Explain the process of gender socialisation in our society from either a conflict or functionalist
perspective. Highlight at least two agents of socialisation and how they reinforce gender roles in a
child’s life.
You have already done this essay for me in 500words but i have to do another which needs to go
more into details this is my first order number if it helps you go through it to continue with the
second one 81822053
IMPORTANT
word length 1500 words
acadamic resources only
1. Breaking down the Question (The introduction)
At this stage you may or may not have checked or read the readings for the essay on the reading list
on vUWS. Some students like to break down all three questions to help them decide which question
to pick. It is up to you if you want to do this. Breaking down the question is really about working out
what sociological ideas and concepts the question is about and what it is asking you to do with
them. Having a clear understanding of the essay question is an important step to answering it.
The following information should be in this section of your essay plan:
i. What is the key sociological concept or idea the question is using? This is one of the most
important parts of the question. You need to know what specific idea or concept from the unit the
question wants you to use.
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ii. The question asks you to apply that sociological concept or use that concept on one, or maybe
more subjects or examples. You need to identify what those examples are. Let’s call these the subjects
of the question. The subject(s) of the question might be movies, a social event or aspects of
Australian society. iii. Next you need to understand how the question asks you to apply the
sociological concept or use them on the subjects. It might ask you to compare, contrast, explore,
explain or give ways. iv. When you apply a sociological concept to a subject you can also use a
sociological theory to help explain or explore or compare. Try to identify a sociological theory that
fits the question and explain why it works (this can be hard, but if you do it well you will be
rewarded with marks).
When you write the full essay, the information in this section will form part of the Introduction to
your essay. At this stage your introduction is more a brief paragraph, maybe only 100 words.
Once you start to understand the question you will also start to interpret the question. There are
choices for you to make about how you will answer the question, for example if the subject is a
movie you need to decide which parts of the movie you will write about. If the subject is Australian
Society, what parts of Australian society will you write about? Likewise what aspects of the
sociological concept will you use? How will theory fit with this? It is good to think about this before
you move on to the rest of your plan
How should you present this information in the essay plan?
There are two good ways
? You could present it like a short answer question. For example: ‘the sociological concept the
question uses is Social Inequality. Social Inequality is defined as ….’ ? Or you could use the information to create a paragraph that covers all the points (when it comes time to write your essay
you will have to do this. It is up to you if you do it now).
Do not use dot points. We need to see that you can write sentences and paragraphs
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2. Defining the sociological concepts
You should provide a definition or explanation of the sociological concepts the question uses to
show you know what it is and can explain it. Make sure you provide a citation for the resource where
you got this definition from (probably your text book). You could use a direct quote for a definition,
but a better idea is to explain it in your own words (with a citation of course). This is called
paraphrasing. It shows strong understanding of the concept. If you can explain it in your own words,
then the marker is sure that you understand it.
You have some flexibility about where to put these definitions in your plan and essay, some students
like to put it in the introduction while others might start their key points with these definitions. The
point here is to make it clear to the marker that you are providing a definition. Maybe start that
sentence with words like, ‘X is a sociological concept that is defined as…’ or something like that.
Remember, there might be more than one concept, so you might end up providing a few different
definitions.
The better your definitions of sociological concepts and ideas, the better you will do in this criteria.
3. Key Points and examples
An essay is a large answer to an essay question. Part of the reason it is large is that you not only have
to present an argument or a position as the answer, but also you have to defend that position with
evidence. As I mentioned in the lecture some students will read the essay question and know straight
away what they want their answer to be. Others will need to read all the readings before they know
what position they want to take. Both approaches are fine, but once you get to this stage you will
have to read the readings to get your key points. The key points are justifications for your position or
argument, but they must be defended with evidence from academic research.
Some points about key points:
Students often ask how many key points they should have in their essay. At university you are more
likely to be rewarded if you can get into depth on your key points. This reduces the number that you
can use. If you use too many key points, then instead of getting into depth you will start to
summarise the topic. Instead of showing your knowledge and understanding, you will just be
skimming the surface of the concept and the subjects. For this essay three or four key points would
be a good number.
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Your key points need to flow from the break down of the question, they need to use the sociological
concept, the subject and topic of the essay and what you have been asked to do with them. This
year’s assessment is really about explaining the sociological concepts/ideas and applying them to a
topic. This means you will be able to provide examples that help show the marker that you
understand the sociological concepts.As they are part of a position or argument, the key points all need to relate to each other in a logical
way. Remember, the key points are meant to support the position or argument.
