A VISUAL GUIDE TO Dr Valli Rao, Associate Professor Kate Chanock, and Dr Lakshmi Krishnan use a visual approach to walk students through the most ESSAY WRITING important processes in essay writing for university: formulating, refining, and expressing academic argument. ‘MetamorTHESIS‘ Your main argument or thesis is your position in answer to the essay question. It changes and develops as you undertake your reading and research towards the essay. how to develop & communicate academic argument “I love the way the authors explain what an argument is. I also love the way they justify holding opinions in an academic context … A Visual Guide to Essay Writing shows you excellently how to commu- nicate with your marker by employing your ‘authorial voice’.” - Dr Alastair Greig Head, School of Social Sciences The Australian National University “This is a great book ... clear, useful, beautifully conceived and produced ... an intriguing approach, one that will make sense to stu- Valli Rao dents and really assist their essay writing skills.” Kate Chanock - Brigid Ballard & John Clanchy authors of the international best-seller Lakshmi Krishnan Essay writing for students: a practical guide 1 How effective structure supports reasoned argument in essays Discipline/field Topic Underlying question Introduce discipline/field/context and topic Why is this topic interesting from the perspective of the discipline/field? [also consider how interested you are in the topic] I N T Focus R As necessary, indicate relevant debate, previous research, Roughly, O problem, definitions, scope in time & place, etc 10–15% D of essay U Signpost structure of argument length C T Tell the reader the sequence of your sections/ I issues in the body of your essay O N Indicate thesis statement (your main line of argument) Indicate your answer to the underlying question Section: T context/ h theory e Background s paragraph i paragraph s Paragraph structure Section: s 1 paragraph 1st issue u = 1 main idea p Analyse/ = 100/150/200 words paragraph p evaluate o Roughly, paragraph B r Topic sentence 80% of O t (the main idea in the essay D Section: e paragraph; feeds into length Y 2nd issue d section/issue) Analyse/ paragraph b evaluate Supporting sentences paragraph y (evidence, examples) e Concluding/linking Section: v sentence 3rd issue i d Analyse/ paragraph e evaluate paragraph n c e C O Draw together your findings/analysis from N each section of your argument Roughly, C 5–10% L State your conclusion/evaluation/researched of essay U thesis, based on your findings length S I Consider the implications of your evaluation O for the debate/problem in your discipline/field N 1 Read the assessment task carefully because a topic or discipline often requires a different structure. And always remember the golden ‘creativity rule’ — all rules are meant to be broken, it’s just that you first need to know them! Valli Rao’s doctorate, in English Kate Chanock studied anthro- literature, compared biblical pology for her B.A., followed archetypes in the works of by a PhD in African history, William Blake and Bernard training in TESL, and a Dip. Ed. Shaw. She has researched in She has taught in a high school the British Library, taught in Tanzania, a gaol in Texas, and literature at Flinders and with the Home Tutors Scheme in Adelaide Universities, and has Melbourne. In 1987, Kate joined two daughters. She is now an the Humanities Academic Skills adviser with the Academic Unit at La Trobe, where she is Skills & Learning Centre at the now Associate Professor. She Australian National University. has four daughters and two Valli enjoys theatre, bird- granddaughters (and another on watching and yoga. Her contact the way). She can be contacted email is [email protected]. at [email protected]. Lakshmi Krishnan is Head of the English Department at St Thomas College, Bhilai, in central India. Her doctorate was on the significance of the ‘feminine gaze’ in Anita Desai’s novels. Lakshmi’s passions include teaching, singing, helping stray animals, crosswords — and sketching, as you can see from the many illustra- tions she has done for this book. Published by Association for Academic Language & Learning (AALL), Sydney Printed by University Printing Services, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Rao, Valli, 1947 - . A visual guide to essay writing: how to develop and communicate academic argument ISBN 9780980429701 (paperback) ISBN 9780980429718 (ebook) 1. Dissertations, Academic 2. Academic writing 3.Authorship 4. Written communication I. Chanock, Kate, 1949 - . II. Krishnan, Lakshmi, 1950 - . III. Title 808.02 Paperback: A$9.95 (inclusive of GST) Ebook: free © 2007 Valli Rao, Kate Chanock, Lakshmi Krishnan This work is copyright. Except under the conditions permitted in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the authors (contact [email protected] or [email protected]). This book is available free as an ebook, on the internet. Log into any of the following websites and look for links to the book. Association for Academic Language & Learning (AALL): http://www.aall.org.au/ Academic Skills & Learning Centre (ASLC), The Australian National University (ANU): http://academicskills.anu.edu.au Humanities Academic Skills Unit, La Trobe University: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/supportunits/hasu People with dyslexia often have strengths in visual thinking. If you have dyslexia, or are working with a student with dyslexia, we hope you find this book useful. In order to avoid ‘white paper glare’ we have printed the paperback on recycled cream-colour paper. The online version has been made compatible for use with text-to-speech programs that can read aloud the text. Contents 1. Introduction: visual thinking to work out ideas ........... 7 2. Planning in time ............................................ 10 2.1 Planning your semester’s work in a course ................................ 10 2.2 Clarifying the big picture .............................................................. 14 2.3 The multi-layered timetable ........................................................ 15 2.4 Implementing your intentions ...................................................... 18 3. Before you start: recognising academic argument and its importance ........................................ 19 3.1 Weighing up the role of argument .............................................. 19 3.2 What do lecturers mean by ‘argument’? .................................. 20 4. Topic analysis: predicting argument ..................... 23 4.1 Relevance to the topic ................................................................... 23 4.2 Where’s the focus? ........................................................................ 24 4.3 Analysing a given topic ................................................................... 24 4.4 Making up your own topic and then tackling it ......................... 30 5. Reading and research: developing argument ............. 32 5.1 Ensuring a focused thesis statement......................................... 32 5.2 Stages of thesis-building .............................................................. 34 5.3 Searching for sources ................................................................... 39 5.4 Reading efficiently .......................................................................... 42 5.5 Taking notes from reading ............................................................ 44 5.6 Acknowledging sources ................................................................. 46 5.7 Writing an annotated bibliography ............................................. 48 5.8 Critical reviews ................................................................................ 50 6. Structure: communicating argument ..................... 51 6.1 The anthropomorphic (‘human-shaped’) outline ....................... 51 6.2 The introduction.............................................................................. 53 6.3 Paragraphing ..................................................................................... 58 6.4 Structuring a compare–contrast essay...................................... 60 6.5 Mindmapping to organise the body of your essay ................... 63 6.6 The conclusion .................................................................................. 67 6.7 Redrafting for structural coherence ......................................... 69 7. Academic style: the language of argument .............. 73 7.1 Audience — an invisible crowd! .................................................... 73 7.2 Degrees of endorsement ............................................................... 74 7.3 Some common academic practices .............................................. 75 7.4 Gender-inclusive pronouns ............................................................ 79 7.5 Editing and proofreading .............................................................. 80 8. Links to more resources for visual thinking ............. 82 8.1 Multiple intelligences (MI) ........................................................... 82 8.2 Graphic organisers (such as diagrams, etc) .............................. 83 Acknowledgements We thank all the students with whom we have worked over