the 2005/06 essay advice thread

[Pickman's model]

european integration enhanced competition?

to a certain extent - look at the celtic tiger, for example - and the privatisation which new eu members are quite up on. but on the other hand, the outsourcing of production by large multinationals undermines some european industries, eg textiles, and a new economic base has to replace traditional industries. so ireland and the uk seek to replace their traditional industries with knowledge-based ones.

 

[Pickman's model]

http://www.freema.org/NewsLetter/eu.integration/2000.1.rvilpisauskas.phtml
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/RODRIGU1/Cambridge 2.pdf

 

[maes]

Cheers that second link is written by the lecturer who wants the essay

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[E.J.]

mmm need a bit of help with this essay because i'm not a film expert

Here's an essay for a module at uni which i'm doing at the mo i.e. The Moving Image in a Changing World, that i've got to hand in month's time (any suggestions would be useful).

Write an essay that addresses the following topic:

"To what extent do you believe that the moving image has formed taste, morals, and attitudes in the societies who are exposed to it? Can this vary, according to the social groups concerned? Do you assert that moving image makers hold social and moral responsibilities for the work that they produce?

Make a comparative study of Fight Club and another film of your choice (from any film era) using your chosen theme. Please indentify within your essay how are you making the study comparative i.e. What elements of the film are you comparing. Plot/Editing/Character/Cinematography etc."

Essay length = between 1300 and 1500 words.

 

[Pickman's model]

bear with me - will give you some thoughts later.

 

[E.J.]

bear with me - will give you some thoughts later.

Ok then P.Model - i'll await patiently with your thoughts on the essay title

 

[Flavour]

i'm doing an english essay at UEA nobody else on my course is doing cos they'd rather do frankenstein. i'm doing a discussion of two poems - one of which almost randmonly mentions treblinka and pompeii, and the other is set in budapest. i was playing with my atlas and i drew a straight line through treblinka to pompeii and it runs through budapest - and i've included a map in my essay to show the peculiar coincidental link between them (although the poem set in budapest has been, admitted the author, very influenced by the earlier poem which mentions treblinka/pompeii)... so including maps in english essays at degree level to show funny little things (my essay title is "discuss the representation of place in these two poems" )...

am i cool or what?

 

[cathal marcs]

Dunno if I need help as such more advice.

I have basically a project for an education policy module and devise a question. Sounds easy but wording a question aint always that easy if you know what I mean. Its only to be 2.5k words so nice and short as they also want a main essay in a few weeks to be done.

I am thinking of doing it ideology and how it has shaped education policy and looking at policies Tories and New labour Govts especially the 1988act and comparing it and contrasting it to last weeks white paper which is remakably similar.

A question I have thought of is:

'To what extent has ideology shaped education policy over the last 25 years and to what extent has there been continuity between New Labour and Conservative education policies?'

Id break down the essay as follows

1 Intro

2 The New Right(What it is, key thinkers Hayeck etc, The so called crisis of education system of how and why it came about. Then go onto to talk about the conflict between Neo Conservatism and Neo Liberalism)

3 Conservative policies 79-97 Basically talk briefly of some policies the increased of the private sector in education concentraiting on the 1988 education Act and to what extent it has been shaped by new right thinking

4 The Third way ideology (What it is, How It came About, Key Feature and philosophies 'communitarianism' etc and thinkers such as Giddens) and how it differs if it does from the New Right and more so Neo Liberalism.

5 New labour education Policy generally the current whitepaper also some earlier acts. To what extent has the policies been influenced by third way ideology and how do they differ? Simmilarities between conservative policies such as increased privatisation, reduced role of LEAs, opt outs, drive for connsumer choice(faith schools) and the reintroduction basically of Grant Maintained schools and city acadamies.

Any suggestions would be much approved especialy journal articles and if you could help word the question to suit the essay better.

 

[Sorry.]

Is it good idea to shoehorn two topics into the same essay?

Topics are

(a) cultural conceptions of the postwar settlement (UK)
(b) the usefulness of the concept of governmentality in explaining disciplinary tactics in the postwar settlement

length 6,000 words

if it is a good idea, what title would you go for?

 

[Pickman's model]

i'm doing an english essay at UEA nobody else on my course is doing cos they'd rather do frankenstein. i'm doing a discussion of two poems - one of which almost randmonly mentions treblinka and pompeii, and the other is set in budapest. i was playing with my atlas and i drew a straight line through treblinka to pompeii and it runs through budapest - and i've included a map in my essay to show the peculiar coincidental link between them (although the poem set in budapest has been, admitted the author, very influenced by the earlier poem which mentions treblinka/pompeii)... so including maps in english essays at degree level to show funny little things (my essay title is "discuss the representation of place in these two poems" )...

am i cool or what?

smartly done!

