Students often have difficulty understanding how to answer a particular question on an exam or assignment. Let's look at particular phrases and examine how they can give us clues about how we should answer a given question.
Today, the key words we will look at in exams and papers are: discuss, explain, illustrate, describe, demonstrate and outline. A question might ask you, for instance, to outline the key concepts on a particular subject in marketing or organizational behaviour. Conversely, another question might ask you to illustrate the central concepts in a particular subject with examples from your own organizational practices. How do you answer these questions?
In the first example, you will be pleased to know that key concepts, central ideas or central concepts all boil down to the same thing. The tutor wants you to pick out the important contributions from the theorists a subject such as Organizational Behaviour or Strategy. After you find these key ideas, you should describe each one briefly. Usually, questions like this also involve outlining examples of these key concepts. Moreover, you need to be clear and describe all of these major theories so that each one is clearly differentiated from the other theories. If examples are required, you need to explain how each one is an example of the theory. If you don't explain the relevance of your examples, the tutor cannot see that you know how to use critical thinking. Critical thinking, as I've explained in other blogs, is key to the educational process at University of Leicester.
You may also asked to provide illustrations, these are the same as examples. Illustrations show the module tutor that you know how to apply the theory you are discussing to real examples from journal articles or real life. You can combine ideas to synthesize new concepts and to evaluate each concept. Evaluation shows the module tutor/marker that you have considered the importance of the ideas that you are discussing relative to the discipline itself.
Let us consider the meaning of these other words:
Outline - Describe an idea briefly, showing each of its component parts or ideas
Discuss - Analyse an idea, show the reader that you understand an idea and its importance and how it works with example, this implies critical analytic thinking
Demonstrate - This assumes that you are going to provide examples. These examples must be analysed to show that you understand how they are relevant to the ideas you are discussing.
Module tutors use different words to give variety and depth to their questions. In turn, they expect that you will provide more than the facts. Facts are just the starting point for understanding and critical thinking. You need to show tutors that these goals are within your reach. If you have problems with English vocabulary, you need to get a good Oxford Dictionary. If you have problems with writing, you need to consider some of the grammar books I have cited previously in other blogs. Most of all, however, you need to maintain a positive attitude. Remember too, that there is a Skills Tutor to help you along the road.
KB
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Poor Scholarship: What's the problem?
Hi, I'm back with some new tips. This time, I'd like to discuss the issues attached to referencing and poor scholarship. These are serious problems noted by tutors on AGC forms. When a student receives a failing grade on an assignment or dissertation with this notation, what does this mean?
First, you should understand this problem cannot be solved by a simple re-do of your bibliography or your in-text bibliographic references. These may indeed be a problem, but bad referencing suggests that you have failed to account for all the source materials you have used in your work. This, as I have pointed out in earlier postings, is easy to do if you haven't created a research log of all the materials you read, used or even perused during your work. This insures you can follow the thread of your research in your assignments or your longer work, the dissertation.
Even obscure, unindexed academic work that you dig up and fail to cite will look out of place in your dissertation. Often, the worried student slips in these references because they haven't developed a clear argument or direction for the assignment or dissertation. In fact, to help you with a dissertation, an AGC form that tells you that you have poor referencing or poor scholarship is an opportunity to find books that will help you out of your dilemma and refocus your work. They are mentioned in this blog in the posting "Dissertation Tutor vs. Skills Tutor" or on Blackboard under "My courses", where a number of books are mentioned that tell you more about how your dissertation should be structured. In the case of an assignment, you should refocus on the assignment topic itself.
While you refocus, consider these points:
1. Did you take the time to gather good scholarly materials for your work? This means, did you use articles from the University of Leicester databases?
2. If you experienced difficulty here, did you speak to a skills tutor (I'd be happy to help with this part of any work) or the U of Leicester Business Librarian?
3. Once you got these articles, did you spend an adequate amount of time thinking about how they will tie back into your assignment or dissertation. Time to think is an important consideration.
4. If you had issues with writing, did you speak to the skills tutor? Did you try and get the writing resources that can help you here?
5. If you need to do all this work, have you used Refworks to help you with your bibliography at the end. This is available free through University of Leicester.
6. Okay, now that you have failed an assignment or a disseration, it is time for a fresh focus. If you said you were going to write about the banking system of Malawi, was this a doable project with a clear focus? Think about how to make your project doable. Remember this is not "War and Peace", you can expect to have it done within a reasonable amount of time. This is something that I'm sure a dissertation would be happy to discuss.
7. When re-working a project, get it focused with an outline of what you intend to do using clear points.
There is a difference between outright plagiarism and not having a clue what you need to do next. Most students are aware that outright plagiarism will result in trouble. Dissertations or assignments with these problems cannot be salvaged. Foggy thinking, that often starts with keeping poor track of your references in research and ends up with a mish-mash of misty thoughts that are not backed up by clear citations from good business literature, is often because students are misdirected. They don't know what they are trying to do whether it is a dissertation or an assignment. A great deal of work here will need to be redone.
