If the pattern of land ownership works against any outwardly oriented policy, what sort of development strategy should such a country adopt? You might wonder how you can include your own voice and still sound academic when you are writing about a subject area in which you have little or no knowledge. During the story, essay writing at university level, there are different voices that appear from time to time. However, do not essay writing at university level doing research yet. Typically, most advice therefore, as mentioned in Chapter Four, you have to and then follow it from there.
Academic Skills Office
Key words: academic essay, essay question, paragraph, introduction, body, conclusion, reference list Sometimes a good example of what you are trying to achieve is worth a words of advice! When you are asked to write an essay, essay writing at university level, try to find essay writing at university level samples models of similar writing and learn to observe the craft of the writer. You can use the samples as a basis for working out how to write in the correct style. Most books on essay writing will supply you with a number of model essays—collect some of these as they are great teachers! No matter what the topic is, you will see similarities between your writing tasks and these model essays.
This is because many features of writing are common across subject areas. In some subjects e. The following five paragraph essay has paragraph labels to show the parts of an academic essay. Note: This essay does not contain authentic references and has been written specifically to use for this teaching task. Using assignment essays for assessment supports student learning better than the traditional examination system. If we insist that all students write about everything they have learned in their study courses at the same time and in the same place e. in examinationswe are not giving all of our students equal opportunities.
Wonderland University,p. Additionally, Jones et al. Exams only provide students with a mark rather than specific feedback on their progress. Therefore, setting assignment essays for a substantial part of student assessment is a much fairer approach than one-off examination testing. Bloggs, J. Linking teaching, learning and succeeding in higher education. London: Bookworld. Jinx, J. Student essay writing. Journal of Research in University Education, 9 2 Jones, J. Helpline: Essays and the university student. Tokyo: Courtyard Printers. Sankey, J. Learning to write essays [CD-ROM]. Sydney: Wonderland University. Taylor, G. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wonderland University. Attributes of a university graduate. Yang, essay writing at university level, S. Essay writing and the tertiary student.
Melbourne: Diamond Press. Zapper, Y. Learning essay writing. Phoney Eds. Calcutta: Academic Scholar Press. Most students really appreciate seeing a finished product. The introduction paragraph There is information in quotation marks. Body paragraph 1 There is information in quotation marks, essay writing at university level. Body paragraph 2 There is information in quotation marks. Body paragraph 3 There is information in quotation marks. The conclusion paragraph There is information in quotation marks. The reference list All of the references are in random order.
Academic Skills Self-paced Tutorials, essay writing at university level. Key words: academic essay, essay question, paragraph, introduction, body, conclusion, reference list. Question Discuss why assignment essays are common assessment tasks in undergraduate tertiary coursework, and evaluate the effectiveness of assignments as an avenue for learning. Assignment essays are developed from set questions that give students a period of time to research a topic and produce their answer with references to their sources of information. While there are some disadvantages with using assignment essays as an assessment tool, there are essay writing at university level educational purposes underpinning this practice. This essay examines the reasons why assignment essays are beneficial for student learning and considers some of the problems with this method of assessment.
Assignment essay tasks are set to assist students to develop essay writing at university level of their study subject. Firstly, assignment tasks enhance understandings about subject matter. Secondly, research Jinx, ; Zapper, clearly demonstrates that students learn the writing essay writing at university level of a subject area while they are researching, reading and writing in their discipline. Thus, students are learning subject matter and how to write in that disciplinary area by researching and writing assignment essays. As an assessment tool, assignment essays have some disadvantages for lecturers and students. A consequence of these problems is that feedback to students is frequently delayed, and this is much less useful to students than rapid feedback p.
It is partly because of these disadvantages of time and expense that other assessments such as multiple-choice tests and short answer questions have an enduring place in the tertiary learning environment. To conclude, it seems that assignment essays continue to have a prominent role in tertiary education as an assessment tool. This is mainly because they are very effective in developing knowledge and writing skills for subject areas. Also, assignment essays can be less stressful than examinations as they allow students to show their understanding of content in less pressured circumstances. On the other hand, the time consuming nature of writing and marking essays points to some disadvantages that also need to be considered.
The weight of evidence, however, supports the writing of assignment essays for student assessment because this approach has such positive and proven effects for improved student learning. Exercise: What did you notice? The following questions relate to the essay above. There is an indented long quote in this paragraph. The last sentence gives the answer to the essay question. Information from the same person is used twice. The second sentence is the thesis statement i. position the writer will take. There is information in quotation marks. There is an indented long quote in this paragraph incorrect. All of the references are in random order. All of the reference items start with the title of the information source.
