1. A) Choosing your question

In most cases before starting an essay you must choose which question you want to answer.

There is a balancing act to be done when making this choice. On the one hand you must be as thorough as possible when making your choice because choosing the wrong question can make a big difference in how difficult your task is, how enjoyable the essay is and the mark you will get. On the other hand you have to choose as quickly as possible because you need as much time as possible to think about the question, to do research and finally to answer the question. It is possible to switch questions after you have chosen one, but it requires a lot of extra work to get back on track.

First read all the questions so you have them in the back of your mind. Then work out criteria to decide how to make your choice.

Personally the types of considerations I would make are:

i) Is it an interesting topic?
ii) Could I give a good answer to the question now?
iii) Could I write a good essay on this?
iv) Do I understand the question?

Do not choose a question simply because you think it is the easiest or that it requires the least work. While some questions may be easier than others there is usually not a great difference. If the question appears simple, it does not mean that the required answer will be. It is also not possible to know beforehand how much work a question requires until you have got into detailed research and thinking about the subject. Remember many degrees are determined by essays and so questions are designed to test you. It may be though that if you find a subject interesting that this will make the essay easier for you to work on.

I would generally eliminate the questions that I think are awkward or don’t interest me. Then I would mark the possible questions spend a day mulling it over and write some ideas for how I might answer the shortlist (i.e. jot some ideas and based on that ask myself how well could I answer that?). I would then try to decide. More systematic people might mark the questions out of ten on the criteria they made and then choose from the top two.

1. B) Obsess about the question

Write the question down long hand or re-type it (i.e. don’t just copy and paste it).

Make sure the question you wrote down is exactly the same as the question on the paper to the last dot and comma.

Read it several times.

Whenever you are making notes or typing your essay or doing research have a copy of the question handy so that you can re-read it.

Remember everything you are doing is narrowly to be able to answer this question. You need it constantly in mind as you go along.

You will find that when it comes to working on the essay you will be using your unconscious mind or “sleeping on it” – reminding yourself of the essay question is part of that process.

If you think the question is obvious or you think that the question will not mean addressing some of the big questions discussed during lectures then the odds are that you have to rethink, that you have not really understood it. At that stage especially go to your tutor for advice.

Print it out and carry it around.

1. C) Some keywords in the question

Beware these are quite general – but they should help you think about how you are supposed to be answering the assignment.

Analyse                Break up into parts and investigate in detail
Comment            Use evidence and give a balanced reasoning for your views
Compare             Look for any similarities and note the differences that exist between them
Contrast               Bring out the differences (not the similarities)
Define                  Briefly explain the exact/precise meaning of the word or phrase
Describe              Give a clear and detailed account of the topic
Discuss                 Investigate all sides of the argument, give reasons for and against, and reach a balanced conclusion
Explain                  Say clearly why something is so, giving your reasons
Evaluate               Give your opinion of something, with reasons for and against, saying whether you agree or not, and why
Justify                   Show why decisions and conclusions are reached, and why what has been said against them could be wrong
Summarise         Give a short account of the main points of something  – without opinions or irrelevant details
Trace                     Follow the changes in, or the history of, something; show a sequence of events from one particular point to another

Source for C: https://my.lsbu.ac.uk/assets/documents/academic/essay%20and%20report%20writing.pdf

Academic writing is not the same as a conversation or of you simply putting your point of view. The idea is to leverage the years of work that some of the brightest people on the planet have put into thinking about problems to help you in the pursuit of answering a question. This answer should be impersonal, formal and analytical rather than personal, informal and descriptive.

To do this type of writing you need to spend a large amount of time and effort time digesting and thinking about the question you are answering and finding and understanding the academic literature on your subject. You will need to put into context and test the ideas and theories you find in academic literature in the pursuit of the answer to the question you have been set.

Your writing should not be over-dependent on lecture material. Lectures are only the starting point or introduction to the reading on the subject.
Your writing should not merely state your opinions, without reference to the academic literature.

