Essay writing

• Home
• Introduction to academic writing
  Expectations
  
  So where do you start?
  
  Improving writing skills based on marker feedback
  
• Planning the essay
  Aims
  
  What does planning involve?
  
  Some types of questions
  
  Types of assignment questions
  
  Some strategies
  
  Identify key words
  
  The Bull’s Eye Strategy
  
  Using the Bull’s Eye Strategy
  
  Think around the focus
  
  Step 1: Make a rough plan or map of initial ideas
  
  Step 2: Refine the thinking
  
  Organise ideas
  
• Building the essay
  Aims
  
  Introduction
  
  Commonly asked questions about introductions
  
  Activity
  
  A model for writing introductions
  
  The broad to narrow model: an application
  
  What is an effective thesis statement?
  
  Practice 1
  
  Scrambled introductions
  
  Body paragraphs
  
  Which text is easier to read?
  
  The SEC model for paragraph construction
  
  Paragraph construction: The SEC Model
  
  Practice 2
  
  Identifying topic sentences
  
  Building a body paragraph
  
  Conclusion
  
  Practice 3
  
  Scrambled conclusions
  
  1. The changing styles of rock and roll music
  
  2. The motorcar has wrecked civilisation 
  
• Achieving coherence
  What is coherence?
  
  Four cohesive devices
  
  Pronouns
  
  Pronouns as cohesive devices 
  
  Repetition
  
  So, how does repetition as a cohesive device work?
  
  Pronoun + Repetition of key noun
  
  Transitions
  
  Test yourself: How well do you understand transitions?
  
  Using transitions/logical organisers
  
  Using transitions
  
  Overusing transitions
  
  Practice
  
  Identifying cohesive devices
  
  Identifying cohesive devices
  
  Using cohesive devices - pronouns and repetition
  
  Cohesion between paragraphs
  
  Parallelism
  
  Parallelism in extended texts
  
  Problem areas
  
  Correcting faulty parallel constructions
  
  Recognising parallel structures
  
  Challenge task
  
  Putting sentences in order
  
  Ship accident in Channel
  
• Understanding essay types
  Introduction
  
  Definitions
  
  Expository essays
  
  Discussion essays
  
  Description versus discussion
  
  Discussion versus argument
  
  Basic features of discussion essays
  
  Sample discussion essays
  
  Essay sample 1
  
  Argumentative essays
  
  The language of argument
  
  Basic features of argumentative essays
  
  Sample argumentative essays
  
  Essay sample 1
  
  Essay sample 2
  
  Essay sample 3
  
  Critical reviews
  
• Checking the essay
  A strategy
  
  A three-step process
  
  Conventions of academic writing style
  
  What is considered an inappropriate or informal writing style?
  
  Referencing Conventions
  
  Some basic principles of referencing
  
  Practice 1
  
  Formal or informal?
  
  Practice 2
  
  Correcting informal style
  
  Using concise vocabulary
  
  Challenge tasks
  
  Correcting writing style
  
  Eliminating unnecessary repetition
  
  Grammar and sentence structure
  
  A checklist of common errors
  
  Practice 3
  
  Editing basic errors
  
  Editing overly long sentences
  
• Additional resources
• Feedback
  Let us know what you think!