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 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

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

17

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

Hourigan Mishkin

Point 1

Point 2

Point 3

Comparison Point 1

Comparison Point 2

Contrasts

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