Understanding your topic will come by diligent research, time to think and a strong understanding of the philosophical issues underpinning your topic. Even writing problems can be helped by the right texts, as many students have found. A student who gets an AGC form that says they have 'poor scholarship' and 'poor referencing' ends up on the right track with good scholarly habits, an understanding of the nature of their assignment (or dissertation), good writing skills and grammar and the will to work. Good writing for this week.
KB
First, you should understand this problem cannot be solved by a simple re-do of your bibliography or your in-text bibliographic references. These may indeed be a problem, but bad referencing suggests that you have failed to account for all the source materials you have used in your work. This, as I have pointed out in earlier postings, is easy to do if you haven't created a research log of all the materials you read, used or even perused during your work. This insures you can follow the thread of your research in your assignments or your longer work, the dissertation.
Even obscure, unindexed academic work that you dig up and fail to cite will look out of place in your dissertation. Often, the worried student slips in these references because they haven't developed a clear argument or direction for the assignment or dissertation. In fact, to help you with a dissertation, an AGC form that tells you that you have poor referencing or poor scholarship is an opportunity to find books that will help you out of your dilemma and refocus your work. They are mentioned in this blog in the posting "Dissertation Tutor vs. Skills Tutor" or on Blackboard under "My courses", where a number of books are mentioned that tell you more about how your dissertation should be structured. In the case of an assignment, you should refocus on the assignment topic itself.
While you refocus, consider these points:
1. Did you take the time to gather good scholarly materials for your work? This means, did you use articles from the University of Leicester databases?
2. If you experienced difficulty here, did you speak to a skills tutor (I'd be happy to help with this part of any work) or the U of Leicester Business Librarian?
3. Once you got these articles, did you spend an adequate amount of time thinking about how they will tie back into your assignment or dissertation. Time to think is an important consideration.
4. If you had issues with writing, did you speak to the skills tutor? Did you try and get the writing resources that can help you here?
5. If you need to do all this work, have you used Refworks to help you with your bibliography at the end. This is available free through University of Leicester.
6. Okay, now that you have failed an assignment or a disseration, it is time for a fresh focus. If you said you were going to write about the banking system of Malawi, was this a doable project with a clear focus? Think about how to make your project doable. Remember this is not "War and Peace", you can expect to have it done within a reasonable amount of time. This is something that I'm sure a dissertation would be happy to discuss.
7. When re-working a project, get it focused with an outline of what you intend to do using clear points.
There is a difference between outright plagiarism and not having a clue what you need to do next. Most students are aware that outright plagiarism will result in trouble. Dissertations or assignments with these problems cannot be salvaged. Foggy thinking, that often starts with keeping poor track of your references in research and ends up with a mish-mash of misty thoughts that are not backed up by clear citations from good business literature, is often because students are misdirected. They don't know what they are trying to do whether it is a dissertation or an assignment. A great deal of work here will need to be redone.
Understanding your topic will come by diligent research, time to think and a strong understanding of the philosophical issues underpinning your topic. Even writing problems can be helped by the right texts, as many students have found. A student who gets an AGC form that says they have 'poor scholarship' and 'poor referencing' ends up on the right track with good scholarly habits, an understanding of the nature of their assignment (or dissertation), good writing skills and grammar and the will to work. Good writing for this week.
KB
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Scoring Points on Assignments
Hi, glad to be back again. Last blog, we discussed what it means when you get back an AGC form telling you that your assignment is too descriptive and how you can fix this.
Today, I'd like to discuss how to score points with tutors and getting better grades. So, this blog will cover the basics of how to deal with an assignment. By the way, when you get into very specific issues, for example a problem with definitions in a financial assignment, you really should be following module discussions on Blackboard and communicating with your module tutor and classmates. You would be surprised how many helpful hints you can find there. So, let's talk about assignments.
The first problem many students have is "talking around the question". A large number of students think that they need to give the tutor a lot of general information on the subject before they actually get down to answering the question. This is a mistake. The marker/tutor is looking for you to answer the question clearly and concisely. They don't need a mini-history of "organizational behaviour" before you begin writing. In fact, when you do this you force the tutor to go searching through your assignment for the actual answer to the question. This annoys and irritates markers. You don't want to do this.
Sometimes, the student will embed the answer deep inside a long and convoluted introductory paragraph of the type I describe above. This makes it hard for the marker to find the actual topic of your assignment. The student may then go on to put their supporting details and information into more long paragraphs, or perhaps the same paragraph, making it still harder to find the information that the frustrated marker is seeking.
