uk essays on assessment

Assessment & Feedback: Types of Assessment

• Types of Assessments
• Presentations
• Poster Presentations
• Understanding your assessment task
• Assessment Criteria
• Interpreting & implementing feedback

What types of assessment will I do?

Essays and exams are traditional types of assessment that you might have encountered, but at university there is a wide range of assessment types that will often be different depending on the discipline you are studying.  Coursework is quite broad and course specific, ranging from traditional essays to vlogs, poster presentations, leaflets, policy briefs, business reports and much more. Depending on your course, you might also attend field trips, conduct work labs or studios, complete internships or attend clinical placements.

Your assessments will be either summative or formative.

What is a summative assessment? Summative means that assessment is designed for you to show how you meet the learning outcomes of the course and is weighted towards your final grade.

What is a formative assessment? Formative is to help you practice and the best opportunity for you to get feedback.

Below are some examples of assessments you may do. This is not an exhaustive list and you may encounter some other types depending on your discipline.

You can find detailed assessment guides for the following;

• Academic Writing
• Dissertations

Types of assessments

• Case Studies
• Research Proposals
• Lab Reports

An essay is a traditional approach to academic assessment, a structured piece of written of work based on meeting learning outcomes/ assessment criteria using academic standards of writing. You may be asked to write different types of essays throughout your course.

Argument essays

• Argument or argumentative essays are similar to discussion essays in that you have to explore different sides of an argument. 
• However, the argumentative essay will focus more on one aspect of the argument, so you will have to find strong evidence to support your line of argument.
• This does not mean that you can ignore counter arguments, but it does mean that you have to try and persuade the reader that you are making a good case.

Compare and Contrast essays

• Compare and contrast essays explore the similarities and differences of two or more things (e.g., two theories, methods or historical periods)
• There are two main ways to structure this kind of essay using a block approach or a point-by-point approach.
• The block approach involves giving all the arguments for and against for one subject first before moving on to consider all the arguments for and against for another subject. 
• The point-by-point structure considers all similarities and differences for one subject. 
• The point-by-point structure is generally clearer because it ensures that similarities and differences are stated immediately.

Reflective Essays

• Reflective writing is common in practical courses such as education and health.
• In this kind of writing, you may have to explore the relationship between theory and your own professional practice.  
• It may also involve personal reflection on your experiences of an aspect of practice using a particular model of reflection (e.g., Gibbs or Kolb’s Reflective Cycle).
• As with all assignments, essay requirements can vary, so study the essay instructions very carefully.
• A case study requires you to analyse a specific situation and to explore how its different characteristics relate to theory, legislation and professional standards.  
• The case may refer to a real-life or hypothetical event, organisation, individual or group of people and/or issue.  
• Sometimes, you may have to think of solutions or recommendations for future action.
• Make sure you check the assessment task very carefully so that you are clear on the exact nature of the task and of the case study itself.
• The structure of case study can vary from discipline to discipline but may include a Table of contents—Introduction—Discussion/Analysis—Conclusion—Reference List—Appendices.
• A report is a structured document that provides information, such as factual data, insights and recommendations, about a particular topic, issue, event, or subject matter.
• It is typically written to convey the findings, analysis, and conclusions of a research study, investigation, or inquiry.
• Reports are often used in disciplines such as accounting, finance or management and marketing.
• They often focus on case studies from the real world of business and require you to apply theory to real-world situations in order to explore problems and to suggest solutions or make recommendations.
• If a simulated situation is being used as the basis for your report, you may have to think carefully about your audience (e.g., the CEO of a company) and how this may affect your report.
• As with all assessment types, read the task carefully and structure your report accordingly.

You can find more guidance on reports here .

A portfolio is a collection of work that you have created and compiled over a period of time.  It helps to demonstrate your skills and abilities, as it makes your learning or artistic/academic development more concrete and visible. 

These are often produced as part of a project or placement, consisting of a collection of writing produced on a regular basis and then collated together into one larger piece of work.

