Tag: Essays

  • Essential Sections Required on an Essay

    As a student, you have to write an essay or a research paper at one time in your school life. Essays play a big part in determining the grade you get. They have guidelines, though, and it’s important to know them before starting work on your essay. There are some universally accepted essential sections required on your essay, especially if it’s 6,000 words or more long. They include:

    1)      A title page

    This should be the first page attached to your work. It should be filled in correctly in case a departmental cover sheet is offered.  If not, provide the essay title in caps at the top of the page, your name and student number, the course, the examiner’s name, and the date you hand in the essay.

    2)      A front section.

    This one should contain the table of contents, a list of illustrations/tables, and an abstract.

    3)      An introduction

    The introduction should restate the essay question using a hypothesis and provide a clear outline of the essay. This is where you give the reader your point of view on the essay question and how you will support your view. You inform the reader what your discussion will be about, what you will not discuss, and why. The introduction topic should convince the reader to read the rest of your essay.

    4)      A body

    Follow the outline you provided in the front section. Provide evidence that substantiates your thesis on the body. Provide a different idea related to the topic for each paragraph. Paragraphs must be well constructed and start with a topic sentence. A topic sentence gives the main idea of a paragraph and summarizes it. The paragraphs should relate and provide a smooth flow to your essay. They should be clear, concise, and contribute to the main argument.

    5)      A conclusion

    Your conclusion should be a summary of the main points in your essay. It should clearly show how these points relate to the topic question. Do not introduce any new material in the conclusion section.

    6)      Appendix

    The appendix contains any information that may be of help to the reader and is optional. This information, however, is not part of the overall word count.

    7)      A bibliography/ reference list

    This appears at the end of the essay. It contains a list of sources you used when writing your paper. State the title of the source, the author, year of publication, publisher, place of publication, and pages depending on the citation format your examiner asks you to use. Different citation formats include APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, Harvard, etc.

  • Understanding What Is Expected on an Assignment

    Understanding assignments
    understanding assignments.
    image source:serc.carleton.edu

    It’s very important for a student to understand what the lecturer expects to see on an assignment, research paper, or essay. Understanding the terms used when phrasing an assignment helps you choose and narrow down the material you need.  It also helps you know how to best answer the question. Luckily for you as a student, the same terms are used to set essay questions over and over. Here are some terms you will come across when tackling essays and what is expected of you:

    Analyze: Break down an issue into parts and examine, discuss, and interpret each issue. Explain how issues interrelate and contribute to the whole.

    Apply: Use the information you already have on one topic to expound on another topic.

    Argue: Make a case for or against your point of view on a topic using appropriate material.

    Classify: Place an item into a certain category with other similar items. Explain how you arrived at the category and why that category differs from another.

    Compare: Identify characteristics or qualities of two or more items and explain their similarities.

    Contrast: Identify characteristics or qualities of two or more items and explain their differences.

    Define: Provide the interpretation or meaning of a concept or term by providing sufficient details. These details should be enough to distinguish the term or concept from others similar to it.

    Describe: Provide a detailed account or description of an idea or topic or provide a sequence on how a series of things happened.

    Discuss: Present key points and possible interpretations of an idea or topic.  Investigate and examine them while giving reasons in favor of the idea or against then draw a conclusion.

    Enumerate: Create a list of parts, aspects, or ideas that describe a topic.

    Evaluate: Provide a reasoned opinion of an idea, person, or topic in terms of merit. Give a personal opinion on the effectiveness of an idea you read about and determine whether it meets certain criteria while providing supporting evidence.

    Examine: Discuss the essential elements of a topic critically.

    Explain: Simplify something by explaining or describing how it works, how one can do it, or its causes and effects.

    Identify: Point out or describe something, its components/features, or where and when it occurs.

    Illustrate: Use examples, statistics, or visual representations to make a point.

    Interpret: Clarify or explain the meaning and significance of a certain subject or object.

    Justify: Provide valid reasons for why you accept a particular conclusion or interpretation.

    Outline: Describe the main ideas of a topic or provide an overview of its structure and parts.

    Prove: Demonstrate the true state of an idea by providing irrefutable evidence.

    Relate: Explain or compare and contrast how events or things happened or their connection using a cause-effect sense.

    State: Describe the main points of a topic or idea.

    Summarize: Provide the main points or highlights of a long topic. Provide a condensed account of an event, story, or article.

