Essays

1. Essays CSCI102 - Systems ITCS905 - Systems MCS9102 - Systems

2. Summary Slide • What an Essay is NOT • What an Essay IS - Argumentative • Sustaining Discussion • Abstracts • Executive Summaries

3. What an Essay is NOT • A memory dump • Of everything you know • Presented in jumbled order • Bit of a conclusion somewhere near the end • A random rambling discussion of points vaguely related to the question • A series of repetitions of the same answer expressed in different ways

4. What an Essay IS - Argumentative • “A sustained argument, developing from, or weighing the evidence about an idea or question and creating a full and satisfying conclusion” • Stephen McClaren, Easy Writer: A Students Guide to writing Essays and Reports

5. What an Essay IS - Argumentative • “A sustainedargument, developing from, or weighing the evidence about an idea or question and creating a full and satisfying conclusion” • Stephen McClaren, easy writer: A students guide to writing essays and reports

6. Argument • An argument is a proposition • The main line of thought, backbone of the essay • When supported by detailed discussion and logic in support this is called an argument • Any discussion in an essay must be DIRECTLY related to the argument

7. Sustaining Discussion • Discussion is sustained by reference to • Facts • Examples • Interpretations • Analysis • Critical thinking • Which serve to support your argument • You should periodically sum up showing how the point you are currently discussing relates to your argument

8. Sustaining Discussion • Within each paragraph of an argumentative type essay, facts (pertinent data) are not sufficient on their own • Facts used to support your thesis must be specifically linked back to the thesis • The reader should not have to perform 'mental gymnastics' to make the link between your thesis and the point being discussed

9. Sustaining Discussion • The information presented must be relevant to the point you are making and it must be convincing • To be relevant the writer has to be ruthless in rejecting any ideas and facts which do not directly help to build the credibility of the thesis • To be convincing, the writer needs to report on research undertaken by reputable experts and which supports the validity of the thesis

10. Sustaining Discussion • In an academic essay, the format for sustaining an argument is • State your thesis in the introduction and provide the main reasons for the support of the thesis • In the body of the essay you take each reason in turn, explain the significance of the reason and then show how it supports your thesis • The conclusion is the place for you to provide the reader with the big picture and remind the reader of the significance of your thesis

11. Abstracts • Abstracts typically serve five main goals: • Help readers • Decide if they should read an entire paper • Understand a text by acting as an outline of main points and findings • … and researchers remember key findings on a topic • Index articles for quick recovery and cross-referencing • Allow supervisors to review technical work without becoming bogged down in details

12. Abstracts • Two main types of abstracts • Descriptive • Informative

13. Abstracts • Descriptive abstracts • Outlines the topics that will be covered so the reader can decide whether to read the rest of the paper • Like a table of contents in paragraph form • Descriptive abstracts do NOT • Substitute for reading as the do not capture the content of the piece • Fulfil the other main goals of abstracts as well as informative abstracts do • Hence descriptive abstracts are fairly uncommon in recent papers

14. Abstracts • Informative abstracts • Provides detail about the substance of a paper • Readers will sometimes depend on the abstract alone • Typically will have the following structure • Identifying information - bibliographic citation or other identification of the document • Concise restatement of the main point • Initial problem or other background • Methodology and main results for experimental work • Major conclusions

15. Abstracts • Typically, an informative abstract answers these questions in about 100-250 words: • Why did you do this study or project? • What did you do, and how? • What did you find? • What do your findings mean?

16. Abstracts • One method for writing an abstract • Read each paragraph of your paper • write one phrase or sentence that describes that paragraph • Using Word you could use call out boxes or different fonts • Using your list of main points • Look for connections • do these 3 or 5 paragraphs do something similar? • What is it? • [Note in longer papers you would use this to identify sections and write your introduction for the section] • When you have 4 or 5 accurate generalizations these would form the basis of a descriptive abstract • If you're writing an informative abstract add key details about your major findings

18. Abstracts • Use key words from the document • Abstract are often "mined" for the words used to index the material • When other writer are looking for work to cite this will be where they make a decision on whether to use your paper • Highlight the different points in your abstract in proportion to the emphasis they receive in the body

19. Abstracts • Things to avoid in abstracts • Trade names • Acronyms • Abbreviations • Symbols

20. Abstracts • Abstracts should not refer to information that is not in the rest of the paper • An abstract will usually be read along with the title • Do not repeat or rephrase the title • make it complete enough to stand on its own as it may be read on its own • Should summarize your conclusions as well as your purpose, methods, and main findings

21. Executive Summaries • Executive summaries • Provide an overview or preview to an audience who may or may not have time to read the whole report carefully • Explain why you wrote the report • Emphasize your conclusions or recommendation • Include only the essential or most significant information to support those conclusions • Accuracy is essential because decisions will be made based on your summary by people who have not read the original

22. Argumentative Papers • After reading a number papers and thinking about how they fit into your essay assignment • It would be very easy to continue to think about each of your sources in isolation • We look at the ideas of each author in turn • Somewhere towards the end we show how they each support our main argument

23. Argumentative Papers True insight frequently comes from • Playing ideas off of each other • Looking at the impact of differing ideas on each other • Extending the skills used in writing critical comparison • Helps in developing these insights that lead to excellent essays

24. The Boring Argumentative Papers • Summarises the ideas of various authors • Readings appear wholly unrelated to each other • Lines up the authors accordingly • Critical Analysis shown in this type of paper is to say author 1 is square, author 2 is an oval, and author 3 is a triangle.

25. A better paper • Improve upon this by comparing facets of one author with another • Examine each author's arguments and main ideas individually • Then note why one author's ideas are more credible or correct

26. A superb paper • Think about the central ideas (theses) of each author's arguments • Note similarities and differences between them • Compare and contrast • Examine and think about • Individual components in an argument • How these components work within the overall SYSTEM used to organise the various elements of an argument • Once you begin to establish critical comparisons, it is easier to work your own ideas into the paper

27. Writing Argumentative Papers • Use a table or grid • Helps make the comparison of themes clearer to you before you write a paper • Organise your grid around themes and authors

28. Writing Argumentative Papers • Once this grid has been constructed • You can begin to construct your argument • When thinking about differences and similarities improve the strength of your argument by asking • WHY might these similarities/differences exist? • WHAT do these similarities/differences tell us? • 1