The Little Book of Essay Writing · trickier areas of essay writing such as purpose and audience. Throughout the book, we, the authors, try to demystify essay writing and to present

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The Little Book of Essay Writing

Author: Michael Shields

Contributors: Max McMurdo and other members ofLeeds Beckett staff

First published 2009This revised edition published 2014

© Skills for Learning, Leeds Beckett University 2014

Except as permitted under the Copyright Designs andPatents Act 1988, this publication cannot bereproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or byany means, without the prior permission of Skillsfor Learning.

10102 - Essay Writing insides:Layout 1 21/7/14 14:35 Page 2

Contents:

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Introduction .................................................................3Approaches to writing .................................................5The essay as discourse ...............................................7What is an essay? ........................................................8Where do my ideas belong? ......................................10Pre-writing: ...............................................................11

Answering the question .......................................11Developing your own topic ...................................13Making notes........................................................15How do I make notes?..........................................16

Planning techniques:.................................................18Linear plans .........................................................21Keyword trees ......................................................22Networks..............................................................23Mind maps ...........................................................24

Writing the essay:......................................................26Essay structure ....................................................26Academic writing style.........................................31

Presentation .................................................................37Re-reading the essay ...................................................38Final words ...................................................................39Bibliography .................................................................40


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Introduction


All students at university will have to write essays.Those of you in the arts or social sciences, we think itis fair to say, will write more essays than those of youin pure science-based subjects, but even you buddingscientists will have to write some essays.

Most of you will have written essays at secondaryschool. For those of you who are mature students, thismay have been a long time ago. Academicexpectations of you at university are higher than atschool or college, and an essay that may have beenmore than acceptable in sixth form may lack thecritical edge required at university.

One irony, however, is that although expectations maybe high, essay writing is not often taught withinuniversity disciplines. In order to learn and develop theskill – and it is a skill that can be acquired, perfected,and mastered – you may have to go to your university’swriting or tutorial centre or take a workshop fromsupport staff trained to teach academic skills.

The Little Book of Essay Writing attempts to fill a gap inessay writing self-instruction. Yes, there are manyexcellent books out there on the subject, but they tendto be textbooks as opposed to user-friendly manuals.


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The Little Book, as its name suggests, is a condensed,readable, and accessible guide to essay writing, whichcan be read from cover to cover, but also dipped intomore casually, or used to scan for specific information.The book contains such essential topics as answeringthe question, making notes in preparation for writing,and essay structure. It also confronts some of thetrickier areas of essay writing such as purpose andaudience. Throughout the book, we, the authors, try todemystify essay writing and to present it as a skill madeup of a set of skills that all university students can learnand become proficient at.


Writing is a complex human activity, but most of usmanage to do it to a greater or lesser degree. Like allcomplex activities, there are various views on what itis and how best to do it. A fairly conventional viewexpressed by Flower and Hayes (1981) is that cognitiveprocesses – how you think – affect how you write.This, on the face of it, may seem glaringly obvious.What they are saying, in a nutshell, is that thinkingmust precede writing.

Peter Elbow (1973), the American writing guru,however, challenges this traditional view that we mustfirst decide what we want to write before we writeabout it. He believes that we can use writing as ameans of generating ideas and that it is by writing thatwe discover our thoughts.

Even further along the spectrum is the school of lifewriting (Goldberg, 1997), which advocates that thebest writing comes from getting in touch with yourunconscious. A typical writing exercise in a life writingclass might involve continuous writing for ten minutes(never lifting the pen off the page) where, for example,you might begin by describing your hands and thenwriting down any associations that come to your mindabout hands. In The Little Book, we suggest a similarfive minute exercise to demonstrate how much writingyou can actually do in a short time.

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Approaches to writing


What does all of the above mean? Simply this: inwriting, different approaches will work best fordifferent people. One of the biggest challenges you willface at university is the Socratic maxim of knowingyourself, particularly how you learn and work best. Inlearning to write essays, you will need to figure outwhat type of writer you are and to adopt planning andwriting strategies that suit you.



