I haven’t posted in here in a very long time. I should use this blog more often. I think it would encourage me to write more critically and in a more academic style in comparison to my everyday blog.
Below are some Essay Guidelines I developed for my students. They were based on some common errors I encountered while marking the first essay for the course.
ESSAY GUIDELINES
Referencing
When writing an essay it is very important that you correctly cite the authors whose work you are referring to. Failure to do this correctly is plagiarism.
Reference Style
For this course and most sociology courses the Harvard system is preferred. This means in-text references, illustrated below, followed by a reference list at the end, which lists ONLY the works you have referred to in the body of the essay.
For example:
Anne Summers (2003) argues that the Howard Government is intent on encouraging Australian women to have more babies.
OR when you are directly quoting:
As Summers notes, “Australia is only one of a number of developed countries with birth rates so low that the country is not reproducing itself” (2003: 226).
In the Reference List you would include:
Summers, A. (2003) The End of Equality: Work, Babies and Women’s Choices in 21st Century Australia, Sydney, Random House Australia.
Note: Generally journal and book titles are in italics, while chapter and article titles are in “quotations”. The formatting of the reference list varies slightly from journal to journal, but whichever one you choose, BE CONSISTENT.
Literature
• Wikipedia is NOT an appropriate source of information for an academic essay. You might use it as a starting point or to explore an idea you are not familiar with, but you must then find books and journal articles – published research – to inform the argument of your essay.
• Do not rely on lecture notes to back up your essay. Use the lecture material as a way of finding other resources. Go to the library and read the research for yourself.
Argument
The point of an academic essay is to construct an argument. It is an assessment task, so you must demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of a given topic. Read WIDELY. Do not just describe the literature, engage with it and form an argument that answers the essay question.
Structure your essay in a clear, logical manner. The basic outline should look like this:
Introduction - outline your argument, address the essay question and tell the reader what your essay is about.
Body – Write clear, coherent paragraphs that flow logically from one to the next and build your argument.
Conclusion – sum up your main arguments and reiterate how you have answered the essay question.
Spelling and Grammar
Make sure you proof-read your essay (or ask a friend to help). Spelling and grammatical errors detract from your argument and tend to irritate the person marking your essay. You should aim to make their job simpler by being clear and accurate.
Some common errors:
• When you mean the plural of feminist - feminists NOT feminist’s
• Please learn the difference between there and their.
• When referring to a decade, do not use an apostrophe. 1960s NOT 1960’s
• Try not to use contractions like don’t and won’t.
Further resources you might find useful:
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/liberal-arts/studentguide/docs/essayGuide.pdf
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/gender/documents/GSStyleManual.pdf
http://www.theory.org.uk/david/essaywriting.pdf
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/ccsb/current/styleguide.pdf
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/biol1030/harvard.html
Germov, John (2000) Get great marks for your essays, 2nd edition, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, N.S.W.