When I was at university, I remember being really frustrated at how many things I didn't know until it was too late. So here are a list of things that I wish I knew sooner into my essay writing endeavours.
1) Make sure you don't repetitively use the same discourse markers.
Here's a list of some alternatives you can use :) :
- Moreover
- Furthermore
- Thus
- Therefore
- Additionally
- Besides
- In addition
- Contrastingly
- However
- Nevertheless
- Although
- Conversely
- Meanwhile
- Subsequently
- Afterwards
- For instance
- Such as
- Specifically
- Essentially
- Undoubtedly
- Importantly
- This highlights
- This connotes
- This demonstrates
- This examines
- This exhibits
2) Make sure you answer the question or specifically identify what the essay is asking of you.
I remember when I was doing one of my assignments in second year, I showed my lecturer a draft of the essay and he told me that I needed to make sure that I was "answering the question". I was really confused by this because I thought that I was. But he told me that after each point I made, I needed to keep linking it back to the question. I think once I did this, it made my essay more coherent and more specific for the marker that I was answering the question.
One piece of advice that he gave me was to: copy and paste the first sentence of each paragraph/point I had made, then put them in a word document and then check if each of them answer or directly link to the question - This was quite helpful tbh.
3) Make your introductions and conclusions really concise and sophisticated.
When writing my essay, I remember focusing on making my introductions and conclusions really clear and also sounding quite "snazzy" if you will. I think its because when a marker is looking your work, you want them to start with a good impression and end it on a high. So I feel that it's important to make sure they both summarise what you said in the main body of the essay whilst also sounding very articulate.
4) Meet up with your lecturers!!!!
Honestly, I wish I did this more when I was at uni. I feel like I only utilised this in third year but I feel like it would have been so beneficial for me to meet up with my lecturers more in second year. They know the content better than anyone and any points you want to make they can help guide you. Plus you're paying like £9,000 a year so get your moneys worth ladies!
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Please do a blog post on how to plan an assignment. It can be really overwhelming to know where to start!