5 Essay Writing Classes in Less than 1 Hour | Shellie Cleaver | Skillshare
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5 Essay Writing Classes in Less than 1 Hour

teacher avatar Shellie Cleaver, Visual art + academic writing classes

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Class 1: What Is Academic Writing

      0:46

    • 2.

      The Rules

      1:10

    • 3.

      The Words You Use

      1:28

    • 4.

      No Abbreviations

      0:26

    • 5.

      Be Clear

      1:17

    • 6.

      Filler Words

      1:28

    • 7.

      Referencing

      1:15

    • 8.

      Thanks! Academic Writing

      0:53

    • 9.

      Class 2: Ace Essay Introductions

      1:21

    • 10.

      Your Ideas

      0:51

    • 11.

      Research

      0:41

    • 12.

      Structure

      3:04

    • 13.

      Editing

      1:48

    • 14.

      Your Project

      1:12

    • 15.

      Class 3: Ace Essay Conclusions

      0:48

    • 16.

      What is a Conclusion

      1:02

    • 17.

      Structure of Conclusions

      3:11

    • 18.

      Editing

      1:48

    • 19.

      Conclusion Tips and Tricks

      1:52

    • 20.

      Your Project Ace Essay Conclusions

      0:37

    • 21.

      Thanks Ace Essay Conclusions

      1:13

    • 22.

      Class 4: 10 Tips for Top Essays

      0:32

    • 23.

      Tip 1

      0:35

    • 24.

      Tip 2

      1:21

    • 25.

      Tip 3

      0:33

    • 26.

      Tip 4

      0:50

    • 27.

      Tip 5

      1:19

    • 28.

      Tip 6

      1:05

    • 29.

      Tip 7

      1:15

    • 30.

      Tip 8

      1:12

    • 31.

      Tip 9

      1:15

    • 32.

      Tip 10

      1:13

    • 33.

      Thanks Essay Tips

      0:38

    • 34.

      Class 5: Essay Success Answer the Question

      1:09

    • 35.

      Why it Matters

      1:17

    • 36.

      Read the Essay Question

      2:10

    • 37.

      Key Words

      3:29

    • 38.

      Question Purpose

      1:00

    • 39.

      Do you Agree

      0:54

    • 40.

      Use the Introduction

      1:36

    • 41.

      Stay on Track

      1:15

    • 42.

      Thanks Answer the Question

      0:31

    • 43.

      Academic Classes Teacher Introduction Shellie Cleaver

      1:13

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About This Class

Join teacher, Shellie, for this collection of her classes to get started in how to write essays and how academic writing differs from other forms of writing.

Shellie is completing her second masters qualification and will soon be a qualified librarian.

She shares her knowledge to help you achieve better university grades.

This class package covers:

- What is academic writing

- Essay introductions

- Essay Conclusions

- Ten Tips for Top Essays

- Essay Success: Answer the Question

Meet Your Teacher

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Shellie Cleaver

Visual art + academic writing classes

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Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Class 1: What Is Academic Writing: What is academic rotting? If you just signed up to university, you might be in the middle of your studies. You would have encountered the academic essay. Now rotting in S. A university is different to most other types of writing you would have done in your life. And people don't always spell out. Exactly watch makes an academic essay academic. So with this class, I'm hoping to shed some light on the qualities of academic rotting and how to do it better so that you can enjoy better mocks. 2. The Rules: academic writing is a form of writing that has lots and lots of rules rules, which in parachute to getting good grades when you say it's marked. So we'll be looking at some of these rules and some of them go on written a lot of the time when I was studying at University are only really fully understood. Has specific academic riding can be after I'd completed numerous essay It's and I learned as I went and my mark steadily improved as I as I gained an understanding off this academic bubble and the rules associated with writing for that, Jonah. So we're gonna be looking at what words you use. What words Not to use what we're gonna look. A why you don't abbreviate Woods. We're gonna consider clarity of writing. We're gonna look a filler words, and we're gonna look at the importance of editing and talking about your writing before you submit it. 3. The Words You Use: Because academic writing is a formal, structured way of writing, there are certain words that are not appropriate to use. So we're gonna have a look at what some of these might be. Casual. Conversational words are not appropriate. Talking first person is not appropriate, and even stating your opinions is often not appropriate. Instead, what you need to do is actually back up what you're saying in reference to the research and established proven backs. So some words you wouldn't use are a bit. I wouldn't say, Let's say bad the word bad isn't specific enough. Wouldn't you would really say good to describe things? Um, you wouldn't say stuff you wouldn't say. Always. You wouldn't say dairy. You wouldn't say any words to excessive in what they made. Can't say huge meaning to use words that exact and can very very specific meaning to the radar. So all of these descriptive words can't be too general, and they can't be exaggerated, and they need to reflect and accurately as possible what you're trying to say 4. No Abbreviations: so abbreviating words is a big no no in academic writing, and the reason for this is that it's too casual. It's not formal enough, so you wouldn't say this can't be done. And all examples similar set up must write out words. 5. Be Clear: one of the biggest requirements for academic writing is clarity. This means clarity in the structure and logic of your arguments and what you're writing. So the order in which you write things and how you develop your thoughts and and remain consistent throughout the entire essay through the introduction, the body and the conclusion the other aspect of being clear in your rushing So actually using woods that, uh, specific you can't afford to be vague in an academic essay. So if someone reads a sentence that you've written on their left not being entirely sure what you mean, that is not gonna win you marks. So you must will cut every sentence you write in your essay and think. Does this make sense logically? Does this make sense is I read it and cannot be more specific about what I'm telling Rada. Really good academic essay makes use of the full word count by packing in information. So this means you're using language in a way that is effective and direct and very clean. 6. Filler Words: one of the biggest challenges for people who are new to academic rotting and even for people who are experienced in it is not using filler words. So I do a lot of editing of essays of academic students at university and the number of villa words used in essays. It's huge, and a lot of my time when I'm energy is spent taking out the unnecessary words. So sentences maybe wordy and two to lengthy. The person hasn't written directly enough. And when I write my own essay, so my own studies I go through and edit the drops and many times and just call the words. Call the extra words because I know that when you're writing need to get the words down and that's fine. You probably be over the world camp, and that's really what you want because you want to then be able to come back and take out the X extra words and really stopped refining and paring down for a site so that it's very succinct. Some examples off Bill words may include, perhaps maybe, simply somehow, absolutely, basically actually now sort of kind of a little, very 7. Referencing: one of the key aspects that distinguishes academic writing from every day. Writing is the use of references. Academic rushing requires that every statement that you make is backed up by reference. Now, this reference is to usually a journal article. Ah, scholarly peer reviewed, published article that states the same fact that you are now putting in your essay. This proves to the reader that you have researched that your ideas are solid and that you are participating in the academic world. So, um, academic essay is not the place to put your opinions. If you're going to say something, it must be backed up by a reference. And this can takes genes quite some time to get the hang off. But basically you can go through your entire essay and look the way you made a statement of a fact, a strong opinion, and you need to make sure that that is referenced. Every single statement must be referenced 8. Thanks! Academic Writing: thanks for joining me. As we've looked at what makes academic writing different from every day