 

[Pickman's model]

Is it good idea to shoehorn two topics into the same essay?

no.

Topics are

(a) cultural conceptions of the postwar settlement (UK)
(b) the usefulness of the concept of governmentality in explaining disciplinary tactics in the postwar settlement

length 6,000 words

if it is a good idea, what title would you go for?

if it's a choice between the two, i'd go for a) cos it doesn't hanve governmentality in it.

 

[red rose]

I'm having trouble with an essay entitled "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" - discuss the extent to which this is true.

I've researched Wittgenstein (not easy) but the thing I'm having a problem with is working out what the essay is asing of me. Its for a module on Political Communication Propaganda and Spin, in which we have been studying different communication models and theories. I'm just used to being spoon fed when it comes to essays and I'm struggling to work out what direction I should take.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

 

[Santino]

In my experience, if an essay question is vaguely worded, you should begin the essay with something like 'I take the question to mean...'

Having said that, what I take the setter to be asking for is you to show that you understand exactly what it is that Wittgenstein is saying. First unpick the statement into more basic statements, as if you were explaining to a bright 18 year old. Then list a few points for and against - say, three on each side, briefly showing how they support or undermine Wittgenstein's thesis. If the arguments are not your own - and no one would expect an undergraduate to come up with original arguments - mention where you found them.

Don't be afraid to make the style as transparent as possible. For example: 'There are three good objections to W's proposition. The first...' Some sentences later: 'Turning now to the second objection...' and so on.

At the end, summarise the arguments, and offer a conclusion, i.e. to what extent the statement is true. You don't have to be original, as long as you demonstrate that you have thought about and understood the issues. Oh, and be explicit again: 'These arguments seem to demonstrate the Wittgenstein's statement is true to the extent that...'

Hope this helps.

Alex
(Reformed Philosophy Undergraduate)

 

[Diamond]

Hey Pickman's. I'm doing a couple of things that I thought I'd ask you about, although it's a little late in the day now.

I'm doing an essay for a history course on Europe in the 60s which is based on Georges Perec's novel 'Things: A History of the 60s' and is orientated towards an examination of the influence of 60s affluence and the growth of the consumer society. If you've read the novel and have any thoughts on it, that'd be great; but otherwise any thoughts on the topic in general, or reading suggestions would be fantastic.

I'm also doing a dissertation on the phenomenon of Arsenal fanzines in the 80s and 90s in relation to social change and changes in the structure of football in general. That's getting pretty scary as it gradually dawns on me a) the absolute absence of any academic work on the subject previously and b) the daunting prospect of an old school history professor being my second marker who might dismiss the whole thing out of hand as spurious.

 

[Pickman's model]

Hey Pickman's. I'm doing a couple of things that I thought I'd ask you about, although it's a little late in the day now.

I'm doing an essay for a history course on Europe in the 60s which is based on Georges Perec's novel 'Things: A History of the 60s' and is orientated towards an examination of the influence of 60s affluence and the growth of the consumer society. If you've read the novel and have any thoughts on it, that'd be great; but otherwise any thoughts on the topic in general, or reading suggestions would be fantastic.

i no nothing of perec. but give me five minutes.

I'm also doing a dissertation on the phenomenon of Arsenal fanzines in the 80s and 90s in relation to social change and changes in the structure of football in general. That's getting pretty scary as it gradually dawns on me a) the absolute absence of any academic work on the subject previously and b) the daunting prospect of an old school history professor being my second marker who might dismiss the whole thing out of hand as spurious.

the proliferation of football fanzines in the 1980s and 1990s was perhaps due in part to the proliferation of computers and dtp, as it became easier for people to put out magazines which looked vaguely professional. but ask the people who do the fanzines!

email: [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected] (up the arse!) [email protected] (note that unless you state otherwise he'll treat yr stuff as a submission for the site)

or you can write to: Up The Arse! PO Box 2567, READING RG1 5ZS

 

[Pickman's model]

re perec:

disposability of so much of life in 1960s, increased throwaway culture, perhaps extends to literary efforts of that author - also, the increasing panopticonick nature of the modern novel? maybe... writing by numbers as he describes the apartment in an overly structured fashion. i'd see if i could work in a link to last tango in paris and the situationists - psychogeography of the flat. have a quick look at the society of the spectacle (debord); the revolution of everyday life (venigem); that thing about student life...

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/

yeh, on the poverty of student life.

