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How to identify themes in a module/chapter/study block, using a form of thematic analysis

Melanie RimmerLeave a comment

This is a useful study activity that gives you an overview of a block of study material such as a chapter or a study week. It’s a critical, analytical approach to identifying overarching, cross-cutting themes. It will help your deeper understanding of the material you are studying. It can help your reading by focusing your intention on the important recurring ideas and avoid getting lost in the nitty-gritty details. It can help your note-taking, for example you can use the themes as the basis for a mind map or a table. It can help your essay writing by identifying the big picture, and practising the skill of spotting how disparate parts of the module can all relate to the same question. I’ll use Block 2 of the Open University module E232: Exploring Childhood and Youth as an example, but you can use this process on other texts.

First, I cut-and-pasted the Learning Outcomes from the first page of each study week into a document.

Week 8: Space, Place, and Belonging • understand the concepts of ‘space’ and ‘place’ • understand how children make places • consider different ways that children’s geographies can be researched • consider the concept of ‘belonging’ • consider the impact of migration on children and young people’s lives. Week 9: Everyday violence in everyday spaces • recognise the importance of space in children and young people’s lives • critically discuss the idea of everyday violence and its impact on children’s lives in Bangladesh, the UK and elsewhere • critically analyse the idea of children ‘out of place’ • interrogate different understandings and images of children and young people who live or work on the street • explore the links between everyday places and everyday experiences of violence. Week 10 (current week): The politics of play • understand some of the key issues and ideas that surround the concept of play • be able to explain a variety of theoretical lenses which can support a critical examination of play issues for children and young people • be able to critically analyse your own thinking and assumptions about play • have developed an understanding of children and young people’s rights regarding play. Week 11: Critical perspectives on schooling • understand a variety of different perspectives on schooling • appreciate the difference between formal learning and informal learning • understand the concept and importance of ‘children’s voice’ and the role it plays in contemporary education settings in the UK • be able to critically discuss schooling as a diverse practice which is potentially transformational for many children and young people and yet challenging and oppressive for others.

Next, I looked for words, phrases, or ideas (i.e. themes) that occurred in more than one study week. The first one I noticed was “space and/or place”. I highlighted every sentence that included one of those words. I chose green for this theme.

The same text as before, but certain phrases are highlighted in green ie. • understand the concepts of ‘space’ and ‘place’ • understand how children make places • recognise the importance of space in children and young people’s lives • critically analyse the idea of children ‘out of place’ • explore the links between everyday places and everyday experiences of violence.

Then I looked for more recurring words, phrases, or ideas i.e. themes. I gave each theme its own colour. Some sentences contained more than one theme. Because I know that all of these sentences have been identified as important by members of the course team, I made sure every sentence was coded with at least one theme.

The same text as before, but now every bullet point is highlighted in a variety of colours. E.g. the following phrases are highlighted in pink: • consider the impact of migration on children and young people’s lives. • critically discuss the idea of everyday violence and its impact on children’s lives in Bangladesh, the UK and elsewhere • have developed an understanding of children and young people’s rights regarding play. • understand the concept and importance of ‘children’s voice’ and the role it plays in contemporary education settings in the UK

Finally, I made a list of each theme and associated ideas, drawn only from the text of the learning outcomes

This text highlighted in green "Space/place, places are made, importance to children’s lives, being in and out of place, links between places and violence" This text highlighted in dark blue: "Children as active agents, children’s voices, the diversity of children’s experiences" This text highlighted in red: "Critical thinking" This text highlighted in light blue: "Research, methods, theoretical lenses" This text highlighted in pink: "Applications, migration, rights, pedagogical practices"

This isn’t the only possible set of themes that can be identified from this list of learning outcomes. Different people doing the same analysis will probably identify different themes. That’s OK. There may be other important themes in the learning material that aren’t mentioned in the learning outcomes. The point of this process is to identify some themes, not to identify the themes. This is because there isn’t one true and correct answer to “what are the themes in this study block”?

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Where to put the brackets in citations

Melanie Rimmer1 Comment
Close up of a laptop keyboard, centred of the 9 and 0 keys which also have the braces "(" and ")"
Closeup of photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Should it be

  1. “The main finding of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment Mischel et al. (1972) was ……”, or
  2. “The main finding of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (Mischel et al., 1972) was ……”

Read your sentence aloud, but don’t read the part in brackets. Ask yourself, does this make sense? I think 1 doesn’t make sense but 2 does. Do you agree?

How about

  1. “Mischel et al. (1972) found that….”, or
  2. “(Mischel et al., 1972) found that ….”

When you read both options aloud, leaving out the part in brackets, I think 1 makes sense but 2 doesn’t. What do you think?

Finally, how about these

  1. “Another finding of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (Mischel et al., (1972) was ….”, or
  2. “Another finding of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (Mischel et al., (1972)) was ….”

Neither of those are correct. 1 is wrong because there are two left brackets but only one right bracket. 2 has equal numbers of left and right brackets, but has a nested bracket “(Mischel et al., (1972))”. It’s not algebra, so we don’t nest brackets. It should be

“Another finding of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (Mischel et al., 1972) was ….”

