Transcript Essay writing - London School of Economics

Study weekend 2005
“Producing the product”
Rosemary Gosling
Director, LSE External Study
5th February 2005
Producing the Product
• What is the product?
• Short run • Medium run • Long run -
The individual examination
for each subject
The final degree
Realisation of your potential
Setting of examinations
• Papers are set by chief and second
examiners. They set these papers against:• The syllabus
• The subject guide
• The essential readings/texts in the subject
guides
• Internal degrees
• Past examination papers
The examination – marking!
• For most examinations we only take ‘the product’
into account. The mark that you receive on your
examination is the mark that counts!
• We mark against:
o The general mark scheme – you have copies of
this
o The particular mark scheme for the individual
subject
o Test against ‘Statute 66.2’ We mark to the same
standard as for internal students.
Classification – Standard Entry
• Foundation units are averaged – the
weakest unit is discarded
• All Further units count towards the degree
• If you take four foundation units – the top
three are averaged.
• If you take five foundation units – the top two
are averaged to produce ‘one mark’. The
texts two marks are averaged to produce a
second mark.
• Five subjects at or above a particular class =
class of degree
Classification – graduate entry
• All units must be passed
• Foundation units are averaged
• Candidates must achieve five units in a
particular class (or above) to be awarded a
degree in that class.
The Production Process - Inputs
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You
The Subject Guide
The reading
Your friends
Web resources
Study weekend
Examination papers and examiners’ reports
YANSA et al
WWW.YANSA.ORG
Frank Wisselink
WWW.YANSA.ORG
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You
Are
Not
Studying
Alone
How did it start?
Johnny Lüchau, a fellow student, started with Yansa out of
frustration of studying alone.
As an individual, without the support of a local college, he wanted
a way to get feedback from other students in a timely manner.
The board started slowly, but over the years it has gained
momentum, and many members
Yansa is a student internet community:
• Where students help each other to progress in their studies
• It is free of charge,
• Run solely by Johnny.
• Registration process is strictly a formality (of the host) and the
data is not used by Yansa in any way shape or form.
In the next few slides I give some examples how you can use:
WWW.YANSA.ORG
How to find Yansa
What is on Yansa
Who is on Yansa?
Students like you and me
Lots of them are part time students yet full-time parents
and employees
Everybody tries to help out as quickly as they can yet:
Sometimes we can have different priorities
If you would like to be active on Yansa :
Join us!
We are looking for Moderators
Other activities of Yansonians
We are an active bunch
of students not sticking to
the board only.
Last year we organised:
The September Study Kickoff Weekend in London @ LSE:
Helping you to get started with your studies
The December Progress Weekend in London @ LSE :
Try to stick to study planning
If you have any questions, join us on: www.yansa.org
The Production Process –
Organising your time
Liz Wise
Production – for whom?
An actor’s
perspective from Alex
Grigor
Essay writing for exams
• Why do we set you essays to write?
• What are we testing for?
• Knowledge?
– Yes, but of what……….
Knowledge
• You should have read and understood
the material in the subject guides
• You should have read the essential texts
indicated in the guides
• You should read some additional
reading, especially on the areas of the
syllabuses that you will concentrate on.
What you need to know
• The Subject guides are guides only, they are
not intended to provide all the course material.
• Some guides are more extensive than others –
Introduction to Economics, Managerial
Economics and Introduction to Business and
Management
• The only guide which can be read on its own is
Managerial Economics, provided that you have
the right mathematical background
Therefore……
• The Knowledge you need:
– The Subject guide
– All the texts which are marked as
essential
– At least some more in depth reading from
the additional texts
– And as much as you can to support those
areas which you intend to specialise.
Understanding!
• How do you demonstrate that you understand the key
readings?
• First, never, ever learn an essay off by heart!
• Secondly, answer the question and only use relevant
material.
• Thirdly, indicate to the examiners how you will tackle the
question in the introduction
• Fourthly, apply relevant examples
• Fifthly, ensure that you demonstrate to the examiners
that you understand the key concepts used and are
aware of differences in the use of the concept
Application and Selectivity
• You should know and understand the material and be
able to select the most relevant material to support your
arguments
• We do not need know all that you know. We only need to
know that you know how to choose from all you know
and which theories and approaches to use.
• We need to know that you can apply the right material in
the right place!
• Organise a hierarchy of the most important points and
decide how many of these points, arguments you will
make.