Keep in mind, the marker is on your side. They, and I, have marked many assignments and want to give you the marks you deserve. You should learn to write your assignments using a clear introductory paragraph with your thesis statement. This needs to answer the assignment question directly. You might even use a teaser/attention-grabber in the first sentence, in the form of an interesting quotation, a question or controversial argument. After you have clearly outlined the topic or thesis in the first (hopefully no more than 4 sentence) paragraph, you should be ready to score points by displaying your knowledge in the body of your assignment.
Here, you use the academic articles that you have read on your assignment topic. The pattern of the paragraphs is:
1. Topic sentence that introduces the main point.
2. The next sentence that brings in supporting evidence.
3. The third and possibly fourth sentences that analyse and describe why this supporting evidence backs up your arguments.
4. The last sentence that anticipates the next point.
The purpose of all of this is to answer the assignment question. Sometimes, this format may not work because the assignment is clearly meant to be question and answer. I would reiterate here that if that is the assignment, don't tax the marker by beating around the bush, just answer the questions in the sequence that they have been given. The marker will not thank you for trying to find question 1 in the place where question 10 should be. Clearly, the demands of the assignment dictate whether you can use the first approach I have suggested.
What is never in debate, however, is that you must use and show that you have used good academic articles on the topic to answer the assignment. This "supporting data" shows that you have done your work for your assignment. Label and number points: "first, second, third, next, last" not "firstly, secondly, thirdly and lastly". This keeps your arguments in order and lets the marker see that you have made your points.
Next week, we'll discuss another problem with academic papers reflected on AGC forms...poor scholarship. Until then, have a good week.
Today, I'd like to discuss how to score points with tutors and getting better grades. So, this blog will cover the basics of how to deal with an assignment. By the way, when you get into very specific issues, for example a problem with definitions in a financial assignment, you really should be following module discussions on Blackboard and communicating with your module tutor and classmates. You would be surprised how many helpful hints you can find there. So, let's talk about assignments.
The first problem many students have is "talking around the question". A large number of students think that they need to give the tutor a lot of general information on the subject before they actually get down to answering the question. This is a mistake. The marker/tutor is looking for you to answer the question clearly and concisely. They don't need a mini-history of "organizational behaviour" before you begin writing. In fact, when you do this you force the tutor to go searching through your assignment for the actual answer to the question. This annoys and irritates markers. You don't want to do this.
Sometimes, the student will embed the answer deep inside a long and convoluted introductory paragraph of the type I describe above. This makes it hard for the marker to find the actual topic of your assignment. The student may then go on to put their supporting details and information into more long paragraphs, or perhaps the same paragraph, making it still harder to find the information that the frustrated marker is seeking.
Keep in mind, the marker is on your side. They, and I, have marked many assignments and want to give you the marks you deserve. You should learn to write your assignments using a clear introductory paragraph with your thesis statement. This needs to answer the assignment question directly. You might even use a teaser/attention-grabber in the first sentence, in the form of an interesting quotation, a question or controversial argument. After you have clearly outlined the topic or thesis in the first (hopefully no more than 4 sentence) paragraph, you should be ready to score points by displaying your knowledge in the body of your assignment.
Here, you use the academic articles that you have read on your assignment topic. The pattern of the paragraphs is:
1. Topic sentence that introduces the main point.
2. The next sentence that brings in supporting evidence.
3. The third and possibly fourth sentences that analyse and describe why this supporting evidence backs up your arguments.
4. The last sentence that anticipates the next point.
The purpose of all of this is to answer the assignment question. Sometimes, this format may not work because the assignment is clearly meant to be question and answer. I would reiterate here that if that is the assignment, don't tax the marker by beating around the bush, just answer the questions in the sequence that they have been given. The marker will not thank you for trying to find question 1 in the place where question 10 should be. Clearly, the demands of the assignment dictate whether you can use the first approach I have suggested.
What is never in debate, however, is that you must use and show that you have used good academic articles on the topic to answer the assignment. This "supporting data" shows that you have done your work for your assignment. Label and number points: "first, second, third, next, last" not "firstly, secondly, thirdly and lastly". This keeps your arguments in order and lets the marker see that you have made your points.
