1. Essay Writing for Students in the BA in Human Resource Manangement programme Regional Writing Centre, UL Patricia Herron, Lawrence Cleary and Dr. Íde O’Sullivan

2. Game Plan—What do we want to accomplish today? How do we structure a business report/essays? Getting it from my head onto paper in a way that meets with my desires Sounding academic and being relevant vocabulary

3. What does the Writing Centre do? We help students to establish a framework on which to build a way of approaching any occasion for writing. We work on writers, not on writing. We look at processes, and ask questions about writing strategies.

4. A Framework for Writing-strategy Development Writing Process Prewriting Assessing the Rhetorical Situation Inventing Planning Gathering information Drafting Revision Global Local

5. Research and Writing Strategies Cognitive Metacognitive Afffective Social

6. Assessing the Rhetorical Situation Occasion Topic Audience Purpose Writer

7. Analysing the Assignment ‘Understanding organisational behaviour has never been more important for managers’ (Robbins, 2003:14). Explain why this is the case, outlining in your answer the challenges and oppor- tunities faced by managers, and the value of understanding organisational behaviour to a practicing manager.

8. Analysing the Assignment Let’s look at some of your assignments

9. The Importance of Prewriting What do we do before we write? Assessing of the context into which we write Making a provisional plan and trying to visualize the paper Researching and note-taking as a strategy against accidental plagiarism

10. Assessment Criteria What makes for a good essay at this academic level? A clear organizing principle Logical, coherent overall structure with a sound, easy-to-follow conceptual framework Well structured, cogent, coherent paragraphs A stimulating rhythm controlled by suitable, but variable sentence structures Appropriate lexical choices Intertextuality Responsibility

11. Intertextuality Understanding and accurate reporting of the most current discourse on the topic Accurate reporting: Quoting—the author’s words Paraphrasing—a complete and accurate rendition of the author’s thoughts Summarising—a general, but accurate idea of what the author said/ the gist Referencing (parenthetically/in full)

12. Rigour The academic project is not to be right, but to expose what is true—regardless of the consequences. Academic rigour requires that students look beyond what lies on the surface, considering inferences and evidence that is based on cultural assumptions that have no foundation in fact, but only in cultural consensus.

13. Critical Thinking Knowing without understanding Critical analysis/evaluation of the work of others Strengths and weaknesses and justifications for the evaluations Similarities and differences in arguments or methodologies, evidence or line of reasoning The degree to which something known can be generalized to other populations/situations Degree of sophistication/complexity

14. Critical thinking Critical thinking means: Identifying the big players in a discourse on a particular subject Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of all of the various positions on a particular issue Being able to identify trends in thinking or occurrences based on available evidence Constructing logical answer frameworks that lead your audience through your thought process as you follow the evidence Selecting the best evidence Selecting evidence that illustrates or demonstrates your point or main argument

15. Drafting The best time to begin writing is now Cover page with a working title Reference page—As you read and take notes, write parenthetical references in your notes and full references on a reference page. You can always delete sources that you do not refer to in your text. Drafting—beginning to give shape to the vision

16. Drafting The best time to begin writing is now Cover page with a working title Reference page—As you read and take notes, write parenthetical references in your notes and full references on a reference page. You can always delete sources that you do not refer to in your text. Drafting—beginning to give shape to the vision

17. Drafting—A place to start What problems am I having with this paper? Freewrite—tell us what it is about. Tell us about the paper. 5minutes, non-stop Express complete thoughts (not bullets and phrases, but sentences) Do not edit Private writing

18. Drafting Sometimes we freewrite/draft just to collect our thoughts. Sometimes we freewrite/draft just to clarify our thoughts, to distinguish what we know from what we only thought we knew. Sometimes, freewriting/drafting is a strategy that we use to begin the paper—jumping in at the deep end.

19. Global Issues When drafting, one might pause occasional- ly, to see if anything is developing—to see if the paper is taking any identifiable direction. It is at this time that we are looking for some sort of framework on which the paper (the argument) will hang…a point of order. Do not worry about tone or grammar, vocabulary or sentence structure, or punctuation.

20. Methods of Development In the assignment that I began with, what is the relationship between the truth of the proposition and these present day challenges and opportunities? What is the relationship between these present-day circumstances and the value of understanding organizational behaviour? Can you say what these relationships are? Can you explain these relationships to yourself or others?

21. Methods of Development Given that you know that the truth of the proposition is dependent on management’s ability to skilfully match some aspect of their understanding of organizational behaviour to a particular present-day condition and that the value of that understanding is dependent on its ability to inform decisions that help the organisation survive or grow, how does this knowledge help you to develop the paper, your explanation…your ideas? Can you diagram the development of ideas in your paper?

22. Drafting and Revising At some point during the drafting stage, a writer stops to survey what has been written. The writer identifies possible points of departure for the rest of the paper— directions in which the paper might go. The writer decides if he or she likes the shape of the paper and the direction it is taking. The writer attempts to “re-see”/”re-think” the paper.

23. Drafting and Revising Is the text answering the question set in a way that is acceptable to the intended audiences? Is the information being organized so that the readers will be able to follow the logic? Is the purpose of the paper clear? Is there sufficient, relevant support for the argument being made or justifications for claims made? Is the writer appealing to the readers sense of reason and for the credibility of his or her sources?

24. Revision: Global Issues Conceptual/argumentative framework Logical arrangement of ideas Chronological order—such as in processes Comparison/contrast Cause/effect Order of importance/significance Organization according to size: large to small Degree to which something is a true or is a factor etc Detection of flaws in the logic Logical flow of ideas

25. Revision: Global Issues How might the introduction better evoke the interest of your readers? How might the conclusion better leave the reader with the desired response? How much knowledge are you assuming on the part of your audience, and how might you present the information more clearly? Have you managed to avoid repeating ideas? A successful paper doesn’t repeat ideas, but develops ideas. Are sections of the paper choppy? Which sections flow best? Which need work? Is it clear how each paragraph supports the initial claim or helps to answer the overriding question?

26. Editing and Proofreading Local Issues: Paragraphs: are they cohesive and coherent? Paragraphs: is any information in the paragraph unnecessary or confusing? Paragraphs: Is it clear what each paragraph is about and how one paragraph follows logically from the one before? Paragraphs: What decides the limits of the conversation in each paragraph?

27. Editing and Proofreading Local Issues: Sentence-level problems: Is it a sentence? Does it express a complete thought? Does it express what you thought it expressed? Do you jumble your sentence structures to reflect a more lively or less droning rhythm? Phrasing and Word Choices: Grammatical? Appropriate?—register, etc.

28. Editing and Proofreading Logical and Grammatical Relations Conjunctions: coordinators, subordinators and adjuncts Is the relationship between ideas joined accurate? Is the relationship between items in parallel? Noun-noun substitutes (synonyms) and noun- pronoun substitutes Is it clear what ‘they’ refers to? Are we talking about ‘cats’ in general or ‘those [particular] cats’? Do you think that your reader will understand that ‘these’ refers to a list of events that were discussed three paragraphs ago?