Academic Essay

A daunting academic activity given the various approaches for enunciating facts, critique, synthesising, evaluation of knowledge into words. There is often a high level of self chastise i.e. harbouring valid thoughts to communicate, but being unable to express them or manifestation of panic in examination halls:

The panacea for “wordy, incoherent, unstructured, vague…..” writing lies in regular reading and writing with the motivational goal of demonstrating sound cognitive skills:

Assessor Criteria

https://academicskills.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/handout_pdfs/What%20do%20markers%20want%20in%20an%20essay.pdf

Assessor stamp of approval:

” A well structured piece of writing punctuated with good flow of ideas, logical reasoning , effective application of concepts and drawing of conclusions”

An academic essay main structural components consists of:

Introduction with thesis statement
Body paragraphs with topic sentences
Conclusion

Essay Structure

http://www.learningskills.canterbury.ac.nz

Apply transitions for seamless flow of thoughts in your writings:

Transitions are phrases or words used to connect one idea to the next, linking sentences, paragraphs and sections for guiding the reader.

Linking words and phrases

http://www.flinders.edu.au/slc_files/Documents/Brochures/linking_words_phrases.pdf

What does the Assessor look for ?? A great essay will be savoured with relish should it be flavoured with awesome ingredients:

A Writing Lexicon

http://www.princeton.edu/writing/university/resources/elements.pdf.

For poorly written essays:

The three main categories of academic essays are:

Descriptive / Narrative – its purpose is to provide facts or information. An example would be a summary of an article or a report of the results of an experiment.

Descriptive Essay

http://www.irsc.edu/uploadedFiles/Students/AcademicSupportCenter/WritingLab/E7-Descriptive-Essay-Guidelines.pdf

Narrative Essay

http://depts.gpc.edu/~gpcltc/handouts/communications/narrativeessay.pdf