a) locate your work within key debates in the academic literature
b) evaluate evidence
c) use evidence to develop an argument in answer to the question
d) write clearly and precisely
e) use academic referencing
1. Answer the question. This is the most important thing. Think about what the question is asking you to do. Ask yourself, ‘why is this question being asked’? Most questions refer, one way or another, to debates within the academic literature. To answer the question, you have to decide what your argument is; and what information (evidence) is most important to include so as to answer it.
2. Develop your argument. Tell the reader in the introduction what your argument is going to be; and how you are going to answer the question. There’s no template how to do this; it’s up to you to decide what you need to say and not say so as to answer the question.
3. What is an argument? Sometimes, you might find you want to argue one ‘side’ – that’s fine. Alternatively, you could decide that you think the answer is something of both ‘sides’. That’s also fine. But try to show how the factors fit together: give weight, balance, and emphasis to each factor you want to include. That can make a clear argument.
4. You can also make an argument by showing why you are answering the question like that. You can show you are aware that you could be answering the question in a different way; but you are choosing to do it like this. Explain why you are approaching the question in that way. Are you looking at it through a particular standpoint? Is there a piece of evidence that you think is particularly convincing?
5. Make sure you refer to academic literature. You have to show where your argument comes from; and how it relates to scholarship that you have read.
6. Reference academic literature correctly. Include a bibliography which lists the resources you have used.
7. Refer to evidence. Try to be specific and try to say things that are true. i.e. not ‘thousands of deaths’, but ’40,000 deaths’. Not ‘the Cold War terrorized the world for centuries’. It didn’t.
8. Try to write clearly and say what you mean. It’s not easy to do that. Give yourself time.
9. It normally helps if you can finish a draft of the essay before the deadline – a day or so
before if you can. It’s a good habit to get into if you can do it. That way, you can read it through and make changes if you need to. Sometimes, writing is not the end point, but it is the part of the process of developing your understanding of the subject. Only on ‘finishing’ a piece of writing do we see what we wanted to say all along.
10. Don’t worry. It’s only an essay. The first year is the time you have to try things out and see what works for you. Everyone is different and everyone works in different ways. Through essay writing, hopefully you can also develop your interest and understanding of the subject matter: and perhaps that is the most important thing.