Student Corner: Essay writing, style and referencing

[Valenteenah.]

Salaams,

 

I know a lot of you students are underpressure and stressed, so I thought I would help. This is for first-year students as second/final-year ones should know by now how to write proper academic essays. The following piece has proven quite helpful for me and I hope it helps you too as a reference guide.

 

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Writing, Style, and Reference Information

 

by Maja Korac, Senior Lecturer

 

Writing is Thinking

 

Writing is a process, and good writers re-write. While people have different approaches to organizing their ideas, viewpoints, and conclusions, it is useful to prepare an outline of your essay before diving into a first draft. Since a good essay has to convince the reader of your argument, you will need to gather examples (perhaps from your own work/life) and references to other writers which support the points you are making. Group your examples and references into categories that you can draw on in an organized fashion when writing your essay.

 

Structure

 

You will know from your own reading that writers have myriad approaches to making an argument. While your tutors appreciate creative literary techniques and imaginative turns of phrase, we also appreciate being able to identify your argument quickly and easily. It is always a good idea to structure an essay, therefore, along the lines of A) Introduction; B) Essay body; and C) Conclusion. Stylistic flourishes are appreciated, but not necessary!

 

The introduction, which gives readers a brief summary of the main points of your argument, is usually written last (ie, after you are clear as to the content and conclusions of your essay). The body is where you develop your argument; calling on the examples and references you have organized prior to sitting down to write. Of course, in the organic process of writing, you may think of new points or come across new evidence; it is fine to work those in as you go. In your conclusion, you reiterate the main points of your argument and sum up your point of view in a more elaborate way. Readers have short attention spans, and need to be reminded of why they should accept your argument on logical grounds. Your tutors do not have to agree with you to be convinced of the substance of your essay!

 

As your essay as a whole has a logical structure, so too has the body of the essay. Start generally and move into specific examples as you continue. Each paragraph should have a ‘pyramid’ structure: the first sentence is a quick definition or identification of the main point and subsequent sentences elaborate upon it, fleshing it out with examples or references to other material that support the point. Paragraphs of one or two sentences are incomplete; make sure that each paragraph has a link (in the form of a sentence wrapping up the preceding point and directing the reader onward) to the next one. Paragraphs should have a logical progression, chronological or otherwise. Your readers will not be able to interpret your argument without plenty of ‘signposts’ guiding them through; these take the form of topic sentences (first sentences of paragraphs) that remind us where you’re going. In longer essays, sub-headings are a good way to organize your material logically so that readers can follow the progression of your ideas.

 

References

 

Your essays are like ‘children’ with lots of ‘relatives’—i.e., things that you have read which have influenced your essay. It is your job to show the reader your essay’s ‘ancestry’: What books/articles ‘gave birth’ to your essay? These references are the ‘parents’; you will cite them most often in your essay. Who are the ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ who sometimes come to visit? Make sure to include them in your bibliography. If your essay is especially complex, you can even mention its ‘grandmothers’ and ‘grandfathers’.

 

We cannot overemphasize the importance of proper quotation, citation, and referencing in preparing your essay. Many students with otherwise terrific essays have lost a significant number of points by failing to follow scholarly convention in their use of quotation, in-text citation, and bibliography. Our suggestion, if you are less familiar with academic norms, is to choose a book or journal article and study the author’s citation and referencing style. You will notice that, regardless of the style chosen (and each discipline has its own conventions!!), the referencing will be consistent.

 

Bibliographies are lists of the references you have used to make your argument, in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Each reference must include the date published, the title of the article or book, the name of the journal or edited collection (if it is an article or a chapter in an edited volume), and the publisher. If it is a journal article, you will also be expected to include the page numbers. The idea is to allow readers to refer to your sources should they want more information or verification of an idea.

 

In terms of style, it is better to quote a variety of sources than to rely on one or two books/articles for your essay. This way, you avoid writing something that is largely derivative of another person’s work; it also shows your tutors that you have read widely on the topic and are prepared to defend your ideas by showing us how many writers agree with you! Don’t be shy about quoting authors who make especially useful points in support of your argument. However, please cite these authors properly—put their exact words in “quotation marks” followed by the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number (it is not necessary to put the name of the article—the reader can look that up in your bibliography). If you are paraphrasing an author’s ideas, you must still tell us where the idea came from (Author’s Last Name, Year of Article’s Publication).

 

A note about citing websites is in order, given the increasing availability of electronic materials on the worldwide web. Make sure that the site is credible before you use it in your essay: can you easily establish the credentials of the author/institution? Are the sources used in the webpage referenced? Does the site have a specific view or bias? Is the information current? Has the site received any awards?