All university disciplines have discourses, that is, a setof terms, a jargon if you will, and methodologies, orways of looking at things, which have developed overtime. The modern essay could be seen as a universitydiscourse. It, too, has developed over time and hasconventions of structure, language, and ways ofpresenting evidence. Furthermore, it is a universitydiscourse because it is relevant to university. After yougraduate, you may never again write the type of essaythat was so much a part of your life at university,although many of the skills you learn in doing essayswill be transferable to other forms of non-universitywriting. It should be some solace to realise, however,that many before you have learned this discourse. Ifyou have older brothers or sisters who have been touniversity, they will have written essays. If yourparents are university graduates, they, too, will havewritten essays. With hard work and persistence, youcan become part of this discourse community of essaywriters.


The essay as discourse


An essay is a short written piece of prose thatattempts to answer a question or to respond to astatement. It is written in formal English and needs tobe grammatically sound.

Essays are one of the most common forms ofassessment used in universities because in tackling anessay question, you are working with the knowledgeacquired in your course or module. Not all coursesemploy this mode of assessment, but those that do willbe stimulating you to develop your writing skills.

Some of the conventions relating to the essay formatare as follows:

• Writing should be in continuous text, althoughsometimes an essay might have sections withsub-headings. Paragraphs should be effectivelyused to break the text up into readable chunks. Theonus is always on the essay writer to organise his orher writing in such a way that it is easy for thereader to follow.

• The essay is formal in both structure and language.It should have a well defined introduction, body, andconclusion. Standard English should be used asopposed to colloquial English.


What is an essay?


• Essays can vary in length anywhere from 500 to5,000 words. Such a range is not set in stone, butshorter pieces might constitute some form of briefreflection, whereas longer pieces of writing wouldprobably be called projects, theses, or dissertations.

• The English word ‘essay’ is derived from the French‘essai’, meaning ‘a try’. It is worth bearing theoriginal meaning in mind. Historically, the essay hasbeen a means of expressing everyday concerns orreflections and not a format used to expressultimate answers to things. The modern universityessay differs considerably from its historical cousin,yet something of its older ethos remains. As astudent writer, you will not be expected to producean ultimate answer, but rather to ‘try’ your best toproduce a plausible answer to a topic that probablyhas no set or singular answer.



Students often wonder where their own ideas fit intoessays they are writing, if at all. Many essay topics(although not all) focus students on issues or debateswithin a discipline – some of these debates may havebeen going on for hundreds of years! Lecturers willwant you to situate yourself in that debate, and theymay want you to do secondary reading, that is to readthe critics, so that you can understand the main issuesinvolved or the pertinent schools of thought. At theend of the day, however, your lecturers will want toknow what your position is and why. In that sense,your essay is your own even if you are summarisingthe views or findings of others in the process ofarriving at your own view.

Sometimes students wonder whether they shouldstrive to be original in their essays. Given that you willprobably be entering an on-going discourse, thechances of your being original are probably slim.Anyway, this is not what is being asked of you. Athorough, plausible answer to the topic is what’sexpected. If an essay were a shoe, it would be bestcharacterised as a comfortable and sturdy walkingshoe, capable of standing up to a few scuffs andscrapes, as opposed to the latest high tech trainer,which makes you feel like you could fly. Flights offancy aren’t needed in essay writing; a thoughtful,methodical approach will be rewarded amply.


Where do my ideas belong?


Answering the question

One of the biggest problems students face in essaywriting is squarely addressing the essay topic.

There can be several reasons for this. One commonmistake is a rush of blood at the sight of a topic and asubsequent splurge of writing resulting in what canbest be described as an unfocussed essay of the ‘all Iknow about the subject’ school. This can particularlybe the case in examinations requiring short essay-style answers. However, the problem can also arisewhen students have had weeks to contemplate a topic.Often the failure here is to analyse the topic questionor statement in its entirety, not just part of it. Eachword of the topic needs to be analysed as isdemonstrated in the following example:

Here is an example assignment title:


Pre-writing:

Evaluate metaphor The Tempestinuse ofShakespeare’s

The topic’s restriction – Ionly have to write aboutmetaphor in The Tempest

– no point in wastingwords on other plays.