Next week, we'll discuss another problem with academic papers reflected on AGC forms...poor scholarship. Until then, have a good week.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Reviewing commentaries on AGC forms : Part 1
Hi, I took a little more time in getting back to you but I'm back. As a very brief word of explanation, I'd like to mention that I had an operation but am now recuperating. In fact, I'm sure to feel much better as I heal. My timing could have been better. I'd just moved back to Canada and there were lots of things to take care of as part of that move. I now live in a geographic region of Canada known as the 'boreal forest'. In practical terms, the boreal forest is a band of forest with a mixture of deciduous trees, many small animals and even some larger ones. My father once sighted a wild lynx on the way to an archaeological dig by the side of the road; and there are also some packs of wolves in parks like Algonquin. However, in more poetic terms this area is famed for its large percentage of maple trees, the symbol of Canada. Very soon now, Ontarians like to take their long fall drive through small Ontario valleys where they will find the maples ablaze not simply with gold and green leaves, but many shades of red and golden-orange that are the pride of this region. If you are lucky enough to get maple syrup from an Ontario erabliere or sugar bush, you will know that Ontario's maple syrup is excellent. Try it on waffles, ice cream, Scottish pancakes - I think you will find it less sweet than hot golden syrup with butter and an interesting taste change.
In practical terms, my move will mean very little change for most of you. I will not be physically near Leicester but my phone line will always be open to those who need it and we can still see one another via webcam if you want a face-to-face appointment. Really, nothing will change, I'm just physically in a different place. I still hope to see all of you who didn't make it this year at next year's summer school.
Now, down to business. Today, we're going to discuss what a marker/tutor means when they tell you that your assignment is "too descriptive." This is a commentary many, many students receive on their AGC forms. What does this mean? After all, the student often reasons, what is wrong with describing things, isn't that supposed to be the job of their assignment?
In an earlier blog, I discussed the importance of answering the question that you were asked and understanding it. A student who has handed in an assignment that is too descriptive has probably provided the tutor with lots of definitions related to the assignment question. Although these definitions fill out the word requirements of the module tutor, who has perhaps asked you for an assignment of 2,500-3,500 words, they have failed to deal with the substance of the question that was assigned. Other space fillers include lots of headings, summaries of the assignment and often repeated attempts to dissect the terminology of the question. I usually tell students that there is nothing wrong with headings if they are used to guide you through the assignment. After all, you can remove them later if they are unnecessary in terms of the assignment. Summaries are another story. In such a small assignment, a summary eats up unnecessary space that you should be using for making your points.
At the University of Leicester, in fact throughout university education, learning is more than simply reciting back facts and memorizing them. It is important to place facts in their context. Therefore, if an assignment has asked you to discuss Porter's Five Forces, you should spend no more than a sentence or two providing the necessary definition to do the assignment. The rest of the assignment should be devoted to finding examples of which force you are discussing, providing an application and probably a paraphrase or quotation about this example. Critical thinking, which is something we emphasize at University of Leicester, requires you to take your quotations and examples (which you have cited using Harvard style or using Refworks to help you with your bibliography) and explain or analyze them. Why are they a good or bad example of the force you are discussing? What is important about this force in terms of the example you have provided? You should also attempt to use the example to evaluate the weaknesses or strengths of the theory about which you are writing. You may even see parallels with another idea and try and combine the ideas to synthesize a new concept.
I don't want to go into too much detail here. It is enough for you to understand that learning has a hierarchy. This learning hierarchy is called Bloom's Taxonomy. If you want to read more about Bloom and his taxonomy, I would refer you to Dalhousie University's teaching tips at:
http://learningandteaching.dal.ca/bloom.html
This will provide you with more information on the taxonomy. What you need to know is that analysis, synthesis and evaluation are higher functions of learning that go beyond simple memorization and understanding. Professors at University of Leicester say that a work is descriptive when they mean that it lacks analysis, synthesis or evaluation. It is not enough to learn a theory, for example Porter's Five Forces, it is important to understand its strengths and weaknesses. When you evaluate and analyse theories, you place them in a historical context along with other theories of business strategy. Placing ideas in context also makes them easier to remember for your exams or to use in your business practices. This means that you can use the ideas you learn at University of Leicester to become a better business leader and hopefully to make your businesses more successful.
Next time, we will discuss some of the other problems you may encounter in your AGC forms and what they mean.
KB
In practical terms, my move will mean very little change for most of you. I will not be physically near Leicester but my phone line will always be open to those who need it and we can still see one another via webcam if you want a face-to-face appointment. Really, nothing will change, I'm just physically in a different place. I still hope to see all of you who didn't make it this year at next year's summer school.
Now, down to business. Today, we're going to discuss what a marker/tutor means when they tell you that your assignment is "too descriptive." This is a commentary many, many students receive on their AGC forms. What does this mean? After all, the student often reasons, what is wrong with describing things, isn't that supposed to be the job of their assignment?
In an earlier blog, I discussed the importance of answering the question that you were asked and understanding it. A student who has handed in an assignment that is too descriptive has probably provided the tutor with lots of definitions related to the assignment question. Although these definitions fill out the word requirements of the module tutor, who has perhaps asked you for an assignment of 2,500-3,500 words, they have failed to deal with the substance of the question that was assigned. Other space fillers include lots of headings, summaries of the assignment and often repeated attempts to dissect the terminology of the question. I usually tell students that there is nothing wrong with headings if they are used to guide you through the assignment. After all, you can remove them later if they are unnecessary in terms of the assignment. Summaries are another story. In such a small assignment, a summary eats up unnecessary space that you should be using for making your points.
