“The use of power is an indication of the failure of authority.” Discuss.

1000 words
1. An essay does not need: contents page, headings, sub-headings, or appendices;
2. I expect between 10 and 20 references to be cited;
3. There is no limit on the percentage of words you can quote from articles, but remember using other authors’ words do not score as highly as your own words based on a critical discussion of various authors’ work;
4. A good essay is one which is predominantly your own words, with reference to the theory/literature. You should not need to describe the theories you include, this should be obvius from your narrative. For example, if you were writing about motivation, you might write along the following lines:
“There are two broad categories of motivation; ‘content’ theories focus on what motivates employees (Herzgerg, 1959; Maslow, 1943; Alderfer, 1972). In contrast ‘process’ theories focus on ‘how’ employees are motivated; these include expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964; Porter and Lawler, 1968) and equity theory (Adams, 1963).”
There are six references in this passage (45 words) and you could then go on to discuss the significance of the two approaches and conclude which is the most convincing.
In order to write critically you need to compare/contrast competing views/theories and compare theory with practice. You then drawn concludsions based on your discussion (the evidence). For example:
“Although Herzberg (1959) argues that money is not a motivator, it just achieves movement, many organisations use pay as a means of motivation people to join the organisation and to work hard. For example, during the recent financial crisis, banks argued that bonuses were necessary to attract the calibre of executives necessary to run these organisations effectively. This is in line with expectancy theory (Porter and Lawler, 1968) which argues that different individuals respond to different motivational outcomes; some intrinsic, others extrinsic”.
In this paragraph there are 82 words which compare/contrast theory and examples.