The Essay: to many, the bane of student life. However (call me a dork) I have come to learn that they aren’t so bad. All you need is a tidy workspace, a plan, and a few dedicated hours (which let’s face it despite what we like to think, as students, we certainly do have!)
At this stage one thing I have to stress is that you MUST regularly save your work! I have lost over a thousand words in the past and honestly it truly physically hurts.
Chapter 1: Title Choice
If you have a choice of title, it’s vital that you make sure that you choose one that will interest you as much as possible and with enough scope to fulfil the requirement, whilst not being so broad that the resultant product is a scatty mess of half-addressed ideas. Do take the time to do your research and really work out the title that will have the greatest potential for you. Once a title has been selected more specific research needs to be carried out. Don’t however fall into the trap of endlessly reading for hours only to realise that you haven’t really been reading you’ve just been looking at words on a screen or page. Instead, make plenty of notes and try to really engage with the material. Don’t close any internet tabs straight away as information previously thought to be irrelevant or useless may turn out to be quite handy (and there’s nothing more irritating than trying to re-find a closed webpage, on a day in which you’ve opened several with similar titles). Similarly, when using books or journals, post-it-note any pages that could be of use and use a pencil to lightly underline words or key phrases used (don’t forget to rub these out later if the book isn’t yours).
Chapter 2: Sectioning
No, your essay will not drive you to the point of lunacy to which you will need to be sectioned; this paragraph is about breaking your subject down into workable pieces. Try to determine the key points that you wish to make and then keep them separate from each other. Remember to keep referring back to the title making sure that the points you are making are of relevance and answering the question. If the points you intend on making carry equal significance, try to divide up the word count so that each point gets an adequate amount of attention. This makes the overall task much more doable and will give your essay a solid structure.
Chapter 3: ‘Reverse Essaycology’
This is a neat little trick I learnt from another student in my first year. It sounds ridiculous but writing your essay backwards will mean that your introduction, main body and conclusion, have through-flow, relevance to one another, and that you will successfully arrive at the eventual points you wish to make. Having divided your research or ideas into sections, you can begin to write your essay. It is here that ‘Reverse Essaycology’ plays its part. Start off by writing your concluding paragraph. Outline the key points you wish to make but try not to go into too much detail as a concluding paragraph should be a summary of points, as opposed to a condensed repetition of what you’ve already said. Once this is done, perhaps stop for a coffee break? Having had some time away and learnt the new gossip from everyone else on their coffee break, return to your (neat and tidy) workspace. Remember to keep your key points separate from each other and make note of references as you go. Once this part is over you’re nearly there! It’s now time to scroll up to the top of the page for the introduction. Introduce your essay by writing the thesis statement followed by any background information. Next institute your ideas in the order in which you have presented them in the main text.
Chapter 4: Editing
Although boring, this is a very necessary part of the essay writing process. There’s nothing worse than submitting an essay which has silly mark-losing mistakes in it. Read through from start to finish, making sure that your work has flow and that you really have addressed the points that you say you’re going to address. Then there’s the spell checking and grammar. As I said, this can be really dull when all you want to do is finish, but it really is worth being thorough at this stage of the game.
Chapter 5: And finally…
Once you are truly happy with your finished product and have adequately referenced all of your sources, you must carry out the final checklist. Different schools require different information to be submitted, but in general check that your work includes:
– A Title
– Your Student Number
– Your Name (although not always!)
– Images (if required)
– Any other information specified
Refer back to the original document in which your assignment is outlined to double check that you have done everything that has been asked of you.
THEN, save you work, submit it to the correct location on the VLE (if that’s where you submission is being made to), close all internet tabs, close the programme in which you were working, shut your laptop, lean back on your chair with your hands stretched behind your head and go ‘ahhhhh’. You deserve it.
Image sources:
http://schools.penncrest.org/staff/tdouglas/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/when_writing_essays.png
http://www.scholastic.com/teacher/images/articles/e/extra_essay_cartoon1.jpg
http://thisisnormal.thecomicseries.com/images/comics/57b79db6dd387f06b749957794a7cdb41743313275.jpg