At the University of Leicester, in fact throughout university education, learning is more than simply reciting back facts and memorizing them. It is important to place facts in their context. Therefore, if an assignment has asked you to discuss Porter's Five Forces, you should spend no more than a sentence or two providing the necessary definition to do the assignment. The rest of the assignment should be devoted to finding examples of which force you are discussing, providing an application and probably a paraphrase or quotation about this example. Critical thinking, which is something we emphasize at University of Leicester, requires you to take your quotations and examples (which you have cited using Harvard style or using Refworks to help you with your bibliography) and explain or analyze them. Why are they a good or bad example of the force you are discussing? What is important about this force in terms of the example you have provided? You should also attempt to use the example to evaluate the weaknesses or strengths of the theory about which you are writing. You may even see parallels with another idea and try and combine the ideas to synthesize a new concept.
I don't want to go into too much detail here. It is enough for you to understand that learning has a hierarchy. This learning hierarchy is called Bloom's Taxonomy. If you want to read more about Bloom and his taxonomy, I would refer you to Dalhousie University's teaching tips at:
http://learningandteaching.dal.ca/bloom.html
This will provide you with more information on the taxonomy. What you need to know is that analysis, synthesis and evaluation are higher functions of learning that go beyond simple memorization and understanding. Professors at University of Leicester say that a work is descriptive when they mean that it lacks analysis, synthesis or evaluation. It is not enough to learn a theory, for example Porter's Five Forces, it is important to understand its strengths and weaknesses. When you evaluate and analyse theories, you place them in a historical context along with other theories of business strategy. Placing ideas in context also makes them easier to remember for your exams or to use in your business practices. This means that you can use the ideas you learn at University of Leicester to become a better business leader and hopefully to make your businesses more successful.
Next time, we will discuss some of the other problems you may encounter in your AGC forms and what they mean.
KB
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Articles - Grammar Hints for ESL students and others
Articles, that is, use of the words "the", "a" or "an" are "troublesome" for "speakers whose first language is not English" (Hacker 169). Let's discuss this trouble area in more detail in today's blog.
Articles are used mainly to mark nouns. Consider the following phrases:
the Speaker of the House
a lovely sunset
the best Merlot of the year
a Rolls-Royce
an apple
the pear on the table
a better way of doing business
1. Use "the" if the identity of the subject is known the speaker. As in:
Colonel John Sheppard flew the Puddlejumper directly into the Wraith ship.
Spock went to the planet Vulcan to save his mother.
The fourth contestant had to eat worms.
This is the town where I grew up.
2. Use "a" or "an" with singular non-count nouns whose identity is not known to the writer. Count nouns refer to objects which can be counted such as three girls, five cities, two general strikes, two World Wars, five dogs and so forth. Abstracts concepts, such as love, harmony, knowledge cannot be quantified in this way. Therefore, we cannot say:
He has a knowledge. Instead we would generally say, "He has knowledge." However, we could say: He arrived at our house in a car.
3. Therefore, we can say generally that with abstract concepts we do not use the words "an" or "a" or "the" with non countable nouns. So, we can say:
Honour is a concept well understood in the military. I feel love.
However, if a non-countable noun such as "sugar" is quantified you can say the following:
He needs a kilogram of sugar to make that cake.
We are going to buy two Victorian end tables.
4. Do not use "the" in a sentence when you use a plural or non-count noun meaning "all" or "in general".
Fountains distinguish a fine perennial garden.
Flour is required to make bread.
If you have any further questions regarding this post, please email me at:
ulsmdltutor@le.ac.uk
Have a good weekend until next time.
KB
Articles are used mainly to mark nouns. Consider the following phrases:
the Speaker of the House
a lovely sunset
the best Merlot of the year
a Rolls-Royce
an apple
the pear on the table
a better way of doing business
1. Use "the" if the identity of the subject is known the speaker. As in:
Colonel John Sheppard flew the Puddlejumper directly into the Wraith ship.
Spock went to the planet Vulcan to save his mother.
The fourth contestant had to eat worms.
This is the town where I grew up.
2. Use "a" or "an" with singular non-count nouns whose identity is not known to the writer. Count nouns refer to objects which can be counted such as three girls, five cities, two general strikes, two World Wars, five dogs and so forth. Abstracts concepts, such as love, harmony, knowledge cannot be quantified in this way. Therefore, we cannot say:
He has a knowledge. Instead we would generally say, "He has knowledge." However, we could say: He arrived at our house in a car.
