Learning Skills: How to Write an Essay
Writing an essay
Learning Skills
Introduction
Essays are not just exercises in research; they are also exercises in communication. Essays give you a chance to show what you can do: that you understand the question asked; that you understand the issues involved; and that you have done the appropriate amount of reading. Essays also allow you to demonstrate your analytical thinking and force a deep and powerful type of learning to take place. For these reasons, they are a common form of assessment at university. This form of assessment is frequently used for session assignments and exams. Most students, some more than others, will be required to demonstrate their learning through this genre during their degree.
An essay writing process to follow
There are a number of steps students need to work through:
Each step is important. However some students do not pay sufficient attention to the steps of question analysis, planning and editing. Perhaps this reflects insufficient time being allocated to the assignment task as a whole. Poor question analysis may result in a well-written essay but one that doesn’t address the question asked or goes off on tangents. A lack of planning often results in a poorly structured essay, which is hard for the reader to follow. Failure to edit an essay results in poorly presented work containing unnecessary errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
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Learning Skills @ CSU
The basic essay structure
Each section, the introduction, body and conclusion, has a specific purpose, which means the reader will be looking for expected features. A traditional essay does not include headings. As such it will appear as a series of paragraphs, with each paragraph having a place and purpose which the writer needs to make clear in topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. However, lecturers are becoming more flexible in their expectations and in some cases are allowing students to use headings in their essays.
Learning Skills
Introduction
Essays are not just exercises in research; they are also exercises in communication. Essays give you a chance to show what you can do: that you understand the question asked; that you understand the issues involved; and that you have done the appropriate amount of reading. Essays also allow you to demonstrate your analytical thinking and force a deep and powerful type of learning to take place. For these reasons, they are a common form of assessment at university. This form of assessment is frequently used for session assignments and exams. Most students, some more than others, will be required to demonstrate their learning through this genre during their degree.
An essay writing process to follow
There are a number of steps students need to work through:
Each step is important. However some students do not pay sufficient attention to the steps of question analysis, planning and editing. Perhaps this reflects insufficient time being allocated to the assignment task as a whole. Poor question analysis may result in a well-written essay but one that doesn’t address the question asked or goes off on tangents. A lack of planning often results in a poorly structured essay, which is hard for the reader to follow. Failure to edit an essay results in poorly presented work containing unnecessary errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Page 1 of 11
Learning Skills @ CSU
The basic essay structure
Each section, the introduction, body and conclusion, has a specific purpose, which means the reader will be looking for expected features. A traditional essay does not include headings. As such it will appear as a series of paragraphs, with each paragraph having a place and purpose which the writer needs to make clear in topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. However, lecturers are becoming more flexible in their expectations and in some cases are allowing students to use headings in their essays.
References: Cottrell, S. (2008). The study skills handbook (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Crème, P. & Lea, M. R. (1997). Writing at university: a guide for students. Buckingham: Open University Press. Germov, J. (2000). Get great marks for your essays (2nd ed.). Crow’s Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin Levin, P. (2004). Write great essays: Reading and essay writing for undergraduates and taught postgraduates. Maidenhead: Open University Press. McLaren, S. (1997). Easy writer. Glebe, NSW: Pascal Press Additional web resources You can google for other sites by typing, for example, ‘essay writing’ as the search term, but try to ensure the sites you use are reliable sites. The University of New England website http://www.une.edu.au/tlc/alo/index.htm is an excellent interactive site. It includes a number of examples, which further illustrate the points you have just read. The University of New South Wales http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/olib.html has another good site and also includes some useful alternative expressions when trying to integrate references into your work. How else might you say: Smith (2004) said …? Look in Writing: Elements of style. OWL at Purdue University http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_transition.html provides another good summary of transition signals. Stylistic variation will enhance your work. The University of Toronto site http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/essay.html includes some very interesting writing tips including practices of good writers and links to other universities for various topics including overcoming writers block at OWL, Purdue University The University of South Australia http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnection/students/lrnsvcs/ass.asp#writ James Cook University http://www.jcu.edu.au/studying/services/studyskills/essay/ are two more good sites. Page 11 of 11 Learning Skills @ CSU