Planning and Writing Assignments for DBS

Students

6 Steps to Success!

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)

Step Three (Research – Resources)

DiscoverySearch A

Step Three (Research – Discovery)

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

(Paraphrasing – A Worked Example)

1. Read the

Original

2. Take & Make Notes

(Paraphrasing – A Worked Example)

3. Write in your

own Words

4. Add in the

Reference

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 Five (Assignment Plan/Blueprint)

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.