The topic I have to write about.

Instructional word – asking me to evaluate.What does that mean? Judge its worth and

significance.

The aspect – the angle of thesubject matter, i.e. his use ofmetaphor – not just what it is.


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Essay topics will contain certain key terms(sometimes called instructional words) such as‘describe’, analyse’, ‘discuss’, ‘compare’, ‘criticallyevaluate’, etc. It is important to have a grasp of theseterms as they will guide you as to what is expected.There is a difference, for example, between ‘DescribeJung’s Theory of Personality’ and ‘Critically EvaluateJung’s Theory of Personality’. The former topic issimply asking you to describe the main aspects ofJung’s theory of personality; of course, you will needto decide what those main aspects are and possiblyeven compare Jung’s theory with other theories ofpersonality, even though that is not explicitly asked ofyou. The latter topic is asking you to go beyond meredescription and to place a value on Jung’s theory. It isasking you to raise questions like the following aboutJung’s theory: how scientifically based is it; howthorough is it; does it help us understand who wereally are; is something missing in it; is it supersededby other theories?

Although it is crucially important to try to understandthe language of essay topics, this is not necessarily astraightforward task because a lot of language we useis not transparent. In the context of an essay topic,‘discuss’ could mean ‘describe’, but it could also mean‘analyse’ or even ‘critically analyse’, and it mightimplicitly mean ‘compare’.

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If you don’t understand an essay topic after carefullyanalysing it, your classmates might be able to help.Your best source is the author of the essay topic itself,your lecturer. Don’t feel shy about contacting yourlecturer and explaining your difficulty; worse yet,don’t feel that you are stupid because you needguidance. As can be seen with the word ‘discuss’,words can signify many different things, and they donot implicitly carry the meaning that the writer of thewords necessarily intended. Asking for clarification isthe smart thing to do: it shows that you are takingcharge of your learning and coming to grips withambiguity.

Developing your own topic

Sometimes students in upper years of undergraduatecourses and usually postgraduate students will beasked to design their own essay topics. The mostcommon error here is to take on too broad a subject –‘history of the world’ approach – which inevitably endsbadly. The key here is to narrow one’s topic, not sonarrow that you have little to say but sufficientlynarrow that you can cover the topic in some depth.




Let’s revisit our friend Carl Jung. To attempt to writean essay on the psychology of Carl Jung would mostlikely lead to a superficial descriptive consideration ofhis theories – the topic is too broad. On the otherhand, simply focussing on his notions of extraversionand introversion might be too narrow. However,considering his notions of extraversion andintroversion and their implications for teaching andlearning might strike the right balance. The topic isnarrow, but not so narrow that a lot couldn’t be saidabout it. The topic could be covered both extensivelyand in depth. Furthermore, this type of topic isextremely common – the analysis of a theory and theapplication of the theory to practice.

When devising your own topic, don’t try to encompassmore than you can reasonably manage. You want todemonstrate that you can analyse a topiccomprehensively, and you will only be able to do that ifyou limit your scope.

Having understood your essay topic or devised amanageable one of your own, your next step may wellbe making notes.



Making notes

You will need to make notes on your informationsources. Remember to take down the details of yourreferences since you will need to include thisinformation in your citations and bibliographicreferences.

Note making differs from note taking in that it involvesreading, evaluating, summarising and paraphrasing.In other words, it involves your being active,interpreting as opposed to copying passively. Youshould approach everything you read with questions inmind: what is it that you want to learn from yoursources?

By actively engaging in the process and relating whatyou are making notes of to what you already know, youwill find that note making is not a painful or boringprocess, but is one of the steps on the road tounderstanding and extending your knowledge.


How do I make notes?

• There are several methods for making notes, andquite often, how much or how little detail you needdepends on why you are making notes. For example,if you are just beginning to investigate a topic, youwill need to get an overview of the subject. A quickmind map diagram with the main themes and theissues or problems could be sufficient.

• You can also combine styles: for example, a treediagram to put all the ideas together without anyprioritisation, a mind map to show relationships,and finally notes in sequence for details. Thesetechniques will be explained in more detail in thenext section.

