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Plan and research
Essay planning involves several steps. Start by researching your topic, then develop a mind map that helps you formulate a linear essay plan.
Start early and plan how you will manage your time. You will need to move back and forth between steps as you refine your essay plan.
- Re-read your course notes then do some initial reading on the topic from the suggested reading list.
- Use LibrarySearch and subject guides to find additional, relevant material.
- Take notes.
- Keep a record of all relevant sources to avoid plagiarism.
Organise your research by creating a mind map.
Activity
Click on the buttons to see the different stages of mindmapping.
Stage 1: Brainstorm ideas
- Use and effectiveness of team models
Stage 2: Categorise your ideas
Ideas:- Purpose of team
- Effectiveness
- Models
- Relevance and adaptability
- projects daily operations
- staff moral
- professional development
- team leaders
- member skills
- management
- team members
- different departments
- communication
- resources
- authoritarian
- participatory
- function
- types of teams
- life span
- goals
- understandings
- permanent
- temporary
- group dynamics
- fixing ineffective teams
- who measures goal success?
- individual gains
- why companies use teams
- team reporting
- dealing with unproductive teams
- team disputes
- forming a team
- dismantling a team
- no team structure
Stage 3: Create a mindmap, grouping ideas and keywords
Use and effectiveness (mindmap central heading):- Effectiveness (subheading)
- professional development
- staff moral
- communication
- fixing ineffective teams
- resources
- group dynamics
- who measures goal success?
- understandings
- Purpose of team (subheading)
- function
- goals
- projects daily operations
- individual gains
- Models (subheading)
- management
- team leaders
- member skills
- permanent
- temporary
- types of teams
- participatory
- authoritarian
- Relevance and adaptability (subheading)
- different departments
- life span
- why companies use teams
- team members
Turn your mindmap into a detailed linear plan that includes references. Several options for the structure may be available at this stage. Your choice might need modification or review later on. Look at the following examples.
Example 1
- Intro
- Definitions and background
- Types of organisations
- daily operations and goals
- Types of organisations
- Organisational strategic planning
- Purpose of teams (habitual/traditional or purpose formed)
- specific team purpose and how they operate (in business context)
- theories; Idealistic model (normative)
- Berlin, Carlstrom & Sandberg 2012
- problem solving teams (describe structure and purpose in Co. A)
- cross functional teams (describe structure and purpose in Co. B)
- Team effectiveness (cohesiveness)
- Mathieu et al 2014
- Threats to effectiveness
- Conclusion
Example 2
- Introduction
- definitions and background
- Co. A and Co. B operations and goals
- Co. A and Co. B basic description of team models
- Effective teams
- How do we measure the effectiveness of a team? (...according to theorists)
- What makes a team effective (according to theorists - adaptability? incusivity? positive dynamics? collaboration?...and so on)
- Comparison of team models in Co. A and Co. B
- How do the two different models in each organisation compare? (this is the major section. There should be lots of paragraphs starting with topic sentences such as:)
- The team model in Co. A is more effective than that in Co. B because...
- According to...the team model of Co. B has the advantage of...
- How do the two different models in each organisation compare? (this is the major section. There should be lots of paragraphs starting with topic sentences such as:)
- Conclusion