Instructions for Essays
An essay tests skills in searching and retrieving literary, archival and empirical evidence on a range of subjects that cover the unit material. It will involve your ability to critically analyse literary and visual sources and logically argue your conclusions in written form.
SRA224 Austral-Asian Architecture Essay-Deakin University Australia.
Aims
The purpose of essay writing is to develop familiarity with source material so that you can select content within it that is relevant to a particular topic or question, critically analyse this material with reasoned argument and evidence, and then present it in a written form that will enable a reader to
understand, assess and make use of it.
The writer must become familiar with the relevant source material. Sometimes this will be readily available.
There is a list of key e Readings on this unit’s CloudDeakin site, as well as an extensive Reference List: books, journal articles and websites.
Beyond this, being independently resourceful is a key aspect of research, and you should be able to locate your own source material.
For this unit, proper use of University Library catalogues should provide material, and beyond this, use Google Scholar or JSTOR databases to find academic articles.
Be careful if locating source material on the Internet generally – much material is unedited and may be incorrect or misleading. While Wikipedia is a useful starting point, it should not be the end of your research (don’t just cite a Wiki page!). When looking at Wiki articles, look for the references cited for confirmation of the material presented. If a Wiki page has no references, do not trust it.
SRA224 Austral-Asian Architecture Essay-Deakin University Australia.
The essay should give a clear and precise account of the theme being developed. It should demonstrate the writer’s capacity for clear thinking and critical analysis of the source material.
This means that the writing should not merely be a précis of the source material.
The essay can only be properly assessed if it is properly documented. This will allow the reader to refer back to the source for further information.
Correct use of footnotes and bibliography are critical.
Structure
The Essay should be around 2000 words in length and include the following:
The Introduction to the essay should be a statement of how the theme will be developed, setting the reader up for what is to follow.
Having thus established the basic direction of the essay, this should be developed by detailed argument.
This detailed argument should include an overall Literature Review, that considers the major sources (theoretical, historical, cultural) in relation to the topic and summarises their relevant aspects.
Each topic lists particular examples (of buildings or architects) that need to be discussed.
This might partially be via empirical observation (of actual buildings or photographs, drawings of buildings, etc.) and partially via more specialised literature (writings on particular buildings, architects, etc.).
These important examples should be discussed in detail as Case Studies.
Finally, the essay needs to be properly concluded.
A good Conclusion clearly and precisely integrates the general theoretical/historical/cultural background material and the individual examples/case studies mentioned in the body of the essay.
Use of Source Material
Source material needs to be divided into two types. The first involves material that is generally known and accepted. This can be used freely. The second type is more specialised, either because it has only been described by one specialist researcher, or is the subject of argument by specialists.
The second type of material needs to be carefully documented. Its precise origin should be indicated by the use of footnotes (see next section).
However, if critical to the argument, the source should also be mentioned in your text, as well as some indication of whether it is generally accepted or controversial. Other writers’ opinions should especially be analysed in this way.
In a field about which you know little, it may seem difficult to start criticising authoritative sources. There are two approaches to this.
Firstly, being critical does not mean attacking or discrediting an authority, merely to analyse the logic of their argument.
Secondly, many topics are the subject of argument, and the citing of dissenting authors can help in understanding controversies or disagreements.
SRA224 Austral-Asian Architecture Essay-Deakin University Australia.
Short direct quotations should be placed in inverted commas and footnoted. Larger quotations should be avoided unless they encapsulate a point so clearly that it would be sacrilege to paraphrase them.Such larger quotations should be given their own paragraph, indented to distinguish them from your writing (and footnoted of course).
Unless they are critical to a point you are trying to make, avoid jargon, clichés or slang and don’t use cute terms in inverted commas (If you must use innovative language at least take responsibility for it).Writing is not the same as speaking. And don’t even think about SMS text.