Depending on whether your portfolio is part of your course assessment or developed for prospective employers, your portfolio should:

• Demonstrate your engagement in higher levels of thinking through enquiry and reflection
• Display your level of artistic/intellectual skill
• Present your capacity to translate your life experiences, including work, education, community service, extra-curricular or travel into evidence or artifact for learning and creativity
• Serve as an interesting conversation starter that will help you stand out as an artist or practitioner.

You can find more guidance on portfolios here .

Presentations require you to usually produce a visual element such as a poster/ creative artefact/ PowerPoint as well as verbally present your work. This may be on your own or as part of a group.

You can find more guidance and support on Presentations here .

For guidance on Poster Presentations please check here .

• A research proposal is usually a concise summary or overview of your proposed research.
• It outlines the central questions you intend to explore and provides a brief review of the literature in your chosen area.
• In other words, it provides the reader with a good idea of what is already known about the research area.
• A typical structure might include an introduction – literature review – methodology and reference list.

You can find more information on research proposals here .

• The requirements for dissertations may vary from subject to subject, so always check with your department before you begin.
• It involves an extensive review of existing literature and research, the formulation of a hypothesis or research objective, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of findings.
• Find out as much as you can, for example the word count and any requirements regarding structure.
• Longer pieces of writing like this may contain a number of different sections including an abstract—introduction—Literature review—Results—Discussion –Conclusion—References—Appendices.
• For extended pieces of writing and research, it is important to manage your time and your workload as effectively as possible.

You can find more information about dissertations here .

• Laboratory reports are also called scientific or experimental reports and they represent an important assessment type in the sciences.
• Typically, laboratory reports document the reasons for conducting experiments – the procedure or methodology used – the results or findings from the experiment—a discussion about the implications of the findings and finally a conclusion and recommendations.
• Laboratory reports should be clearly written so that, in theory, the reader could replicate the same experiment.
• A blog can be seen as a collection of short writings, often posted online format, on a regular basis.
• When creating blogs for academic purpose the assignment brief often requires you to focus on reflective writing about a particular topic or practice or project.

Vlogs is short for video blogs which are visual recording of you academically discussing a given topic/s. You are often still expected to use academic and/ or professional language as well as keep to academic standards by ensuring what you are talking about is backed by evidence and references.

The requirements and guidance for video assignments will be given to you by your course tutor. You may be producing a video on your own or with a small group of peers. The content of the video will depend on the individual assignment.

Further Reading

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• Last Updated: Sep 4, 2023 2:54 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/assessment-feedback

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• Subject Guides

Academic writing: a practical guide

Assessment & feedback.

• Academic writing
• The writing process
• Academic writing style
• Structure & cohesion
• Criticality in academic writing
• Working with evidence
• Referencing
• Dissertations
• Reflective writing
• Examination writing
• Academic posters
• Feedback on Structure and Organisation
• Feedback on Argument, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
• Feedback on Writing Style and Clarity
• Feedback on Referencing and Research
• Feedback on Presentation and Proofreading

What markers are looking for in your work and using feedback to improve your writing.

Assessment criteria

Most written assignments are marked using assessment criteria, which show the areas the work is marked on and what's expected at each grade band. Each department has its own assessment criteria, and sometimes modules have a specific set of criteria too. 

Assessment criteria can be organised as a list of descriptions for each grade band, as a grid with descriptions for each marking area and grade band, or as marking areas rated on a scale.

Marking areas

Criteria have different areas (or categories) that work is marked against. Marking areas can vary across departments or assignments, but there are some key areas that often appear. Here are some ideas of what markers may be looking for:

Content & relevance

This area looks at how far the assignment meets the task requirements and the relevance of the information included. 

Addressing the question/task

Make sure you read the assessment instructions carefully!

• How far does the work address the question/task?
• Are all parts of the question/task addressed?
• Is the work within +/- 10% of the stated word count?

Relevance of content

• Are points and sources relevant to the question/task?
• Are the relevant ideas/principles from the module included?
• For higher scores, does the work include relevant ideas from reading beyond the module content?
• Are sources used relevant, up to date and reliable?

More information:

Argument & analysis

This category focuses on the quality of your argument and critical analysis relating to the topic. It's also sometimes called 'originality of thought' or 'engagement with ideas'.

