1. Essay Writing Workshop
Raising the game

2. To start What do you want to get out of this session?
How do you think it will help you in Psychology?
How might it help you elsewhere?

3. This Session
We will be taking a look at how you can raise your game in Year 2 Psychology.
There are common issues that are raised with essay writing, that are not to do with content, but issues with structure and writing style.
We will be looking at areas such as
Unpredictable questions
Discussing
Effective evaluation (Top band)
Specialist Terminology

4. 1. Unpredictable questions
Questions written by the exam board are not allowed to be predictable as part of the government directive to make A Levels more rigorous.
As a result, questions like “Outline and evaluate multi-store model of memory” are unlikely to come up.
This is designed to up the game of your answers in order to avoid pre-learnt essays.
Be ready for them and identify the key words to help decipher the intention behind the question – then stay on topic!
Take a look at the list of possible questions to get used to the way they are worded. Learn to spot key words that make it clear what it is about.

5. 2. Assessment Objectives and Essay Deconstruction Activities
Julie has been diagnosed with depression. She understands this disorder and what treatments are available as both her mother and identical twin sister both suffer from depression. However, some of her friends tell her that she is very negative and always sees the negative side of events. They say that she needs to stop seeing herself as useless and that she has no future. Discuss two explanations of depression. As part of your discussion refer to Julie in your answer.
Read both essays and break them down into bullet pointed plans which include the AO’s and a brief description of what each contains in order to deconstruct the essay and create a simple plan.
Take it further by having a go at marking the essays (both out of 16)

6. 3. Specialist Terminology
Discuss neural explanations of offending behaviour
Fill the gaps with specialist terms!
See how you do on your own before asking for a word bank.

7. 4. Effective Evaluation
In Year 2 you are expected to develop your evaluation in order for it to be effective.
This makes the difference between band 3 (B/C grade) and band 4 (A grade)
Use the “Stressful Evaluation” handout to practise this.

8. 5. Discussing in Essays
Playing Devil’s Advocate involves to put forward arguments against or objections to a proposition-which one may actually agree with- purely to test the validity of the proposition.
This is key to good discussion in essays.

9. To end – a bit of metacognition
What have you got out of this session?
How do you think it will help you in Psychology?
How might these skills help you elsewhere?