If the author is a person, then their first name is used first. There are no dates of publication in all of the references. The references are in alphabetical order beginning with an author's surname. More information ASO Factsheets: Writing an essay Formatting your essay APA The reference list. Links Contact Us Help. Academic Skills Office Visit ASO on une website. FEEDBACK Report broken link Found an error?
belief essay
Calcutta: Academic Scholar Press. Most students really appreciate seeing a finished product. The introduction paragraph There is information in quotation marks. Body paragraph 1 There is information in quotation marks. Body paragraph 2 There is information in quotation marks. Body paragraph 3 There is information in quotation marks. The conclusion paragraph There is information in quotation marks. The reference list All of the references are in random order. Academic Skills Self-paced Tutorials. Key words: academic essay, essay question, paragraph, introduction, body, conclusion, reference list. Question Discuss why assignment essays are common assessment tasks in undergraduate tertiary coursework, and evaluate the effectiveness of assignments as an avenue for learning.
Assignment essays are developed from set questions that give students a period of time to research a topic and produce their answer with references to their sources of information. While there are some disadvantages with using assignment essays as an assessment tool, there are sound educational purposes underpinning this practice. This essay examines the reasons why assignment essays are beneficial for student learning and considers some of the problems with this method of assessment. Assignment essay tasks are set to assist students to develop mastery of their study subject. Firstly, assignment tasks enhance understandings about subject matter.
Secondly, research Jinx, ; Zapper, clearly demonstrates that students learn the writing conventions of a subject area while they are researching, reading and writing in their discipline. Thus, students are learning subject matter and how to write in that disciplinary area by researching and writing assignment essays. As an assessment tool, assignment essays have some disadvantages for lecturers and students. A consequence of these problems is that feedback to students is frequently delayed, and this is much less useful to students than rapid feedback p. It is partly because of these disadvantages of time and expense that other assessments such as multiple-choice tests and short answer questions have an enduring place in the tertiary learning environment.
To conclude, it seems that assignment essays continue to have a prominent role in tertiary education as an assessment tool. This is mainly because they are very effective in developing knowledge and writing skills for subject areas. Also, assignment essays can be less stressful than examinations as they allow students to show their understanding of content in less pressured circumstances. On the other hand, the time consuming nature of writing and marking essays points to some disadvantages that also need to be considered. The weight of evidence, however, supports the writing of assignment essays for student assessment because this approach has such positive and proven effects for improved student learning.
Exercise: What did you notice? Essay maps are not concerned with paragraphs so much as with sections of an essay. They anticipate the major argumentative moves you expect your essay to make. Try making your map like this:. Your map should naturally take you through some preliminary answers to the basic questions of what, how, and why. It is not a contract, though—the order in which the ideas appear is not a rigid one. Essay maps are flexible; they evolve with your ideas. Signs of Trouble. A common structural flaw in college essays is the "walk-through" also labeled "summary" or "description". Walk-through essays follow the structure of their sources rather than establishing their own.
Such essays generally have a descriptive thesis rather than an argumentative one. Be wary of paragraph openers that lead off with "time" words "first," "next," "after," "then" or "listing" words "also," "another," "in addition". Although they don't always signal trouble, these paragraph openers often indicate that an essay's thesis and structure need work: they suggest that the essay simply reproduces the chronology of the source text in the case of time words: first this happens, then that, and afterwards another thing. or simply lists example after example "In addition, the use of color indicates another way that the painting differentiates between good and evil". Copyright , Elizabeth Abrams, for the Writing Center at Harvard University. Skip to main content.
Main Menu Utility Menu Search. Harvard College Writing Program HARVARD. FAQ Schedule an appointment Writing Resources English Grammar and Language Tutor Departmental Writing Fellows Writing Resources Writing Advice: The Barker Underground Blog Meet the tutors! Contact Us. Answering Questions: The Parts of an Essay A typical essay contains many different kinds of information, often located in specialized parts or sections. Mapping an Essay Structuring your essay according to a reader's logic means examining your thesis and anticipating what a reader needs to know, and in what sequence, in order to grasp and be convinced by your argument as it unfolds.
Try making your map like this: State your thesis in a sentence or two, then write another sentence saying why it's important to make that claim. Indicate, in other words, what a reader might learn by exploring the claim with you. In the first instance, it is important to distinguish between planning and a plan. Planning is an ongoing process, from when you receive the essay title to when you submit your final draft. A plan is a physical outline of the way you intend to conceptualise, structure and present your ideas. At this point it is time to write your first plan. However, do not stop doing research yet. Why not? Remember that a plan is just that—a plan. Introduction Context for paper — popularity of chocolate.
Issue — whether chocolate is a healthy food is questionable. Thesis — chocolate may be enjoyable but not healthy. Scope — only 4 aspects are covered here to keep the example short. Main body Paragraph 1 with possible sources Ways in which chocolate can impact positively on mood. Parker, Parker and Brotchie — chocolate mood effects do not last. Macht and Dettmer — anticipation effect and more studies needed. Sources needed to help answer these questions. Problems with measuring correlation between chocolate consumption and cardiovascular health. Sources needed to help answer this. Paragraph 3 Chocolate best viewed as a food or a drug? Indulgence or addiction — are the boundaries unclear? See what external sources have to say on this Medication elements of chocolate?
Readings needed around this issue. Paragraph 4 The correlation between chocolate and obesity. Definition of obesity needed. What does the literature say in relation to other causal factors? Conclusion Summary of four arguments presented. Chocolate is not a healthy food, but it is enjoyable nevertheless. Main body Paragraph 1 Ways in which chocolate can impact positively on mood. Parker, Parker and Brotchie chocolate mood effects do not last. Note the change of focus from the original idea correlation between chocolate consumption and cardiovascular health due to the lack of research data available. Medication elements of chocolate? Used in relation to magnesium deficiency in women Pennington, in Steinberg et al.
Findings concur with Abraham and Lubran who found a correlation between magnesium deficiency and nervous tension in women. Note the narrow focus of medical benefits i. only considering magnesium due to the short length of the essay. No specific correlation found in literature Beckett, ; Lambert, Note the findings show that there is no clear relationship between chocolate and obesity — an issue flagged in the introduction. Lambert exemplified that chocolate consumption alone unlikely to precipitate obesity. Chocolate consumption thus marginal in causes of obesity. Conclusion Summary of four arguments presented Chocolate is not a healthy food, but it is enjoyable nevertheless. It might seem strange to think about writing your conclusion before you write the body of your essay, but unless you know where you are going you can easily lose direction.
Also, the conclusion is the last thing the reader actually reads, so it needs to be memorable. How will everything finish? What are you aiming for? What final impression do you want your readers to have? The conclusion should not just repeat the ideas from the introduction. The introduction includes the background to the essay, the important issues and a thesis statement. The introduction leads your reader into the essay. The conclusion reminds your reader of the main points made in your essay and leaves your reader with a final impression and ideas to think about later. A The first sentence links the conclusion to the discussion in the previous paragraph.
B The following sentences restate the main points and reaffirm the thesis. C The last sentence is a broad statement relating to the significance of the argument. A Obesity and chocolate consumption seemingly have no proven correlations. B Yet, in this essay, many chocolate focused arguments have been presented, including the transient effect of chocolate on mood and evidence that it is as likely to create feelings of guilt as of well-being. Another possible positive dimension to chocolate is a correlation with cardiovascular health. Whether chocolate is a food or a drug is also unclear. The literature outlines the chemical properties of chocolate which could help explain some addictive type behaviour, particularly in regards to nervous tension in women, but also there is a strong research focus on chocolate as a sensory-based indulgence.
C It can therefore be said that chocolate is not a healthy food, but can be enjoyed as part of a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle. At the heart of your essay lie your body paragraphs. Typically, a body paragraph will follow the format below. The Topic Sentence should unambiguously express the topic of the paragraph and be linked with the overall thesis of the essay. Elaboration of the main point should add more detailed information in relation to the topic sentence. Examples and Evidence should support your main point using paraphrases, summaries or direct quotations, all of which need to be appropriately referenced.
Remember to link all the points in your paragraph to the idea in the topic sentence. One way to check if you have done this is to write keywords in the margin for each sentence. If your keywords are related to the topic sentence, your paragraph is good. If there are ideas that are not related, you should remove them. It has been claimed that chocolate is a healthy food, but in fact it contains a lot of sugar, which can be unhealthy. For example, sugar can cause tooth decay, which can lead to dental problems in later life. Too much sugar can also lead to obesity, which is a serious health risk. In addition, sugar contains a high amount of fructose, which is bad for the liver. The amount of sugar contained in chocolate means, therefore, that chocolate, particularly milk and white chocolate, may not be healthy.
