Guidance Notes for Tutors
Section 5: Writing for Higher Education
Introduction
The quality of student writing in higher education has been the subject of critical attention in recent years. The topic was the focus of a major study by the Royal Literary Fund in 2006 that highlighted the struggle many students appear to have to write well-organised and cogent assignments and dissertations.
In particular, students struggle with issues of structure and paraphrasing, and also to resolve a tension they feel between expressing their ‘own voice’ in assignments, and satisfying the conventions of academic writing.
This is an issue that concerns many academics, and is currently being addressed by both the LearnHigher and the Write Now Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs): the former, with the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) project in the Academic Writing learning area; and the Writing for Assignments E-library (WrAssE) project in the Critical Thinking learning area; and in the latter CETL, the Student Authorship project, which addresses the issue of the relationship between writers and the facts, ideas and arguments expressed in their work.
Both CETLs are interested in developing resources for students and staff that demonstrate how authorship in academic writing can be established.
These resources will include examples of cogent writing, as it has been argued that students need to be shown what most tutors would regard as effective essays to become more aware of what is expected of them.
This Section is divided into five Units:
Unit 1: Good Writing
Unit 2: Writing Essays
Unit 3: Writing Reports
Unit 4: Avoiding Plagiarism
Unit 5: Sample Essay
As with other sections, the units offer a mix of information and student exercises. Units1, 4 and 5 offers sufficient material for a 50-60 minute teaching session on each of these.
However, Unit 2 and 3 could be usefully combined over two teaching sessions; there are three student exercises in Unit 2, but only one in Unit 3.
Teaching tips are included, and these are drawn fro HE tutors who have successfully used the material in the past.
Answers to the quizzes and exercises are supplied in these notes, along with additional comment where relevant.
Unit 1: Good Writing
Unit discusses the idea, that to be taken seriously, you must present valid evidence in assignments. Aristotle, around 350 BC, argued that persuasive rhetoric included Logos: appeals to logic to persuade an audience through sound reasoning. This is done by presenting reliable evidence, usually in the form of facts, definitions, statistics and other data, that has an appeal to the intelligence of an audience.
Aristotle also believed that appeals to the emotions (Pathos), and emphasis on the credibility of the speaker (Ethos), were also necessary elements in rhetoric to persuade an audience to accept a particular argument.
Although Aristotle applied his ideas to oratory, this ageless principle can be applied equally to written arguments, and, indeed, Aristotle’s ideas are the foundation for the current thinking in the communication industries.
Aristotle’s ideas, however, appear to have overlooked by some academic writers, and many students, particular in the Social Sciences, are asked to read academic texts that can baffle, rather then enlighten their readers. The following extract is such an example:
Garfinkel (1967) argues that the relationship between the act of representation and represented object is dialectical not unidirectional.
The character of the representation changes in the attempt to explain the perceived nature of underlying reality while the object ‘changes’, in turn, to accommodate the language employed to represent it.
Representation, in other words, is a dynamic, interactive process in which the ‘actor’, and the form of representation, that is language, ‘constructs’ some at least of the reality under investigation.
This type of writing can intimidate students – or worse, lead them to imitate it.
But the best academic writing has always been accessible to all intelligent readers. The following extract by Anthony Giddens has been included to demonstrate this, and to illustrate how Aristotle’s Pathos element can be applied in academic writing.
The Giddens extract
As the changes described in this article gather weight, they are creating something that has never existed before, a global cosmopolitan society. We are the first generation to live in this society, whose contours we can only dimly see. It is shaking up our existing ways of life, no matter where we happen to be. This is not – at least at the moment – a global order driven by collective human will. Instead, it is emerging in an anarchic, haphazard fashion, carried along by a mixture of influences.
It is not settled or secure, but fraught with anxieties, as well as scarred by deep divisions. Many of us feel in the grip of forces over which we have no power. Can we reimpose our will upon them? Arguably we can. The powerlessness we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incapacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have, or create new ones. For globalization is not incidental to our lives today. It is a shift in our very life circumstances. It is the way we live now.
Extract taken from: Giddens, A. (1999). Runaway World: how globalization is reshaping our lives. London: Profile Books.
Students were asked to comment in the three areas shown below.
Our comments are supplied, but Trans:it students may supply additional insights, which may prove equally valid and helpful.
