Essay and

Report

Writing

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, students will be

able to:

• Analyse essay questions effectively.

• Identify how to organise essay paragraphs

and structure an essay.

• Construct essay introductions and

conclusions.

• Identify the differences between essays and

reports.

• Organise a report correctly.

The Question

Your first task is to fully understand the question being

asked.

Make sure you actually answer this, rather than just writing

everything you know on the topic or answering a

question you would have liked to have been asked!

You need to focus your research around this question, so

take a few minutes and identify the keywords andcommand word in the question.

Keywords

The keywords are the important words in your

question.

For example:

‘Discuss how a tutor can motivate their

students’

The keywords are ‘Tutor’ ‘Motivate’ and

‘Students’

Command Words

Your essay question will probably begin with a

command word, such as ‘analyse’ or ‘discuss’.

It is essential that you understand what this

word means – use a dictionary if you don’t.

As you write your essay, keep referring back to

the question and check you are doing what

the command word asked you to do.

Analyse

Take something apart and look at

the concepts and ideas under

discussion in depth.

Compare and

Contrast

Show how two things are similar

and dissimilar and indicate the

consequence of the differences.

Evaluate

Weigh up the arguments

surrounding an issue, using your

own opinions and the opinions

given in the work of others.

Describe

Give a detailed account of

something.

Justify

Make a case by providing a body

of evidence to support your ideas

and points of view. Consider

opinions which may run contrary to

your own before stating your

conclusion.

Outline

Provide the main features of

something.

Tone

When writing an academic

essay, it is important that you

use the correct tone and

language.

There are a few things you

should avoid doing in an

essay…

Things to avoid

1) Informal Language

Your essay should be written in formal English.

There should be no colloquial language, or

language written as someone would speak, or

use in a text message.

Don’t use words like ‘okay', 'maybe’ or ‘sort of’

Write out numbers – ‘Four’ rather than 4

Don’t abbreviate words – ‘did not’ rather than

‘didn’t’

Things to avoid

2) Using clichés

Avoid using clichés in your work. Examples of

clichés include:

‘stuck out like a sore thumb’

‘think outside the box’

‘avoid it like the plague’

Things to avoid

3) Long Quotes

Don’t use too many long quotes. Try and

paraphrase the ideas and words of other

people and put them into your own words,

rather than copying big chunks of text.

Remember that even when you put the ideas

of someone else into your own words that this

still needs to be referenced!

Things to avoid

4) Unnecessary words

Don’t use too many unnecessary words. Use

straightforward language and communicate

succinctly.

Go through a paragraph that you have

written and cross out any words, phrases or

sentences that may be unnecessary. Read it

again to see if you have lost anything

essential to the meaning. If you have not,

then delete it permanently.

Things to avoid

5) Writing in First Person

Academic writing should be written in third

person, eliminating the personal use of ‘I’

Instead of ‘In this essay, I am going to discuss’

say ‘This essay will discuss’

Instead of ‘I think’

say ‘It can be argued’

Instead of ‘I noted from Petty’s research’

say ‘It can be noted from Petty’s research’

Introductions

An essay introduction should form

about 10 percent of the total word

count for your essay.

You should engage immediately with

the question, to show you understand

what is being asked.

Introductions

It is a good idea to briefly explain the

topic you are going to discuss, and how

you are going to address it in your

essay.

Your introduction

should be like a map –

identifying the

surrounding context

and the route the

essay will take to

answer the question.

Questions to ask of your

introduction

1. Have I shown that I understand the task

that has been set?

2. Have I given an outline of the way I plan to

respond to the title?

3. Is my introduction a true indication of what

the reader is about to read?

If you can answer YES to all these – you should

have an effective introduction.

You don’t necessarily have to write

your introduction first!

Sometimes it is easier to go back

and write this last, once you have

written the main body of the essay,

and know the points you have

made.

Paragraphs

Each new point or argument made to

answer your essay question should be

put in a new paragraph.

Each point made should be expanded

upon and supported with evidence,

examples and relevant quotations.

Paragraphs

Each paragraph should begin with a ‘topic sentence’

which introduces the point the paragraph is going to

cover.

Example paragraph of an essay which discusses the arguments for and

against abortion.

One of the main debates surrounding

abortion is the point at which the unborn

child has rights. There are a variety of different opinions on the stage at which a

foetus has the right to live. These range from

conception, the first sign of brain activity or

when the foetus could survive outside the

womb. There is no agreed moment in

medicine or philosophy of the point at

which a foetus should have the same rights

as an adult human being (BBC, 2012).

Introduces

topic of an

argument

against

abortion

The rest of

the

paragraph

then

expands on

the point

made in the

topic

sentence,

using other

sources to

back up the

point being

made.

Paragraphs

You should be able to sum up the content of

each paragraph in a few words.

When you think you have finished your essay,

you could go through your essay, and next to

each paragraph, write down the main point

covered.

Doing this allows you to check the topics flow

smoothly and there is no unnecessary repetition.

Conclusions

An essay conclusion should form about

10 percent of the total word count for

your essay.

Conclusions

There should be no new material in an

essay conclusion, just a brief summary

of the points which have already been

made.

Ensure you refer back to the question, to

show you have answered it effectively.

Conclusions

Three questions to ask to check you have

written an effective conclusion.

1. Have I referred back to the title of the

essay?

2. Is my conclusion genuinely well-supported

by the evidence and argument that I have

presented throughout the essay?

3. Have I made sure that I have not

introduced a new argument at this stage

which hasn’t been previously mentioned in

the essay?

Reports

There are several differences between

reports and essays.

• Reports are often used to give the results of

research, and the content tends to be more

informative and factual.

• Reports have a more formal structure than

essays

• Reports include headings and sub-headings.

• Reports often include bullet points, tables or

graphs.

Academic Tone

You still must use an appropriate tone when

writing a report, avoiding the same issues as

you would with an essay.

• Do not use informal language or clichés.

• Do not use unnecessary words.

• Do not write in first person.

Report Headings

Not all reports contain the same headings, but these are

some of the most commonly used:

Abstract - A short summary of the whole research,

including context, methods, results and conclusions.

Introduction - Overview of context. Compares, contrasts

and analyses findings of other similar or relevant

research.

Method - Step-by-step description of how the research

was conducted.

Report Headings

Results - Factual data and description of findings

with no explanations.

Discussion - Critical evaluation of results and

methodology. Link back to other research, models

and theories.

Conclusion - Final summing up of findings of report

with no new material.

Contents Pages

You will also number the pages of your report

and use a contents page to detail the

headings included and which pages these

can be found on.