#psliteracy

[study-creative-media]

I’ve seen a lot of different ways to write an essay and I wanted to place my input on how I write my essays. I hope this is helpful to anyone! I’ve also included links to other posts from other studyblrs that have helped me a lot and can help everyone else!

Before you write

Familiarise yourself with the text

No matter what type of writing/ topic, learn the information

Get background information surrounding the text

Annotate the text

Find out what things mean, key quotes and different ideas that the author might want to convey in the text.

Use websites such as Shmoop, CliffNotes, SparkNotes, etc

Answer the Question

Get the title/ question and put it at the top of the page

Haven’t got a specific topic you should cover? Make your own and stick to it!

What is it asking you?

If you don’t understand the question, ask the person who set it

Write your answer in 3 sentences

That’s your thesis/ Introduction

Repeat this process multiple times with different ideas

Underline key words in the question and use them!

Evidence

You can’t make stuff up that isn’t in the text

Think of moments in the text you could use and get the text

Read it

If you see a good quote write it down and what page it was on and who said it or what it was about

Also, stick a post-it note on the page for quick reference

Look for things you can argue with

Look at the marks for the essay and choose the amount accordingly.

Paragraphs

Point

Make this short, 1 sentence

Evidence

Use linking words such as ‘as seen here’ or ‘this is shown in/by’

Analysis

Don’t make this long but don’t make it short. Maybe 2 sentences?

Compare/Critic/ context

Religious ideas? Social impacts at the time? New inventions? What was socially acceptable? What was going on when it was written? Authors life/ impact on the text?

Learn your history around the piece

(Optional) Word

Pick a certain word that has a specific impact on the piece

Why did the reader choose to put this in?

(Optional) Reader’s thoughts

What is the reader thinking when this happened? What did you first think when you read it? How does this affect the readers thought about a character or place?

Why did the writer choose to put this in?

(Optional) Technique

Is there a specific technique used?

Evaluation/ Link back to question

Short, 1 sentence long.

Your different ideas from the beginning is the different ideas for your paragraphs

Conclusion

Don’t introduce a new idea you haven’t talked about.

Restate the introduction (in case they’ve forgotten it)

Write what you overall thought about the question/topic you wrote about.

Link it to how you’ve written the rest of the essay

Not ‘I hate…..’ because they wrote it and they ruined everything.’

Write something like ‘Trying to convey that the only …. had an impact on ... Was a flawed statement.’

End

Make sure you have everything written correctly and in the right place.

Punctuation, spelling and correct keywords have a massive impact on marks

Have you reached the word count?

If there isn’t a word count, make sure everything is concise but holds the relevant information.

Leave your essay overnight and come back to it, you might have missed something.

You’ve done it!

Great Posts for helping with Essay writing

Annotating Effectively by @hideandstudy - http://hideandstudy.tumblr.com/post/138313527364/annotating-effectively

Essay Sentence Starters by @fatiguedfrappuccino - https://fatiguedfrappuccino.tumblr.com/post/160637978506/q

Transitional Phrases by @elsastudies - http://elsastudies.tumblr.com/post/158310610270/some-useful-transitional-phrases-i-collated-when

Words to use instead of ‘Very’ by @psliterary - http://psliterary.tumblr.com/post/155944554847

How to write a 5-Paragraph Essay by @emmastudies - http://emmastudies.com/post/153211153605/one-of-my-lecturers-printed-us-a-step-by-step

Writing an essay when you don’t know where to begin by @sciencescribbles  - http://sciencescribbles.tumblr.com/post/131501164415/ten-steps-to-writing-an-essay-science-scribbles

Literary Techniques by @emmastudies -- http://emmastudies.com/post/162930745810/literary-techniques