Having been fortunate enough to obtain a First Class Honours degree and
secure the award of the Michael MccGwire Prize during my Masters degree; I
periodically come across someone who asks me to read an essay or other academic
piece. Therefore I thought that it would
be prudent to upload some notes to help others. In all instances, the academic
regulations and rules of an institution take precedence over anything written
here.
The first rule that a student needs to research and thereafter
understand is that of constructing a sentence.
Writing a sequence of words starting with a capital letter and ending
with a full stop; does not necessarily mean that a sentence has been created.
So STEP 1 is yours to learn
unaided by me. Enter the phrase “how to construct a sentence”
into an online internet search engine and thereafter read articles on the
subject so that you then understand what is expected of you when writing an
academic piece. Note that the use of
quotation marks before and after a sequence of words in a search engine, will
limit the engine to search for that particular phrase.
STEP 2 is about the
specifics of the required spacing that has to be inserted along a line, between
lines, and from the edge of the paper to the margin. The margin has to be of a sufficient size to
enable the paper to be bound and for the binding arrangement not to interfere
with the visibility of the text on the left hand side of the page. With this requirement in mind, it follows
that inserting a gap of 25mm is a minimum requirement, but please note that
your institution might insist on a gap of 30mm or more. Line spacing should be at least 1.5 in order
to assist the marker in examining and commenting on your work. Whenever you end a sentence, press the ‘space
bar’ twice before starting the next sentence.
The next comment is of a general nature and is here to assist the
student to understand exactly what it is that they are trying to convey to
their academic tutor. STEP 3 is about telling a story and
understanding the importance of adequate planning prior to writing anything
down on paper or vigorously typing onto the screen. Your academic piece is a story, a bit like a ‘news
story’ in that this story is being relayed to someone who knows nothing about
the subject. You must forget that your
tutor has probably forgotten more than you currently know, and instead think of
them as a blank canvas. Constructing the
story in a manner that assists their understanding is the primary objective of
the academic piece.
This leads us nicely onto STEP 4
and an analysis of how we will construct our story. We relay the story through sentences and
paragraphs and sections that contain key ideas and themes. In general terms one sentence should
naturally lead onto the next sentence so that the story builds, just like an
orchestra moving towards its major movement. Little bits sound, others sound,
instruments link, and then the crescendo that brings the individual parts
together. So if sentences link to form
paragraphs and paragraphs stand alone or link to form sections, then we need to
understand how many of which go where.
In extremely broad terms a paragraph consists of twelve to fourteen
sentences. The paragraph takes you neatly through that aspect of the story and
deposits you neatly into the next paragraph.
The next paragraph takes up where the previous paragraph left off and
leads you nicely through the next part of the story.
‘The News’ is the requirement of STEP
5; as it is the process whereby the author tells the reader what they are going
to read via an introduction. Then uses
the main body of the essay to tell the reader what the news story is all about.
Thereafter finishing with a conclusion
and or summary that are used to tell the reader what they have just read. The author does not repeat phrases in all
three sections, but instead uses commentary and themes to tease in the ideas
when forming the introduction and alternative phrases to reinforce the message
when writing the conclusion. The key
point being that the essay begins to take on a structure that makes sense and
is easily readable.
Making sense is also the relevance of STEP 6 as it is here that we use footnotes or endnotes (as preferred
by your institution of the specific tutor dealing with your paper) to further
explain and explore items that are mentioned in your story, but where further
explanation across the page would clutter the detail and muddle the link
between sentences and paragraphs. For
example we may use an acronym and these combination of letters need to be
explained to the reader. If the same acronym is widely used throughout the essay, then we can mention its full title when
it is first used and thereafter use the acronym. But with multiple acronyms we would want to
limit the clutter within the essay and put the explanations into the
notes. The footnotes are also used to further
elaborate on people, their current of previous role, and the duration of such
roles. These are simple examples of endnote or footnote usage, but remember that there are no restrictions as to
what the notes can be used for. Try thinking of the notes as something that enables you to de-clutter and
also support your essay.
STEP 7 is about ‘the wood
for the trees’ syndrome. All too often, what we
write for others to read; is not exactly the message that we were trying to convey. Grammatical errors and the difficulties in using a second
language are obvious problems that impact on this aspect of an essay. But quite often the confusion is caused by
our excitement and rush to write down what we believe are key observations,
without first thinking them through.
Thereafter we read the same piece as meaning what we intended, instead
of recognising what is actually written on the page. This is where impartial proof reading by a friend
can pay dividends prior to submitting your work. Does my essay answer the question?
The next step is about pushing the boundaries beyond that which was
stipulated by the person setting the question. STEP 8
is about originality of thought and the inclusion of ideas for further
research. Irrespective of how good a
student is; no one can answer a particular question in full within a given
number of words. There will always be an
alternative view that has to be left unexamined, or some area however vague,
that is worthy of exploration if you had the time and word count limit to do
so. Therefore make sure that you briefly
inform your tutor in the conclusion to the essay of your ideas for further
research.
Striving to achieve academic excellence is the requirement of STEP 9 as it’s the bit that gives the credibility
to the work. This is where we prove understanding,
and prove that learning has occurred. I
recently read an undergraduate essay whereby the student made no reference
whatsoever to any academic text or author.
I can only imagine that which has been missed during the study period,
or that which may even be a direct lift from another text. Including correct citations and references from other sources of material is an important aspect in academia. It helps to show that you have read and understood material, and have similar or differing views to that author. You may even find an error, whereby something written by someone else can be proven to be incorrect. Or the source material may be misleading, whereby that author deliberately used specific information to tailor their argument while omitting other information from their sources that showed their argument to be flawed. Reading, quoting, and citing other material is not cheating. This academic excellence demonstrates learning, understanding, relevance of arguments, application of material within context, supporting arguments to your core themes, opposing arguments that contain flaws and the reasons why these flaws exist in your opinion, the limitations of other material, the lack of credible material within a specific field, the opportunities that exist for further research.
STEP 10 is about learning
and applying the academic citation method of your institution or the preferred method
of your tutor so that you accurately and meticulously cite all references stated in your work. No academic essay or paper should be deposited
for marking without the student referencing all sources of information that
were considered during the writing of the work, and no work should ever be
written without searching and reading such sources.
Remember to keep simple notes when you read academic material so that
you can find a particular comment or observation with ease. It’s good practice to start a page with the title,
author and full citation of the work in the form required by your institution
or tutor. Then make notes whenever you
notice something relevant and worthwhile to your studies. To avoid clutter it is good practice to leave
a line gap between each note, and to end each note with the page number
relevant to the observation. When you
are reading such material it is inevitable that you will have some original
thought. When such brilliance does occur,
don’t forget to mark the note in a way that stipulates that this is your
idea. This will assist you when you
return to your notes in a few days or weeks after reading the material.
I hope that you have found this brief summary useful. But please remember, the requirements of your academic
institution or the specific preferences of your tutor far outweigh the
observations written here.