The style of writing generally / Clear, inclusive, and accessible writing.Good structure.
Giddens is confident and assertive, which reflects his expertise and experience in this area.
The impact of some of the words: single out a few words that have a particular impact on you and try and say why this is. / Giddens uses words that connect with the senses of the reader, or are related to physical action. There were terms like ‘dimly see’, and words that connect with physical sensation: ‘shaking’, ‘driven’, ‘weight’, and ‘carried’.
The author also uses contrast to create a tension (and interest) in the writing, e.g.
It is not settled or secure, but fraught with anxieties, as well as scarred by deep divisions
Note the term ‘scarred by deep divisions’. Giddens uses the word ‘scarred’ in a symbolic way to describe cultural divisions (and blemishes) among peoples of the world.
However, the word also resonates with our sense of sight; we can visualize a scar, so the impact of the word is likely to be more profound and meaningful to us.
The way the writing tries to appeal to the reader. / Giddens addresses and engages the reader directly, or addresses our concerns. He uses words such as: ‘we’; ‘us’; ‘life’; ‘lives’; ‘human will’. He also brings us into the discussion by posing a rhetorical question.
Giddens recognizes the vulnerability and fragility of individuals who may feel swept along by global events. However, he also appeals to the more optimistic side of people, and presents the case for globalization as one of opportunity:
Can we reimpose our will upon them? I believe we can. The powerlessness we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incapacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have, or create new ones.
Unit 2: Writing Essays
As this is an important issue for students, there are three exercises in Unit 2, and it may be necessary to spread these over two teaching sessions.
The first exercise is to encourage students to focus on essay topics or questions, as a common cause of poor marks in assignments is that the student in question ‘did not address the question’. HE tutors will comment that students often attempt to tell all they know on a subject, but do not select and apply this knowledge to a specific area of enquiry or investigation.
Students were asked to look at the following essay title and identify key words and the proposition.
Evaluate the impact of the internet on practices for recruitment and selection employed by firms.
Identify key words in the essay title / Spot the proposition in the sentenceThe key words are:
‘evaluate’:
‘impact’
‘recruitment’,
‘selection’
‘firms’.
(See comments that follow) / It proposes that the Internet HAS had an impact on recruitment and selection; it stresses the words ‘the impact’, which suggests there has been one.
(See comments that follow)
The question asks students to ‘evaluate’ the ‘impact’ of the internet on both recruitment and selection practices. Students would also briefly need to define these terms to show they understand what is meant by them
The word ‘and’ is quite significant, as it suggests there are two separate processes here: the recruitment process and the selection process. Students would need to look for evidence of the impact of the Internet, negative and positive, on both of these processes.
The term ‘firms’ is plural, meaning students need to look at more than one organisation to make comparisons, perhaps between firms of different sizes
The proposition in the statement would have been harder for students to detect.
It proposes that the Internet has had an impact on recruitment and selection; it stresses the words ‘the impact’, which suggests there has been one. .
So students are being asked to think about whether or not they agree that this proposition is correct – they do have to agree with it. For example, if they disagreed with the proposition, they could argue that the Internet has had little impact or no impact on recruitment and selection – assuming they could find evidence to support this position.
Provocative tasks
The point is that assignment tasks, particularly essays, often invite students to take up and support a position with reliable evidence.
There is unlikely to be a ‘right’ answer to many essay questions. Tutors are testing the student’s ability to research and weigh up evidence, take up a considered position, and present a particular argument in an intelligent and coherent way. It is worth emphasising that tutors may not agree with the position taken by a student, but will certainly respect a writer’s ability to argue their case in an intelligent way.
The two main positions that students might take in this essay, for example, are:
Agree generally / Disagree generallyAgreeing with the proposition and presenting evidence and summarising why you agree. / Disagreeing that there has been an ‘impact’, or that it has been very limited, and presenting evidence and discussing why you feel this to be the case.
Students start to ‘evaluate’ when they do this, as they are making a decision on the proposition and, in this case, assessing the importance of the Internet to both the recruitment and selection processes.
What else?
In evaluating the impact of the internet, students would also need to weigh up the value (if any) of the Internet against non-electronic ways of engaging with the recruitment and selection processes.
Description and Analysis
A recurring tutor criticism of student writing is that there is often ‘too much description and not analysis’.
