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Clear thinking

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analysis, logic, reasoning, and clear expression

What is clear thinking?

Clear Thinking
Clear thinking is the ability to express ideas in a simple and straightforward manner. It also involves the ability to analyse statements and follow logical arguments. Some people imagine it means being super-clever or having a high IQ. Others think it’s the ability to solve really difficult puzzles or unravel complex statements. But in fact it’s none of these things.

Clear thinking means that you have the ability to

  • express your own ideas simply
  • produce valid arguments
  • think in a logical manner
  • inspect and analyse ideas critically
Why is clear thinking important?

Clear thinking is a vital part of effective communication – in business, education, and all forms of intellectual life. It’s what’s called a ‘core skill’ which will enable you to think, speak, and write in an effective manner.

Clear thinking is required when you wish to –

  • persuade other people
  • develop powerful arguments
  • become more discerning and precise
  • reveal the flaws in someone else’s argument
What is required for clear thinking?

Clear thinking is a search for precision, clarity, and truthfulness. You can develop the skills required by breaking down what you say and write into small and simple units. Simplicity usually leads to greater clarity. You also need to analyse arguments and recognise their underlying logic.

Clear thinking requires –

  • mental effort and discipline
  • analysing, reasoning, and understanding
  • recognising logical arguments
  • patience and diligence
How to do it?

You need to pay very close attention to the small details of what you say, read, and write. The claims you make must be expressed in a clear and logical manner, and should be based on facts or evidence. The claims other people make should be inspected very closely and examined for their truthfulness, their logic, and their validity as arguments.

Clear thinking requires –

  • precision and clarity of language
  • using only valid forms of argument
  • avoiding over-simplifying and generalising
  • analysing everything in close detail
An example of clear thinking

What follows is an extract from a letter to a newspaper. It’s from a reader protesting about the reorganisation of secondary schools. And it is very typical of the sort of everyday argument you might hear in a pub or on a radio or TV discussion.

Read each paragraph carefully, and give some thought to every one of the separate statements made. Ask yourself – Is this really true? Is this a valid argument? And then compare your conclusions with the comments that follow.

Recently you said that our schools are failing, something that many parents have felt for years. Let this be the start of a campaign to restore educational standards in our schools.

We once had an educational system which was the envy of the world. Now our schools have been ‘kidnapped’ by theorists, reformers, and the political pirates of the far Left.

The first battle of this campaign is already being fought. Parents in Manchester are engaged in a fight against the Labour council’s plans to reorganise secondary schooling, involving the closure of ten of the best schools in the city. These are ones with excellent academic records and traditions which go back beyond the beginning of the last century.

schools are failing
Failing to do what, exactly? This is the sort of expression of complaint you will hear in any saloon bar conversation or read in a tabloid newspaper. Presumably the writer means a failure to educate children properly. But is there any hard evidence that schools in general are worse than they were in the past? After all, exam results seem to improve almost every year. And if you think about it for a moment, most people a hundred years ago were not educated at all, so the general level of education is likely to have risen rather than to have fallen.

restore educational standards
This is part of the same unsupported claim that the quality of education is falling. But it is just as difficult to obtain an ‘A’ level in maths today as it was twenty or fifty years ago – so that is one standard which has not fallen. And the total number of children achieving these qualifications is greater, not less than before – so that is another.

We once had an educational system which was the envy of the world
This is another claim made without any evidence to support it. It is a supposition, or a commonly held opinion which may or may not be true. After all, if it were true, why have so many countries created educational systems organised on lines completely different to ours? Moreover, the ‘system’ the writer refers to was one which only dealt with an extremely small proportion of children, all of whom came from the middle and upper classes.

theorists, reformers, and the political pirates of the far Left
This is what’s called very emotive language. The suggestion being made here is that people who theorise about something lack practical experience and only deal in opinion (though the writer is doing just the same thing). The term ‘reformers’ is being used to suggest making things worse. that politicians of the far Left are going to steal something (which is what pirates do).

traditions which go back beyond the beginning of the last century
The implication here is that anything which has lasted so long must be good and should be left unchanged. It’s true that the traditions may well exist, but that is not necessarily a reason for resisting educational reforms. Nor does it mean that they are necessarily good – just because they have lasted so long.

There are three general points to be made about this example, and which are closely bound up with the discipline of clear thinking.

