How to survive highschool
BIOSCIENCES
MARKING CRITERIA
REFERENCING
“Think beyond the basic requirements of the questions to how it impacts on other areas or situations.”
EXAMS
FEEDBACK
“I expect virtually each declarative sentence to be referenced, as would normally be the case in any published review.”
PLANNING
OUTSIDE READING
STRUCTURE
ESSAY WRITING GUIDE
WRITTEN BY STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS
“A good essay will review a good selection of papers and critically evaluate the literature.” WRITING
INTRODUCTION
We wrote this essay guide as the first years among us were daunted by the prospect of essays, and the second years among us struggled to make the changeover from assessment by multiple choice questions to essay writing: and when the panic set in we thought we would love to know what was required in order to do well.
The purpose of this booklet is to give you an idea of what is expected of you when writing during your degree, and to outline the most important aspects of a first class biological sciences essay. The intention isn’t that you sit down and read it cover to cover, more that you use it when you are a bit stuck and need somewhere to look up the important bits you don’t always get told!
We hope you find it as useful as we found making it!
Students As Change Agents Team
“The written word is very powerful for communicating ideas, winning grants, being successful in job applications and joining the workforce that can write carefully, accurately and good English... Employers will expect Exeter students to perform in this market place. Good essay writing is an essential transferable skill and coupled with being a free, independent thinker, should be the product of a University education.”
Senior Lecturer
CONTENTS
PAGE
How to interpret the mark scheme
The official mark scheme with added notes……………
Structuring an essay
♦ Planning……………………………………………………………………………
♦ Writing……………………………………………………………………………
♦ How to
MARKING CRITERIA
REFERENCING
“Think beyond the basic requirements of the questions to how it impacts on other areas or situations.”
EXAMS
FEEDBACK
“I expect virtually each declarative sentence to be referenced, as would normally be the case in any published review.”
PLANNING
OUTSIDE READING
STRUCTURE
ESSAY WRITING GUIDE
WRITTEN BY STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS
“A good essay will review a good selection of papers and critically evaluate the literature.” WRITING
INTRODUCTION
We wrote this essay guide as the first years among us were daunted by the prospect of essays, and the second years among us struggled to make the changeover from assessment by multiple choice questions to essay writing: and when the panic set in we thought we would love to know what was required in order to do well.
The purpose of this booklet is to give you an idea of what is expected of you when writing during your degree, and to outline the most important aspects of a first class biological sciences essay. The intention isn’t that you sit down and read it cover to cover, more that you use it when you are a bit stuck and need somewhere to look up the important bits you don’t always get told!
We hope you find it as useful as we found making it!
Students As Change Agents Team
“The written word is very powerful for communicating ideas, winning grants, being successful in job applications and joining the workforce that can write carefully, accurately and good English... Employers will expect Exeter students to perform in this market place. Good essay writing is an essential transferable skill and coupled with being a free, independent thinker, should be the product of a University education.”
Senior Lecturer
CONTENTS
PAGE
How to interpret the mark scheme
The official mark scheme with added notes……………
Structuring an essay
♦ Planning……………………………………………………………………………
♦ Writing……………………………………………………………………………
♦ How to
References: Colmore (1993) This can involve the author being part of the sentence, with the date of the publication in brackets: Socioeconomic benefits can be yielded from parrot conservation (Colmore, 1993) Brown (1999) and Smith (2000) have both shown… the sentence or placed at the end of the sentence in brackets. Research on the finches of the Galapagos Islands (Brown, 1999; Smith, 2000) has lead to… When you do not directly cite more than one authors name in your text you should list In recent studies by Jones (2000a, 2000b, 2000c)… When you are citing a number of texts by the same author put the all the dates in Research by Smith, Jones and Brown (2002) has highlighted… the text along with the date of the publication. If you are quoting more than three authors for one source, only the first author This has been supported by further research into conservation (Bloggs et al, 2005) and Olson, 1970: 477) With more than three authors: Cormack et al (1994: 32-33) suggest that “when writing for a professional readership, writers invariably make reference to already published works”. Flora and fauna of Britain “has been transported to almost every corner of the globe since colonial times” (Plants and Animals of Britain, 1942: 8). Gilbert, S. F. (2006) Developmental Biology, 8th ed, Sunderland(MA): Sinaeur. Randall, D., Burggren, W. and French, K. (2000) Animal Physiology Mechanisms and Adaptations Alberts, B. et al. (2003) Essential Cell Biology. 2nd ed. New York: Garland Science.