Three sample essays

Each of these essays has been chosen because the titles had great potential for exploration and analysis within the rubric of the assignment set.

Sample 1 'Can Religion Have an Effective Role Within the Workplace?'

To access the essay, click here: Sample 1

In this video, Dan discusses the good points he found when marking one of his students' essays:

Here are some extracts to illustrate his points
Dan's points	illustration
Wider reading - beyond the reading list to encompass the question	The bibliography includes the following texts, clearly chosen because of the question posed by the student herself: Gregory, R. Encountering Religion in the Workplace: The Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Workers and Employers (New York, 2010). Hicks, D. A. Religion and the workplace: pluralism, spirituality, leadership (Cambridge, 2003). Read, M. J. Quakers in the contemporary workplace: a critical analysis (Birmingham, 2017).* Stevens, M. ‘RELIGION: The last workplace taboo’, People Management (2013) pp. 30 – 34. Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, ‘Woodbrooke Learning’, https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/learning/ (Accessed 21 April 2017). However, some of the reading was a little more dubious: Why refer to the University of Kent's Careers and Employability Service as a source of information on Commercial Awareness? And do be careful about citing unpublished PhD theses as resources. The bibliography may have provided a link to something more widely recognised as reliable.
Focus on the Woodbrook Centre itself, and in context	As evidenced within the introduction: Business journalist Stevens states that “when religion and the workplace cross paths, the result can be messy”[1] conveying that in the working world, religion and the purpose of work are disharmonious. The work placement I conducted this year was at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, due to its being a religious organisation it raised the question of the role of religion in a heritage working environment. A combination of a bed and breakfast, heritage centre, educational centre and a religious institution; Woodbrooke was diverse and unique place to work. My main project at my placement was working in the library indexing the Centre’s log books solely from the 1930s. These log books were scrapbooks made by previous students of Woodbrooke. As well as my main project, I also created a name list of people from Africa who studied or stayed at Woodbrooke between the 1910s to the 1990s. Additionally, I helped with small tasks around the Centre such as, helping volunteers and organising books in the library. Overall, my work placement contributed to expanding the awareness of visitors to Woodbrooke of its heritage and in some cases, I helped current people find their relatives that appeared in my index. In this enquiry, I will reflect upon my placement through three challenges I faced whilst on it; these were adapting to my environment, enduring on my main project and simultaneously juggling my other projects. Additionally, I will be examining and arguing my view that religion can have an effective role in the workplace.
Detailed and thorough reflective diary	Sample extract from entry 11/10/17 Encountered problem with a log book being page numbered already in pen and also mis-numbered in places. After consulting with my supervisor we decided that I would go through the numbers and edit where necessary or put in numbers such as '13A' to bring more sense to the volume. Another problem we encountered was that one log book claimed to be a reunion log book but was in fact half the 1930 Reunion in Switzerland and half the Autumn Term 1930. Additionally, there was no record of who was at the 1930 Reunion so was unable to index it. However aim of the project is to bring as much organisation to the log books as possibleso just had to accept that. With the half and half volume just made a note of it for future reference and indexed the 1930 Autumn as usual. There is evidence here, and elsewhere in the log, that the student learned a lot about the difficulties encountered when working with primary sources.

And here, Dan mentions some areas where the student could have developed their argument more clearly:

Points for Reflection

Where could this student have kept a tighter focus on the question?
Where could she have made better use of her reflective diary?
And where could she have made better use of reading within the essay?

Moving on

Sample 2 + Dan's comments