Writing an A grade essay (How to write essays?)

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	How to write essays?
Date:	18/01/02 (1455 review reads)
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Advantages: Producing a highly graded essay is very satisfying and it can help you pass your course

Disadvantages: Time consuming and I'd rather be writing for dooyoo

Writing essays is one of those things virtually all students will have to face at one time or another - after GCSEs, A levels and three years at university I have certainly done a lot of them, and indeed still am in my current MA course! The points I am going to cover are really aimed at those writing university essays, but hopefully sixth formers will find this useful too. Of course anyone who is a dooyoo regular will have the advantage of being used to writing good prose with attention to detail and good spelling & grammar! :-)


- What are you being asked?
OK, this may seem a bit obvious, but it's something that can easily start you off on the wrong footing, as it can be tempting to answer the question you want to answer rather than the one you are being asked. The instruction terms in the title will guide you in the approach that you should take towards the proposition of the question, and think carefully about these terms in relation to the rest of the question. Common ones are:
Account for - explain the reasons for
Analyse - study in depth, identifying the main characteristics
Assess - examine closely, giving a balanced view of strengths and weaknesses
Compare - look for similarities and differences between
Contrast - deliberately emphasise the differences between
Describe - give a detailed and comprehensive account of
Discuss - consider both sides of
Evaluate - make an appraisal of
Illustrate - make clear, using concrete examples
Outline - give the main features of
Review - make a survey of


-Do your research
Once you are clear about exactly what is being asked of you, you can begin doing your research. If you have a course reading list, then this is a good place to start, but remember that these are the books that everyone else is going to be looking for as well! This should only be a starting point though, as you are usually credited for wider reading and finding materia
l yourself (especially for university students). Look for as many sources as possible to get different views of the issues you are looking at; this will help to give your work a more balanced argument as well as being more detailed and comprehensive. Having an impressive bibliography never hurts your grade either!

So how do you find additional material? Well, you can start by searching your library's database for books that may be relevant to your essay - if they are out then you can always recall them if you feel you have sufficient time to get the book before your deadline. A lot of academic libraries also have short loan collections of very popular books (and sometimes articles too) that only go out for 4 hours or overnight, so this can be another good source. Look at the bibliographies for any books you have got, as this will give you titles of relevant sources you may be able to get hold of.

Next, move onto articles - these are shorter to read than books and contain the most up to date information, so are good additions to your research. Your library should be able to give you details of databases that you can search for relevant articles by keyword or author. Also skim through the contents pages of newly published journals in your subject area for articles that won't have been added to databases yet, and try searching the web for publications (but only from reputable sites such as New Scientist - remember anyone can publish anything on the web!).

Remember also that you can quote lectures or material your tutor has told you in person by using (pers comm.) after the quote.


-Planning the essay
There is no one single strategy for successful essay planning. This is basically how I do it, but you may find that you need to adapt it to suit your style of planning and writing your essay; whatever happens though, your final work needs to make a convincing and coherent argument.

The important thing t
o realise is that essays are linear in form - they progress step-by-step, paragraph-by-paragraph from introduction to conclusion. Once I have read the material that I have researched, I begin by noting down a series of main points that I will need to cover in order to answer the question asked. How detailed you make these notes is really up to you. I prefer just a broad outline that I add depth to as I write, but others may prefer planning everything they want to say in detail first so that nothing is left out. You do need to consider the thread of your argument and what you are going to say and where, so that the essay flows easily from one point to the next without any awkward connections being made.

The overall structure of the essay will largely depend on the type of question asked. Generally speaking though, popular approaches are:
- Making a claim at the beginning and then using the main body of text to back this up
- Stating a working hypothesis and then looking at both sides of the picture to investigate whether or not this is true
- Breaking a debate down into a series of points and addressing each in turn
- Raising a question and exploring possible answers
- Investigating strengths and weaknesses of a given statement

Chose carefully the approach that you are going to take to your essay - often one of the best sources of marks is the way your work is structured. (N.B. Please remember that reports are diferent to essays and so this advice on structure does not apply to them!)


-Writing the essay
Introductions normally include a restatement of the issue in your own words to demonstrate understanding; defining or clarifying terms; placing the issue its historical or theoretical context or explaining how you are going to tackle the question.

The main body's structure will depend on the type of question and how you have chosen to tackle it. But remember to do what you said in your introd
uction, and use plenty of evidence and examples to back up what you have said (supported statements are more convincing and you usually get credit for using examples). As with writing dooyoo ops, make sure the prose reads well, makes sense, is spelt correctly and has correct grammar (it's a good idea to get someone else to proof read your work if possible). Tidy up any parts that don't work or are hard to understand, and be thorough! As this is an academic essay, it is important to include what other thinkers have written about the topic in hand (fully referenced of course!) as well as including your own ideas.

References are given first at the point a quote or piece of information is used in the text, and again in the bibliography. Approaches to this vary, but you would normally quote the author's surname, year of publication and page number in the prose (Roberts 2002: 3), and the full name, year of publication, title, place of publication and publisher in the bibliography (Roberts, S [2002] "How to write essays", Newcastle: Dooyoo Publishers). If you are unsure on how to proceed with this, check with your tutor for guidance - it is important to get referencing correct or you could find yourself accused of plagiarism.

The conclusion wraps the essay up in a simple paragraph. You should finally answer the question set out and consolidate what you have written before this point. Never introduce new ideas at this stage.


-General points
Some general tips that I have picked up in writing essays:

-Never write in first person (unless specifically asked to do so)
-Always keep within the stated word limit
-Keep to your deadline!!!
-Keep your work neat and well presented
-A picture is worth 1000 words, but only if it is relevant
-Answer only the question asked
-Stick to your point
-One idea per paragraph
-Include everything you have been asked to include
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Spend time getting it right
-Ask for feedback on your essays so you can make improvements
-Only print on one side of A4
-Remember to state the question clearly at the start of the essay so the person marking it knows what you are doing
-Always include a full bibliography
-It never hurts to include references to works written by whoever is going to mark it!
-Always save a back up copy of your work onto disk


-And finally...
Essay writing needn't be scary or daunting - with a bit of practice it can almost become enjoyable to construct arguments and find criticisms about the writings of proper academics! As any member of dooyoo knows, good writing comes with time if you are prepared to be patient and give it the time it deserves, and should you have a choice of topics, then go for one you are interested in. One of the best ways to improve is to get the feedback of other people (as long as they are prepared to be honest with you), as they very often see weaknesses you do not - never be afraid to ask for tutor for this if you are struggling.

Good luck!

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