Essay writing tips This is the feedback from staff who marked coursework in 2011 and will be useful

when you complete your coursework this term: Using suitable sources of information for your essay. Many students used unreliable sources such as aboutpsychology.com or simplypsychology.com. These are not acceptable sources of information for academic work. ou should be using peer re!iewed information only. That is" information that has been read and appro!ed by the academic community" or the organisation it has been produced for #e.g. $%& information'. This will mostly consist of te(t books and )ournal articles. *t is not sufficient to rely on a single te(t book when writing an essay + a wide range of reading is necessary for a good mark. ,sually" lecturers will suggest a selection of references" which they belie!e offer a good insight into their area of -sychology. These should be used where!er possible + but remember that if you wait until the week before the deadline" the books will be difficult to obtain from the library" due to competition with other members of your course. *f you cannot obtain these sources" be fle(ible" and look for others. .!en if you do obtain all the recommended te(ts" a really good essay will use additional sources. /ne way of finding these is to look for the most rele!ant references cited in your te(t books" or to do an electronic literature search" to find original research papers. *nclude specialised te(ts" not )ust general introductory psychology te(t books" which do not pro!ide enough depth and are not in depth enough for uni!ersity standard work. &uitable sources include te(t books" )ournal articles" lecture notes #do not reference these" use them to help structure your reading on a topic" and then cite the authors you ha!e gone on to read about'" electronic databases and the internet. 0s you progress through your degree" you will be e(pected increasingly to rely on )ournal articles" and other sources will become less important. The importance of choosing good" reliable" academic sources cannot be o!er1emphasised. Think about: 2 3ho has written it4 0re they e(perts in the field4 *f so" their names will be mentioned in other sources" such as your recommended te(t. 0lternati!ely" look at their 5ualifications and their employment + they should be working at a recognisable research institution or uni!ersity #some uni!ersity websites can be recognised by the .edu or .ac.uk suffi(es" for e(ample'. $e!er cite the work or ideas of other students. 2 3hen was it written4 Make sure your source is up1to1date" as ideas and opinions change o!er time and as more scientific e!idence is gathered. /lder sources may" howe!er" be useful to pro!ide a historical perspecti!e. 2 3here6why was it published4 *nternet sites are acceptable sources if they meet the 7who8 and 7when8 criteria" but you should a!oid 7popular psychology8 sites" sites which are trying to make a political point" or sites which are selling something related to the topic + the !iews presented there may be biased or o!ersimplified. The same may apply to some books" leaflets" etc. Try to use sources which are 7peer re!iewed8 + these are checked by other academics working in the field before they are

published. This practice is common for most )ournal articles. 2 3ho was it written for4 ou should only use sources produced for an undergraduate or academic audience. 0 le!el te(ts are not appropriate for a degree le!el assignment+ they may be useful to pro!ide a simple o!er!iew of the general topic before you start your research" but you should not include them in your reference section" or discuss them in your essay. Essay structure The &tructure of an .ssay 1The 9eginning The beginning of a essay normally takes up around 10: of the essay length. This first paragraph is where the topic is introduced and the main thrust of the essay is outlined. 0 good essay should begin with a definition of the main concept in the essay title. ;or e(ample if you are writing an essay on short term memory" then the essay should start with a definition of the concept. The introduction should then gi!e a picture of what is going to be said within the essay and information about what argument#s' will be presented. The Middle This is the <meat< of the essay and normally where essay structure starts to go wrong. The middle of the essay is where the information that you are pro!iding to answer the 5uestion goes= the description of the theories" of the research" the discussion of the different concepts etc. The main issue here is how to link together this information into a coherent whole. There are few general guidelines that apply to all types of essay although structuring this section is really a skill you will de!elop with practice. The main problems with this section is poor paragraphing. There are a few rules that are useful in writing paragraphs. The first one is ha!e one general point per paragraph. 0n e(ample from an essay on -iaget illustrates this: -iaget>s#1?@2' early !iew was that social interaction had an early effect on children moral thinking. %e suggested that children who are at the pre1operational le!el #21 Ayrs old' are affected by interaction with children their own age. 0t this stage children>s interactions can lead to moral de!elopment when the children contradict each other during these interactions. The contradictions cause changes in the children>s cogniti!e structure. These changes lead to more sophisticated moral thinking..... The abo!e paragraph makes one general point" that -iaget !iewed social interaction as a factor in moral de!elopment and importantly there is one sentence that states the main point of the paragraph #the first one'. This means that the point being made is clear" and the rest of the paragraph merely elaborates this point" in this case showing what processes were in!ol!ed in the moral de!elopment. *t is not howe!er enough to )ust produce well formed paragraphs" these paragraph need to link together= it is important for the structure of an essay that each paragraph lead into the ne(t. 3hen this does not happen the essay can become incoherent and dis)ointed. 3hen we talk about progression of an argument in an essay" this is often what we are referring to.

