How to Write an Essay:
The basis of most academic work is the ability to construct a good essay. Althoughthis sounds obvious, it is a skill which most students need to develop as none of us isborn with the natural ability to write an essay, never mind one which will both addressa given topic effectively and adequately support an argument with evidence.It is possible to learn how to do this, however, and this guide sets out to define themajor skills which need to be acquired in order to see the writing of an essay throughfrom the moment you are given orselect your topicto its conclusion.Clearly, thetype of essayyou are required to write will be determined to some extentby the particular field in which you are engaged but the general points of constructionwill hold good for all subjects.
Getting Started:
The first and most important aspect of writing a good essay is toexamine thequestion. The importance of close analysis of the question as the basis of a good essaycannot be overestimated. Despite this, it is surprising how many students simply writedown everything they know about a subject without reference to what the question isactually asking you to do.Whether you have chosen the topic yourself or it has been assigned to you, look carefully at the
key words
which the question contains, as these will give you thepointers you need to begin to think carefully about how to proceed with your essay.Examples of key words might be: ‘examine’, ‘develop’, ‘analyse’, ‘influence’,‘compare’. All these words offer a way into discussion of the topic in hand and giveyou a good idea of the way your essay should be written.For example, if you were asked to compare how two poets address a similar theme,you would know that the reader was expecting to see close analysis of the words usedand how theme and structure differ in each. However, if you were asked to examinethe causes of the outbreak of a war, you would adopt quite a different approach,balancing fact and opinion.Add to this an awareness of whether the question is asking you to give your ownopinion in isolation or whether it requires you to assess the previous and currentthinking on a subject and follow this up with a conclusion summarising your ownthoughts (the latter of these is more usual).As you develop your argument, ensure that you continue to check back to see that youare answering the question and not just reeling of everything you know about a giventopic.If you have been assigned a topic, then things such as choice of texts, word count andstyle will have been outlined for you but if you are ‘starting from scratch’ then youwill need to make these decisions for yourself and this is when you should make yourchoices, only altering them later if your research suggests that other areas than what
you originally planned need to be covered. Whether you have selected the topic ornot, you will need to research critical opinion on it before you begin to write.
Researching your topic:
Having thought carefully about what you are being asked to do, the next stage is togather your evidence. It is worth saying straight away that you should jot down thedetails of all and any resources to which you refer – either directly or indirectly –becauseplagiarismis a major concern and it is easy to plagiarise without meaning to.It’s simple to forget where your ideas start, and someone else’s end.”It is a good idea to begin to compile an alphabetical list of all books used at this stageas this will save you time with your referencing and bibliography later, as well ashelping you to keep track of where you sourced your evidence. Remember to presentthis in the academic style required, as there is considerable difference between therequirements of say, Harvard referencing and MLA
- seek advice on the referencingstyle required before beginning
. (Most referencing styles will allow for the use of abbreviations but the first time a book is quoted the full details should be given.)Try to strike a balance between the evidence that supports your own ideas and thosewhich appear to contradict you. Remember, a good essay presents a balanced case anddisplays an awareness of
all
points of view (within reason), not just those that agreewith your own!
Planning:
It is very tempting to omit this stage – don’t! Thorough planning
saves
time althoughit might seem to be wasting it at this point when you just want to start writing.However, even in an examination essay, a plan is essential to complete a structured,reasoned and researched response on any given topic.Begin by looking back over the question and those ‘key words’ that you selected.Next, consider the evidence you have collected and consider how the two complementeach other: if you have followed the instructions above carefully, this should be easy,as you will have been keeping the question in mind all the time you were conductingyour research.Nevertheless, it can be difficult to know which pieces of evidence best support yourtopic points as you can’t include everything. Make decisions now as to what you willuse and what you will discard. This is harder than you might think because ofteninteresting evidence you have unearthed has to be omitted simply because it isn’trelevant. Increasingly, students are penalized for exceeding the specified word countso ensure that all your evidence is really related to the points you are making and tothe topic concerned.It is useful to make a rough plan or diagram of your essay at this stage where youwrite down paragraph headings and which evidence you will use where. Later, whenyou are actually writing your essay, you will be able to look back at this to remindyou of how your thoughts actually progressed and why you made the choices that you
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How to Write an Essay
This guide shows students how to write an essay.
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