Posted by Essays on Sep 12, 2009 in
Study Guide |
Process of Writing the Essay
The students’ experience of writing the essays was studied by asking them questions in a semi-structured interview about the way they conceived of an essay in sociology and about the way they approached the writing of the essay. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed and analysed phenomenographically. The aim of the analysis was to identify the qualitatively different experiences students had of writing the essay.
In the first part of the interview, students were asked questions such as:
1.First of all, could you tell me what your essay was about?
2.What were you trying to achieve in writing the essay?
3.What do you think your tutor is looking for in marking the essay?
4.What do you think distinguishes this essay from other essays you have written?
Responses to these questions were probed to try to identify the different ways in which the students conceived of the essay. In the second part, the questions focused on how the students went about writing the essay:
1.How did you choose the topic?
2.What did you do after choosing the topic?
3.What did you do when reading?
Responses to these questions were probed with the aim of identifying what the students’ intentions were in writing the essay, and the strategies adopted in the writing. In analysing the responses, a very close relationship was found between the conception of essay writing and the approach, as would be expected. The two qualitatively different ways in which students conceived of the essay were (drawing on terms used by Biggs & Collis, 1982) a multistructural conception and a relational conception.
Process of Writing the Essay
The students’ experience of writing the essays was studied by asking them questions in a semi-structured interview about the way they conceived of an essay in sociology and about the way they approached the writing of the essay. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed and analysed phenomenographically. The aim of the analysis was to identify the qualitatively different experiences students had of writing the essay.
In the first part of the interview, students were asked questions such as:
1.First of all, could you tell me what your essay was about?
2.What were you trying to achieve in writing the essay?
3.What do you think your tutor is looking for in marking the essay?
4.What do you think distinguishes this essay from other essays you have written?
Responses to these questions were probed to try to identify the different ways in which the students conceived of the essay. In the second part, the questions focused on how the students went about writing the essay:
1.How did you choose the topic?
2.What did you do after choosing the topic?
3.What did you do when reading?
Responses to these questions were probed with the aim of identifying what the students’ intentions were in writing the essay, and the strategies adopted in the writing. In analysing the responses, a very close relationship was found between the conception of essay writing and the approach, as would be expected. The two qualitatively different ways in which students conceived of the essay were (drawing on terms used by Biggs & Collis, 1982) a multistructural conception and a relational conception.
Tags: Guide, Process of Writing the Essay, Undergraduate Essay Writing
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