ACADEMIC/ESSAY WRITING

Introduction

McNamara et al (2010:58) point out that “writing well is a significant challenge for students and
of critical importance for success in a wide variety of situations and professions”. Students are
expected to write well and it should be understood that:

Writing is a very complex skill. Reif-Lehrer (1992) observes that communication through
writing involves a very complex relationship between the writer and the reader who are each
trying to elicit something from each other.

 Lecturer/reader wants to gain information and understanding into the way of thinking and
level of understanding of the student/writer.
 He/ she is the authority and the professional reader of the academic document produced
by the student.
 Student/writer-has one chance, one impression to make the reader understand the
argument.

Characteristics of university writing

 It is generic, that is, what may be considered logical in one discipline may be illogical in
another both in terms of information presentation, style and content. This also explains
why different referencing conventions are prescribed.
 Essays might ask one to evaluate a quotation in light of what one has studied, analyse
and assess the significance of an event or theory and write about a particular theme on
aspects covered in a module.
 Essays also give one the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to think critically about
the themes and materials of the course.
 They enable one to make one’s own assessments of those themes and conflicting
interpretations of them.
 The student – lecturer academic relationship is established through basic tools such as the
essay. The lecturer is able to assess whether the student has understood, whether the
student is following the course, whether the student has grasped the disciplinary content
of one’s studies.
 In essay writing one needs to support one’s assessments using evidence from the texts,
lectures and discussions.
 One also needs to show how well one can connect the various materials of the course to
the central themes of the course.

Definition: Essay

 Sinfield and Burns (2004) see the term ‘essay’ as having been derived from the Latin
word ‘exagium’ which means ‘presentation of a case’.
 Following the definition by Sinfield and Burns (2004) a student is expected to make
a case/present a case/ argument rather than make an assertion or assumption when
writing an essay.
 Payne and Whittaker (2006) define an essay as an argument /thesis for which students
adopt a particular stance and in support of which they present evidence. The
following is observed by Payne and Whittaker (2006:317)
…the objective when writing an essay is to convince

your reader that your particular standpoint is valid by

presenting researched argument based on evidence from

authoritative sources.

 Presenting a case therefore requires academic evidence which the student gets from
various academic sources and demonstrates through in-text referencing.
 When called to write an essay one selects what is permissible based on the demands of
the topic.
 Sinfield and Burns (2004:141) conclude by saying that ‘essay writing is designed to be
heuristic – you are supposed to learn through all the processes involved in the generation
of a written assignment”.
CHARACTERISTICS

Essays are:

 Made up of paragraphs
 Written in continuous form
 Have no sub-headings
 Are usually short and dealing with a very specific section, unit or topic area.

Essay writing stages:

An essay has five basic components which are: the Topic, the Introduction, the Main Body, the
Conclusion and Referencing.

The Pre-Writing Stages:

1. Essay Topic-Topic Analysis
 According to Dvorack (2007) the Topic is the initial TEXT that establishes or seeks
to establish semantic boundaries of disciplinary content signaled by context. Thus for
one to be able to write a research paper, one needs to have a topic to work on
(working topic) first.
 It is the key to what one chooses/ selects from the researched ideas and facts etc. That
is, it gives one guidance on what sort of information can fully discuss the topic at
hand.
 The topic allows the writer to gather ideas, i.e. evidence from various sources.
 The topic also defines the area or gives boundary for research and guides the writer
on the position (context of the matter) to take pertaining the topic under discussion.
 When one gets a topic one should break it up into key terms and phrases, define the
key terms, understand the demands of the Topic and figure out what sort of research
is required.
2.Brainstorming
 Brainstorming follows topic analysis. This is when one jots down as many points as
possible on the topic from one’s mind. These points from brainstorming usually make
 up the topic sentences of each paragraph in the essay. These are the main points of
each paragraph.

3.Research:

 One then carries out research using books and other credible academic sources, taking
note of the bibliographical details of the sources for referencing purposes. When
researching one goes through some processes (strategies/methods) of Reading- (1)
Background reading which is a quick run through of a topic to get a rough idea of
what it is all about. (2) Scanning and Skimming of the source’s cover page, contents
and index pages etc is done in order to ascertain if the source contains the topic (s)
one wants to focus on. (3) One then does a thorough reading of the source(s) using
the Intensive reading strategy under which the SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recall
and Recite) method falls. This is thorough reading for understanding of concepts in
order to be able to put forward balanced arguments in assignments/Essays,
Dissertations and Examinations. Research authenticates one’s work and helps the
writer to establish a position on the topic.