3. Therefore, we can say generally that with abstract concepts we do not use the words "an" or "a" or "the" with non countable nouns. So, we can say:
Honour is a concept well understood in the military. I feel love.
However, if a non-countable noun such as "sugar" is quantified you can say the following:
He needs a kilogram of sugar to make that cake.
We are going to buy two Victorian end tables.
4. Do not use "the" in a sentence when you use a plural or non-count noun meaning "all" or "in general".
Fountains distinguish a fine perennial garden.
Flour is required to make bread.
If you have any further questions regarding this post, please email me at:
ulsmdltutor@le.ac.uk
Have a good weekend until next time.
KB
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time Management and Exams
Many of you have asked about planning for an exam. What do you do? In earlier blogs, I discussed a number of studying strategies. Today, we will discuss how to create a realistic schedule that utilizes your available time.
Your time management schedule for your exams should:
1. Update you daily on your progress toward your goal - the exam.
2. Be amended when you find that your progress is slower because the subject matter is more challenging or faster because you covered the material in less time than you expected.
3. Ensure that you have made daily achievable goals.
When you begin planning for your exam, it is likely some subjects will take more time to cover than others. You should not make assumptions about what questions will be on the exam and you should therefore ensure you provide comprehensive coverage of all the module materials. As you read through the materials, you will realize that your retention of some subject materials is greater than others, and you should revise your schedule accordingly. Use chapter titles to see overall themes in the module materials. You should try and see the connections between different parts of the modules materials. For example, you should understand how they are important to the subject as a whole and how they are connected to other ideas that came earlier or later. Evaluation or critical assessment of the material you study is important as the exams at U of Leicester are meant to test your ability to think critically.
You will need to plan the use of each available study day. Many students have jobs and families and you must plan realistically to allow yourself at least one uninterrupted hour of work, followed by a 15 minute break. As stated above, goals are important. With the achievement of a goal, for example the review of an entire section of a subject module, you need to acknowledge your progress in a daily log. Daily logs give students the feeling that they are reaching their goals and will complete their task.
Additionally, students need to recognize that some modules will be more difficult than others. This calls for the reassessment of your time requirements for a particular module. When you have broken down what you are going to do, day by day and week by week, you have a good idea of how you are going to manage your time. As stated earlier, this time management schedule will be changed as you moved through the material you need to cover for the exam. Remember shorter periods of study, accompanied by self testing of your material and further review has been found to be most effective for the retention of module materials before exams.
For this reason, you should use short periods of time just as wisely as a longer days of study. Repetition and revision is the key to success in managing time through a study schedule before your exam. Good studying.
KB
Your time management schedule for your exams should:
1. Update you daily on your progress toward your goal - the exam.
2. Be amended when you find that your progress is slower because the subject matter is more challenging or faster because you covered the material in less time than you expected.
3. Ensure that you have made daily achievable goals.
When you begin planning for your exam, it is likely some subjects will take more time to cover than others. You should not make assumptions about what questions will be on the exam and you should therefore ensure you provide comprehensive coverage of all the module materials. As you read through the materials, you will realize that your retention of some subject materials is greater than others, and you should revise your schedule accordingly. Use chapter titles to see overall themes in the module materials. You should try and see the connections between different parts of the modules materials. For example, you should understand how they are important to the subject as a whole and how they are connected to other ideas that came earlier or later. Evaluation or critical assessment of the material you study is important as the exams at U of Leicester are meant to test your ability to think critically.
You will need to plan the use of each available study day. Many students have jobs and families and you must plan realistically to allow yourself at least one uninterrupted hour of work, followed by a 15 minute break. As stated above, goals are important. With the achievement of a goal, for example the review of an entire section of a subject module, you need to acknowledge your progress in a daily log. Daily logs give students the feeling that they are reaching their goals and will complete their task.
Additionally, students need to recognize that some modules will be more difficult than others. This calls for the reassessment of your time requirements for a particular module. When you have broken down what you are going to do, day by day and week by week, you have a good idea of how you are going to manage your time. As stated earlier, this time management schedule will be changed as you moved through the material you need to cover for the exam. Remember shorter periods of study, accompanied by self testing of your material and further review has been found to be most effective for the retention of module materials before exams.
For this reason, you should use short periods of time just as wisely as a longer days of study. Repetition and revision is the key to success in managing time through a study schedule before your exam. Good studying.
KB
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Research Skills : Finding Articles for Assignments and Dissertations, Part 2
Last blog, we discussed how to find specific articles at the University of Leicester Library. In this blog, we will look at how to find further articles on any given subject for your assignments or other work. If you go here:
http://rooms1.library.le.ac.uk/rooms/portal/media-type/html/user/anon/page/Leic_BusinessManagement
You will find the Subject Room for Business Management and a reference to Andrew Dunn, the subject librarian.
