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:

1. Definition of the thing
2. Some stuff about the thing
3. Summary

The one that’s too formulaic
:
1. Introduction, saying that we will discuss the thing
2. Three arguments in favour of the thing
3. Three arguments against the thing
4. Summary of the above

*Note[Reference would be revealed later]

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"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon". Napoleon Bonaparte