writing. I hope you've gained a better sense of what to look for and what to do as you work on your essays. And I hope you picked up some tips that will help you achieve improved marks in the future . Happy writing. And we'll see you next time. Bye. 9. Class 2: Ace Essay Introductions: Welcome to Ice s A introductions. My name is Shelly and over your teacher for this class. My qualifications include a masters from Melbourne University. For a degree that was very academic focused through this, I learned the out of essay writing as I saw my own work and marks improved of the time. I'm currently studying to become a library in my work in an academic library. Let's get started. So what is an introduction to an academic essay? It's the first thing your reader comes across, and it is the part of the essay that orients them to your essay, the point you're going to make and tells them what you're going to write about. Think of the introduction as a road map for your radar tells him exactly what to expect. It sets the same for the turn of the essay. Don't forget that the raider of the essay you're rushing full. We're also the markup of the essay, and so you need to make it as easy as possible for them to understand your essay so they can award you with the best marks possible. 10. Your Ideas: So you've been given her university assignment. You've got an essay to write. There will be an essay question that tells you what your essay should be about and your mind will usually be racing with. What should I write about? How exactly am I gonna tackle this? And how am I going to make sure that I get the best marks possible? So the first thing is to organize your ideas, to spend a little bit of time just to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and just stop thinking about what will be your main focus. Usually, an essay has a word count, and Theis word limit means that you really do need to focus in on your ideas and be very clear about your purpose and your intent. 11. Research: after your initial brainstorming, I d. Where you tried to clarify what it is you want to write about. You most likely need to do some research because the purpose of an essay is often to educate. So you yourself me to learn about a subject you wish to write about, to spend some time in the library, searching online, reading through resources and get a sense off. The particular key results is you may wish to focus on in your essay and also uses time to drop down your ideas and flushed him out. Build them up a little bit in preparation. We're starting to write your introduction. 12. Structure: so you don't the groundwork about thinking about your essay question and the focus off the essay you're going to write now it's time to start working on your introduction and thinking about the structure off that introduction. A very important point is to ensure that you address every point mentioned in the essay question and that your language reflects the same language used in the question. This makes it clear to the marker that you have read and understood the question and that your essay will be addressing the question and the question only when starting an essay. The most important thing is to orient your radar. They have no idea what your question is or what you're going to write about. So lead the reader into the essay with a generalized gentle leading to the topic. So you may start off to the sentence that that draws them into the subject area generally and then builds on that and moves closer and closer to your focus area. You can't simply jump straight into a very specific topic without gently leading the viewer into that. Now that you've oriented the Rada to the general subject area, you now need Teoh. Use a few sentences to lead the view of further into that subject and lead them into the focus area off your essay. This may include telling the rate of why this subject area matters why it's important for this essay to be written. Need to tell your Rada why it's worthwhile reading this essay. Now you need to tell the Rada exactly what the purpose of the essay is in one or two sentences. This is almost like a basis point. No, a topic sentence. It has to be very clear and well articulated. With no ambiguity. The reader must know precisely the purpose of your essay. Now you must tell the radar exactly what you will cover in the essay and in what water. I usually do this by saying, Firstly, this essay will examine dr Dot Secondly, he says, say, will address, dot, dot, dot and finally, this essay will consider the impact off. Dr Dot Try to use different descriptive words in each of these statements, and generally an essay will cover to 23 main points, depending on the essay question and the word count 13. Editing: Now that you've had an attempt at writing out each of the sections off the introduction, it's bottle that you edit it. When we write, we tend to use clumsy language and use more words and necessary. So the editing process involves going back over what you've written reading through it doesn't make sense. Can I improve the wide express, The idea? All that extra words here that are dominated but are contributing to the meaning? We must be very careful in our use of the word count in an academic essay. The purpose is to actually still the essay with as much meaningful content as we can within that word count. So you using superfluous additional words. Having poorly written, lengthy, messy sentences does not achieve a university student. Good marks. So go back through your essay at your introduction and review it when going back through your introduction and editing it. It's very worthwhile to look at the essay question again and to make sure that you've actually addressed every single part of that question. Because if you miss anything you're going to lose marks. You're very came to get high MOX. It's also worth and looking at the marking criteria, which usually is supplied with the essay question. Because this tells you exactly what they're looking for. You need to really make sure that you are addressing every point mentioned in that criteria . There's no absolute rule about the length of an introduction for an academic essay. However, a good guideline is 10% off the entire word count. 