Shiach Don. How To Write Essays
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HOW TO
WRITE
ESSAYS
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HOW TO
WRITE
ESSAYS
A step-by-step guide for all levels,
with sample essays
Don Shiach
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author and publishers are grateful to Nicholas Murray and the Rack Press,
Kinnerton, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2PF for permission to reproduce History
from Nicholas Murray’s collection ‘The Narrators’.
Published by How To Content,
A division of How To Books Ltd,
Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road,
Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX, United Kingdom
Tel: (01865) 375794 Fax: (01865) 379162
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All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced
or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for
purposes of review), without the express permission of the
publisher in writing.
Text © Don Shiach 2009
First edition 2007, second edition 2009
First published in electronic form 2009
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 84803 323 8
Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock
Typeset by specialist publishing services ltd, Montgomery
Cartoons by Phill Burrows
Cover design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford
The right of Don Shiach to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction ix
1 Planning Your Essay 1
What are you being asked to do? 1
Making a plan 6
2 The Opening Paragraph 11
‘Waffle’ 12
The length of the opening paragraph 15
Useful phrases 16
More opening paragraphs 18
3 The Body of the Essay 26
Paragraphs 26
More examples of paragraphs 30
Continuity 34
The use of close references 38
More about the body of the essay 41
4 The Closing Paragraph 43
Final sentence 45
Further examples of closing paragraphs 45
5 Summary of Essay Structure 50
6 Sample Essay 1: A Discursive Essay 52
v
7 Sample Essay 2: Literature 61
Essays on literature in examinations 61
8 Sample Essay 3: Writing about Poetry 71
9 Sample Essay 4: Another Essay on a Poem 77
10 Sample Essay 5: A Media Studies Essay 83
11 Sample Essay 6: History 91
12 Sample Essay 7: Writing About a Novel 97
13 Sample Essay 8: Writing in Response to a
Critical Thinking Task 108
14 Sample Essay 9: A Film Studies Essay 115
15 Sample Essay 10: A Politics Essay 124
16 Grammar and Accuracy 133
Writing in sentences 134
Punctuation 138
The use of the apostrophe 141
17 Spelling 145
Their/there/they’re 145
Were/where/we’re 146
18 Bibliographies and Reference Lists 151
19 Examinations 154
Answers to Practice Sections 157
Index 161
vi
HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS
PREFACE
I strongly recommend readers to study and absorb the first five sections
of the book before turning to the ten sample essays that have been
provided. These sample essays are presented as models of good practice
and each is followed by a detailed analysis or questions that are intended
to focus your attention on key essay-writing skills that you should have
learnt from the first five sections. You will benefit if you study these
sample essays in tandem with the analysis that follows. Only with this
kind of close attention to structure and detail can you hope you to
improve your essay-writing skills.
Don Shiach
vii
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INTRODUCTION
The skill of writing essays is an essential tool if you are to
achieve the kind of grade you want in the courses you are
studying. This is true whether you are studying at GCSE, AS
or A levels at school or college, or trying to gain a degree
at university.
There is no single, foolproof method of successful
essay-writing. However, the advice and the practical
guidance you will receive in this book will provide you
with all you need to know about how to improve your grade assessments
by putting into practice some simple, but invaluable, principles of essay
writing.
These approaches will work for you whether you are facing assessment
in timed examinations and/or being judged by coursework assignments.
In essence, the principles of essay-writing apply to both situations: when
you are under the pressure of an examination room, or, at home or in
college with more time to produce your assignment essay.
There is no doubt at all that the people who do best in assessments of all
kinds are those who understand exactly what is required of them and
who manage to deliver exactly that. In other words, it is not just what
you know, but how you apply that knowledge when you are being
assessed that finally counts.
In the case of examinations, you have to be effective at sitting
ix