GETTING STARTED: ASSIGNMENT GUIDE FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Preparation Read the question Unpack the question, underline all key words and check their definitions. Check the marking rubric and look at what must be achieved to pass the paper. For instance, when you see ‘critically analyse’ or similar constructs you are being asked to provide an alternative or being asked to probe for weaknesses and counter argument. Go onto FLO and select one of the scenarios – Anne White OR Greta Balodis. Think about all the theories/concepts you have learned in weeks 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 (you may need to go through each week again to remind yourself and/or do the readings). You may also want to look ahead to future weeks in the topic such as those focusing on ‘stress and coping’ ‘grief and loss’ and ‘living with a chronic illness’. After reading about the CaseWorld scenario you have chosen, brainstorm on a big sheet of paper (mind map) all the psychological and sociological theories/concepts (i.e. factors) that you think may be relevant to explaining and understanding what is going on for Anne and John in the domestic violence scenario or Greta and Dylan in the financial elder abuse scenario. 4. From your mind map, select around 4-5 psychological/sociological theories/concepts (i.e. factors) that you think are most relevant. Go to Google Scholar or the Flinders Uni data bases to locate scholarly articles, book chapters etc. on the topic of domestic violence or financial elder abuse – try to find articles that discuss ideas that are similar to or that link in with the 4-5 theories/concepts (i.e. factors) that you selected from your brainstorm. Doing this will help you to support your discussion of the psychological and sociological factors you have selected (remember to also make use of your text book and eReadings in the Study Plan each week): – e.g. you may have selected gender socialisation theory as relevant to explaining Anne’s situation so try to find articles on domestic violence that use gender socialisation theories to support your discussion Start to research relevant papers/ articles with the identified key words. Keep them handy and accessible. If using a computer make sure you save things regularly and in more than one place. Start linking your selected psychological and sociological theories (factors) to relevant ideas from your articles, book chapters etc and to what is happening to the individuals in your scenario Start writing!!
Writing the assignment Read broadly at first, make notes of key things that will be important for the essay, but leave a column on the side so you can note counter arguments or alternative evidence that you find as your read. From your prepared mind-map jot down the potential order of areas to be discussed (and be firm, cut out things that might not be relevant). If you see a quote or a particular paragraph that you wish to use or paraphrase into your own words. Make a very careful reference of the page number – it’s a devil of a job later finding the right page. Ensure your reading includes up to date articles, preferably peer reviewed journal articles. Avoid web sites as they are not rigorous enough. Exceptions to this are government or state websites such as the World Health Organisation or the Australian Bureau of statistics that can provide factual data. Any older supporting evidence (older than 5 years), should be seminal text that influenced later theoretical developments therefore is required to support your argument. Focus – on the specific question! The most common reason for failure is answering the wrong question. Answer this question – not everything you know about the subject. Don’t describe what you have read. Discuss what you have read, developing a clear and logical line of argument making sure you also analyse this, ie what the assumptions are, counter-evidence you have found etc., be critical/analytical. Make sure you use references throughout the entire paper to support your arguments. Anything that is not referenced becomes your personal idea or an anecdotal argument. After each paragraph, ask yourself how this is relevant to the question. Avoid any sweeping generalisations! Check again that all your material is relevant, helps answer the question and sounds logical.
Read the marking rubric again. Compare what you have written to the marking criteria. Have you got an introduction and conclusion? Get someone not connected with the topic to read it through – it is better to have someone unfamiliar with the subject to check if the writing makes sense and to proof read it for grammatical errors etc. Ask yourself if you require support with English language and contact the relevant people. Submit into Turnitin (draft section) and wait for the report to identify any text matching found within the assignment. Continue to review until you are happy to submit the final version in the assessment folder.
Post Writing Review Put aside for a week or two if possible and then come back to it – allows you to see it afresh. Ask yourself the following questions: Have I answered this question – in an ongoing manner? If it is in two parts, have I answered both? Have I really unpacked the question, considered alternative arguments? Have I covered all the main aspects? Have I arranged the material logically? Is there a clear introduction saying how I will answer the question, flow between paragraphs, clear conclusion? Are the arguments supported by evidence and are these sources and references acknowledged/cited correctly ‘in text’ and in the reference list, following the Harvard Referencing system.
General Points on Referencing
There is no set number of references deemed appropriate for an essay or paper of a particular length. Some students believe that filling their essays with as many references as possible will earn higher grades however if these references are not pertinent to the argument or are meaningless within the context of the paper then they add little value to the paper.
Quality, validity and credibility of references rather than quantity is a far better and much more important guideline to follow. However, remember, papers cannot be expected to be of a high standard with limited references to support what they are saying so ensure all arguments are supported by a credible source.