Crime, Harm and Justice

Crime, Harm and Justice Order Description   Essay Title: In 1500 words, by drawing on two criminological theories, discuss critically the contention that certain people are predisposed to commit crimes. In this assignment we are assessing you in relation to your academic writing skills. This means we will be looking at: • The quality of your written English expression, your attention to spelling and grammar, paragraph construction, appropriateness of language used. • Your ability to structure your written work into a coherent argument that has an introduction, a main argument/main body, and a conclusion. • Your ability to accurately use and cite, in accordance with Harvard Referencing, the academic work of others • Your overall ability to answer the essay question posed to a standard that meets the pass mark or higher at Masters level (50 %). Writing a good social science essay: Essays should be argumentative. A good argument states a position and supports it with evidence in a clear and logical fashion. It will be intellectually and academically informed and so you must consult academic literature and reference appropriately using Harvard Referencing. Ensure that the evidence you use supports the argument that you are trying to make. Make sure it is clear to the reader how your evidence relates to the argument you wish to make. Essays will be logically organised with an introduction, main body and a conclusion. Your introduction will provide a general introduction to the context of the essay question/essay statement. The introduction will hint at the arguments (e.g. arguments X,Y, and Z) that you will be making in the main body of the essay. You main body will lay out your arguments/evidence and should be in the order that you hinted at in your introduction. So, for example, in your introduction you identified that ‘X’ came first. Therefore, the first part of your main body will contain material relevant to the argument of ‘X’. Make sure it is clear to the reader how the argument is relevant to the essay statement/question – this will help you stay focussed on the essay question/statement at hand. It may be that there are a series of sub points to be made relevant to ‘X’ (sub points 1,2, and 3, for example). Here you introduce ‘X’ indicate the sub points of 1,2, and 3 and then expand on sub point 1,2, and 3.You would then repeat the process for the arguments of ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ and any sub points that pertain to them. Following this format as best you can will help the essay to be structured in a coherent and logical fashion. Your conclusion will tie together what you have said in the main body of the essay. It will be a summary of what you have said without sounding repetitive. It will provide a re-statement of the argument based on the evidence that you have discussed in the main body. Your conclusion will not contain any new material.