A Guide To Writing Essays

This guide is designed to provide you with advice on the planning and writing of essays specifically, as well as the expectations of academic staff with regard to undergraduate essays. (They do not apply as much to essay questions in examinations, where the same standards of e.g. referencing are not universally expected: good students will achieve it there too, as the source and authority for statements is important).

Before describing the steps involved in writing an essay, it may be useful to highlight the fact that All academic writing should be aimed at conveying your point of view to the reader

It is your responsibility to ensure that the reader will be able to follow your argument easily, and that s/he will not misunderstand what you are trying to say. Always keep these goals in mind as you write.

Planning and writing an essay

Defining the topic.

• The first step in writing an essay is to decide exactly what is being asked of you. In order to do this, you will generally need to investigate the topic by doing some preliminary reading.
• Your aim at this stage should be to define the key terms and to decide which particular aspects of the topic you will focus on.
• If there is more than one question in the title you have been given, do not ignore any parts of it.
• If it is a very broad topic, you may want to narrow down your focus in your introduction.

Detailed Reading and Note-taking.

• Having read generally on the topic, you should be in a position to formulate some specific questions that you intend to address in your essay.
• Your subsequent reading should he aimed at finding answers to these questions.
• Generally, the answers you are seeking will not be simply "true" or "false', but rather will reflect your evaluation of evidence for and against different points of view.
• Remember that this type of purposeful reading is quite different from reading merely for the sake of interest or pleasure. If you don't direct your reading in this way, you will find that you work much less efficiently, sometimes having to read references several times.

Choosing your reading can be important:

• You are likely to need a mix of general textbooks, specialised books and journal articles. Occasionally, newspapers and carefully selected web-sourced material may be used .
• 
  Part of the unique value of your essay may depend on your skill in sourcing good material. The library has search systems (http://www.lews.uhi.ac.uk/library ) that can help with this and one good item may give a lead to other relevant piece

Taking notes. Most guides to essay-writing suggest taking notes as you read. In doing this you must be very careful to:

• record the details of the sources you use with sufficient care to meet the standards required for referencing (see guide to referencing); and
• mark direct quotations as such (“......” ) and note the page reference.

This information will be important when you begin to write up your essay. If you do not take these precautions, you may unintentionally commit an act ofplagiarism for which you will be severely penalised. For quotations, remember that if you take a sentence or a portion of a sentence directly from a text, quotation marks must be included. It is not sufficient simply to change one or two words of a direct quotation and then to dispense with the quotation marks. If you summarise a section in your own words, it is obviously wrong to use quotation marks, but you should still acknowledge the source.

Deciding what to say and how to say it. While you are reading, you should be thinking about the topic and taking note of any original ideas of your own you have about the issues under consideration. At the same time, you must evaluate the ideas and evidence proposed by other authors: the fact that an idea or some piece of evidence is published does not mean that it cannot (or should not) be questioned. Note, however, that evaluation does not always have to be in the form of negative criticism - positive evaluations are also useful and important. There are two different ways in which you can evaluate what you are reading. You can:

• (a) determine whether an author's opinions are consistent with one another and follow logically from the evidence that s/he presents; and
• (b) compare and contrast the opinions of one author with those of others (including yourself).

Either of these forms of evaluation is perfectly acceptable for an essay.

Having read the relevant literature and thought about the topic, you are in a position to begin writing your essay. Before doing so, it is most important that you have an idea about the position you will adopt, and the arguments you will propose. Although your idea does not have to be original in the sense that no-one has suggested it previously, it must reflect your own opinion which has been developed from consideration of the available evidence and which you feel you can defend in the essay. Deciding on an idea is the most important and perhaps the most difficult aspect of writing an essay. Give the matter careful consideration to ensure that you are happy with the position you adopt.

Flair and individuality. In many subjects, you are normally encouraged to blend in your individual experience, or your knowledge of, for example, the business world, with academic ideas. If you are in any doubt about whether this is acceptable, check with your lecturer, course leader, mentor or supervisor.

Structuring the Essay. Essays do not contain obligatory sub-headings, although longer essays may benefit from their inclusion. Whether or not sub-headings are used, it must be structured, in that the theme or argument being presented is developed in a logical, coherent and orderly fashion. You should, therefore, begin with one or two clear introductory paragraphs in which you define the topic or problem (i.e. tell the reader what the essay is about) and set out your aims in writing the essay (i.e. briefly outline your idea or argument). This introduction will prepare your reader to appreciate what is important in your following argument. You can also make an impact by using vivid personal experience, or an apt quotation here. Correspondingly, your essay should end with a statement of the conclusions that you have drawn based on your evaluation of the relevant literature. Your conclusion provides an answer to the question you outlined in your introductory paragraph(s), by drawing together the different aspects of your argument. You may not always have an answer to give: but summarising your arguments cogently can be equally useful.