Argument
• Very few essay titles will ask you to list information or to
describe a theory or a process – you need to be able to do
this for revision – but unless the essay question asks you
to do this – DON’T.
• Key words/phrases used in essay titles:
Discuss; Analyse; evaluate; weigh up; do you agree?
Comparison
• The function of a comparative essay is to test
your knowledge and how you can apply this to
other theories/explanations.
• When you revise, create model for all the
possible theories and explanations so that you
can do this easily.
• BEWARE – create your own model and don’t
learn this off by heart!
Evaluation
• These questions ask you for your opinion
• Key words, evaluate, criticise, or statements
which ask you to agree and disagree for
example – “‘Marxist Theories have no
relevance today’. Discuss.”
• You will need ‘to know’ what the key
problems/strengths of the theories, but you also
need to be able to rank them in order of
importance. Again please do not learn this list
off by heart!
Describe
This can be the most difficult type
of question because you need to
select the most relevant material
and organise your essay so that it
is not like a list
Creativity –
you will be rewarded
for creativity!
What is creativity ?
Organising your
essays to
demonstrate that
you can apply
material from other
areas of the
syllabus; material
from studies that
you have read and
material from other
areas of your
degree studies
Introductions to essays
Like a road map tells the reader
where they are going
They are like a menu
• Front page – introduction to the
restaurant
A Menu
Introductions
Compared
• Name and type of
Restaurant
• The dishes are listed with
brief descriptions as to
what they are
• The dishes come in the
order that the diner has
selected – the soup
doesn’t come with the
cheese, the pudding
doesn’t come first!
• Locate the debate!
• The concepts/ terms
used are
operationalised
• You indicate to the
examiner how you are
going to answer the
question. You do this in
the most logical way
and follow your ‘route
map’
Some notes on structure
• Please remember your audience – you are writing
for someone. How do you want to be perceived?
As:
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Someone who is intelligent
Someone who can learn things by heart
Someone who enjoys playing with ideas
Someone who is bored
Someone who has understood the mind of the
examiner
Locate…
• Locate the debate, question, topic
• Introduce yourself to the audience
by indicating that you are aware of
the subject area.
– A) Who IS the audience?
– B) Who are you? A candidate for the
examination not a PhD Student!
Operationalise…
Operationalise the key concepts.
1) In the question and indicate how you will use
them in the answer
2) It may be necessary to indicate that there is a
great deal of information. List it, and say that
you will only choose some of the key factors.
3) Indicate how you will answer the question.
Q:“Outline a Marxist theory of
social change”
Outline the key features of a theory
Key skills:
Knowledge
Understanding
Selectivity
Application
Key Concept
A Marxist Theory
A Marxist Theory
Note “a” – any one theory
Social Change
alterations in the culture,
and social practices; in the social
structure or of the economy
Q:“Outline a Marxist theory of
social change”
Locate the debate
The dominance of Marxist
theories in Social Sciences and
the influence on many
revolutionaries providing them
with a blue print for action.
Q:“Outline a Marxist theory of
social change”
Key concepts
Which Marxist theory? --- MARX, Althusser, Gramsci
Social change – alteration of…
Choosing key areas? Which are…
Now right down the key points
Which will you select for your answer
The structure of the essay indicates the subject
matter for each paragraph.
Q:“Outline a Marxist theory of
social change”
Key points
•Evolutionary Theory – progress narrative
•PRAXIS
•Materialism – historical/technological
•Class action
•UTOPIA
•MACRO theory
•Functions of the State
•Globalisation
•… more…….
Coherence
• Your essay should not give the examiner
indigestion!
• Therefore each paragraph should either lead
on from the previous paragraph or pose an
alternative.
• Each paragraph should be self contained.
• Where relevant criticisms and counter
criticisms should be included within the
paragraph.
• The conclusion should never introduce any
new material.
Q:“Compare and contrast a Marxist and a Weberian
account of the development of capitalism.”
Compare
- how alike are they?
Contrast
- how different are they?
Marxist
- any Marxist theory (including Marx)
Weberian
- any Weberian theory (including Weber)
Development
- how has it progressed over time?
Q:“Compare and contrast a Marxist and a Weberian
account of the development of capitalism.”
Compare
- how alike are they?
Contrast
- how different are they?
Marxist
- any Marxist theory (including Marx)
Weberian
- any Weberian theory (including Weber)
Development
- how has has something progressed over time?
Capitalism
- “a problem concept” How does a Marxist
operationalise Capitalism?– how does a
Weberian operationalise Capitalism?
Questions…?