Teaching Essay Writing Should Not Be Formulaic

Teaching Essay Writing Should Not Be Formulaic If the reading list is really short, you’ll need to go beyond it. Look through the reference lists of the papers and books you’ve just read. Mark out a few of the most promising-looking readings. Have a think, put the argument and essay together. Find relevant books and articles from the reading list and/or Google Scholar searches. Make sure you take notes on everything you read. In fact, write down a few potentially useful quotes verbatim. You know what your themes areâ€" You can use your topic sentences to produce your thematic framework. Incorporate the Module concerns into your topic and linking sentences â€" Don’t merely make the topic sentences about a theme or the text. Connect them to the module by incorporating the language of the Module Rubric. Ask yourself how you can combine these two parts â€" the focus of the paragraph and your thesis. But first, we need to discuss what essays are and how they should work. Sometimes it’s enough to point out that these assumptions exist, and then to proceed with the essay by clarifying the definitions you’re using and the assumptions you’re working with. Sometimes you might think that the assumptions are fundamentally mistaken, or disguise a more important question. In that case, you’ll need to point this out, and then proceed to explain why, and to make your arguments within the essay using your revised understanding of the question. If the question is “what is the best solution to the demarcation problem? ”, you’re going to want to identify what you think the examiner means by the terms ‘solution’ and ‘demarcation problem’. Or, you might describe your car as an immaculate, beautiful, pampered woman on whom you lavish attention and money. Just don't describe your car in cold, clinical detail, front to back without having in mind the purpose, the overall impression you want to create. To achieve this impression, you should not necessarily include all details; use only those that suit your purpose. The Conclusion summarises key points of the essay. A good conclusion doesn’t simply regurgitate content, rather it gives the reader a concise summary of the key points and a clear idea of your stance on the topic. The conclusion should not contain any new information. In the context of the question you’re answering, and the frame you’ve provided for your argument, why should I care about the point you’re making at this point in the essay? Once you’ve proven that your argument stands, I want to know the significance of it. You’ll hear this quite a lot, and you’ll probably wonder what on earth it means. It’s important to understand it, because it can be the key to getting a high mark. Every question has hidden assumptions behind it. A quote from your subject or a brief anecdote about him or her may provide an interesting introduction ; dialogue can be a great way to add interest to a descriptive essay. Even description for description's sake should have a purpose. Is there an important overall impression you wish to convey? This is your thesis; organize your essay around it. For example, you might describe your car as your home away from home, full of snack foods, changes of clothing, old issues of the Chico News & Review, textbooks, and your favorite music. The first statement tells the marker nothing about what the student has taken learned from the module. The statement it makes only partially relates to the module, and it is not original â€" many students will write something similar. You should only write your conclusion after you have produced the rest of your essay. Often the hardest part is knowing how to finish the conclusion. You have discussed the module concerns throughout the essayâ€" You just have to summarise the relevance into one sentence. How are you going to define and operationalise those terms in your essay? This is essential, because your argument has to have a clear definition of the terms you’re using in order for it to be coherent and responsive. This doesn’t mean you should use lazy constructions like “I am going to define ‘demarcation problem’ as ‘the question of how we can define ‘science””. That’s a perfectly reasonable definition (if you can defend it, and you should give a reason you’ve chosen a certain definition), but you need to be a little less clunky. I still handwrite quotes in my notes, and I’m working on my PhD. There aren’t many ways in which I’d recommend being like me. There is a difference between reading to understand the topic, and reading that you plan to reference. It is totally fine to use Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, lecture notes etc to familiarise yourself with the key arguments and concepts.