One
Your first reaction might be that these are nit-picking objections to the arguments in the letter. After all, we don’t expect people who write to newspapers to be professional philosophers, do we? But this is an example of how we should challenge assumptions and arguments (even our own) if we are to develop the habit of clear thinking. The challenge of thinking clearly is to ask of everything Is this really true?. This might seem at first to be a negative attitude to take, and it will probably slow down the enquiry. But it is a necessary first step.

Two
Despite all the observations made above, it is still possible that the letter writer could be correct. It’s possible that the quality of educational provision in the Manchester area is falling. The problem is that the arguments used in the latter are badly flawed and not persuasive. This feature of clear thinking comes under the heading of valid and invalid arguments.

Three
You might notice that the weakness of these arguments are closely connected to a sloppy and imprecise use of language. Terms such as failing, standards, and traditions are too casual, vague, and ambiguous in this context. It’s for this reason that if we wish to develop the skills of clear thinking, we must pay close attention to the way we use words.

© Roy Johnson 2011

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Design for Multimedia Learning

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software and media for creating learning programs

In the rapidly developing world of IT and multimedia, it’s strange to be reviewing a book published three years ago – and probably written at least a year before that. Some of the programs discussed by Tom Boyle in this survey will by now be ‘legacy software’ – but the fact is that some of them are still being used. His book is in four parts. The first provides a critical review of work in the field – from resource-based learning, through simulation and virtual experience to guided discovery learning.

Design for Multimedia Learning This includes consideration of programs such as Speakeasy, the Web, DOVE, Braque, and CLEM – [CORE Learning Environment for Modula-2]. The second part deals with conceptual design – the devising of the deep architecture of the system. Part three deals with presentation design. This covers screen layout, media integration, and the design of individual media – text, graphics, sound, and video. One of the virtues of the book is that it is so wide-ranging. It deals en passant with programs such as Toolbook and systems such as HTML – which was sill being viewed as a rather limited option in the mid 1990s.

Boyle covers moving objects and sound – both of which are conversely viewed rather sceptically in Web circles as distractions bordering on the unnecessary. However, there are circumstances in which these features are necessary. One of the examples discussed and illustrated is a training program showing how to install a hard disk in ‘Build Your Own Personal Computer’. There are other disciplines in which digitised video is essential. A colleague of mine is currently grappling with comparable issues in a teaching hospital, where video clips of operations are put on CD-ROM as seminar support materials.

Part four deals with project development, evaluation, and delivery of teaching programs. It’s all written in a lively and informative style, but the question remains, ‘Are such books superseded by the rapid development of software?’ My answer is ‘No – on two grounds’. First, it’s good to have a historical record of software development. Just as people are now beginning to collect and archive old computers [some of them less than twenty years old] so a well-documented account of the programs which were written for them will become increasingly important.

The second reason is that some of the basic design concepts and the architecture of these older programs may well appear to have been superseded by recent developments. But anyone who uses something as common as a word-processor knows that more features do not always result in improved functionality. At any time, some of these older approaches could be resuscitated for the simplicity and elegance of their design.

© Roy Johnson 2000

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Tom Boyle, Design for Multimedia Learning, London: Prentice Hall, 1997, pp.240, ISBN: 0132422158

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Designing Computer-based Learning

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practical design principles – from conception to evaluation

“This is not a ‘How to …’ book but rather one seeking to help you understand the different elements which go into computer-based learning.” Alan Clarke is offering general principles – and his advice is sound.

Designing Computer-based LearningHe kicks off with some observations on interactivity – and how to convert static web pages into a more dynamic experience. This is followed by a discussion of navigation, menus, structural metaphors, and the variety of forms in which questions can be posed. The next chapter deals with types of computer-based learning materials. He lists lots of general principles and learning systems – but a few practical examples would have been welcome at this point.

He discusses assessment methods and how one form of feedback is better than another. The best part of this section is how to construct multiple choice questions. He explains clearly how hypothetical tests can be very useful in situations where there is danger or impracticality – practising nuclear power station shutdowns or deep sea diving rescues, for instance.

His advice on the presentation of text-based learning materials is very good. Use lots of white space; break up text into small chunks; and breathe life into the project with graphics. Anyone following his advice will produce attractive pages. He also throws in some useful tips – such as the observation that people learn more efficiently if they see a structure diagram of a sequence of learning before going through the details.

