How to Write Successful Business and Management Essays

Patrick Tissington, Markus Hasel, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781473960510, 9781473960503
• eBook ISBN: 9781526411990
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

A systematic guide to successfully producing written work for business and management degrees. The authors address the all-too-common pitfalls of essay assignments, as well as providing readers with a step-by-step programme to approach essay questions, both in coursework and exam contexts.

New to the Second Edition:

• Relevance of writing skills to employability highlighted throughout
• Additional content on researching a topic
• New content on adapting writing for different audiences
• New content on academic writing tips
• Addition of useful websites
• Additional coverage of plagiarism
• More on critical evaluation
• More on changing requirements through different levels of study.

Suitable for all business and management students looking to improve their essay writing skills.

The Student Success series are essential guides for students of all levels. From how to think critically and write great essays to planning your dream career, the Student Success series helps you study smarter and get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips and resources for study success!

1 An Introduction to Essay Writing

Chapter objectives

Having read this chapter you will:

• know what the book is about
• know how to use the book to your best advantage
• understand how to read books at university
• have planned which chapters to read in what depth
• understand what an essay is, why essays are set and how to structure one
• know how to structure an argument using the SED format
• know what to look for in an essay question.

Key to getting the most out of this book

It is essential to get used to preparing for essays by being organised. This may be something that comes naturally to you in which case skim read the first part of Chapter 2. For everyone else, read Chapter 2 thoroughly first! The second part of Chapter 2 shows you how to plan your essay – we think practically everyone could benefit from reading this even if you are reasonably confident about writing essays.

Lectures are very different from the classes at school and you are supposed to work in a very different way. If you already have experience of university or college, perhaps you could skim read Chapter 3. Those of you coming from school – perhaps even more especially good schools – will find that university lecturers do not give you the clear direction you are used to. If you are at all uncertain of the rules of the game, spend some time on Chapters 3 and 4.

Essays are written in a particular style, so if you are at all uncertain what this style is, pay attention to Chapter 5.

If you have trouble working out how to use references – and especially if you have never heard the term – spend some time getting to grips with the referencing style described in Chapter 6. Students ask most questions about this and it is actually very simple once you get to grips with it. Even if you think you understand referencing, you should go over this chapter to refresh your memory and check to see whether you have been using references correctly in the past.

Students are often found to have plagiarised by accident but reading Chapter 7 will make sure you are never accused of this.

Essays are very commonly set in exams and while the main idea is the same as for coursework essays, Chapter 8 gives specific advice for preparing and writing under exam conditions.

Finally, the Appendices contain examples you can refer to and check back later.

How to read books at university

As with just about all books you read at university, you shouldn’t think of starting at the beginning and reading through to the end. You should use this book rather than read it. By this we mean that you will probably have at least some idea about the advice contained in parts of the book and you can skim read these sections quickly. Other parts you might need to start from scratch so these parts you should read differently. We recommend that you first skim read, then read through taking notes, then read your notes and dip in to particular sections again. (Quick tip – we have given more information about how to use books in Chapter 3 – unbelievable that we should be telling how to read but Pat didn’t realise how to do this until half-way through his university career by which time he’d wasted hours and hours of time and got himself needlessly stressed.) But don’t think this sounds too daunting a task nor is it time consuming. We have deliberately pared the information down to what you really need and the skills you are developing will save you time in the future and of course help you get the most out of your university degree – surely the aim of going in the first place!

So, start by looking at the contents and see if there are any areas you recognise as being ones you are comfortable with and ones you might need to concentrate more on. Use Table 1.1 to plan how you are going to use the book.

What is an essay?

