Posted: December 7th, 2014

Using the analytical frameworks examined in the module (Supply Chain Management, Global Commodity Chains and Global Production Networks), analyse how power relations shape and affect different actors in a supply chain oil

Global Supply Chains  (BUS 326)

QUICK TIPS ON ESSAY PLANNING and WRITING

HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION

First and foremost, you are being assessed on your ability to answer the question. You must reflect on the SPECIFIC DEMANDS of the question and build your essay around your response to those. The question may be general and open to different interpretations or approaches. This allows you to:
a)    use the terms of the question to define how YOU would like to engage;
b)    choose the interpretation or approach you are going to follow, and justify it. This means that you must support your arguments with evidence and other arguments or positions within the literature.

Second, to answer your question you always need to engage with different positions and arguments, thus combine arguments and counter-arguments. This will demonstrate that you understand how different positions relate to your essay questions and strengthen your own position.

Third, we build essay questions that are deliberately broad. This allows you to focus on what you are most interested in. You can narrow down your analysis to specific sectors, case studies, and countries or provide a larger picture. It is also very useful to explain and motivate your choice.

Fourth, you should remember that providing a definitive answer, or inflexibly taking one side in complex debates do not necessarily show that your arguments and position are strong. Usually, essay questions engage with complex debates for which a simple concluding answer is difficult to formulate within the limited space of an essay. Once more, you need to show that you grasp the degree of complexity implicit in various issues and topics and build a nuanced answer, which reflect such complexity.

HOW TO STRUCTURE AND WRITE YOUR ESSAY

A well-structured essay always includes an INTRODUCTION, a MAIN BODY, a CONCLUSION, and makes use of SUB-HEADINGS. Sub-headings signal the main points you want to cover, while their sequence shows the logical progression of your thought. While planning and writing your essay, sub-headings help you to see what you’re doing (and how well you’re doing it) – and help to keep you on track (vs wandering off the subject).

INTRODUCTION. The following three aspects should be part of any good introduction, and can ONLY be achieved with good planning:
a)    What are you going to do? In brief, summarise what the essay is about (i.e. the main topic(s) and the significance of the question).
b)    How are you going to do it? This is where the prior planning comes in. Here you lay-out the structure or ‘steps’ of the essay (i.e. very brief summaries of what each of the sections will be about). Remember that each of these MUST contribute to answering the specific demands of the question in some way.
c)    What is the main thrust of your argument? (I.e. provide your broad answer to the question so that the reader – me – can see where you are going)
d)    In addition, you can also use the introduction to define core terms used in the question or in your answer. This should not be a long discussion, but a succinct (to-the-point) exercise to allow you to build your essay in the main body.

MAIN BODY. The main body is about the development of your argument, the analysis you present, and how you justify it in relation to logic, the use of evidence and/or debate. When planning and writing the main body of your essay you should:
a)    make use of sub-headings. These are crucial to structure your thoughts.
b)    be very careful with the use of evidence (e.g. empirical case studies, data,  etc). Be aware that evidence always concerns a particular time and place, so make sure that you specify evidence by time and place. This should also help you to avoid over-generalisation. Remember also that, in the confines of only 2,500 words, evidence can only ever be illustrative. In other words, evidence illustrates the points and arguments that you are making, and shows that you know how to use evidence properly.
c)    be aware that assertions are not evidence. You may have an opinion about something, perhaps based on others’ assertions (e.g. in the media, in textbooks), but unless you have weighed-up the (often competing) evidence and/or logics, then it may be wiser to make clear that an issue is not certain (i.e. shades of grey rather than black and white).
d)    do not abuse quotations. Do not let quotes talk for you. Break up longer quotes and/ or paraphrase in your own words (but still, of course, referencing the source). If using longer quotes always explain your interpretation of their meaning and/ or how it relates to the specific focus on your analysis.

CONCLUSION. The conclusion draws together the various strands of your argument used to answer the question. You can also use the conclusion for broader reflection on the topic, perhaps in terms of how it relates to wider issues, or what you think is missing from the terrain of the debate and why this matters, etc.

REFERENCING. It is IMPERATIVE that you reference your work properly and provide a full bibliography. We are very tough on this. This is because we will have no idea where your arguments, evidence and ideas are sourced from. When you read your first draft you should check that all references are rigorously applied. For example:
•    lecture notes or lecture material do not represent appropriate references.
•    Wikipedia and similar sites are not adequate sources. Wikipedia can be very useful for  background on an issue, but that is it. In our experience in general, many students need to be more careful about what sources they trust. To assess the quality of an unknown online source, find out a little bit more about the organisation publishing the material on its website. Try to gauge an understanding of their relative position in the issue/ debate in question and as a result how this might flavour any ‘analysis’ that they offer.
•    a weblink without the author, title, and date, is NOT a proper reference. The following link provides a user friendly guide to the Harvard referencing system: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm  We do not mind which referencing system you use, as long as it’s consistently and rigorously applied

Finally, Do NOT leave your essay to the last minute. No serious writer submits their first draft, and normally no one would ever want to read a first draft. Given that you are all serious students, please spend time re-reading and revising your work. (A gap of 1-2 days can help by allowing you to read with ‘fresh eyes’.) The initial focus should be on checking the strength of your ARGUMENT: does your essay do what you intended in terms of its structure and analysis? Is it coherent and convincing? Are there elements of the essay that you can improve before submitting it?

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