Essay/Assignment Writing: Planning to Editing

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Essay/Assignment Writing Planning to Editing
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Agenda

• 4 stages in essay writing
• Preparing
• Planning
• Drafting
• Editing

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Questions for you

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

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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.

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Four Stages in Writing an Essay

• 1. Preparing
• 2. Planning
• 3. Drafting
• 4. Editing
• Post-essay writing
• 5. Learning from the experience

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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

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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

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Understand Key Verbs

• analyse
• compare and contrast
• describe
• discuss
• evaluate
• examine
• explore
• outline
• summarise

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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

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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?

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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

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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.

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Checking a Rough Draft

• Look for
• the sequence of ideas
• logic
• paragraphing
• sign-posting
• need more information?
• grammar
• punctuation
• Am I answering the question?

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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

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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

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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?

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Presentation

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

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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)

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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.

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References

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

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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.

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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.