These rules for paragraphs relate to the other sections of the essay" the end and beginning" but are particularly important for the middle section. The .nd or Bonclusions This should be about 10: of your essay length. *t should be a re1cap of all the key points from the paragraphs in the main body" but additionally it should contain some conclusions about what you ha!e written based on these points. *t should pro!ide the answer to the 5uestion. Essay content Blarity %ow clear is your essay4 This is one of the biggest problems students ha!e with essay style. *f you read o!er your essay and find that you ha!e to re1read something to fully understand it" then there may be a problem. /ne of the enemies of clarity is the o!erlong sentence with some sentences lasting for C or D lines. ou should attempt to write in fairly short sentences that don>t ta( the attention of the reader. /ther factors such as poor sentence structure for e(ample also produce poor clarity. *n the end all that needs to asked is <can * write this sentence in such a way that makes its meaning clearer 4<. 0ppropriateness The ne(t 5uestion asks is the style that you ha!e used appropriate for a -sychology essay4 The correct style should be clear and scientific. ou should a!oid unnecessary <rhetorical flourishes<" emoti!e language" irony" ambiguity #intentional or otherwise'" and informal language #for e(ample using the first person'. 0 good plain style is encouraged. Eood e(amples of such writing can be found in most psychological )ournal articles. ou should also seek to clarify psychological terms and concepts as if you were writing for someone with limited psychological knowledge. ou should a!oid using 5uotes in your essay. ou are marked for demonstrating your understanding of the topic" and this cannot be demonstrated unless you put things into your own words. Try not to ask 5uestions in your essay unless you plan to answer them straight afterwards. The purpose of the essay is to answer the 5uestion set" not to confuse the reader with things you cannot pro!ide e!idence for. Evaluation in essays. 0lthough some essays clearly demonstrated a good le!el of e!aluation" many could ha!e been impro!ed. ;or the most part essays only e!aluated the methods used by theorists" and this was fairly limited in that one criti5ue was outlined" and little other e(ploration either of what impact this criti5ue has on the reliability of the theory" or of other criti5ues" was demonstrated. Try not to limit your criti5ue to the methods" think about how useful the theory is" how well it can be applied" or consider which aspects of the topic the theory doesnt help e(plain. 7Britical e!aluation8 is a term that is often used with regard to -sychology essays. This does not mean that you should only discuss the 7bad8 points of all the theories and studies you mention in your essay" but rather that you should consider their !alue

constructi!ely. Ei!e supporting e!idence for your !iews" and discuss both positi!e and negati!e aspects before reaching a carefully considered" well1balanced conclusion. References -lease ensure you check the referencing guides for each assignment you produce. 0lthough most essays did contain generally good reference lists" use of in1te(t citations was often problematic. Many essays had the title bibliography + which is not used in -sychology. 0 bibliography is a list of e!erything that you ha!e read. 0 Feference list #which is what you should be using' is a list of each author you ha!e referred to in your essay. 0GG authors you cite in your te(t should be in your reference list" and !ice !ersa.