Your approach

You must consider whether your approach is appropriate to answering the question. Consider whether you have tackled the issues in an appropriate way in terms of your method (the step by step approach to get to an answer) and conceptually (the appropriate concepts and theories for your question).

For example you might deploy an historical approach or an in-depth case study to illustrate broader issues, or the analysis of industry procedures, technologies or detailed textual analysis of a cultural artefact such as a film or television programme or piece of journalism.

Be wary about presenting too much history. It may be that you have to explain the concepts rather than explain the history of something. Sometimes students present undigested historical background that does not get to the question. This is because they have not been able to think through the problem – perhaps they started too late. So they are presenting what they know rather than applying what they know to the question (which is the point).

Your research

Because academic writing stands on or relies on previous academic interpretations you must ensure you have used the highest quality research possible. This will mean that academic sources such as books and academic papers are your starting point – guided by your course materials. Do not jump to a search engine such as Google because this material does not have the same rigour and has not been tested to the extent that academic literature has by the review of other academics (i.e. peer review). With much of online material the quality is variable: it can be too basic, impressionistic or descriptive for what you want to achieve.

Your approach to the material you use and analyse should be critical. Critical does not mean to say: “it is bad”. Rather critical means testing one argument against another for logic and as to whether it fits the evidence.

Your understanding of relevant academic literature

As part of your presentation you will need to outline the arguments and ways of thinking used in literature which has already covered your topic or which feed into your topic. You must show how you have built on these concepts and ideas or perhaps criticised them in order to develop your own argument.

Remember that critical engagement does not necessarily mean criticising a reading so much as responding to it, commenting on it and evaluating its strengths, weaknesses or usefulness for your own work.

Avoid simplifications such as “plus points”/”negative points”. This is not secondary education: you are testing quality through analysis and critical comparison not simply listing strengths and weaknesses.

Your writing

You must try to make your writing as clear, accessible and enjoyable a style as possible while retaining an exact use of language and clarity of meaning. You must maintain academic conventions i.e. quotes, references, bibliography in the course of your argument.

Academic style and vocabulary

(Adapted from Cottrell, S. (1999) The Study Skills Handbook London: Macmillan)

Remember to use a formal (but not a pretentious) tone in your work. Academic writing demands that you avoid the personal. Personal writing tends to be emotional, intuitive, uses the active voice (e.g. ‘I find that’), is anecdotal, uses data from one source, and is subjective and does not get to the point.

Academic writing should be logical, use reasoning, evidence and data from a range of sources, be objective and keep to a logical sequence. Such writing often uses the passive voice, e.g. ‘it was found that’.

Using three types of words can improve academic writing style significantly:

Vocabulary: emphasis markers

Use this kind of language to show clearly what you think is most important but avoid using personal language like ‘I think’.

Adjectives: main, crucial, important, significant, essential, key
Nouns: focus, element, concept, theory, aspect, part, idea, point, argument, discussion, debate.
Verbs: to emphasise, to summarise, to focus, to highlight.

For example:

The key aspect of this argument is…
The most crucial point made so far is…
To summarise the essential elements of the discussion up to this point…
It is important to emphasise that…

Using these phrases will make what you say appear more authoritative.

Vocabulary: evaluative language

Use this kind of language to show more clearly what you think about different points.

Adjectives (positive):       remarkable, innovative, complex, interesting, profound, logical, comprehensive, powerful, sensitive, incisive, rigorous, systematic, considered
Adjectives (negative):     flawed, modest, unsatisfactory, inadequate, limited, restricted.
Nouns:  synthesis, survey, topic, study, history, concept, area, theme, overview, analysis, system.
Verbs:  explain, survey, discuss, study, present, describe, bring into focus, consider, explore, illuminate, introduce, analyse, constitute.

Vocabulary: modals

The group of 11 words called modals can help you avoid over-generalisations. These words express degrees of certainty and possibility, thereby avoiding making statements which claim too much or suggest you know everything about a subject.

The 11 modals are:

can, may, could, might, will, would, shall, should, ought to, must, need not.

By far the most useful are can, could and might.

Checklist

Content and argument:
The text answers the question or fulfils the brief set.
Sufficient attention has been given to the most important points.
All the information included is relevant to the set question.
The main line of argument is clear.

