How to write essays and coursework effectively and efficiently
Maximizing Your Academic Success through Strategic Writing Techniques
Differences between an essay and coursework
Fundamentally, both essays and coursework aim to persuade the reader (i.e. the marker) of an idea based on evidences presented by the student. However, the main difference between the two is that coursework is traditionally longer than essays, requiring detailed information and evidence based on the subject or topic. Regardless, both of the varying formats are crucial in every university degree, as coursework can either be practical based testing or written based.
With prior knowledge and understanding of how to approach both essays and coursework assignments, it can be easier to navigate, especially if you have the added pressure of wanting to perform outstandingly in obtaining a University degree. With that being said, I aim to demonstrate and show ways with which you can go about writing essays and coursework to the best of your potential, coinciding with efficient ways to conduct such assessments as (first word of advice), it is always important to start early and solidify a plan in your head prior to writing.
Before writing an essay or coursework
Understandably, some people who approach university essays and coursework love to just get straight into the action and type whatever thoughts come into their head, and for those people, it might work to an extent, but for most people, it is essential to plan prior to writing any educational material that will be heavily scrutinised and marked. Whenever you start an essay, it is always important to read thoroughly the marking criteria, assessment brief and question at hand, as it formulates in your head ideas and approaches which you want to take naturally, matched with specific academic sources you wish to use. However, it needs to be noted that this is not a one-off thing; reading these three crucial parts of an essay or coursework specification over and over helps develop an understanding of what the examiner is looking for. Furthermore, specific ideas which you would not have thought of after reading it over once could appear after reading it ten times, which ultimately could increase your mark.
After doing this, creating an outline stating how you will approach an essay or coursework could be useful. Helpful key components that every essay and coursework looks for stem from lecture materials blended with external academic sources (which we will discuss later). So basing your ideas and approach around key module concepts, which align with the question, is essential, as it shows you are collaborating what you have learned internally with your assignments. Outlines also tend to focus on separating the components of the question into different sections; this way, your brain will automatically have a systematic approach with a guideline when writing each section of the question. Remember, everything has to link back to the question!!!
During writing an essay or coursework
Firstly, in any university-assessed format, establishing a clear structure is vital to obtaining high marks. Traditionally in coursework, lecturers and the university help demonstrate the intended structure, but if you are still unclear on any coursework you have, the academic skills centre, linked here can be of use; https://www.dundee.ac.uk/academic-skills. That being said, generally, in most essays…
Structure - Establish a clear and engaging title which links briefly to what you are saying.
Introduction - Highlight what the question is asking from you and reaffirmed by a statement of intent. Also, always include the aim of the essay, the argument taken and the overall conclusion
Main Body - Provide context to the question (briefly) and be selective and concise about the knowledge you wish to use. Similarly, create interpretations which are thought-provoking and somewhat unique to yourself whilst gauging other viewpoints to demonstrate your ability to understand contrasting arguments. It is also essential to provide theory to relevant areas to demonstrate a link between academic areas.
Conclusion - Conclude with an overall judgement you have come to from your learning throughout the essay and round up all the key points made within the essay.
Granted that this structure of an essay is relatively vague at first glance, the point behind academic writing is to continually improve your abilities over time which is why it is essential to listen and read feedback lecturers provide after every assessment. Similarly, there are, what I would call ‘tricks of the trade’ when writing academic pieces of work which are established over time. So, the overriding message would be to stay patient because you will eventually get there !!!
‘Tricks of the Trade’
During my time at university, my writing ability has developed a lot, but I would argue that came over time as a response to talking to classmates and lecturers, reading feedback material and other students’ work. This is where I picked up on vital pointers.
To present your piece of work as being effective, it goes way past the material on the page. I noticed that referencing was a key area of my work which needed improvement. The University of Dundee, on my course at least, uses Harvard referencing. Websites such as https://www.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/quick-guide-to-harvard-referencing-cite-them-right, helped me understand where my referencing was going wrong. Although, there is more to referencing than what you think. Using references which have
Been cited a lot by many different people (peer-reviewed)
Are relatively recent
Written by critically acclaimed authors.
This goes a very long way in the markers mind when reading an essay or coursework because it provides more depth to understanding. Similarly, having your reference listed in an alphabetical order just adds the marker being convinced that ‘this guy/ girl knows what he/she is doing’.
Other key areas which may convey this more are simple things such as signposting, grammar, punctuation and continually checking the flow of your piece of work. I am in fourth year and only really started paying attention to these things this year, which I regret, but if you can get a foothold and practice this prior to your final year, I promise that you will see a spike in your grades.
After writing an essay or coursework
When all is said and done, the most important thing is to read over your assessment, how many times you want to do that is up to you but my recommendation would be to do a lot of reading before submission. In this part, you are checking to see if you…
Could add bits which just link to the question and your ideas and that little bit can be for extra clarity, or take sections out which does the opposite.
Referenced correctly throughout the entire essay (do not be lazy with this, be consistent)
Answered the questions and followed a coherent structure.
Once you do this and feel like you can offer no more, submit it and do not think about it until you get your results back because there is nothing you can do once it is submitted. Ultimately, essay and coursework effectiveness comes with time, and it stems back to that old saying, practice makes perfect.