentence 3

Restate thesisSummarise argument

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Essay Outline Paragraph



essay (ie. why this is happening). – What are the main ideas around the topic– Claims and evidence




• Define related terms

• Discuss related history

• Use an anecdote

• Use a provocative quotation

• Ask a rhetorical question

• Relate a dramatic episode



• Cite them!

• Write meaningful and sufficiently broad topic sentences• Support your topic sentences/paragraphs with fact, relevant

information (evidence etc.)• Relate each sentence in a paragraph to the topic sentence to

achieve unity• Choose transitional words and expressions carefully to

achieve logical coherence• Vary your sentence pattern• Choose precise diction and active verbs• Use passive voice sparingly• Use vivid and lively language, creating fresh comparisons

when appropriate• In argumentation, present weakest argument first

• Suggest a larger pattern

• Use a ‘clinching’ quotation

• Draw inferences from your presentation of ideas

• Look forward and make predictions

• Suggest solutions, resolutions

• Evaluating Websites– http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/

quickrefs/23-web-pages.xml– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/

Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

• ANALYSE – Consider the various components and show how they are related.

• ARGUE – Present the case for and/or against a particular proposition.

• COMPARE – Identify characteristics or qualities that resemble each other. – Emphasise similarities and also mention differences where appropriate.

• CONTRAST – Stress the dissimilarities and differences of things, events, problems or qualities .

• CRITICISE – Express your judgement about the merit or truth of the factors or views mentioned.

Draw conclusions, discussing their limitations and good points.

• DEFINE – State concise, clear and authoritative meanings. Give the limits of the definition, but

omit detailed explanations. Show how the item defined differs from items in other

http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/

• Not making a direct connection between the points from the text and the artworks

• Making big statements – lots of facts about the genre or movement rather

than specific elements of the works as an example of the movement

– need to provide a close reading of the selected artworks rather than sweeping, unsubstantiated statements

• Citing

• Scope– Size, shape, geography, number

• Open questions– ‘How far…?’, ‘To what extent…?’, ‘In what

ways…?’

• ‘About-ness’ is not an essay

• Focus– Create possible thesis/main argument

• Analyse– Evaluate; refine thesis/main argument

• Have a structure that supports thesis/main argument

• Use the language of academic argument

• Check formatting, spelling, grammar

1. Introduce the field or context– Why is the topic important in terms of the discipline or

field’s concerns?

2. Focus– Definition/previous research/current

understanding/scope in time & place

3. Signpost structure of the argument– How you intend to answer the question issue by issue

4. Indicate approach/thesis– Your answer to the underlying question

1. New and developing technologies are increasing the ways we can tell stories

2. (Theorist) developed the term ‘transmedia’ to describe the process of using different types of media to tell the same story

3. This essay examines theories behind the concept of transmedia and the implications for story continuity (plus, plus)of as exemplified in the Harry Potter media franchise (scope).

4. Having considered the evidence this essay concludes that the use of transmedia for the Harry Potter franchise is effective however limited by the affordances of each medium

Successful Assignments

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