Clicking the blue bar at the top of page will take you to subjects such as "Finance" or "Management". These are pre-prepared resources that the subject librarian has listed for your help through the library.
One of the most important resources you can use is the Digital Library where you will be offered an A-Z list of databases at:
http://www.le.ac.uk/library/digital/j.html
As a graduate student at the Leicester Business School, you should know about how to use databases such as "Business Source Premier", "Emerald Fulltext " and "JSTOR". Let's say that we are looking for an article on deconstructing theory by Michele Bowring. When we go into Business Source Premier, we will find a number of articles by Bowring including "De/constructing theory" in the Journal of Management Inquiry. Below you will find the subject terms and the abstract.
However, when you actually click on the article in Business Source Premier, the database allows you to use Leicester e-link to find more information. At this point, you can get this article full text. You can also look at the reference sources in the bibliography of the article. It looks like this:
The sources provided by the author of this paper provide a 'brick wall' of ideas with which she constructed her ideas. The ideas of new researchers, such as Bowring, rely on the ideas of older and important work by people such as Burrell & Morgan or Berger & Luckmann. In fact, business research is really a tributary of a larger river from which the subject of Sociology flows. It is part of the study of people, society and its institutions such as business institutions.
The works of Derrida, Foucault in the twentieth century - and the works of Marx and Durkheim in the nineteenth century, are all part of this larger river. Skilled researchers, such as Burrell and Morgan, have navigated this river for their entire academic careers. Newer researchers, such as Brewis (last week) and Bowring (above), are following this same river today. You too will follow the river to its smaller streams and larger branches in footsteps of those who came before, and can use bibliographies such as the one above to help you find your way.
This river, as I explained to a group of students earlier this week, is part of the larger history of intellectual thought in Western Society. In a metaphoric sense, the river is both part of us and surrounds us - we cannot be independent of it. Like Huck Finn, we can drift along with the river, look at the night stars and see our position in relation to the world but we cannot leave. We can rebel in small and meaningful ways. Huck Finn in Twain's book did not know this. He went the wrong way on the huge Mississippi - a river that Twain knew was very tricky to navigate from his own time as a riverboat captain. On our intellectual voyage, we will have to use the moon, stars and the river current on our small raft to make sure we do go the right way in our intellectual voyage. For the diligent student, checking your reference sources will make your intellectual destination certain and your path clear.
http://rooms1.library.le.ac.uk/rooms/portal/media-type/html/user/anon/page/Leic_BusinessManagement
You will find the Subject Room for Business Management and a reference to Andrew Dunn, the subject librarian.
Clicking the blue bar at the top of page will take you to subjects such as "Finance" or "Management". These are pre-prepared resources that the subject librarian has listed for your help through the library.
One of the most important resources you can use is the Digital Library where you will be offered an A-Z list of databases at:
http://www.le.ac.uk/library/digital/j.html
As a graduate student at the Leicester Business School, you should know about how to use databases such as "Business Source Premier", "Emerald Fulltext " and "JSTOR". Let's say that we are looking for an article on deconstructing theory by Michele Bowring. When we go into Business Source Premier, we will find a number of articles by Bowring including "De/constructing theory" in the Journal of Management Inquiry. Below you will find the subject terms and the abstract.
- Subject Terms:
- SOCIAL sciences -- Philosophy
LOGICAL positivism - Abstract:
- The purpose of this article is to understand and illustrate how the development of theories is influenced in part through dominant paradigms, in part through citation patterns, and in part through the norms of scientific writing. An example that is developed is the use of deconstruction to illustrate how institutional theory, with its interpretive beginnings, has become a structuralist positivist vehicle. This is examined in the context of the flourishing recent debate in the field of organizational studies with regard to the relevance of this field and the consensus, or lack thereof, that exists within it. After developing the deconstructive reading of a classic article in institutional theory, the author discusses the implications for the field of organizational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
However, when you actually click on the article in Business Source Premier, the database allows you to use Leicester e-link to find more information. At this point, you can get this article full text. You can also look at the reference sources in the bibliography of the article. It looks like this:
References
- Agger, B. (1991). Critical theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism: Their sociological relevance. Annual Review of Sociology, 17, 105-132.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday Anchor.
- Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis. London: Heinemann.
- Calás, M. B., & Smircich, L. (1991). Voicing seduction to silence leadership. Organization Studies12(4), 567-602.
- D'Aunno, T., Sutton, R. I., & Price, R. H. (1991). Isomorphism and external support in conflicting institutional environments: A study of drug abuse treatment units. Academy of Management Journal34(3), 636-661.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Daft, R., & Lewin, A. (1990). Editorial. Organization Science, 1(1), 1-9.