Research material:
There are sufficient examples and evidence to prove or illustrate your points.

Structure and grouping:
The text is in an appropriate structure or format.
Each paragraph is well structured.
Ideas are presented in the right order.
It is clear how each paragraph links to the others.

Style:
The style is appropriate, i.e. not chatty or flippant and free from slang and colloquialisms.
Technical vocabulary is used correctly.
The words used are your own – and suitably referenced when they belong to someone else.
The text is not repetitive.
The text can be read aloud easily.

Clarity:
There is nothing the reader will find confusing.
The language is clear and straightforward.
The reader will easily follow the line of reasoning.
Sentences are of reasonable length and are uncomplicated.

General:
The introduction and conclusion are clear and accurate.
Spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct.
References and bibliography are correct and accurate.
You have taken into account feedback you received for earlier work.

[reading time: 20 minutes]

It seems obvious that undergraduates should use essays to answer the question that has been set. However, the main comment made on essay papers is “Answer the Question”. Academic guides often use detailed explanations of the terms used in questions to help students. However, as this complaint crops up time and again, there seems to be a more fundamental problem of communication between those creating questions and those required to answer. This piece is an attempt to address this by discussing why the essay is counterintuitive, then looking at what the ideas are behind an essay, and finally look at an alternative way of approaching the essay.

So why the difficulty?

Perhaps the chief explanation is that step-by-step reasoning and finding evidence to tackle a particular problem is not a regular occurrence for most. Take, for example, day-to-day conversations, the main way that people communicate ideas. In a conversation, ideas bounce back and forth. There is a to and fro of questions, examples, arguments, interpretations and interruptions. There are deviations from the main topic or an entirely new topic is created and then the old topic is revisited (or not). Even subtle alterations of body language and tone can change a discussion’s dynamics.

Also, narrowly focusing on a subject is rarely how we think. Our thoughts tend to wander from one thing to another. If, for example, you are reading a novel your imagination will start working. You might wonder what a character is feeling or what comes next or how it will all end. Thoughts often “jump out” rather than going from A, to B, to C. In many ways this type of thinking is a good thing. We are not computers or mathematical equations; we can use our imaginations, make strange and wonderful connections and develop unique points of view and novel insights.

This difference between everyday thinking and communication on the one hand and the academic attitude to writing about a problem on the other can help explain why students often feel uncomfortable with essays. In the same way that children finishing GCSE maths are happy never to have to solve a quadratic equation again, undergraduates on finishing their degrees can sometimes be heard saying how much they disliked essays and how pleased they are to see the back of them. There are two points here. The first is that students can experience essay writing as a constraint on how they normally think and express opinions. The second is that essay writing can seem a very artificial exercise which, like solving quadratic equations, by and large only occurs in education.

From the other side of the classroom there is another problem. The academic tutors that are insistent that the student “answer the question” already understand why this is important and have made this approach to knowledge an important part of their lives. Clarifying the need to answer the question can often seem like explaining the obvious. Explaining the reasons for setting questions in particular ways and getting answers that directly respond can also seem repetitive. Often the necessary working assumption is that “how to do essays” has been covered so that the tutor can get on with teaching their subject. Another factor at work is that lecturers are loathe to spell out details of a question because they want students to think about it and analyse it themselves. The result can be that many undergraduates are uncertain about why they are doing essays and being asked to conform to a rigid style of response. Sometimes, even as they collect their degrees, students have not quite understood why these degrees required such an amount of formal writing.

Having set out some of the reasons essays are unintuitive, what is the idea of having essays answering set questions? Are criticisms that essays are artificial and constraining correct? Why would someone create this type of obscure, anachronistic exercise? Couldn’t tutors be more flexible and instead accommodate students’ creativity? Why require them to stick rigorously to jargon-laden questions?

To understand the importance of essays, it is necessary to draw out how this type of formal writing is connected with the modern world’s approach to knowledge and how it is a partial solution to the limitations of previous forms of communication. The question for those wanting to test ideas and develop knowledge was (and is) how to do it. Informal discussion, the way that people have communicated for millennia, is often unsatisfactory. Although sometimes great insights can develop from a remark made in a conversation this is haphazard and often derives from a great deal of experience or prior thought. Instead, an approach is needed that is systematic and can continue developing.

A historical detour is useful here. The word “essay” first appeared in the fifteenth century where it meant to “test the quality of”. The fifteenth century English word developed from the Old French assay, itself a development of the Latin word exagium which means “weighing” (Oxford University Press, 2011). We still use weighing in everyday speech when talking about ideas: people are said to weigh up the arguments. Likewise in law, juries are asked to weigh the evidence. Justice has even adopted the symbol of a woman blindfolded with sword and weighing scale. The period when essay started being used is significant. The fifteenth century saw the drawing to an end of a period marked by superstition, often referred to as the Dark Ages. The idea of being able to test the quality of ideas was developing. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, in 1473, William Caxton produced the first English language printed book. Knowledge was expanding throughout Europe and, using this knowledge, previous ideas about the world were beginning to be tested. The century saw a doubling in the number of universities in Europe to satisfy a “thirst for knowledge”. These institutions were to play an important role in both the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance (Grendler, 2004: 1-2).

It had become clear that our individual perception of the world was on its own insufficient to understand it. However even when we made and communicated discoveries, there could be facts that pointed to one conclusion and yet facts that pointed to the opposite conclusion. The solution was to apply logical reasoning to these discoveries. This involved creating theories based on a chain of reasoning and evidence – with each bit of evidence being checked and assessed – that sought to understand a particular problem. If a theory had been tested enough and still seemed to explain the situation then others could start to use the theory and do this without trying to understand every new thing as if it were completely new. Theories could then become tools or methods to help understand novel situations.

One example of how this works in practice is Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin collected detailed information about the wildlife on the Galapagos Islands and tried to explain the small variations in the birds he found there. His chain of reasoning led him to argue that natural variations within a species could produce a particular bird that did very well in its particular environment. This variation would allow the bird to survive and successfully raise offspring where other variations of bird would cause it to die or to produce less offspring. The successful variations would then become more common and the species would break into different types exploiting different food sources. Eventually the differences might become so large that entirely new species would emerge. Darwin posited that this process of natural selection explained the many species of wildlife. Over many years this theory has been tested as a way of seeing nature and now informs all those examining natural life. Scientists trying to answer the question of how characteristics were transferred and how variations were made looked for, found and modelled the double helix of DNA.

This might seem a world away to a young person entering higher education, but it isn’t. The idea of education today has often been skewed towards getting a job rather than the expansion of knowledge, and so an understanding of theories and facts might seem to be enough for employment. However, the modern approach to knowledge, because it runs counter to most daily activities and relies on what are often long chains of reasoning, cannot just be learned by repetition or reading a text book. Practice and application is required to get to grips with complicated theories and to see just how, where and to what they can be applied. The preparation in undergraduate education is to understand a subject and related theories in such a way that they can be applied later in unforeseen circumstances and so that approaches and insights emerging later in one’s professional life can be independently assessed and put to work.

It is an understanding of this modern form of knowledge that should sound a warning to students against seeing themselves as consumers receiving an education. Rather this education is made on purpose to put students in an uncomfortable position of having to start thinking in a different way. And rather than tuition providing answers, it provides theories, arguments, ideas and knowledge. It is the student who then has to practice using these theories – i.e. do essays – so that they start to understand them in a more complete way. The tutor can act as guide but no more than that.

An essay then can be seen as necessary practice in the construction of logical arguments using theory and evidence – so for a particular subject the question set must be made in such a way that it ensures this practice deals with the material being taught. The question is meant to be difficult so that it forces students to address difficult theories and complex evidence. If an essay question is set too narrowly then the subject that is being taught is not broadly explored. However, if the essay question is too broad then focus is lost and the subject matter cannot be covered in depth. This means that the question can be seen as being a guide that can be helpful to the student: if they answer the question they can greatly improve their understanding of the subject being taught. The process of writing about a subject, of fixing words on the page, is at the same time a process of making it more fixed in your own thought. In other words, by explaining it in your essay you are clarifying it to yourself.