14. Your Project: now that we've learned all about what makes an essay introduction and what its purposes and how to write one well. But you'll turned to actually put this into practice. If you watch these class, you're probably university student, and I imagine you have an assignment coming up, so why not sit down, read through your assignment? Question generates an ideas about your focus. Perhaps do a little research to clarify what we're gonna write about and then sit down and full of my step by step guide and actually writing introduction. Once you've written that draft review it edited. See if he can improve the writing. See if you can reduce the extra words that don't add value remaining and saying, If you really might clear for the radar what to expect in your essay. This puts you in good stead for them following your own introduction as a guide for writing the rest of the essay. Please post your introduction in the project section and I will view it and give you some feedback and awful ways to improve it even further. Have fun 15. Class 3: Ace Essay Conclusions: welcome Toe Ice s a conclusion. This is the final class in the Siri's that looks at how to improve your academic essays for university. In this class, we're going to look at what the purpose of a conclusion is, how to structure it. And really, what makes a powerful ending to your essay? My name is Shelly and over your teacher for this cloth. My qualifications include a masters from Melbourne University. For a degree that was very academic focused through this, I learned the out of essay writing as I saw my own work and marks improved of the time. I'm currently studying to become a library in my work in an academic library. Let's get started. 16. What is a Conclusion: what is a conclusion? A conclusion is an important part of an essay. It sums up the points you covered, But not only that, it articulates to the Rada the outcome off the arguments and discussions that you presented in the essay. So it's not simply a matter of repeating what has already been said. It's a matter of mentioning these things but drawing them together and forming a concluding statement that leads the viewer toward the end off the concept you presented. So it may finish with suggestions of further research required. Or it may make suggestions toward future developments future consequences off what you've been discussing. 17. Structure of Conclusions: just as the introduction often essay must be structured, logical and the body of an essay must be structured and logical. So much the conclusion. So let's explore what a good structure for a conclusion looks like. The first part of a conclusion needs to indicate to the Rada that D. C. Is now the concluding paragraph. Some people choose to do this with heading that says conclusion, but I prefer to use language that indicates that to the reader it could be as obvious as in conclusion. But you may also like to work on developing more interesting and innovative ways off indicating to your Rada that this is now the final paragraph. In the first part of the conclusion, I usually like to refer back to the main points covered in the essay. This orients the Rada reminds him of what we've covered and what we've been discussing and addressing. And this sets the platform for you to then draw these ideas together and actually lay the viewer with a meaningful ending, something to think about once they've stopped reading or say so. You've indicated to the Rada, but this is the concluding paragraph over your essay. You've given them a a brief summary of the main points covered. And now you're going to move on to the third part of your conclusion, which is to draw together your main points and make reference to the wider implications of what you have been discussing. This positions, your essay and your arguments family into the wider world. And it indicates to the radar and the markka off the essay that you understand where what you've written fits into the wider world. It's often quite challenging to know how to finish off your conclusion. How to indicate to a Rada that you finish what you've said. You've rounded off the essay, and that is the final sentence. One way of doing this is to make reference to the future. This could be a that future research is native or that in the future this topic will become more important because off La blah, these references to the future indicate that you said everything you need to say now, and it places the essay in a context off of moving forward in time, and that issue continuing to progress will be researched. You need to make sure it's a powerful final statement and it makes me clean to the radar that this is the end 18. Editing: Now that you've had an attempt at writing out each of the sections off the introduction, it's bottle that you edit it. When we write, we tend to use clumsy language and use more words and necessary. So the editing process involves going back over what you've written reading through it doesn't make sense. Can I improve the wide express, The idea? All that extra words here that are dominated but are contributing to the meaning? We must be very careful in our use of the word count in an academic essay. The purpose is to actually still the essay with as much meaningful content as we can within that word count. So you using superfluous additional words. Having poorly written, lengthy, messy sentences does not achieve a university student. Good marks. So go back through your essay at your introduction and review it when going back through your introduction and editing it. It's very worthwhile to look at the essay question again and to make sure that you've actually addressed every single part of that question. Because if you miss anything you're going to lose marks. You're very came to get high MOX. It's also worth and looking at the marking criteria, which usually is supplied with the essay question. Because this tells you exactly what they're looking for. You need to really make sure that you are addressing every point mentioned in that criteria . There's no absolute rule about the length of an introduction for an academic essay. However, a good guideline is 10% off the entire word count. 19. Conclusion Tips and Tricks: I would like to offer a few tips to help you write your conclusion. Often people feel overwhelmed and tired at this point, and they don't really know where to begin to write their conclusion. So number one look at your introduction. You can't simply copy your introduction. We'll give you the structure you need to get started because it covers the main areas that will be addressed in your in your essay so you can use those K points as a guide as to how Teoh begin the conclusion, tell the rate of what you've covered, and then from there you're moving on to the next steps of the conclusion, and often having started the process will then be easier. An essential point. Full conclusions is never put new information into a conclusion because you should have said everything you needed to say in the introduction in the body. So you be very careful to not introduce any new point or any new aspect of what you've been talking about. One final point with the conclusion is that you should never be having references in a conclusion. You don't need to refer Teoh, um, Teoh journals or anything like that in a conclusion. If you've done that, make sure you remove it. When you're writing a conclusion, you not sure quite how long it should be a really good guide is to consider around 10% off the word counts. So if it's a 2000 word essay, we'd be looking at somewhere around 200 words For your conclusion. However, it could be a little longer if you find you have some meaningful things to say. 20. Your Project Ace Essay Conclusions: if you've been taking this class, I imagine you have an assignment and I say that you're working on. So you're project for this cloth is to actually follow the instructions presented here and try writing your conclusion. And once you've finished following all of the steps, including the editing, I encourage you to upload your conclusion to the project's page, and I will read through it and we'll give you fade back and any hints like an offer to help you improve it. I really look forward to seeing your work. 21. Thanks Ace Essay Conclusions: thanks for joining me in this class on how to ace essay conclusions are herky found some of the content of this class useful. I really encourage you to embrace the process of writing essays and Teoh Learn from these classes and hopefully you should see your marks improve and improve. Don't forget Teoh, do a project and share it with us on the page. And don't forget to like this class. Thanks again for joining me and happy writing. 22. Class 4: 10 Tips for Top Essays: Hello. Welcome to 10 tips for top essays. My name is Shelly, and I've been editing academic university essays for almost three years. I help students by editing their drafts and improving the quality of the writing, which results in better marks for them. There's some very specific things that I do to actually achieve this. And in today's class, I'm gonna take you through them one by one. Let's get started. 23. Tip 1: tip number one is to ensure that the essay structure reflects all aspects of the essay question. It's a questions are usually more than one sentence, and even if they're only one sentence, it will mention several aspects that need addressing so use. This is a guide for the structure of your essay and ensure that throughout your essay you have touched on every key component within that question, because if you miss anything out, you're never going to achieve the best marks possible. 24. Tip 2: tip number two is to ensure that the introduction gives the reader context and that outlines the topics to be covered in the essay. So you must assume that your reader knows nothing about the topic you are writing about. So your first sentence must be a very general Ah, gentle introduction to the subject area. Then in the next sentence, you can drill it down a little bit further and lead on to the more specific aspect that your essay will be about. And really then set the tone and give the reader some key information so that they actually know what it is they're about to read about in your essay. Then you must, at the end of the introduction, tell the reader what to expect in the S. A. I like to phrase this by saying firstly so and so will be discussed. Secondly, so and so will be outlined. And finally so and so will be considered. This ax is a road map for your reader so that they know what to anticipate. They have a sense of where this essay is going to go on what they will read about and really to achieve good marks in an essay. You want to make it easy for your reader to understand what you're saying and to enjoy the experience of reading your essay. 25. Tip 3: tip number three. Ensure the essay paragraphs followed the structure stated in the introduction. This is essential. So in the introduction, when you tell the reader, firstly, we will cover this. Secondly, will cover that and thirdly, will cover this. You must follow that structure in the essay. If you jump around, you're gonna confuse your reader. So whatever structure you stay to the end of the introduction ensure that the topics are followed in that order. 26. Tip 4: tip for check that every statement effect is backed up with an academic reference. This is essential in an essay. It's fine in an essay to make a statement, but you're proving to your marker that you have read widely and the what you're saying is informed by other accredited researchers in the field. So you can't say something which is factual without supporting it with a reference. So go through your essay sentence by sentence and identify the sentences that might require a reference to prove to your marker that you have researched this. You have not made up this information that it is actually backed up and supported by peas in this subject area. 27. Tip 5: tip number five. Avoid large, complex words. You need to communicate your message with a clear and simple language. I've noticed that students sometimes use complex words that might make them sound smart in their own minds. But actually the market can recognize this. They're not fall by you using clever sounding words. What they're looking for is the content of your message. So I actually find that using these complex sort of clever sounding words actually detract from your essay. They make it harder to read, harder to understand and would result in lower marks. So when I edit an essay for a student, I remove these extra words. Firstly, they're not necessary. And secondly, they take away from your message. So really, try and avoid these words. They don't help you. The best thing you can do is imagine that you're trying to explain something to a five year old and that you need to communicate in a very specific, very clear and very simple way. And this actually proves to the marker that you really understand what you're saying and you understand your subject area and that you're not hiding behind clever sounding language 28. Tip 6: tip number six. Avoid vague words. Every sentence needs clarity and purpose. Use words that a specific and clear many words could be considered vague. For example, if someone asked how your day was and you said Good, it doesn't actually communicate any meaningful information to that person. Whereas if you thought about what you were saying and chose a more specific word, you might say I had an enjoyable day because that conveys mawr information to the person you're speaking to. So this is a really important thing in academic writing. The selection of the words you use actually warrants quite a lot of consideration. And once you've written your draft, maybe go back through your essay and look four times when you've used very vague, nondescript words and see if you can come up with something more specific that actually conveyed meaning to a reader. This improves not only the quality of your writing but will improve your marks 29. Tip 7: Tip number seven edits and re edit your draft many times to remove errors and extra words that do not add meaning. When we write a draft essay, we're trying to get our thoughts down on paper inwards, and this means that we often use extra words that are not needed. So when you're editing your draft, it's important to do this several times and, if possible, across a number of different days. And each time you go through your writing or trying, Teoh pick up on spelling errors, punctuation areas, referencing errors, and you're also looking for words that aren't needed. So people may have a pet word they use all the time. Something like Also, um, there's many, many others their lists on the Internet if you want to look them up but just start to observe these words that don't carry any meaning and adjust extra, they're just superfluous. And if you deleted them, the content isn't altered at all. On what actually happens by removing these is that you improve the quality of your writing so greatly and you make the message you're communicating to the reader so much easier to understand. 30. Tip 8: Tip number eight. Look for opportunity toe add detail, fact or critical discussion to your essay. Consider opposing viewpoints the purpose of in essays to demonstrate to the marker the level of understanding you have about a particular subject area. So your essay you really you looking for opportunities to add date out to add facts and also toe add a level of critical discussion about aspects of the subject area. One way of doing this is to consider opposing viewpoints and discuss well, this person said this. But in contrast, this person said that and then to sort of reason out the two opposing viewpoints and perhaps make a statement about where you stand on on those different viewpoints. What this does is it adds complexity to USA. It takes the thinking to a much more sophisticated level, and the markka will be able to allocate you more points and more marks because you've demonstrated a more sophisticated level of understanding and discussion 31. Tip 9: tip number nine. Go over your references both in text and reference list many times to ensure it accurately reflects the style guide. Referencing is an essential part of academic writing, and it's not necessarily difficult. You simply have to follow the detailed instructions in the style guide. Now it's easy to make mistakes. You shouldn't do it both from memory. You need to actually have the style guide. You need to look at their example and make sure that yours reflects it. Things to look out for our capitalization, where it's used or not used on the use of full stops and punctuation marks, ensuring that the after alphabetical nature of the reference sisters correct all of these things of vital and you can lose marks if you're referencing is not correct because it is a central pillar of academic riding. So it is worth it at the end of your essay writing and editing to pour through those references more than once, if possible, and really refine the date, how make sure that every single space and dot and letter is correct 32. Tip 10: tip number 10. Make sure you start your essay early to ensure you have time to refine the draft. This is what leads to top marks. I hear of many students who leave writing. There s a to the last few days before it is due and this disadvantages you so much. Essay writing is really difficult. It's time consuming, and doing it well takes a lot of effort. So I like to start my essays as soon as I can. As soon as I get the question, I like to start mapping out the draft and start writing parts of it because I need that time not only to research but to also then edit my draft and improve the quality of the writing. Because I don't give good marks away easily, and you have to really earn them and have to fight for them. And the thing that will really lift your essay up is that time to edit and refine to remove the areas for an essay, to get high marks, that has to be almost perfect. So you're gonna have to try really hard and spend a lot of time in removing errors, improving the quality of the writing, ensuring the arguments a clear and direct and specific to the question. That's how top students get top marks. 33. Thanks Essay Tips: Thanks for joining me on 10 tips for top essays. I do hope you found it helpful. If you have any questions, just write them on the discussion board. I'll be happy to answer them. If you've enjoyed the class, feel free to like it and to leave a review. And I look forward to seeing you again for another class all the best of your essay writing by. 34. Class 5: Essay Success Answer the Question: Hello, Welcome to s a success. Answering the question. If there's one essential thing you must do in your essays to achieve good marks, its to answer the question. It's so easy to get led astray with the research you do, you've learned something. You really want to include it in your essay, but all it does is detract from the marks you can receive. So this class is tailored to help you to learn how to first of all, understand what the question is on what it's asking you for. And it also helps you to assess what sort of knowledge and how the essay question wants you to show your knowledge. So we're going to delve into several aspects off, understanding the question and working out how to best answer it. And this is a really great class if you're looking to lift your marks up a little bit higher in your university studies, so let's get started on the lens and new. It's a new tricks and tricks to get better marks 35. Why it Matters: So why does answering the question in an essay matter so much? Well, we all know what it's like when you start to write. You come up with lots of ideas, you might find yourself going off on a tangent, and sometimes it's hard to leave things out because you think, Oh, this is interesting. But if you're not just answering the question, you're actually doing yourself a disservice. So when an essay achieves a high result, the distinctions high distinctions, those essays very firmly answering the question and the question alone. So you cannot address any other topic or side topic unless it's mentioned in the question, or unless you're drawing it in and relating it to a core part of the question. So in this class, we're going to actually unpick how to determine what the question is to make sure that you are focused on it and that you're everything about your essay is pointing toward the question and showing the marker that this is what you're doing. You are answering the question very, very specifically and very carefully 36. Read the Essay Question: that will sound really obvious to say this, but the first thing you must do is read the essay question. You need to actually people. Students often read the essay question quite quickly and then kind of rushed to start working on it. And by doing that, they often misunderstand it or misinterpret it. So the first thing you have to do is slow yourself down and actually give yourself time to do that. One task to simply read and try and absorb the essay question and all of the extra information that they provide in the essay assignment sheet and breath through it once. And then you may want to read through it again and start highlighting parts of it that seem like key bits and, you know, important things not to forget and and just try. And while you're reading through, try to take it on board, try and in your mind solidify the key aspects that you're that you're reading so that you have a solid sense off. What the question is asking that you truly do understand what it's asking. You haven't made assumptions. You have read the actual words. You've understood the tone of the question. You understood the focus of the question. Um, and once you are sure that you've spent you know, you could easily spend five minutes actually reading through carefully time and again just to guarantee you understand, because there's no point misunderstanding the question and starting work on it. And when you come toward the end, revisiting the S a information and finding Oh, I've been focusing on entirely the wrong thing or Oh, it didn't mean that they meant this. Then you'd have to start all over again. So it's crucial. Take sometimes, slow yourself right down and really just be with the information, let it sink in and make sure you correctly understand what the task is asking from you. 37. Key Words: Yes, I questions are actually fantastic things in themselves because they spell out to you exactly what they require. Your role is to read them carefully and to actually interpret them correctly and understand what they are asking you for. So one approach is to go through the essay question with a very fine tooth comb and try to identify what you think the keywords are. These are words that might reference the topic they want you to discuss. They might reference, um, how they want you to address the subject matter. You know, they may give instructions about, you know, including this this and this where they've actually named two or three specific aspects of the topic they want you to cover. So go through the question, spend some time actually highlighting or underlining these keywords, and this will give you a really good starting point to make sure that you are addressing the question. Keep an eye out for the way that language is giving you clues about what they want you to do. For example, the essay question may say, Do this and this and address this and this, or it might say, Consider a all be where they want you to choose one or the other, not both. Misunderstanding those type of language clues is a key mistake students make, so make sure your understanding whether they want you to address everything or make a choice between several options. Another thing to keep an eye out for is plural. Are they asking for examples off something, which means several will have they specified to illustrate with an example indicating they want one example? And from that you can assume they would like further depth and detail about that one example. There are two distinct approaches that an essay may ask for. One is where you are describing a topic and showing the knowledge and the other is where you are analyzing aspects off the topic. So for the 1st 1 you're being asked to demonstrate your knowledge by exploring the features of a topic. Okay, and they they use words such as define, explain illustrate. Where is he feel being asked to actually demonstrate your knowledge by delving deeper into the analysis of different perspectives, models and theories. You expect to see questions like critically analyze, examine, consider, assess, investigate. So these words were really given you a clue about what they want you to do and how the essay question is asking you to show your knowledge to the markka, either by talking about a topic and showing a knowledge through that method or by analysing and assessing aspects of a topic or theory or ah, a phenomenon. 