Within the key points it would be a good idea to have a sentence or two that explains how you are
going to use the sociological theory you have picked in the essay.
And lastly you need to include a least one citation for each key point. Make sure you acknowledge
what resource the idea or the evidence has come from.
4. Conclusion
Both your essay plan and your essay need a conclusion, but the one for your essay plan will be much
shorter. The conclusion for your essay will review your essay as a whole; you will mention your key
points to remind the marker of how great they were. You will also explain how these points come
together to defend your answer to the essay question.
In the plan you need to provide an outline of that summary. How will these points work together and
importantly, what is the ultimate concluding answer to the essay question?
How should you present this information in the essay plan?
Again, avoid dot points here. Instead use a few sentences to explain each key point. You only have
500 words for the plan in total so try to keep it tight. You can expand on the details in the essay.
Don’t forget to add the citations for each key point.
How should you present this information in the essay plan?
Again, avoid dot points. Try to summarise your key points in a sentence or two. Explain how they
support your argument/position. End the conclusion with a sentence or two that answers the essay
question or finishes the answer you have developed.
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5. Organising the ideas and structuring the essay plan
We have included this in the criteria so we can reward student for giving their essays a clear structure
and writing clear paragraphs. Obviously you have the introduction, body and conclusion as structures
for the essay, but you also want to make sure that you have clear paragraphs within those sections.
For example, a different paragraph for each key point.
A paragraph should really be united around one central idea or point. That should be made clear in
the topic sentence, which is like an introduction for the paragraph. It tells the reader what the
paragraph will be about. Following the topic sentence is the body of the paragraph, the supporting
statements that provide detail and discuss the central idea of the paragraph. It is worth spending
some time on getting the order of these supporting sentences correct so they build meaning and
show understanding. You then end the paragraph with a concluding sentence that often takes the
central idea of the paragraph and relates it back to the essay question. Check out the example of an essay plan to see a break down of the structure of a paragraph. We will talk about this in lectures as
well.
Good writing takes time and practice. As you write more essays you will naturally get better,
especially if you pay attention to the feedback from the markers. One way to improve is to spend
more time editing and proof reading your work. We will talk about this in the lecture.
6. Research and Referencing
The last section of the criteria concerns what research you have done and how well you have
presented your references. You should refer to the Harvard guide on referencing and the Guide to
Academic Writing to make sure you citations in the plan and your reference list are correct; however
here are some specific points to check:
? Your text book should be one of your academic resources for the essay plan
? You can use 3 of the essay readings on vUWS in your plan
? In the end you should have 46 academic resources for the essay plan. You can use the ones we
have provided, or you can always go and find your own resources.
? For the essay you will need 610 academic resources. You don’t have to include them in your plan,
but if you do and they are good resources you will be rewarded with marks. It will also give the tutor
an opportunity to give you some feedback on the quality of the resources you found through your
own research.
School of Social Sciences and Psychology
Essay Writing Guide
This resource provides general guidance on essay writing. Firstly, it covers how to analyse and
understand an essay question. Secondly it outlines the basic structure of an essay and then explains
how to present your responses to the essay question in sequenced paragraphs, which include clear
topic sentences. Finally, the resource briefly explains intext referencing techniques.
1. Analysing the essay question
It is important to read the essay question carefully and break it down into the following parts:
Type of word Purpose
Topic or content words Topic or content words tell you what you are going to write about. They
signal the issues and/or concepts you should concentrate on. These are generally easy to identify, as
they are the topics that you have studied in your Unit.
Task or process words Task or process words tell you what you need to do in relation to the topic,
for example discuss, argue, analyse, evaluate, or explain. Task or process words are usually verbs
(doing words), but may also be direct questions, such as ‘what’, ‘how’ or ‘in what ways’.
Focus or limiting words Limiting or focus words are the aspects of the topic you are asked to pay
particular attention to.
The following essay question example is broken down into the parts mentioned above:
Increasing the literacy levels of Indigenous Australian children is a national priority. Discuss the
challenges of this aim and identify researched solutions.
