Communicating

SAH1100: Communicating Ideas Assessment 2: Essay

Purpose

Essays are major form of assessment at university. Through this Essay you will develop your understanding of the topic, strengthen your critical thinking, and your ability to translate that thinking into a persuasive written form.

Task Description

Essay question:

Discuss how Foucauldian notions of power function in the film The Sapphires, making reference to key discourses and binary oppositions within the film.

In your Essay, you must:

Use at least 5 academic sources to support your arguments (3 of these must be sourced from texts other than set readings)

Ensure that any quotes that are cited must be correctly referenced

Provide evidence of further reading pertaining to the subject material. This is a paramount requirement.

Essay Prompt

Discuss how Foucauldian notions of power function in the film The Sapphires, making reference to key discourses and binary oppositions within the film.

Additional Information

To help you complete this task successfully, the following resources are provided:

Marking Criteria refer to this to understand how you will be assessed

Checklist: How to write an Essay use this to help you complete the task

Checklist: How to write an Essay

Copy and paste this checklist into your Notes. Check off each step as you complete it.

Step 1: Task Understanding

Read the Instructions and Checklist carefully

Read the Marking Rubric carefully

Carefully analyse the Essay question:

Check the meaning of every word using a generalist or specialist dictionary

Identify key words and identify their function:

Directive words will tell you what you are required to do, e.g. analyse means divide into parts or elements to discover the nature of something

Content words establish the general focus of the question and define the subject are, e.g. Discuss the development of French opera

Limiting words limit the scope of the topic, making the question more manageable, e.g. Discuss two perspectives

Once you understand the meaning of the question, rephrase it in your own words

Step 2: Topic Research

Review your Assessment 1 submission, feedback and rubric markers you will need to use these research skills in this task

Review Week 2 Lecture: Library Search

Identify a set of potentially useful resources ie. sources that will help you answer your question

Survey, skim, and scan to find the relevant articles, and parts of articles

Step 3: Critical Reading

As you read each resource, jot down notes using this framework (adapted from Marshall and Rowland (2006)):

Authors purpose: why has the author written the material?

Authors approach: what are the authors assumptions in writing this material(are there any biases)?

Authors content: what are the main ideas or arguments? How do they develop these ideas or arguments? What evidence, examples or explanations are used to support the arguments, findings or conclusions?

Tip: as you read, make reference notes of any sources

Step 4: Essay Plan

Use this structure to plan your Essay:

Introduction: this is where you explain what your Essay will be about and what you will be arguing

Clarify how you intend to interpret or limit the question

Provide a clear and brief overview of your argument and the main supporting points

Clarify how you are defining key terms in the question

Discussion: this is where you develop your argument and analysis. Add a paragraph for each main idea or theme, including:

Topic sentence stating the main theme or idea

Sentences elaborating on each theme or idea with supporting evidence and examples

Tip: your Essays argument will emerge from and demonstrates your critical reading and needs to incorporate evidence from your readings

Concluding sentence summarising the points, linking to the next paragraph/argument

Conclusion: this is where you make the conclusions based on your discussion clear

Reiterate back to the claims in the introduction, which have now been fully developed and substantiated, to reiterate them more assertively.

Reference List:

Include a list of all references you cited

Step 5: First Draft

Build on your plan, focusing on the structure and argument.

Use this Editing Checklist to review your work:

Introduction:

Does your introduction explain how you understand the topic?

Are your key terms defined?

Does it clearly state your argument?

Does it map out the essay?

Discussion:

Does each paragraph have one main idea or theme?

Do all the sentences contribute to the main idea or theme?

Are the points you make in a logical order?

Do the paragraphs connect with each other?

Is your argument consistent?

Are the sentences too long?

Conclusion:

Does the conclusion bring all your different points together?

Does it make it clear what your position is?

Step 6: Second Draft

Build on your first draft, focusing on the paragraph level structure with the ai

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