6.3.1 Stage 1 Brainstorm To begin your planning, you need to generate ideas or brainstorm. At this stage, you are including everything that you think may be relevant. Nothing should be dismissed yet; this part is about gathering your resources and your thoughts. For instance, using the essay title ‘There are advantages to studying as a mature student. Do you agree?’, we tried to brainstorm for ideas and produced this list (but, of course, it wasn't this tidy):
6.1.2 Essay planning Carefully read the following short essay. Try to identify its strengths and weaknesses in terms of planning. Take your time, but don't think you need to be familiar with the content, you are trying to find what provides the writing's framework. Then try to answer the questions that follow in Activity 13. 6.1.1 Report planning Table 2 highlights the elements of a science or technology report, though the same general principles apply in other disciplines too. 5.2.2 Opening up ideas: analysing the question What do you need to know about your assignment? Most importantly, what it's about (i.e. the topic). Once you have worked this out, you are in a better position to gauge how much you already know and how much you will need to find out. 5.2.1 When to look at the question At what stage do you look at the title of your next assignment? Note down what you think are the advantages and disadvantages of looking at the title before and after starting to work through the relevant section of your c 2.1 Your feelings about writing Think for a moment about your reasons for studying this unit. Is it perhaps because you don't understand what is expected of you in your assignments, or that you aren't clear about how to improve? What are your feelings about your writing skills? What previous experience have you had (if any) of essay or report writing? Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to: understand what writing an assignment involves; identify their strength and weaknesses; consider the functions of essays and reports; develop writing skills, whatever the stage they have reached. Introduction Most academic courses will require you to write assignments or reports, and this unit is designed to help you to develop the skills you need to write effectively for academic purposes. It contains clear instruction and a range of activities to help you to understand what is required, and to plan, structure and write your assignments or reports. You will also find out how to use feedback to develop your skills. 8.4 Carrying out research During this stage you get down to the business of analysing and interpreting the meanings of all your primary and secondary source material (documents, reports, newspaper accounts, books and articles), in the ways outlined in the previous sections of this unit. As you do so you will be making notes towards your project report. In this connection, it is very important to write down full references for all the material you use as you read each item. Then you can easily find partic 5.2 The value of the text We now turn to a critical assessment of the poem as a poem; the question is, is it a ‘good’ poem? To that we should add ‘of its kind’. As we saw, we must judge it as a lyric poem – it would be inappropriate to think of it in the same terms as, say, an epic, because the conventions that govern the epic's form (its subject matter, purposes and formal elements) are very different. It is always important to understand what kind of text you are dealing with no 4.3 Analysis and interpretation We have got to the point of recognising that this is a lyric poem, and of thinking that it is probably about a lovers’ meeting. But you cannot reach firmer conclusions about a text's meanings until you have looked at as many aspects of it as you can. I think we need to go back again to the detail of the poem, because the analysis is not full enough yet. For one thing, there is something odd about the poem's syntax. If you look at the verbs in the first verse you'll see that they are a 4.2 Meaning and ‘form’ The question remains, what is this poem ‘about’? Or, rather, we should ask, ‘what kind of poem is it?’ Poems (paintings, ideas, music, buildings, historical documents) are not all ‘one kind of thing’. As we become familiar with poetry we learn to distinguish between different kinds of poem, or between different poetic forms. Epic poems, for example, are extremely long stories about the doings of a noble warrior, voyager, or similar ‘hero’. Other char 2.1 Reading Before you begin your interrogation of a text, though, you have to get to know it in a general way. In a sense, you can ‘see’ visual texts (such as paintings, sculptures and buildings) all at once; there they are before you. You can move around them, looking at them from different angles. But with written, aural and moving image texts – in which words, sounds or images follow on from one another – you cannot become familiar with the whole thing until Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to: recognise the importance of interpersonal skills describe how good communication with other can influence our working relationships outline the roles we play in our work groups and teams Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions). This content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence All materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University. 10 Next steps After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit. Here are a few suggestions: 9.7.1 Negotiate and develop effective ways of presenting the work As you complete the project, you need to finalise how you will present the work making sure that all involved agree with the decisions. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of the working methods you and others in the group proposed. This may be in terms of resource requirements, legal, health and safety regulations, and so on. 9.3.4 Plan work with others for achieving the quality outcomes required If you are doing this to complete a project as part of your study, check if the work is going to be assessed, and make sure you know how marks will be allocated and what criteria will be used. Take time to read carefully any instructions you have been given on group work for the activity – ask your tutor for advice if you are unsure about anything, particularly if this is the first time you have been set a group task. Check whether you will be assessed as a group or as individuals. Will the 9.3.3 Identify relevant sources of information Exploring and identifying sources of information is about finding out what you don't know as well as using and adapting what you do know. Group projects and assignments frequently require you to carry out research and this will involve identifying specific resources you may need. For example, think about the materials and equipment that might be needed and whether the group needs to get specific expert advice and support and, if so, where you can obtain this. It is also important to spe 9.3.1 Establish opportunities for using skills in working with others You need to identify activities that will provide you with opportunities for working with others over a period of 3 months or so. This could involve both one-to-one and group situations, such as working on a particular project at work, a group project as part of your course or e-conferencing on a group assignment.
There are advantages to stu
Table 2 The main elements of a science or technology report
Element
Purpose
Description
title
attrac
Activity 9
Activity 8
Author(s):
Time out
