Article:17
ESSAY WRITING GUIDE - GUIDELINES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF ESSAYS AND ASSIGNMENTS IN THE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE - 2
Appendix A.
LEARNING TO USE THE LIBRARY - SOME SIMPLE FIRST STEPS
Access the Monash library @ www.lib.monash.edu.au
This gives you the Monash library homepage. From there you will see five different resources listed in upper case blue type on the top right side of College Application Essays the page. Three of these (Voyager Catalogue, Collections & Resources, and Services & Facilities) are immediately useful for first year students and will soon repay your close attention. We will return to the Catalogue (Monash Voyager Catalogue) later in this section. For now, pull down the ‘CHOOSE A SHORTCUT’ window. Select ‘Subjects’ which is located under the Resources sub-heading. This will take you to College Application Essays the excellent Geography and Environmental Science homepage, which is regularly updated by GES subject librarian Anna Davis. Notice the three major resources listed here: Electronic Journals from the Voyager Catalogue; Databases for Geography and Environmental Science; and Internet Resources – General and Specific. This is an excellent way of appreciating the wealth of information relevant to researching essays in this subject – so have College Application Essays a good browse around to check out what is possible. But first you need to get a basic grasp of how to use the library in general . . .
Therefore, go back to the library’s homepage, and from the blue bar at the top of the page, select the brilliant ‘Virtual Librarian’. (Alternatively you can go directly to its webpage at http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl). Accessing College Application Essays the Virtual Librarian gives you four choices along with a detailed glossary and index. Select ‘essential steps’ for a brief summary of making best use of the library. When you have finished there (or alternatively, first) go to the voluminous ‘how to . . .’ which gives detailed on-line tutorials on information seeking skills and tools. At least ten of the dozen or so College Application Essays tutorials here will help you research essays (finding theses, patents and staying up to date are of least interest). All of the material is printable for your later reference, and most contain hands-on tutorial exercises to use the resources on-screen. Take time to access each of the tutorials, read the material and do the exercises. Frequently asked questions are located under ‘faq’, and selecting College Application Essays the subject guides icon gives another access pathway (link) to the Geography and Environmental Science library resource page (which is described in the paragraph above).
Return to the library homepage and choose ‘Monash Voyager Catalogue’ (or alternatively go directly to http://library.monash.edu.au/). The latter is your principal interface with the library’s collections - now that you know how to use them. The Catalogue contains two College Application Essays broad search types: ‘Basic’ and ‘Advanced’. Notice the ‘help’ button at the top right of the page should you need it. Also note that subject material may be accessed through the Course Reserve icon, although your teaching staff will first notify you if any material has been placed there.
Please note that pp16-20 of your Computer Resources Booklet 2001 describes ‘The Electronic Library’ and is College Application Essays well supported by the CD-Rom accompanying it.
Appendix B: ACADEMIC READING AND NOTE-TAKING
To make the most of your studies in Geography and Environmental Science, you will need to undertake a large volume and wide variety of reading. This might not be too great a shock for voracious readers fresh from a successful VCE, but it does require a considerable effort. As in your previous studies, College Application Essays reading will supply vital information when:
* supporting other material such as when regularly checking texts
and recommended references to clarify and extend class notes,
* researching specific topics such as essays, and
* revising for examinations.
Nevertheless, there are some important differences with reading at university. Academic works are rarely written in a popular style; they are produced for specialist audiences, address very specific problems, use high-level language College Application Essays for clarity and precision, and are often laden with highly technical terms and graphics. These works may contain an enormous amount of detailed information, but it is the nature and quality of the ideas that is your major concern. By its very nature, much of the material you will be studying will be complex and may still be in dispute amongst so-called ‘experts’. Therefore, College Application Essays you will face a lot of often confusing and conflicting opinions about particular problems - the popular notion of merely ‘finding the facts’ is of little help. And of course as a university student, you will be working independently with little guidance on either the source or value of the references you choose to read.
You will need to think critically and systematically about the College Application Essays ideas expressed.
The Essay Writing Guide shown above offers some general directions, but listed below are a few reading and note-taking habits that may make your academic reading more efficient and effective.
1. Read with a clear purpose in mind so that you can identify relevant material and measure your progress. It may be worth posing a brief set of specific questions or tasks before you College Application Essays start reading - at the very least take the exact essay/tutorial topic with you.
2. Read consistently (e.g. during a set library session each week) rather than cramming - you will have more time to think critically, reflect upon and develop your thoughts.
3. Always make your own notes summarising the relevant points. Underlining or highlighting is better than trying to memorise, but they are both College Application Essays a poor substitute for writing the key points yourself. Use a separate sheet of paper or at least annotate the margins of photocopied readings (never the original). Write or keep all of your notes in the one place e.g. a binder or notebook so that they may be compared and developed. Don’t forget to record bibliographic detail and call numbers for later use. Miller College Application Essays recommends concept mapping as a useful revision technique (see Miller’s Appendix 4).
4. Note specific examples which you could incorporate in your own work. Excellent graphics should also be noted if they assist your understanding and future explanation of that topic, but remember that it is unacceptable to include photocopies of them in your own work (even with appropriate acknowledgment).
