Essay writing approaches

Analyzing the type of question

agree or disagree type that asks you for your opinion

Understanding the question

the question demands that you talk about both continuous assessment and exams

Planning the essayOrganizing paragraphs

intro: both exams and continuous assessment have points in their favour

para 1: reasons why exams work (objective) (motivation to study) (preparation for life)

para 2: reasons why continuous assessment works (good for young kids) (good for skills based subjects) (rewards hard work)

conclusion: both can work – perhaps they should be used together

Structuring paragraphs Introduction

keep it shortwrite no more than two or three

sentences connect your introduction and title use synonyms to paraphrase the rubricoutline your position

The language to use

start with clarifying that there are several arguments that you will be putting forward

There are several arguments why… There are a number of different reasons

why… There are at least three points that can be

made in favour of …..

Structuring content paragraphs

para 1: explain: Are you arguing in favour or against?

para 2: add to or contradict the points made in the previous paragraph

para 1: say that you are going to make a number of different arguments

para 2: say that there are counterarguments

The language to use

do not just go ”firstly”, “secondly”, “thirdly”, use varied language

The most important argument is… Another point that can be made is… A second reason why… There is also the idea that… The next argument is…

The language to use

use various techniques paragraphs have almost the same structure the only difference is the language and

writing technique the author doesn’t do the counting thing,

instead he says: There are still occasions

which is the same idea really