reading and writing

1. Using Reading In Your
Writing

2. You will be able to
Describe when and how to use
reading in your writing
Demonstrate your comparison
and synthesis of reading
Support an argument with
reading

3. Spotting
reading
◦ Look at the two extracts
taken from a student essays.
◦ Work together to identify
where they have used
reading in their writing.
◦ How have they used the
reading?
◦ Which student has done
this most
effectively? Why? How?

4. ◦ There are views about how to write a good essay. Hennessy
(1968) believes that all first year university essays should
only be written from lecture notes as student know so little
of their subject. According to Murdoch (2015) academic
essays should be well researched. This research should be
done from books listed in the module handbook and using
the resources in the library. According to Gornall(2013)
assignments are written using information collected from
the library and online sources. Cottrell (2012) argues that
students should use library resources and some academic
websites.
There are views about everything. How many
are they the same or different?
Very old source. Could have been presented
to show how views have changed overtime.
What does this mean – no further analysis or
supporting examples. Superficial text analysis.
Same point could have been synthesised.

5. Not enough analysis. This is
written as a collection of short
summaries and does not show
enough understanding of the
research material. Overall a very
descriptive piece, too little time
had been spent thinking about the
information in order to present it
with evidence of real thinking on
the topic.
Relevant
research
Writing Process

6. PROCESS

7. Bill's Assignment
◦ Similarities
◦ Books in library –Gornall/Murdoch
◦ Websites –careful Gornall/Murdoch
◦ Gornall/Murdoch/Cottrell –Written in the last ten
years –indicate contemporary thought.
◦ Cottrell -Books and some websites.
◦ Differences
◦ Books in MIP –Murdoch
◦ Hennessy –Only use lecture notes in first year. Written
in 60’s –outdated

8. Process ◦ The issue of how students should approach research for assignments has
attracted a great deal of debate. Many researchers have offered opinions
on this issue. According to Murdoch (2015) and Gornall(2013) students
should research for assignments using resources in the library and from
online sources. Though both stress that website based research should be
done carefully. This is further supported in the work of Cottrell (2012).
Murdoch(2015) also adds that book lists in Module Handbooks should also
be used. These contemporary opinions are in contrast to Hennessy writing
in 1968 who argued at least in first year students should only refer
to lecture notes for research.

9. Why is this important?
Your tutors want to see that you
have been able to see the
differences between texts, and you
have been able to select the most
appropriate ones.
They also want to see that you have
been able to use these sources
accurately in your writing, and show
the connections between them.

10. Deciding what to
read
◦ Five step plan
◦ 1. Evaluate the question – try writing the question in
your own words.
◦ 2. What do you already know- lectures, previous
knowledge and reading.
◦ 3. What type of sources will you need – build a
research plan.
◦ 4. Collect your sources – use Discover etc.
◦ 5. Read actively – annotate, make notes use reading
grids.
Look at the resources on
Canvas to help you review
these stages.
You need to make sure that you have
selected appropriate academic
sources to be able to use them
accurately.

11. ◦ Look at the example notes on your handout.
◦ Which do you think will be most useful for
an assignment?
◦ Why?
◦ What should the student do next?
Note making
Making notes can make you feel very productive.
However, sometimes students find they waste
time copying out information which they never
use again. As a rule of thumb, when writing an
essay you should use around 85% of your notes.

12. NOTES TO PLANS

13. Relationships
between texts
◦ Use your notes to build a picture of the
relationship between the evidence. A reading grid
will help you do this.
◦ Compare and contrast
◦ Similarities and differences
◦ Different types of analysis
◦ Think of your texts as having a discussion
between themselves.
No actually some of
the points are still valid,
look at my concluding
section.
The conclusions in
this study are
outdated.
I agree with
you
Yes the research in
my first chapter
supports this.
Ok so I am going to
compare these
viewpoints in my second
paragraph.

