‘The whole crux of master's level work is that the student shows a degree of Mastery in an area under investigation. Denby et al (2008; cited in Casey et al, 2017) give a clear framework for what this actually means:
- Masters demonstrate that they know what is written about the area (through literature review)
- They discuss its features and failings and recognise the points on consent and contention (criticality)
- They examine their practice (through reflection)
- They act as a change agent by using their examination to change practice (reflective practitioner)’ (Casey et al, 2017: p. 8).
Stop! This is not Mastery – this is demonstrating an ability to cut and paste!
What is cited above is not wrong in its context but:
- It does not demonstrate understanding
- It does not demonstrate criticality
- It does not demonstrate synthesis
- It is unparaphrased description.
Yes, it is telling the reader how one person perceives mastery; but consider, is this person correct? Without reading around the subject and bringing in other sources and their interpretation of the topic, you are in danger of citing information that may not even be true. The Denby citation is 17 years old and could easily be outdated. When writing academically, you are encouraged to keep sources within 5 years wherever possible to try to avoid the information being obsolete, leading to the potential for falsity within your work. It is not always possible to use current sources in your work – so consider, is the source seminal (fundamental in the theory being discussed)? Is it still cited in modern publications and acknowledged as being influential in its findings? Is the source still applicable? Does the source demonstrate how practice has evolved in the intervening years? This can be useful at times but avoid lapsing into description. A comment within your own work to acknowledge that you know the text is dated and why you still use it is a great way to add a little depth to your work.
Remember there is no room for description at level 7. Being descriptive means you are not being critical. There may be times where you need to describe events but at level 7, you should never be asked to describe a presentation of an illness with signs and symptoms, etc (this is level 5 writing). So, if you feel that you need to add description, the best place for it is as an appendix.
Appendices are there to support your work and are a great way to display information that is not key to the assignment but is supportive of it. Remember however that appendices do not get marked so please do not put an entire learning outcome in an appendix as you will fail to meet your learning outcome. It is also worth checking with your module lead if you are allowed to use appendices and if not, how they would like you to present additional supportive information.
A trick to help you avoid becoming descriptive is to keep your learning outcomes or assignment brief close by and refer to it frequently. This way, you can check that you're not being drawn into interesting but irrelevant description that eats away at the word count but doesn't help you meet the requirements of the assignment. If it doesn't address the learning outcome, it doesn't belong in the assignment!
Next time, we will look at what it means to be critical and how you can approach this with your own writing.