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Ten tips on essay writing (adapted by Nigel Warburton from his 2006 book, The

basics of essay writing. London: Routledge.)

Essay writing is at the heart of education. The process of writing an essay may be a

struggle, but it is worth it. It is one of the best ways of gaining an active

understanding of your chosen subject. Writing is a kind of thinking. It also leaves a

trace that allows your tutor to give you feedback and help you move forward. The

key ways in which students learn in the Humanities, and in most other subjects too

are: reading, listening, discussing and writing. But without the last of these, the

discipline of writing essays, study can become unfocussed and progress slower.

Most people dont achieve a good grasp of any topic until they have tried to explain it

clearly to someone else in writing.

Everyone can improve their essay writing. There is no mystery about how to do this.

You need to practise. But as in all effective practice, you have to work on

acquiring and reinforcing good habits and eliminating bad ones. Realise that there is

always scope for improvement.

1. Get started. Dont procrastinate. Get down to it now. If you have an essay to write

it is amazing how easy it is to find other things to do. Its also easy to underestimate

how long the process of writing and rewriting will take. If you find yourself lapsing into

an avoidance strategy, trick yourself by just writing the first paragraph, or committing

to a focussed ten minutes of writing. Once youve started, everything gets easier.

2. Answer the question.The worst mistake you can make is failing to answer the

question set. No matter how brilliant your writing if it is an answer to a differentquestion it wont get you any marks. If the question is a direct question, give a direct

answer. All your work on your essay, including the planning, research, writing and

rewriting, should be driven by your awareness of the question and your angle on it.

3. Research your answer. Unless you are writing under examination conditions you

should research your answer. Read the question first, though. Pay particular

attention to course notes, lists of recommended reading and any advice your tutor

gives. Dont, however, let research become an excuse for not planning or writing the

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essay. Research should be driven by the question set and your angle on it. Dont

think of your research as something that you complete before beginning writing.

Often it is only when you try to explain a concept or defend a position that you realise

that you need to research some facts. Remember that you may not know what you

need to research until you have attempted to answer the question.

4. Make a case. In almost any subject, when you write an essay you need to make

and defend a case for your conclusion. This typically involves using argument,

evidence, quotations, and so on, to back up generalisations. It also involves

considering counterarguments and evidence that seems to challenge your reasoning

or conclusion. By the end of your essay your reader should be completely clear

about where you stand on the question set. This sounds obvious, but many students

fail to make a case for their conclusions, and some fail to draw any conclusion

whatsoever.

5. Structure your answer. The structure of your essay is the logical framework of

the case you make. Structure helps your reader understand the significance of any

point you make. One useful three-part structure that works for most paragraphs is

this: (i) make a general point, (ii) back it up with some evidence, quotation or

argument, and (iii) show the significance of this point to the question you were

asked. If you are unsure whether or not your essay has a coherent structure, try

reading just the first sentence of each paragraph. Do these sentences reveal the

framework of your essay? If not, rewrite them.

6. Aim for clarity. Here are some suggestions for achieving greater clarity in your

writing. Be economical with adjectives. Be concise. Avoid using adverbs wherever

possible. Avoid complex syntax. Explain any technical terms. Dont show off your

knowledge of obscure jargon. Use the active voice rather than passive constructions.

Use shorter rather than longer sentences. Whenever you read a particularly clear

passage in a book, try to analyse how the writer achieved this clarity.

7. Get the tone right. An easy way to irritate your readers is to use colloquial

language in an academic essay or to make over-familiar asides. Getting the tone

right requires sensitivity to the genre within which you are writing. A peppering of

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exclamation marks in an academic essay is a sure sign that the writer doesnt

appreciate this point.

8. Avoid plagiarism. Dont try to pass someone elses work off as your own. Its

immoral and you may well get caught, not least because many institutions are now

using software that detects plagiarism. Resist the temptation to cut and paste

unattributed paragraphs from weblogs and webpages. Even if you manage to get

away with plagiarism, you deprive yourself of the chance to think the topic through

for yourself, and reduce the chance of learning from the process of writing. Always

be sure to distinguish your own notes from copied sentences and longer quotations:

when you come to write your essay there should be no risk of including someone

elses writing without acknowledging its source.

9. Edit your essay. If you have the luxury of re-writing or at least revising your

essay, use it. Obviously this wont usually be an option in an examination, but in

other circumstances you should leave yourself enough time to edit and amend your

first draft. Try reading what you have written out loud poor phrasing and bad

grammar will be more obvious, as should any weaknesses in argument. Make sure

keywords and the names of people you discuss are correctly spelt. Although you

may not lose marks for poor spelling, it is likely to colour any readers view of your

writing ability.

10. Learn from feedback. Many students are more concerned with the mark they

get than with the other feedback their tutors give them. This is a mistake. Try to find

patterns in the feedback you get and remind yourself of the criticisms of your

previous essay before you start the next one.