Writing Essays - WordPress

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m ZEifor saying the Unnecessary repetition. There are no extra markslty for boringpenaabeevenmaysame thing several times; therethe teacher/examiner.at times your Failure to control your use of language, so thattell what youotcanneraminer/exmeaning is unclear. If the teachit.itforcredanyyouare trying to say, he cannot givebound to turn Irrational bias: e.g. “As a communist, Lenin wasus writing.seriointhisforplaceout a murderer. There is noce knowsligenintelofeouncan Dogmatism: e.g. “Anyone wither.aminer/exteachThis is insulting to thethat.Thisgreedy. Moralising: e.g. “If only Hitler had not been sois usually irrelevant.“.“.“What to Provide in Essaysfrom level to level,This varies somewhat from subject to subject, andfor you to do theinglookbut generally the teacher or examiner will befollowing:ications: For Show that you understand the question and its impltion in yourquestheterestathis reason it is often a good idea toown words in the introduction.paper or in Plan your response. Make a plan or outline, either onyour head.in which A complete and well-rounded answer to the question,questiontheertoansweverything you write is relevant as anvantirrelenodeincluasked. Make no major omissions, andmaterial.y word Be economical and efficient in your response, so that everfle”.counts, and there is no padding or “waf ANSWERTHE QUESTION,THE WHOLE QUESTION,ANDNOTHING BUT THE QUESTIONwhich is Display of a detailed knowledge of the subject,show offnotDotion.entirely relevant to answering the queseringanswtovantirreleyour knowledge of the subject which is56the questiobecause itswering thE Provide e Distinguithis is the Display eresults ofa bit! Providesignificar M4’v’iUsJc Presenty Ensure tspelling, Adopt at Adopt a Eleganc Trytobea studen Show scanythingwill shoyou hayESSTHEYAFAll the poof the subject0

the question. Don’t “dump” material on the same subject, simplybecause it is on the same subject, if it does not contribute to answering the question.DON’T “DUMP” YOUR NOTES4 Provide evidence for all claims that you make. Distinguish between facts and theories. Thisis not always easy; ifthis is the case, not, say so mic articles. Ideas are continuously recycled.It is precisely by being able to demonstrate that you can expresscogently these ideas already in circulation and part of the scholastic!academic tradition, that you demonstrate to the examiner that youunderstand them. Therefore expressing facts and theories which havebeen written about before is NOT plagiarism.Plagiarism consists in: Allowing someone else to tell you what to write.Your teachers or others may in general advise you how to approachthe task of writing an essay, but they may not tell you what towrite, for then it becomes their essay and not yours. Using someone else’s exact words to express ideas, withoutenclosing them in quotation marks and acknowledgingdependence. When making a quotation from another person’swork, you should acknowledge the source of the material bygiving the author, the name of the book or article, and the pagenumbers.This rule needs to be applied with some common sense. There are notmany different ways to say some things. Just because a textbooksays “Mars is the fourth planet from the sun,” it does not followthat if you choose to make this statement in your research paper,you must either put it in quotation marks or find some other wayof saying it, such as “Mars is between the third and the fifth planetfrom the sun.” But if you read some strilcing and engaging way65ri1rlI1

V,3*-ZLágbJof saying something, you should give the author credit for it byacknowledging your source, and putting it in quotation marks.You should not use too many quotations in an essay, simplybecause the teacher/examiner wants your answer to the question,not a collection of quotations from other people’s answers.Don’t drop in strings of quotations unless they are evidence foryour position or unless they are evidence from a passage you aresubjecting to detailed criticism.Some students include endless quotations from outside sources, andthemselves provide enough original text only to tie together thequotations. Sometimes even that is not done well. This seemsto be particularly tempting in Theory of Knowledge essays. Youhave to provide some evidence that you actually have actuallythought about and understood the points made in your sources.You should summarise and paraphrase your sources whereverpossible. This demonstrates your understanding of the issues.For the same reason, you should not deliberately “bonow” entireparagraphs. Your quotations should be brief. Failing to indicate the origins of an idea which is notcommon knowledge and not in general circulation. Aparaphrase of another person’s ideas should also be shownby an acknowledgement. If the idea can be found in a score oftextbooks, or could be elicited from a significant section of thepopulation if asked the appropriate question, then it needs nocitation.Ideas are not private property, and should not be treated as such.Once they have been publicised, they have become part of theongoing process of building up a store of human knowledge, tobe acquired by each generation of students in their turn. But whatis not common knowledge needs to be identified.This rule also needs to be applied with common sense. What iscommon knowledge among physics students many not be commonknowledge among students (and teachers) who have never beenphysics students. This issue arises in its most difficult form inconnection with the Theory of Knowledge essay, where students,teachers and examiners alike may be dealing with issues outsidetheir areas of expertise.The best policy is to be overcautious and cite sources whenever youare in doubt as to whether it is necessary or not.66CC

Lenin.” Write: “It can be maintained that the foundations of Stalin’s totalitarian state were laid by Lenin.” Alternatively: “There is persuasive evidence that the foundations of Stalin’s totalitarian state were laid by Lenin.” The essay for Theory of Knowledge and some essays