Writing Skills Advice by Email (e-advice)
Name
UoB
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Writing Skills
Analysis and/or
Argument
Such as:
 Addressing the assignment
question or brief
 Developing a line of
reasoning
 Progressing logically towards
a conclusion
 Critically analysing the overall
topic, subtopic or issues
 Critically analysing key ideas,
concepts, theories, debates
or designs
 Critically reflecting on issues,
practice, skills and
competencies
Investigation/Research,
Source Use &
Referencing
Such as:
 Application of course’s
preferred referencing system
in citations
 Application of course’s
preferred referencing system
in reference list and/or
bibliography
 Use of sources for range of
purposes
 Use of wide range of sources
to show independent
investigation/competent
analysis
 Use of sources appropriate to
professional/high level of
learning and practice
Writing Example #
Date
1
-
Advice, Tips, Critical Question Prompts &
Recommended Development Resources
This gives some ideas about areas of
Critical analysis
successful academic writing that we
might
skills
and
guidance
Inprovide
essays like
this,advice
it is rare
that
things will simply be descriptively listed, for instance
on. R9 simply gives a lengthy set of features. Instead, it is more likely that these
-
features of a professional role would need to be discussed as part of an analytical
stance on the essay question.
I recommend reading Chapter 3 of Critical Thinking Skills by Stella Cottrell (available
from the library) for a detailed overview of what ‘analysis’ means, if you feel unsure.
Accurate and logical understanding
-
-
Take
Links
careto
when
follow-on
analysing the issues in a topic and the sources you want to use. It is
possible
thatand
a marker
may think that the logic has not been fully thought through
reading
resources
or that
the understanding
we think
you might demonstrated is ‘superficial’. For instance, the source in
R7 find
is used
to show
what has happened in the past decade but another decade has
useful
as an
passed since it was published in 2003
independent HE
This means the source can only legitimately (and logically) be used to comment on
learner.
1993-2003. These issues around clarity and accurate understanding are not just
about this draft example – markers look for this in all assessed writing.
Evidencing using sources
-
-
We use the sample of your writing we see
Take care to evidence all of your assertions and observations. For instance, in R5
to tailor our advice as much as possible.
and R14 the statements read as firm assertions about the issue you are investigating
These numbers match to a place in your
but no evidence is provided to support your view that this is the case.
text so that the tips, suggestions or
Make sure the reference list is done in the style your course stipulates once the
critical question prompts draw on actual
draft is finalised (R18). See
examples within your work. This means for
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/referencing/citation-and-referencing
ourabout
guidance
caninto
belists.
seen in context.
details on how to order information
sources
Citations
-
Citations in brackets should all consistently follow the referencing system your
course uses. Example R8 is useful here, as it is written accurately for the Harvard
Referencing your course uses. Others have punctuation missing between author
and year. In R8, the information about using ‘et al.’ may need to be re-read as it
needs further work. See this link for a useful example of how it should be done:
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/referencing/#What
Academic Structure
Such as:
 Basic structuring
principles
 Logical sequence of points
 Signposting & Flow
 Paragraphing
Writing Introductions
-
-
-
Academic style
Such as:
 Presentation of paper
 Professional or academic
vocabulary
 Coherence & expression
 Spelling, grammar &
punctuation
This currently needs further work. A good introduction should achieve the following (See R1
Links to follow-on
from your writing example):
skills resources
we(which you do in R3 in your example)
o
set up the aim/purpose
of the paper
o
define any usefulthink
key terms
if needed
you might
find
o
establish the overall
background
useful
as an context
o
tell the reader how
the paper isHE
organised and if there are any ‘housekeeping’
independent
additions that do not occur in every essay/report/assignment.
learner.
Depending on the word count, it is unlikely that a single introduction would take several
small, separated chunks of text (see R3 from your writing example). Instead, any
introductory information would be given in a single (or at most two) clear paragraph(s)
when the word count is such a short one. The following resource may help.
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/learner-development/AcademicSkillsResources/WritingEssays/Infosheet-What-should-go-into-an-Introduction-and-Conclusion.pdf
Clarity of vocabulary choice
-
Sometimes, the writing assumes the reader knows exactly what you’ve been asked to
do for assessment and how you’ve decided to handle it – sound papers don’t do this. In
example R17, having already referred to an ‘element’ this is mentioned again but with
no clear picture for the reader of what is meant by this. When using an academic style
be as specific as possible – this means that in your essays words that are ambiguous
should be explained or even avoided.
Proofing skills
-
Some of the basic typographical errors in the text could have been avoided by applying
the spell-check in Word (see R4, R8 & R11 for some notable examples). If even basic
non-manual checking does not take place the marker is unlikely to give higher marks
because they may think the draft never underwent editing, redrafting and finally,
checking.
Human development is a process of unfolding, expanding, becoming fuller, more complex and more
complete. Many philosophers have been so far interested in the study of how knowledge and
understanding develop in children. A lot of them have come up with different types of theories attempting
to elucidate human development and most of them have brought into being different views in why
cognitive ability transforms over a period of time. Debatably, behaviourists define human development as a
These numbered
determinant of environmental or social interaction (nurture), while biologists attribute to genetic
highlighted (nature). Siegler (1998) described cognitive development as an expression or a phrase that
determination
exampleslanguage,
match memory, reasoning, awareness, learning and problem solving. In this piece of writing,
embraces
theadvice
author
is interested
in comparing and contrasting Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Lev
given
above.
Vygotsky’s social and cultural development theory.
If only these two striking minds of Piaget and Vygotsky had had the chances of sharing ideas, some
uncertainty would have been lessened, but Vygotsky’s untimely death prohibited those chances. Jarvis and
Chandler (2001) noted that Piaget and Vygotsky had the same ideas that children’s cognitive development
occurs in stages and they were concerned about intellectual development even though each practised
different problems. Piaget believed that cognitive development is made up of four main stages of cognitive
growth and has an end point in goal while, in contrast ,Vygotsky believed that development is a process
that commences at birth until death and is too intricate to be defined in stages, Driscoll (1994) and
Hausfather (1996). Both Piaget and Vygotsky visualised knowledge as adaptation and believed that
learning and development were self regulated. However, they differed in their opinions. Piaget believed
that children’s cognition develop independently or is within the mind of an individual without
environmental, social or peer pressure, according to Garton A.F. (1952). Piaget’s was a theory of invention
and construction where he mostly paid attention to how knowledge is shaped and constructed.
Comment [R1]:
Comment [R2]:
Comment [R3]: