One Step Ahead: Essays and Dissertations
Key advice on preparing and structuring your student essay
Understanding essay questions
Essay titles come in two types, the specific and the general.
· Specific questions have a narrow focus and will probably name people
or situations or problems.
· General questions suggest the area you must write about and demand
you explore the topic from a certain angle, but they rarely mention specific
names, situations, or places.
NOTE: However general the question, your answer must be specific. The difference
with general questions is that you get to choose what you are specific about.
Researching an essay
Finding books on a particular topic is not as hard as you might think. Here
are some methods you could try:
· Shelf-mark Search
· Keyword Search
· Author Search
· Bibliography Search
· Internet Search
NOTE: Research is not a search for a particular set of facts. Any fact you
find interesting will probably be useful for your essay.
Structuring and essay - 3 easy steps
Remember that you are writing an essay in order to give your opinion
about something, so first:
· introduce your opinion and your reasons for holding it.
You must offer evidence as to why your opinion is valid, so next present:
· evidence for your opinion.
Finally you must show the scope of your opinion, and how it fits with
other opinions, so:
· conclude your essay with a look at other people's ideas to show how
your opinion fits with theirs.
No essay can be written perfectly at one go. You will need to write a series of
drafts (at least two), to make sure you are being as clear as you can.
How your essay should look
Make your essay easy to read by:
· Using a word processor
· Double spacing the text
· Leaving wide margins on your page
· Choosing a large font (e.g. 12 point)
Footnotes and endnotes
Whenever you quote something:
· put a superscripted number next to it
· write down the source either at the bottom of the page (footnotes)
or the bottom of the essay (endnotes)
· copy down the source in the bibliography
How to take notes
It is a good idea to find and write down quotes when reading a book. When you
start your reading, remember that not everything in the chapter or passage will
be relevant to your essay. What you are trying to find is evidence from which
you can form and support an opinion. When you find a relevant piece of information,
write down the sentence in which you find it.
Structure of a dissertation
A dissertation is a long essay written on a single topic, which you research by yourself.
Dissertations are usually 10, 000 words. It might seem a lot, so break this
up into manageable sections. Here is a structure you might like to try:
· Introduction 1000 words
· Theoretical chapter 2000 words
· Evidential chapter 1 2000 words
· Evidential chapter 2 2000 words
· Evidential chapter 3 2000 words
· Conclusion 1000 words
Dividing the dissertation in this way means that all you have to do is write
four 2000 word essays, add an introduction and a conclusion and you are there!
NOTE: A dissertation is not simply four essays fastened together. It is a single
argument.
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