Australia and Asia Transformed (INTR1001): A number of Australia’s Asian neighbour states have undergone major social and cultural transformations since World War II. How have these changes affected their relationship with Australia?
Recommendations for Essay Writing
The following provides some recommendations about ways to improve your written work for
the Research Essay.
1. Ensure you thoroughly understand the assessment requirements
Carefully read through the assessment instructions and make sure your paper
sufficiently addresses all the required elements
Focus your paper on addressing the question asked
If you are unsure what is required, don’t rely on assumptions. Ask your tutor
for clarification (and don’t wait until the last minute!)
2. Make sure your argument is supported by research from the peer-reviewed literature
The most important element of your research is quality. You can have too few
references, but you can also have too many
The texts you utilise should predominantly be scholarly. Non-scholarly
sources (such as online magazines, newspaper articles and moderated
blogs) should be used sparingly and only when there is no up-to-date
information within the scholarly literature or when facts and figures are not
covered, or discussed, in the main scholarly texts
Never use Wikipedia as a reference.
If you are having trouble finding sufficient scholarly sources, ask your tutor for
help
3. Plan out the structure of your paper before you begin writing
Focus on making the key points to support your answer to the question, which
you then fully explain, justify and illustrate
Don’t waste words on peripheral issues (even if they are) interesting
Start with a list of the main points your argument needs to cover and
elaborate from there
4. The bulk of your paper should be devoted to your analysis
Ensure you have a clear argument that is consistent throughout the paper
Take a position in your argument – don’t try and hedge your bets by watering
down your claims, be confident in what you are saying
But make sure you support your claims with evidence
Any descriptive, background or contextual information should be kept concise
and should only be included where it is relevant to your argument (i.e. to
explain, justify and illustrate)
5. Include a clear and concise introduction and conclusion
The introduction must directly answer the question (don’t waffle)
The introduction should provide an outline of your argument (i.e. a map for
the reader)
Don’t hold back any of your key conclusions from the introduction (you are not
writing a mystery novel)
You conclusion should reiterate your argument in answer to the question. It
should match the introduction
Your argument should be clear from the beginning of the paper, and you
should regularly remind the reader about it throughout the body of the paper
6. Read through your paper once it is written and ensure the structure and argument
are clear and flow well
Ensure the transitions between ideas and paragraphs make sense
Ensure general or theoretical information and case study information supports
specific key points
Regardless of the creativity of your ideas or how many good insights you
include, you will not receive a good mark if they are delivered in a fragmented
way that makes it difficult to read
Ask a friend or colleague to read your paper with fresh eyes (preferably
someone with little or no expertise in the topic). They are more likely to pick
up aspects of your paper that do not read well or fail to make sense.
7. Grammar is an important tool to ensure clear communication
Use the grammar and spelling check function on your document creation
program and read through your work thoroughly to pick up any errors
Ideas such as “implied punctuation” can be exclusionary to anyone from a
different linguistic background to you – you should aim for your written work to
be clear to any reader
If particular grammatical mistakes were frequently picked up in your previous
assessments, make an effort to concentrate on finding these same kinds of
errors in future work before submission
If the feedback you have received is about improving your style of
writing/grammar or you are unsure about an aspect of academic writing or
grammar, seek help from colleagues or university services such as the library
(see below for helpful links)
8. Make sure anything that is taken directly from one of your sources is quoted correctly
or paraphrased thoroughly and referenced appropriately
Papers that are not well paraphrased can cause plagiarism issues and can
also affect how well you communicate your ideas – your work can read as a
broad generalisation of the topic you are focusing on or as inaccurate
Use the draft submission Turnitin channel before final submission to check
what the system picks up and edit your work as needed
If you are unsure about paraphrasing, the library offers essay writing skills
workshops which can help (see the links below)
9. Make sure your paper is thoroughly and correctly referenced
If you are unsure about referencing, the university has many options to help
you. Some links you may find helpful include:
Referencing Guides:
APA 6th
http://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa
Chicago 17th B
http://libguides.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/chicago
Footnotes (Chicago/Turabian style)
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocChicago.html
Online Courses:
http://studyskills.curtin.edu.au/
Workshops:
https://bookings.library.curtin.edu.au/calendar/workshops/?cid=7234&t=d&d=
0000-00-00&cal=7234#
10. Make sure you are 100% sure of the due date and time for your assessment
Leave enough time to ensure the submission goes through without any
problems – the end of semester is a busy time and the system may be slow
Have a contingency plan in place that will still allow you to submit on time
even if you have computer, internet or similar issues
Make sure you get a Turnitin submission receipt – this tells you that your
submission was successful and your paper is now on the system ready to be
marked. If there are any issues, your receipt is proof that you submitted on
time
11. If you feel that you might not be able to submit your paper on time, ensure you
contact your tutor to apply for an extension (with a completed application form and
relevant supporting documentation) as soon as possible
If you have an extension and find that you end up being able to submit on the
original due date, that is fine, you can do so. It’s better to have an extension
and not need it than to not have one and end up with late penalties because
you were unable to submit on time
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