This form of independent critical thinking may be unfamiliar to students …who in the past have been rewarded by their tutors for presenting accurate description of established ideas. The prospect of challenging the say-so of ‘experts’ can, at first, feel daunting, and even subversive.
(Tutor quoted in Neville 2009, p.56)
This is particularly the case with discursive style essays, but it is important to emphasis to students that in science, technology and numerical disciplines precise description can also be a form of analysis.
This can involve focusing on a topic in a detailed way. In many science and technology disciplines, for example, this focus can include the observation and identification of variables, element parts, and structures. In this context, the analysis is in the detailed description that you present. Students are likely to be asked in these assignments to:
Classify
Describe
Identify
Show how
Or answer ‘what’ or ‘how’ style questions
However, in this Unit students have been asked to decide if the essay extracts presented are predominantly description or analysis, or a combination of the two. The exercise is preceded by the following brief description of each of these categories:
Descriptive / Analytical / Combine Description and AnalysisYou present a situation in a factual way, usually presenting an overview of the situation, which might include data to back up factual statements made. / Analytical paragraphs often follow on from one that was largely descriptive.
In these paragraphs, you would explore/discuss the implications or impact of the situation earlier described. / Typically these paragraphs start with an introductory statement (setting the scene), which is then followed by a deeper probe or discussion, including examples, into or on the implications/impact of the situation in question.
Extract / Description / Analysis / Both
1. The Internet is a system of connecting computers around the world. Linked to this is the ‘Intranet’, which is a way organisations can communicate internally. The population connected to the Internet in 1999 totalled some 196 million people, predicted to rise to over 500 million by the end of 2003. By the start of 2000, the daily number of Emails sent exceeded – each day – the number sent in total for the whole of 1990. / √
2. The Internet has had a significant impact on the way both firms and job seekers seek each other out. In Britain in 2000, for example, the Chartered Institute of Personnel estimated that 47 per cent of all employers were making use of the Internet for recruitment purposes (Dale 2003). In the USA the Association of Internet Recruiters estimated that 45 per cent of companies surveyed had filled one in five of their vacancies through on-line recruiting (Charles 2000). More than 75 per cent of Human Resources personnel in the USA are now making regular use of Internet job boards in addition to traditional recruitment methods of newspaper advertising and links with employment agencies (HR Focus 2001). / √
3. The main ways that firms use the Internet include developing their own web sites, making use of recruitment agency websites, or using ‘job boards’: external websites that carry sometimes thousands of vacancies that job seekers can scan. External recruitment agencies are increasingly specialising in particular types of niche vacancies, or acting as career managers for job applicants and helping to both place the applicant in the right job and to support that person during their career. / √
4. Job seekers too, use the Internet to contact prospective employers by placing their CVs or work résumés on to websites that employers can scan. A survey in the USA in 1999, for example, suggested that 55 per cent of graduates had posted their résumé on to an online job service, and that three-quarters had used the Internet to search for jobs in specific geographic locations (Monday, Noe and Premeaux 2002). Some job seekers, with high demand skills, offer their labour in electronic ‘talent auctions’, with job negotiations, once a successful match has been made, facilitated by the Auction House representatives on behalf of the applicants. / √
5. The main advantages to employers of using the Internet for recruitment purposes are in the speed of operation, breadth of coverage, particularly if recruiting on a worldwide basis, and cost saving that can occur. Electronic advertising can quickly connect with job-seekers in many different places that might not otherwise be contacted by more conventional methods. Small to medium sized enterprises too, find that they can compete effectively electronically with larger companies and can begin to attract high-calibre recruits to their web sites, which might not otherwise be the case with more traditional methods of recruitment. With regards to cost saving, it has been estimated that expenditure on newspaper advertising and ‘head-hunter’ fees dropped in the USA by 20 per cent as Internet expenditure increased (Boehle 2000). On-line recruiting, if it is used effectively, is also estimated to cut a week off the recruitment process (Capelli 2001). Large organisations, like L’Oréal and KPMG, use the Internet to recruit staff on both cost-saving grounds, and because they feel it increases their visibility and attracts high-calibre recruits. With KPMG, for example, the Human Resources staff was handling 35,000 paper applications a year, but decided to switch all their recruitment online from May 2001 to save time and printing costs (Carter 2001). / √
Plan the structure of the essay