An important aspect of academic writing is incorporating relevant previous research and thinking as well as your own findings. However, it's not enough just to describe or summarise this information - to get higher marks, you also need to critically analyse it. What does it mean in terms of your overall argument?  If the content is the 'what', the analysis and argument are more like 'so what?'.

Relating this to  Bloom's Taxonomy , this requires more complex processes; analysing, evaluating and creating.

Questions markers may ask:

• Is the argument logical and well developed, with enough relevant supporting evidence?
• Is the work analytical, rather than just descriptive?
• Have connections or comparisons been made across sources?
• Are source information and/or research findings evaluated in terms of the argument?

Critical analysis is spread throughout assignments in small critical comments and is also usually the major focus of the discussion or conclusion. To help you critically analyse source information or your own findings, ask questions like why?   how?  and  so what?

• Why did paper A find different results to papers B and C?
• How might this information influence policy? 
• Plant A grew faster than Plant B - so what?

This area focuses on the structure and organisation of the assignment, which is important to help the reader follow the argument easily.

• Is the overall structure and argument clear?
• Are points logically ordered to create the argument?
• Are paragraphs structured clearly, with one central idea?
• Are ideas linked smoothly within and between paragraphs?
• Does the work meet structural requirements for the type of writing (eg, does a report include section headings)?

Style & presentation

This area is about the surface aspects of your work - how does it look and feel?

Referencing style

• Are citations and references formatted correctly in the required referencing style?
• Is all source information acknowledged appropriately?

You can find examples of correctly formatted citations and references in our  practical guide to referencing styles .

Presentation

• Are the format and presentation appropriate to the task?
• Have formatting guidelines or requirements been followed?
• Is formatting consistent?

Use of language

• Is an academic writing style used that is appropriate to the assignment?
• Is spelling, grammar and punctuation correct?
• Is the writing clear and concise?

What to do with assessment criteria?

Find your assessment criteria

Your module learning outcomes and assessment criteria could be found in your programme handbook, an induction or module VLE site, or the module catalogue.

Read & understand the criteria

You need to know what markers' expectations are, so read the criteria carefully. Consider: 

• Which key areas is your work marked on?
• What are the expectations at different grade bands?

Apply the criteria

You can use the criteria in a few ways to help improve your assignments:

• Evaluate example assignments using the criteria - why were they awarded that grade?
• Use with feedback on previous assignments to help identify strengths and areas to improve (also see the Feedback box).
• Use them while writing assignments to remind you what markers are looking for.

If you have questions about the marking criteria, ask your module tutor, your academic supervisor, or book a Writing Centre appointment .

View this information in a new window: Assessment criteria [Google Doc]

Using feedback to improve writing

Feedback comes in many forms:

• written comments about your work
• highlighting sections of the assessment criteria
• verbally in an audio or video clip, or in a conversation
• model answers to compare your work to
• advice on common issues (especially for formative work)

Feedback is an opportunity to develop and improve. It's not always nice to read, but  don't ignore it !

Feedback can...

...show what you've done well.

The essay is structured well and your argument is easy to follow.

Your literature review comprises highly relevant studies, which you link back to in your discussion of the results.

Overall, you demonstrate a good understanding of the quantitative statistical analyses you have conducted.

These comments help you understand the strengths of your writing. For example, If you know that your structure was clear, you can use the same approach in your next assignments.

Also, they make you feel good - give yourself a pat on the back!

...identify areas for improvement

You raise some (potentially) interesting points in your essay, but these are very often not supported with a reference to relevant evidence.

The third paragraph is quite off-topic, and doesn't help you answer the essay question.

Your arguments are not clear in several places due to errors in grammar and wording.

It might not be very nice to hear about aspects of your work that are not so good, but these comments are the most useful to help you improve!

This type of comment often includes phrases like:

• [something positive], but/however [something to improve]
• make sure you...
• pay attention to...
• you could have...
• it would have helped to...
• [some part of the assignment] could be more...

See the sections below for tips on dealing with some common problems identified in feedback.

...help extend your understanding

What might be the implications of this policy for schools?

How far could your findings be generalised to other working environments?

You mention some theories of aggression, but don't go into detail - why are these particular theories relevant?

