How To Write Essays: A Step-by-Step Guide for All Levels, With Sample Essays - Softcover

Shiach, Don

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845281640 ISBN 13: 9781845281649

Publisher: How To Books, 2007

Synopsis

The skill of good essay writing is essential if you are to achieve the kind of grades you want in the courses you are studying. This is true whether you are studying at GCSE, AS or A levels at school or college, or trying to gain a degree at university. The advice and practical guidance you receive in this book will enable you to improve your grade assessments by putting into practice some simple, but invaluable principles of essay writing. These approaches will work for you whether you are facing assessment in timed exam conditions or being judged by coursework assignments. This book will take you step by step from your opening to your closing paragraph, so that you focus your thoughts on answering the assignment appropriately and relevantly. It also contains ten sample essays and useful chapters on grammar, accuracy and spelling.

About this title

Review

`The advice and practical guidance readers receive in this book will enable them to improve their grade assessments.'
-- Education Today

From the Author

Acquiring the skills to write essays that are structured,
detailed, relevant and coherent is not that difficult, but these skills
have to be taught. Too many students at all levels fail to do themselves
justice by their inability to construct a readable essay. Too many teachers
and lecturers have to complain about the standard of student essays. This
book will show you in a straightforward, but very detailed manner, how to
acquire those essay-writing skills.

What do I write in the first sentence? What is the purpose of my opening
paragraph? How do I construct a paragraph? How can I give my paragraph
structure a continuity and a logic? What are key sentences? How can I
'flesh out' the main points I am making? How can I give my essay
continuity? How can I write a convincing closing paragraph? These are some
of the basic questions that are asked and answered in my book.

The answers to these questions are, in part, represented in the ten model
essays supplied in the book written on subjects across the subject range.
These are crucial reference points for students to return to again and
again when they are in doubt about how to approach an essay topic. Each
model essay is followed by a detailed analysis to pinpoint the skills of
essay-writing that they illustrate. Students can easily adapt these model
essays to their own specific essay-writing requirements. Most books on
essay-writing point the way, but do not put themselves on the line by
supplying models of good practice. My book does supply these models and I
think these essays will prove invaluable to students.

In addition, the detailed guidelines and model essays have been presented
in an accessible and strucured style. Too many similar books are densely
written and the material is text-heavy so that the reader is daunted by the
look of the pages. In my book, the material is allowed to breathe. It
welcomes students, grants easy access to the text and guides them through
the advice step-by-step.

Students at all different levels need to know how to practise effective
essay-writing skills. This book is aimed to be used by students at
university and college, those studying 'A' and 'AS' levels and those
studying for GCSE. The same essay-writing skills are appropriate at all
those levels.

Students have to write essays as course assignments and in timed
examinations. My book acknowedges that and gives straightforward advice
about the different pressures these contexts put on students. The ability
to sit examinations has much to do with a student's success and there are
timely reminders in the book about some of the pitfalls.

If students work their way systematically through the text of 'How To Write
Essays', absorbing the key points and applying what has been learnt to
their own essay-writing, then I can guarantee their ability to write
proficient essays that will impress their assessors will improve greatly. I
have had a wealth of experience of teaching at all levels from school to
university, and specifically at teaching the skills of essay-writing.
Schools, colleges and universities do not spend nearly enough time in
teaching students how to write essays and yet moan about the standard of
the essays presented to them. This is mainly because they have to spend so
much time getting through the syllabus and believe they cannot spare the
time to teach these essential skills. It is a 'Catch 22' situation:
teachers bemoan the standards of essay-writing, but feel they cannot spare
enough time to improve standards in this area. My book is intended to make
up for this acknowledged lack. I think you will find it student-friendly,
clear, direct and, above all, practical and relevant to your needs.
Don Shiach

Edition details

• Publisher: How To Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1845281640
• ISBN 13: 9781845281649
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 163