It’s a pity that his discussions of colour and graphics are illustrated entirely in black and white, with only line diagrams. The publishers could have been more generous to him on this issue.

I was most interested to know what he had to say about hypermedia, since the linking of multiple resources from a variety of media represents possibly the most severe challenge to designers.

He has interesting suggestions on using linked graphics where video is not available – on subjects with a historical dimension for instance. He also makes the point that audio materials ought to be designed for listening, not reading – an easy thing for many writers to forget.

His overall message is that users should have access to as wide a variety of input as possible, and that they should be able to control their own choices.

He is also good on the basic design principles for web pages and screen layout – reminding us that for online learning materials, only a small proportion of the screen should be used – as distinct from a commercial web site – otherwise the user can easily becomes confused.

This book covers the whole of the design process – from conception to testing and evaluation. There are plenty of suggestions for scripts, templates, and storyboards, as well as tips for estimating the cost-effectiveness of what you produce. As a manual, it provides comprehensive guidance for any serious designer – or any department which is under orders to produce online learning materials.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Alan Clarke, Designing Computer-Based Learning Materials, London: Gower, 2001, pp.196, ISBN 0566083205

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Digital Art History

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Teaching and learning art using IT

This is a collection of academic conference papers which look at the ways in which digital art history and the use of computers is affecting the ways in which art is both taught and studied. The papers cover issues such as the storage, access, and searchability of images; ownership and copyright. iconography and classification, and the analysis of art works using Computer Aided Design. There’s an account of a multi-media project for instance, Colour and Communication in 20th-Century Abstract Art, which teaches issues of tone, tint, and hue by making comparisons with music which are included as audio files alongside interactive exercises.

Digital Art HistoryNext comes a web-based project called The Cathedral as Virtual Encyclopedia – a virtual panoramic tour of Chartes cathedral. The really interesting and ambitious feature here is that the authoring team, lead by Stephen Clancy, have been digitally manipulating the panorama shots using Macromedia Director to produce a thirteenth-century version of the tour.

This is followed by an account of creating a multimedia database of the source materials archived by Georg Morgenstiern, professor of Indo-Iranian languages at the University of Oslo, Norway. The resulting collection of photographs, sound recordings, and movie clips can be seen at www.nb.no.

There is a short encomium for computer gaming which could safely have been left out of the collection. More interesting is an account of experimental new media art at the University of the West of England in Bristol – though the emphasis is on problems of curation rather than the ‘exhibits’ themselves. This is also true of an essay on the creation of a visually searchable database of images at London Guildhall.

The centrepiece of the book shows how computer graphics and visioning techniques can be used in the scientific analysis of paintings. Once the examples have been digitised using CAD software, new versions can be generated from different points of view; partly occluded objects can be completed; shapes and objects can be analysed; and a 3D version of the scene can be generated.

They show an amazing three dimensional reconstruction of Masaccio’s Florentine fresco, The Trinity. This paper is the work of three scholars in art history and engineering science working collaboratively at the University of Oxford and is probably the highlight of the collection.

As an e-learning author myself, I would sometimes have welcomed a little more technical detail, but there’s certainly enough here to stimulate anybody who want to see what’s possible in harnessing the power of IT to the teaching and learning in visual arts.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Anna Bentkowska-Kafel et al (eds), Digital Art History, Bristol: Intellect, 2005, pp.118, ISBN 1841501166

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E-Learning in FE

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practical guide and resources for the e-tutor

This is written from the perspective of practising FE teachers – and healthily sceptical ones at that – well aware of the resistance to and pitfalls in e-learning. And it covers all the possibilities – from simple Word documents to Moodle and other advanced courseware. They start off by looking at all the very common objections made to the use of IT in teaching. ‘Computers can’t replace teachers’; ‘It might be OK in other subjects, but not mine’; and ‘Not in my back yard’.

E-Learning in FE You’ll have heard them all. These are firmly refuted, whilst at the same time they acknowledge the sceptics and the pressures of daily life in FE. Then come some simple suggestions for interactive eLearning without any advanced IT skills – largely based on using the tools available within Microsoft Word and PowerPoint – to which many (if not all) are likely to have access.