4.Drafting/ Organising

 One then writes several drafts, linking points from brainstorming with those from
research and arranging points in order of importance and planning which point goes
into which paragraph. The drafts will lead to the writing of the final draft made up of
the following components: Introduction, main body (including proper in-text
referencing, conclusion and End-text referencing. This helps one not to go off topic as
well as to identify relevant topics for each section/ paragraph of the research paper/
essay. This also ensures coherence/ cohesion in the essay.
The Writing Stages

1.The Introduction

 This is the first paragraph of an essay.

 Here the student/ writer tells the professional reader HOW he/ she is going to tackle the
topic and how the essay is structured.
 The introduction tells the reader communicatively whether or not the subsequent essay
will answer the topic at hand.
 This is the paragraph which may stipulate what the writer wants to present/ argue on. One
can present ‘methodology’ or theories/ perspectives to be used to argue.
 It allows reader to focus on specific issues in the presentation of argument.
 The last sentence of this paragraph should contain a transitional hook to link with the first
paragraph of the main body.
 The introduction should be brief but bringing out how the essay/research paper will
handle the topic.

2. The Main Body

 This section answers the topic by developing a discussion.
 It is made up of a series of paragraphs that carry different ideas all of which have the
same goal of answering the topic.
 It consists of all sub ideas that prove the point of argument.
 It comprises of well-structured academic paragraphs.
 In the main body there is a demonstration of knowledge of the material read.
 There is also exposition and provision of evidence from authoritative sources through in-
text referencing.
 The last sentence of each paragraph should contain a transitional hook to link with the
next paragraph.
 One paragraph should contain only one point expanded with evidence from research and
from brainstorming.
 3. The Essay conclusion
 This paragraph rounds off the essay.
 It summarizes the main points discussed in the body of the essay.
 In the conclusion the writer draws the essay together and proves that they have answered
the whole question.
 It is a paragraph in which the writer reiterates main arguments and restates main points
raised and discussed in the body.
 No new ideas should be raised in the conclusion.
 It is a final statement which gives the reader signals that the discussion has come to an
end. It might be a ‘call to action’ in a persuasive paper.
4. Referencing

After concluding the research paper, in which references were made to ideas of other authors,
one compiles the list of references on a fresh page, following rules for end-text referencing. This
list should contain full publication details for only the sources that were cited in-text.

5. Proof-Reading/Revising

After completing the final draft, proof reading of the whole document is imperative…correcting
spelling, spacing and grammar mistakes as well as checking on paragraphing before printing and
handing in the research paper. This helps one to do self-corrections and improve opn the quality
of the essay as well as clarify ideas etc.

Organizing information in an essay

Paragraphing

Essays (Research papers) are written in paragraph form. Paragraphing is therefore very
important. A paragraph is a group of related sentences that carry the same idea (Soles, 2007). A
paragraph has three basic components discussed below:

a. The Topic sentence (whose purpose is to introduce the main idea/ point to be discussed in
that particular paragraph). It is a general idea which will be supported by examples,
statistics, ideas from research etc.
 b. Supporting sentences/Developers (whose aim is to support the introduced idea. These are
normally references, examples, statistics, visuals or diagrams etc)
c. Clincher or closing statement (this is a sentence with a dual role. It closes discussion of
the idea/ point at hand and prepares the reader for the forthcoming sub-idea or new idea
in the next paragraph.

Things to note

 Definition of key terms ( best handled in the second paragraph)

 Judgement ( paragraph (s) just before the conclusion)
 Edit work by considering the idea of DRAFTS i.e come up with 1 st Draft , 2nd Draft, Final
Draft
 Check with your respective lecturers whether essay should be typed or handwritten ( also
seek clarity on specifications e.g font type, size , spacing etc)
 REMEMBER TO MEET YOUR DUE DATES IN TERMS OF SUBMITTING THE
ESSAYS.
 Start working on your essays rather early; do not wait until the last minute.
 Engage your lecturers where you have no clarity on the topic.
 Go through all comments and seek the audience of your lecturer when your essay has
been marked and returned to you.

CONCLUSION

In this session we found as essay as a presentation of an argument in writing. We also discussed

its five basic components noting the three components of a paragraph as well. The five
components of an essay noted are the topic or question, introductory paragraph, body made up of
a series of related paragraphs, a concluding paragraph and lastly reference list. a paragraph it was
also established that is should have a topic sentence which introduces an idea to be discussed,
supporting sentences usually references, examples and visuals where applicable, and lastly the
closing statement has a dual role of closing the discussion of the idea at hand and prepares reader
for the forthcoming point. It is hoped that this session has provided a foundation on which you
are to develop your essay writing skills.