Comments like this can give you ideas to consider or further reading to help deepen your knowledge on a topic. This is especially useful if you want to explore this topic further in later modules or your dissertation. They could also highlight gaps in your understanding. In this case, it might be worthwhile to go back and revise the module content to help you in your later modules.

What to do with feedback?

Here's a handy three-step process to use your feedback to write better assignments. 

• Read the feedback carefully. What are you doing well? What do you need to improve?
• Look back at your assignment - can you find the good things and issues mentioned?
• If the feedback isn't clear, ask your tutor to explain or book a Writing Centre appointment  to discuss it.
• Look for patterns in feedback across assignments to identify what to focus on.
• For areas to improve on, make a plan to address this. For example, if the structure needs to be clearer, you could spend more time planning next time.
• For things you're doing well, how can you apply this to future assignments?

Do something!

• Apply your plans from the Reflect stage when you write your next assignments.
• When you get the feedback for these assignments, think about what you did differently - have you addressed the issues?

And then the cycle begins again!

You can use this template to review your feedback to identify areas for improvement and work out what you need to focus on:

Common feedback issues & how to avoid them

The issues below are often identified in feedback. Open each for advice on how to address them in your next assignments. Some are easier to deal with than others!

Proofreading, spelling and grammar errors

Work on improving the clarity of your writing, including grammar and choice of words.

There are numerous errors in spelling and grammar, eg 'the survey contain 10 questions'.

Make sure to proofread your work carefully, there are lots of typos.

Feedback like this is very common, as the mistakes are easy for markers to spot.

It shows you need to check your work carefully for small mistakes or typos in spelling, grammar, punctuation or word choice before you submit. This checking is often called ' proofreading '.

More detail & advice:

Referencing style errors

The format of your references in the text does not always follow the APA format. 

There are some instances of citing and referencing format being incorrect.

Pay attention to following Harvard style correctly.

Each referencing style has specific formatting requirements for in-text citations, footnotes and the reference list/bibliography (as used in that style). For example, in APA style (Tanaka & Smith, 2007) is correctly formatted, but (Tanaka and Smith 2007) is not. These can seem like small details, but they're very important to get right! 

To avoid making referencing style errors, check all of your citations and references carefully before you submit. Common errors include:

• incorrect author names or missing out authors
• missing out some information needed in the reference
• not using the correct punctuation and text formatting, especially full stops, commas, ampersand (&) and italics
• putting an in-text citation outside the sentence instead of before the full stop
• citing a source in the text, but not including it in the reference list (or vice versa)

You can find examples of correctly formatted citations and references for each style in our practical guide to referencing styles . You can also use reference management software to generate citations and references from your sources - this can save a lot of time! They're not always 100% correct though, so you'll need to check them still.

More critical analysis/stronger argument needed

The style is often somewhat descriptive, and you could have added more critical discussion of the findings.

Relevant texts are reviewed, but there is only limited criticality towards their content.

The argument lacks development, with minimal indication of original thought.

Comments like this suggest that your writing focuses on the more descriptive processes - remembering, understanding and applying. To access higher marks, you also need to demonstrate more critical skills - analysis, evaluation and processing. This is considering what the information means in terms of your argument.

More information on what criticality is and how to add it to your work: 

Structure isn't clear

The argument wasn't always clear, so a more logical structure to the assignment would have helped.

Your results section could be more organised - it seems like you just report everything you found.

Some paragraphs contain unrelated information, which is a bit distracting.

Assignments need a clear overall structure. This usually means a linear structure, where paragraphs have one central idea and build on each other towards the final argument. You can think of this as a flight of stairs going from your title at the bottom to your conclusion at the top. A key way to improve your structure is to plan out your points and arrange them before you start writing.

Cohesion is also an important part of structure. There are lots of words and phrases that you can use to link your ideas more clearly. These phrases don't really add any information, but they make the links clear to the reader so it's easier for them to follow your argument

For more in-depth information, see our advice on structuring academic writing:

Writing style isn't academic enough

Very long sentences sometimes make the essay difficult to follow.

Personal remarks are inadequate for developing an academic argument.

