2. General advice
SOME GENERAL ADVICE ON ACADEMIC ESSAY-WRITING
An accomplished academic essay
should have not only a topic,
but also an argument ( it should
try to prove something)
Formulate questions( you will
seek to answer in your essay),
and then develop a provisional
thesis or hypothesis.
An essay’s organization shoul
be designed( how it begins,
develops and ends)
3. Planning and organization
Organizing an Essay: some
basic guidelines
Pre-writing stage: the best
time to about how to organize
your paper. Knowing the
patterns of reasoning
associated with genre can help
you to structure your essay.
Avoiding a common pitfall: the
structure of an essay should
not be detemined by the
structure of its sources.
Some techniques for
integrating note-taking and
planning: index cards, the
computer,the circle method.
4. Planning and organization
Using thesis
statements
• A clear statement of your position is expected
by the reader(it comes in the first paragraph of
the essay)
• A good thesis statement shows:
• A-a definite and limited assertion that needs
to be explained and supported by further
discussion,
• B- the emphasis and indicates the
methodology of your argument
• C-awareness of difficulties and
disagreements
5. Planning and organization
Introductions and conclusions
• They play a special role in academic essay
• A good introduction should: identify your
topic,provide essential context, and
indicates your particular focus in the essay.
It also needs to engage your readers’
interest.
• A strong conclusion will provide a sense of
clousure to the essay while again placing your
concepts in a somewhere wider context. It will
also, add a stimulus for further thoughts.
6. Planning and organization
Strategies for capturing your
readers’ attention; an interesting
and effective introduction:
• Startling statistic that illustrates the
seriousness of the problem you will
address
• Quote an expert
• Give some background information
• Use a brief narrative or anecdote.
7. Planning and organization
Stategies for an
interesting, effective
conclusion:
Contemporary
problem: warn
readers of the
possible consequences
of not attending to the
problem
Recommend a
specific course of
action
Return to an
anecdote, example,
or quotation that you
introduced in your
introduction
8. Planning and organization
Paragraphs:
• A paragraph is a series of related
sentenses developing a central idea,
called the topic.
• The most effective way to achieve
paragraph is to express the central idea
of the paragraph in a topic sentence ( it
is similar to mini thesis statements; the
main point of the paragraph)
• An essay is unified if all the paragraphs
relate to the tesis, whereas a paragraph
is unified if all the sentences relate
to the topic sentence.
9. Planning and organization
Useful tecniques for expanding on topic
sentences and developing ideas in a paragraph:
• Illustrations(examples, details or relevant quotations)
• The definition paragraph
• The analysis or classification paragraph.
• A comparision or a contrast paragraph.
• A qualification paragraph.
• The process paragraph.
• Very often a single paragraph will develop by a combination of
methods.
10. • To show connections: the best overral
strategy to enhance flow in a paragraph.
• A variaty of tecniques can help you to clarify
those connections: deliberate repetition of
key words or synonyms of them, strategic
use of pronouns,specialized linking
words(powerfull tool for pulling ideas together
eg: also/in others words/in addition).
• Length of a paragraph: they are between one-
third and two-thirds of the page double spaced
How to
make
ideas flow
in a
paragraph:
Planning and organization
11. Planning and organization
• A topic sentence states the main point of
the paragraph(it serves as a mini thesis for
the paragraph).
• They usually appear at the beginning of
the paragraph
• ( nevertheless, it is the most logical place
for it sometimes a transitional sentence or
two will come before a topic sentence)
• Relating your topic sentence to your
thesis can help strengthen the coherence
of your essay. Every paragraph does not
need a topic sentence, but most do.
Using
topic
sentences
12. Reading and reseaching
Critical writing depens
on critical reading( to
read critically is to make
judgements about how a
text is argued)
It is important to read
with comprehension
and memory.
If you take notes
efficiently you can read
with more
understanding, and also
save time and
frustration( know what
kind of ideas you need
to record/don’t write
down too much/label
your notes
intelligently)
13. Reading and researching
Dealing
with
new
words:
• You don’t need to
interrupt your
reading to look up
every hard word.
• Mark unfamiliar
words, but try
these tactics for
making an
“educated guess”
at the meaning as
you go.
• Reinforcing new
vocabulary
words.
14. Reading and rearching
Research using
the internet:
• The Net is a tremendous resourse, but it
must be used carefully and critically.
• Remember: don’t rely exclusively on Net
resourses, narrow your research topic
before logging on and so on.
• Guidelines for evaluating specific
resourses:authority, affiliation,audience
level, currently, content
reliability/accuracy.
15. Reading and searching
Previewing: it is preferable to read with certain goal in
mind.
Skimming and Scanning: by first skimming a text you
get a general overview of the text. Scanning is basically
skimming with a more tightly focused purpose.
Summarizing: a summary has two aims: to reproduce
the overrall ideas, and to express overarching ideas
using precise.
16. Using sources
Avoid plagiarising: the
purpose of any paper is
to show your ideas
Standard
Documentation
Formats: different
disciplines use their own
systems to set out
information about
sourses.
Using quotations:
don’t include too much
quotation.
Paraphase and
summary : to
paraphrase means to
restate someone else’s
ideas in your own
language. To summarize
means to reduce the
most essential points of
someone else’ s work.
17. Revising And Editing
Good revision and
editing can transform
a mediocre first draft
into an excellent final
paper.
First check whether
you have fulfilled the
intention of
the assignment .Then
look at
overall organization.
Now polish and edit
your style by moving
to smaller matters
such as word choice,
sentence structure,
grammar, punctuation,
and spelling.
Using the Computer
to Improve Your
Writing
One of the most
efficient ways to
improve your writing is
to edit it for
conciseness
19. English as a second language
Using articles:
they are special
modifiers that
appear before
nouns or
nouns phrase.
Articles belong
in front of all
other
modifiers
preceding a
noun.
There are other
special
modifiers
called
determiners or
markers that
may appear
before a noun
phrase.