 

Style

 

Presentation is very important! While we do not require students to present work in a particular format, we do look for organization, consistency, and attention to detail. You will get higher marks, and your tutors will not have to wade through formatting mistakes to get to your argument. Please spell-check your essay before handing it in, and pay attention to the following formatting points:

 

• Headings and text should be consistent throughout. Don’t use different fonts, styles, or spacing for different parts of your essay

 

• Make sure your headings follow your essay structure: Bold or Underline or Italicize headings consistently. Subheadings should have a different style than headings

 

• Paragraphs should be differentiated from one another: either indent the first line of each paragraph or leave a blank line between each paragraph

 

• Text should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins all around. Exceptions are long quotations, which should be INDENTED and single-spaced

 

• Bibliography should also be single-spaced, with a space between each reference

 

For all other aspects of style, please make use of a style guide (the Guardian newspaper has an excellent guide, available online and for downloading: www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide)

[Valenteenah.]

Types of Essays/Assessment Questions:

 

“Account for…”

Explain how a particular event or situation came about.

 

“Analyse…”

Break down an argument or information into component parts and identify ways in which these parts are related. Always refer to the underlying assumptions where relevant.

 

“Analyse the extent to which…”

Show judgement over the relevant importance of different arguments or events.

 

“Assess the (relative) importance of X…”

Make some kind of judgement on the relative importance of particular factors or arguments. Discuss factor X and assess importance in the light of the influence of other factors or events that influence the topic.

 

“Critically analyse Y’s views on…”

Clearly outline and explain Y’s views and assess the strengths and weaknesses of these views. Try and make an overall assessment of your own. N.B you don’t have to disagree with Y just because the question says critically analyse!

 

“Compare…”

Describe two or more situations and show the difference and similarities between them.

 

“Define….”

A simple statement is not usually enough. Use appropriate examples etc. to illustrate and elaborate on your precise definition of a concept.

 

“Discuss…”

Consider the arguments for and against the issue raised in the question.

 

“Distinguish…”

Students need to show that they understand the differences between two (possibly frequently confused) concepts. Similarities and differences need to be discussed and illustrated in distinguishing between the two concepts.

 

“Evaluate…”

Make reasoned judgements about the validity of a particular argument or statement, presenting evidence and reasoned argument regarding all relevant issues involved.

[N.O.R.F]

Referencing and Bibliographies

 

Harvard System etc,,,,,,,

 

First Principles

 

Accurate consistent referencing is very important in all acadmic work. Whenever you refer to either the work or ideas of someone, or are influenced by another's work, you must acknowledge this. Similarly, if you make a direct quotation from someone’s work, this should be referred to accurately. You will need to acknowledge your source in two places

 

in the main body of your text

in the bibliography (list of references) at the end of your piece of work

You are strongly advised to develop the habit of keeping detailed records of the sources you use in your research, and to do this at the time that you use them.

 

 

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Citing References

 

Referring to someone else's work in your own work is known as "citing" that work. How to cite (making a link to a reference in your bibliography) is described below.

 

 

When you refer to someone else’s work or ideas in the body of your own piece of work, this can be acknowledged by quoting the author's last name (family name) and date of the work in brackets, in your text:

 

e.g. In a recent study (Gibbs 1992), it is argued...

 

This leads the reader to the bibliography where the full reference appears; and this is located at the end of your work.

 

If the author's name occurs naturally in the sentence, the year only is given in brackets:

 

e.g. Gibbs (1992) believes students are active...

 

Page numbers should be included for direct quotations or reference to a particular part of an item:

 

e.g. Gibbs (1992, p11) states that "students are active..."

 

For two authors, the names of both should be given:

 

e.g. Rainer and Reiman (1989) take a different view...

 

In the case of more than two authors, the first author only should be given followed by et al.

 

e.g. Collinson et al. (1992)

 

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Bibliography

 

Your bibliography should contain a full and accurate reference of each item from which you have quoted or to which you have referred in the body of your text, as well as any other works used in your research. These references should give sufficient information for anyone to be able to trace easily the material you have used.

 

According to the Harvard Method, references are arranged in one alphabetical sequence by name of author, followed by date of pulication. If there is no author, the item should be listed by title. Here is an example of how to produce your bibliography.

 

ADAMSON, Arthur (1990). A student's guide for assignments, projects and research. 4th ed., Thameson.

 

DIXON, David R. (1999). The behavioural side of information technology. [online]. International journal of medical informatics, 56(1-3), 117-23. Article from ScienceDirect last accessed on 12 January 2000 at URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/

 

MAITLAND, A. (1996). Retailers balk at BSE-free beef plan.

[CD-ROM]. Financial Times, 28 August, 8.

