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Link – Summarise the main idea of the paragraph, and make clear how this paragraph supports your overall argument.how does it ‘prove’ your topic sentence?). Explain how your evidence supports your claim (i.e. Comment – Consider the strengths and limitations of the evidence and examples that you have presented.
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Remember that all evidence will require appropriate citation. This may include: case studies, statistics, documentary evidence, academic books or journal articles.
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Evidence – Provide evidence to support your idea or claim.Explanation – Explain what you mean in greater detail.Topic sentence – the first sentence in a body paragraph that tells the reader what the main idea or claim of the paragraph will be.A paragraph structured this way would contain the following: You may find it helpful to add C for Comment before Link. TEECL stands for Topic sentence, Explanation, Evidence, Comment, and Link. The TEECL structure provides an effective way of organising a paragraph. Together, the body paragraphs form the building blocks of your argument. Each body paragraph should contain one key idea or claim, which is supported by relevant examples and evidence from the body of scholarly work on your topic (i.e. The body of the essay is where you fully develop your argument. Legend: Background / Context Position / Contention Structure or main point of essay A potential leader should develop their natural traits as well as learn and practise skills which will help them to persuade, equip and inspire others to realise their vision. While good business leaders share certain traits that are essential to success, including ‘curiosity, courage, perseverance, personal ethics and confidence’ (Kambil, 2010, p.43), they also need learnable skills, such as communication, negotiation and conflict resolution, that are only developed through practice. This essay will draw on the trait theory of leadership to argue that that leaders are first born, but then must be made. Kambil (2010) has outlined two categories of leadership attributes that help to frame the discussion: 'traits' (mostly innate) and 'skills' which can be developed through experience or training. Whether this ability is something a person is born with, or whether it is something that a person can learn, has been the subject of considerable debate. Business leadership has been described as the ‘ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organisations of which they are members’ (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman & Gupta, 2004, p. This means that you introduce the particular problem or topic the essay will address in a general sense to provide the context before you narrow down to your particular position and line of argument.Ĭlick on each of the elements to reveal more. When writing an introduction, you should typically use a general to specific structure.
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Instead, the contention and supporting arguments are usually stated in the introduction. Whatever term is used, this is essentially your response to the essay question, which is based on the research that you have undertaken or the readings you have analysed.Īn essay is not like a mystery novel which keeps the reader in suspense it should not slowly reveal the argument to the reader. Depending on your faculty or school, ‘your answer’ may be referred to as your position, contention, thesis or main argument. It should provide some background information on the specific problem or issue you are addressing, and should clearly outline your answer. The purpose of the introduction is to give your reader a clear idea of what your essay will cover.
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