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Essays

An essay is a discussion in response to a question or statement. In it, you present an argument based on evidence and your analysis of relevant theory and research.

How do I structure an essay? Essays have three parts: A beginning... A middle... and an end. That is, the introduction, body, and conclusion. It's important to have structure in your essay, or you will lose the flow of your argument.

How do I write an essay introduction? Writing an essay introduction can sometimes be quite challenging. It helps to break down your introduction into three important parts: First, start by introducing your topic. Then, state your argument. And finally, outline your main points.

By doing this, your introduction should start broad and become more specific, focusing in on your essay topic. Basically, you're letting the reader know what you're going to discuss throughout the essay. Let's have a look at this introduction as an example:

Self-confidence means possessing a positive, yet realistic, view of one's self and abilities. Self-confident people have trust and faith in their abilities. Self-confidence can be affected by a variety of factors. This essay will argue that self-confidence develops through a complex interaction between a range of factors. The essay will firstly define self-confidence, and then analyse the interaction between various factors that affect the confidence of an individual. In particular, these are personality style, situational factors/life experiences self-efficacy and self-esteem.

Notice the structure: The topic and context at the start of the paragraph; the argument in the middle, and what will be covered in the essay at the end of the paragraph.

How do I write an essay body? An essay body is a series of paragraphs that support the main argument.

How do I write an essay conclusion? Your essay conclusion is written in the opposite way to the introduction: it starts narrow and becomes broad. Begin with the detail of the essay, and expand out to the bigger picture. Here's an example of how to structure a conclusion:

Self-confidence is not ingrained within individuals and can be influenced by a variety of factors. The personality style of an individual can determine whether the individual is an introvert or an extrovert, which will affect self-confidence. Life experiences and situational factors have a large impact on the stability of personalities and confidence. Self-efficacy and self-esteem are major factors that can contribute to a lack of self-confidence. Self-confidence is essential for effective and positive engagement in all professional and personal activities.

For more information about essay writing, try the tutorials.

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First steps

Carefully read and analyse the essay topic and identify the key words. Generally, essay topics are made up of content, instruction and limiting words. Let's take a look at what each of these mean.

Content words

Content words tell you WHAT the topic is. They tell you which concepts the essay should be based around. They will often be words that you have encountered in your course, and by identifying them, you can have a good idea of what areas to review for your assignment.
Here are some examples of essay prompts with content words italicised:

  • Explain the process of photosynthesis in plants. Include the basic steps of chlorophyll.
  • Analyse the concept of democracy. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of representative democracy compared to direct democracy.

Instruction words

These tell you HOW to write the essay. To identify them, look for the key verb or verbs in the topic.
For example, assignments may require you to:

  • investigate an issue
  • explain the relationship between topics or ideas
  • describe or explain a process
  • argue a point of view.

Limiting words

These words restrict the task. They set the scope of the topic and narrow down the topic area. Limiting words indicate the aspects of the topic that should be
included and the boundaries of your discussion.

For example, an essay topic like "Investigate the causes of pollution" is a very broad topic. Your teacher might limit the scope of the topic by focusing on a particular type of pollution, and a specific place and/or time period. To illustrate: "Investigate the causes of water pollution in Melbourne, Australia in the last five years."

Read the assessment criteria

Once you have broken down the question to understand what you have been asked to do, it is important to read the assignment brief in full. This way, you will discover any conditions that you need to follow, such as:

  • word count
  • required fonts and spacing
  • the required referencing style
  • the assignment due date.

    • Also, read the assignment rubric thouroughly. This tells you how your assignment will be graded and how the person marking your work will be assessing your essay. By having an understanding of this information, you can make sure that you include all of the required elements of the assignment in your work.

    Sample essay topic

    The following essay topic has been broken down into content words, instructional words and limiting words.

    Compare team models in two contemporary organisations.Discuss the effectiveness of these models with reference to current management theories.

    Keywords