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Essay Feedback Guidance

I appreciate that many of you are not sociology students, and are doing this module as afree choice. Therefore I hope that these general guidelines will be of benet to all of youin this module and perhaps for the other modules that you are doing. However, I doappreciate that there will be dierent conventions and guidelines for how you write inthese modules. For those of you, who may be more experienced at writing sociology

essays, some of these guidelines might help demystify some of the magic and mystery towriting a good academic essay. Furthermore, I hope that it might reveal some of the goodpractices that you are already doing, so that you can ensure you continue to eep writingsophisticated arguments.

Question /Reading

•  The rst thing perhaps that you need to do when writing an essay is to decide onthe !uestion that you are going to do. I suggest that you unpac the !uestion"

o #hat does it mean$

o #hat is the focus of the !uestion$

o

#hat are you being ased to do criti!ue, evaluate, discuss, consider$o #here do you thin the emphasis is in the !uestion$

• I feel that the !uestion and reading are part of an iterative process. %ou will need tohave some sense about what the !uestion is asing from you, and you will get thismore fully from reading. Tutorial&lecture readings and engaging in further reading.

 %ou may use the !uestion to direct and focus your reading. #hen doing yourreading ' be critical, what does one author say$ #hat interpretation is given byanother author$ (re they similar$ (re they dierent$ #hy$

•  The reading and note taing that you do will act as the content of your essay.)nsure that when you read that you note the full reference and eep a record of 

page numbers etc.• It is absolutely imperative that you read when writing an essay* you are being

tested&assessed on your engagement with the lectures&tutorials&readings and yourability to argue and assess material.

Structure/language

•  %our essay needs to have a logical framewor that holds all the content togetherthat you have compiled from your reading.

•  %ou might nd it helpful to structure your response into + main points that you canbuild it as a response to the essay.

•  %our essay will need an introduction" %our introduction should set out what youintend to do. %ou might lie to use signposts- words or phrases that explain to yourreader what you are going to argue&build as a response to this essay. For example,this essay will rst discuss x, followed by x, nally x will be outlined&evaluated. Thisshould allow you to control the points that you mae.

• ae sure that your introduction is concise. (void woolly introductions, get straightto the point.

• /uilding your argument. ae 0udicious assessments about what to include andwhat to leave out1 (s yourself is this point&evidence relevant$ How$ 2how yourreader why it is relevant1 it possibly sounds obvious but it helps to subtly guide

your reader with phrases and explanations so that they can see the relevance of your argument. It is not enough 0ust to assume that I now what you are thining.(n analogy I use is the forest and trees-. In your rst point you might lie to showyour reader that you understand the forest-, 3that you now the wider debate and

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issues that are related to this topic&!uestion4. In your remaining points it is thenadvisable to explain to your reader that you are going to show them this tree andthis tree 3focus on particular issues within the wider debates&issues4. In terms of your essay you might phrase it an academic&formal way that you say somethinglie for the purposes of this essay&argument&response, the intention is to focus onthis and this in order to evaluate this claim-.

• (ll essays need a conclusion where you summarise what has been discussed and

answer the !uestion5

• 6o not use collo!uial&chatty language or clich7 phrases

• 8lease proof read your wor ' typos, badly constructed or cluny sentences,without proper punctuation means the 9ow of your wor is disrupted and I lose thethread of your argument1 and means you loose mars5

• 6o not use contracted forms or abbreviations unless you have a good reason.)xamples are don-t, doesn-t, etc : use proper words do not, was not, does not

•  %ou can use personal anecdotes but be careful that you don-t sue them asevidence of research. %ou can use them as illustrative examples, and they need to

be supported with a discussion of academic literature

• )nsure that you lin !uotes&evidence together with phrases. #riting an essay is not 0ust about wowing us with lots of content and !uotes5 %ou have to string ittogether, so that it 9ows. %ou can be !uite creative and it can be !uite fun. ;seyour synonym function in word to see what dierent words&phrases you can use.For example, mae your opening point, and then perhaps say this is supported byx 3date" pg4, who claims that1-. However, this is challenged by x 3date" pg4 whoemphasises that1- and so on.

• ( rule in structuring your point that you might lie to use is 8

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• Abviously there are bound to be exceptions. #ith those that don-t t the generalrule, 0ust do your best5

• )verything that you write, within reason 3perhaps not your opening statements,lining phrases and summations4 should be supported with references fromacademic literature or empirical evidence 3such as stats ' BAT #iipedia54. %oushould all have referencing handouts in your pac. (ny !ueries email me or yourtutor.