38. Question Purpose: to make sure that you are addressing the essay question specifically, it might be worth taking a few moments to sit back and just consider what the purpose off this essay is. Think about it from the point of view of your lecturer and the markers. What is it that they're looking for from you to show in your essay so that they can allocate you high marks? They want evidence that you have actually learned the content presented in the classes, but they also want evidence off you thinking independently and re researching more widely than simply what you've seen in class. By doing this, you can actually narrow down the focus off your approach to the essay and really zero in on a target and actually tale of the essay to meet the requirements off the marker and the lecture. 39. Do you Agree: to ensure that you are answering the essay question, Look for clues that the question wants you to profess an opinion about the topic or a statement somewhere. Say questions require you to think independently and put forward a perspective or view on a situation or a theory or an opinion, and you need to consider. Do you agree with what is stated in the essay question or do you not? And this could be a really good basis for the argument that you might present in your essay and could show good independent thinking and research because you would back up whatever you say with journal article references and work from the industry. 40. Use the Introduction: it could be argued that the introduction of an essay is the most important part of it. The reason for this is that it actually creates the context for what's going to be covered in the essay, and a good introduction always tells the reader what will be covered. So this is actually a road map, something that will guard not only the reader in the marker of your essay, so they know what's coming and what to expect, and they get a sense of the logic and the flow of the arguments to come. But it also helps you as you write your essay, because it will help you keep on track. It'll make sure you do. Answer the essay question. So if you can write a clear, succinct introduction that addresses all aspects off the essay question and does not address anything extra and sticks simply to the question, you can follow those topics as you Liston, so the sentence might go toward the end of the introduction. You may say this essay will firstly consider A B and C. Secondly, it will address whatever it's going to address, and finally this and something else will be considered in detail. Now this is your roadmap. And if you reflect that in the body of the essay, you are on track to having entered the question and stayed on track to get high marks. 41. Stay on Track: the final challenge for you as you write your essay to make sure that you do address the question is to make sure you stay on track. It's so easy to get involved in what you're researching and reading about to sort of diverge onto a different tangent, become interested in some small aspect of the topic and want to include what you've just learned in your essay. But this really doesn't help you. If you include all of these extra things into your essay, you're really going to distract your marker. They're going to be thinking, but this doesn't relate to the question. Why is it in here? So you need to be very strict with yourself and not include anything that doesn't relate to the question specifically. So one strategy, while you're writing the essay, is to simply take a moment to sit back and think. Does this still relate to my question? May say question. How does this relate to my essay question? Am I answering the question specifically enough? And if not delete whatever is not related? It's great that you've learned these new things, but don't include them in your essay. Cause will only detract from the mark. She'll achieve 42. Thanks Answer the Question: thanks for joining me on this class about answering the essay. Question our hope. It's being helpful. If you've enjoyed it. Plays like the class. Please leave a review. You may like to follow me to keep up with the latest classes, and I look forward to seeing you in the next class. Happy essay writing. 43. Academic Classes Teacher Introduction Shellie Cleaver: academia is an entire world on its own. And unless you've come from an academic family, you're likely not to have any idea it even exists. Before 2013 I had no I. D. What? Academia waas. I had studied a finance degree. I was working in Rito and I was ready to do something more skilled and more meaningful. So I undertook a masters at Melbourne University and this two year degree was very, very academic. So I had to learn how to write essays from scratch. I'll never forget he experience of trying to write my first master's s A. I had five different guides in front of me and I was literally pouring through them trying to understand What should a body vanessa be? How do you conclude the S A. I have no i d and I achieved a credit or past. I think for my first essay and from name, I'm not steadily improved. I'm now completing my second masters degree on where he had an academic library and I'm going to be a qualified librarian. So I wanted to share my knowledge off academia and essay writing with you guys just to help make your journey easier