Essay Writing Guide and Template

Global Social Policy - Assessment and Essay Writing Guidance

I have had several students contact me regarding the assignment, hence here is some useful guidance on writing essays.

Use Plain English
Keep your writing style simple by using plain English. Avoid using long, complex or technical words unless you need to use such words for reasons of technical precision. Avoid overlong sentences because they are difficult to read. You can engage the attention of the reader by using active verbs. For example, it is usually better to write the committee decided to..., than a decision was made by the committee to....
You can use ‘I’ but …
It is perfectly fine to use ‘I’ in an academic essay but only to describe what you are doing as a writer e.g. “In this essay I argue…” or “I go on to conclude that ….”.
It is not acceptable practice to use I to present the content of your argument e.g. “I think that ….” or “I believe that ..” or “In this instance I feel X is on the right track ….”
Contractions
It is good academic practice to avoid contractions. An example of a contraction is the word don’t, in an essay you would use the full two words - do not.
Apostrophes
Please remember that apostrophes are used to denote the possessive and not plurals. Incorrectly placed apostrophes do have the power to enrage even the most mild-mannered academic so it pays to check your work for them. It is correct to write ‘It is in this government’s power to legislate against banking fraud’ (the apostrophe denotes that the power belongs to the government) but it is not correct to write ‘Many government’s today are worried by banking fraud’ (in this sentence we are talking about more than one government and ‘governments’ denotes the plural).
Answering the question
If you are writing an essay or assignment it is very important that answer the specific question you have been set. University essays rarely have ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers as they are testing your ability to organise and present