Reading Notes | How to Write Essays A step-by-step guide for all levels with sample essays
Chapter 1 PLANNING YOUR ESSAY
1 WHAT ARE YOU BEING ASKED TO DO?
not what you would like the task or subject to be, but the actual task the question is asking you to perform. ** Forget the fact that you know a great deal about particular aspects of a subject and focus your energies on answering on the exact topic you have been asked about. ** You don’t make up the assignments you are set, your examiners do! So give them what they want, not the answer you would like to write, but the answer you’ve been asked to write.
To help you decide that, a useful approach is to underline three or four key words from the question. Why? Because that will focus your thinking on the approach you need to take and concentrate your mind on giving the examiners what they want
2 MAKING A PLAN
It is essential that you make things as easy and understandable for them as possible . If you don’t have the assessors on your side because you have made things difficult for them by your lack of essay organisation, focus, clarity and continuity, then it is highly likely they will down-grade your essays.
it is useful to think of an essay as consisting of three main sections:
1） introduction: the opening paragraph
2） the development or body of the essay
3） the conclusion
When you have read the question and underlined the key words to focus your thoughts on what it is you are being asked to do, make your plan and then make brief notes in the form of words and phrases to help you focus further and decide what is relevant from your overall well of knowledge and what is not.
Chapter 2 THE OPENING PARAGRAPH
need to grab the attention of your readers
1 ‘WAFFLE
It is essential to avoid writing ‘waffle’ in your opening paragraph.
What is ‘waffle’? It is when a student attempts to hide that they have nothing much to say about a subject by making generalised, empty statements that could apply to a whole range of topics, but which manage to say nothing relevant in answer to the question.
Address the topic from the first sentence on, but don’t try to pack everything into this first paragraph. You have the body of your essay in which to examine or discuss in detail,
but you have to be ‘on the ball’ from the first sentence of your essay.
2 THE LENGTH OF THE OPENING PARAGRAPH
As a general rule, you should aim to write an opening paragraph of four or five sentences. Your task in writing the opening paragraph of all your essays is to start responding immediately to the topic of the essay and to indicate in this opening paragraph what approach you are going to take in the remainder of the essay. You do not attempt to write an answer to the assignment in the opening paragraph. However, you do tell your reader/assessor what you are going to do and then in the body of the essay be as good as your word, before rounding your essay off with a conclusion
3 USEFUL PHRASES
In this essay I intend to explore …
This essay will discuss …
This essay will focus on …
In order to discuss …, I will analyse...
Debate about... usually centres on the issue of...
It is questionable whether...
You do not need to use phrases like those listed above, but they are triedand-trusted means of getting your essay off to a lively and focused start.
You may have your own favourite ways of opening. The important point is that you start your essays positively with a sense of purpose and relevance that communicates itself to the reader.
Chapter 3 THE BODY OF THE ESSAY
DEAL WITH ONE MAIN POINT PER PARAGRAPH
The individual paragraphs of your essays must have a coherent structure: a key sentence that makes the key point of the paragraph, followed by a development of that point using specific example and illustration. The last two sentences of the paragraph act as a kind of mini-summary of the paragraph.
The sentence beginning ‘Thus’ draws what we might call ‘an
intermediate conclusion’ based on the evidence that has been supplied in
the paragraph. This is signalled to the readers by the use of ‘Thus’.
The purpose of the last sentence is to draw the paragraph to a neat
conclusion and perhaps point the way to what will be dealt with in the
next paragraph.
A closing sentence should round off the paragraph acting as a summary of the paragraph’s content, perhaps drawing an intermediate conclusion and/or pointing the way to the next paragraph.
CONTINUITY
To help the reader, it is advisable to use linking words or phrases to
signal where you are going in the essay. Here are some useful linking words and phrases that you could use at the beginning of new paragraphs:
Another essential feature of …
While it can be argued that …, it is also true that …
However, many critics disagree with this …
To counter this argument, …
Nevertheless, the evidence is that …
Secondly, …
The bulk of the available evidence, then, points to
the fact that …
On the contrary, …
Having analysed this aspect, I would now like to …
Furthermore, …
In order to emphasise this point, I would like to point to …
Moreover, there are other convincing arguments to back up …
Therefore, …
Thus, …
Finally, …
THE USE OF CLOSE REFERENCES
The body of the essay is where you will earn most of your marks. To earn those marks you must:
- write in structured paragraphs, consisting of a key sentence that expresses the main point of the paragraph, followed by several sentences that develop this key point, using concrete relevant examples and references;
- provide a continuity from paragraph to paragraph by using linking words and phrases;
- leave the reader with the impression that you have organised the content in a logical, accessible and detailed manner.
Chapter 4 THE CLOSING PARAGRAPH
Your essay should have a concluding paragraph that brings the essay back to the set topic and draws a conclusion or summarises the evidence. Your assessor must be left with the impression of a considered conclusion.
