Learning and Teaching Unit
One of the most common written assignments you will be asked to prepare at university is an essay. An academic essay is written in order to:
Essays have three main parts or stages:
When preparing an essay you undertake a number of different activities:
You may find that you move backwards and forwards among these activities. For example, when you are writing your first draft you may constantly refer back to your analysis of the question to make sure you are responding to the essay task. Sometimes as you read you discover ideas that you hadn’t thought of or come across previously, and so you may need to look for further information.
If you have a choice of essay questions consider the following factors when deciding which essay to do:
Analysing the question enables you to keep your essay on the topic by identifying the important parts of the essay question. There are three main parts to an essay question or task which you need to identify:
When analysing a question first identify the task word or words. For example, if you were set the question:
Discuss the impact of 3 new technologies on institutions, the public service and the consumer in Australia. (1000 words, due 22 nd May)
the task word is ‘discuss’ which here means ‘consider and interpret’ (see the list at the end of the guide) The information words can then be identified by asking ‘discuss what’? The response is ‘the impact’. This means that you will be writing about the effect of one thing on another. The is focused by ‘of 3 new technologies’ ‘on institutions’, ‘on the public service’ and ‘on the consumer’ and ‘in Australia’. The word limit is 1000 words which is about four A4 pages word processed. The due date is also specified so you can decide how much time you can allocate to the essay and when you will begin it.
Once you have analysed the question you can use your analysis and what you know about the structure of essays to make a “guesstimate” or rough plan for your essay. This enables you to begin to clarify the point of view you will argue and to identify more accurately the kind of information and resources you will need. To do this, plot your question analysis onto the three essay stages. For the example essay question above, your plan might look as follows:
Introduction |
|
Body |
Note: There are other ways that you might organise your essay finally but the above is useful as an initial plan |
Conclusion |
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When researching an essay you need to read both widely and selectively. The resources you will need depend on your essay task. Look for relevant resources in your course reading lists. Search for relevant book and academic journal articles through the Library’s catalogue and databases.
When you are reading and noting to prepare for an essay, it is important to do this selectively. This means that you only read and note information and ideas that are relevant to your essay. When you are taking notes to prepare an essay, remember to record all the relevant bibliographic information about the items you are noting.
When you are ready to begin drafting your essay, go back to your ‘guesstimate” plan. Use your plan to develop your main, overall argument for the essay (the thesis statement). With the example task/question given above you might begin by listing what you have decided have been the main effects of the technologies on each of the 3 groups.
Introduction |
Write a draft sentence answering these two questions |
Body |
Decide which structure best suits the main argument you want to present based on what you have found in your research and reading. |
Next write the body of the essay. Each main idea that you want to communicate becomes a paragraph in your essay. Use the first sentence of each paragraph (the topic sentence) to state clearly the main point you want to make in that paragraph. Other sentences in the paragraph then expand on this topic sentence by giving evidence to support it, explaining it more fully and/or giving examples.
When you have finished drafting the body write the introduction. The introduction may contain:
When revising your essay consider both its structure and presentation. Under structure consider whether:
Under presentation consider whether:
Essay writing enables you to develop and extend your thinking about the ideas in the courses you are studying. So improving your essay writing technique will help you not only to express those ideas clearly but also to develop and clarify your thinking about those ideas.
Task word |
Meaning |
|---|---|
analyse |
examine closely; examine something in terms of its parts and how they are related to each other |
argue |
present a case for and/or against something |
assess |
decide the value of something |
compare |
discuss two or more things in terms of their similarities and differences |
contrast |
discuss two or more things, emphasising their differences |
criticise |
give a judgment about the value of something and support that judgment with evidence |
define |
make clear what is meant by something; or use a definition or definitions to explore a concept. |
describe |
present a detailed account of something |
discuss |
consider and offer some interpretation or evaluation of something; present and give a judgment on the value of arguments for and against something |
enumerate |
give an item by item account of something |
evaluate |
attempt to form a judgment about something |
examine |
inspect something in detail and investigate the implications |
explain |
make clear the details of something; show the reason for, or underlying cause of, or the means by which something occurs |
illustrate |
offer an example or examples to show how or that something happens; or make concrete a concept by giving examples. |
interpret |
make clear the meaning of something and its implications |
justify |
give reasons why certain decisions should be made, or certain conclusions reached |
outline |
go through and identify briefly the main features of something |
prove |
show by logical argument |
review |
report the chief facts about something; or offer a criticism of something. |
summarise |
describe something concisely |
trace |
identify and describe the development or history of something from some point, or from its origin. |
| Adapted from: Marshall, L & Rowland, F 1993, 2nd edn, A guide to learning independently, Longman Cheshire, Milton, Qld. Peters, P 1985, Strategies for student writers, Wiley & Sons, Melbourne. |
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1. See 'Analysing questions' on the Learning and
Teaching Unit website.
2. See the Learning and teaching resources on referencing and avoiding plagiarism.
Kalantzis, M & Wignell, P 1988, Explain, Argue, Discuss: Writing for essays and exams, Common Ground, Sydney.
Hipp, H, Kokkinn, B & Stevenson, M 1997, Assignment writing at university : the essay, University of SouthAustralia, Adelaide.
Marshall, L & Rowland, F 1993, A guide to learning independently, 2nd edn, Longman Cheshire, Milton, Queensland.
Martin, JR 1997, ‘Analysing genre: functional parameters’ in Genre and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School, eds F Christie & JR Martin, Cassell, London & Washington.
Martin, JR, Peters, P, Clyne, M, de Bitche, R, Eagleson, R, Maclean, R, Nelson, J & Smith, J 1983, ‘On the analysis of exposition’, Discourse on Discourse. AALA, Occasional papers 7, ed R Husan, pp.61–92.
Peters, P 1985, Strategies for student writers, Wiley & Sons, Melbourne.