This includes the inventive suggestion of using ‘comments’ to attach audio files giving feedback on pieces of submitted work – which shows what’s possible with these relatively simple and widely available features. This technique is not complex and is within the technical skills of most tutors. Moreover, it can be used in both ‘directions’. Students in art and design can supplement their submitted work with critical commentaries on their choice of materials via attached podcasts.

There are also examples of audio recordings used in PowerPoint for language lessons – and as they point out, these techniques can easily be repeated with new materials. Once an item of interactivity has been created, it can act as a ‘learning object’ – a small, independent and re-usable unit of learning.

Next comes a tour of the free and nearly-free software programs which allow tutors to create course tests and exercises: Hot Potatoes (quizzes) Action Mazes (choice actions) mind mapping, course management tools, and web quests. The main problem here is that many of these programs merely encourage users to link up existing Word files to create a spurious sense of interactivity – which isn’t real eLearning.

The new digital classroom can make use of cameras, audio-recording devices, and video recorders – all of which are now regularly combined in mobile phones. There’s also a discussion of interactive whiteboards (which I personally recommend you practise using thoroughly before embarrassing yourself in front of a class).

And if you don’t want to make your own eLearning materials, there are lots of ready-made options available for free or licensed download. They include maps, images, encyclopedias, and mini-courses endorsed by BECTA and NLN (National Learning Network).

This leads naturally into a discussion of how these materials are made available to students. The answer is via VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments). These can be intimidating for teachers – but at the same time their salvation. What they offer is a central repository for documents, exercises, student work, learning plans, and interactive courses – as well as facilities such as email, chat rooms, and discussion forums.

There’s an interesting chapter on mobile learning devices – laptops, PDAs, phones, and tablets. What emerges here as the unsung hero is the flash disk (or pen drive) – up to 2 GB of complete portability which can store information and even executable programs and fits in your shirt pocket.

They end with a comprehensive review of the support organisations and sources of help for the aspirant eTutor. My only reservation was that there might have been more practical examples and illustrative screenshots. But apart from that, I would say that this was the best guide to eLearning I have come across.

© Roy Johnson 2006

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John Whalley, Theresa Welch, Lee Williamson, E-Learning in FE, London: Continuum, 2006, pp.118, ISBN 0826488625

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e-Learning in the 21st Century

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theory and practice of designing online learning

e-Learning is education’s Big Thing at the moment. After all, it makes sense. If courses are put on line, students can study where and when they wish, tutors are freed from lecturing and classroom drudgery, and the institution can offer its courses to customers worldwide. That’s the theory anyway, and many institutions have thrown their text-based materials onto web sites, hoping to keep up with the rush. But of course, there’s a lot more to it than that.

e-Learning in the 21st CenturyGarrison and Anderson take a gung-ho line on e-Learning, arguing that it will transform education in the coming century – but they point out from the start that a lot of careful planning is required. As far as educational theory is concerned, their approach is ‘collaborate constructivist’. That is, it’s based on the idea that individuals create meaning for themselves which is then related to society. A great deal of their emphasis is placed on ‘community’:

A critical community of learners … is composed of teachers and students transacting with the specific purposes of facilitating, constructing, and validating understanding, and of developing capabilities that will lead to further learning.

Almost all their observations in the first half of the book are posited in terms of educational theory. But when in the second they come to give practical advice, most of it confirms my own experience of online tuition and course design. For instance, they emphasise the need to establish as rapidly as possible what they call ‘social presence’ – some sense of rapport between members of the learning community.

There are also some useful tips on course design – such as not overloading students with too much content, and placing more emphasis on cognitive skills and critical thinking. They are also good on how to promote and guide online conferences. Open University tutors please take note.

They cover evaluation and assessment, problem-based learning, and the organizational problems created for institutions, plus repositories of free learning objects which might help designers overcome them.

The authors are unashamed enthusiasts, and they cover in detail how the skills and facilities of successful online learning can be harnessed to overcome the apparent weaknesses of asynchronous communication in a networked community.

It’s a pity there are no practical examples of online courses or reviews of software, but anyone involved in the development of online courses who needs theoretical justification for their enterprise will find plenty of it here.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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D. R. Garrison and Terry Anderson, E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice, London: Routledge, 2003, pp.167, ISBN 0415263468

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ECDL: The Complete Coursebook

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coursebook for ECDL, or for improving computing skills

The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) is an internationally recognised certificate of computing skills. In a climate where employers are increasingly keen to employ staff with proven IT skills, the ECDL is highly regarded and provides proof of competence in the most common software applications. The licence is awarded to candidates who pass tests in seven modules, which together make up the ECDL syllabus.