    Trace: Provide a chronological order of an event or a historical overview of change. Describe the connection between one idea and another.

  • Basics of Decision Making

    Decision-making is a cognitive or mental process that results in selecting an action course among several alternative situations and scenarios.  Each decision-making process produces a final action or an opinion, which can be an exceptional output. The process of decision-making is as ancient as humanity (Gruinig, Grunig, & Kuhn, 2009). At first, it involved interpreting dreams and studying trail marks. It later transformed to voting, where the majority of senate members, citizens, and comrades would vote to make decisions. Since then, it has developed and resulted in a complex result involving an initial analysis of possible alternatives. Decision-making is a process everybody has to undertake at any one time (Gurvis, 2007).

    Decision-making is a leadership-defining characteristic viewed in different perspectives. In the cognitive perspective, the process is continuous (McLucas, 2010). There is an interaction with the surrounding environment. In the psychological perspective, the process is in the context of an individual preference, needs, and values. In the normative perspective, an individual’s decision is based on the logic of the process and the invariant option it leads one (Kaner et al., 2011). One has to know the difference between an opinion and a decision. Therefore, it is important to make a decision that one should and leave the rest. Another essential point to note is that leaders have to make decisions from several options and alternatives, which do not have to be ideal in solving the existing problem or circumstance (McLucas, 2010).

    Evaluate the situation before developing an action course. For example, a decision to call a fire brigade to help stop the fire from spreading within a slum is more significant than that of buying a car. The latter can always wait. Think about the outcome and consequences of decisions made (Kaner et al., 2011). Another key tip is to avoid making hurried decisions. This can result in a downfall and choosing things that are not a priority. As much as leaders should act quickly on easily changeable, less crucial, and adaptable decisions, they need to do it carefully because action-cause might have far-reaching implications and ramifications that might be hard to change. Timing is often fundamental. Therefore, avoid procrastination. It is better to make a wrong decision early and correct it than to make a correct decision rather too late (Mullen & Roth, 2009).

    Timely decisions are good. They come in handy when required. Writing down all options and checking their workability is vital because it forms a guide to decision-making (Mullen & Roth, 2009). They assist in evaluating facts and fiction. In addition, avoid bias and choosing options given by friends. Evaluating all the options can help one focus on the scope. Making an independent decision as one moves along is more practical and efficient than postponing the whole thing. The core of decision-making is objectivity. Moreover, involving other individuals feasibly helps in seeing issues clearly. It also motivates them and brings up an atmosphere of commitment and cooperation (Rai & Bhushan, 2004).

    In conclusion, effective and true leaders in any organization must have an opportunity to be right, and in some cases wrong, since no human is perfect. The leaders must also trust themselves and feel confident in handling whatever circumstance comes their way. Before becoming a leader, there is a need to train and understand the process of decision-making (Mullen & Roth, 2009). Leaders need to evaluate which issues are worth spending energy and time on to avoid wasting time on unnecessary content. The process of making decisions is an in-depth plan of action, which requires a lot of brainstorming, fresh ideas, and thoughts. A thorough follow-up of the decision made enhances the effectiveness of the outcome. There are people within organizations who never want change. They will constantly try through thick and thin to disagree and keep things as they were before. For an organization not to stagnate, one needs to make imperative decisions at the right time, for the right people, and at an ethically acceptable condition (Gruinig, Grunig, & Kuhn, 2009).

     

    References

    Gruinig, R., Grunig jr, R., & Kuhn, R. (2009). Successful decision-making: A systematic approach to complex problems. Seatle, WA: Springer.

    Gurvis, S. (2007). Management basics: A practical guide for managers. New York, NY: Adam Media.

    Kaner, S., Lind, L., Toldi, C., Fisk, S., Berger, D., & Doyle, M. (2011). Facilitator’s guide to participatory decision making. Chicago, IL: John Wiley and Sons.

    McLucas, A. C. (2010). Decision making: Risk management, system thinking and situation awareness. Washington, WA: Argos Press.

    Mullen, J. D., & Roth, B. M. (2009). Decision making: Its logic and practice. Minnesota, MN: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Rai, K., & Bhushan, N. (2004). Strategic decision making: Applying the analytic hierarchy process: Decision engineering. Seatle, WA: Springer.

    This is a sample essay written by one of our professional writers. Use this sample only as reference material and do not pass it as your own, as it will be considered plagiarism. You can, however, order a paper from our site and have it written according to your specifications and requirements.