TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND ...


Writing a Masters assignment is like weaving cloth with a good pattern. 
Think of a master weaver at work:
 1  He designs a good pattern,
 2  selects threads of just the right colour and material,
 3  which he has obtained from someone else, with either money or thanks,
    and for which he is willing to give credit,
 4  He understands well how the different kinds of thread behave in cloth
    and in the weaving process,
 5  and then he weaves them with skill so that the resulting cloth is as
    good as possible
 6  but he is able to tell (with his expert eye) what is very good and
    what is flawed (like twists, knots and foreign bodies in the threads,
    and where he has woven the thread less well than he might wish) and
    why they are good or flawed and what should be done to prevent or
    overcome the flaws.
This is what one would expect of a master weaver of good cloth.

Writing an assignment of masters quality is like weaving good, well-
patterned cloth.  The assignment must demonstrate:
 1  that the majority is a product of your own thinking, not that of
    somebody else's
 2  that where you use pieces of other people's thinking you do so
    intelligently and appropriately, selecting what is relevant and
    leaving out what is not relevant
 3  that where you use somebody else's thinking you reference them
    explicitly, to give due credit to them
 4  that you have fully understood the you are writing about
 5  that you have been able to manipulate and use what you have understood
 6  that you can view what you have written about critically, knowing what
    is really good and what is poor, rather than just accepting things as
    they are.

If you want, you can find direct similarities between the two cases:
 1  It is all your own design overall.  You need to show what *you*
    learned and in what ways *you* found it valuable and will use it.
 2  The threads you use are the material you learned on the module and
    what you have read in books and papers, and you have selected them
    well.  For example, in the case of 'What I Learned', the threads would
    be pieces from CCM, KBS, aspects, ISD, aspectual analysis in group,
    and anything else you read e.g. about programming.
 3  Stealing threads is like passing off text or ideas from others as
    though they were your own.  You must give due credit.  For example,
    each piece you refer to, you say where it came from.
 4  The threads you use, which are pieces of other people's thinking and
    what you learned on the module; you understand how well they will work
    in the assignment you are 'weaving'.  So, for example, instead of
    writing down all the detail of the seven stages of CCM, you just name
    the stages and, in your own words, give one sentence about why each
    stage is important.
 5  The way you use pieces of other people's thinking to make your
    argument and support your thought is expert and appropriate.  This is
    the reason I asked students to tell 'How I intend to apply what I
    learned'.
 6  The section 'What I found valuable' gives scope for discussing this
    kind of thing.  Things or real interest or value are like the really
    good bits of weaving.  Things like twists, knots or foreign bodies in
    threads are like logical inconsistencies or inappropriateness in
    pieces from others are, and things like flaws in weaving are things
    like places where you do not fully understand the coursework is; it is
    'ok' to say "I did not understand xxx because of ...".

All of these get marks in a Masters assignment.  You get marks for:
 1  Overall structure of your thought and the logical flow and feel of
    your argument
 2  Intelligent selection of material to support that thought and argument
 3  Good referencing and givig due to people
 4  Showing you understand the material that you are writing about; this
    is shown when you put it in your own words, when you apply it
    correctly to examples from your own experience that were not made on
    the course, or express links between issues that were not made in the
    course,
 5  Intelligent discussion of how the ideas you learned can be applied,
    and especially how you intend to apply them, and referring them to
    what you wrote about your background.
 6  Making appropriate critical comments on the pieces from the course or
    other work.  Or explaining *why* you found things valuable or
    interesting, by expressing excitement.