Academic writing — essays Structuring integrating evidence formal

Academic writing - essays Structuring, integrating evidence, formal and informal language.

Marking criteria

• Check your own department’s marking criteria – probably on Moodle, if not then ask your course administrator.

Introduction • What do you need to include/ not include? Discuss with your partner. • Definitions of your terms. • Limitations to your essay (you cannot include everything, you only have a limited word count) and justifications for what you have chosen. • Outline of your argument. • Possibly quotations.

Main body • What is the best/ most common way of structuring your essay? • Arguments for, arguments against. • Any other ways?

Constructing your arguments • When reading makes notes. • Don’t go overboard with the note-taking – you will become overburdened an will be more likely to plagiarise. • Find evidence that supports your argument, always think about the purpose of your evidence. • Paraphrase as you go along. How do you paraphrase? • Try with this example: “In general, growth is an increasingly ineffective means of poverty reduction because the benefits of growth rarely reach the world’s poorest people” Shrecker et al (2008).

Evidence • Shout a list of possible sources, good or bad. • With your partner, put them in order of best to worst. Using evidence: • Harvard referencing system. • If it is long (normally more than three lines), indent it, take away to quotation marks, reduce the size.

Colloquialisms • Do not use colloquialisms or clichés in your work! • With your partner, can you try to change these phrases so that they are more formal? : 1) ‘In this day and age’ 2) ‘Well, enough of my thoughts…’ 3) ‘For sure’ (As in ‘I know for sure’) 4) ‘Sort of/kind of’ 5) ‘Anyway’ 6) ‘Take this example’

More about style • Do not use contractions (I’ll, I’m etc) • Try not to use too many adjectives • The aim is to not be too emotive or personal – it isn’t literature! • Don’t write overly long sentences – it’s better to be short, concise and clear than long and rambling. • Use Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.

Conclusion • True or false? : 1) You can summarise your arguments here. True 2) You should repeat sentences from your essay. False 3) You should bring in new evidence here. False 4) You should include quotes in your conclusion. False (generally) 5) You can give your point of view here. True 6) You can discuss future directions for research. True

Websites for further guidance • General advice for essay writing: • http: //www. reading. ac. uk/internal/studyadvice/studyr esources/essays/sta-developessay. aspx • http: //www 2. le. ac. uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/dia gnostic • Referencing: • http: //libweb. anglia. ac. uk/referencing/harvard. htm • Signposting: • http: //www. library. dmu. ac. uk/Support/Heat/? page=4 86