How to Write Brilliant Psychology Essays. Paul Dickerson
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Название: How to Write Brilliant Psychology Essays

Автор: Paul Dickerson

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Зарубежная психология

Серия:

isbn: 9781529737233

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ experiences a sudden jolt as they move from the essay title to the essay. We can avoid that by setting the scene for the essay title. Our statement of intent communicates, with some level of specification, a sense of how our essay will address the essay title, signposting the ideas, evidence and debates that will be covered. Without the statement of intent, the reader is left in a strange place without a map or GPS. But it doesn’t need to be like that. We can give the reader a sense of where the essay will take them and a sense of the logic to this journey.

      Good and bad introductions

      The best way to get a clear, useable sense of what a good introduction should look like is to contrast some examples of good and bad introductions, and then to try it yourself. If you practise converting a poor orientating sentence and a poor statement of intent into something stronger and – strange though it may seem – can also do the reverse, you will start to identify very clearly what makes for an effective introduction. Keep writing orientating sentences and statements of intent and you really will improve – don’t wait until the crunch time of an assessment to try to work out how to write an introduction.

      Look at the essay title below and the orientating sentences. To aid clarity, some of these samples will include the beginning of the statement of intent that would follow on from the orientating sentence(s).

      The orientating sentence

      Essay title: ‘Critically evaluate Kelley’s Covariation Model of Causal Attribution.’

      Sample orientating sentences

      Look through these orientating sentences:

      1 Attribution is all around us. We are always trying to work out why things happened. This essay will examine the omnipresent phenomenon of attribution.

      2 Human beings are cognitive creatures for whom thinking is crucial. Our social world is a vital part of our lives. This essay will examine attribution, which is a very important part of being human.

      3 Your friend blanks you – why? You are making an attribution and you probably do so all the time. This essay will provide the answer to these mysteries of human interaction.

      4 Kelley’s covariation model of causal attribution outlined the way in which we decide whether a cause is internal or external. Kelley argued that we assess the consensus, consistency and distinctiveness of an event that we are trying to make an attribution about.

      5 Kelley’s covariation model of causal attribution could be understood as representing a particularly important example of applying a rational framework to understand human cognitive functioning. This essay will first outline the rational, deductive principles which Kelley’s covariation model suggests that we use in calculating causality.

      Making sense of the sample orientating sentences

      Perhaps start by identifying the strongest of these opening sentences. It is extremely likely that you, like I, would choose sample e. But let’s dig deeper here. Without getting bogged down in Kelley and covariation, why not characterise what these sentences are actually doing? Try the quick exercise below.

      Exercise

      Characterising opening sentences

      Look through the sample opening sentences again. What is each one actually doing?

      Here are some of the ways in which you might characterise what the sample sentences are doing:

      1 Launches into a description of Kelley’s covariation model

      2 Provides a chatty sense of what attribution might look like in everyday life

      3 Demonstrates a clear conceptualisation of what Kelley’s model means in psychology

      4 Tries to emphasise the importance of the topic for humanity

      5 Tries to give a very global sense of attribution’s relevance

      How would you fit these characterisations to the samples that we have just looked at? Please note, some do overlap (for example, 4 and 5).

      Sample (a) – I think this __________________________________

      Sample (b) – I think this __________________________________

      Sample (c) – I think this __________________________________

      Sample (d) – I think this __________________________________

      Sample (e) – I think this __________________________________

      The less effective sample opening sentences could work in other contexts. The chatty style of sample c could be a reasonable opening to a relationship-focused magazine article. Similarly, sample b’s emphasis on the importance of attribution could be relevant for introducing attribution to a non-specialist audience who were not previously familiar with it. Perhaps it could work for a very general psychology-orientated website? But the academic essay is a special form of writing. Your reader does not seek the chatty examples or the emphasis on global significance; they want to see your scholarly understanding.

      Let’s look at reader feedback on the above sample orientating sentences:

      1 Attribution is all around us… This is just so generalised. The essay is about Kelley’s Covariation Model, not life, the universe and everything. More precision is needed here.

      2 Human beings are cognitive creatures for whom thinking is crucial… This is generalised and involves truisms, why should we be told that thinking is important to humans? A more precise focus on the significance of Kelley’s work for psychology, not attributions relevance for humanity, is what is needed.

      3 Your friend blanks you – why?… I can almost see the colour photos that could accompany this text in a magazine article. For an academic essay, you don’t need to draw in your reader in this way. Show them a scholarly understanding of the topic of the essay and its relevance for psychology.

      4 Kelley’s covariation model of causal attribution outlined the way in which we decide whether a cause is internal or external… Where is the orientating sentence? Where is the introduction for that matter? This has simply launched in with a description of Kelley’s Covariation Model. It is true that it is not over-generalised, but it is also not an introduction.

      5 Kelley’s covariation model of causal attribution could be understood as representing a particularly important example of applying a rational framework to understand human cognitive functioning… This is not perfect, but it does address Kelley’s work by conceptualising what it has brought to psychology. This really conveys a sense of a mind at work – there is thinking and understanding about the focus of the essay title and its significance within psychology.

      What makes it good?

      A strong orientating sentence provides a sense of really grasping the relevance of the essay topic for psychology. It conceptualises the topic – in this example, Kelley’s Covariation Model – showing an СКАЧАТЬ