• Sometimes you will need to make quite extensivenotes, but you should resist the temptation to copy,which is really taking notes as opposed to makingthem. A good technique is to put the source asideafter you’ve read for a while, then sum up theimportant points.

• Don’t spend hours on end making notes. You need todecide which sources are absolutely crucial to yourtopic and make notes on those sources. Don’toverdo it! It is possible to be awash in too muchdetail. It is more important to present the reader ofyour essay with well analysed information than withreams of undigested facts.





Once you’ve made notes, you will need to organisethese and develop a plan of attack. Some studentsbenefit from making a very visual plan, other studentslike to make detailed linear plans, and yet others preferto write and to plan and organise later. The key here isto find a technique that suits the way you work best.

Visual techniques work for some students in helpingthem generate and organise ideas and plan essays,but they don’t work for everyone, and they may notwork for you. Each of us learns differently, and yourjob as a pro-active student is to search out thoseapproaches that best suit your learning style andmode of working.

There are no hard and fast rules about how to plan andorganise an essay. Some of you may find the followingstructured approach useful:

1. What do you want to say?Begin by writing down the gist of your argument.

2. Get your points in order.Work out the best order for presenting your ideas.Sometimes strongest point to least convincing is afeasible approach, or you might like to do it the otherway around, working up to your strongest point.


Planning techniques:


3. Check your ideas.Do the ideas you want to present follow coherentlyone from another? If not, do they need re-orderingor bridging/linking ideas?

4. Check your examples.Could you add examples to illustrate the points youare trying to make?

5. Write an introduction.

6. Write a draft of the body of the essay.Using the order of ideas you have decided upon andthe examples you have chosen, write an initial draft.

7. Write the conclusion.Paradoxically, this could also be the first sectionyou write, especially if you have a very clear idea ofwhere you are going.

Adapted from Fairbairn and Winch (1996)

A structured approach to planning and organising anessay may suit many of you, but like any learning skill,one size may not fit all. Some of you would benefitfrom a more spontaneous approach: that is, sittingdown at your word processor or with a pad of paperand getting ideas down as they come to you.




If you follow such a process, then undoubtedly you willfind yourself making a considerable number ofrevisions, but using a computer makes additions,deletions, and the moving around of sentences andparagraphs easy. Some people simply work best bygetting their ideas down first and ordering andorganising later.

Whatever your method of planning and organising anessay, it is important that you have a method thatworks for you. Sometimes combining spontaneousand less spontaneous approaches can work: doingsome free writing before making a plan, or making abrief plan before writing at some length.

As mentioned earlier, some students profit from fiveto ten minutes of free writing, where they forcethemselves never to let the pen leave the page. Whenthey get stuck, they repeat the last word they’vewritten until a flow of thought is regained. Studentswho have tried this method are amazed at how muchcan be written in such a short time. Equally surprisingis the natural structure which emerges withoutseemingly thinking of structure.

Here are some techniques you might like to try fororganising your ideas and notes and planning an essay:



Linear plans

These are the most common way of organising ideas.Look at this example:

Topic: Examine the role of I.T. in the workplace.

There are also other ways of getting ideas on paper ororganising notes.

1.1 Interpret the question, e.g. Introduction‘I am taking I.T. to mean…’

1.2 Set the objective

1.3 Outline the structure

2.1 Define terms Body

2.2 Main areas, e.g. computers,the modern office, therelationship. Cite and discussexamples

2.3 Evidence and argument, e.g.'for and against' case relatingto efficiency, working conditionsfor staff, etc.

3.1 Summarise the discussion Conclusion

3.2 Identify areas for furtherresearch



Keyword trees

These allow you to specify the key and subsidiarypoints without organising them in any particular orderat this point.

Issue

Definitions

Ethics

Social

Relationshipwith I.T.

Humans v.robots

State v. individual

BenefitsEconomics

Science &responsibility

SocialImplications

Conclusions Ethics



Networks

These are useful if you have been asked to outline themain arguments in a controversial topic or to contrasttwo topics.

MainTheme/Issue

For/Benefits/Advantages

Benefits of I.T.

