One Step Ahead: Essays and Dissertations

Key advice on preparing and structuring your student essay

Understanding essay questions Researching an essay Structuring an essay Drafting your essay How to take notes Structure of a dissertation

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.

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.

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.

Drafting your essay

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

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.

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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