There are numerous colloquialisms (‘the next thing to do’, ‘pour their knowledge into our heads’) in this work.

Academic writing uses a very different style to other types of writing. Some of the key features are:

• being clear and concise
• using neutral words and avoiding informal, conversational or colloquial language
• avoiding personal language

For more in-depth information, see our advice on academic writing style:

Assignment doesn't meet task requirements

Your literature review is quite good, but the remainder of the assignment is not in the style of a research report.

The first part of the essay is relevant to the question, but the second half is largely off-topic.

You haven’t done any analysis, which was a central part of this assessment.

To get a good mark, you have to complete the assignment that was set! This means answering all parts of the task, staying relevant and using an appropriate structure and style. Make sure to read the assessment brief carefully to find out what you need to do.

For more information see our advice on understanding task requirements:

Use of source information / course content

There is heavy reliance on just a few references, which all come from the module reading list.

There are some up to date and relevant sources, but you could have used more recent references.

Your sources all support your argument. What about research with different findings?

In most assignments, you need to refer to information in sources to support your argument - without evidence from sources, your points are just your opinion, and it's very difficult to show any critical analysis.

Make sure you:

• use sources that are credible, up-to-date and relevant to the task.
• don't rely on just a couple of sources, as this will limit your argument.
• extend module content and find some sources yourself.
• don't ignore sources with different findings/points - be complete in your argument.

Find on choosing suitable sources and how to find them on these pages:

View this information in a new window: Using feedback to improve writing [Google Doc]

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• Last Updated: Apr 3, 2024 4:02 PM
• URL: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

University of Sussex

• Starting at Sussex
• Critical thinking
• Note-making
• Presentations, seminars and group work
• Reading and research
• Referencing and academic integrity
• Revision and exams
• Writing and assessments
• Time management

Maria introduces this section on writing and assessments

Maria: Welcome to this section on writing and assessments. Writing is a major part of your university life. In these pages, you'll find techniques and strategies to support you in the essay-writing process. You'll also find example essay types and features of academic writing. Additionally, you'll find information on how to make the most of your feedback. Over the academic year, we also run workshops on academic writing, so keep an eye out for those. Remember, we're here to help you.

There are six topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing (this page) | Reflective writing | Reports | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback  | AI

A very large part of your time at university will be spent writing, since it is the main method of assessment used at Sussex. While essay-writing is an opportunity to show your tutor how much you have understood of your subject and how widely and deeply you have researched the question, this is not the main purpose of an essay. The most important purpose of an essay is to critically analyse the main ideas of a topic and to decide on your own viewpoint. You then present this viewpoint in the form of an argument, weighing the evidence for and against your proposition. So you need to develop the skills of analysing materials and demonstrating what is correct and incorrect about them, and synthesising materials, i.e. comparing and contrasting the many different sources and texts you come across.   

Therefore, it is important to develop your writing skills. As with all academic skills, you are not expected to have perfect academic writing when you arrive ; it is a skill that you will develop as you practise it more and more. In these pages, we show you how to adapt your writing to different written assessments.

Ann Marie talks about her first essay assignment and how to get started

Ann Marie: It's a very scary process. You would just sit to start writing and then completely shut off and you'd be like, 'I don't know what to do.' And then after a lot of times, there was once when I sat down to write it, I took the whole day and I didn't write even two lines. It used to be like, sit down, read certain things, go back again, have a cup of coffee or tea or something like that, come back thinking I'll make it, make two lines. But then it didn't happen. But then again, it's a process of again, going back to it, I guess. The problem is, the more you read, the more ideas you have, and then the more you don't know where to start. And you're so confused. And it was one of my friends, actually, I was probably, I just was so lost. And I probably spoke to one of my friends and he was like, 'You should just know when to stop reading.' And then sometimes, and my housemate, because she did a course at Sussex the year before. So she was really very helpful. So she said, 'Just write, just continue writing. Don't think about the word limit. Don't think about what you're writing. Don't think if there is a structure to it or if it's beautiful and it's what you want to present as final. Just keep writing. Put down your thoughts. Let it all be there on a paper, on a piece of paper.' And when you see it and then when you re-read it, you yourself can formulate it and structure it better. But if you just keep it in your head and not start anywhere, you're not going to get it out. So that was a good piece of advice, I felt. So then that's how I started. I just started writing whatever I wanted to, whatever I thought could be an answer. I didn't think about perfection at that time. Just went with the flow and then took a break, went around, came back, re-read it, reorganised it - it probably looked nothing like how I had started it off with, but then yeah.