- Derrida, J. (1976). Of grammatology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Derrida, J. (1988). Limited Inc.Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
- DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147-160.
- Evered, R., & Louis, M. R. (1981). Alternative perspectives in the organizational sciences: Inquiry from the inside and inquiry from the outside, Academy of Management Review, 6(3), 385-395.[CrossRef][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Gephart, R. P., Jr. (1986). Deconstructing the defense for quantification in social science: A content analysis of journal articles on parametric strategy. Qualitative Sociology, 9(2), 126-144.[CrossRef][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Gioia, D. A., & Pitre, E. (1990). Multiparadigm perspectives on theory building. Academy of Management Review, 15(4), 584-602.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Hamilton, D. P. (1990). Publishing by- and for?-the numbers. Science, 250, 1331-1332.
[Free Full Text] - Hamilton, D. P. (1991). Research papers: Who's uncited now?Science, 251, 25.
[Free Full Text] - Kilduff, M. (1993). Deconstructing organizations. Academy of Management Review, 18(1),13-31.
- Kuhn, T. S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Lee, A. S. (1991). Integrating positivist and interpretive approaches to organizational research. Organization Science, 2(4), 342-365.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Luthans, F., & Davis, T.R.V. (1982). An idiographic approach to organizational behaviour research: The use of single-case experimental designs and direct measures. Academy of Management Review, 7(3), 380-391.[CrossRef][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Martin, J. (1990). Deconstructing organizational taboos: The suppression of gender conflict in organizations. Organization Science, 1(4), 339-359.
- Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Meyer, J. W., Scott, R. W., & Deal, T. E. (1981). Institutional and technical sources of organizational structure: Explaining the structure of educational organizations. In J. W. Meyer & W. R. Scott (Eds.), Organizational environments: Ritual and rationality (pp. 45-70). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
- Meyer, J. W., Scott, W. R., & Strang, D. (1987). Centralization, fragmentation, and school district complexity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32, 186-201.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Morgan, G., & Smircich, L. (1980). The case for qualitative research. Academy of Management Review, 5(4), 491-500.[CrossRef][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Mumby, D. K., & Putnam, L. L. (1992). The politics of emotion: A feminist reading of bounded rationality. Academy of Management Review, 17(3), 465-486.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16(1), 145-179.
- Pfeffer, J. (1993). Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 599-620.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Ritzer, G. (1975). Sociology: A multiple paradigm science. American Sociologist, 10.
- Schutz, A. (1962). Common-sense and scientific interpretation of human action; and Concept and theory formation in the social sciences. In M. Natanson (Ed.), Collected papers I: The problem of social reality (pp. 1-65). The Hague: M. Nijhoff.
- Scott, W. R. (1987). The adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32, 493-511.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Selznick, P. (1949). TVA and the grass roots. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Social Sciences Citation Index. (1976-1993). Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information.
- Tolbert, P. S., & Zucker, L. G. (1983). Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reforms, 1880-1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23, 22-39.[CrossRef][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Zucker, L. G. (1977). The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. American Sociological Review, 42, 726-743.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
- Zucker, L. G. (1983). Organizations as institutions. Research in the Sociology of Organizations2, 1-47.
- Zucker, L. G. (1987). Institutional theories of organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 443-464.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Find it on University of Leicester E-Link]
The sources provided by the author of this paper provide a 'brick wall' of ideas with which she constructed her ideas. The ideas of new researchers, such as Bowring, rely on the ideas of older and important work by people such as Burrell & Morgan or Berger & Luckmann. In fact, business research is really a tributary of a larger river from which the subject of Sociology flows. It is part of the study of people, society and its institutions such as business institutions.
The works of Derrida, Foucault in the twentieth century - and the works of Marx and Durkheim in the nineteenth century, are all part of this larger river. Skilled researchers, such as Burrell and Morgan, have navigated this river for their entire academic careers. Newer researchers, such as Brewis (last week) and Bowring (above), are following this same river today. You too will follow the river to its smaller streams and larger branches in footsteps of those who came before, and can use bibliographies such as the one above to help you find your way.
This river, as I explained to a group of students earlier this week, is part of the larger history of intellectual thought in Western Society. In a metaphoric sense, the river is both part of us and surrounds us - we cannot be independent of it. Like Huck Finn, we can drift along with the river, look at the night stars and see our position in relation to the world but we cannot leave. We can rebel in small and meaningful ways. Huck Finn in Twain's book did not know this. He went the wrong way on the huge Mississippi - a river that Twain knew was very tricky to navigate from his own time as a riverboat captain. On our intellectual voyage, we will have to use the moon, stars and the river current on our small raft to make sure we do go the right way in our intellectual voyage. For the diligent student, checking your reference sources will make your intellectual destination certain and your path clear.
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