Plagiarism lecture

• Good Academic Writing (FOCUS)

  • Formal
  • Objective - wide variety of evidence, good or bad, refraining from subjective data
  • Concise
  • Unemotional - similar to being objective, using neutral language, not trying to persuade the reader to agree with you
  • Structured - knowing what each paragraph will contain, ensuring that everything is mentioned
• Critical Thinking:

  • moving from remembering, recording and describing information to analysing, evaluating and synthesising knowledge
• Why is it important to read critically?

  • moves you away from description into the realm of analysis and evolution
  • develops your ability to think independently
  • shows the reader that youve understood the texts in details and are to engage in what was said
• Critical Thinking Model:

  
• Judging a reliable source

  • what makes an academic source academic?
  • peer reviewed?
  • validated within community of scholars?
  • how can you tell a scholarly source apart from a popular source? (especially difficult online)
  • found through library databases
  • published by a university or scholarly or professional society
  • full publication data available
• questions to ask when reading

  • what is the take home message (summary)
  • what are the motivations for this work (previous research)
  • what is the conclusion (hypothesis, idea, design)
  • what arguments, evidence or experiments are presented in support of the solution (methodology)
  • what do you think about it (reflection)
  • what are the papers contributions (impact)
  • what are future direction for this research
  • what questions are you left with
• using supporting material

  • we want to hear what you think about the question - original, creative, professional
  • quotations must have an impact on your argument, your essay, and the direction of your writing
  • dont insert them randomly, fit them into the natural flow of each paragraph
  • use appropriate evidence that is reliable/valid
  • comment on the evidence and how it relates to your point
• incorporating references - quoting:

  • using the exact words of others with quotations marks
  • consider why you are using a quote and how you are using it make and support a point
  • always introduce and explain quotations
  • should be integrated with your own sentences and ideas
• incorporating references - paraphrasing:

  • use of your own words
  • demonstrates your understanding of the subject
  • distils points and saves word count
  • aids your engagements with the texts read
  • do not lose the meaning of the authors discussion
  • paraphrase should not resemble the original text
• Acknowledging sources

  • citation/in-text reference/in-text citation
  • e.g. (Jones, 2002)
  • direct quote
  • e.g. (Brown and Smith, 1997, p.69)
  • secondary source (something you havent read)
  • e.g. (Watts, 1991 cited in Miller, 2000, p.228)
• Structing your argument

  • this of the essay as sending the reader on a journey
  • they need clear directions through your argument
  • signpost the relationship between your ideas (however, consequently, by contrast, etc)
  • useful phrases: phrase.bank.manchester.ac.uk
• Introduction and conclusion:

  • intorduction consists of:
  • start with context
  • leads onto preview
  • end with thesis
  • remember dont just tell reader what youre going to say - tell them why they should care
  • conclusion:
  • starts with thesis
  • leads onto review
  • end with implications
  • remember: no new evidence, but do push beyond the bounds of the essay
• Main Body Paragraphs:

  • try to make your paragraphs consistently sized - one paragraph = one idea
  • does every sentence in the paragraph relate to the topic sentence
  • so what? what are the implications of this?
  • relevance to the essay question
  • engage with sources
• Structuring a great paragraph (SEAT)

  • Statement
  • Evidence & Examples
  • Analysis
  • Transition
• So What?

  • so what are the implications of the observation
  • so what does this evidence suggest
  • so what might have caused these results
  • so what does this means for the issue being discusses
  • so what are the consequences for the field
  • so why should we care