What type of academic writing do you need to focus on?

There is a lot to think about and practice when it comes to academic writing. Look in at the six areas below and see which applies to you. You can go directly to the ones you want to focus on:

• Have you been asked to write an essay and need help to understand what is involved? If yes , go to Critical essay writing below (this page) for a plethora of information on academic essays.
• Have you been set a reflective writing assessment and are wondering what to do? If yes , head to Reflective Writing for more information (takes you to a different page).
• Are you writing a report and trying to figure out its components? If yes , the section on Reports will help you out (takes you to a different page).
• Do you have a dissertation  to write and need some pointers to help start you off? If yes , good Luck! Click over to Dissertations to get the basics plus some encouragement (takes you to a different page).
• Do you need some support with writing in correct academic English style or want help with editing and proof-reading? If yes , try looking through the information on Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading to check you are following the guidelines (takes you to a different page).
• Would you like to know how best to collect feedback from your assessments and how to benefit from it? If yes , the section on Feedback has useful advice on the best ways to deal with this (takes you to a different page).

Critical essay writing

Georgia talks about her first essay assignment.

Georgia: I think my first assignment was an essay for one of my modules. I found it quite overwhelming because it's just, 'Here's an essay topic - go away and do it.' Although I'd done essays before in A-level and I'd done psychology ones before, it wasn't to the same level, and I didn't have to do anywhere near the same kind of research. Doing research for the essay was probably one of the things that took maybe the most time, especially at the beginning. I used Library Search, which was fantastic, and that's what I still use to find most of my research because it's a great way to see what the university has access to and you can break it down into chunks for keywords for what you need for your assignment, and then it will just pull up everything that has that in it. Obviously, that's not something I knew straight away. And those were skills that I developed. But the first one was a lot of going through the marking criteria, going through research, trying to understand the research, trying to bring it all together and making sure I answered the question, which is quite important and it's very easy actually to derail from. Referencing as well was something that I'd done a bit of previously. I did an EPQ and I'd had to do referencing for that. So I'd had some experience, but figuring out the referencing style and things like that, which I used Skills Hub for. I also used referencing software and that really helped me and took a bit of the stress away from having to figure out how to do references and how to write long references. It put all my research into one place and kept it for me whereas I know lots of people who did research and then couldn't remember where they found that bit of information from. And so that really helped me with my first assignment.

For many students, writing critical essays will form the majority of their assessment at Sussex. Because setting out an argument is such an important part of academic work, learning how to do it well is fundamental for university success.

There are many parts to writing a successful essay. This list is a basic order, but most essays require moving back and forth between stages as you refine your thinking and writing, rather than following a strict linear path.

• understanding the essay title or creating your own
• planning for the length of your essay
• researching the subject
• creating a brief essay plan
• developing the argument
• adding counter-arguments
• writing a detailed outline
• developing the paragraphs
• sticking to academic writing conventions
• proof-reading.

In order to get a good grade, your essay must :

• prove you understand the topic
• answer the question
• show that you have read widely
• demonstrate you have evaluated the evidence
• display critical thinking
• have a clear argument
• contain relevant information to support your argument
• be well structured and organised
• conform to academic style
• use consistent and accurate referencing
• be professionally presented
• be grammatically correct
• have been proofread for mistakes.

Essay Questions

Feedback from tutors often focuses on students not answering the question. It may be that you know plenty of information about the topic and are keen to show off everything that you have read, but if you do not focus on responding to the question, you will lose marks. Take time to make sure that you have understood exactly what the question means, or composed a question that you can answer with precision.

