This blog is split into three categories, firstly the Writing lecture with Peter Thomas, secondly a MDX Referencing workshop and thirdly Student voice leader.
Writing Lecture with Peter Thomas
-If anyone missed the lecture It has been recorded and will be accessible on uni hub which is great!
Academic Writing and Analytic Writing
I am going to highlight the main points I took away from todays lecture, but I highly recommend that you watch and listen for yourself!
When finding literature and reading sources of academic writing it can sometimes be over whelming and confusing. The best way Is to first just engage with the text, give yourself some time to just look through it and then pick up and make a notes on what your understood or took away from the information. Peter said, don’t worry if you don’t understand it straight away. Revisit the text and then start to just familiarise yourself with it section by section.
When writing academic or analytic writing :
Introduction - this should communicate what the reader is going to experience in the text
this should be about 10% of the essay
WHAT, WHY AND HOW?
Prepare the reader for whats to come
Context- Fundamental ideas
Important themes
Contextual review
Literature review (in longer essays)
Analysis- Look at themes and give examples
Comparative reading
Conclusion- WHAT, WHY AND HOW?
He simply put it as...
Introduction- Tell them what you are going to say, Body- Say it and Conclusion - Tell them what you said
In a 2500 word essays, like in module 1 and 2, you will need to be quite superficial and won’t be able to go into great depths like a dissertation would. You have to use a selective approach and get to the point.
Engaging with literature and referencing it in your work gives the readers something additional, it gives the text authority through literature bringing extra value and richness.
To gain extra advice and support on writing, attend writing workshops or book in some writing focussed 1-2-1s go to…
Uni Hub > Study > Academic writing > Support > Book Tutorials or > Resources > AWL Tutorials
MDX Writing workshop on referencing
After attending the lecture with Peter I decided to take his advice on attending other workshops through the university. Quite honestly I wish I knew more about this in module 1 because it would have saved some time stressing and my sister who is doing a PHD student teaching me how to reference! Anyone who needs some extra help or just to go over referencing again, I would highly recommend booking yourself in. That being said, it was lovely to see some fellow BAPP students in the workshop too!
What is referencing?
Avoiding plagiarism
Making sure that you are acknowledging other peoples work in your essays and not passing it off as your own!
It shows that you have researched properly to back up your own words
Referencing and using other literature can back up fore or against arguments and make points
You cant invent things, so you have to be able to back yourself up with research
You use “Quotes” and then add an (In-text citation) and then add the reference to the reference / bibliography
-Add the page number from a book into the In-text citation when using a direct quote
-Every paragraph in your essay should have cited references
-If a reference has the word ‘quarterly’ it means the source is from a journal
-If a reference has a place and a publisher is means the source is from a book
-You want to aim to have 20% or less as plagiarism in your essays. Don’t worry its flagged up as plagiarism when you've used a direct quote and you’ve referenced it, or if your bibliography comes up as plagiarism, because you have referenced your source. Its when you’ve written something in your own words and its flags as plagiarism then you should worry and reword things!
-Use a range of sources in your work! Not just websites or books!
-You shouldn’t be using too many direct quotes you should aim to paraphrase them into your own words. Only use direct quotes when it is necessary and you can't rewrite them!
-You can use (et al.) in the in-text citation when there is multiple authors, instead of listing them all off in your essay!
The university encourages you to use CITE THEM RIGHT for how to reference and there are lots of links and help sites on the MDX Uni Hub for support :)
https://www.citethemrightonline.com
Students Voice Leaders
For anyone that may have missed the post on our BAPP Facebook group :)
“Happy Sunday everyone, Chloe (mod 2) Logan (mod 1) And Emily (mod 2)... we are your student voice leaders.
Next Friday we have a meeting with the supervisors and on the 24th we have a meeting with the University, to voice everyone's thoughts on the course. We have been asked to gather some feedback from you all to discuss at these meetings, therefore we kindly ask you to message us with your thoughts and ideas for us to relay. These can be positive and any ideas for improvements are welcome!
We look forward to hearing from you all and relaying the discussion!”
Hi Emily, thank you for sharing your notes from the referencing workshop! Unfortunately I work during the daytime so I couldn't attend any of the extra workshops, but what you have said is really helpful :) x
ReplyDeleteHi Alice I am glad my blog was helpful! I think there is written information on the uni about it and cite them right website explains exactly how to apa or harvard reference :)
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