The student effectively uses their reading in their writing. They summarize the key points from three sources (Ethical Consumer Research Association and Triodos Bank 2017; Smith and Jones, 2014; Rogers, 2013; Appleton, 2011) to support their overall argument that business ethics has value as an aspect of business activity and education. The student selects relevant evidence from each source to develop their argument, such as statistical data on the UK ethical sales market and definitions of business ethics. They synthesize ideas from multiple sources to refine their definition of the topic.

1. Using reading in your writing
Review these extracts from student essays. Work together to identify where they have used
reading in their writing.
How have they used the reading?
Which student has done this most effectively? Why? How?
Question
Outline good practice for researching for university assignments.
Rob’s Essay
There are views about how to write a good essay. Hennessy (1968) believes that all
first-year university essays should only be written from lecture notes as student
know so little of their subject. According to Murdoch (2015) academic essays
should be well researched. This research should be done from books listed in the
module handbookand using the resources in the library. According to Gornall
(2013) assignments are written using information collected from the library and
online sources. Cottrell (2012) argues that students should use library resources
and some academic websites.
Bill’s Essay
The issue of how students should approach researchfor assignments has
attracted a great deal of debate. Many researchers have offered opinions on
this issue. According to Murdoch (2015) and Gornall (2013) students should
research for assignments using resources in the libraryand from online
sources. Though both stress that website-based researchshould be done
carefully. This is further supported in the work of Cottrell (2012). Murdoch
(2015) also adds that book lists in Module Handbooks should also be used.
These contemporary opinions are in contrast to Hennessy writing in 1968
who argued at least in first year students should only refer to lecture notes for
research.
StellaCotrellcrit Thinkdate??

3. Start Hall – Concepts in Linguistics (2016)

4. You will be using the extracts below to write your own paragraph that addresses the following
question:
Should universities allow the use of Wikipedia as a research tool?
The following approach will guide you through the process.
1. Consider your own opinion of the question before reading.
2. Look though the extracts and consider the evidence given. Has this influenced your
opinion at all?
3. Decide on the opinion or argument you want to put forward.
4. Select any evidence that you would like to include from each source.
5. Fill out the reading grid to help develop your argument and writing.
6. Plan how you intend to structure your argument.

7. Reviewthisextractbasedonthe strategiesandtechniqueswe have lookedattoday.Where andhowhas
the studentusedtheirreading?
Over the past two decades, the issue of the ethical stance of businesses appears to have become
more explicitly an area of public debate and consumer awareness. Two illustrations of this are the
number of publications that give consumers information about the most ethical companies (for
example the Ethispere and Good Shopping Guide sites), and the fact that many large organisations
now have an ‘our ethics’ tab somewhere on their website. The UK ethical sales market is currently
valued at over £38 billion, and has been expanding year on year over the past decade, with current
growth at about 8.5% (Ethical Consumer Research Association and Triodos Bank 2017). This essay
will briefly define business ethics and then consider whether it does and should have value as an
aspect of both business activity and business theory and training.
Defining what constitutes a business is contentious in itself, but for the purposes of this short essay it
will be defined as any profit-making enterprise, including charities ,who make profits to invest back
into the enterprise (Smith and Jones, 2014; Rogers, 2013 ; Appleton, 2011). Similarly, there are

8. numerous, overlapping definitions of business ethics. Shaw and Barry define it as ‘what constitutes
right and wrong (or good and bad) human conduct in a business context’ (p. 25). This is a broad
definition that needs some refining in two areas. One distinction to make is that ethics is not the
same thing as general morality. Crane and Matten (2016) explain that although morals are a basic
premise of ethics, ethics and ethical theory go a step further because they focus on how morals can
be applied to produce explicit standards and rules for particular contexts, of which business is one.
Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell’s definition of business ethics as the ‘principles and standards that
guide behaviour in the world of business’ (Ferrell et al. 2002, p.6) is pertinent here, as it emphasises
the application of morals to produce codes and guidelines. Codified ethical behaviour usually falls
under what is called ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), which in turn is usually seen as part of
corporate governance, although there is overlap between the two areas of activity.
The second aspect of defining business ethics which needs unpacking is that, as Crane and Matten
point out, ethics is not synonymous with legality. They state that there is some overlap between law
and ethics, but that legislation usually only regulates the lowest level of acceptable behaviour. In
addition, as Trevino and Nelson (2010) state, the law is limited in what it can do to prevent
unacceptable actions, because legislation follows rather than precedes trends in behaviour.
Business ethics, then, according to Crane and Matten, is mainly concerned with areas of conduct
that are not specifically covered by law, and that are therefore open to different interpretations, a fact
that means a particular behaviour may be legal albeit viewed by many as unethical.