14. CRITICALLY RECORDING READING
Author, title, type of
source
Topic Main Point –
Argument
Key ideas/themes
Strengths/
Weaknesses
Limitations
How to use Significance Your thoughts about what is
said
Useful for your
referencing.
Also highlights any
possible bias from the type
of source.
Is this very close to your
research topic?
Is this an article on a
different topic that you are
going to apply to your
question?
What is the author trying
to tell you?
Look at the abstract,
introduction and
conclusion - to help you
determine the main
argument.
Evidence?
Date?
Sample size?
Source outside your
field- can you apply the
ideas?
Where are you going to use this information in your writing?
How are you going to use it?
This is where you begin to plan your writing.
Are you going to combine this source with another to make a
point stronger with a synthesised reference?
Are you going to compare this source with another to
contrast arguments?
Is this big picture information you may use in your
introduction?
Is this sources cited
frequently in further
studies?
Is this source
underpinning your line
of argument?
Is this source providing
key research?
What do you think?
What questions has this source
raised for you?
Has this led you to think about
further reading you need to
do?

15. USE THE GRID PROVIDED TO
ANALYSE THE READINGS.
What are the different points of view being put
forward?

16. Language
◦ Similarly, Nicoladis (2006) found that X …
In the same vein, Smith (1994) in his book XYZ notes …
This view is supported by Jones (2000) who writes that …
Smith argues that her data support O’Brien’s (1988) view that …
Al-Masry’s (1986) work on X is complemented by Smith’s (2009) study of …
Almost every paper that has been written on X includes a section relating to …
◦ Unlike Smith, Jones (2013) argues that …
In contrast to Smith, Jones (2013) argues that …
A broader perspective has been adopted by Smith (2013) who argues that …
Conversely, Wang (2010) reported no significant difference in mortality between
X and Y.

17. Over the past two decades, the issue of the ethical stance of businesses appears to have
become more explicitly an area of public debate and consumer awareness. Two illustrations
of this are the number of publications that give consumers information about the most ethical
companies (for example the Ethispere and Good Shopping Guide sites), and the fact that
many large organisations now have an ‘our ethics’ tab somewhere on their website. The UK
ethical sales market is currently valued at over £38 billion, and has been expanding year on
year over the past decade, with current growth at about 8.5% (Ethical Consumer Research
Association and Triodos Bank 2017). This essay will briefly define business ethics and then
consider whether it does and should have value as an aspect of both business activity and
business theory and training.
Defining what constitutes a business is contentious in itself, but for the purposes of this short
essay it will be defined as any profit-making enterprise, including charities ,who make profits
to invest back into the enterprise (Smith and Jones, 2014; Rogers, 2013 ; Appleton, 2011).
Similarly, there are numerous, overlapping definitions of business ethics. Shaw and
Barry define it as ‘what constitutes right and wrong (or good and bad) human conduct in a
business context’ (p. 25). This is a broad definition that needs some refining in two areas.
One distinction to make is that ethics is not the same thing as general morality. Crane and
Matten (2016) explain that although morals are a basic premise of ethics, ethics and ethical
theory go a step further because they focus on how morals can be applied to produce explicit
standards and rules for particular contexts, of which business is one. Ferrell, Fraedrich and
Ferrell’s definition of business ethics as the ‘principles and standards that guide behaviour in
the world of business’ (Ferrell et al. 2002, p.6) is pertinent here, as it emphasises the
application of morals to produce codes and guidelines. Codified ethical behaviour usually falls
under what is called ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), which in turn is usually seen as
part of corporate governance, although there is overlap between the two areas of activity.
The second aspect of defining business ethics which needs unpacking is that, as Crane and
Matten point out, ethics is not synonymous with legality. They state that there is some overlap
between law and ethics, but that legislation usually only regulates the lowest level of
acceptable behaviour. In addition, as Trevino and Nelson (2010) state, the law is limited in
what it can do to prevent unacceptable actions, because legislation follows rather than
precedes trends in behaviour. Business ethics, then, according to Crane and Matten, is
mainly concerned with areas of conduct that are not specifically covered by law, and that are
therefore open to different interpretations, a fact that means a particular behaviour may be
legal albeit viewed by many as unethical.
General opening statement – based on
extensive background reading.
Specific examples to support general
statement.
Statistical evidence to demonstrate why this
issue is worth researching and analysing.
Thesis statement – what the essay will discuss.
Line of argument.
Synthesised reference demonstrating the
research this definition is based on.
Analysis of the research.
Specific selected research to support and
extend the research.
Demonstrating synthesis and depth of
understanding.
Concluding based on the research.

18. Reflect
◦ What are you going to do to develop the use of
reading in your academic writing?
◦ Develop your note making?
◦ Spend time thinking about the relationships between
texts?
◦ Start using a reading gird?
◦ Plan ur writing?
◦ Review language to make you analysis clearer?