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Quick answers: what order should I present my points in an “evaluate” essay?

Melanie Rimmer1 Comment

When you are writing an essay that compares two different ideas/points of views, and then concludes which one is more persuasive (as you would in an “evaluate” essay), you usually put the idea you disagree with first. Give it a fair hearing and make sure you do mention everything that is good and persuasive about this idea.

After that, give the idea you agree with and explain why it is right and the other idea is wrong. It’s just because you can’t explain why an idea is wrong if you haven’t said what the idea is yet, so it works much better that way round.

Reusing key words and phrases from the essay title

Melanie Rimmer1 Comment
A collage of old books
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Reusing key words and phrases from the question helps keep your answer on the topic. Good places to do this include the first and last sentences of each paragraph. E.g. if the question was “Evaluate Piaget’s claim that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective”, the first sentences of some of your paragraphs might be:

  • “One study which supports Piaget’s claim is….”
  • “Another piece of evidence in support of the claim is….”
  • “On the other hand, Hughes’ (1985) study calls into doubt Piaget’s claim….”
  • “Another study which seems to show that children in the pre-operational stage of development can decentre from their own perspective is …..”

And they might have last sentences such as:

  • “This study seems to show that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective, which supports Piaget’s claim”
  • “This shows that, in contrast to Piaget’s claim, some children in the pre-operational stage of development are able to decentre from their own perspective”

Don’t worry about sounding repetitive. There are no marks for style in these essays, but there are marks for sticking to the question and answering it.

Two other places where you absolutely should include the wording of the question are in the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. In the introduction, you can always go with the slightly clunky but perfectly serviceable:

  • “In this essay, I will evaluate Piaget’s claim that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective”

If your tutor doesn’t like first-person language, use “This essay will evaluate Piaget’s claim….”. But it’s often possible to do it more elegantly, e.g:

  • “Piaget claimed that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective (insert citation). This essay will evaluate that claim”

Or even more boldly

  • “This essay will show that Piaget was wrong to claim that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective”

You’ll also have to define the key terms in your introduction paragraph.

The first sentence of your conclusion paragraph should always be your answer to the question e.g.:

  • “In conclusion, Piaget’s claim that children in the pre-operational stage of development are unable to decentre from their own perspective is not supported by more recent evidence”.

And then summarise the evidence you’ve presented that contradicts the claim.

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Tease Apart a Quotation Free Download

Melanie Rimmer2 Comments
Yellow neon lights against a dark background spelling "WE CAN BE HEROES" and on the line below "JUST FOR ONE DAY"
Photo by Gabriel Bassino on Unsplash

There’s really only two occasions when it’s OK to include a quotation in an essay. The first is if you are quoting someone famous saying something in a famous way. You wouldn’t paraphrase Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream…” speech, or a line of Amanda Gorman’s poetry; you’d quote it directly. The other occasion is when you are quoting an extract of qualitative data; something said by a participant or one of the people the research is about. If you are describing research about people with disabilities, people who have experienced trauma, members of the Roma community, etc, you shouldn’t put words in their mouth but let them speak in their own words.

For everything else, you should paraphrase. Explain the ideas of textbook authors, journal article authors etc. in your words. Paraphrasing, rather than quoting, demonstrates that you understand what they meant. You should also explain why you chose these ideas to answer the question, rather than simply quoting and leaving the reader to guess why you chose that quotation.

I’ve attached a downloadable worksheet which guides you through the process of teasing apart a quotation to help you paraphrase it rather than quote it. I’ve adapted the worksheet with permission from an activity by Natalie Lancer of unicoach.org I highly recommend Natalie’s workshops for academic writing.

tease-apart-a-quotationDownload

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Related articles

Writing in your own words

Proofreading 3 ways

Melanie RimmerLeave a comment

Studying paraphernalia. A laptop, a cup of coffee, a couple of notebooks with pens and highlighters
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

It’s important to proof-read your assignments before you submit them. Here’s 3 ways to do it:

1. Ask someone else

They don’t have to know anything about the field. In a way, it’s better if they don’t. They’re not checking whether you’ve answered the question right, they’re just checking that what you have written makes sense. Ask them to look for any spelling or grammatical errors and anything they just can’t understand. If you have used jargon words they don’t know you should define those in your essay. Make sure you thank them – they’ve done you a valuable favour.

2. Do it yourself

It’s hard to proof-read your own work. If you just read it “in your head” as usual you’ll tend to see what you meant to write, or what you thought you wrote, instead of what you actually wrote. What I do to get round this is to read like a little child – I literally run my finger along each word and read out loud. This forces you to read what’s actually there.

3. Get your device to do it

Screengrab by Melanie Rimmer, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

In Microsoft Word, select the “Review” menu and then “Read Aloud”. It will read your document aloud to you. Other versions of Word and other word processors have different ways of doing this: you can Google to find out how to do it in your software. There are also websites where you can copy-and-paste your text and they will read it aloud for you, e.g. this one https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/. Just like Option 2, your device will read what you actually wrote instead of what you meant to write, so any errors should jump out at you.