Access toinformation

Onlinecommunities

Against/Cost/Disadvantages

Issues of I.T.

Who hasaccess to I.T.

Dependenceon technical

infrastructure

Economy

Increaseswealth

Economy

Unemployment Deskilling

Ethics

Computercommunity

takesresponsibility

Codes ofconduct

Ethics

Who controlstechnology

What about therelationshipbetween the

use of computers,engineeering,and defence

policies?



Mind maps

Mind maps are a way of making notes or generatingideas using only key words and images.

This is an extremely useful technique that enables youto quickly get key concepts and ideas down on thepage in an easy and fun way.

Mind maps also make it easier to remember andreview information because of their visual impact.

Mind maps can be adapted for many different uses:making notes from the printed word, making notesfrom a lecture or video, planning essays orpresentations, as a technique for exam revision, or forproblem solving.

Top tips for creating mind maps:

• Use colour to depict themes and associations and tomake things stand out

• Wherever possible use images or symbols

• Remember, anything that stands out on the pagewill stand out in your mind

• Put ideas down as they occur – be spontaneous

• Be creative – creativity aids memory

• Have fun!



Here is an example of a mind map on Victorianachievers created by a student as a result ofbrainstorming:

Women’s rights

Rightsfor

Women

1889

Founded Women’s Franchise League

Emm

eline Pankhurst

Jose

phin

eBut

ler

Promoted social reform,

education and equality for

women

Revolutionised

comm

unication

Sir Rowland Hill Introduce

d Penny Post

1840

Introducedantiseptic surgery

Joseph Lister Sir John Simon

Perfected

vaccination system

Med

ical

brea

kthr

ough

s

1865

BritishVictorian Achievers

Alexander

Graham Bell

Constructed first

working telephone

1876

Now that you are ready to write or are actually writing,you would think that what follows should be quitestraightforward. After all, you’ve done a lot of yourthinking and planning, and now it’s just a case ofputting it all together. Well, yes, this is partially true,but there will also be some tricky choices ahead.



Essay structure

Essay structure is not an area where you will have tomake difficult choices. An essay must have abeginning, a middle, and an end. It is a functional formthat serves a purpose – the linear exposition of anargument. To put this in other words, the form of anessay allows you to present the following to yourreader: ‘Here is what I am going to argue, here is myargument and my support for it, and here is what Ihave argued and its implications.’

Introduction

This can help you with a number of tasks. It can hit thereader hard with the current issue and relevance ofthe topic. It sets the scene for the essay. It spells outthe main debates/issues which you are going toaddress and explains and prepares the reader for theorder in which you are going to address them. It givesyou the chance to show the reader, early on, that youhave understood the relevance of the topic andformulated a logical way of approaching it.

Most university essays should have a thesisstatement, which you would place towards the end ofyour introductory paragraph. Simply put, a thesisstatement is an explicit statement of your argument.

Writing the essay:



Let’s say your topic is one we saw earlier: EvaluateShakespeare’s Use of Metaphor in The Tempest. Theinstructional word here is ‘evaluate’: meaning judgethe value of, the worth of, the effectiveness of, etc.One of the principal key words is ‘use’. In thisquestion, you are being asked to place a value onShakespeare’s different uses of metaphor in the play.

Given what is being asked, what follows would be anexample of a possible thesis statement: In TheTempest, Shakespeare uses metaphor effectively toset the atmosphere of the play, to develop character,and to further the plot.

This statement is telling your reader what it is you aregoing to argue, and it may further be telling yourreader the order in which you will present your case. Itis a guide for both reader and writer; in addition, it is atype of contract, where you the writer are setting thelimits and the extent of what you intend to do. So,honour your contract and make sure you do it!


Body

Relevant content is one thing, order and coherentargument is another. Once you have collected yourinformation from all the useful sources, in what orderare you going to put the material? Some helpfulprinciples are as follows:

• Always prepare the reader for what comes next…no surprises. You should not be explaining theory,concepts, principles, etc. at the same time as youapply them. You should have done this clearly inlaying your theoretical foundations earlier in theessay. If you want to apply theory to subject specificcontexts, you must clearly articulate the theory first.