Where appropriate, you should try to College Application Essays identify and note the following (optional questions are included in parentheses [....]). All you need are some precise, well structured point form notes about the six (or seven) different items below. Obviously, you can devote most attention to those aspects of the problem relevant to your particular task (as in point 1 above). Simply ask yourself about the ‘PAMECIB’:
i. Context and nature of the College Application Essays problem.
Why are they addressing this issue?
What aspects are they emphasising?
What exactly is the problem as they see it?
ii. Structure and direction of the argument.
What is the argument/thesis/hypothesis being discussed/tested?
(This may be in the form of an ‘If . . . then . . .’ statement with explicit preconditions and parameters.)
iii. Methodology used to address the problem.
What techniques or methods do they incorporate to convince College Application Essays you of the validity of their argument?
[Are their methods replicable, reliable and convincing?]
iv. Type and use of evidence.
What sorts of evidence/examples are used?
Is this anecdotal?
[Is their sufficient evidence to maintain the argument?]
v. Conclusions.
What precisely do they conclude?
[Are their conclusions adequate?]
vi. Implications of the study.
So what?
What does this study tell us about previous arguments/investigations of this problem?
What does this study imply for our management of College Application Essays the problem ‘in the real world’?
Do the authors highlight any strengths or weaknesses in their own argument?
vii. Biographic information about the authors is optional - but it may help differentiate between competing or changing arguments. It is essential for a formal book review.]
This ‘PAMECIB’ framework may seem unwieldy, but it is precisely the type of structure used in the bulk of academic work in College Application Essays the natural and social sciences. It should demonstrate the necessity of actually making notes which force you to think more critically and abstractly than would be the case when you rely on the photocopier and highlighter pen. It will help you to think like the authors of your readings. And finally, it will certainly encourage you to express the problem in your own words College Application Essays - the basis of any good essay writing!
Appendix C: CARTOGRAPHIC CONVENTIONS
1. A map is oriented North uppermost and the orientation is indicated by:
(a) an arrow (North Point),
(b) a compass rose, or
(c) labelled lines of latitude and longitude.
2. The map should have a clear, descriptive title (ie. not 'Map 4') and the title should be centred at the top of the map. Maps and College Application Essays diagrams should be referred to as 'Figures'.
3. Map scale is indicated by:
(a) a linear scale,
b) properly labelled parallels and meridians, or
(c) the representative fraction (eg. 1: 50 000).
4. The map is bounded by a 'window' more properly called a neat line which serves as the terminus of all line and area symbols which in fact continue beyond the map limits.
5. Map elements which have College Application Essays no fixed location (ie. the title, the scale, and key) should be enclosed in rectangular panels or boxes, or otherwise clearly distinguished from the mapped information.
6. Sources of data and of the base map should be clearly acknowledged.
7. Symbols shown in the key, or legend, should reproduce exactly the symbols used on the map itself.
8. Different kinds of symbols, either areal or linear, should College Application Essays be used for different kinds of phenomena.
9. Symbols should be different sizes or different intensity or value (of colours or tones of areal symbols) or different magnitudes of similar phenomena. The largest quantity should always be represented by the darkest value or the biggest symbol.
10. Lettering of place names should be differentiated by:
(a) different sizes for different magnitudes of similar phenomena (eg. towns > College Application Essays villages),
(b) different styles of lettering for different kinds of phenomena
(frequently italic is used for physical features, upright for cultural features),
(c) UPPER CASE letters used for place names located within the named feature
(eg. PACIFIC OCEAN, AUSTRALIA),
(d) Lower Case letters with initial capitals for place names located beside the symbol for the feature (eg. towns [Melbourne], creeks [Darling River]).
11. Lettering should be horizontal whenever possible College Application Essays or oriented to reflect the linear trend of a feature (eg. a river), but when lettering departs from a horizontal orientation -
(a) lettering to the left of the centre of the map should read from bottom to top,
and
(b) lettering to the right of the centre of the map should read from top to bottom.
12. Use consistent styles, formats, symbols, fonts, etc. where appropriate.
Appendix D: College Application Essays GES1000 CRITERIA-BASED ESSAY ASSESSMENT SHEET
ASPECT SPECIFIC CRITERIA
(As demonstrated in essay by students’ . . . ) Achievement level
H M L NS
RESEARCH
Interpretation of question understanding of the nature and context of the essay question, as well as explaining key concepts
Extent of research number, variety and difficulty of the references used
Comprehension of source materials ability to select relevant points from College Application Essays the readings
ability to distinguish between various arguments including the development/diversification of ideas
ability to synthesize/summarise ideas
CONTENT
Quality of argument development of a logically-structured argument
use of appropriate supporting evidence
critical evaluation of ideas (including critique of contrary arguments, positions, or evidence)
relevance College Application Essays in dealing with the essay topic (and consistency with any explicit interpretation)
Communication of argument writing skills (including spelling, punctuation, grammar and clarity of expression)
use of appropriate data presentation methods (including figures [maps, plates] and tables)
use of appropriate bibliographic conventions (including referencing and bibliography)
|