At its simplest, an essay is a written answer to a set question. However, there are particular styles for the setting of essay questions and also styles to the way you have to answer them. In some ways it’s a bit like crossword puzzles – having subject knowledge isn’t enough – you need to know the code used by the person writing the puzzle. In essays, the rules are simpler but without the simple knowledge, you probably won’t be able to produce a good answer. So, here are the basics:

• You need to assume the reader has basic common sense knowledge but not subject specific knowledge.
• You must justify everything you write. Ideally by referring to scientifically accepted work but (occasionally) by use of examples.
• You are expected to demonstrate that you understand the theories you present by summarising them. Make sure you don’t reproduce exactly what you read in a textbook though or else this will be plagiarism (see Chapter 7).
• You must always acknowledge where you get your justifications from – see Chapter 6 on references and Chapter 7 on plagiarism.

Structure – the basics

There is a lot more about essay structure in Chapter 5 but we introduce the overall idea here so you understand how the essay is going to look when you have finished it. It is difficult to be precise about the exact length of each section since of course it depends on the number of words you have been set to use but also on the essay and how you approach it. However, the basic structure is not at all complicated and can be summarised as shown in Table 1.2.

Why are essays set (is it because our lecturers want us to suffer)?

The idea of an essay is that it both develops and tests. That is to say, the act of preparing an essay in itself develops subject knowledge in the student but the finished piece of work is a way for the lecturer to assess how much the student knows. In fact there is another layer to this in that essays make you think logically (building logical arguments like in a debate) and critically (not just believing the statements made by people but finding out how they could justify what they are claiming). So, by writing essays you develop knowledge while becoming more logical and critical. These are key skills you learn at university. We often reconsider what coursework to set for our students but we keep on returning to setting essays because of these benefits.

What an argument is and how to make one

One of the most frequent comments made by lecturers is to question ‘what is your argument here?’. An argument in this sense does not involve shouting or throwing crockery but is the basis of logic. The best way to understand this is to use this simple SED format in your writing:

• Statement of claim – you write what you are going to prove. On its own, a Statement of claim has no value (i.e. will not provide you with marks). If you provide evidence for it and then discuss and evaluate what it means, you are earning marks.
• Evidence – relevant evidence would be scientific papers from peer reviewed journals or textbooks (see Chapter 4)
• Discussion/evaluation – the evidence for and against your claim is weighed up and you show that your claim is justified.

Each paragraph should have this structure to it so each element is worthy of a little more description.

An example of this structure:

We can see from the collapse of Enron how dangerous pure intelligence can be as a predictor of achievement.¹ Enron started selecting employees solely on their intelligence test results so those who scored high on the tests were selected over individuals with knowledge and experience (Fincham & Rhodes, 2005). Senior managers encouraged these new inexperienced employees to explore new ideas and exploit new markets believing that intelligence was more important than experience One psychologist claims that Enron’s major mistake was believing and telling the young professionals that they were ‘gifted ‘simply because of their high test results (Fincham & Rhodes, 2000, p. 145).² This led to the arrogance of the firm and they had thought they could ‘do anything’ and ‘jump into any market’ (Fox, 2003, p. 145). This led to reckless decisions being made and was a major factor in the downfall of the company.³

Key:

1 Statement of claim

2 Evidence

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Summary of Contents
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Preface
• Introduction to the Second Edition
• 1 An Introduction to Essay Writing
• 2 Planning
• 3 Reading and Making Notes
• 4 Material
• 5 Writing Your Essay
• 6 Referencing – or How to Reference Correctly
• 7 Plagiarism – the Scary Unknown Monster
• 8 Writing Essays in Exams – Similar But Not the Same
• 9 Motivation
• 10 How Essay Writing Will Help with Your Career Success
• Appendix 1 The Great Big Referencing Quiz
• Appendix 2 Example Questions and How to Answer Them
• Appendix 3 General Undergraduate Marking Scheme
• Appendix 4 Specific Essay Marking Scheme (First Year Undergraduate Essay)
• Appendix 5 Masters Degree Example Marking Scheme
• Appendix 6 Examples of Extracts from Essays
• Appendix 7 Examples of Complete Essays with Annotations
• Appendix 8 Example of a Fictitious Essay with Annotations
• Appendix 9 Example of an Exam Essay with Annotations
• Index