masters level assignment

[saveahorserideacowboy]

Has anyone ANY tips or advice for writing an assignment at this level (its a case study btw). It's a retake and last chance and whilst I have written it I now need to pick it apart and get it up to scratch. Assignments are not my strong point and I often miss the point/don't really answer the brief enough.
Anything at all much appreciated

my masters is in teaching but I've a first in zoology, and did done animal behaviour.
pm me if you want me to have a go at more specific advice. no worries if you're sorted.

did some animal behaviour....

Oops sorry Jeanne, my subject area is education. I suppose a lot of what is required of you, relates to your specific subject and varies from subject to subject. If you can find somebody within your Uni to give you more subject specific advice OP, that might be best.

Could you perhaps look at the essays where you got distinctions, and look at them in detail? I like to use highlighters and then use a different colour for each feature. So, blue would indicate criticality, yellow would indicate research, pink for my own ideas/reflections etc. Then maybe it'll help you with the structure?

Also, if you are over the word count can you pick your best 2/3 points (I don't know what your word count is, so this may not be relevant)? I used to have a habit of cramming in as many ideas as possible, without really exploring any of them in depth. I still tend to do this in a first draft, and then I'll pick my best 3/4 points and expand on them.

So, if you start with expanding 3 points, and you still have a lot of words left, then you could do one more and just keep adding until you reach your word count. Obviously don't leave yourself short for your intro and conclusion.

I also always get told to write my intro before I start, so it is clear to me what I need to do, then rewrite my intro at the end once I know what direction my work actually went in, as you may find it changes slightly.

No, it wasn't a criticism at all! I really didn't want you to think that. I just wanted to explain that this is why it's difficult for us to explain to the OP what is best (and why her university should be supporting her!).

I know you weren't being critical Jeanne I agree, it is quite difficult to advise, especially as I don't know anything about the subject. My only knowledge of animals is dealing with my bastard of a delightful cat.

Well, you're ahead of me, I don't even have a cat.

Whilst we have this wealth of knowledge together on a thread and a cat can I ask whether headings are acceptable in a Masters level assignment? I don't put any in, but some of my peers do, and also put a contents page (4000 word assignment). I appreciate there may be a signposting value, but also feel if the essay is well written, it will signpost itself, iyswim.

Do you have marking rubrics to examine what key features they are looking for?

Don't loose silly marks by not referencing properly, my masters includes online discussion groups that are marked and it amazes me how many people fail to use the referencing scheme we are told to use.

I am LOVING the phrasebank at Man Utd How the hell did I not know about this?!

This thread has also been really useful for me too, so thanks OP and contributers

I can't see how to download the phrase bank pdf. Can someone point out what I am doing wrong please?
I put it in my basket but when I go to my basket to check out it says my basket is empty.

The advice from my Uni was not to use headings in your essay (though dissertation is essential!). I do use headings in my drafts until I understand what the hell I'm talking about my structure. Then I take them out for the final draft.

I do need to use the 'transitions' examples from the Manchester phrasebank. Never tried to download the pdf.

We have to arrange assignments with a contents page and structure with headings /subheadings I.e with 1.0 The dog, 1.1 The dog's behaviour, 2.0 The cat . Etc

We also have to use headings. How is the assignment now?

Yes better I think! The pdf is very useful thankyou :)

Oooh I do have another query. I am finding it difficult to stay in the word count. What is not included in the word count?I know contents page and ref list are not. But wondering about titles of tables and figures, headings, tables, and referencing authors names within text?

Put them in the appendices.

Sorry, I mean put as many of the tables etc as you can if you're struggling to keep within the word count. I think titles etc count when I'm the main body of text.

One sneaky trick iwirpth word counts is to paste in tables as images so their words don't count (assuming this isn't explicitely forbidden).

Such a handy thread! Thanks OP.

I just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who advised me on this thread.
I received my work back today and I got a distinction I am so glad I asked for help on here I definitely think it made all the difference. X