You should also think about the strategy used to organise the content. An essay is arranged so that related issues are discussed either together or in close proximity to one another. A well-organised essay is one in which each new step in the argument follows logically from the previous point. To achieve this aim, it is often helpful to prepare a skeleton noting the key points you wish to include and their order of presentation before you start writing. If you organise your essay well, the points that you make will be integrated with one another, and the essay will provide a coherent answer to the question you posed initially.

It may be helpful to have a "Contents" page setting out your structure, especially if the essay includes sub-headings.

Expectations of Academic Staff

In defining a "good" essay, Clanchy and Ballard (1981) outlined four properties that are of major significance.

1. Relevance to set topic. Ensure that you cover the topic well, and that you only present information that is immediately relevant. Before including an idea or piece of evidence, ask yourself. Does this information contribute to my understanding of the topic? Can it help to answer the question which was posed initially? If the answer to both of these questions is no, then don't include the information.

2. Demonstration of wide and critical reading. In order to evaluate the writings of other authors critically, you will need to have read widely on the topic. It is not sufficient merely to show that you are "familiar" with the content of a large number of references, however. A marker will be looking for evidence of your ability to read selectively (focusing only on relevant literature) and critically (evaluating what you are reading).

3. A reasoned argument. A good essay is more than a collection of facts. Although the information that you acquire through your reading should form the basis for your thinking (and therefore for your essay), that information cannot merely be reproduced in the essay. DON'T just describe the ideas of other authors by rephrasing a series of passages taken from a variety of sources. Rather, you must use the knowledge that you have acquired to develop (and justify) an argument. Note that in the context of an academic essay, the word "argument" does not refer to the process of taking sides or presenting only a single point of view. Rather, it refers to the development of an opinion or idea about a particular topic which is based on a thorough exploration and evaluation of available evidence.

4. Competent presentation. In the presentation of your essay, there are three aspects to consider:

I. Please ensure that your writing is grammatical and your spelling correct. If you read through the next-to-last version of your essay as a marker would, you should notice any faults of grammar and hence be able to correct them before submitting the work. Spelling errors can sometimes be more difficult to detect, simply because you do not know the way in which a particular word is spelt. Nevertheless, you should try to correct as many as possible. Note that most word-processing packages incorporate spell-checkers that could be useful for this. As spelling and grammatical mistakes show up more clearly in typed documents, it is a mistake not to use them. (Early research found that typed essays obtained higher marks; more recent research has found evidence in the opposite direction, probably because minor defects are much more visible in typed copy). Most word-processing packages also carry grammar-checkers', which may be useful to check whether your use of the English language is correct. .

II. The second aspect of presentation to which you should attend is the style of writing (e.g. careful choice of words, smoothness of expression, and use of non-sexist language).

III. The final preparation of the essay for submission is important: (e.g. typing, usually in spacing and a half or double spacing, with margins that wilI allow for your binding, if used. It is essential to give your word-count, and word processing packages make this easy. Only the main body of the essay (i.e. not the references) have to be included in the word count.

Summary

In summary, before writing a good essay, you will need to:

• define the topic and key terms;
• formulate specific questions based on preliminary reading;
• read selectively and critically with the aim of answering the questions you have posed.
  
  

Writing: Having acquired a good grasp of the topic through detailed reading, you should begin to write your essay. Remember that in the process of writing, you must:

• make your aims clear to the reader;
• describe and evaluate the relevant literature;
• propose an argument based on your own interpretation of the available evidence.
  
  

Finally, to meet the expectations.of academics, it is assumed that an essay will:

• be well focused on the topic;
• be based on wide and critical reading;
• present a reasoned argument;
• be competently and stylishly presented.

You may find it useful to refer to this Essay Writing Checklist

Covering Information

My title/cover page shows clearly:

• My name
• Course title and number
• Tutor's name
• The question I have chosen
• Date assignment handed in
• Wordcount

Introduction

The Introduction:

• Sets the question topic against a wider background
• Clarifies my understanding of the question/topic
• Defines key or problematic terms
• Outlines the approach I will be taking to the question/topic

Main text

In the main body of the assignment:

• My key points are clearly presented
• The points I make are systematically backed up by facts/evidence/examples/arguments
• Quotations and references to other works are accurately cited
• Any diagrams, figures or tables are labeled properly

Conclusions

The Conclusion:

• Brings together the main points
• Links back to the question/topic

States clearly my conclusion(s)Style and presentationOverall, the assignment:

• Reads clearly throughout · Makes correct use of spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Accurately lists the background reading I have consulted · Is within the word limits specified.
• Has all pages numbered.