1. CCJ10 Introduction to Forensic Psychology
ESSAY WRITING
CCJ10 Introduction to Forensic Psychology

2. Arguments in Essays
One of the things that students struggle with is how to develop an argument in an essay.
If your essay does not contain an argument this will seriously limit the mark you will achieve.

3. Creating Arguments in an Essay
Frequently you will be required to put forward a position, thesis or argument.
Remove your mental image of an argument being a fight, disagreement or slanging match.
Also strip yourself of the black/white or right/wrong nature of argument.

4. Creating Arguments in an Essay cont’d
Academic arguments require you to evaluate all writers in the debate, work out what is valuable for each writer, select the writers who have a more comprehensive, course‐relevant approach and base your position on their work.

5. Creating Arguments in an Essay cont’d
Don’t assume developing an argument requires you to come up with any new or startling position on the topic.
Mostly, writing an argument requires you to recognise various writers’ positions, relate those to the course objectives and the specific writing task; then state what you believe to be the best positions with convincing explanations as to why.

6. Essay writing structure
An important rule of thumb is:
1. “Say what you are going to say in the Essay”
This happens in the INTRODUCTION to the essay and the introductory sentence to each paragraph.
2. “Then actually say it”
This happens in the BODY of the essay and the body of each paragraph. It elaborates by giving examples and evidence.

7. Essay writing structure
3. “Then say what you have said”
This happens in the CONCLUSION of the essay and in the last sentence of every paragraph.
TIP: Good writers will quite blatantly guide the reader. For example: “another aspect of this argument is…..”

8. Some examples
See CCJ survival guide (this is where most of the content on this powerpoint came from)
How to report empirical evidence

9. Example
Reporting your empirical evidence in your essay should be done in three stages:
 1) describing relevant parts of the study
2) reporting relevant findings from the study
3) relating findings to the question (your argument)
So once you have your relevant journal articles – what do you do with them? List 3 stages above
Here is a silly example using a made up article which illustrates the three stages.

10. Example
Example question: “Does offence type predict dessert selection”?
Example article: Teague, R., Mazerolle, P., Legosz, M., & Sanderson, J. (2008). Linking offence type and for ice cream flavour preferences: Examining mediating factors and gendered relationships. Justice Quarterly, 25 (2),
Here is a silly example using a made up article which illustrates the three stages.

11. Example cont’d 1) Describing relevant parts of the study
Teague, Mazerolle, Legosz and Sanderson (2008) conducted a study of 562 Queensland offenders serving intensive correction or probation orders. Offenders participated in a structured interview which focused on their favourite flavour of ice cream.
You would present this information as follows:

12. Example cont’d 2) Reporting relevant findings from your study
The research found that offenders serving sentences for violent offences preferred creamier flavours such as chocolate, and mint choc chip while offenders incarcerated for theft offences tended to demonstrate a preference for strawberry and vanilla. Across all offender groups, the preferred flavours were vanilla (62% of offenders), chocolate (33%), and strawberry (15%).

13. Example cont’d 3) Relating findings to the question (your argument)
Findings from the Teague et al. (2008) study suggest while the link between flavour of ice cream and offending is strong, with violent offenders demonstrating a consistent preference for creamier flavours, the difference between offender groups was not significant. Findings from this study can therefore not support the suggestion that offence type might predict dessert selection indicating that other factors such as weather and personal preference might be more relevant predictors.