Planning your assignment

Charmaine Botha
Learning Skills Advisor
Monash South Africa
Learning Skills Advisors Librarians
Charmaine Botha Sibusisiwe Mgquba
Focus: Focus
Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Sciences,
ADP & HDR ADP & HDR
Tel: 011 950 4455 Tel. 011 950 4150
charmaine.botha@monash.edu Sibusisiwe.mgquba@monash.edu

John Small Linda Mbonambi

Focus Focus
Bus Eco, IT, HDR & ADP Bus Eco, IT, HDR & ADP
Tel: 011 950 4248 Tel: 011 950 4032
John.small@monash.edu Linda.mbonambi@monash.edu

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What do we want to achieve with an
academic essay?
Demonstrate
to your lecturer that you are able to:
Embark on an inquiry analyse the question
Find Information / do research
Evaluate and Analyse the information
Organize the information
Apply the information to answer the question
Communicate your knowledge (written/oral

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Its like being a lawyer presenting a case
in court:

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 Assessment 1:
Literature Search and Referencing
In lab classes you have discussed what constitutes a good source of
information and different search strategies you can use to find good
quality references
Word limit (where applicable): 800-1000 words
Value: 15%
Due Date: 26th March
Presentation requirements: Standard scientific report (annotated
bibliography) It requires both an indicative and evaluative
annotation. (Paragraph) in APA formatting as detailed in Findlay, B.
(2011). How to write psychology research reports and essays (5th ed.).
Frenchs Forest, Australia: Prentice Hall.
Estimated Return Date: 14 working days after submission

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Literature research and referencing
For this activity, your task is to use the search strategies
described above to locate eight good quality and
relevant sources for one of the following topics:
Discuss the various parenting styles. Which
style do you think is the best and why?
Does taste aversion therapy for alcoholism
produce behavioural change?
What do you understand by adolescent peer
culture? In what way the peer culture affects
an adolescents development and behaviour?

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 Part 1: Annotated Bibliography (5%)

At least six of these eight sources must be a research

report. For each source, you should provide the following:

Reference details as they would appear in an APA

formatted reference list - see Findlay, pp. 82-90. You
should also use APA format when citing your sources
throughout your response.
A short description of why you chose the source as
relevant to your topic. This is thus an annotated
bibliography which requires both an indicative and
evaluative annotation

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 Guidelines
To refresh your memory, the most appropriate sources of
information to cite in your literature review are academic texts on a
specific topic and journal articles (i.e., literature reviews and
research reports). The primary strategies we discussed for finding
information were:
Familiarise yourself with the topic using an introductory psychology
text or internet search
Use the library search engine to locate relevant books
(http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/)
Search the library databases for relevant journal articles
(http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/databases/psychology_&_psychiatry.htm
l)
Follow up sources you find while reading other sources. For example:
search forwards by using citation indexes to find other sources that
have cited the work you are reading; or search backwards by using
the reference list of what you are reading to locate relevant sources.

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 At least six of these eight sources must be
a research report. For each source, you
should provide the following:
Reference details as they would appear in
an APA formatted reference list - see
Findlay, pp. 82-90. You should also use
APA format when citing your sources
throughout your response.
A short description of why you chose the
source as relevant to your chosen topic
Thus an annotated bibliography
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 Evaluating an journal article on a
research report

Who were the participants?

What task were they presented with?
What were the key results?
What did the researcher conclude from the results?
Are there any limitations in the methodology or things
that could be done differently next time?

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Recommended Data Bases
Finding a specific
Database:
Chose letter on
A-Z list:
(or according to
subject):
Scopus
Science Direct
PubMed
Ovid medline

General Search:
Type in key concepts
to do a general
search under the
Monash SA, e-book
or Online Articles tab
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SOURCE authority & scope & relevance of weakness/
qualification of main the selected limitation in
the authors purpose of work to your relation to
/internet sites. texts/articles essay your essay
(addresses or
covers, what
subjects or
topics are
included, and
any special
features)
Mary
(2004)
Peter
(1983)
Etc.

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 Find Witnesses (resources)
Once you have identified the content area you will need to
examine, you will need to consider what kinds of resources are
required (books, journals, websites, statistics, etc.) and set about
acquiring them.
Look at your reading list, use the reference lists of these books
and journals, and identify what will be required.
Remember you will need to evaluate the worth of these
resources, so read critically.
Decide what kind of supporting information will be necessary,
and set about organising your resources to achieve your goal.
Often books are good for big picture information, while journals
are often good for supporting details.

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 Part 2: Critical Thinking essay (10%)
Word limit (where applicable): 1500 words
Value: 15%
Due Date: 7th May
Presentation requirements: Standard scientific report
academic essay in APA formatting as detailed in pages
98-112 in
Findlay, B. (2011). How to write psychology research reports and essays (5th ed.).
Frenchs Forest, Australia: Prentice Hall.

