OU de100.... struggling with essay *cries*

[cakeymccakington]

I'm studying psychology and law. because i'm an idiot. I should have known I couldn't do this.

I have to write a 1000 word essay. it's not even bloody long, but I just CAN'T DO IT.

I'm comparing 2 studies. One has a whole chapter on it, so I have plenty of info on it. The other one is about 10 pages out of a chapter on methods.... I just don't have enough STUFF to compare in order to get it to 1000 words.

I'm up to 515 and I literally cannot find anything else I can write about. it's either stupid or i'm sstupid.

argh

You're not stupid if you haven't written an essay in a long time then it will be harder as you're out of practise that's all. When is your deadline for?

You’re definitely not stupid!

Have you done your introduction and conclusion yet? Probably a couple of hundred words yo can add there

i've done the introduction.
i've read over the stuff and made notes on all the things i could include... i just can't see any other way to make it longer.

deadline is the 9th, but I really wanted to get it done before the children come home from their dad's tomorrow .

Is it the psychology module? If you join the Facebook group ‘Ask Fred’ there’s a whole community of OU tutors & past students who can maybe help. There’s also often stuff in the files. If that doesn’t work have you googled the essay title?

Are there any other information sources? Have you read the original studies?

Have you written a clear plan:

• Introduction (100 words)
• 4-8 paragraphs each addressing a specific aspect (100-200 words each)
• Conclusion (100 words)

Year 9s used to be taught PEE:

• Point
• Example/ quotation
• Explanation/Expansion of Point

This structure is still relevant at degree level.

What are the studies/ the topic?

Good luck!

Agree you need to give yourself sub-headings to work to. Maybe;

Introduction (200)
Study 1 (100)
Study 2 (100)
Comparison (400)
Conclusion (200)

I'm 2000 words into an 8000 word assignment. I totally feel your pain!

echidna, yes it is. i'll check facebook.

cornishmum, we're told that everything we need to write the essay is in the textbooks. So i'm obviously missing something!

it's similarities and differences. there's only so much you can write about the fact that they both used questionnaires :-/
(obv there are other bits too!)

i'm getting really anxious over it which isn't helping.
I've already done a law module and had no issue writing the essays for that. I think i will have to look for more info elsewhere that I can include

I can't really help but just here to handhold and let you know I'm a fellow OU'er and I actually start DE100 at the end of January. I'm doing DD103 at the moment.

You can do it - I find it easiest to split any essay down paragraph by paragraph and once you build up that way the essay will write itself.

So for a 1000 word essay, your introduction and conclusion should be 100 words each approx - leaving 800 for the body so decide what themes you want to explore with those paragraphs and split it up - maybe you will do 4 paragraphs at 200 words each or something?

Always make sure you go back to the assignment booklet and read and re-read if.

If you need anything more, let me know but I hope I've helped in some small way.

PEE is a good method though. I will definitely bear that in mind.
am going to read through and see if i can elaborate further on anything without going massively off topic

PEE is really useful.
When I started with the OU I really struggled to get enough words on the page. It gets easier and I learnt to state the obvious, which wasn't obvious to me.

Contact your tutor, they'll be able to help you figure out what's missing (more examples, more analysis, bringing in info from the rest of the module, etc). You're not stupid, essay writing is a learned skill and part of your course is learning how to do it, so if you need more guidance that's what your tutor's there for.

were the questionnaires the same?
Did they get different results?

WHat were the samples like ito socio/economic/age/status/number of participants - anything you could talk about that shows one sample was possibly superior or inferior to the other.

Are the results statistically significant?

If not the same questionnaire, what can you find out about the accuracy of the questionnaires themselves - did they use a control group if its their own questionnaire?
What do the questionnaires look like - are they open ended questions, or eg on a scale of 1-5 or 1-7?

How were the questionnaires administered - did they have a self selecting sample, for example.
Look online, are there critiques of the studies, are there papers that lead on from these studies that may offer some comment on the studies.
What do the results/conclusions of the studies say - are they very different?

fanny... i have all of that info for the first study... but not for the second! that's why it's really hard to compare them.

so, for example I know there were limitations with acquiescence bias on the first study. second one? no idea because it doesn't give any information other than that questionnaires were used.

i can compare the numbers of participants, which were wildly different, and the part of the world they were in, and when it was done. but that doesn't take up many words .

the studies, whilst kind of linked, were actually quite different. the second built on the work of the first. so the results were very different (which i've pointed out and elaborated on)

the student notes tell us to look at things like the strengths and limitations of the studies, and what the conclusions were. again, i have all this info for the first, but not for the second :-/

i think i will email my tutor and see if he has any words of wisdom

This is ringing bells with me, I did DE100 earlier this year. Is one of the studies Adorno and the F-scale?

yes! and the other is Allum who wanted to see if people who scored highly on the F-scale were more likely to believe in astrology

Not sure exactly what you're comparing and contrasting but sometimes it helps to look at how do they c&c on a macro level, a historical context level, an individual people level, why they came into being etc.

Sorry got to run, but expand how you're thinking about the info. You can do it. Don't worry about I try and conclusion - only wrote them at the end. Should each be about 10% of total word count. Oh and citations count in word count so make sure to use them!!

Just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has commented.

I'm still feeling a biiiiit anxious, but not as much as I was.

You've given me some good tips and helped me look at things in different ways and it's getting there. slowly, but it's getting there

Ah, I must be getting mixed up as I don't remember reading anything about an astrology study - I did get a bit behind so maybe I skipped it. But definitely with one of my essays there was an issue with there being lots of material on one of the studies and hardly anything on the other one. Remember you can be 10% under the word limit without being penalised so you just need to get to 900 words. Good luck!

thanks! i'm up to 722, so getting there gradually.

i need to re-read it tomorrow in the cold light of day though, I think i may have repeated some bits

Cakey, can you go into why study B is poor - because as you have stated, you have no information - could this study therefore be replicated, based on the information provided? That gives you the ideal springboard to compare - one is thoroughly documented and easy to critically review, the other is not because the documentation provided does not answer those same questions about sample/questionnaire bias/analysis etc and so therefore cannot be peer reviewed or replicated effectively and critically?