to be able to write
what you think about
your own subject.
But actually,
it’s also really important to
justify and show that
you have done some additional
reading and researching,
You’re gaining additional insights.
The first rule is to make sure that
it fits the subject area.
And then you’re looking
to make it fit with the question,
and to support and justify
some of your own arguments
and discussions.
You can look in books;
you can look in journals.
You can look in associated material.
But it may also be good to
take some more current examples –
maybe from a magazine
– that look at the subject area
from a different and lighter context.
Usually if you go
to your university library,
you go online, and many university
libraries have chat rooms now,
and they will really help you find,
if not the actual source,
something that is quite similar.
Really the best tip is to
go to the introduction.
Go to a summary.
And look at what the paper
is trying to say,
and then you can actually
unpick it piece by piece.
It may be that actually the paper
really is too complex, because if it’s
complex to a native speaker
or a non-native speaker,
generally it’s something perhaps
you should be avoiding.
Students should really try to
avoid promo material – promotional material
that’s dressed
up as theory.
And particular organizations
actually try to launch new ideas,
new concepts
and to get them accepted as –
if you like – solid theory,
when in effect they’re
really promoting
their own new technology.
It’s usually quite clear:
it doesn’t add value to it,
it doesn’t add depth to it,
it doesn’t add breadth to it.
What it should be doing
is actually adding value almost
seamlessly to the paper.
The extra points
is where they’ve added:
significant justification,
new ideas,
being critical in
a positive way to the subject area,
and really showing that they’ve
understood that and dug
deeply into the underlying concepts.
Go the distance.
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