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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
Below is an example of a third year essay that got a first. Nonetheless it is not the best essay in the world. Do not think of it as a template but as an example of the approach you should be thinking about and some indication of what you are looking to achieve. Consider how something such as TV celebrity that might be discussed in a conversation is approached in the academic form of an essay. ...
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
[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.” ...
If you were writing a report, or a newspaper or magazine article, or a book an important consideration would be who is the audience for this. Even before you started writing you would want to have in mind who would read it. If you were creating a sales pitch to get an editor to commission your piece, you would even have in mind what the editor saw their audience to be. While you wrote you would try to keep in mind what the level of knowledge and what are the interests of the people you are writing for. What do they know already? What do they need to know? Who are they? ...
[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. ...
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. ...
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. ...