Assignment & Essay writing

Let’s talk about some strategies for writing essays and assignments that will enable you to produce outstanding work.

Assignments are a common method of assessment at university and require careful planning and good quality research. Developing critical thinking and writing skills are also necessary to demonstrate your ability to understand and apply information about your topic. It is not uncommon to be unsure about the processes of writing assignments at university.
Use your essay plan to develop your introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion in full. Your completed essay should have a clear argument which is relevant to the assignment task, logically organized so that it is easy to follow, and well supported through the use of credible and reliable sources. In this section you will learn more about the essay writing process, paragraph writing and academic language. Use the essay writing checklist at the end of this section to help you finalize your essay.
The goal of research essays and papers is not simply to provide a summary or expository interpretation of a text or topic; rather, a research essay is meant to draw on available information regarding what other sources have to say about a topic, and to engage both the sources and the reader in thought-provoking ways. It should be free from plagiarism and completely original. The essence of a research essay is the application of advanced critical thinking to provide a unique perspective or viewpoint on the issue under discussion.
The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

- Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
- Writing: Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
- Revision: Check the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

For some, writing an essay is as simple as sitting down at their computer and beginning to type. But a lot more planning goes into writing an essay successfully. If you have never written an essay before, or if you struggle with writing and want to improve your skills, it is a good idea to follow a number of important steps in the essay writing process.

For example, to write an essay, you should generally:

An academic essay aims to persuade readers of an idea based on evidence.

- An academic essay should answer a question or task.
- It should have a thesis statement (answer to the question) and an argument.
- It should try to present or discuss something: develop a thesis via a set of closely related points by reasoning and evidence.
- An academic essay should include relevant examples, supporting evidence and information from academic texts or credible sources.

An essay is a common type of academic writing that you’ll likely be asked to do in multiple classes. Before you start writing your essay, make sure you understand the details of the assignment so that you know how to approach the essay and what your focus should be. Once you’ve chosen a topic, do some research and narrow down the main argument(s) you’d like to make. From there, you’ll need to write an outline and flesh out your essay, which should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. After your essay is drafted, spend some time revising it to ensure your writing is as strong as possible.
For this assignment, you will write an 8-12 page research essay. The objective in developing this inquiry-based research essay is not, perhaps, like other research essays with which you may be familiar. In an inquiry-based essay, the development of a research question is the cornerstone of the essay, providing a guideline for you to follow in your research wherever the information takes you. You will be expected to use a variety of sources to develop your ideas. The following types of research must be incorporated into your essay:

Sources: