CSS ESSAY WRITING TIPS FREE
PART-1
ESSAY-WRITING THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE
In a subject like Communications Studies, much of your university work will be assessed by essay – whether that’s an essay you prepare in your own time over a period of days or weeks, or one you concoct in an examination hall in the space of an hour. It therefore follows that if you learn how to prepare, organise and present essays, you will do much better in your degree overall. So this document might also be called:
HOW TO GET BETTER MARKS WITHOUT (NECESSARILY) DOING MORE WORK
We’ll assume that you’ve read widely about the particular subject of your essay, and have a good understanding of the broader area within which that topic is located. Broad and deep research is the essential basis of an essay. You will have lots of notes on the subject – see the ICS Study Skills Guide to Note-Making for tips on how to do this.
So now it’s time to write the essay. You sit down in front of the keyboard and start typing: you put the title, you try to group some similar bits of information or argument together, and then you put a conclusion on the end saying that there are many interesting points of view on this subject, right?
No, of course you don’t. You’ve got to start off with an essay plan. By designing this you’ll come up with the structure. A well thought-out structure is at the heart of every good essay.
What is a good structure?
It isn’t enough to make sure that you have an
introduction at the start, a conclusion at the end, and
the other stuff in between. So what do you need?
You do need a solid introduction. It will probably
contain something about how you have interpreted the
question, and it is often a good idea to state a thesis
(an argument) which you are going to illustrate or
explore in the body of the essay – although you may
prefer to save the ‘findings’ of your exploration to the
end, in which case you have to introduce the question
carefully at the start.And you need a tight, powerful conclusion which is
the logical consequence of everything that has gone before.
The good essay has developed a number of related
strands which the conclusion ties together. It may also
contain an extra, surprising thing which you saved to
throw in at the end with a flourish.So what happens in between? Well…
Six really awful ways to begin the essay ‘Why have baked beans become so popular in twentieth century Britain?’:
“The question of why baked beans have become so popular in twentieth century Britain is an interesting…”
“The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘baked beans’ as…”
“In this essay I will explore the question of why baked beans have become so popular in twentieth…”
“The Penguin English Dictionary defines ‘popular’ as…”
“The twentieth century has been going for quite a while now and…”
“The Collins English Dictionary defines ‘twentieth century’ as…”
! Why are these awful? Because they are so predictable, uninspiring and limp. What should you do instead? Something else.
PART-II
ESSAY WRITING GUIDE
You need to organize your material so that it flows from one area, sub-section or argument to the next in a logical order. Each part should build upon, or at least reasonably follow on from, the previous parts, and the whole thing should be pulling the reader, clearly and inescapably, to your triumphant conclusion.
The box on the right shows unimaginative kinds of essay structure, which are likely to get low marks. But what can you do instead?
One good approach is to look through your notes and identify a handful of themes within the discussion, and to structure your essay around consideration of those. You should order the analysis of each theme so that the essay builds up towards the conclusion.
DON’T KNOW HOW TO START?
If you’ve got some notes but you don’t know how to start the next stage, get a nice big clean sheet of paper and write down phrases which summarise all of your thoughts about the subject, the different questions and ideas you’ve had in your mind, and the areas and problems that have been covered in your reading. Then look for similarities, and related concerns, and group them together in whatever way makes sense to you. After that, see if you can number these areas into an order – the order in which you will weave your way through the material.
And voila! You’ve accidentally created an essay structure. Now just check it, tweak it a bit to make it more coherent, and you’re ready to go.
More analysis = more marks
You will often need to describe something before you give an analysis of it. But the more analysis the better. Only include as much description as is needed for the analysis to make sense. The analysis is what you will get the marks for. Of course, a muddled, illogical and unsubstantiated analysis can still leave you with no marks. We’ll be looking for a clear, coherent and consistent analysis, supported by evidence.
Don’t just repeat what some books (or your lecture notes) say – we want your analysis.
However, you should also show your awareness of other people’s analyses!