Topic words: literacy levels of Indigenous Australian children Task words: discuss; identify Focus
words: challenges; researched solutions
Analysing these parts can also provide you with a structure for the essay — that is how to order your
response into sequenced sections and paragraphs. For the essay question above this could be:
1) Explaining why increasing the literacy level of Indigenous Australian children is an aim of the
government
This could involve defining the term ‘literacy’; explaining why good literacy levels are of benefit to
individuals and communities; providing some historical or statistical information about the literacy
levels of Indigenous Australian children and quoting government documents that explain and give
reasons for its’ initiatives to improve them.
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2) Giving reasons why this aim has been difficult to achieve
This part is about the challenges and is the discuss part of the question. It might involve reference to
information and theories in the Unit readings and your wider reading. It might involve pointing to
how researchers, politicians and /or the media have critiqued the governments’ actions to address the
aims or discussed wider social attitudes to the issues. This part of the essay would present a range of
perspectives to give an overview of how the issue is being debated.
3) Giving examples of solutions that researchers have offered to solve these difficulties
This is the identify part of the essay. This is where you focus in on what researchers have to say
about the issues (from your Unit readings and wider research). Here you pick out the
recommendations that researchers make in direct relation to the issues you raised in the section
above. Linking the answers you quote in this section to the issues/problems you raised in the
previous section would help your argument to flow and provide coherence between the sections.
NOTE: the above are suggestions only – the essay could be organised in other ways. Once your
sections are drafted you would then add or refine your introduction and write a conclusion that
restates the points and the main conclusions you have made. These aspects of an essay are explained
below.
2. Essay structure
The structure of a piece of writing refers to the kinds of sections it is made up of. For example, a
journal article always begins with an abstract, which is a concise summary of the whole piece of
writing, whereas an essay does not. There are different ways to structure an essay, for example
sometimes subheadings are used — this will depend on what your Unit lecturer expects. However the
basic structure of an essay is always: Introduction; Body; Conclusion. The following explains the key
features of these sections.
The introduction An introduction to an essay will give an overview of the essay topic (sometimes
called an orientation, or contextual statement) and sometimes restates in the writers own words, the
tasks that have been requested in relation to the topic.
Often the introduction will also provide brief definitions of the key terms, main concepts, ideas or
issues contained in the essay questions. These definitions show your reader your understanding of
the topics and terms you have been studying in the Unit.
The purpose of an essay is usually to persuade the reader to agree on the writer’s point of view. This
point of view is often called a thesis statement or argument. By the end of the introduction, your
reader should know the position you have taken in relation to the essay question. Your position
should be based on your evaluation of the evidence and ideas you find in your academic readings.
Finally, the introduction provides an outline of what is to come — that is, a sketch of the main points
you will make in the body of the essay to argue for the position you have taken. The outline in an
introduction will list the points in the order that they are made in the body. For example, the
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introduction to this Essay Guide under the main heading tells you what this resource is about, and
then steps through the order of the contents: firstly…secondly…then…finally.
The example introduction below shows the main aspects of an essay introduction:
Critically assess whether Marx’s theory of alienation is still relevant to modern society.
*Orientation
**Thesis statement/argument
***Outline
Marx’s theory of alienation originated in his analysis of the causes of the unequal distribution of
power, property and wealth in capitalist society over a century ago (1844)*. Because these
inequalities still exist, Marx’s theory of alienation remains highly relevant to modern society**. This
essay explains Marx’s theory of alienation then explores this idea as it relates to modern society. It will
then be argued that workers’ alienation from the processes of production has resulted in alienation
from their own creative human nature and, in competition for employment, in the alienation of
person to person***.
The body The body of an essay will be the bulk of the word count set by your lecturer. In the body
of an essay the ideas or main points contained in the introduction will be expanded on: explained,
discussed, analysed and critiqued. Each paragraph in the body explains one major idea that is
connected to the thesis statement or argument — think of paragraphs as building blocks that are
connected to make the whole argument.
When planning the body of your essay, it is important to decide what purpose each paragraph has.
For example, different purposes could be:
• To provide background information on the main topic of the assignment • To compare and contrast
information • To classify information • To show cause and effect
ACTIVITY: Look at the example essay question about the literacy levels of Indigenous Australian
children in section 1 of this guide – Analysing the task. Under the three suggested parts for this essay
question, some options are given for the kind of ideas that could go under each. Think about how
these points could be ‘chunked’ into paragraphs — which ideas could be chunked together, and
which might need their own paragraph?
