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Writing Essays

No matter how many changes take place in assessment procedures across the disciplines, the academic essay remains the primary means of evaluating a student’s ability to reason and argue effectively as well as discovering their ability to address a particular topic in a specified way. Therefore, writing essays well is the key to improving your university grade.

How should I approach writing an essay?

In order to write the best possible essay and thus improve your university grade, you need first to identify precisely what you are being asked to do. The way to do this most effectively is to learn to recognise key words such as:

• Analyse – which requires you to take a topic(s) and/or text(s) apart and comment on the way the structure and themes are connected.

• Compare/Contrast – this requires you to look carefully at topic(s) and/or text(s) noting points of difference and similarity and commenting on this.

• Evaluate – this is usually linked with the qualifier ‘critically’, as in ‘evaluate critically’, and requires you to assess a specified number of topic(s) and/or text(s).

This is just a small sample of the key words included in academic essays but even from this it is clear that the key words give you your methodology, thus the ability to recognise them and adhere to what they require is essential to writing essays that will improve your grade.

How should I research my essay?

Most students make the mistake of writing the essay, and then try to find quotes from sources that substantiate their points. However, the best essays which achieve the best grades take an inverse view i.e. they start with the sources and identify their argument textually. This is much the best way to approach writing essays and, after you have assimilated and applied the method, one which you will ultimately find both easier and more effective.

A good tip for improving your research technique is to look at the bibliographies of standard texts on the topic about which you are writing. These scholars will have cited the texts that informed their work and supported their ideas and it is not cheating in any way as these books are available to everyone.

Having said that you must ensure that you avoid any chance of the charge of cheating (euphemistically called ‘plagiarism’ but actually stealing!) by noting carefully the details of all the sources you consult in your research, not just those from which you quote directly, in the referencing style required by your academic institution. Do this even when you are making notes because not only will this help you familiarise yourself with the referencing style but also it will save you time in the end because you will have started to compile your bibliography as you research.

A word about referencing styles, broadly, they fall into two camps:

• Parenthetical in-text referencing identified by a reference list (as used by Harvard, for example).

• Footnotes and bibliography, where the quotation is identified by means of a superscript number and this is referenced in the bibliography (this style is used by Oxford, for example).

You will improve your grade if you reference accurately and quote effectively; in fact, if you do not do this, your grade may well be reduced. Your academic institution should have provided you with a style guide for the referencing style you should use (they vary considerably) and certainly there should be both an online version for you to access and one in your university library.

How should I write my essay?

Basically, you should write your essay according to the structure of all academic essays. That is:

• Introduction – containing your thesis statement and methodology.

• Main body – containing a series of separate but linked paragraphs each of which addresses a different aspect of the central topic supported by evidence throughout which should be carefully analysed as this should give you more ideas and indicates that you are fully involved with the topic/text which will help you get a better grade for your essay writing.

• Conclusion – containing a summation and synthesis of your thinking in the essay, acknowledging its limitations and giving some indication of future areas of study (the last of these is the most likely to get you a better grade because it shows that you have an awareness of how your work fits into the larger body of work on the subject).

Your essay should be written in clear, concise and perfectly constructed English. There is no possibility of your achieving the highest grades if you are writing sub-standard English and you should ensure that you proof-read carefully to avoid careless mistakes which devalue the overall look of your essay and simply throw marks away.

Remember, that in essay writing you are essentially presenting a case and to this end you need to construct a piece of work that is well argued and substantiated by strong evidence. The best essays display:

• Thorough understanding of what is required as identified via the key words of the question.

• The ability to formulate, from this and your research, a thesis statement which both illuminates and intrigues.

• A well structured, strongly linked main body, with the central argument addressed via a series of linked but separate paragraphs, all of which deal with a different aspect of the topic.

• A conclusion which primarily summarises but also indicates limitations and areas of possible future study.

• A bibliography which evolves rather than appears as a hurried last minute task and shows wide reading on the topic.

An important tip that is often overlooked by students when writing essays, briefly referred to earlier, is to analyse quotations, this is vitally important because otherwise it can appear that quotations have been simply added to the text, rather than forming an integral part of it, as they should: the essay should come from the texts not the other way around.

Essay writing is always a challenge but accomplished correctly, adhering to this brief guide, will help you improve your university grade.