- ECON1138 – History of Economic Thought ESSAY Weight towards final grade: 100% Essay plan Prepare a 1 page (<750 words), bullet-point summary of how you plan to address the essay assignment. This should include: Specifying the question that you will answer Basic structure that you will follow highlighting key points you wish to address Key bibliographic resources (books, journal articles, policy papers, databases, etc.) that you either have consulted or will consult as part of your research There will be no grade given for your essay plan (this is the meaning of 'formative'). However, you must submit an essay plan or you will not be allowed to submit a final essay. You may submit your plan at any time before the deadline - if you do, please notify your module leaders so that we can, if possible, get feedback to you early. For those plans submitted before the deadline, you will receive feedback on your essay plan in time for you to incorporate your response to the feedback in the final essay. (You are encouraged to continue working on your essay draft while waiting to receive your feedback.) Final essay Write a 2,500-word (+/- 10%) essay in which you take responsibility for the direction of your research (co-creation): 1. Choose a thematic focus from one of the following: class, race, sex and gender, environment and climate breakdown, labour and unemployment, crisis and austerity (if you wish to choose a different theme, special permission must be sought from the module leaders). 2. Critically contrast the historical evolution of the economic analysis of your chosen theme in two schools of thought (from: neoclassical, Austrian, monetarist, New Keynesian, Keynesian, Post-Keynesian, institutionalist, feminist, ecological or Marxian). You will need, as a minimum, 3. to demonstrate what you have learned in this module; top papers will go further. How have these two analytical frameworks influenced relevant policies? (you may choose to focus on a specific geographic region if you wish) What accounts for their relative success in policy circles? ESSAY REQUIREMENTS In your answer please ensure that your essay has a strong academic foundation including theory, evidence for your arguments and references. All materials need to be properly quoted and referenced. You are also expected to use the Harvard system of referencing (citation) in your essay. Please consult the University of Greenwich Brief Guide to the Harvard System for more information on how to use Page 1 of 4 this referencing system. Please remember that plagiarism is an academic offence (More information the University's found here: regulations plagiarism can be governing https://docs.gre.ac.uk/rep/sas/academic-misconduct-policy-and-procedure-taught-awards). The list of references at the end of your essay is excluded from the word count. Footnotes, endnotes and tables have to be included in the word count. In order to answer the questions please study and carefully read the readings listed in the module handbook, lecture and tutorial slides. You are also encouraged to search for additional readings and material. Please do not answer using bullet points (though this is fine for the essay plan). MARKING CRITERIA The marking criteria for the essay will be as follows: Marking Criteria: Focus Does the essay stay within and fulfil the topic parameters? Synthesis Does the essay bring together the literature in a significant manner that addresses an essay question? Soundness Does the essay indicate a comprehensive and critical understanding of the topic area and literature discussed? Clarity of structure Is the essay well organised and logically constructed to achieve synthesis while being mindful of the needs of the reader? Mechanical Soundness Is the essay clearly written, spell checked and grammatically sound and referenced appropriately? Marks: 20 20 30 30 10 10 HOW TO WRITE A GOOD ACADEMIC ESSAY In this module you are expected to show your own judgment as an economist. As such, in your essay you should demonstrate: 1. Your awareness of the existence of different approaches to a specific question (i.e. pluralism); 2. That you can use various analytical tools in order to exercise your own judgment rather than uncritically accepting one general approach. In other words, you should explain and assess various approaches in order to then express your own informed opinion on a specific issue. Your essay should present different economic perspectives and approaches and make reference to history of thought and methodology. You are expected to take a stance, justify the stance you take using existing economic literature, and engage with the arguments from other approaches. Page 2 of 4 WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 1. Evidence that you have understood the topic and the issues within it. 2. That you are able to apply your understanding on a topic to the set question, selecting relevant information and the ability to apply relevant theories and examples to support your points of view. 3. Valid arguments that are supported by evidence and examples. These arguments should be well structured, balanced, considering a range of viewpoints. STRUCTURING YOUR ESSAY Planning Planning can help identify your main message and find an order for the points you want to make. Planning is useful for developing a strong structure, as it enables you to: - Do some of the higher-level thinking and identify what you want to write before trying to express it in individual sentences; Planning helps you to group similar ideas to avoid repetition Cut out irrelevant points that distract from the main message Find a logical order for your points Identify the main message that runs through your essay How to do this in practice? - - Write all your thoughts down and then try to group similar ideas together and cut out any irrelevant points. Then as part of your planning, identify the main message that runs throughout your essay. Note down your introduction as it will help you start your essay, and a logical order for the key points and examples. Essay Structure Your essay should have an appropriate introduction and conclusion which will both be substantiated and supported by the main body of the essay. Introduction This is a brief and clear statement of the way in which you are going to answer the question. You should summarise here the arguments which you are going to put forward. Clearly state what you are going to cover in the essay. Main body of essay In the main body you should provide evidence and support for your argument and, where relevant, give illustrations of the points you have made. Make sure that you are developing the structure of your argument. The main body should be coherent, provide comprehensive evidence and present alternative viewpoints and/or theory and empirical evidence. Page 3 of 4 The main body is a set of different paragraphs. They all make different points but these feed in and contribute to the overall message and move you further along to where you are trying to get to (your conclusion). Remember that one paragraph = one substantiated point. Do not raise many different points in one paragraph. What you should also avoid is to have lots of good individual points, but no clear direction for where they are heading. This confuses your reader and means that the essay will have a poor structure. A good structure is supported by clear paragraphs. Each paragraph deals with a different point. You introduce the point, provide evidence to support the point, interpret the evidence to show how it supports the point, and link that point back to the overall question. A paragraph is a unit of sense. When you move on to a different idea, you start a different paragraph. Conclusion Your conclusion should draw together your argument in an attempt to show how the evidence presented leads to those conclusions. No new material should be introduced at this stage, though questions for further discussion or research can form a legitimate part of this ending. It can be useful to return to the proposition put forward in the essay question and refer to it. (i.e. relate to the question). Make sure to present your viewpoint and opinion in the conclusion. This should be based on the evidence and arguments you have provided in the main body of your essay. References and citations In your essay you should provide proper references throughout. You can guard against unintentional plagiarism by providing unambiguous citations for either direct quotations or summaries of source materials. It is preferable not to reference lecture and tutorial slides; rely instead on textbooks, journal articles, official reports, and similar sources. Also refrain from using generic online resources (e.g. Wikipedia, Investopedia, Econhelp, etc.). Your essay should also include a full list of references at the end of the essay. Always include the list of references at the end of your work. The accepted format for referencing at Greenwich is the Harvard Referencing Format. Once you are done with your essay also remember to run a spell-check. Or better yet, swap with a friend and edit each other's essays and make constructive comments to one another! Page 4 of 4