The wording of the question is also an important part of getting the balance between breadth and depth right and thus ensuring the essay is an effective teaching/learning instrument. The words used in questions – such as “critical account”, “interpret”, “examine”, “explain” – are used in their most specific sense. The question often takes a long time to understand, however if the ten words of the question are to be converted into 2,000 words of writing then the time is well spent. There is another important point here and a clue to help in writing. Words themselves are the basic building blocks of an argument – the bricks and mortar. Starting to see specific meanings in words is an important discipline in this type of modern knowledge which allows more exact expression and meaning where required (similarly, sometimes words with fuzzier, less exact meaning are needed as part of constructing an argument). The implication here is that there can be as much content and meaning in each sentence you write yourself.

The discipline of concentration on a particular question might seem to be a limit on creativity but can rather be seen as framework to allow creativity. Think of the modern pop song. Its three minute format is a constraint which has allowed an explosion of talent to come forward since it was introduced. By having something fixed concentration can be maintained. Students who, later on in their degrees, do a dissertation where they get to decide on their own topic understand that there are much greater difficulties to be found there – although other constraints are added to the dissertation format. However, the bigger picture is this: once you start to master how to do an essay your ability to communicate in a way that others can understand, follow and, perhaps, agree with increases. Your point of view can be clearer in an essay, for example, than in an informal chat.

Having hopefully explained what is behind the essay and why it is important to answer the question, I want to suggest an analogy that is instructive and can help fix the correct type of approach in mind. There is a form of speech that has many similarities with essays: the legal trial. This is a type of formal discussion that was developed alongside modern thinking that we are all familiar with from movies, television and the newspapers. In a trial there are rules to the discussion. The judge uses these rules to ensure the discussion is conducted in the set order. Each side gets to present its full arguments and evidence, which is done largely uninterrupted by the opposing side. However, each gets to test the other’s arguments and evidence. The judge ensures that the evidence presented matches important criteria to do with its reliability. However, the judge also filters everything presented to the court so that it addresses a very narrow question. In a criminal trial this narrow question is: is the accused guilty of the charges presented against them. Here the judge forces the focus on facts and arguments that touch on that one question.

Let’s stretch the analogy to breaking point. In an essay you are a defence trial lawyer. The question of guilty or not guilty of the charges has been replaced by your essay question – only address the court with evidence relevant to this question. The jury are the readers you are addressing. They must understand the arguments you are making, be wowed by the expert witnesses you call who backup your arguments, be impressed by the evidence you present and they must follow the theory you are creating for what really happened that on that dark night. However you must also anticipate the prosecution lawyer. Where there is clearly evidence that contradicts your account you must attempt to discredit it and explain the presence of those bloodstains as the result of a domestic accident. You must use your expert witnesses against your opponent’s. You must make the opposing expert witnesses sound uncertain in cross-examination. Remember, if you put forward what is just your opinion then the judge will throw it out of court as speculation and if you don’t stick to the question then the judge will rule it out of order, embarrassing and discrediting you in front of the jury. At the end of the trial the only measure of success is if the jury thinks that you defended your answer to the question successfully.

One final note. It may be that often the student is presenting whatever they do know about the subject, because they haven’t done the work needed to answer the question or even to understand the question. Only by thoroughly reading about the subject, by tackling the reading list and by following up on your thoughts by research will you be in a position to answer the question. Poor preparation cannot be fixed by this piece. However, students who don’t address the question at hand are extremely frustrating to those marking essays and hopefully after reading this they might understand why.

Mark Beachill

References

Grendler, P. (2004) “The Universities of the Renaissance and Reformation”, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Spring, 2004) Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1262373 (Accessed 20 April 2011) Oxford University Press (2011) “Essay: Oxford Dictionaries” Available at http://english.oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0273980#m_en_gb0273980 (Accessed 20 April 2011)

Exercise: write in a paragraph why it is important to answer the question in academic essays

[reading time 5 minutes]

Or watch the animated version!

