Please help me with my essay

[mograph]

How picky is your sifu on citing sources? In other words, does he care whether your claims are your opinion, or your experience, or something you read in a classic text or something one of us told you online?

No disrespect is meant to those contributing good information to the discussion; I'm just asking about how sifu feels about sources ... also, whether sifu wants you to learn while writing or wants you to express what you learned (and reflected upon) in class. If the former, then credibility of sources (as recognized by the reader) would be important in a formal essay. It's like lineage.

(I just finished an argumentative essay for a third-year university Cognitive Psychology course. Citations were a big deal, naturally.)

 

[Reeksta]

That's a good question Mograph and one I will have to ask. To be honest I'm not expecting it to be like when I did my nursing degree because wing chun simply doesn't seem to lend itself to that model. Looking at the ol' hierarchy of evidence, to my knowledge only the bottom tier exists with regard to most non-competitive martial arts. I might be wrong of course and will welcome being enlightened if this is the case. Plus Brummie (who studies under the same organisation as myself) informs me that the essay is just to confirm that the student has a basic grasp of the principle, which implies that extensive citation won't be required.

 

[mograph]

That's a great pyramid for the sciences, but maybe an MLA-ish (liberal arts) standard would be more appropriate?

 

[Reeksta]

Very possibly but being honest I don't know the first thing about what that would be. Beyond my ken I'm afraid

 

[Transk53]

That's a good question Mograph and one I will have to ask. To be honest I'm not expecting it to be like when I did my nursing degree because wing chun simply doesn't seem to lend itself to that model. Looking at the ol' hierarchy of evidence, to my knowledge only the bottom tier exists with regard to most non-competitive martial arts. I might be wrong of course and will welcome being enlightened if this is the case. Plus Brummie (who studies under the same organisation as myself) informs me that the essay is just to confirm that the student has a basic grasp of the principle, which implies that extensive citation won't be required.View attachment 19093

Looks rather corporate to me. The buzz word for example. I immediately think such and such Cohort of the such and such Legion. What is the meaning in this case?

 

[Reeksta]

Looks rather corporate to me. The buzz word for example. I immediately think such and such Cohort of the such and such Legion. What is the meaning in this case?

The pyramid? It's a visual representation of the hierarchy of evidence. Basically it lists different kinds of biomedical research in order of how reliable they are. It's primary purpose is to help healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses to support the treatments they administer with a proper evidence base so they can make the right choices for their patients. The word cohort in this instance just means a group of people being studied. With competitive martial arts like boxing, judo or MMA it's possible to apply similar principles because the data is there: which techniques have the highest success rate, which are seen most often in different weight classes, what percentage of bouts end via KO or ippon, things like that. The problem with wing chun or other arts solely practiced for self defence is that this isn't the case. It's all just anecdotes and opinion which may well be completely true but are impossible to verify scientifically. Personally I believe that the principles behind wing chun make sense and that the art is effective but I can't prove it, which makes writing an essay (the kind I would recognise anyway) with proper citation a bit difficult

 

[Transk53]

The pyramid? It's a visual representation of the hierarchy of evidence. Basically it lists different kinds of biomedical research in order of how reliable they are. It's primary purpose is to help healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses to support the treatments they administer with a proper evidence base so they can make the right choices for their patients. The word cohort in this instance just means a group of people being studied. With competitive martial arts like boxing, judo or MMA it's possible to apply similar principles because the data is there: which techniques have the highest success rate, which are seen most often in different weight classes, what percentage of bouts end via KO or ippon, things like that. The problem with wing chun or other arts solely practiced for self defence is that this isn't the case. It's all just anecdotes and opinion which may well be completely true but are impossible to verify scientifically. Personally I believe that the principles behind wing chun make sense and that the art is effective but I can't prove it, which makes writing an essay (the kind I would recognise anyway) with proper citation a bit difficult

Wow that would be difficult I can imagine. Structure wise, the pyramid is understandable now. Thanks for enlightening me on that. Pretty cool actually.

 

[Vajramusti]

Hi guys. As part of my first wing chun assessment I will have to write an essay on chung seen. Thus far I know that this is the vertical centrline running through the body, that many of the most vulnerable targets on the body are on it . . . and that's about it.
Any input in terms of what would be good areas to research, or insight into the importance of chung seen from a wing chun perspective would be greatly appreciated. I won't be taking the assessment for a couple of months yet so I have a lot of time to read up but don't really know where to start.
Thanks
Reeksta

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How is the essay coming. The centerline is connected to horizontal planes as well- creating 6 "dates" and related dynamics. Writing about wing chun isn't easy. Good luck with your essay. Try keeping it brief but clear- not easy

 

[mograph]

Very possibly but being honest I don't know the first thing about what [MLA format] would be. Beyond my ken I'm afraid

Yeah, it's a bit lit-geeky. My suggestion was more about quoting and citing published works from respected press houses in the field. In taijiquan, I suppose you'd quote Yang Jwing-Ming, or the Classics translated by Wile, maybe. In your case, I'd read respected books on Wing Chun and quote from there.

But it might not be necessary -- it depends on what matters to Sifu. He might just want you to write what you think, not what authorities have written about the topic.

Side note: as for the actual specs of MLA citations, check out the OWL. But that would only be necessary if Sifu were an English Lit major who requested MLA format.

 

[Reeksta]

Yeah, it's a bit lit-geeky. My suggestion was more about quoting and citing published works from respected press houses in the field. In taijiquan, I suppose you'd quote Yang Jwing-Ming, or the Classics translated by Wile, maybe. In your case, I'd read respected books on Wing Chun and quote from there.

That's probably a more pragmatic approach to writing about these sort of arts, thanks for the advice