A resource to A A MI SSAY - Charles Darwin University

1 a resource to ACADEMIC ESSAY assist tutors working with WRITING indigenous students For students at Charles Darwin University Table of Contents The academic world 3. Purpose of this Critical thinking 4. booklet Preparing to write an essay 6. Unpacking the essay question 6. This booklet aims to provide resources to tutors who Looking at the marking rubric 7. work with indigenous Understanding a Brainstorm of the essay topic 8. students at Charles Darwin University . It is intended to Developing a Taxonomy for the essay topic 9. provide you with information and exercises to Academic essay structure 10. assist you to scaffold students to be successful in A word on academic language 10. their University studies.

2 We focus on writing academic Writing a thesis statement 11. essays, because this is a skill Writing an introduction 12. student's need in most University courses, and is a A note on using headings 12. skill that can be transferred to assessments in other Writing a paragraph 13. units. Essay: An annotated example 14. We know that students bring a wide range of skills Referencing 20. and life experiences to the In-text referencing 20. University setting. What we hope to do is to assist you, Appendix 1: Analytical essay 21. as tutor, to build on the students' existing skills and knowledge, with transferrable skills that will enable them to succeed at University . Our philosophy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. aligns with the old proverb: Thanks to Jamie Pomfrett for providing original materials for this guide.

3 Thanks also to Jamie, Debra Dank and David McClay PhD. for reviewing this document. Give a man a fish and you Lesley MacGibbon PhD. feed him for a day, but ACIKE Staff Development teach him to fish, you feed Charles Darwin University him for life.. 2. Exercise: Rules of the game The Academic World Ask your student which sport they play or follow. On paper or The academic world' and whiteboard draw up two columns. In one column list the the real world' are not the rules of the game as the student identifies them. In the other same. column, list the rules of writing academic essays. Get the student to help to identify these if they can. Your completed Levin (2004) explains that list might look something like this: the academic world' and the real world' are not the Rules of soccer(football) Rules of essay writing same, and students need to learn the differences You cannot pick up the ball You must analyse the between these worlds.

4 Unless you are goalie. question carefully to make sure you answer what is The real world is where we asked. experience our lives we live and work, raise children, You can head the ball in You must use formal play or watch sport, spend the air. academic English not slang time with family and friends or txt language. and interact with the You must play within the You cannot just write your natural world. A lot of what lines of the field. opinion. You must back we know about the real everything you write with world is from our evidence (what other people experiences. have written). The academic world on the You cannot physically push Different lecturers may have other hand is one of or shove players on the different rules about what theories, explanations, ideas other team.

5 Academic language is you and critiques. We can't will need to check with them. experience them the same way as we experience the Games are usually 45 mins You must reference where real world, through seeing, each half. you got your information hearing, touching, tasting, from. smelling. In the academic You must obey the Referee There are particular forms of world we learn from what is even if you don't agree referencing you must use. spoken, or more often written, about the world. with him or her. This means that in the You need to stay onside. You must not copy other academic world you learn at people's work (plagiarism). second hand, from what other people have written, You must wear shin guards You need to write in rather than from your own to protect your ankles.

6 Paragraphs- start with an experience. Levin (2004, p introduction and finish with a 5) argues that: conclusion. The culture of higher education in the Western world is very much a culture of the written world . 3. Exercise: Critical thinking 1. 1. Show your students a standard bottle of water or show the picture Critical thinking of a bottle of water, and ask them to describe this. Students often have trouble understanding what we When describing they should just tell mean by critical thinking . you what they see . It is worthwhile spending some time exploring ideas it is a clear plastic bottle the label says it is spring' water around critical thinking, and it has a white cap the difference between etc description and analysis or critical thinking.

7 We have found the following exercises to be very helpful. 2. Ask your students to think critically about this bottle of water. You might need to ask them the question So what? This is a bottle of water, what else do we know about bottled water? . The students should be able to come up with things that might include: It costs $4 for a bottle of water this size from the supermarket Plastic bottles like this are a problem in landfill At home we drink bottled water because our tap water tastes bad Bottled water isn't any better than the water that comes from our taps We don't take bottled water when we go country because then we drink from the spring 4. Exercise: Critical thinking 2. Ask your student to imagine that where they live has just been struck by a cyclone.

8 Describe what they might see: List their descriptions on the left-hand column. Then ask them to imagine that they are the civil defence wardens for their neighbourhood. Get them to think critically about what they described, and write what they identify when thinking Why do we need critical critically. For example: thinking? Cyclone: description Cyclone: critical thinking Students often ask why they need to develop critical The houses seem to be Are there any injured people in OK, but garages and the houses? thinking and why they need sheds have been blown to demonstrate it in an Are any of the buildings in down. essay. Most jobs require danger of falling down and people to be able to think injuring people?

9 Critically, and essay writing is one way that the Some of the streets are Are there people who have flooded. been cut off by the water that University can see that need rescuing? students are developing critical thinking. In many Is there still fresh water coming jobs people are required to It looks as though the from the taps? write reports that will guide water is up to one metre deep. What type of vehicle is needed the action of others for to get through the flooding? example in nursing, and critical thinking is required There are trees blown Are any of the power lines still to do this. down over roads and active? power lines. Are they a danger to anyone? Is there any power in the neighbourhood? Are the roads accessible, or are they blocked to traffic by live power lines or fallen trees?

10 Etc Etc Etc Etc 5. Unpacking the essay question Usually the essay question will have some direction words that give clues about what is wanted in the essay (Rolls & Wignell 2013). These words PREPARING TO. may be describe , explain , argue , discuss , critique etc. WRITE AN ESSAY. Describe: Write about the facts, process or event. Write in a systematic Unpacking the essay order, and emphasise the most important points. You are not expected to question explain or interpret. Work with the student to Explain: You will need to analyse, not simply describe or summarise. You analyse and decipher the need to focus on the why' or how' of a particular issue, to clarify reasons, question. causes and effects. What does the lecturer want Argue: If you are asked to argue, you need to systematically support or in the essay?