Sara and Tavian talk understanding essay questions and structure

Sara: So when I get a question, I really have to have a think about that because I know often times it's the case of when you write a perfectly good assignment, but you haven't answered the question. So I think I break down the question. I see what the keyword is. Is it 'evaluate', is it 'discuss', is it 'compare'? I think that is a key thing to look at. And then what they're actually asking of you and what you're answering. So when I'm writing my assignments, I always make sure when I'm done with the paragraph to read that paragraph back and see if it's actually adding to what the question has asked of me. And I think that's very important because you can be so invested in your work and just writing a lot, but then at the end you're not actually answering the question and you're not going to get any marks, no matter how good your writing is. So I think going back, reading it through and keeping the question in mind constantly really helps. Tavian: So the Skills Hub, I was mostly looking at the formatting of an essay because I hadn't really written an essay. As I mentioned, well reports are mostly what we do in the Business School, at least for my course in my modules. So it had been almost since first year since I'd written an essay, and so I just wanted to understand a little bit more, okay, what the difference was. You know, do you use appendices or not? Because reports are very appendix heavy. And so yeah, that was really helpful for me to understand then, okay, what's expected? And then I had to adapt my approach.

Essay questions at Sussex

There are different types of academic essays at university. You may start university with essay questions that ask for description and explanation. As you progress throught your course, there will be more focus on critical writing. See Critical Thinking for more details.

Description

A description is not intended to persuade the reader to agree with a view. You will be asked to give an account of a concept or a process. It should be accurate and factual. The aim of this essay type is to give the reader an informed understanding of what is being described.

Explanation

Similar to a description, the purpose of an explanation is not to convince the reader of a point of view. The aim of this essay type is to give explanations as to why or how something happens and to establish the meaning of a theory or argument. Unlike a description, it also includes causes, purposes and consequences.

Critical argument

The most common type of essay question. The aim of this essay is to state a clear position and present a persuasive line of argument in order to convince the reader of this particular view. An argument should consider alternative perspectives and be supported with evidence throughout.

Decoding your Essay Title

Here are some useful tips to help you understand the question:

• highlight words which tell you the approach to take (the directive words)
• circle the words which guide you on selecting the subject matter of the essay (the topic words)
• underline the words which the question is asking you to focus on (the limiting words)
• ask yourself what the essay is really looking for. Can you identify the central question? How many sections are there to it?
• find the links between what you have learnt through reading or lectures and the title.

Cottrell, S. (2013)

Let’s look more at directive, topic and limiting words:

• directive words tell you what you need to do
• topic words show you what content you must discuss
• limiting words provide boundaries for your essay.

Look at the example question below. Can you identify the directive, topic and limiting words?

Discuss critically how semantics and pragmatics both have a role in the understanding of meaning

Now look below to reveal the three parts that are indicated:

Directive = Discuss, critically, both

Topic = Semantics, pragmatics, the understanding of meaning

Limiting = have a role in

Now, practise by breaking down the following question into the three types of question words:

Review the evidence for links between cholesterol levels and heart disease, and evaluate the usefulness of cholesterol screening programmes in preventing heart disease.

Directive words

Making sure you understand the directive word helps to stay on task and answer the question.

Activity: Directive words

Use the Dialog cards below to reveal the meaning of some of the most common directive words (seven) used in essay questions (there is a text only version below the activity):

1. Compare = Identify the similarities of two or more things.

2. Criticise = Identify weaknesses and disadvantages. You should also point out favourable aspects, so it should be a balanced view.

3. Evaluate = Assess how important or useful something is.

4. Critically Evaluate = similar to evaluate / weigh up the arguments for and against / assess the strength of the evidence on both sides.

5. Analyse = Break an idea into parts and consider how they relate to each other – investigate.

6. Assess = weigh up how important something is – similar to evaluate.

7. Contrast = similar to compare / looks at the differences.

Devising your own Essay Question

As you progress through university, there will be opportunities to devise your own essay titles. While this may seem to be a luxury at first, it soon becomes clear that it is harder than you think!