• Think about the most effective order for thepresentation of your ideas. One common order isstrongest support for your thesis to weakestsupport. You could equally reverse this process, andlead with your weakest argument building up to yourstrongest. It helps to have some rationale for theorder of your ideas.



Conclusion

You should be 'flagging' or sub-concluding at regularpoints in the essay so that the conclusion is morealong the lines of ‘So… it would appear that…’ or‘Based on the evidence presented, it can be concludedthat…’

Do not…

• Introduce new evidence or arguments at theconclusion stage

• Comment upon something which you have notargued for in the essay

• Tack on your personal opinion without it arising outof your discussion in the body of the essay itself

Do…

• Revisit the introduction and check each wellstructured paragraph of the essay. Did you do thethings you said you would do in the introduction?Have you fulfilled your contract?

• What did you find? This is the place to discuss yourfindings, although by the time the reader gets here,they should be fairly clear.



• Your topic will fit into some larger context of which itis a part. What is this larger context, and how doesyour particular angle of vision in your essay impacton the whole? What are the future implications ofyour findings?

• Remember, you may think you have to solve all theproblems and find the practical solutions to them bythe time the conclusion arrives, but half the battle isthinking things through and realising that there is aproblem or issue to be addressed.



Academic writing style

We see the word ‘style’ in many compound words suchas ‘hairstyle’ and ‘lifestyle’. We might say thatsomeone has style in the way that they dress orbehave. What we mean in these instances is themanner in which someone does something.

Essays need to have a style, an academic writing style,and not understanding what this style is can lead tosome very poor student essays.

There are many components of an academic writingstyle, but the two that best allow us to understandwhat style to adopt in writing essays are purpose andaudience.

Purpose

Purpose, simply put, is the reason you are writing theessay. You might answer that you are writing the essaybecause your lecturer has demanded that you do so aspart of the formative assessment for your course. Youwould have a point, but this would not be the mosthelpful way of looking at purpose.



Most essay topics are set on complex issues. Yourlecturer wants you to recognise the complexityinvolved but also to take a stand – that is, to argue fora particular thesis. Your purpose, therefore, is toargue your case as clearly as you can.

When you think of purpose in this way, certain otheraspects of an academic writing style become moreapparent. These could be summed up as follows:

• The organisation of your essay should have arationale that is easy to follow because your purposeis to make your argument as clear as possible.

• Similarly, your language should be straightforward.Yours is not a quest to confuse, show off yoursuperior vocabulary, be pompous, or fill your writingwith gobbledygook and words you don’t understand.Again, your purpose is to make your argument astransparent as possible.

• Your lecturer will not be impressed if you digress tothe point of muddying your argument. All writersmust make difficult choices of what to include andwhat to leave out, and so must you. Your guidingprinciples should be the clarity and flow of yourargument.



Audience

A related topic to ‘purpose’ is that of ‘audience’. This isquite a complex issue. In most other instances ofcommunication – for example, an e-mail or a textmessage – your audience is perfectly clear. This is notthe case in essay writing.

If you were asked who you were writing your essay for,you would probably reply that you were writing it foryour lecturer. And, yes, this would be true, up to apoint. Yet you are not writing it for your lecturer in thesense of extending your lecturer’s knowledge(although that could happen) but rather as an exercisein which you are showing your lecturer that you have agrasp of a topic. You are also engaged in an exercisewhich demonstrates your ability to articulate thatgrasp in writing.

In some ways, though, you are writing for yourself. It isin the act of putting your ideas down that you may bediscovering for yourself what you think. If you alreadyknow what you think, then you are working out ways ofsupporting your thesis.

One useful way out of this dilemma of audience is tothink that you are writing for an intelligent classmate.This classmate is a friend to whom you are trying tocommunicate your thesis as clearly as possible.




You are not trying to impress this friend or overwhelmhim/her with the great breadth of your knowledge;rather you are providing this friend with the necessaryinformation to follow your argument without beingfrustrated. You are treating this friend, in writing, asyou would treat any good friend – with considerationand respect. You are keeping this friend in mind as youwrite – what terms would this friend need defined,what theory needs to be explained, and what linksneed to be provided so that the train of your argumentcan be followed and the relevance of your examplesunderstood?