We couldn’t do it; it was such a slog. The lecturer was sighing and we were moaning. The class I took recently (at another University) was less than half-way through the essay and we simply gave up. And that was just reading and critiquing, done so that we might learn about writing.

People in the class expressed disbelief that the lecturer might have to sit through 10 of these. Sure the essay was about taxation, but specifically the Poll Tax and whether the opposition outside of Parliament, culminating in mass riots, was effective. The lecturer said, “I don’t expect any to be an interesting read. I’m just pleased if the English is okay and they have a structure.”

However, to disagree with the sad-faced tutor, if we aspire only to writing that ticks some boxes that’s the best we can hope for. This is not to say the “gramma don’t matta”, but it matters because getting a point across is much more difficult when the reader is constantly distracted by mistakes and unclear sentences.

Everybody at University should aspire to good writing, to lively prose, and to ideas that leap out of the page to stick in the mind. Writing is a skill that can help you through the rest of your life, and doing it well can even improve how well you think. Getting thoughts onto paper forces you to clarify those thoughts.

There is no secret to good writing: as Matthew Arnold once said, “Have something to say and say it well.”  As an exercise, find things you like to read, whether newspapers, magazines or even novels – and work out why reading these are a pleasure. You will see they have ideas to get across, facts you must know. They want to grab your attention and make you keep reading. They structure their points, so that you too can see what they believe, or what it was like to be there. Closely study effective writing: it pays off.

To write well, first you must have something to say, and this means you have to read. One important reason the Poll Tax essay so deadened the soul was the writer had just one main reference: a deadly dull textbook on eighties’ politics. While at the time there was heated debate and clashes of ideology nothing of this made it to the page. Looking at a few more points of view might have brought the subject alive in the essayist’s own mind. Then the excitement of understanding what was said, and why it might be right or wrong, could spill out onto the page.

In just a couple of thousand words or so essays can’t be definitive. But they can develop a point of view, an argument, and weigh up all and sundry in its pursuit. Having that argument needs facts, characters and viewpoints to engage with. Finding these means reading, reading with intent, to get what you need.

Once you have something to say, then, how to say it well? There are scores of books in the library explaining how to write essays. None of them are great, but they do tell you something of what is expected in the structure of an academic essay. Find one that you like the style of and photocopy the pages on structure. These pages can remind you of the bits that must be in an essay. But, put simply, they repeat the advice sometimes given to public speakers “Say what you are going to say. Say it. Then say what you have said.”

Structure, or the overall building up of an argument, like much of writing, takes practice. You should get somebody you know will enjoy ripping your essay to shreds and ask them if it makes sense. They will see gaps in logic on the page that you have missed, because it is already obvious in your head. You will learn to spot these gaps yourself, but even the best writers rely on editors to spot missing links. Get a mate, who’ll read it late.

This isn’t and couldn’t be a comprehensive guide to writing. But one guideline is to try to take pleasure in the construction of what you write. Have your paragraphs express one idea, and use the first sentence to say it and then explain and expand on it. Vary sentences in length, to vary the pace, like music. Staccato points work. But this is especially true when mixed with long, flowing sentences that engage your reader.

Enjoy cutting unnecessary words out. Find active, striking words and phrases. Resist clichés like the plague. Above all writing is about communicating. Smile, if others can see inside your mind, because you have taken the time to write clearly.

There are several books that have helped improve my writing – see below. And your university offers help from enthusiastic staff to improve your writing skills. Let’s face it, if you think essay writing is a just a chore then it will be. And your suffering readers will agree.

Further reading: Evans, H. (2000) Essential English: For Journalists, Editors and Writers, London: Pimlico // Orwell, G (1946) Politics and the English Language // Trask, R.L. (1997) Penguin Guide to Punctuation, London: Penguin
Exercise: find two sources that have a writing style you like and explain in a couple of paragraphs why giving examples.

Please see attached Essay Writing Guide 1.06

Essay_Writing_Guide_1.06 Word Document

Essay_Writing_Guide_1.06 PDF Document