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Pdf of a presentation I've used as an example for students of how to organise a dissertation structure which includes a generalised structure and an example (originally aimed at fashion students).

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Resources for Mindful Practice

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Article from the Guardian

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s the government begins its crackdown on essay mill websites, it's easy to see just how much pressure students are under to get top grades for their coursework these days. But writing a high-scoring paper doesn't need to be complicated. We spoke to experts to get some simple techniques that will raise your writing game.

Tim Squirrell is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, and is teaching for the first time this year. When he was asked to deliver sessions on the art of essay-writing, he decided to publish a comprehensive (and brilliant) blog on the topic, offering wisdom gleaned from turning out two or three essays a week for his own undergraduate degree.

"There is a knack to it," he says. "It took me until my second or third year at Cambridge to work it out. No one tells you how to put together an argument and push yourself from a 60 to a 70, but once you to get grips with how you're meant to construct them, it's simple."

The goal of writing any essay is to show that you can think critically about the material at hand (whatever it may be). This means going beyond regurgitating what you've read; if you're just repeating other people's arguments, you're never going to trouble the upper end of the marking scale.

"You need to be using your higher cognitive abilities," says Bryan Greetham, author of the bestselling How to Write Better Essays. "You're not just showing understanding and recall, but analysing and synthesising ideas from different sources, then critically evaluating them. That's where the marks lie."

But what does critical evaluation actually look like? According to Squirrell, it's simple: you need to "poke holes" in the texts you're exploring and work out the ways in which "the authors aren't perfect".

"That can be an intimidating idea," he says. "You're reading something that someone has probably spent their career studying, so how can you, as an undergraduate, critique it?

"The answer is that you're not going to discover some gaping flaw in Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume 3, but you are going to be able to say: 'There are issues with these certain accounts, here is how you might resolve those'. That's the difference between a 60-something essay and a 70-something essay."

Once you've cast a critical eye over the texts, you should turn it back on your own arguments. This may feel like going against the grain of what you've learned about writing academic essays, but it's the key to drawing out developed points.

"We're taught at an early age to present both sides of the argument," Squirrell continues. "Then you get to university and you're told to present one side of the argument and sustain it throughout the piece. But that's not quite it: you need to figure out what the strongest objections to your own argument would be. Write them and try to respond to them, so you become aware of flaws in your reasoning. Every argument has its limits and if you can try and explore those, the markers will often reward that."

The use of Wikipedia for research is a controversial topic among academics, with many advising their students to stay away from the site altogether.

"I genuinely disagree," says Squirrell. "Those on the other side say that you can't know who has written it, what they had in mind, what their biases are. But if you're just trying to get a handle on a subject, or you want to find a scattering of secondary sources, it can be quite useful. I would only recommend it as either a primer or a last resort, but it does have its place."

Reading lists can be a hindrance as well as a help. They should be your first port of call for guidance, but they aren't to-do lists. A book may be listed, but that doesn't mean you need to absorb the whole thing.

Squirrell advises reading the introduction and conclusion and a relevant chapter but no more. "Otherwise you won't actually get anything out of it because you're trying to plough your way through a 300-page monograph," he says.

You also need to store the information you're gathering in a helpful, systematic way. Bryan Greetham recommends a digital update of his old-school "project box" approach.

"I have a box to catch all of those small things - a figure, a quotation, something interesting someone says - I'll write them down and put them in the box so I don't lose them. Then when I come to write, I have all of my material."

There are a plenty of online offerings to help with this, such as the project management app Scrivener and referencing tool Zotero, and, for the procrastinators, there are productivity programmes like Self Control, which allow users to block certain websites from their computers for a set period.

"This is comparatively easy to do," says Squirrell. "Look at the citations used in the text, put them in Google Scholar, read the abstracts and decide whether they're worth reading. Then you can look on Google Scholar at other papers that have cited the work you're writing about - some of those will be useful. But quality matters more than quantity."

The old trick of dealing with your introduction last is common knowledge, but it seems few have really mastered the art of writing an effective opener.

"Introductions are the easiest things in the world to get right and nobody does it properly," Squirrel says. "It should be 'Here is the argument I am going to make, I am going to substantiate this with three or four strands of argumentation, drawing upon these theorists, who say these things, and I will conclude with some thoughts on this area and how it might clarify our understanding of this phenomenon.' You should be able to encapsulate it in 100 words or so. That's literally it."
Keep up with the latest on Guardian Students: follow us on Twitter at @GdnStudents - and become a member to receive exclusive benefits and our weekly newsletter.

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How to write better essays: 'nobody does introductions properly'

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s the government begins its crackdown on essay mill websites, it's easy to see just how much pressure students are under to get top grades for their coursework these days. But writing a high-scoring paper doesn't need to be complicated. We spoke to experts to get some simple techniques that will raise your writing game.

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Padlet linking to other padlets on VC&ID

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Northbrook Learning Resources

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College Guide

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Powerpoint on Reading

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Padlet resources on Feminism

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Website to help with citing sources

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Automatic works cited and bibliography formatting for MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian citation styles. Now supports 7th edition of MLA.

