Les Hereward April 2010

The issue of referencing is very prominent at the moment and I think it might be worth considering

three details to do with this.

First we need to be clear why we put things in an appendix. Usually they are placed there because

the material is not otherwise available…things like observations or in the case of the ECA your PDP.

Secondly it is not a mechanism to extend you TMA or ECA word count. You refer to things in your

appendices and quote from them just as if it were a book. They are there so that any of your

readers can check the context of what you are writing about. Now this is important it means that

anything you put in the body of your ECA will need to stand up on its own. For example it is not

good enough to say ‘as can be seen form Observation 3, M was very anxious’ you need to ‘quote’

form the observation the actual evidence of behaviour. For example… ‘M moved around the

activity, at time reaching out to play with the dolls, then withdrawing her hands and retreating

behind me again’ (See observation 3) This seemed to be an anxiety behaviour on her part and as it

says in Study Topic xx….and so on. The point here is that the evidence from the observation more or

less stands up on its own and only if it seemed doubtful or ambiguous would the reader go and

check.

Thirdly you do not need to include pervious TMA or their observations; if needed tutors can access

them because there are still copies on the ETMA system. However by and large this is not likely to

happen. This is why it will not work if you just make statements like …as can be seen in TMA

2…these will by and large be ignored and being realistic no marker is going to go and read all your

TMA. You will need to explain the particular aspect you are describing, perhaps using a short quote.

SO to sum up:

Make sure you read the guidance from the course chair about referencing your TMA and about

appendices.

Work hard to make sure all the vital information is in the body of your TMA you will simply have to

spend words doing this.

Avoid phrases such ‘as can be seen in Appendix 1 or making some opinion and then adding ‘for

details see Appendix 46’ These are not likely to add anything to your ECA

Only include in your appendices that which is essential.

I shall be posting this on the tutor forum and if lots of tutors disagree or have something to add I will

let you know.

Do keep in touch

Les 01372800822