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This book guides students in how to construct coherent and powerful essays and
dissertations by demystifying the process of creating an argument and helping
students to develop their critical skills. It covers everything from the
beginning stages of reading critically and keeping notes, through to the final
stages of redrafting and proof-reading. It provides step-by-step instructions in
how to identify, define, connect and contrast sociological concepts and
propositions in order to produce powerful and well-evidenced arguments. Students
are shown how to apply these lessons in essay writing, and to a longer piece of
writing, such as a dissertation, as well as how to solve common problems
experienced in writing, including getting rid of waffle, overcoming writer’s
block and cutting an essay down to its required length. For students wishing to
improve their basic writing skills or to refresh their memories, the book also
gives a clear and concise overview of the most important grammatical rules in
English and how to use them to good effect in writing clear sentences and
sensible paragraphs.
Examples from essays written by sociology students at
leading universities are used throughout the book. These examples are used to
show what students have done well, what could be done better and how to improve
their work using techniques of argument construction. It will be of use to
students studying sociology and related disciplines, such as politics,
anthropology and human geography, as well as for students taking a course which
draws upon sociological writing, such as nursing, social psychology or health
studies.
available; however, there are also a number of useful collections and websites to which you might add your report, as well as other research communication resources, which can help them to be located more easily. Databases like InformalScience.Org ( http://informalscience.org /) and the Collective Memory ( http://collectivememory.britishscienceassociation.org /) will allow you to add reports, whilst resources like the Out of School Time database ( www.hfrp.org/out-of-school-time/ost-database-bibliography/database ) and the World Bank Group ( http
underlying principle of research ethics is that no one should be harmed in the process of research or evaluation (Hoggarth and Comfort, 2010 ). The word ‘harm’ needs to be considered at a broad level. It can of course include physical harm which might occur, particularly in medical or health-related settings, but it also includes psychological harm, for instance in social research if someone is revisiting a particular experience or memory. Furthermore, there might be social harm caused by your project; perhaps your evaluation might reveal information that could be
, oneself, etc.); demonstrative (this, those, that, etc.); interrogative (whose, what, which, who, etc.); relative (whom, which, that, etc.); and indefinite (someone, nobody, everything, all, etc.). And there is a good reason for giving some thought to one of these groups in particular, the possessive. Refreshing your memory of the pronouns in this group will help protect you from one of the commonest examples of the misplaced apostrophe. The possessive pronouns are: mine, ours, yours, hers, his, its, theirs. The trick is to remind yourself of the list and remember that
transform the world’ (Anon, nd: np). Using an interdisciplinary approach, the UCL ‘extreme citizen science’ group seeks to design technologies that enable local people to understand their local environment. Similar to Public Lab, this group helps communities to engage with scientific methodologies to address specific environmental issues. Its Intelligent Maps project is being tested in the Republic of the Congo as a means of helping communities develop ‘Community Memories’ that explore the state of their local environment, their relationship with that environment, and
archive has collected together photographs, maps and historical information and is working with high school students to collect the memories of survivors of the atomic bomb (in Japanese). This project combines these individual voices with historical research to create an archive that provides both a single, overarching digital story as well as poignant individual stories. Carmen’s story and the Nagasaki archive are both similar and different. Both offer personal insights and both tell a story. The linear story that Carmen presents allows limited interactivity (you can
achievement will also bare consideration. [Quotation from a third-year sociology student’s dissertation] Apart from noticing the spelling mistake in the final line (bear and bare are homophones, discussed in Part III), you are likely to have found it hard to take all this in. So a good reason for keeping sentences compact is that it puts less of a strain on a reader’s memory. In the process, following the grammatical structure is easier and thus the meaning more readily grasped. Even if a long sentence is not particularly complex, one that is composed of
weaknesses and ignorance, but it is important to consider the risk of provoking memories amongst participants (Kidd, 2012 ) and any ethical ramifications this could create. For some researchers a sense that discussion of their research could include anything beyond evidence and knowledge, infringing on personal perspectives, feelings or attitudes, may in itself create a negative reaction. Finally, face-to-face activities can sometimes be a victim of their own success. Many of the examples provided in this chapter have proved popular with participants and therefore