James King

Guide To Writing an Essay

• Most common assignment at College or University

• Can vary in length from 500 to 5000 words

• Explorative piece, developing arguments, opinions and exploring topics

• Discursive in nature, (flowing, fluent and expansive)

• May or may not include subheadings, depends upon the writers style

• Always check the criteria with the assignment leader

What is an Essay

There are clearly defined differences between the two formats, these are as follows -

Why an Essay and not a Report

• Often a problem starts with a hypothesis

• Includes lots of field work

• Investigative in nature

• Includes recommendations to solve problem

• Formal style and layout

• Objective tone

• Successful outcome based upon presentation and analysis of research

• Usually based around a question or a proposition

• Established a proposition and explores arguments and responses

• Not normally separated into sections

• May be subjective in nature

• Successful outcome based upon the interest of the argument and how the essay demonstrates/relates to the overall topic

• Report • Essay

• Interpret the question• Organise your time• Read• Think• Plan

10 Tips to Writing a Successful Essay

•Writing• Referencing• Draft• Refine• Review

• Interpretation of the question is a key aspect and will shape the entire argument/essay

• Identity the topic and the key themes of the particular topic• Retail brand awareness, Government tax levies, globalisation – these are all overall topics

that have been identified.

• What are the next steps, they key actions?• Check the language of the question, is it asking you to “explain” “demonstrate” or

“evaluate”

• Plan your thoughts and arguments, outline briefly what you want to convey

Participation in Decisions

• Plan your research, your witting and conclusion

• Depends upon your writing ability

• Remember that you will need more time to research than you think, especially if you are inexperienced – thorough research equates to a good essay

Organise Time

• Good Sources• Google Books• Books• Journals• Broadsheet papers• Research papers• Journalist blogs

Read

• Sources to Avoid• Wikipedia• Low quality newspapers

Use as many resources as possible

• Think about what conclusions that you can draw from the research

• Do they answer the question?

• Top line what you would like the essay to say and stick to that line of thought throughout

• This will help you maintain momentum and keep your thoughts focused

Think

• Structured, well thought through essays perform better

• Noes should be taken within a logical order

• No strict rules, but make sure that arguments flow and make sense

• The essay should follow an introduction, main body and conclusion

• Introduction should highlight what the essay is about

• Main body should highlight main points, theories and arguments

• Conclusion should bring together the main points and conclude the essay, remember to demonstrate how the essay answers the original question

Plan

• Some people prefer to write the conclusion and then work out the details in the body and finish with the introduction

• Some prefer to construct the essay around the introduction

• It does not matter how you write it, as long as your opinions topics and arguments are well researched and referenced within the text

Writing

• Acknowledging an authors writing is important, not only does it demonstrate that you have researched the topic, but it also demonstrates that you have the ability not to plagiarise other authors work.

• Paraphrasing and quoting an authors works, needs to be recognised and referenced properly

Referencing

• Test your structure, hypothesis and arguments.

• Critique the essay, seek out the weak arguments and strengthen them where appropriate

• Aim for the third draft to be perfect, second draft is to get the main points right and make sure that your arguments flow and make sense

Draft and Redraft

• Be concise and sincere when reviewing, are you bring too direct or forward.

• Do not use slang or colloquialisms, these will be greatly frowned upon, unless absolutely appropriate

• At this point you would really want to review the marking schedule, make sure that your piece will gain marks where appropriate

• You would be surprised how many marks are lost due to silly referencing and grammatical problems

Review

• This article has been produced by James King, Student Advisor for Santa Barbara Colleges within the USA.

• James is an expert within his field and often lectures on topics including academic writing for Nursing, Criminal Justice and Business.

Note from Author