Essay

Essay The language of the question, especially the directive words, will indicate the type of essay and suggest an appropriate structure to follow in your essay. More information on directive words is contained in the QUT cite|write booklet . Logically structured body paragraphs which include supporting evidence from academic sources. Shorter words are often preferable to longer words, unless there is some specific vocabulary that you need to include to demonstrate your skill. Short to middle length sentences are almost always preferable to longer ones. And over-long paragraphs tend to demonstrate that you are not clear about the specific points you are making. Of course, these are general points, and there may be some occasions, or some subject areas, where long paragraphs are appropriate. Examples of this type of essay include compare, compare and contrast or differentiate questions. In this structure the similarities and/or differences between two or more items, for example, theories or models, are discussed paragraph by paragraph. Your assignment task may require you to make a recommendation about the suitability of the items you are comparing. A different pattern would be to use a paragraph to present and describe an idea/piece of evidence/quote/stage of argument, then to use the subsequent paragraph to explain its relevance. sensible ordering of material, to support and the development of ideas and the development of argument. The composers Haydn and Mozart, working in the 18th century, tended to write symphonies to fit reliably and closely within what was called ‘symphonic form’. This set out a pattern for the numbers of movements within the symphony, and for the general structure of writing within each movement. The continued popularity of their work today shows that they clearly managed to achieve plenty of interest and variety within that basic structure. It is the argument, and how you decide to present and back up your argument, that will influence your decision on how to structure your essay. In these early stages of your thinking you may not be sure which of your ideas you want to follow up and which you will be discarding. Because when you focus on external approval, you shut down your subconscious, and the subconscious is the source of your creativity. What this means practically is that when you’re trying to write that perfect, A-plus-worthy sentence, you’re turning off most of your best resources. Every once in a while, I would write a really good essay, but mostly I skated by with B’s and A-minuses. Sentences giving further explanation and providing evidence from both the literature and the data, e.g. the case study to support the topic sentence . Examples of this include questions which ask you to discuss, analyse, investigate, explore or review. In an analytical structure you are required to break the topic into its different components and discuss these in separate paragraphs or sections, demonstrating balance where possible. Before you start, it is important to understand what type of essay you are required to write. So, don’t feel you have to make that decision in your head before you write anything. Instead, you can catch all of your ideas, in no particular order, on a sheet or two of A4. Once they are down there it will be easier for you to start to review them critically and to see where you need to focus your reading and note taking. The need to use such a wide range of academic skills is probably the main reason why the essay format is so popular with tutors as an assignment. Whether chocolate is a food or a drug is also unclear. It can therefore be said that chocolate is not a healthy food, but can be enjoyed as part of a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle. To write a 1000 word essay, ideally you should allow yourself about 3 weeks. You might wonder how you can include your own voice and still sound academic when you are writing about a subject area in which you have little knowledge. Including your voice does not mean that you should say ‘I think’ or ‘in my opinion’. Since Spanish explorers brought back chocolate from the new world, chocolate consumption has become a worldwide phenomenon. Include a reference in the text, where the words or ideas appear, and in a reference list at the end of the essay. Obesity and chocolate consumption seemingly have no proven correlations. Another possible positive dimension to chocolate is a correlation with cardiovascular health. Yet the potential benefits of flavanols in chocolate are currently offset by the high fat/carbohydrate content of most forms of chocolate.