The concluding paragraph must inevitably include an element of summarising what you have written before. Try to avoid, however, HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS slavishly repeating exactly the arguments or content you have used earlier. Find a fresh and concise way of re-emphasising the conclusion you have come to. Be specific and detailed, however. Just as you have to avoid waffle in your opening paragraph, so must you avoid it in this concluding paragraph. appropriate words or phrases that can be used to signal this include:
Finally, …
As I have argued, …
As I have shown, …
Therefore, …
The bulk of the evidence, then, points to …
However, as I have shown, …
Based on this evidence, …
Useful words appendix
Here is a list of words that you should know how to spell correctly because you will use them quite often in your essays:
Absence, absolute, abstract, academic, acceptance, accidentally,accommodation, accordance, accumulation, achievement,acknowledge, acquire, advertisement, affect, alcohol, allege,alliance, alliteration, ally, almost, already, altogether, always,ambiguous,ambivalent, analogy, analysis, ancestors, animal,answer, apparatus, apparently, appearance, appropriate, argument,article, assembly, associated, assonance, assume, assumption,attitude, authority
bankruptcy, barrier, basically, beautiful, because, beginning,behaviour, beliefs, believe, benefit, benefited, between, bias,biological, building, business
campaign, capable, capital, career, catalogue, century, chaos,character, childhood, chronic, chronicle, chronological,collaborate, college, commentary, commission, committee,
comparatively, comparison, competent, completely, complement,complimentary, condemn, conflict, conclusion, conscience,conscientious, conscious, consensus, consistent, conspiracy,contemporary, context, contextual, continually, contradictory,corporation, courageous, credibility, criteria (plural), criterion(singular), critical, criticism, cynicism
data, debate, deceit, decision, defence, definite, description,
desperate, desperately, detached, deterioration, developed,
dialogue, difference, dilemma, disappearance, disastrous,
discipline, discussion, disillusioned, dispute, dissolve, division, duel
ecological, ecstasy, effort, eighth, electricity, elusive,
embarrassment, endeavour, environment, equivalent, essential,
evaluation, evidence, exaggerate, examination, exceed, except,
exceptionally, exchange, excitement, exempt, exercise, exhibition,
existence, expedition, expense, experience, expertise, explanation,
extraordinary, extremely
factors, factually, family, favourite, feasible, feud, financial,
followed, foreign, fortunately, fulfil, fulfilment
gauge, generalisation, global, globalisation, government, gradually,
grammar, grotesque, guarantee, guard, guilty
height, heir, heroes, historical, honesty, honour, honourable,
humorous, humour, hypocrisy, hypothetical
identical, identify, identity, illegible, illogical, illusion, illustrate,
imagination, immediately, imminent, impossible, incidentally,
incontrovertible, independence, indigenous, infinite, ingenious,
initial, innate, install, instalment, intellectual, intelligence,
intention, interested, international, interpretation, intrigue,
invention, irrelevant, island, issue
judgement (also judgment)
knowledge, knowledgeable (also knowledgable)
laboratory, language, lawyer, league, lecture, legislation, leisure,
liaison, library, lieutenant, likelihood, literature, logical
maintenance, majority, management, manoeuvre, manufacture,
marriage, materially, mechanically, medicine, menial, metaphor,
miniature, miscellaneous
naturally, necessary, negate, negation, negative, negligent,
negotiate, neutral, neutrality, nullify, numerous
obstacle, obviously, occasionally, occurred, occurrence, omission,
opportunity, ordinarily
parallel, perception, periodically, phase, philosophy, physically,
population, possessions, practically, practice (noun), practise
(verb), prejudice, preparation, pressure, preponderance, prevalent,
principal, principle, privilege, probably, procedure, proceed,
procession, produce, professional, profit, programme, program
(computer context only), progression, prohibit, pronounce,
propaganda, prophet, proportion, proposition, protection,
psychology, pursue
quality, quantity, query, queue, quiet, quite, quota
reality, receipt, reception, recipe, recommend, reference, referred,
regional, religious, repetition, reputation, resistance, responsibility,
rhyme, rhythm
satellite, scarcely, schedule, scheme, scholar, science, secretary,
selection, separate, shareholders, similarly, simile, situation,
source, statistics, special, subtle, succeed, successful, sufficient,
suggestion, surprising, suspicious, system, systematic
technical, technique, temperature, temporary, tendency, thorough,
threshold, tolerance, tragedy, triumph, truly, typical, tyranny
unbelievable, uncontrolled, unconventional, undeniable,
underdeveloped, underrate, undoubtedly, unnecessary, unparalleled,
unusual, usually
vague, valid, validation, valuable, valuation, vanguard, variable,
variance, vehement, vision
weather, weird, whether, wilful, withhold