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College Guide to Study Skills with information on essay writing, presentations, writing and presenting essays.

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How to create an effective paragraph

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The PEEL paragraph writing approach is a proven way to help students' writing process by providing a structure for their writing.

Your first sentence must state your point. It introduces the topic you're about to discuss and tells the reader what the paragraph is going to be about. This is sometimes called a topic sentence.

Support your point with evidence and examples. In the next one or two sentences, give evidence to expand upon and support the point you made. Evidence can include facts, statistics, research findings, quotes from a credible authority or a primary text.

This is where you show your understanding by explaining in more detail how and why your evidence supports your point. Your explanation should interpret the evidence for the reader.

The last sentence should reinforce your original point or link your writing to the next paragraph. The link sentence can provide a transition to the next topic or paragraph

In some circumstances it may make more sense to switch Explain and Examples/Evidence.
It is Academic writing
ALARM - A Learning and Responding Matrix okay to be flexible with these two.
Feel free to use one of the planning scaffolds

Like all writing, PEEL paragraph writing works best if it is first carefully planned PEEL Paragraph Checklist
How to Write a Topic Sentence .below.

Some PEEL Paragraph examples
Q. Should Animals Be Kept in Zoos?

​Q. Why Does Volcanic Activity Occur in the Pacific Ring of Fire?

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​References and further reading

Barker, N. (2014). Lesson 3 - Thesis Statement and PEEL Method /Writing. EdTech 506. Retrieved from http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/nonabarker/502/506/Lesson%203_NLB_ET506.pdf

Bell, M. (2011). John Hattie: Visible Learning Pt1. Disasters and below average methods. YouTubeRetrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sng4p3Vsu7Y

Bell, M. (2011). John Hattie, Visible Learning. Pt 2: effective methods. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pD1DFTNQf4

Best Custom Writing. (2013). Catholic Education Office Melbourne. (2013). Education Services Australia. (2012). P.E.E.L paragraphs: useful tips and a good sample. Bestcustomwriting.com. Retrieved from http://www.bestcustomwriting.com/blog/essay-writing/peel-paragraphs-useful-tips-and-a-good-sample Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. Catholic Education Office. Retrieved from https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/global2.vic.edu.au/dist/7/31021/files/2013/08/Corpus-Christi-LISC-July-2013-2dz21eo.pdf Learning intentions. Curriculum Corporation. Retrieved from https://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/professional_learning/modules/learning_intentions/learning_intentions_landing_page.html
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Fennessy, M. (2013). Peel essay writing. Slideshare.net. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/meghanlouisefennessy/peel-essay-writing

Janssen Creighton, S., Tobey, C. R., Karnowski, E, Fagan, E.R. (2015). Guidelines for Writing Learning Intentions (LI) and Success Criteria (SC). From Bringing Math Students Into the Formative Assessment Equation: Tools and Strategies. Corwin. Thousand Oaks. Retrieved from
https://resources.corwin.com/sites/default/files/06.6_Guidelines%20for%20Writing%20LI%20%26%20SC.pdf

Mcgrooby. (2016). PEEL paragraphs. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1dQvPtwp0I

Orman, T. (2012). PEEL Anchor Chart and Paragraph Writing Tips. syracusecityschools.com. Retrieved from http://www.syracusecityschools.com/tfiles/folder836/3.12%20CommonCoreWritingPEELAnchorChart.pdf

Read Write Think. (2017). Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing. ReadWriteThink. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/editing-checklist-self-peer-30232.html

Teach Starter. (2015). PEEL Paragraph Structure - Poster and Worksheets Teaching Resource. Teach Starter. Retrieved from https://www.teachstarter.com/teaching-resource/peel-paragraph-structure-poster-worksheet/

Visible Learning Partnership. (2019). Visible Learning. Retrieved from https://www.visiblelearningplus.com/

Cathy Costello teacher librarian virtual library Cathy Costello library Cathy Costello virtual library Cathy Costello librarian

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The PEEL paragraph writing approach is a proven way to help students' writing process by providing a structure for their writing. Your first sentence must state your point. It introduces the topic you're about to discuss and tells the reader what the paragraph is going to be about.

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Powerpoint on essay writing

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Tips from London Students to London Students on how to combat Dissertation Stress

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Ted talk from Tim Urban 'Insdide the Mind of a Master Procrastinator

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Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

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Tim Urban knows that procrastination doesn't make sense, but he's never been able to shake his habit of waiting until the last minute to get things done. In this hilarious and insightful talk, Urban takes us on a journey through YouTube binges, Wikipedia rabbit holes and bouts of staring out the window -- and encourages us to think harder about what we're really procrastinating on, before we run out of time.

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Audio recordings to help relax and combat stress from Liverpool University

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404 Error Page - 404 Error Page - University of Liverpool

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This could be because the link is broken or the page doesn’t exist anymore. You could try looking for the content using the site search box at the top of the page, or browse some of our main categories below.

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A quick fix

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The Magic Button that makes everything OK