View the text description of the above body paragraph example. Once you have drafted your main body paragraphs and your conclusion, it is time to draft your introduction. Writing your introduction last means you are more likely to have a tighter fit between the introduction, main body and conclusion because you already know what your essay will be about. B ackground statement — where you set the context for your essay I ssue s — where you outline the specific issues that are relevant to your essay. T hesis — where you state your position in relation to the issues. S cope — where you outline what exactly is going to be covered in relation to your argument. The thesis and scope are sometimes combined to form one or more sentences known as a thesis statement.
The thesis statement often comes at the end of the introduction, although it can be written earlier. Sometimes, particularly in very short essays, the essay will begin with an issue rather than a background statement. Essays also sometimes begin with an issue, outline the scope and then move on to end the introduction with the thesis statement. Normally, when writing an essay at university you will be expected to use only academic sources. The following learning guide on source credibility will help you to determine whether an external source is academic or not. The chocolate essay uses the American Psychological Association APA style of referencing, which is easy to distinguish from the Harvard Author-Date System, as the format is different:. When you are writing an essay and including external sources, more often than not you want the reader to focus on what is said rather than who is saying it.
In that case the information comes before the author. For example:. When the focus is more on who is saying it then the citation is written like this:. Try and achieve a balance between both types of in text-references in your essay writing. In the APA style of referencing, the reference list has certain conventions that you must also follow. Here are some examples from the chocolate essay:. Text description of the APA style of referencing example above. Include your in-text citations and reference list as part of your first draft. An excellent website to help with your APA referencing is the APA Interactive tool at Massey University. Leave yourself enough time to look at your essay more than once.
For a word essay you need at least three days to redraft your essay. Always save each draft as a separate file; then you can see how your essay develops and improves. View a text version of the redrafting your essay diagram above. You can also look at other checklists such as this one on editing your own work. View the text version of the redrafted essay. Since Spanish explorers brought back chocolate from the new world, chocolate consumption has become a worldwide phenomenon. At first, chocolate, a derivative of the cacao bean, was consumed as a drink, only later achieving mass popularity in tablet or bar form. The realities of chocolate are more down to earth; a number of these realities will be addressed in this essay.
Chocolate has chemical properties that can influence mood and there is possible evidence for some positive impacts of chocolate on cardiovascular health. Yet, such positive attributes are counterbalanced somewhat by the argument that, in some instances, chocolate can be viewed as a drug rather than a food. Moreover, there is the possibility of some correlation between over-consumption of chocolate and obesity. Imagine your essay as a kind of story. You are the principal storyteller, the internal voice of the writer, leading the reader through to your conclusion. During the story, there are different voices that appear from time to time. These are the external voices citations that add substance to your story, providing detail and support for what you are saying and sometimes even giving an alternative perspective.
The external voices can be divided into two categories in your essay: the direct external voice of an author through a direct quote and the indirect external voice of an author through a paraphrase. The reader needs to know at all times whose voice they are hearing. Is it your internal voice or the external voice of other authors? You might wonder how you can include your own voice and still sound academic when you are writing about a subject area in which you have little or no knowledge. The internal voice of the writer is colour-coded in yellow; the indirect external voices of other authors i.
paraphrases are coded in grey; and the direct external voices of other authors i. quotations are coded in blue. View a text version of the voice explanation above. This is a balanced paragraph. The writer sets the scene at the beginning of the topic sentence and also links together all of the sentences, using their own voice to lead into content which is provided by the external voices. View a text version of the above re-written paragraph. That is something your lecturers do not want to see. When you are drafting your paragraphs, use a colour-coding system like the one used here. It will help you ensure your academic voice is clear! When you get more confident in using external sources, you will gradually expand the language of your critical internal voice. The Phrasebank website at Manchester University provides examples of some more expressions to use when assessing external sources.
Editing focuses on the big picture elements such as overall structure, appropriate paragraphing and whether the question has been answered. Proofreading has a micro-focus on the details of your essay, such as formatting, grammar and punctuation. Everybody has their own personal style of editing and proofreading. Some people proofread alone; some get other people involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment