1. Evaluate! What am I being asked to do?
What type of writing is it? An essay? A report?
What is the question asking me to do? Analyse the key words: they’re normally very specific.
Reading and taking notes:
Core reading; lectures
Look at bibliographies
Search jstor.org etc
Brainstorm.
Relevant examples; case studies?
Try to position yourself.
Reading and taking notes:
Core reading; lectures
Look at bibliographies
Search jstor.org etc
Brainstorm
Relevant examples; case studies?
Take a couple of days off between writing and reading.
Print it out before checking.
Check for: logical argument
spelling and typing
referencing!
Identify the purpose
Generate
ideas
Organise
Draft
Review and Redraft
Evaluate!
Actually writing the assignment!
Note: a lot of work often has to take place before you begin actually writing!
Take your notes and decide what to include.
Make a logical structure out of ideas.
Make sure sections link logically.
Often GENERAL SPECIFIC.

2. Most essay titles contain the following components:
Subject matter or topic. What, in the most general terms, is the question about?
Aspect or focus. The angle or point-of-view on the subject matter. What aspect of the subject matter is the question about?
Instruction. This refers to the instruction word or phrase. These instructions tell you exactly what to do.
Some questions also contain the following components:
Restriction or expansion of the subject matter. This is the detailed limitation of the topic. What, in specific terms, is the question about?
Viewpoint. The requirement, in the question, that the writer writes about a point of view dictated by the question.

3. What are the instruction words?
To focus on two instruction words, describe and discuss, how do they differ?
Describe points towards presenting facts and not opinions.
If you are asked to discuss something, then your opinion is being asked for; the implication is that you are usually expected to evaluate something or to argue for or against something.
In general, you are expected to be able to discuss issues or ideas, rather than simply to report on facts.

4. ‘Task Commands’ answers
2. I
3. R
4. L
5. E
6. P
7. F
8. K
9. G
10. R
11. J
12. N
13. Q
14. C
15. O
16. H
17. B
18. A
19. M
20. D

5. Useful steps in approaching a title:
Identify the topic.
If the topic has a restriction or expansion, identify it.
Search for the aspect.
Identify the instruction (which often comes at the beginning) and decide what it means and what it requires you to do.
Check whether there is a viewpoint and if so, if it is the same as your own.

6. Some titles from After New Media:
Drawing on the history of media, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a division between technology and use.
Compare and contrast cosmetic surgery and face transplant surgery as technologies of the self.
Examine the ways in which recent events concerning, for example, economics, war, particle physics, astrobiology or face transplant surgery are highly mediated.

7. Some titles from After New Media:
Drawing on the history of media, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a division between technology and use.
Compare and contrast cosmetic surgery and face transplant surgery as technologies of the self.
Examine the ways in which recent events concerning, for example, economics, war, particle physics, astrobiology or face transplant surgery are highly mediated.

8. Some titles from After New Media:
Drawing on the history of media, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a division between technology and use.
Compare and contrast cosmetic surgery and face transplant surgery as technologies of the self.
Examine the ways in which recent events concerning, for example, economics, war, particle physics, astrobiology or face transplant surgery are highly mediated.

9. Some titles from After New Media:
Drawing on the history of media, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a division between technology and use.
Compare and contrast cosmetic surgery and face transplant surgery as technologies of the self.
Examine the ways in which recent events concerning, for example, economics, war, particle physics, astrobiology or face transplant surgery are highly mediated.

10. Public Culture and Everyday Life
How have cities been analysed by leading postmodern theorists and in what way is this writing now in need of revision and updating in the light of the economic crisis?
What have been the defining features of urban modernity? OR In what ways did the figure of the prostitute embody the concerns and anxieties about the growth of urban modernity?

11. Public Culture and Everyday Life
How have cities been analysed by leading postmodern theorists and in what way is this writing now in need of revision and updating in the light of the economic crisis?
What have been the defining features of urban modernity? OR In what ways did the figure of the prostitute embody the concerns and anxieties about the growth of urban modernity?

12. Public Culture and Everyday Life
How have cities been analysed by leading postmodern theorists and in what way is this writing now in need of revision and updating in the light of the economic crisis?
What have been the defining features of urban modernity? OR In what ways did the figure of the prostitute embody the concerns and anxieties about the growth of urban modernity?

13. Public Culture and Everyday Life
How have cities been analysed by leading postmodern theorists and in what way is this writing now in need of revision and updating in the light of the economic crisis?
What have been the defining features of urban modernity? OR In what ways did the figure of the prostitute embody the concerns and anxieties about the growth of urban modernity?

14. Urban Culture How do cities produce social inequalities?
What ethical, methodological and intellectual difficulties arise in researching the urban poor?
How is culture used as a tool for dissuasion of conflict and consensus? Is culture also an arena for creativity and resistance?

15. Urban Culture
How do cities produce social inequalities?

16. Urban Culture How do cities produce social inequalities? Topic 1

17. Urban Culture
What ethical, methodological and intellectual difficulties arise in researching the urban poor?

18. Urban Culture
What ethical, methodological and intellectual difficulties arise in researching the urban poor?

19. Urban Culture
How is culture used as a tool for dissuasion of conflict and consensus? Is culture also an arena for creativity and resistance?

20. Urban Culture
How is culture used as a tool for dissuasion of conflict and consensus? Is culture also an arena for creativity and resistance?

21. Some more titles:
How relevant are models or theories of cultural policy in practice? Illustrate your answer with examples.
(MA Arts Administration & Cultural Policy)