Q.2 is harder than Q.1 and involves placing your close study within the wider context of the overall topic area, thus considering in what ways what you have looked at typifies the issues around the overall topic. Again it needs planning in order to read as a systematic project rather than a random set of quotes. Answers to Q2 tend to lack reference to material from the research, so you must make sure you back up every point with an example to show where you got it.
How to answer question 2
Where q.1 is about METHODS and paragraphs should be organised by method and research route, q.2 is about FINDINGS and paragraphs should perhaps be organised by concepts so that there is clear distinction between the two.
A structure something like this should work
Section 1: Intro- what are the key issues in relation to your area of study ?
For example you might consider:
World Cinema: funding/distribution (Inst) how they reach audiences and how audiences receive/interpret/watch the films (aud) how they represent the culture (rep) how they are similar to/differ from western films (forms/conv)TV Drama: budgets/scheduling/distribution in other formats e.g. DVD, competition with other genres, extra-textual life e.g. spin-off progs (Inst) issues covered and how they represent social groups (Rep) conventions e.g. genre, innovation or not (F and C) audience pleasures (Aud)
Crime: conventions of the crime genre – on TV, fiction and non-fiction, how crime may be represented (nationalism, gender etc) dominance of particular social groups and particular forms of criminality (Rep) conventions of coverage (F/C) importance of crime to media and in particular to TV schedules, ratings etc (inst), audience reception of crime in media, including popularity (aud)
Children: concerns about what is represented to children/how they are represented (Rep) what kids understand/the impact of media texts upon them/their pleasures (aud) importance of child audiences to media institutions (Inst) the forms and convs of children’s media texts (F/C)
Section 2: How does your specific focus relate to the issues in the topic as a whole ?
Section 3: Break down into many paras/ mini-sections; one on each conceptual area: Institution, Representation, Forms and Conventions, Audience as they relate to your topic.
Maybe more than one paragraph on some areas but throughout referring to method, sources, references, quotes, ideas etc
Section 4: Solid conclusion that draws it all together and summarises what you have learnt. The key is how to cross reference concepts with your research, and tie it all in. In your conclusion think about making points that relate to both the MACRO as well as the MICRO aspects of your study (in other words think about answering the exam question, not just your own question).
Showing posts with label essay structure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label essay structure. Show all posts
Sunday, February 3, 2008
ESSAY TIPS - Q1
When you have collected material from a range of sources and used a variety of methods, your next step will be to start to shape it for the exam itself. In the first lesson for this, we will help you to see how you might organise your material effectively; in the meantime, if you look at the examples on the M drive, you will have a good idea of how to do it.
Q1: Overall you will need: an introduction, a paragraph or two on each method, including proper referencing and examples as well as a consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of the method itself. The whole thing needs to be sequenced logically so that there is a sense of your research being a journey. You will need to reflect on the way you conducted and processed your research not just the methods and sources themselves. You will need to demonstrate links between your stages and show how one thing led to another.
There are well known advantages and disadvantages to the popular methods which you will need to reflect on. You will need to talk about how you anticipated these and adapted accordingly or how these were usfeul/problematic to you and why. It is important to be extremely humble about your research, and to recognise that there are things you would do differently in hindsight, with more experience behind you. There are many experienced academics conducting similar types of research and they would always conduct a thorough evaluation of their work before it was published. This enables interested parties to see what the limitations of the research were and how these limitations impacted on the outcomes and final results.
How to answer Q1:
On the whole this needs a lot of references to actual examples from the research methods, with full referencing such as author, title, publisher, date (for a book), plus a full explanation of what was in the source and a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the method. You need a brief introduction which sets out which area you are investigating and what your specific focus is.
Extra tips: leave a line between each paragraph, don't make your paragraph last more than a page, highlight key points if you want.
Q1: Overall you will need: an introduction, a paragraph or two on each method, including proper referencing and examples as well as a consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of the method itself. The whole thing needs to be sequenced logically so that there is a sense of your research being a journey. You will need to reflect on the way you conducted and processed your research not just the methods and sources themselves. You will need to demonstrate links between your stages and show how one thing led to another.
There are well known advantages and disadvantages to the popular methods which you will need to reflect on. You will need to talk about how you anticipated these and adapted accordingly or how these were usfeul/problematic to you and why. It is important to be extremely humble about your research, and to recognise that there are things you would do differently in hindsight, with more experience behind you. There are many experienced academics conducting similar types of research and they would always conduct a thorough evaluation of their work before it was published. This enables interested parties to see what the limitations of the research were and how these limitations impacted on the outcomes and final results.
How to answer Q1:
On the whole this needs a lot of references to actual examples from the research methods, with full referencing such as author, title, publisher, date (for a book), plus a full explanation of what was in the source and a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the method. You need a brief introduction which sets out which area you are investigating and what your specific focus is.
- You then need a paragraph (or two) on each of your methods, which should include at least four secondary and at least two primary.
- Each paragraph needs to include an account of the method, which will involve some explanation, examples (for secondary) of two sources, fully referenced and their content briefly explained, at least one specific detail from each source (e.g. a quote) and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the method overall.
- You should end with a conclusion, which again should be brief and just sum up your main points.
Extra tips: leave a line between each paragraph, don't make your paragraph last more than a page, highlight key points if you want.
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