Understand the
Assignment
GetOrganised
Conduct the Research
Take & Make Notes
Plan the Structure
Write Reference &
Proofread
The Six Steps to Success
Step One (Understand the Assignment)
Social Care workers are one of several allied helping
professionals. Write an essay outlining your knowledge of what
social care work is, and what doing social care work involves in
contemporary Irish society.
Terminology Synonym/Clarification
Outline Give the main features of a topic
Social Care Social care is separate from social work
Involves Role
Contemporary Modern/current
Step Two (Get Organised)
You could be required to work on more than one assignment at the same time, be realistic and give yourself enough time for each.
30 Day Schedule Example
2 Days: Understand
and Organise
8 Days: Research
9 Days: Reading
1 Day: Plan
10 Days: Write
Social Care(Central Theme)
Modern/Contemporary Ireland
Family(s)
Social care and Health
Juveniles
Step Three (Research - Strategy)
What does doing this role
entail?/Its features
The elderly
Section Topic Search Terms
1 Introduction
2 Social care work(ers) Social care OR social work OR social care workers
3 Social care workersand Irish families
social care and families and Ireland
4 Social care workersand the health
system
social care and health and Ireland
5 Social care workersand juveniles in
Ireland
social care and juveniles and Ireland
6 Social care workersand the elderly in
Ireland
social care and elderly and Ireland
7 Conclusion
Step Three (Research – Search Terms)
Section 5
Social care workers and juveniles in Ireland
WORD SYNOYM/ALTERNATIVE/FOCUS
Social care workers social care/social worker
Juveniles adolescent/teenager/youth/teen/young person
Ireland Not Northern Ireland
Step Three (Research – Synonyms/Clarify)
These are simple words or symbols that allow us to broaden or narrow our searches
Three words used are
and
or
not
Boolean Operators
Use AND in a search to:
tell the database that ALL search
terms must be present in the resulting records
E.g. social care worker AND juvenile AND Ireland
Google automatically puts an AND
in between your search terms.
AND (Narrows)
Use OR in a search to:
connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms)
broaden your results, telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the resulting records
E.g. social care worker OR juvenile OR
Ireland
OR (Broadens)
Use NOT in a search to:
exclude words from your search
narrow your search, telling the database to ignore concepts that may be implied by your search terms
example: Ireland NOT Northern Ireland
NOT (Excludes)
These are used when there are different spellings of the
same word. We could use OR to list each spelling of a word
organisation OR organization Wildcards allow us to use a symbol to replace the
different letter(s). In Discovery the symbol ? is used to replace 1 letter. and #
is used to replace 0 or 1 letter
organi?ation = organisation/orgainzationbehavio#r = behaviour/behaviorwom?n = woman or women
Wildcards
Phrase searching used to specify that a group of
words/phase must be in exact order.
“purchasing power”
Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
• To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end, Discovery uses *
• Discovery will return results that include any ending of that root word.
• Examples:child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhoodgenetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically
Phrases and Truncation
DiscoverySearch B
-BooleanApplied
juvenile or youth or adolescent or teenager or teen or young person
Step Three (Research – Discovery)
Step Four (Active Reading and Note Taking)
• You will be primarily sourcing your information from books, articles (PDF) and credible websites.
• Active reading is taking notes as you read the source in order to understand and evaluate it.
Active Reading and Note Taking
• Once notes have been taken and you’ve decided toincorporate this source into your own work, you need tomake sense of the notes.
• Gather the notes taken from various sources andcompare/contrast them.
• At this stage you can add your own interpretation.
• Notes will be used as evidence to back up your argument/interpretation.
• The most effective way to use others’ views/ideas to back up your argument is to paraphrase them.
TipOnce
downloaded, you can
highlight and add notes to
PDFs
Step Five (Assignment Plan/Blueprint)
Structured
Each plan has an
introduction & a
conclusion
SectionsDivide your main
ideas into separate headed sections.
ParagraphsWithin sections,
give each concept discussed its own
paragraph
Step Six (Writing)Frist Draft
• Basically you are trying to provide much more insight into the ideas/theories/viewpoints that you mentioned in the Assignment Plan.
• Provide evidence (citations) as you articulate or describe somebody else's ideas (paraphrasing is most effective).
• Pay careful attention to the verb instruction that was given in the question.
• Begin to write a selected section.Treat each section as a mini essayin itself.
TipWriting the
introduction last, means you
know what’s been discussed
Step Six (Writing)Second Draft
Refer to your Assignment Plan, have you covered all of the topics listed?
Yes!• Confirm your argument follows through logically.
• Change paragraph/sentence order if required.
• Ensure all outside ideas/theories/concepts are referenced.
No?• Check that you have not gone off topic.
• Summarise and refer to viewpoints/studies/theories,
describe less.
TipIf a sentence
seems too long, it
probably is too long
TipMore
citations = more
evidence
Step Six (Writing)Edit, Reference & Proofread
Edit• Make sure the structure adheres to the Assignment Plan.• Ensure that you are not repeating the same word (“therefore”
“however”), use a thesaurus to assist you.• Confirm that you have used the appropriate language for
your subject and that you used it consistently.
References• Check that in-text citations have all information required.• Compile a Reference List using the proper referencing style.• Ensure that each in-text citation has a corresponding reference list entry,
and visa-versa.
Proofread• Ensure that all punctuation is correct,
save as Word/PDF.
TipKeep your
Assignment in cloud based server:
Dropbox
TipUse PDF ‘read
out loud’ function to
review finished version
The 4 ‘S’s of Good Assignment
Sources• Good quality academic
sources used.• Lots of sources used.• Different viewpoints
articulated if possible.
Substance• Has the initial question been
answered?• Has the assignment been an
investigation of the topic, rather then a mere description?
• Has the stance taken by author been argued effectively?
Structure• The assignment should follow
in the same structure as the question.
• Is there an introduction and conclusion.
• Does one section follow logically to the next.
Style• Use the academic language
style, never in the first person. Write as a narrator.
• Use the terminology of the subject area.
• Write objectively.• If possible open and close with
a snappy/stylish sentence.