Part I
Navigating a World of Information
In this part âŚ
Getting a handle on what an essay title requires of you is often the toughest step of all, so we cover it thoroughly in this part. We also give you practical tips on how to get stuck in to your essay, and take an in-depth look at the different sorts of essay you might be asked to write. Essays often break down into one of several basic types, so we show you what you should be aiming towards and â above all â help you to get going and keep plugging away.
Chapter 1
Mapping Your Way: Starting to Write Essays
In This Chapter
Moving from school- to university-level writing
Getting a feel for writing academically
Breaking the writing process down into stages
Achieving success in your essay writing
Youâve probably picked up this book because youâre unsure exactly whatâs expected of you when you write an essay at university. Did your teachers at secondary school explain to you what an academic essay is? Do you know how it differs from other things youâve written? You may be someone who writes happily in many situations â for instance you send letters and emails with no hesitation, you have no difficulty keeping a diary or you can write a story from your own imagination. But an academic essay? Thatâs scary!
This first chapter should go a long way to settling any fears you may have about your writing. We make clear how an academic essay differs from the writing you did at school and from other types of writing you may be familiar with. We break the daunting task of writing your essay into manageable chunks and take you through each stage. And we give you some tips on how to gain confidence and write successfully.
Transitioning to University-level Writing
You write in many different ways when youâre at university. You take notes during lectures and seminars, make notes from books and web pages, take part in online discussions and course blogs, and draft essays and reports â as well as writing your shopping list and texting!
Of all your writing activities, the course assignmentâs the most important. For your assignment, youâre set a writing task to do, normally over a period of a few weeks, and the marks count towards your final grade for that unit. Note-taking and blogging are important in that, done well and thoughtfully, they lay the foundations for success in essay writing both in coursework and in exams. But youâre assessed on the final product, so thatâs what you have to give most attention to. You may throw away your notes, and blogs may disappear into the ether, but an essay youâre proud of may end up at the bottom of a drawer for you to discover years later and reread, we hope with pleasure.
So, given that essays at university count for so much, why do so many students feel ill-prepared for this type of writing? Basically, writing at each main stage of the education process â primary school, secondary school and university â has a different function. Realising this is the first step to helping you tune in to whatâs required of you at university. By looking at the big picture, you see how what you write and how you write it changes from phase to phase.
Writing at school
Primary school teaches you the rudiments of writing. You develop basic literacy in letters of the alphabet and sentences so that you can read and start to write stories and short compositions.
Secondary school assumes that you can use writing to express your ideas and your imagination on paper. You write about the subjects youâre exploring in your lessons, and you show the teacher what youâve discovered. You have opportunities at secondary school to develop creative writing skills and to begin to analyse topics from your courses in an extended way under the teacherâs guidance.
Writing at undergraduate level
As at secondary school, at university you also have to write essays to show what you know. But now you canât regurgitate what your tutors have fed you. The depth you go into with a subject is reflected in the enormous, seemingly limitless, amount of reading you have to do.
Managing your reading list demands a skill that you may not have developed before university study: critical analysis. With a heightened sense of criticality, you apply frameworks and ideas that experts in the field have developed in order to deepen and extend your knowledge. Many universities give students in their first year support in critical thinking, because this, together with the reading list, is what makes the writing process lengthier and more complex than youâve probably known before.
The result of the writing process and your background reading is an essay. As such, your essay relies on a solid bibliography. Your writing at university is based on the research thatâs gone before. You stand on the shoulders of giants, as Sir Isaac Newton said. You have to acknowledge all quotations from authors and references to their work according to strict guidelines. See Chapter 14 for details on how to reference correctly.
Writing at postgraduate level
To get your head around why you write the way you do at university, thinking about what undergraduate study can lead to may help: postgraduate study such as a masterâs or a PhD. At masterâs level you research your subject to an even greater level of detail. Your tutors push you to analyse to the furthest points until you begin to identify gaps in the body of knowledge. This is the basis of the dissertation you write.
If you then go on to a PhD, you make a contribution to the body of knowledge by undertaking a piece of original research, filling in the gaps you identified at masterâs degree level, if you like, and thus making yourself an expert in this field. People look to you for original thought and comment on your specialist subject. You become an authority. As such, youâre expected to have a thorough knowledge of practically everything written on your subject. You read just about every book or paper ever published on it.
From undergraduate level onwards, you can lay the foundation for a career in research. The undergraduate phase youâve embarked on is the first step along the road. Most people go no further than a bachelorâs degree. A certain number go on to a masterâs. Very few become doctors in their subject. But if you just think for a moment where the undergraduate degree leads, you can see why universities are keen for you to develop your essay-writing skills.
Getting the Genre Right
If youâre unfamiliar with the word genre, itâs just a way of describing the type of text youâre writing. Genres of writing encompass everything from a greeting on a birthday card to an academic essay; in other words, anything you write, by hand or on a keyboard, in any kind of social situation and to anybody under the sun.
The best way to understand the academic essay genre is to compare this type of writing against others youâre probably familiar with: creative writing, articles and reports.
The academic genre carries a particular writing style that sets it apart from other genres. Turn to Chapter 10 to find out more about how you can adopt this style in your writing.
Writing an essay, not creative prose
When youâre writing an academic essay, you donât let your imagination run wild and compose stories (unless your course is actually called Creative Writing!). Controlâs the name of the game. You write to a strict structure and donât deviate. A kind of formula exists for the way you do the introduction, and similarly for the conclusion. What goes in between (the body of the essay) can follow several different overall patterns, and is composed of paragraphs that, once again, fit a particular shape. (Flick to Chapters 12, 13 and 14 for more on how to write each part of your essay.)
You should refer constantly to the work of experts rather than going off on a fantasy of your own. Creativity lies not in flights of imagination but in deep understanding of previous research, and interpreting this in your own way. Though you may not think so, you do have room to express your own opinions, but only in the context of what youâve read.
You may think of this genre as being like a straitjacket, and in a way it is. But itâs actually a pretty easy genre to write within. Once youâve got your head around the genre and know what you can and canât do, a lot of decisions are already made for you and you just fit in with everything. You play by the rules.
Just as it doesnât belong in the content of your essay, creativity isnât welcome in how you present it either. An essay printed in a flowery font on petal-pink paper and held together with a daisy chain doesnât impress your tutor. In Chapter 16 we take you through the correct way to present your essay.
Writi...