 

[Pickman's model]

http://www.karlwhitney.com/papers/proposal.doc

yeh. i thought so.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'm having trouble with an essay entitled "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" - discuss the extent to which this is true.

I've researched Wittgenstein (not easy) but the thing I'm having a problem with is working out what the essay is asing of me. Its for a module on Political Communication Propaganda and Spin, in which we have been studying different communication models and theories. I'm just used to being spoon fed when it comes to essays and I'm struggling to work out what direction I should take.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

one of the greatest exponents of the english language is undoubtedly william shakespeare. the range of situations and emotions which he covers both in his plays and in his sonnets is astonishing. yet even a brief glance at a copy of, say, macbeth, will show that much of the language which he uses is beyond the reach of the average reader. to enter shakespeare's world, it is necessary to understand the language which he uses. similarly, when listening to the patois of people from the caribbean, few people who haven't the ear for the dialect will pick any of it up (certainly i don't). the i'n'i bit seems quite simple, but the way it's spoken leaves out the uninitiated, which is most likely the idea. essentially, you can enter people's worlds by learning their language, and it's something expected of people at gcse (or at least i had to do shakespeare even if it is no longer compulsory). when you get onto people like wittgenstein, things get a bit trickier, but to me it isn't certain that you have to use wittgenstein for that essay.

i'd have thought that you'd be better off looking (tentatively) at habermas and his bastard legitimation crisis (i think that's the one)

http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/publsbm01.htm

worth dropping in the name, anyway. also - though i'm not certain how useful it'd be - you might want to have a quick look at quentin skinner's "return of grand theory" book.

but what i think the question's getting at is the limits of discourse and communication without shared understanding.

 

[Pickman's model]

Here's an essay for a module at uni which i'm doing at the mo i.e. The Moving Image in a Changing World, that i've got to hand in month's time (any suggestions would be useful).

Write an essay that addresses the following topic:

"To what extent do you believe that the moving image has formed taste, morals, and attitudes in the societies who are exposed to it? Can this vary, according to the social groups concerned? Do you assert that moving image makers hold social and moral responsibilities for the work that they produce?

Make a comparative study of Fight Club and another film of your choice (from any film era) using your chosen theme. Please indentify within your essay how are you making the study comparative i.e. What elements of the film are you comparing. Plot/Editing/Character/Cinematography etc."

Essay length = between 1300 and 1500 words.

http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/fightclub.html

that ought to see you right.

also discuss a scene or two in some detail (about 250 words/scene) and chuck in a little bit of cinematick jargon & bob should be yr uncle.

 

[E.J.]

Thank you or big up to Pickmans Model

Good timing Pickimans Model, i've started on the *essay 2 weeks ago after doing my essay plan, then getting a few links about Fight Club. Plus a few books on cinema & masculinity in films. I've compared this movie to Last Exit to Brooklyn, in terms of the bleak settings and environments, the question of self worth and hope, the editing etc in both movies.

*The essay has got to to be handed in this friday - i'll finish it.....

 

[Pickman's model]

that'll do the job!

 

[In Bloom]

Am doing an essay on "how far had anarchosyndicalism supplanted Social Democracy as the chief vehicle of revolutionary protest by 1914?"

Need some decent books to read on the subject. Can anyone help me, please?

 

[Pickman's model]

Am doing an essay on "how far had anarchosyndicalism supplanted Social Democracy as the chief vehicle of revolutionary protest by 1914?"

Need some decent books to read on the subject. Can anyone help me, please?

will reply round three

but james joll's europe since 1870 would be a useful read.

 

[In Bloom]

james joll's europe since 1870 would be a useful read.

Cheers, will do

 

[Pickman's model]

woodcock's history of anarchism would be good too - but (frankly) the man to ask's butchers.

 

[Kenny Vermouth]

By the Model, are you a fan of the Schutzstaffel and the Royal Ulster Constabulary or something?

 

[Pickman's model]

By the Model, are you a fan of the Schutzstaffel and the Royal Ulster Constabulary or something?

a translation into english would be much appreciated.

 

[maes]

Ok if anyone has any answers in the next 25 mins that would be great

Q: What domestic problems confronted Bismark in governing germany before 1888?

(This is just a small talk that I'm giving).

So far, I reckon:

Catholicism, Socialism, Liberalism and all the social minorities he hates, poles etc. Any more for any more?

 

[Pickman's model]

Ok if anyone has any answers in the next 25 mins that would be great

Q: What domestic problems confronted Bismark in governing germany before 1888?

(This is just a small talk that I'm giving).

So far, I reckon:

Catholicism, Socialism, Liberalism and all the social minorities he hates, poles etc. Any more for any more?

how'd it go?