Afternoon, everyone!
So, how is your holiday going? I hope you're enjoying yourself. I know some of you are probably stressed because you might be sitting exams or writing papers within the first few weeks of the new year.
So let's get back to basics. How do you answer an essay question? I remember during my undergraduate my tutors drummed the importance of structure and form over and over again. Having a good structure for your essay will help you with the flow of your writing and it will make it so much easier for your tutors to understand exactly where your essay is heading. It will help with the direction of your essay to prevent you from putting in extraneous information that doesn't need to be there.
The structure of your essay has to be something that follows the marking scheme and criteria. Some topics might require you to have an introduction and proper conclusion while others don't. You could have subtitles or not, it really depends on your marking criteria and what your tutors are expecting. Generally, the most important thing is that your essay is organised and concise. It depends on your particular course but here is a general structure of an essay.
Introduction
You have to write an introduction that fully elaborates on your question and the exact areas your answer will cover. This will ensure that your essay has a direction from the get-go. Within your introduction, you should define key terms within your question and provide some background. This does not mean you have to go into full detail on the historical background and all the events that lead up to the conclusion presented in your question. Simply provide a bit of detail on what the overall development. In legal essays, you will be expected to provide a clear understanding of the law and where it is from so it will be useful state this essay will discuss x section from y act which was enacted as a result of z directive. It provides a quick address to what your essay will focus on.
Sometimes it might be useful to provide context because what might have been acceptable in the Elizabethan era will not be acceptable right now. Contextualisation will help hint at your discussions within your essay too. It will also help provide more depth and understanding within your essay.
Detail your main argument for the essay. This depends on whether you agree with the question or statement presented. This will allow you to elaborate and debate the for and against and weigh up the different point of views to create your own commentary to state why one particular position is more favourable than the other. Now, think about exactly what arguments you want to discuss further to argue your point of view. This can be historical points or debate with academics or culture. Write these down in your introduction so that the reader can see with a quick glance that there is a road map as to exactly where your essay is going to be heading.
Now let's get to the real weight of the essay: the main body.
Main body
Within your main body, you can have as many paragraphs as you need or want. You might be writing with a particular word count in mind or some time constraint so really keep that in mind when listing your arguments. You are better of discussing 3 or 4 points incredibly well and in great detail than having surface-level conversation about 7 different things.
Start your main body paragraphs with a topic sentence so the reader knows exactly what that particular paragraph will discuss. This will give you focus so that you don't elaborate on any tangential points. To create depth to your discussion add evidence. This could be cases, journal, academic commentary, laws, dissenting judgements or news articles. You could use a large variety of different sources to support your point of views. But be cautioned that if particular information you are discussing is no longer relevant, it might set your essay back. You could easily alleviate this by discussing why it's no longer relevant but why you think it should still remain relevant. Another caution is to make sure you are using reputable sources. This will strengthen your essay.
Comment on the positives and negatives of the evidence and the point of view and why you favour one over the other. Balancing your essay in this way will only strengthen your essay further. It will appear as a critique of the current state or of the question and could guide you to create better conclusions. You could also hypothesise why your point of view might now be the best by saying any disadvantages that might arise.
Finally, link each main paragraph to the introduction or your main point of view. This will help the essay flow together and not appear too disconnected or confusing.
Conclusion
Close your essay cohesively by tying all your paragraphs together and state your point of view again. Avoid putting any new information into the conclusion as it can be confusing to the reader. You could hypothesise on what the future could hold.
So that's my essay on how to write an essay. I hope that helps some of you and good luck with all your exams and course works. I will see you in my next post!
Sincerely Sinthu
So, how is your holiday going? I hope you're enjoying yourself. I know some of you are probably stressed because you might be sitting exams or writing papers within the first few weeks of the new year.
So let's get back to basics. How do you answer an essay question? I remember during my undergraduate my tutors drummed the importance of structure and form over and over again. Having a good structure for your essay will help you with the flow of your writing and it will make it so much easier for your tutors to understand exactly where your essay is heading. It will help with the direction of your essay to prevent you from putting in extraneous information that doesn't need to be there.
The structure of your essay has to be something that follows the marking scheme and criteria. Some topics might require you to have an introduction and proper conclusion while others don't. You could have subtitles or not, it really depends on your marking criteria and what your tutors are expecting. Generally, the most important thing is that your essay is organised and concise. It depends on your particular course but here is a general structure of an essay.
Introduction
You have to write an introduction that fully elaborates on your question and the exact areas your answer will cover. This will ensure that your essay has a direction from the get-go. Within your introduction, you should define key terms within your question and provide some background. This does not mean you have to go into full detail on the historical background and all the events that lead up to the conclusion presented in your question. Simply provide a bit of detail on what the overall development. In legal essays, you will be expected to provide a clear understanding of the law and where it is from so it will be useful state this essay will discuss x section from y act which was enacted as a result of z directive. It provides a quick address to what your essay will focus on.
Sometimes it might be useful to provide context because what might have been acceptable in the Elizabethan era will not be acceptable right now. Contextualisation will help hint at your discussions within your essay too. It will also help provide more depth and understanding within your essay.
Detail your main argument for the essay. This depends on whether you agree with the question or statement presented. This will allow you to elaborate and debate the for and against and weigh up the different point of views to create your own commentary to state why one particular position is more favourable than the other. Now, think about exactly what arguments you want to discuss further to argue your point of view. This can be historical points or debate with academics or culture. Write these down in your introduction so that the reader can see with a quick glance that there is a road map as to exactly where your essay is going to be heading.
Now let's get to the real weight of the essay: the main body.
Main body
Within your main body, you can have as many paragraphs as you need or want. You might be writing with a particular word count in mind or some time constraint so really keep that in mind when listing your arguments. You are better of discussing 3 or 4 points incredibly well and in great detail than having surface-level conversation about 7 different things.
Start your main body paragraphs with a topic sentence so the reader knows exactly what that particular paragraph will discuss. This will give you focus so that you don't elaborate on any tangential points. To create depth to your discussion add evidence. This could be cases, journal, academic commentary, laws, dissenting judgements or news articles. You could use a large variety of different sources to support your point of views. But be cautioned that if particular information you are discussing is no longer relevant, it might set your essay back. You could easily alleviate this by discussing why it's no longer relevant but why you think it should still remain relevant. Another caution is to make sure you are using reputable sources. This will strengthen your essay.
Comment on the positives and negatives of the evidence and the point of view and why you favour one over the other. Balancing your essay in this way will only strengthen your essay further. It will appear as a critique of the current state or of the question and could guide you to create better conclusions. You could also hypothesise why your point of view might now be the best by saying any disadvantages that might arise.
Finally, link each main paragraph to the introduction or your main point of view. This will help the essay flow together and not appear too disconnected or confusing.
Conclusion
Close your essay cohesively by tying all your paragraphs together and state your point of view again. Avoid putting any new information into the conclusion as it can be confusing to the reader. You could hypothesise on what the future could hold.
So that's my essay on how to write an essay. I hope that helps some of you and good luck with all your exams and course works. I will see you in my next post!
Sincerely Sinthu
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