The conclusion The conclusion reviews and sums up your essay by restating the main points that
have served to build your argument. The conclusion should leave your reader convinced of the
strengths of your thesis or argument, and so it is essential to briefly restate the thesis that you
announced in the introduction. A conclusion is where you further persuade your reader and
qualifying words or phrases can be used, for example “The evidence presented in this essay is
convincing because….”; “There is strong agreement among theorists that….”; “The critical analysis of
issues in this essay provides support for the idea that…”
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It is important that a conclusion does not introduce any new material or ideas, or make claims that
are not supported by or covered in the previous sections of the essay.
3. Paragraph structure
A paragraph addresses and expands on one key point and could be described as a ‘mini essay’ in that
it has a clear introduction (contextual and topic sentences), body (sentences that expand, explain
and provide evidence for the point made in the topic sentence) and a conclusion (a summary
sentence that states the importance of the information presented in the paragraph). In summary, a
paragraph has at least two, but sometimes three parts, to its structure.
? A topic sentence that presents the main idea of the paragraph
? Supporting sentences in the form of explanations, elaboration, examples or evidence
? A concluding sentence that signals the importance of the paragraph and links it back to the
assignment question and/or to the next paragraph
TIP: When reviewing your writing, count how many ideas are in a paragraph. Are they all clearly
connected in that they support the main point? If not, could an idea/point be pulled out and formed
into a paragraph of its own?
4. Topic sentences
A topic sentence sets up ‘the business’ of the paragraph, making clear what point will be expanded
on. A topic sentence usually appears at the beginning of a paragraph. It may be preceded by a
general, contextual sentence.
The topic sentence in the example paragraph below has been underlined. From this sentence, we
know that the paragraph will be about the difference between adults and children who are learning to
speak English. In particular, it will be about accents (pronunciation). The rest of the paragraph gives
(researched) reasons why there is a difference in pronunciation between adults and children.
Pronunciation is one area of second language acquisition where children seem to have an advantage
over adults. Whereas adults normally retain an accent long after they have reached fluency, children
usually manage to speak a second language with little or no accent (McLaughlin, 1984, p. 53). This
difference has been attributed to biological causes. For example, Lenneberg (cited in McLaughlin,
1984, p. 46) claims that after puberty “the brain has lost its plasticity”. The result is that children
possess a capacity for excellent phonological representation, which adults have lost.
5. Referencing techniques
This section gives a brief overview of ways to use intext references, either by paraphrasing (writing
about another authors ideas, but in your own words), or by direct quotations (using the exact words
of another author). In both cases you need to make clear that the idea belongs to someone else. The
table below shows the main difference between direct quotes and paraphrases. The examples below
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the table show how a direct quote is presented and then how that same quote has been paraphrased
and referenced.
Direct quotations Paraphrases
Match the original source word for word Do not match the source word for word
Are usually a brief segment of the text, often woven into the essay writer’s own sentence
Are passages from a source put into your own words
Appear between quotation marks “…” Change the words or phrasing of a text, but retains and fully
communicates the original meaning
Must be attributed to the original source and include the page number (if available, if not, use n.d.
instead)
Must be attributed to the original source, but does not need to provide a page number.
Example of direct quoting
Drake (2001) describes family historians as “generative individuals” who are concerned to record and
preserve personal histories for posterity and who “encourage the sharing of records, the open
distribution of materials, and the interconnections of persons” (p. 5).
Example of a paraphrase of the passage above
It is important to family historians that their records are kept and shared so that future generations
can benefit from them. They believe their work helps to bring people together (Drake 2001, p.5).
Every source you use in your writing, whether it is a direct quote or a paraphrase must be listed in a
separate Reference List at the end of your essay. A Style Guide is the set of instructions for formatting
both intext references and for formatting the final Reference List. You will need to consult the
Harvard Style Guide to complete your essay.
And finally…….
This resource is a general guide only. There are many excellent academic writing resources on the
internet and it is worthwhile searching through them to find ones that are of particular use to you.
The Library Study Smart website on the WSU website provides links to a range of resources that
include guides for other genres of writing such as reports, annotated bibliographies and literature
reviews, as well as resources for English grammar and punctuation.
You will also find information about free skills workshops and programs on the HALL website
These are available at: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home
