The Importance of Writing a Good Essay

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Whether a student is attending a course at Oxbridge or any other institute of higher education, essay assignments are part and parcel of daily university life.

Tips

A good essay can demonstrate to lecturers that the student is absorbing information and also has a good grasp of subject matter. The research required beforehand is just as important as the writing of the essay and a well thought out and planned piece of writing will demonstrate how much effort the student has put into their work. It’s never a good idea to copy an essay from the internet, academics and teachers are wise to the fact that some students have left their writing until the last minute and have thought that nobody will detect their plagiarism. The internet has also introduced a number of software programmes that can detect any copies and it’s always better to ask your tutor for an extension rather than cheating. Of course, using the internet to supplement library and course note research is another matter entirely. Quite often the tools and essays found on the web can promote extra creativity and lead to an expansion of ideas. Some of the online sites have suggestions and hints about what makes a successful essay and also provide comments by experienced professionals and successful students that may well help both the construction of an essay and offer research tools that might not have been previously considered.

The Library

Be creative in your thinking. Once the student has been given the essay subject, try to deduce which books will provide the most relevant material for citations and quotes. It’s useful to remember that the rest of your academic year will also be in search of the same books, so try to order them from the library as soon as possible. University librarians can place a time limit on certain popular texts, so make sure that they know about your requirements so that they can help you. Creativity and serendipity can often be rewarded, so why not make use of the local libraries in the Swansea area and see if some of the material that may be needed for the essay can be found in these places.

Requirements

Depending on the structure of the course, a university essay is usually a contributory factor towards the final degree classification that will be awarded to the student, so it’s always a good idea to write each essay with this in mind. The difference between a first class degree and an upper second class honours may not seem like much, but they are worlds apart in terms of academic excellence. As well as contributing towards your final classification, essays also allow tutors to assess a student’s progress throughout the term. If a student hasn’t understood course lectures or seminars, this will soon be apparent in an essay and the tutor may be able to guide the student in the right direction. Alternatively, if a student is simply being lazy and not working hard enough, a poorly researched essay will reveal this.