Introduction
For many academic disciplines, especially for business, arts, humanities, and social science, you will have to write essays. Whenever you completed your school education, whether it was just before your started your HE course or some years ago, writing an essay is something with which you will be familiar. If you have come from an A level course, you will already be used to writing fairly lengthy essays. You are likely to notice an increase in both the length and the depth that you are expected to produce as a student, so you may find it helpful to check some of the basic guidelines in this chapter.
Engage your brain before your PC
It is always easier to write about something when you feel really enthusiastic and interested in your subject. You can tell when other people really love what they are writing or talking about; enthusiasm can be infectious, so can apathy. Whatever course you are on, unless you are a very unusual individual, you are likely to find some parts more interesting than others and some essay titles more inspiring than others, so it won’t always come naturally to feel wildly excited at the chance to discuss
“the role of trousers in the industrial revolution”, etc.
Read the title
This sounds so obvious, but it can be easy to see what you want to see in a title, just as politicians answer the questions they wish they had been asked rather than those they have actually been asked.
You latch on to buzz words in the title and go racing off without checking what you are really being asked. It is a surprisingly common mistake and if you can avoid this early on in your studies, you won’t be dogged by it during examinations, when the temptation to leap to conclusions is at its most prevalent.
And it is more than just a title
The title does two things. Firstly, it helps you focus clearly on what you are being asked to address. It should direct your research and background reading, and help you to be clear about what you want to say. Secondly, and this is the other side of the same coin, the title acts as a gatekeeper or filter, helping you to reject irrelevant material as you do your reading and make your initial notes. If you do not understand a title, ask your tutor or lecturer: it is far better to feel a bit silly but gain a good mark than maintain your street cred and get a fail.
What if it is your own title?
Sometimes, instead of being set a title by a lecturer, you are asked to come up with a title of your own. This is often the case if you are doing a formally assessed essay that will count towards your exam results and it is certainly something you will come across if you go on to do a higher degree.
Actually, the same rules apply. Make sure that the material you cover really accurately reflects the title. There is no rule about how long a title should be, but a shorter title rather than a lengthy and complicated one is usually the best.
Ask yourself three questions
Before you start your essay, ask yourself three questions:
1.
How interested are you in the subject? If you are already enthusiastic about it, you are likely to have done some background reading.

2.
How much do you already understand? Again, if you have a basic grasp, this is a good starting point to organise your material.
3.
What resources do you have to work with already: lecture notes, journals, relevant books, and seminar discussions?
If your reaction is “not interested”, “do not know much about it”, “have not got any resource material”, you are probably asking a fourth question, “Why on earth am I studying this?”, and you probably need to refer back to your lecture notes or a chapter in a textbook before you go any further.
In good order
The structure of your essay is very important and if you have a good plan this enables you to ensure that the structure is logical. Generally the working order for your essay is:
 title
 introduction
 background
 main arguments, ideas, propositions, etc.,
 further back-up material for main arguments
 summary
 conclusions
 references
Contents – what is the essay about?
Obviously this is going to vary enormously from subject to subject, so there are no specific rules about contents. You might be asked to analyse a business problem, evaluate a particular scientific or economic theory, describe the development of particular themes in a novel, explore contrasting views of urban poverty, etc. While your particular course dictates the differences, likely essay topics that will confront you, and the need for that content to be well researched, argued, and presented are common to all disciplines. The structure of your essay will help you organise the material you decide to include.
Look for key words
Remembering that your content should relate to the title, look for key words in that title. Words like
“describe”, “evaluate”, “assess”, or “criticise” give you a guide as to the form your content ought to take. Once you have some idea of the scope of your essay, you can establish the form your main arguments or ideas will take. A useful technique is to put the essay title in a circle in the middle of a piece of paper and write the ideas you want to include on lines extending out from that circle. This gives you a quick guide to everything you think is important.
Finding your material
Once you understand the title and have a basic idea of what you intend to include in the contents, jot down a few sub-headings. Also, make some brief notes on what you already know about the topic.
This stops you gathering unnecessary information and redirects your information gathering. You are likely to have been given some guidance on relevant journals, chapters from books, etc., so get these together as soon as you can. Do not get drawn into reading beyond the subject, and when you have material that covers the points you want to include, resist the temptation to gather more and more.
Planning permission
The essays you have to write at the university may be longer than those you produced at school, but you usually get a longer time frame in which to complete them. If you have read and absorbed all the

helpful hints in the time management chapter, you won’t leave your essay pending until the last minute. Writing a rough plan for your essay means the finished work is likely to look far more impressive and well constructed as you will have had time to really think about the order in which you want to raise your arguments, how you are going to cover the ground, etc.
The rough draft
It is sometimes tempting to miss this stage. It can be very off-putting to think you have got to go through the whole thing twice, but drawing up a rough draft is really useful and you probably spend less time in the end by doing this. Another benefit of a rough draft is that if you have to distil your ideas into rough notes it helps you to really understand the topics you are writing about. It also means that if you are writing the essay over an extended period of time, you do not lose your train of thoughts when you return to it.
Quote unquote
It is perfectly okay to include quotes in your essay so long as you do two important things: enclose your quote in quotation marks and make sure that you acknowledge the author, and the source with the date and the page number, so that other people, particularly whoever is marking your work, can refer to those sources if they wish. There is no rule about how long a quote you can use, but on the whole, it is wiser to use short ones and not fill your work with too many; you would not want people thinking you had nothing to say yourself!
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is taken very seriously if you are found out. It is currently much discussed because more material is available via the Internet. Plagiarism means passing off someone else’s work as your own, whether that is from a published source like a book or a journal, or whether you have stolen the work of a fellow student. Apart from being dishonest, with potentially serious consequences if you get found out, you can’t enjoy any real satisfaction for praise or a good mark. When you enter the job market, you won’t be able to use this tactic, so do not be tempted now.
Accidental plagiarism can happen if you do not reference material you have found elsewhere very clearly. Make sure you keep track of the material (author, source, date, and page number) that you might want to refer to as you are planning your essay, so that you can refer back to it later on in the process.
Be the first to read your masterpiece!
It can be tempting, when you feel as if your essay has been hanging around on your desk or your PC for weeks and kept you awake at night, to get rid of it the moment you have written the very last word. Do not do this; give yourself a break and then do read it through. Have a look at the takeaway tip at the end of this chapter. Of course, you have to avoid the other trap of being a perfectionist - do not keep on doing rewrites and allow yourself to become obsessed with every tiny detail, every comma, or the length of each sentence.
An essay for life
With practice, you undoubtedly become more efficient at writing and structuring your essays, and if you take the comments of your tutors into account, you can definitely improve your marks as you go along. It is worth looking at chapters on dissertations and collecting and researching information, as these are both relevant to this chapter. Being able to write at length is not important in every work situation, but you often do find yourself needing to write lengthy reports or articles, and the time spent developing a good structured style will undoubtedly pay off.

Ask for advice
Sometimes it is difficult to ask for help if you are stuck with essays. Lecturers teach large numbers of students and it is not always easy for you to keep contact with your tutors or for them to have as much time as they would like to assist you. Take a note of when they are likely to be available and make good use of e-mail if you have that option. It is worth looking at two other chapters (should chapter references be included as they aren’t used to organise content in the CWS? Consider rewording) on this course to help you write essays. Consult Chapter 5 on written communication, which gives advice on spelling, punctuation, and style. Consult Chapter 9 on researching and gathering information.