How to Write an Essay
... Essays will be assessed on the following basis: • Breadth and relevance of material covered; • Clarity of writing and explanation of ideas; • Evidence demonstrating your understanding of the subject area; • The presentation of your essay, particularly use of referencing. ... BUS101, Introduction to Management and Organisations ESSAY WRITING AND ASSESSING ESSAYS What makes a good piece of written work cannot be completely defined, but the list below sets out the criteria that will be used in assessing written work on this module. Overall Design Any adequate essay will have a beginning, middle and an end – an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. At the very least, the introduction will tell the reader what the essay is about – the argument that is going to be made. ... Students may find it helpful to see the essay as the construction of an academic story in which the sequence of events and evidence, as well as the narrative, lead to a well rounded, well paced, intelligible and convincing piece of work. ... Relevance An essay must answer the question that has been set. However good the essay in other respects, it will receive a poor grade if it does not answer the question. ... In particular you need to be aware that markers and examiners will be considering the extent to which your readings, data, observations or other material contribute to the overall argument and analysis of the essay; in other words your use of readings, data, observation or other material should not be merely descriptive. ... C The development of the argument is adequate, with some evaluation and coherence Some understanding of the relevant issues showing some sense of comparative evaluation, and an application of one relevant perspective The work uses appropriate evidence and demonstrates awareness and an understanding of the disciplinary issues from a basic range of reading The writing and structure are reasonably clear and understandable D Some evidence that an argument has been developed There is a basic appreciation that relevant issues should be understood, with an attempt to apply a relevant perspective There is basic evidence and it shows just enough acquaintance with relevant ideas to indicate that the student has gained some relevant understanding of the module The writing and structure are adequate F There is little evidence of any argument being deployed to answer the question There is little appreciation of relevant issues or a relevant perspective No evidence is deployed to support an argument; or the evidence is unrelated or invalid and suggests the student is unfamiliar with the relevant ideas The writing and/or structure are difficult to read and understand F* There is no evidence of any argument being deployed to answer the question There is no evidence of any understanding of relevant issues or a relevant perspective No evidence is deployed to support an argument The writing and/or structure make the essay incomprehensible An Example of Marking Bands with reference to a specific essay question: Why would a practicing manager need to have an understanding of Organisational Behaviour? ... The quality of an essay will depend more upon the ways in which the question as a whole is answered, the ways in which the two parts are integrated, rather than upon achievement within the answers to each part of the question. ... • Definitions A reference is any piece of information (book, journal article, or video) to which the writer of an essay or dissertation refers directly either by quotation or by the authors name. A reference gives information about the source (usually an original source) from which the writer of the essay or dissertation has taken or used material. ... A bibliography is an extended list of references dealing with particular subject matter, and may include not only the references made by the writer in the text of an essay or dissertation, but also others the writer has found useful, perhaps as background reading, even though they are not directly referred to in the written work itself. On this module you will only supply a list of references directly used in the essay, not a bibliography. In summary, students will be expected in their written work to refer directly by source and/or author to any material that they have used in their essay, and to provide a list of those references on a separate page or pages at the end of the essay (in other words, NOT within footnotes). • Writing References Why write references? ... If you quote directly from a book or journal and you want to quote only a few words you do so as follows within the text of your essay: It has been argued that currently the most dynamic approach to media reform is inspired by classical neo-liberalism of the "free" market (Curran 1988:16). ... • Footnotes There are a number of different academic styles for footnotes (numbered notes at the foot of the page) and endnotes (numbered notes at the end of the essay). ... A Harvard List of References at the End of a Text At the end of your essay on a separate sheet titled References you list all the full references alphabetically by authors surname using the following rules.