An academic essay is rational, systematic, verifiable, and subject to criticism.
Checklist of A Good Essay
- You address the subject specifically and are not too general. The subject should be relevant, answerable and feasible. You should have a constant sense of curiosity.
- You draw on appropriate reading
- You demonstrate a good grasp of the claims being made; you put claims and ideas in your own words, and draw on evidence you have assembled to sustain them
- You present a coherent argument, and the essay has a structure, which indicates a control over the ideas and the material being presented. The paragraphs follow from one another in the argument.
- The paragraphs and points are arranged in a logical sequence and the structure is clear – i.e. thesis > evidence presented > antithesis> synthesis > OR proposition > evidence > proof >. It is the intellectual structure which is what is meant by the word critical. Thinking critically means showing an ability to question propositions, and weigh up evidence from different points of view. Emotive sermonizing or slavish repetition of what a lecturer has said is not critical thinking.
- Evidence is used in a balanced and objective way – even when you only consider in detail one side of an argument you demonstrate that you know the opposing view
- Sources are accurately referenced and plagiarism is avoided.
- The essay is well written, key terms are explained or defined – i.e. it is clear and concise, and sentence structure is correct.
- The essay is legible, preferably word processed, neatly presented, the title and author are clearly indicated, footnotes or endnotes are set correctly.
How to Prepare to Write an Essay and How to Write it
- Study the question carefully and look at each word in the question. Circle words in the title, which identify the subject of the essay, and words, which identify approach.
- Assembly the relevant course materials and notes.
- Do a thorough literature review of the topic. You might want to begin with a dictionary or encyclopedia article on a subject to get a brief overview. Use the library online services, and search books, articles, journals to identify a range of suitable material on the subject of your essay. Use databases such as Ebscohost, Jstor, and Scopus.
- Do not read whole books at least not in order to prepare an essay, unless you already read them before! Use the index and contents page of a book to find relevant points and possible quotes or references. Read the introduction and conclusion to a book or to particular chapters or articles to get the gist of the argument before reading the body of the book.
- Notes should pull out the bare bones of an argument. It is useful to have notes which put ideas in your own words, and which include your own responses to what you read. It is useful to have notes, which include verbatim sentences with page numbers of possible quotation in your essay. When note taking ask ‘what is this about’ and ‘what do I want/need to remember’. Notes are not just for reference – note taking helps you to remember and to begin to control what you read.
Writing the Essay
You are ready to plan to write when you have a general sense of five things: 1) Your research questions; 2. A possible answer; 3. A body of evidence to support the answer; 4. The major warrants that link your evidence to the research question; 5. The objections you need to rebut.
- Make a plan. This can be done by brainstorming, jotting down on paper or word document anything that occurs to you, of you have in your notes, relating to the title. Arrange the main points in a logical order, going for a simple structure.
- Decide about the main claim: whether it comes at the end of the introduction or in the conclusion. Readers tend to prefer knowing where a paper is going.
- Write the first draft of your essay. You should remember you are taking to someone, the reader.
- When the draft is written read the essay to yourself. Do the sentences make sense? Do the paragraphs flow logically from one to another? Does it move towards a conclusion?
- Revise the draft by marking the text at each major new step in the argument.
- Identify or highlight parts of the text which are specifically your argument.
- New ideas may and will come as you write but with an effective plan you will be able to incorporate them into the essay without destroying a logical structure and flow.
- Use link words to link paragraphs in an argument – but, however, whereas, conversely ….
- Use signposts. E.g. ‘before discussing X we must ask question Y’, ‘having considered the arguments against, we now…”. “A final set of issues we must address …’. Subheadings can also be useful.
- Vary sentence length and avoid long sentences.
- Avoid contractions such as didn’t, couldn’t. Avoid passive voice, incomplete sentences, imprecise language, excessive wordiness, and excessive quotation.
- Each paragraph should have one main theme. The paragraphs mark the natural break in your argument.
- List references accurately in footnotes or at the end of the document.
- Accuracy in quotes and referencing is fundamental to the reader’s perception of your reliability.
- Quote but avoid long quotes and too frequent use of quotes.
- Avoid plagiarism. Quote and cite. Paraphrase and cite.
Sources:
- W C Booth, G C Colomb and J M Williams, the Craft of Research (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995)
- David B Pirie, How to Write Critical Essay (London: Routledge, 1985)
- John Clanshy and Birgid Ballard, How to Write Essays: A Practical Guide for Students (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992)