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[Pages:176]HOW TO

WRITE ESSAYS

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HOW TO

WRITE ESSAYS

A step-by-step guide for all levels, with sample essays

Don Shiach

howtobooks

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author and publishers are grateful to Nicholas Murray and the Rack Press, Kinnerton, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2PF for permission to reproduce History from Nicholas Murray's collection `The Narrators'.

Published by How To Content, A division of How To Books Ltd, Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road, Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX, United Kingdom Tel: (01865) 375794 Fax: (01865) 379162 info@howtobooks.co.uk howtobooks.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review), without the express permission of the publisher in writing. Text ? Don Shiach 2009 First edition 2007, second edition 2009 First published in electronic form 2009 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 84803 323 8 Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock Typeset by specialist publishing services ltd, Montgomery Cartoons by Phill Burrows Cover design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford The right of Don Shiach to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

CONTENTS

Preface

vii

Introduction

ix

1 Planning Your Essay

1

What are you being asked to do?

1

Making a plan

6

2 The Opening Paragraph

11

`Waffle'

12

The length of the opening paragraph

15

Useful phrases

16

More opening paragraphs

18

3 The Body of the Essay

26

Paragraphs

26

More examples of paragraphs

30

Continuity

34

The use of close references

38

More about the body of the essay

41

4 The Closing Paragraph

43

Final sentence

45

Further examples of closing paragraphs

45

5 Summary of Essay Structure

50

6 Sample Essay 1: A Discursive Essay

52

v

HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS

7 Sample Essay 2: Literature

61

Essays on literature in examinations

61

8 Sample Essay 3: Writing about Poetry

71

9 Sample Essay 4: Another Essay on a Poem

77

10 Sample Essay 5: A Media Studies Essay

83

11 Sample Essay 6: History

91

12 Sample Essay 7: Writing About a Novel

97

13 Sample Essay 8: Writing in Response to a

Critical Thinking Task

108

14 Sample Essay 9: A Film Studies Essay

115

15 Sample Essay 10: A Politics Essay

124

16 Grammar and Accuracy

133

Writing in sentences

134

Punctuation

138

The use of the apostrophe

141

17 Spelling

145

Their/there/they're

145

Were/where/we're

146

18 Bibliographies and Reference Lists

151

19 Examinations

154

Answers to Practice Sections

157

Index

161

vi

PREFACE

I strongly recommend readers to study and absorb the first five sections of the book before turning to the ten sample essays that have been provided. These sample essays are presented as models of good practice and each is followed by a detailed analysis or questions that are intended to focus your attention on key essay-writing skills that you should have learnt from the first five sections. You will benefit if you study these sample essays in tandem with the analysis that follows. Only with this kind of close attention to structure and detail can you hope you to improve your essay-writing skills.

Don Shiach

vii

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