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Essay/Assignment Writing: Planning to Editing

Essay/Assignment Writing: Planning to Editing. Agenda. 4 stages in essay writing: Preparing Planning Drafting Editing. Questions for you:. What makes a good essay? If you were marking an essay, what would you look for?. “To essay”.

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Essay/Assignment Writing: Planning to Editing

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  1. Essay/Assignment Writing: Planning to Editing

  2. Agenda • 4 stages in essay writing: • Preparing • Planning • Drafting • Editing

  3. Questions for you: • What makes a good essay? • If you were marking an essay, what would you look for?

  4. “To essay” • The verb “to essay” means “to put to the test, to attempt something difficult”. • Essays give you opportunities to come to terms with new knowledge. • Writing an essay helps you to measure how much you really understand.

  5. Four Stages in Writing an Essay • 1. Preparing • 2. Planning • 3. Drafting • 4. Editing • Post-essay writing • 5. Learning from the experience

  6. Stage 1Preparing • What question do I need to address and what does it mean? • What do I know about this already? • What do I need to find out? • Research

  7. Analyse the question • What is the subject? • What are the key verb(s)? • What are the key aspect(s)? • Any other other significant words? • Ask questions about the question

  8. Understand Key Verbs • analyse • compare and contrast • describe • discuss • evaluate • examine • explore • outline • summarise

  9. Paragraphing (I) • Paragraphs structure thoughts and help the reader • Each paragraph should contain • one clear idea • support sentences • Support sentences add to the topic sentence, e.g. • explain ideas raised • define terms more fully • give supporting detail

  10. Paragraphing (II) • For every paragraph, ask: • Is there one main idea here? • Is it stated clearly? • Is it properly supported with evidence? • Have I commented on the evidence? • Does it link with the previous paragraph and anticipate the next?

  11. Beginning a new paragraph • To mark off the introduction and the conclusion • To signal a shift to a new idea • To indicate an important shift in time or place • To emphasise a point • To highlight a contrast

  12. Stage 3Drafting • Drafting shapes the notes into an essay. • How? • Revise, reconsider and rewrite what you have done. • Fill in any gaps. • Revise plan, now you know more.

  13. Checking a Rough Draft • Look for: • the sequence of ideas • logic • paragraphing • sign-posting • need more information? • grammar • punctuation • Am I answering the question?

  14. Introductions • State clearly • How you are going to answer the question • What you are going to cover • Address the question, the key idea. • Define key terms. • May help to write the introduction last. • Should be 10% of the word count

  15. Conclusions • Pull the essay together. • Show where you stand in the debate (judgement). • Draw conclusions or extract general principles (factual). • May indicate an area for further study. • Link back to the question / essay title. • 10-13% of the word count

  16. Stage 4Editing • Proof read your essay. • Check for mistakes: • spelling • grammar • punctuation • Check quotations, citations. • Have I answered the question? • Is there a logical, coherent argument?

  17. Presentation • Word limit • Margins • Spacing • Font types and sizes • Legibility • Does it comply with the required layout? • Diagrams • References

  18. Citations • Examples: • According to Jones (1998), …. • Jones (1998) argued that …. • To quote from Jones (1998), …. • In name of text, Jones (1998) supported the idea of …. • …. paraphrases …. (Jones, 1998, p82)

  19. Quotations • Short quotation Jones (1999, p23) described the idea as ‘quoting a few words’ …. • Long quotation Jones wrote:long quotes • long quotes • long quotes (Smith, 1999, p9) • etc. etc.

  20. References • Put at the end of an essay. • Do not number them. • Begin each source on a new line. • List alphabetically by the first author’s surname. • Italicise the book or journal title. • Place single quotation marks around the title of an article within a journal.

  21. Examples of References • A book Cottrell, S.M. (1999) The Study Skills Handbook, Macmillan. • An article in a book Tizard, B. (1991) ‘Working Mothers and the Care of Young Children’ in Woodhead, M., Light, P. and Carr, R. (eds) Growing Up in a Changing Society, Routledge.

  22. Bibliography • A list of everything you read for the assignment. • They need not be referred to in your writing. • Listed in the same style as references.

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