Writing Your Essay

Writing Your Essay In addition to commencing your paragraph with a clear topic sentence, it is important to use linking words and phrases to create cohesion within and across paragraphs in your writing. The words you see on your screen are what we call transition signals or signpost words, and they can help the reader follow the order and flow of your ideas. If you have planned and prepared appropriately, writing the body of the essay should be fairly easy. It will almost be a case of expanding what you have in note form into complete sentences, adding specific details where necessary. The introduction should identify the topic; give essential background information and/or definitions of key words where necessary; and indicate the direction and angle of your argument. You will find a number of great books on essay writing in the Laidlaw Library, Level 1, under Skills E-5. If you feel that you need more help in writing an assignment - then you can get free help at the HELPS unit. We’re located in building 1 level 3 room 8, just across from the Concourse café and the Careers Office. Please feel free to come and visit us and chat to an Advisor about receiving academic language support to complete your assesements. In a previous online tutorial video we introduced you to a real-life assignment question and talked about how to structure the introduction and conclusion to an essay. Today we are going to have a look at the structure of a body paragraph â€" these paragraphs make up the most substantial part of an essay, report or case study. HELPS is dedicated to providing English language and academic literacy support to UTS undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students via free con-credit programs and services. Don’t start with a dictionary definition â€" this is clichéd and boring. It should sum up the main arguments in the middle and finish with a conclusions that finally answers the essay question. The body of the essay consists of a number of paragraphs in which you present your main points and evidence to support them. Essays need to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The introduction should outline the problem, explain why it’s important, and briefly outline the main arguments. Welcome to Writing Essays, the RLF’s online guide to everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about writing undergraduate essays. One of your goals is to evoke a strong sense of familiarity and appreciation in the reader. If your reader can walk away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are on your way to writing effective descriptive essays. The Modes of Discourseâ€"Exposition, Description, Narration, Argumentation â€"are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. If it’s a ‘compare and contrast’ kind of question, you’ll need to demonstrate both sides of the argument. If it’s a ‘define and explain’ kind of question, you’ll need to show that you have a deep understanding of the topic. If it has two parts, divide your essay into two parts to answer the question. Read widely around the topic before you even start and you’re halfway there. Now let's try and identify the essential elements to a paragraph by looking at an example taken from our assignment question. You’ll notice the first sentence is the topic sentence which clearly states the theme of the paragraph. This is followed by the explanation or argument and then substantiated through the integration of evidence and demonstration of examples. Notice that it is important to include some form of critical analysis or observation. Finally, your concluding statement should articulate your voice or opinion. Notice too that even a preview into the conclusion is mentioned here. This outline of your essay will set up a sort of contract with your reader, explaining what you will deliver to them in the body of your essay. This is designed to orientate the reader and provide them with some sort of context beforehand. It is absolutely critical to prepare your reader with this type of background information-do not immediately launch into your argument. This is the third paragraph of our introduction which contains a preview of the essay. This functions as kind of map to navigate the reader. We can tell that this is a preview from the use of key words such as “this essay will focus on”. Notice that further into this paragraph, signposting language is used to designate the structure of the essay, for example phrases such as “the first, second and last section”.