Essay Writing Unit

Essay Writing Unit Ninety nine percent of the structure of your essay is exactly the same as you learned in secondary school. You might think you’re too good for Point, Evidence, Explain. How can you defend yourself against that response? Ideally you want to be able to split your burdens of proof into a few different points. Start your intro with the central claim of your essay. If I’m reading it, I want to know within literally five seconds what you’re trying to convince me of. It is better to be more measured and tie your argument to precise examples or case studies. Avoid unnecessary description â€" only include general background details and history when they add to your argument, e.g. to show a crucial cause and effect. Next, think about what you need to prove in order to make that claim. What might be the immediate negative reaction of someone reading your central claim? However, it's worth taking some time to check it over. Markers often comment that more time spent on editing and proofreading could have really made a difference to the final mark. Use counter-arguments to your advantage â€" if you find viewpoints that go against your own argument, don't ignore them. It strengthens an argument to include an opposing viewpoint and explain why it is not as convincing as your own line of reasoning. Be specific - avoid making sweeping generalisations or points that are difficult to support with specific evidence. You won't be so close to your work, so you will see your errors more easily. Be ruthless at this stage â€" if the information isn't directly answering the question, cut it out! You will get many more marks for showing you can answer the question in a controlled and focused way than you will for an unordered list of everything you know about a topic. You might have had enough of your work by now, and be hoping to just hand it in! Practice distinguishing between description and analysis . It can help to highlight each in a different colour to see what the balance looks like. For each point that you make in your essay, you need to support it with evidence. If the reading list is really short, you’ll need to go beyond it. Look through the reference lists of the papers and books you’ve just read. Mark out a few of the most promising-looking readings. Curiosity drives an individual to search for an understanding of issues. When such interest becomes engraved in an individual, it molds students into independent individuals who find the truth while learning. Try reading your essay aloud, as this will slow you down, make you focus on each word, and show you when your sentences are too long. Ideally leave a day between finishing your essay and proofreading it. How are you going to relate your argument to the existing literature? Make sure you know their arguments reasonably well and have armed yourself with flexible quotes from their work. If you can, familiarise yourself with the people who think they’re wrong and awful. Figure out if there are arguments which are unresolved and see if you can make a contribution towards resolving them. They might ask you to ‘critically assess’ some claim or concept, or ask you a simple question which you’ll have to answer in a complex way. They’ll make a statement and tell you to discuss it. They might ask you to compare and contrast two different ideas, or say which of two theories is the more accurate. You don’t want to get penalised because you didn’t reference your readings properly after you’ve put in all that effort to make sure that your arguments are founded in the literature.