how to write essays

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xirokx

xirokx

xirokx

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After having been out of education for 14years I enrolled to a course at my local college.

My first assignment is to write an essay on going to university.

I honestly dont know how to start, discuss and conclude the way I am supposed to do so. This inital assignment is to assess where we are at with essay writing.

Can anyone give me some help and advise, please a site I can visit that will show me the basics. The content is fine, its just a do and dont list I really need.

Thanks in advance

Cheers
 
i used to hate writing essays, but I didn't really like english lessons either.

I think you can find some essay guides with a rough stucture by hunting thru google, can a plan is supposed to help also.
 
Say what you are going to say, say it and conclude on what you just said. Another tip is imagine a V shape - you get more to the point/conclusion at the end and start off very broad. :)
 
why not ask your teachers? they're there to help you..

but in a very basic nutshell

introduction, main body, conclusion
 
Don't worry too much - I hadn't written an essay in over 25 years when I went back to Uni, and still got better marks than the youngsters who'd just left school !
 
Paragraph structure - seem to remember being taught each paragraph had to have a point, evidence, then a comment. This was mostly related to writing about a book - so the 'evidence' bit might be something less solid - but it remains close.

Make a point, state what brought you to that point, comment on the point.

Hard to be less than abstract without actually writing it myself, mind!
 
Make sure you answer the question, and try not to waffle. Use research to back up your points. Check your spelling and grammar, especially when using words which are pass spell checkers, but are wrong e.g. advice and advise. Perhaps start but jotting loads of ideas on a page and then try to work them into an essay.
 
How long is the essay supposed to be? How much time are you being given to write it? The answer to each of those will radically change how you should write the essay.
 
xirokx said:
After having been out of education for 14years I enrolled to a course at my local college.

My first assignment is to write an essay on going to university.

I honestly dont know how to start, discuss and conclude the way I am supposed to do so. This inital assignment is to assess where we are at with essay writing.

Can anyone give me some help and advise, please a site I can visit that will show me the basics. The content is fine, its just a do and dont list I really need.

Thanks in advance

Cheers
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something like this
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the financial crisis of 2007-8 and its core association with globalisation. This paper briefing discusses various areas, with a specific emphasis on macroeconomic errors, consumer spending and financial industries, one of considerable theoretical and empirical interest. However first of all I think it’s important to define globalisation, laying down the basic foundations, having a clear understanding of what they are, while I discuss the following essay topic. Ruud Lubbers, a Dutch academic, defines globalisation “as a process in which geographic distance becomes a factor of diminishing importance in the establishment and maintenance of cross border economic, political and socio-cultural relations” www.acma.gov.au.

It is clear that expansionary macroeconomic policies around the globe have contributed to the climax of macroeconomic imbalances. These policies have supported excessive
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In conclusion, globalisation has lead to unsustainable and undesirable effects, however the blame should not be associated with the idea itself, a large part of the blame can be attributed to macroeconomic errors by governments, central banks and regulatory bodies.
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To sum it up, it's 3 parts

Tell them what you are going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you've just told them

That's it, obviously its more detailed but that's the basics of it.
 
If the point of writing the essay is to judge your competence of writing essays I would just write it without any advice from forums/websites, let the teacher assess it, and listen to the feedback and advice.

Copying a structure/style that you have read on the internet is not going to help you in the long run in my opinion.

Just be honest with yourself (and teacher) and you'll do better than if you try and wangle your way through the course pretending that you know everything already. The internet is a good tool for learning but it is much better to be taught by a person I find.
 
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Get your title.

Write your introduction. It should include;
Defining the title
Your interpretation
The general points you will make.

Decide on how many points you want to make.
3 - 10 for 1500 words. 6 - 20 for 3000 words.

Write each point, quote your evidence, explain the point.

Conclude with your own thoughts.

Try to make the questions flow from one to the next, though it isn't mandatory. Of course everyone has their way of doing things but that's my system :)
 
As fini says how long the essay is supposed to be will have an influence on how you write it.

However a very quick Google search brought up this webpage which gives you a very basic guide. I'm not 100% convinced by the diagram/outline bit because I tend to just start writing and then refine from there but if you're starting again after a long break it might make more sense for you to plan more thoroughly. You can also probably ignore the bit on thesis statement for the moment as well but it is likely to be useful later.

Asking other people to read it over (assuming you trust their judgement) can be a good plan also, they can help to spot grammatical errors that a spellchecker may not and even simply that it reads in a coherent fashion.
 
Depends on the subject too!

How long? When for? What subject?

Each of the humanities/ arts subjects requires quite different essay writing styles.


eg. An history essay is different in composition to one talking about metatheatre in Shakespeare.

Also referencing will vary. Be sure to add footnotes and bibliography. Ask teacher about how he/she wants the bibliography done
 
The hardest part is forcing yourself to make a start.

1st thing to do is get all your thoughts down, dont worry about proper sentancing or structure.

Once you get something down you it will give you confidence.

Next step is move your ideas around so that they are in a logical order. You can then start to put some meat on the bones and get the sentancing right and puncuation so it reads well.

From here it is just a matter of expanding on your ideas and things will start to take good shape.

You can now start to think about the presentation and structure of your document i.e. 'begginning' (maybe an introduction/ background), 'middle' (details) and end (conclusion/ evaluation)

This is what i do, and it works for me. I can tell you for sure the more essays you do the quicker you will get at writing them up.

Hope this helps.
 
What about going to university? What angle are you going to discuss? The content is the most important bit. Structure comes second. Once you have identified your themes, aim to discuss potentially one or two of them before making a conclusion that summarises or unified both. For example, off the top of my head:
Introduction - what do people really learn at university? (A paragraph before writing 'This essay will look into these themes before identifying their significance together', or something).

Bulk 1 - Academic education + job prospects

Bulk 2 - Developing social skills + life experience

Conclusion - Why both are equally important in influencing somebodies path to take in life.
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Furthermore, it is entirely subjective, but I never say 'in this essay I will be doing this'. I believe it is much better to say 'this essay / discussion will...' - sounds much better IMO.
 
To start with, write a plan. I bullet point the main points, and then put subpoints in for what I want to say in those. These bullets should roughly correspond to the paragraphs you'll produce. Spend a decent amount of time on this stage and it'll help later.

Then, start writing, at this stage getting it down is the most important thing.

Next, read what you've written and check it for logical order and completeness. Fill out, or re-order as needed.

Next, go through and edit/rewrite things for clarity, flow and grammar.

Spell/grammar check in your software.

Print, read through, and annotate changes/corrections on paper and then apply these to your essay.

Check the word count. If it's too high, this is the time to go through triming back on your wordiness. In fact, even if it's not too high, or there's no specified limit this is a good thing to do anyway, as it trims the fat away and tends to produce cleaner, more readable text.

Give it a final readthrough, and you're done.

The key things to concentrate on getting correct:

1. Answer the question asked!
2. Spelling and grammar matter.
3. Flow is important. Your points should be in a logical order, and you should avoid overly long sentences and repeated words where possible.
 
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