London series: Referencing

For a student who doesn’t actually care much about essay writing, referencing is only important because it’s mandatory. You probably don’t care why but understand that there are logical reasons behind so you won’t complain and get it done. Referencing is mainly done within the essay itself and in the references section.

First, references within the essay are usually made up of in text citations. These citations are usually made up of the author, year, and sometimes even the pages used. A great tip for getting these done is immediately writing them down during the essay writing process. By doing this you’re saving yourself a ton of hassle in finding which sentences need to be referenced and inputting those references.

Second, the references section is probably the most difficult part of referencing. Fortunately, within the vast expanse of the internet there are free online citation generators which make and order your references for you. These websites include Cite this For Me and many others that will help save time and energy in getting over the finish line of essay writing.

London series: Concluding

For readers, the conclusion is probably the most important part of the essay. It really helps them understand the contents of an essay without reading it to completion. As a consequence, essay writers should take extra care to summarise the main points of the essay within the conclusion so it becomes easy to understand. To do this, all it takes is just restatement of your thesis and a minimum of two sentences to explain your points. So a typical and basic format for a conclusion would be like this:

  1. Thesis
  2. Main point of argument
  3. Summary of explanation of argument
  4. Repeat steps 2-3 depending on how many arguments you have
  5. recommendation

London series: Transitions

Do not underestimate the role of transitions within an essay. This words are what make the essay flow and give cohesiveness to what you write down. Without them essays would just be a collection of random sentences meeting up to convey an unclear message. The role of transitions can be divided into three; connecting sentences, connecting paragraphs, and the role of this.

First, transitions are used within paragraphs to connect different sentences. These are typically transitions such as “Also”, “Regardless”, and “Moreover along with listing transitions and concluding transitions. These words are able to help establish the flow of your writing whether it be building on, contradicting, or ending a paragraph.

Second, transitions are used to connect paragraphs. These are used per paragraph at the beginning of them with the typical “First”, “Furthermore”, and any other transition you would like to use. These are usually important in presenting the topic sentence of a paragraph so your readers will know what you’ll be talking about.

Third, the word this is an underrated transition as it refers to something in the sentence directly before it . This word is a crucial tool in analysis as it keeps the flow going while talking about something that has already been talked about. Without this your essays would over 5000 words long with no signs of cohesion.

London series: Synthesising

Being able to synthesise your analyses and arguments is what really makes an easy great. This shows you are able to write and think cohesively that will aggregate into an eye-opening essay for your tutors to grade. There are two main steps to doing this; have a line of argument that is interdependent and show this interdependency in your conclusion.

First, make sure when constructing your arguments there is a clear relationship between them. For example, you could relate your arguments in terms of causality. For instance, if you’re writing an essay on the negative effects of studying you could argue in terms of fatigue and stress. You could relate the two by stating that studying causes fatigue which in turn causes stress thus creating further problems related to studying. This allows you to explain both arguments in great detail while showing your understanding of the two topics.

Second, the easiest way to show this line of thinking is in your conclusion. Trying to write down the relationship between arguments will be difficult to do in your body. This is because it takes up a lot of words and might mess up your flow. However, writing a conclusion which not only summarises your main points but also shows the relationship between them will score you points with your tutor and allow you to keep it concise.

London series: Analysis

ANALYSIS. The most important part of any academic product that will make or break the substance the pieces thinking. However intimidating the opening part of this article may sound, analysis is a fun and simple process if you know how to do it properly. All it takes is any piece of evidence and your analysis that should align with the academic knowledge you are taught in class. For example:

Stance: Cigarettes are good for controlling your emotions

Evidence: 8/10 people remain can remain calm due to smoking but risk addiction

Analysis: Cigarettes are helpful in controlling your emotions due to the data regardless of the risk of becoming addicted. This shows that cigarettes can become a stop-gap measure in controlling your emotions and will be positive if indulged appropriately.

The example above might not be the best study case for analysis but what is intended to be emphasised is the possibility of manipulating data. Even when presented with evidence that cigarettes can cause addiction that could lead to further emotional problems, there are several ways to redefine that problem or discredit it which ultimately increases the appeal of cigarettes in controlling your emotions. Furthermore, another step to take is to have a stance that does not emphasise the “good” or “bad” nature of controlling your emotions. This leaves the topic entirely to your interpretation and it will be much easier to analyse any sort of evidence to your favour.

London series: Research

Doing research is the most tiring and tedious step in writing an essay. This requires focus as finding the write evidence and being able to properly gage how useful evidence is quite difficult in the sea of information known as the internet. As a result, going on online journals is usually a must when writing essays for uni. However, sometimes websites such as JSTOR or academia.edu require you to pay for access to certain materials. Luckily, a useful tip in gaining access to these types of material is to log in through your institution. To do this just follow the following steps:

  1. Click “Log in through Institution”
  2. Find and select your institution
  3. Log in through your single-sign on account