Estimated Return Date: 14 working days after submission

Criteria for Marking: See guide below
CRITICALLY Often, rather than asking you to criticise, assignments add
critically to another direction word: critically analyse, critically
examine, etc. This means analysing, examining etc. in a
questioning way: How does this work? Why is it like this? What
are its strengths and weaknesses?

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Expanding an argument

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 Details of task:
You are required to write an academic essay on one of the
following topics:
(Your chosen topic does not have to be the same as the one you chose in
assessment 1)

Discuss the various parenting styles. Which style do you think is

the best and why?
Does taste aversion therapy for alcoholism produce behavioural
change?
What do you understand by adolescent peer culture? In what
way the peer culture affects an adolescents development and
behaviour?

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 How to go about it
Giving an evaluation of good quality literature
and previous research conducted, you are going
to answer the question posed in your topic.
Support your reasoning with the literature and
studies you have read on the topic. (The primary
readings for each topic have been provided as a guide to
start you off, but you need to include more references in
your essay.)
This exercise is to be written in an essay format.
Please refer to the marking guide and Findlay for further
guidelines on how to write psychology essays.

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 Begin by identifying the key concepts
e.g. the topic/content areas
Identify the directive words e.g.
analyse, discuss, etc. (see list on share
drive)
Note any limitations e.g. scope, time
period, field of study, area

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 Starting references:
Discuss the various parenting styles. Which style do you think (your
motivated academic opinion) is the best and why?
Aunola, K. & Nurmi, J. (2005). The role of parenting styles in childrens problem behavior. Child Behaviour, 76(6), 1144-1159.

Spera, C. (2005). A review of the relationship among parenting practices, parenting styles, and adolescent school achievement.
Educational Psychology Review, 17(2), 125-146.

Does taste aversion therapy for alcoholism produce behavioural

change?
Elkins, R. L. (1991). An appraisal of chemical aversion (emetic therapy) approaches to alcoholism treatment. Behaviour Research
and Therapy, 29(5), 387-413.

Revusky, S. (2009). Chemical aversion treatment of alcoholism. In S. Reilly, & T. R. Schachtman (Eds.), Conditioned taste
aversion: Behavioral and neural processes (pp. 445-472). New York: Oxford University Press

What do you understand (describe) by adolescent peer culture? In

what way (discuss) the peer culture affects an adolescents development
and behaviour?
Jones, D. C., Vigfusdottir, T. H. & Lee Y. (2004). Body image and the appearance culture among adolescent girls and boys: An
examination of friend conversations, peer criticism, appearance magazines, and the internalization of appearance ideals. Journal
of Adolescent Research, 19 (3), 323-339

La Greca, A. M., Prinstein, M. J. & Fetter, M. D. (2001). Adolescent peer crowd affiliation: Linkages with health-risk behaviours and
close friendships. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 26(3), 131-143.
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 Plan your argument
Once you have analysed the topic and read your
starting references, you will need to construct a
rough plan.
Some students prefer to make a plan before
researching, some after. However, it is important to
remain flexible, as your knowledge of the topic and
opinion on it may change as you read more.
You might find that your witnesses (as for your
annotated bibliography) are vague or unreliable and
you may need to find others

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 The essay/report structure
Can be seen as a diamond with the introduction and conclusion at the top and bottom and the
body paragraphs fitting into the middle of the diamond in a series of smaller diamond shapes.

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 Prepare to communicate your argument
After having completed some reading and/or
writing, set about constructing your response or
thesis statement to the question. Again, however,
remain flexible. There is no such thing as perfect
knowledge of a topic!
Often it is best to start writing on a body section,
as the introduction and conclusion may change as
your work progresses.

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 Body paragraphs
Paragraph element Purpose

1. Topic This sentence starts by referring to the thesis/your

Sentence argument. It continues to include the main point of this
paragraph (your voice)
2. Additional This explains further the point made in the topic sentence.
Information (your voice)

3. Evidence These are essential to justify your point. Your evidence

sentences comes from your research and may include examples,
data, quotes, statistics, graphics and illustrations. All
supporting evidence must be from authoritative sources and
cited in your essay. (quote or paraphrase reference voice)
4. Concluding Again, this sentence links the main thesis of the essay with
sentence the main point of the paragraph. (your voice)

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 Review / edit (final)
Read for content
Read for grammar
Communicate Read for spelling
: Essay
Get someone else to read and
comment By when?
Check your unit guide for rubric or guidelines (moodle)
Written assignments will be graded according to how well they meet all the following criteria: (see more details
below)
1. accuracy (has correct names, dates, places)
2. structure (has proper introduction, conclusion, signposting)
3. expression (is clear/concise/grammatical/lively)
4. relevance (answers the question/avoids digression or repetition)
5. depth (has quotations, examples, drawn from a range of appropriate sources)
6. intellectual engagement (engages with the sources/makes an argument)
7. format (has a departmental cover sheet/has bibliography, notes if required)
8. presentation (has proper margins/no unsightly corrections)

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 Writing your essay
For more assistance on
writing or
communicating your
findings, contact a
learning skills advisor
in the library

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