English- How to write a good academic essay

1. ENGLISH
Writing an Impressive
Academic Essay

2. Writing and impressive Academic
Essay.
• Presented by Entle Mabena
• Department of English (UJ)
• mabenaentleangel@gmail.com
• Some information is taken from ‘’Guidelines
on How to Write an Academic Essay’’ by
Minesh Dash, available at https://

3. An Academic Essay?
 It is a detailed and focused piece of writing that is
structured and supported by evidence.
 Its purpose is to make up an argument that is
based on evidence but guarded by a central idea.
 To compose an academic essay, evidence should
be accompanied by logic to prove a point of view
or support an argument on a particular issue.

4. Research and Right Formatting
Resource.
 It makes it easy for the essay to be fluent and
understandable.
 Essay should adopt one format (could be APA, MLA,
Havard)and rely on one reliable resource or site.
 Understanding the question and making efficient use of
available time to compile it is very important.
 Research helps to collect the necessary data, materials
and quotes needed to combine the essay.
 It is important to acknowledge the original source of
data and material collected to plagiarism.

5. Essay structure
 A full essay consists of:
 An introduction
 At least three body paragraphs
 And a conclusion
 Reference list or a Bibliohraphy.

6. An introduction
 They reveal the whole mood of the essay and
it determines the nature of he essay.
 It consists of:
 General statement
 Thesis statement
 And an essay plan.

7. General Statement
 It is not a summary if the content to be covered in
argument but a brief statement to let the marker
have background knowledge of the content that is
to be covered in the argument.
 Usually short and may involve a short summary of
the text that the essay is focused on, the
biographical details of the author being discussed,
the cultural, historical, socio-economical and
philosophical nature of the work that is under
discussion.

8. Thesis Statement
 It consists of a sentence or two which clearly
states what the essay is going to be centred
around.
 It helps the essay to be cohesive, logical and
fluent in its nature.
 It summarises what your whole essay is going to
be about and gives the reader an idea of what to
expect.
 Usually starts with ‘’This essay will…’’ and
followed by what the essay will discuss, prove or
explore.

9. Essay Plan
 It acts as a map to state how the essay will be
structured and argument presented.
 Giving a clear plan of the essay helps the
reader to be able to go through the essay
fluently. Essay plan helps to break the thesis
into 3-5 comprehensible parts to build an
essay.

10. Body
 Should include paragraphs of evidence and logic to back
up the thesis.
 Each paragraph should consist of introductory statement
to state the main idea that the paragraph will cover.
 This introductory statement is also known as a topic
statement.
 In a paragraph, there should be a topic statement,
evidence and logic to back up the evidence.
 Paragraph should arrive at a conclusion about an idea,
state how you arrived at the conclusion and the
significance of the conclusion to the main idea which is
the thesis statement

11. Quoting and Counter-argument
 You cannot start a sentence with a quotation
and a quotation cannot be a sentence on its
own.
 Quotation should make conceptual sense that
it is placed in a sentence and does not disrupt
the fluency of the sentence.
 Counter- arguments strengthen the thesis
statement as it can predict doubts.

12. Conclusion
 A good essay conclusion provides a sense of
completeness and ‘’leaves a final impression on the
reader’’
 No new idea should be presented in a conclusion.
 It establishes a certain frame by linking back to the
introduction, specifically the thesis statement.
 Thesis states what the essay will be doing and the
conclusion states what the essay has done.
 It acts to summarise the arguments explored or
discussed in the body of the essay.

13. Tips
 A good essay is based on originality.
 It is important to not be afraid to express your
own thoughts on the topic covered and not
rely entirely on the evidence.
 Avoid repetition of, phrase or ideas
throughout the essay.
 Get someone to proof-read the essay for
grammatical and other possible errors.

14. Reference
 Elizabeth, Abrams, 2000, for the writing center of Havard University
https://writingcenter.fas.havard.edu/pages/essay-structure
accessed on 18-August-2020
 Minesh, Dass. 2019. Guidelines on How to Write an Academic Essay.
University of Johannesburg: Auckland park
https://www.slideshare.net/BridgetteBoshielo/guidlines-on-how-to-write-
an-academic-essay-237795583?from_m_app=android
accessed 17-August-2020
 How to Write an Academic Essay
https://www.slideshare.net/essaytask/how-to-write-an-academic-
essay?from_m_app=android accessed
on 18-August-2020
 Great essay writing in 8 steps|Oxbridge Essays
https://www.oxbridgeessays.com/blog/essay-writing-tips/
accessed on 18-August-2020
 Essay Structure
https://writingcenter.fas.havard.edu/pages/essay-structure