Brief guidelines to help you writing a good essay.

1. The UK’s European university
INVESTIGATING THE
SOCIAL MIND / SUMMER
SCHOOL 2016
How To Write an Essay
Vanessa Dias (vcrd2@kent.ac.uk)

2. Contents
• What do you need to write a good essay?
• Different Approaches, Different Results
• Tools for Writing
• How to Collect Information
• Working with The Collected Information
• Essay Planning
• Essay Writing
• Reviewing the Essay
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3. What do you need to write a good essay?
• Motivation
• Information about the craft of writing
“put yourself into your writing
to breathe life into it”
(p. 15, Beech, 2009)
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4. Different Approaches, Different Results
• The Minimalist Approach
• You use the nearest textbook
• Few other sources
• Type up
• Little arrangement
– You produce an essay, but it is unlikely you achieve a
very good mark
• The Motivated Approach
• You put more effort and time on your essay
• You find motivation
• You have a good self-organisation (planning and
timing)
• You get a first draft before the deadline is due
• There is time for a final revision
– You produce a better final product
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5. Tools for Writing
• While you are writing, it is useful to have with
you:
• A general dictionary
• A thesaurus, and
• A psychology dictionary (when you are writing within
this field)
• Suggestions:
– Oxford Online Dictionary & Thesaurus – click here
– Dictionary of Psychology Online – click here
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6. How to Collect Information
• Notes from lectures
• Articles / papers in journals
• Using databases
– PsycINFO
– PsycARTICLES
• University of Kent Library’s search engine – click
here
• Recommended books
• Web of science
• Google Scholar
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7. Working with The Collected Information
• Photocopy or print chapters / articles &
highlight the most important parts
• Rephrase your highlights when typing your
essay
• PLAGIARISM: when you simply copy/past other’s
information into your essay, without proper citation
and reconstruction
• Remember that your essay will be submitted to
Turnitin Software for plagiarism detection
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8. Essay Planning
• Read the question first
• The essay must answer the question
• Impacts how you will structure your essay
• Make sure you understand the question: if
not, ask for clarification
• Know well the topic
• Identify the type of question
• Descriptive
• Explanatory
• Evaluative
• Comparative
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9. Essay Planning: Descriptive Questions
• Might include words such as “outline”,
“describe”, “sketch”, “depict”, “delineate”,
“illustrate”
• Writing aim:
• cover the topic
• Challenges:
• There may be too much information
• You need to reduce the information & keep the most
important parts
• Try to softly include criticism and analysis
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10. Essay Planning:
Descriptive Question Example
“Describe Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development. What
are its implications for
teachers?”
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11. Essay Planning: Explanatory Questions
• Might include words such as “causes”,
“explain”, “account for”, “effects of”,
“reasons”, “examine”, “why”, and
• Phrases such as “aims of”, “sources of”,
“origins of”
• An explanatory questions asks for an
explanation as, e.g., why behaviourism
emerged
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12. Essay Planning:
Explanatory Question Example
“What are the reasons for
conformity to wrong majority
opinion when in a group
pressure situation?”
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13. Essay Planning: Evaluative Questions
• Might include words and phrases such as “do
you agree with”, “comment on”, “evaluate”,
“elaborate the deficiencies in”
• A part of the answer is about your views on the
topic in question
• Though, everything you write must be backed
up with evidence
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14. Essay Planning:
Evaluative Question Example
“Examine gender stereotypes.
Do you think they are
disadvantageous?”
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15. Essay Planning: Comparative Questions
• You are asked to provide similarities and
differences
• There are three ways you can do it:
• Writing about all similarities first and then all
differences
• Writing similarities and differences for each
addressed topic
• Writing about each topic and the provide both
similarities and differences
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16. Essay Writing
• Your essay structure
• The introductory paragraph
• The topic sentence and the rest of the
paragraph
• The following paragraphs
• The conclusion
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17. Essay Writing: The Introductory Paragraph &
Topic Sentence
• Opening sentence:
• Clear
• Limited
• General introductory sentence about the
essay’s topic
• Definition of key terms
• Following sentences:
• are relevant to the opening general
sentence
• A transition to the first topic is useful:
• Final sentence, or
• First sentence of the second paragraph
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18. Essay Writing: Following Paragraphs
•First main topic follows immediately
the introductory paragraph and
needs another topic sentence
• What will the paragraph talk about?
• Starting a new paragraph is useful to
provide the opportunity to cover another
topic
• Plus it is more pleasant to read
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19. Essay Writing: The Conclusion
•Sum up of the main points within a
paragraph
•Brings closure to the reader
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20. Introduction Body Conclusion
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EDITING &
REVIEWING
PROCESS
REFERENCES

21. Reviewing the Essay
• Check spelling and grammar
• Does your essay have an introduction, a body
and a conclusion?
• Are your citations correct and listed at the end
of the essay? (Check APA format)
• Does your essay respect the required format?
• Does your essay respect the word limit?
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22. Reference
• Beech, J.R. (2009). How to write in psychology:
a student guide. Chichester: Wiley-
Backwell.
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23. THE UK’S
EUROPEAN
UNIVERSITY
www.kent.ac.uk