Essay-Writing-Guide on Chequered History Learning

Essay Writing Guide 1.06 Document

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Please see attached Essay Writing Guide 1.06

EWG 10. Note taking

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Why take notes in lectures?

The lecture provides a good introduction to a subject in a short space of time and taking notes will help you take full advantage of this. For example, notes can be a useful as quick reminder of a logical approach to a subject when doing essays. Notes will also help your concentration in class because you are taking a more active approach to learning.

Notes will help your memory. By writing you will reinforce points and be forced to mentally process what is being said. According to one source if you do not write anything down you will forget 42% of the information in 20 minutes, 56% after 1 hour, 66% after 1 day, 75% after 1 week and 80% after 1 month (see: http://www.edison.k12.nj.us/cms/lib2/NJ01001623/…/1453/NoteTaking.ppt )

EWG 12. Plagiarism

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Portions of this are taken from an LSBU document and so it will be rewritten.

The business of academics is words. If you copy other people’s work then a marker can spot in a second that the writing style has changed and can quickly look up the source.

The main thing is to avoid putting yourself in the situation where you are even tempted to present someone else’s work as your own. This means giving yourself as much time as possible to start on your essay rather than leaving it to the last minute.

EWG 13. Grammar: the sentence

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This lesson is about sentences and the two most common mistakes students make with constructing sentences. This is not a grammar lesson exactly, but instead a way of thinking about sentences that can help you spot and correct these mistakes. The reason to avoid these mistakes is so that your writing is clearer. This is important not just for the reader, but also for you to use your writing to clarify ideas for yourself.

EWG 14. Grammar: the comma

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The Comma Demystified

Essential to writing is the humble comma. Thought by many the creation of a sadist, the dot-curl combo can be the key to clarity. My comprehensive school education certainly skirted the issue. So, as a mature student, I looked into it myself. I found a few simple rules in a simple book and, in a few hundred words, here is most of what you need to know about the comma, but were afraid to ask.

EWG 15. Using Referenced Material (under construction)

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Why are you being asked to reference other people’s work in your writing?

Perhaps the main reason that you are asked to use references is that academic work (and a great deal of modern knowledge) relies on the idea that you can build on the insights and research of others. In an essay, report or dissertation you are using the theories and writing of others as building blocks or scaffolding for your argument – as all academic writers do. These sources or references can allow you to assume or state ideas that experts have worked on for years and so potentially let you build powerful and insightful arguments of your own with their backing. Alternately some of your writing will engage with important ideas to critique them and some of your work will use logic and evidence to undermine ideas you oppose. This is something that academics do in ongoing debates on many subjects – you are being asked to take part. Either way (through support and/or critique) the idea is that by engaging with ideas from the best thinkers you will be able to develop your understanding of a subject and be able to apply that to develop insights of your own.

EWG 17. Academic Comparisons

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There is a saying “It’s like comparing apples and oranges”. This means that it is seems impossible to compare two very different things. Sure, they are both fruit. But ask yourself, which is best? The only answer seems to be “I like oranges best” (or of course you might like apples). However, this is just your view and not really a comparison.

In academic writing you have to solve a similar problem. You must evaluate two (or more) different arguments or theories.

EWG 19. Resources

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Further reading

Cottrell, S. (1999) The Study Skills Handbook. London: Macmillan

Evans, H. (2000) Essential English: For Journalists, Editors and Writers. London: Pimlico

Mounsey, C. (2002), “Research” and “Structuring the essay” in Essays and Dissertations. London: Oxford University Press, pp.18-41

Orwell, G (1946) Politics and the English Language Available at http://iis.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Politics_%26_English_language.pdf [accessed 14 July 2013]

Trask, R.L. (1997) Penguin Guide to Punctuation. London: Penguin

EWG 2. An Approach to Essays

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[reading time 5 minutes]

Or watch the animated version!

https://youtu.be/nZ-admndPJE

We couldn’t do it; it was such a slog. The lecturer was sighing and we were moaning. The class I took recently (at another University) was less than half-way through the essay and we simply gave up. And that was just reading and critiquing, done so that we might learn about writing.

People in the class expressed disbelief that the lecturer might have to sit through 10 of these. Sure the essay was about taxation, but specifically the Poll Tax and whether the opposition outside of Parliament, culminating in mass riots, was effective. The lecturer said, “I don’t expect any to be an interesting read. I’m just pleased if the English is okay and they have a structure.”

EWG 3. Just answer the question

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[reading time: 20 minutes]

It seems obvious that undergraduates should use essays to answer the question that has been set. However, the main comment made on essay papers is “Answer the Question”. Academic guides often use detailed explanations of the terms used in questions to help students. However, as this complaint crops up time and again, there seems to be a more fundamental problem of communication between those creating questions and those required to answer. This piece is an attempt to address this by discussing why the essay is counterintuitive, then looking at what the ideas are behind an essay, and finally look at an alternative way of approaching the essay.

EWG 4. Academic Writing

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Academic writing is not the same as a conversation or of you simply putting your point of view. The idea is to leverage the years of work that some of the brightest people on the planet have put into thinking about problems to help you in the pursuit of answering a question. This answer should be impersonal, formal and analytical rather than personal, informal and descriptive.

To do this type of writing you need to spend a large amount of time and effort time digesting and thinking about the question you are answering and finding and understanding the academic literature on your subject. You will need to put into context and test the ideas and theories you find in academic literature in the pursuit of the answer to the question you have been set.

EWG 5. Getting started: the question

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A) Choosing your question

In most cases before starting an essay you must choose which question you want to answer.

There is a balancing act to be done when making this choice. On the one hand you must be as thorough as possible when making your choice because choosing the wrong question can make a big difference in how difficult your task is, how enjoyable the essay is and the mark you will get. On the other hand you have to choose as quickly as possible because you need as much time as possible to think about the question, to do research and finally to answer the question. It is possible to switch questions after you have chosen one, but it requires a lot of extra work to get back on track.

EWG 6. Getting started: writing exercises

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There are 5 writing exercises presented here.

Try some or all of these (to taste).

Do some research and thinking about the essay.

Work on them again

Writing exercise 1: re-write the question in your own words

The idea is to draw out what you think the question is getting at based on the ideas you have. Take each part and unpack it to explain what it means to you.

EWG 7. Getting started: research

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So far you have written down what you can think of. This may be a good start but it is almost certain that you need a lot more material and a lot more ideas.

The research lets you use the work of people who are experts in the subject you are studying – without their insights your essay will be very poor at best.

The research needs certain elements: arguments, facts, experts, arguments. Research will provide some of these directly and give you inspiration for the rest.

EWG 8. Structure

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There is not a formula for structuring an essay. It depends on your style, the material you are using and even how you try to fit your argument into the word count.

However below is a rough guide to one approach – take it as approximate rather than definitive.

You might want to also look at the section on “Getting started: writing exercises” for alternative approaches to those presented here.

EWG 9. Editing

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As a rule you will not write your essay and then present it. Instead you will produce several drafts that you read through, correct, alter and edit. Personally I go through about ten drafts over the course of several days or even weeks before the final version. This means I will have read the piece ten times at the very least and spotted a lot of flaws and problems along the way.