  • Basic Concepts of IT
  • Using the Computer and Managing Files
  • Word Processing
  • Spreadsheets
  • Databases
  • Presentations
  • Information and Communication

This coursebook has been fully approved by the ECDL Foundation. If you can grasp these basic skills, you are well on your way to computer proficiency.

ECDL4: The Complete Coursebook It devotes a chapter to each of the modules and provides a comprehensive guide to some of the most common business applications. It’s written in clear, easy to follow language. It’s also jargon free and assumes little or no previous knowledge of the applications that it covers. Both the tests and the book are based on Microsoft software – and in particular Windows XP®, Internet Explorer 5® and Outlook Express 5®.

Although the ECDL modules are numbered, the tests can be taken in any order. However, the authors here assume readers will work through the sections in order. The earliest sections are aimed at the complete beginner and they explain basic computer terms and concepts. The later chapters provide less explanation of the basics.

Much of the material covered will be familiar to a regular computer user, but there are very clear explanations of, for example, the difference between ROM and RAM, and the meaning of bits and bytes. This is the only section of the coursebook that is entirely theoretical. Its aim is to prepare the reader for a multiple-choice test on the key concepts of Information Technology.

The rest of the book contains over 280 easy-to-follow exercises, which guide you through the various features of the relevant applications. Starting with the simplest of tasks, the exercises enable you to become familiar with the software before introducing its more advanced features. There are over 700 screen shots which show what the results should look like.

There are also plenty of hints and shortcuts, and it’s likely that even the most confident of computer users will pick up the odd little gem.

I used this book as preparation for my own ECDL tests. Since gaining the licence I’ve referred back to it many times to refresh my memory on various points and have found many of its hints and tips to be invaluable.

For anyone interested in taking the ECDL, this book contains everything you will need to pass. And it wouldn’t be wasted on those who simply want to improve their knowledge and skills in popular software applications.

More information about the ECDL is available from the official website at http://www.ecdl.com/

© Kathryn Abram 2003

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Paul Holden and Brendan Munnelly, ECDL4: The Complete Coursebook, Prentice Hall, new edition 2003, pp.640, ISBN 0130399175

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eLearning: the key concepts

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up-to-date survey of online learning

Online learning is everywhere these days – for good reasons. Schools want to encourage the use of IT; colleges want their courses to be available 24/7; and universities want to sell their courses to people all around the world. eLearning: the key concepts is aimed at intermediate to advanced users which seeks to explain the main issues. An introductory essay clears the ground by looking at the many terms used in eLearning to describe what is sometimes almost the same thing (eLearning, distance learning, blended learning, flexible learning, and computer assisted learning).

eLearning: the key conceptsThey are nearly the same, but not quite, and the authors do a good job of making the necessary distinctions. This also acts as a survey of the problems and possibilities of teaching and learning in the online world. They take account of such issues as the fact that many tutors in higher education receive no career advancement or recompense for the courses they might design. And they recognise that students are often more advanced than their conservative tutors in the adoption of digital technology and its multimedia attractions.

The second and major part of the book is an extended glossary of terms, explaining in detail everything from (alphabetically) ‘accessibility’ to ‘wireless networks’. All the entries are extensively cross-referenced, and there are web links to further resources where appropriate.

Some of the terms are to do with educational theory, such as ‘assessment’ and ‘problem-based learning’; others are technological, such as ‘open source software’ and ‘voice over Internet protocol (VOIP); and others deal with educational issues, such as ‘plagiarism’, ‘feedback’, and ‘quality assurance’.

Wherever possible, they give examples of the topic. Defending the use of video animations and blogging as educational tools for instance, they give examples of sites where these techniques are being used to advantage.

They have some interesting things to say about ‘learning objects’ – small, subject-independent re-usable units of teaching. These can be taken off the shelf and combined with others to save course designers the trouble of re-inventing wheels. They’re an amazingly good idea – yet very few people use them. Why? Because teachers traditionally wish to create their own materials, and they want to place the items of instruction in the context of their own subject discipline. It’s often said ironically of learning objects that they are the solution to a problem which has not yet been identified.