Don’t wander off the subject
Answer the question, and only the question. And keep checking that you are remaining on track throughout the essay. If there’s something interesting that you want to include, but which is of dubious relevance to the main argument or theme of the essay, put it in a footnote.
Don’t rush
You might remember that you ‘did all right’ last time you stayed up all night on
pharmaceuticals, the day before the deadline, to research and write an essay. But this most likely means that you would have done much better if you had started reading and researching, and then writing, days or weeks before that. It is always obvious to your tutors when an essay is rushed.
Don’t cheat
Plagiarism – using other people’s words and ideas without acknowledging where you got them from – is regarded as an enormous sin, the penalties for which are actually worse than just getting zero for the essay. Just say no. Or more specifically, make sure that you have got perfect references: see pages 4 – 5.
Two dull kinds of essay structure:The one that’s not well enough organised:
- Definition of the thing
- Some stuff about the thing
- Summary
The one that’s too formulaic
:
- Introduction, saying that we will discuss the thing
- Three arguments in favour of the thing
- Three arguments against the thing
- Summary of the above
*Note[Reference would be revealed later]
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon". Napoleon Bonaparte
Part III
Essay Writing Guide
Style as well as substance
Whilst it would seem ‘nice’ if the ideas of a genius would be appreciated even when written in horrible prose, you should not bank on this. The good student not only has good ideas to write about, but can write about them well. And it seems particularly wasteful to be losing marks just because you didn’t spend a little bit of time learning a few style tips.
WAFFLE AND PADDING: NOT THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
Don’t use superfluous words, phrases or sentences. If a sentence means the same thing with a word taken out, take it out. The same applies to whole phrases and sentences within the wider context of a paragraph. Using words and phrases which don’t add anything to what you’re saying will mean that your examiners will conclude that (a) you don’t have enough to say to meet the required essay length, and that (b) you are trying to hide this by means of a slow, repetitive and boring writing style. Which is not clever.
For example — don’t write: When you could write:
Greg Dyke transformed the BBC, changing it so that it was altogether different from what it had been like before. Greg Dyke transformed the BBC.
Some people feel that he is a megalomaniac who wants to take over the world, whilst at the same time other people feel that he is a fundamentally weak man who lacks strength.
Some people feel he is a megalomaniac; others contend that he is fundamentally weak.Nevertheless, we can certainly see that he clearly wields a considerable and substantial degree of direct power, influence and the ability to change things around within the organisation. Nevertheless, he clearly has a considerable degree of direct power within the organisation.
The above para contains 250 per cent more words than the right-hand column, but it contains zero per cent more information. Your examiners spot this kind of thing. Furthermore, by not inflating her essay with space-filling nonsense, the pithy writer of the right-hand column has got room to show her understanding of the subject by expanding on all of these points: what did Dyke do? Why might he be seen as power-crazed, or weak? How has he demonstrated his personal power? In other words, she has got room for lots of analysis, which, as we established above, is good news.
CAN I SAY “I FEEL THIS ARGUMENT IS WRONG BECAUSE...”?
There are different preferences about whether you should say “I” in an essay or not. Sometimes it can look really good if you confidently say “Rather, I would argue that...”. But saying “I feel this argument is wrong because...” can look a bit ponderous, and some tutors don’t like it. A solution to this is to be even more assertive and say “However, this argument is weak, since...”. It will still be clear to your examiners that you are making your own argument – and we definitely do like you to make your own argument. Whatever you are saying, make sure you back it up with argument and evidence.
SURELY THIS STUFF ABOUT ‘STYLE’ IS JUST SUPERFICIAL AND ISN’T VERY IMPORTANT?
Wrong. If your essay is badly-written, you will be losing marks. And, in the outside world, you would be losing readers (whether you are writing books and screenplays, or company reports and letters... or even job applications!). It is very important to write in a crisp, clear style, with good sentence construction and proper punctuation. Needless to say, spelling mistakes also fail to impress.
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon". Napoleon Bonaparte