Essay Tips

Essay Tips You will find a number of great books on essay writing in the Laidlaw Library, Level 1, under Skills E-5. If you feel that you need more help in writing an assignment - then you can get free help at the HELPS unit. That is, it tells you what things mean and what they are; and it uses examples to show you how they work. Welcome to Writing Essays, the RLF’s online guide to everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about writing undergraduate essays. One of your goals is to evoke a strong sense of familiarity and appreciation in the reader. Don’t start with a dictionary definition â€" this is clichéd and boring. It should sum up the main arguments in the middle and finish with a conclusions that finally answers the essay question. If it’s a ‘define and explain’ kind of question, you’ll need to show that you have a deep understanding of the topic. If it has two parts, divide your essay into two parts to answer the question. Read widely around the topic before you even start and you’re halfway there. Essays need to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The introduction should outline the problem, explain why it’s important, and briefly outline the main arguments. Finally, your concluding statement should articulate your voice or opinion. In addition to commencing your paragraph with a clear topic sentence, it is important to use linking words and phrases to create cohesion within and across paragraphs in your writing. The words you see on your screen are what we call transition signals or signpost words, and they can help the reader follow the order and flow of your ideas. In a previous online tutorial video we introduced you to a real-life assignment question and talked about how to structure the introduction and conclusion to an essay. This is followed by the explanation or argument and then substantiated through the integration of evidence and demonstration of examples. Notice that it is important to include some form of critical analysis or observation. We’re located in building 1 level 3 room 8, just across from the Concourse café and the Careers Office. Please feel free to come and visit us and chat to an Advisor about receiving academic language support to complete your assesements. Now let's try and identify the essential elements to a paragraph by looking at an example taken from our assignment question. You’ll notice the first sentence is the topic sentence which clearly states the theme of the paragraph. The body of the essay consists of a number of paragraphs in which you present your main points and evidence to support them. If you have planned and prepared appropriately, writing the body of the essay should be fairly easy. It will almost be a case of expanding what you have in note form into complete sentences, adding specific details where necessary. Some teachers advice their students to come up with three points for their thesis. What invariably ends up happening is that you end up writing three mini-essays that are only loosely connected. What’s important is that there is no set rule as to how many paragraphs you can use for any section of your essay. In a long essay, your introduction might take up two or three paragraphs. You can also have as many middle paragraphs as you like. Every essay obviously has an introduction and a conclusion. If it’s a ‘compare and contrast’ kind of question, you’ll need to demonstrate both sides of the argument. If your reader can walk away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are on your way to writing effective descriptive essays. The Modes of Discourseâ€"Exposition, Description, Narration, Argumentation â€"are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. The trick with writing paragraphs is to remind your reader of the general argument. However, there’s no need to conclude every paragraph with a summary of what came before. Just make sure you paragraphs transition nicely from one to the next.