I have been designing and teaching online courses more or less since they first came into being, and this book seems to me as up to date as its possible to be in the plodding world of dead tree publishing. They missed the spectacular growth of Moodle which has replaced almost all other virtual learning environments (VLEs) in the last couple of years. But apart from that, everything you need to know about eLearning is well defined here.

© Roy Johnson 2006

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Robin Mason and Frank Rennie, eLearning: the key concepts, London: Routledge, 2006, pp.158, ISBN: 0415373077

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Electronic Texts in the Humanities

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Electronic Texts in the Humanities is an excellent overview of the relation between computers and texts. It covers all the essential issues in understanding the latest possibilities of using digitised text in academic study and research. Susan Hockey deals with all aspects of the encoding, markup, and tagging which renders an electronic version of any text searchable and accurate. She also discusses the currently available software and indicates what future developments are required to extend its usefulness. It’s a book which will be of interest to linguists, lexicographers, socio-linguists, literary theorists, historians, and any humanities discipline which relies on the interpretation of texts.

Electronic Texts in the HumanitiesAlong the way she gives an assessment of the existing scholarship in her accounts of research papers and the most recent articles. There are some very useful explanations of SGML and XML, the Dublin Core standards for meta-data, and the Poughkeepsie Principles for encoding and interchange of electronic text. She explains how once a text is in digital form, it can be used to produce concordances, alphabetical listings, and a variety of sortings which can reveal how the same word is used in different contexts. There’s also a chapter describing how literary critics have used computer-generated analysis to assist their interpretations of texts – amongst which she also includes analysis of poetry and non-Latinate languages.

There’s also coverage of corpora – which are large databases of examples from spoken or written sources. These are used as the basis for statistical analysis to show language change, frequency of use, and contextual usages.

This is followed by what’s called ‘stylometry and attribution studies’. That is, making the case that author A wrote text B because of certain measurable word choices or patterns. These quasi-scientific tests have been used to examine cases of disputed authorship such as the Gospels from the Bible and some of the texts in the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy. There are also some examples of the shortcomings of these approaches when used in court cases as evidence.

The chapter I found most interesting was on textual criticism and electronic editions. This deals with establishing editorial principles, and it also examines the possibilities of multiple editions (archives) as well as showing how these can be produced in a variety of forms once they have been tagged.

She ends with dictionaries and lexical databases, describing in detail the major enterprise of producing the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as projects which examine old dictionaries to see what they can tell us about the people who compiled them.

This study concentrates on tools and techniques for working with electronic-based sources in the humanities. Its primary audience is teachers and students working in language-based subjects. But it will also be of interest to librarians and information scientists who are now working with electronic texts. For anyone interested in digital writing, it’s worth it for the superb bibliography alone – thirty pages which will take you in whichever direction you wish to go.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Susan Hockey, Electronic Texts in the Humanities, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.227, ISBN: 0198711956

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Essays and Dissertations

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the basics of academic planning and writing skills

Oxford University Press have just brought out a series of short beginners’ manuals on communication skills. Their emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. Chris Mounsey’s Essays and Dissertations tackles the essentials of academic writing in a systematic manner. He begins with understanding and interpreting essay questions, then moves on to the research you might have to do to answer them.

Essays and Dissertations This involves selecting books, finding quotes, and developing the outline of your own arguments. This is followed by the central point of almost all successful writing – planning. Next comes editing and writing drafts, then how to present your results, using a word processor.

Having covered these basics, he then moves up a notch to cover the more advanced skills of time management, Internet research, and alternative strategies for writing essays. This leads into the special problems posed by dissertations, then exams.

The book ends with a series of writing checklists, guidance on common mistakes, how to deal with footnotes and bibliography, and suggestions for further reading.

The chapters are short; almost every page has hints, tips, and quotes in call-out boxes, there are checklists and suggestions for further reading. The strength of this approach is that it avoids the encyclopedic volume of advice which in some writing guides can be quite frightening.

This book provides students at all levels with easy-to-follow guidance on how to structure an essay and how to select and research the most appropriate subject to write on. You will need more guidance when it comes to writing a long dissertation, but this book will certainly help you to reach that point.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Chris Mounsey, Essays and Dissertations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.128, ISBN: 0198605056

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