While you probably won’t write an essay when you become a professional, the skills needed in good essay writing are very relevant to other academic tasks.. The Essay Writing Process Ana
Trang 1Essays are a part of almost every degree program While
you probably won’t write an essay when you become a
professional, the skills needed in good essay writing are
very relevant to other academic tasks These skills—
researching, analysing, applying, synthesising and
evaluating—can also be transferred to any professional
situation which requires you to respond critically and
creatively to a problem or issue
The Essay Writing Process
Analysing the task/question
Before you research or write you should analyse the essay task/question Task analysis helps us to find out exactly what the question is asking for, and ensures that we have correct focus in our
answer One strategy for question analysis is called MDUP:
Main ideas in the question or task - all the ‘content’ words and phrases in the task These
main ideas become search terms in your research
Directive verbs - the words that tell you to do something For example “analyse” or
“evaluate” These words tell you how to respond to the task
Underlying question Often—but not always—we need to answer an unstated question
before we can respond appropriately to the task To find it, think deeply about the task and relate it to other ideas you have studied in your lectures Write it down somewhere
Predictive thesis This is your initial answer to the essay task, based on what you already
know Your predictive thesis gives you a place to start your thinking and helps direct your first research efforts Often, our predictive thesis is very different to our final argument, as our research influences our ideas and our argument evolves
See over the page for an example of MDUP task analysis
1 Analyse the
Read / take notes
Organise / write
Reflect on and analyse your draft
In this handout…
Essay writing process
Task analysis
Finding ‘research’
Reading & taking notes
Organising with Rationale®
Essays
A quick guide
This process shows the cyclical
research/read/write/reflect process
which follows question analysis
Good essay writers do more than
1 session of research because
when they reflect on and analyse
their drafts, they find that they
need more (or different) evidence
to fully support their arguments
M
D
U
P
Trang 2MDUP task analysis in action…
Researching
The main ideas you identify in task analysis should guide your research Of course books in the
library will be useful, but academic databases (Proquest, Emerald, Eric etc.) are great for finding the most up-to-date, reliable and sophisticated information relevant to your essay topics You can find these databases on the RMIT online library Use the basic tips below to get started on them
Reading & Taking Notes
Once you have books/articles/websites related to you essay topic, the challenge is to read those
sources efficiently and effectively – you should find the most useful information in the least amount
of time Follow the process below (Boddington & Clanchy 1999) for each source you’ve found
Example essay task: Using case illustrations, explain how legally binding contracts are distinguished from mere agreements which have no legal consequences
Main Ideas: legally binding
contracts, mere agreements, legal
consequences, case illustrations,
distinguish (differentiate)
Directive Words: explain… how
= describe the process; using =
apply cases to description;
distinguish(ed) = show the
difference between
Underlying question: What’s the difference between contracts and agreements? What are the implications of this for businesses?
Predictive thesis: Contracts are written, agreements are spoken To protect themselves, businesses should use contracts
•Look at the title, sub
titles, headings and
contents pages
•Find the most relevant
sections
1 Search
•Once you've found the most relevant sections, skim over them, focussing on the introduction and topic sentences of paragraphs
2 Skim • Choose the paragraphs
that provide the information you need
3 Select
•Read those paragraphs carefully and critically and take notes relevant
to the essay topic
• Try to paraphrase
4 Study
Trang 3Organising the essay using Rationale® software
This is the most important part of the process – it’s where you combine ideas from your research into a structured, logical and persuasive response to the essay task Because those ideas in you’re your research can be complex, it’s often a good idea to organise them visually so that the
relationship between them can be easier to find One very powerful way of organising your ideas visually is to use the Rationale® argument mapping software, which is now available on the LSU computers This easy-to-use software allows you to build a ‘tree’ of your answer—having a ‘picture’
of the arguments and reasons can help you focus on the logic of your answer, which is the most important aspect of essay writing The very basic argument map below gives an example of what Rationale® can do for you
Generating an argument map using Rationale® is surprisingly easy, and the Learning Skills
Advisers in LSU can help you with it Simply book a consultation and let us know that you want to map your argument with Rationale® We’ll show how to do it, and we’ll help you reflect on the quality
of your argument
Writing the essay
Essays have 4 essential sections: the introduction, body, conclusion and reference list After you know what your thesis statement is, try to write the essay in this order:
First: Write the body, focussing on one paragraph at a time
Second: Write the conclusion
Last: Write the introduction, complete the reference list and proofread!
Importantly, you should attend very carefully to in-text referencing in the first drafts of your essays If you don’t, it is possible that you will forget to correctly cite some ideas, and this could lead to
concerns about plagiarism
Ideas at this level are more specific, and are used to support
or object to the more general ideas above them Ideas here can be seen as ‘evidence’
‘because’ links ‘reasons’ and ‘support for reasons’,
‘but’ links objections Organisation at this level
shows ideas to support or object to the thesis
statement These can be seen as ‘main points’
At the top of the map is the
‘contention’ – in an essay, this is called the ‘thesis statement’
Trang 4Sections of an essay
I INTRODUCTION
II BODY
etc
III CONCLUSION
Summary
Try not to think of essays as something you simply ‘write’ Instead, try to see essays as complex puzzles that take a lot of analysis, research, reading and thinking to respond to effectively When generating and expressing your answer to the issue/question/problem in the essay task, always
keep the audience (probably your lecturer) in my mind If you can see your own essay from his or her perspective, you’ll be more able to meet their needs and expectations and more likely to do well
Topic Sentence
i Support
ii Support
iii Support
Link / summary sentence
General statements - introduce the topic, the context and the
question/ issue/problem that the essay addresses
Thesis statement – your 1- or 2-sentence argument in response
the questions/issue/problem above
Signpost – briefly describe how the body of the essay is
organised
Topic Sentence
i Support
ii Support
iii Support
Link / summary sentence
Topic Sentence
i Support
ii Support
iii Support
Link / summary sentence
Summarise main points / restate thesis statement
Final comment – relate thesis statement to the wider context
The introduction should be one paragraph only, approximately
10% of the essay’s word limit Avoid using expressions such
as ‘nowadays’ and ‘all over the world’, as these are over used and lack sophistication
The number of body paragraphs
is determined by the structure of your argument Avoid very lengthy or very short paragraphs – try to keep each paragraph about the same length
The organisation of paragraphs
in the body should show the reader your analysis and reasoning Your analysis breaks the main topic into smaller ideas, and your reasoning shows a logical relationship between them
The conclusion is approximately
5-10% of the essay’s word limit This is a place to restate your argument and main points To create a good final comment, answer this question: “What are the implications of your
argument being valid?”