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Footnote. Muphry’s law states: “If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”

Choose Your Own (Study) Adventure

Melanie RimmerLeave a comment

Screen shot from what looks like a classic 8bit Mario arcade game such as Super Mario Bros.
Image by Rafael Javier from Pixabay

I like playing video games, so video game metaphors make sense to me. In video games you can often choose your difficulty setting. You can choose Easy Mode in which all of the monsters and puzzles are easy to beat, you start out with more health, and your ammo lasts longer. But in Easy Mode the rewards are small. In Normal Mode the monsters and puzzles are normal difficulty and the rewards are a bit higher than Easy Mode. In Hard Mode the monsters are really hard to kill and the puzzles are hard to solve. You don’t have much health or armour in Hard Mode so you die a lot. But the rewards for this mode are the best.

What on earth are you going on about, Melanie? What do videogames have to do with studying for a degree?

You can choose your difficulty setting in your studies as well. In Hard Mode studying you try to read every single page of the textbook and make detailed, colour-coded notes. You do every single online activity. You try to write every assignment to the best of your possible ability. It takes a long time to study on Hard Mode. But if you have that time available, you can earn the best rewards – you’ll get the best possible grades at the end of the module.

In Normal Mode studying you read as much as you can but you don’t always get around to reading every single thing. Sometimes you skim-read sections and don’t make notes except perhaps highlighting or underlining some sentences on a page. You skip the online activities when you don’t have the time. And you have a good try at the assignments but sometimes you rush them a bit. You’ll comfortably pass the module on Normal Mode (probably – it depends on you and on the module), but you won’t get the best possible grade.

Studying on Easy Mode you do the minimum you can get away with whilst still doing enough to pass the course. You only read the bits of the module that are essential to write the assignments. You don’t read them in detail with the goal of understanding; you just skim them, looking for things to put in your assignments. And you work on the assignments until you’re pretty sure you’ve done enough to pass and then you submit them. The maximum reward you hope for on Easy Mode is to barely pass.

All of this is to say – you don’t have to study on Hard Mode. Your family, your job, and your own physical and mental health are all more important than your studies. I’m writing this in the midst of the COVID pandemic, which has made everything so much harder that we all have to make compromises and get our priorities very clear. So it’s OK sometimes to decide to shift your effort down to Normal Mode or even Easy Mode. You can always step up the difficulty again later if things get better (they WILL get better by the way. I don’t know when, but they will).

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Essay Planning Workbook Free Download

Melanie Rimmer4 Comments
Screengrab of part of a Word document titled Essay Planning Workbook

I have created an essay planning workbook which you can download for free. It takes you step-by-step through the stages of essay planning. Please feel free to use this workbook and distribute it. It is licensed by me under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) which means you are free to share, copy, redistribute, and adapt it (under the same creative commons license) as long as you give me credit for creating it.

I’d love to hear from people who have used it, so leave a comment or email me.

how-to-plan-an-academic-essayDownload

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Extensions are a Double-Edged Sword

Melanie RimmerLeave a comment
A sword resting on a stack of old books
“Albion Europe Photo Contest 2012 High res” by Søren Niedziella is licensed under CC BY 2.0

I don’t think I’ve ever said no to an extension request from a student, but I always ask “What are your plans to catch up?”. I can give students an extension but what I can’t do is stop time. I wish I could – that would be a wonderful superpower. All an extension does is give the student permission to hand in their assignment late. But whilst they’re taking an extra week to write their essay or analyse their data, all the other students are cracking on with the next week of studying. When the student finally hands in their assignment they are already a week behind with the reading and learning. Unless they can somehow compress 2 weeks learning into 1 (or 3 into 2 or whatever) they’re going to need an extension on the next assignment, too. And the next one. But they can’t have an extension on the exam or the end of module assessment, so sooner or later time will catch up with them. That’s what I mean by a double-edged sword.

It’s not the end of the world. I help my students to make catch-up plans when they are behind. I advise them what parts of the module are vital and what parts are skimmable or skippable. I help them make realistic plans to ramp up their study hours temporarily whilst avoiding burnout. Sometimes I recommend they submit an incomplete assignment and push on with the reading, because there just isn’t time to do a thorough job of it and still get good marks in the next assignment or the exam. I explain to them that they may have to come to terms with lower grades than they hoped for when illness or other circumstances mean they aren’t able to study as thoroughly as they otherwise would.

If you’re my student you can always have an extension if you need one. But don’t be complacent about extensions. If a week has passed in which you did no studying (because of illness, or a family crisis, or a busy week at work, or any other reason) then that week has gone and you can’t get it back. You can (probably) still submit your assignment but you are somehow going to have to work extra hours to catch up, or else you are going to have to skip some of the reading and take the hit to your grades. One way or another you are at a disadvantage compared to if you hadn’t needed the extension.

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Related content: The Swiss Cheese Study Method: or What To Do When You Get Behind