Just as you would probably clean up your home if thisfriend were visiting, so should you ‘clean up’ yourgrammar and spelling before submitting your essay.You want your friend to think of you as a careful,thoughtful communicator.

Mylecturer?

Me?

A friend?

Who is myaudience?



Choice of person

This is an area of essay writing where you will have tomake a definite choice. Your choices are essentiallythreefold, with a possible fourth option.

‘Person’ refers to the voice in which you write. If youare writing a personal or reflective essay, you will usethe first person – ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ because you arewriting primarily about yourself. If you were writing anessay in which you were giving instructions forexample (not a type of essay frequently required atuniversity), you would probably use the second personpronoun ‘you’. In this book, we frequently use thesecond person – ‘you’, ‘your’, and ‘yours’ because thisbook is an instructional manual to a large degree, andwe are addressing you, the reader, directly.

Much of the writing you do at university will requirethat you use third person rather than first or secondperson. This means that you may be asked to leave the‘I’ out of your writing. ‘It’ or any noun is third person.For reasons of establishing an objective voice, somelecturers may prefer, for example, that you write, ‘Itcould be argued that…’ as opposed to ‘I believe that…’



A fourth sensible option would be a combination ofthird and first person – that is, an essay largely writtenin third person with appropriate use of the first person‘I’ when the occasion allows you to speak personally,or when not to do so would lead to very awkward useof language. You want to avoid pompous soundingconstructions like, ‘The writer of this paper thinks…’and simply write, ‘I think…’ Clarity and ease ofexpression should take precedence over slavishadherence to person.

Points ofview

I, me, my You, your,yours

He, she, it,a person,any noun



What your essay looks like is important. Here aresome tips and conventions that may help:

• Most essays these days will probably be submittedelectronically, but if you must hand in a hard copy aswell, A4 paper of good quality is required.

• Line spacing should be one and a half, except forlong quotations, which should be single spaced andindented.

• Margins: left approx. 4cm and all others 2cm.

• Page numbers should be bottom centred andnumbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Pagesthat come before the actual body of the essay – acontents page, for example – should be numberedwith lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv…).

• Your essay should have a cover page, although mostuniversity departments will have a template whichwill perform this function. For reasons of markingobjectivity, you probably will not be asked for yourname on this template but rather for your student ID.

Presentation



No matter how well you write, it is very important thatyou leave enough time to proofread your essay. Try toleave at least 24 hours between finishing your essayand re-reading it. This is especially true if you don'treally like writing, because this gives enough time foryour feelings of frustration to subside.

Read the essay critically, objectively and actively. Is itanswering the question? Have you provided enoughexamples to support your thesis? Does it flow? Is itgrammatically correct? Have you cited and referencedcarefully?

Re-reading the essay



Competent essay writers are made, not born. It takespersistence to learn the numerous skills involved, butall university students can master these skills overtime and with some guidance. Don’t become toodiscouraged when essays come flying back at youcovered in red. We often learn more from our failuresthan from our successes. Pay close attention to thefeedback you receive, make sure you understandclearly where you’ve gone astray, and strive to improvenext time. Try to enjoy the process of learning to writeessays and take pride in your achievements. Good luckand happy essay writing.

Final words



Elbow, P. (1973) Writing Without Teachers. Oxford,Oxford University Press.

Fairbairn, G. & Winch, C. (1996) Reading, Writing AndReasoning A Guide for Students, 2nd ed. Buckinghamand Philadelphia, Open University Press.

Flower, L. & Hayes, J. (1981) A cognitive processtheory of writing. College Composition andCommunication, 32, pp.365-387.

Goldberg, N. (1997) Writing Down the Bones: Freeingthe Writer Within. Boston, Shambhala Books.

Bibliography




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The Little Book of Essay Writing · trickier areas of essay writing such as purpose and audience. Throughout the book, we, the authors, try to demystify essay writing and to present