 

Below is a list of how to reference a range of commonly used types of material

 

 

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Books

 

The main elements you need are: author, year, title, publisher. You will usually find all this information on the book’s title page and back of the title page. The reference should be as follows:

 

ADAMSON, Arthur (1990). A student's guide for assignments, projects and research. 4th ed., Thameson.

Include the edition, other than for first editions.

 

If you prefer to include place of publication, this should come immediately before the publisher.

 

For multiple authors, reference all of them up to a maximum of three. If there are more than three, you can use et al. after the first author's name.

 

If a book has an editor, indicate this by putting (ed.) or (eds) after the name(s).

 

To quote a chapter in an edited book:

 

BUSCOMBE, Edward (1981). Ideas of authorship. In: CAUGHIE, John (ed). Theories of authorship: a reader. Routledge & Kegan Paul in association with the British Film Institute, 22-34.

 

You should always reference the version of an item that you actually used. For example, the chapter by BUSCOMBE has also appeared as a journal article, but the reference should be to the version you used.

 

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Journal Articles

 

To reference a journal article, include: author, date, title of article, journal title (in full), volume number, issue number and page numbers. The reference should be as follows:

 

McKINNON, Alan C. and WOODBURN, Alan. (1994). The consolidation of retail deliveries: its effect on CO2 emissions. Transport policy 1(2), 125-36

 

This information can be obtained from the cover and first pages of the journal, but will not necessarily appear on the pages inside the journal (and therefore not on a photocopy you may make of an article).

 

 

When you write your bibliography you need to make sure you reference the full title. If you only know the abbreviated form of the journal title, the journal abbreviations page will help you find the full titles.

 

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Theses

 

Provide: author, date, title of thesis, degree statement, degree awarding body. e.g.:

 

LOWE, A. (1997). An evaluation of the use of the viable system model on a virtual business unit. MSc IT and Management, School of Computing and Management Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University.

 

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Electronic sources

 

Referencing electronic sources is not as easy as it might be. Look for and provide as much of the information recommended below.

 

a) Information databases

 

You will most likely use complete articles from web based information databases. Include: author, date, title of article, [format of material], journal/newspaper title, volume, issue number and page number(s), date you accessed the material (remember that a website can be updated at any time so you need to indicate exactly when you used it) and location (URL - Uniform Resource Locator / the address of the website)

 

DIXON, David R. (1999). The behavioural side of information technology. [online]. International journal of medical informatics, 56(1-3), 117-23. Article from ScienceDirect last accessed on 12 January 2000 at URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/

 

When referencing an abstract (summary of an article) where you have not used the full text/complete article version, follow as above but replacing "Article " with "Abstract no. xxxxx" where this information is available. e.g.:

 

ADAR, E. et al. (2003). Shock: aggregating information while preserving privacy. [online]. Information systems frontiers, 5(1), 15-28. Abstract no. 7728306 from INSPEC last accessed on 22 September 2003 at URL: http://www/engineeringvillage2.org/

 

For a newspaper or any other complete article taken from a CD-ROM you need to give: author, date, title of article, [format of material], journal/newsppaer title, volume, issue number and page numbers(s).

 

MAITLAND, A. (1996). Retailers balk at BSE-free beef plan. [CD-ROM], Financial Times, 28 August, 8.

 

 

You may find that some databases only give you the abbreviated title of the journal, but when you write your bibliography you need to make sure you reference the full title. The journal abbreviations page has links to several web-based resources that will help you find journal titles from their abbreviations.

 

 

b) Other websites

 

Give: author, date, title, [format of material], date you accessed the material and location (URL).

 

MARKS and SPENCER (2000). Annual report 1998/99. [online]. Last accessed on 16 April 2000 at URL: http://www-marks-and-spencer.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

c) E-Mail correspondence

 

Provide: author, date, title of message, [format of material], recipient's name, date sent, date cited, availability (i.e. e-mail list taken from or correspondence address or recipient's email address - if personal, you are advised to obtain the recipient's permission before including such information.)

 

JOHNSON, Mike (1999). Athens scheme. [online] Message to: Aileen D Wade. Sent 3 March 1999 (cited 17 May 1999). Personal correspondence to a.d.wade@shu.ac.uk

 

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Videos

 

a) Feature films

 

 

Provide film title, date, format, director and production company.

 

Some like it hot. (1959) [Film]. Directed by Billy WILDER. United Artists.

 

b) Training and commercial videos

 

Give as much information as you can, and indicate that the item is a video.

 

Meetings bloody meetings. (1992) Video Arts.

 

c) Off-air recordings

 

We record many programmes from the TV - the video casing and/or Learning Centre Catalogue record should provide you with all the information you need to give the original programme details.

 

Twenty steps to better management: thriving on change. (1999) BBC2. 7 June.