Essay and
Report
Writing
Learning Outcomes
After completing this course, students will be
able to:
• Analyse essay questions effectively.
• Identify how to organise essay paragraphs
and structure an essay.
• Construct essay introductions and
conclusions.
• Identify the differences between essays and
reports.
• Organise a report correctly.
The Question
Your first task is to fully understand the question being
asked.
Make sure you actually answer this, rather than just writing
everything you know on the topic or answering a
question you would have liked to have been asked!
You need to focus your research around this question, so
take a few minutes and identify the keywords and
command word in the question.
Keywords
The keywords are the important words in your
question.
For example:
‘Discuss how a tutor can motivate their
students’
The keywords are ‘Tutor’ ‘Motivate’ and
‘Students’
Command Words
Your essay question will probably begin with a
command word, such as ‘analyse’ or ‘discuss’.
It is essential that you understand what this
word means – use a dictionary if you don’t.
As you write your essay, keep referring back to
the question and check you are doing what
the command word asked you to do.
Analyse
Take something apart and look at
the concepts and ideas under
discussion in depth.
Compare and
Contrast
Show how two things are similar
and dissimilar and indicate the
consequence of the differences.
Evaluate
Weigh up the arguments
surrounding an issue, using your
own opinions and the opinions
given in the work of others.
Describe
Give a detailed account of
something.
Justify
Make a case by providing a body
of evidence to support your ideas
and points of view. Consider
opinions which may run contrary to
your own before stating your
conclusion.
Outline
Provide the main features of
something.
Tone
When writing an academic
essay, it is important that you
use the correct tone and
language.
There are a few things you
should avoid doing in an
essay…
Things to avoid
1) Informal Language
Your essay should be written in formal English.
There should be no colloquial language, or
language written as someone would speak, or
use in a text message.
Don’t use words like ‘okay', 'maybe’ or ‘sort of’
Write out numbers – ‘Four’ rather than 4
Don’t abbreviate words – ‘did not’ rather than
‘didn’t’
Things to avoid
2) Using clichés
Avoid using clichés in your work. Examples of
clichés include:
‘stuck out like a sore thumb’
‘think outside the box’
‘avoid it like the plague’
Things to avoid
3) Long Quotes
Don’t use too many long quotes. Try and
paraphrase the ideas and words of other
people and put them into your own words,
rather than copying big chunks of text.
Remember that even when you put the ideas
of someone else into your own words that this
still needs to be referenced!
Things to avoid
4) Unnecessary words
Don’t use too many unnecessary words. Use
straightforward language and communicate
succinctly.
Go through a paragraph that you have
written and cross out any words, phrases or
sentences that may be unnecessary. Read it
again to see if you have lost anything
essential to the meaning. If you have not,
then delete it permanently.
Things to avoid
5) Writing in First Person
Academic writing should be written in third
person, eliminating the personal use of ‘I’
Instead of ‘In this essay, I am going to discuss’
say ‘This essay will discuss’
Instead of ‘I think’
say ‘It can be argued’
Instead of ‘I noted from Petty’s research’
say ‘It can be noted from Petty’s research’
Introductions
An essay introduction should form
about 10 percent of the total word
count for your essay.
You should engage immediately with
the question, to show you understand
what is being asked.
Introductions
It is a good idea to briefly explain the
topic you are going to discuss, and how
you are going to address it in your
essay.
Your introduction
should be like a map –
identifying the
surrounding context
and the route the
essay will take to
answer the question.
Questions to ask of your
introduction
1. Have I shown that I understand the task
that has been set?
2. Have I given an outline of the way I plan to
respond to the title?
3. Is my introduction a true indication of what
the reader is about to read?
If you can answer YES to all these – you should
have an effective introduction.
You don’t necessarily have to write
your introduction first!
Sometimes it is easier to go back
and write this last, once you have
written the main body of the essay,
and know the points you have
made.
Paragraphs
Each new point or argument made to
answer your essay question should be
put in a new paragraph.
Each point made should be expanded
upon and supported with evidence,
examples and relevant quotations.
Paragraphs
Each paragraph should begin with a ‘topic sentence’
which introduces the point the paragraph is going to
cover.
Example paragraph of an essay which discusses the arguments for and
against abortion.
Introduces
topic of an
argument
against
abortion
One of the main debates surrounding
abortion is the point at which the unborn
child has rights. There are a variety of
different opinions on the stage at which a
foetus has the right to live. These range from
conception, the first sign of brain activity or
when the foetus could survive outside the
womb. There is no agreed moment in
medicine or philosophy of the point at
which a foetus should have the same rights
as an adult human being (BBC, 2012).
The rest of
the
paragraph
then
expands on
the point
made in the
topic
sentence,
using other
sources to
back up the
point being
made.
Paragraphs
You should be able to sum up the content of
each paragraph in a few words.
When you think you have finished your essay,
you could go through your essay, and next to
each paragraph, write down the main point
covered.
Doing this allows you to check the topics flow
smoothly and there is no unnecessary repetition.
Conclusions
An essay conclusion should form about
10 percent of the total word count for
your essay.
Conclusions
There should be no new material in an
essay conclusion, just a brief summary
of the points which have already been
made.
Ensure you refer back to the question, to
show you have answered it effectively.
Conclusions
Three questions to ask to check you have
written an effective conclusion.
1. Have I referred back to the title of the
essay?
2. Is my conclusion genuinely well-supported
by the evidence and argument that I have
presented throughout the essay?
3. Have I made sure that I have not
introduced a new argument at this stage
which hasn’t been previously mentioned in
the essay?
Reports
There are several differences between
reports and essays.
• Reports are often used to give the results of
research, and the content tends to be more
informative and factual.
• Reports have a more formal structure than
essays
• Reports include headings and sub-headings.
• Reports often include bullet points, tables or
graphs.
Academic Tone
You still must use an appropriate tone when
writing a report, avoiding the same issues as
you would with an essay.
• Do not use informal language or clichés.
• Do not use unnecessary words.
• Do not write in first person.
Report Headings
Not all reports contain the same headings, but these are
some of the most commonly used:
Abstract - A short summary of the whole research,
including context, methods, results and conclusions.
Introduction - Overview of context. Compares, contrasts
and analyses findings of other similar or relevant
research.
Method - Step-by-step description of how the research
was conducted.
Report Headings
Results - Factual data and description of findings
with no explanations.
Discussion - Critical evaluation of results and
methodology. Link back to other research, models
and theories.
Conclusion - Final summing up of findings of report
with no new material.
Contents Pages
You will also number the pages of your report
and use a contents page to detail the
headings included and which pages these
can be found on.