Here are some key points to consider when creating your essay title:

• check the marking criteria first. You’ll need to come up with a question that enables you to meet the criteria
• consider the right kind of directive word for the topic. If there are two main competing theories in the literature, a compare and contrast essay might be suitable. If you want to explore an innovative approach, you might like to critically evaluate the evidence in support of and against it
• some words are not suitable as directive words. Describe, for example, leads to purely descriptive writing. Analyse or Evaluate would be better alternatives
• keep the title concise, and stick to just one question
• you may choose to use a short quotation in your title, but make sure that it links to the academic debate you want to focus on. The quote may provide the topic and limiting words, but you might need to follow it with a typical essay question to focus your essay. For example:

‘ There is not a brick in the city but what is cemented with the blood of a slave .’ (Bristol Annalist, early 18th century)

Critically evaluate this assessment of the impact of the slave trade on Bristol.

• essay titles do not always use directive words – it’s up to you whether to use them. This title does not contain a directive word

        ‘In what respects was the debate over slavery fundamental to later history of the British Empire?’

• ask a friend or family member to read your title to make sure it can be understood.
• check that you can find research evidence relevant to the topic.

Planning and Structuring your Essay

Saira and amelia talk about planning their essay structure.

Saira: For me, what I do is I first start with a plan, so I'll just have a general idea of what's my argument. Because for some modules or some degrees, I guess you might need to have a bit of a balanced argument, but I know for Law you need to be quite persuasive and you need to understand what it is that you're trying to argue and set that out in the beginning. A lot of people tend to think that you have to wait till the end to say what you want to say. But that's probably the worst way to go about it, because you're going to be lost while you're writing. So I usually just have a bullet-point plan with headings. What's my introduction, what are my middle paragraphs and what's my conclusion? And then I have a separate section where I think about what are my academic sources I'm going to use. How am I going to compare them? Do they show different points of views? And then I just make sure that I have all my referencing and things sorted out. And then I usually do about two drafts. So the first draft, I just write things in my own words. And then the second draft I go through and make it more formal and put in, you know, proper referencing and then make it look nice: 1.5 line spacing, edge to edge, Times New Roman size 12. And then, yeah, that's pretty much how I go through essays. Amelia: The biggest thing for me coming from high school into uni was analysis. In high school, a lot of the analysis was like, what was my personal analysis? And then I came to uni and they're like, no, no, no. Like, you can have an opinion, but it has to always be backed up by academic research. And so changing my analysis from a personal analysis to an academic analysis was hard and still is really hard. And like, it's not, 'What is your opinion?' It's, 'What is your opinion on the research?'

The planning and structuring of your essay goes hand in hand with reading and researching it. Usually, they both happen at the same time: as you read more and develop your knowledge and opinions on the subject, you start to picture the shape of the essay in your mind. And as the structure of the essay begins to become clear, you will know which sources of information you need to investigate more, and which you can leave behind. 

Basic Structure of Critical Essays

Critical essays have three sections: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion  (or a discussion for science-based essays) .  

You can imagine an essay like an hourglass, with the introduction and the conclusion/discussion as the wide top and bottom parts, where the general context of the essay is discussed. The main body is the very narrow part of the hourglass, where the focus is on very specific aspects of the topic . 

Read  the lists below of which   features are found in the three main parts:

Introduction

• the hook - a strong statement or surprising fact about the topic which engages the reader
• background information - some background information about the topic. For example, a brief history or an explanation of the context
• a thesis statement – what your argument and position is. This is the most important part of your essay and what the essay can be reduced down to. All the other parts of your essay act as extra details to your thesis statement. 
• signposting - tell your reader what you will cover.
• topic sentences – the sentence in each paragraph which outlines its main idea. 
• use of sources, explanations, examples and data to support your topic sentence idea. Most essays, and all science-based ones, need multiple sources per paragraph.  
• critical analysis of the evidence and sources. (In science-based essays, rgis comes in the discussion )
• concluding sentences – final sentences in each paragraph which sum up the idea and may link back to the next question or to the next point.

Conclusion (for non-science-based essays)

• a brief restatement of your argument
• a summary of your main points
• a strong closing statement - perhaps a prediction or a recommendation.

Discussion (for science-based essays)

• a brief summary of your argument
• critical analysis of the evidence and sources
• a strong closing statement - perhaps the implications of your argument on other parts of the discipline, or a recommendation for more research.

Remember! Stating that ' more research is needed ' is not a very useful recommendation. Be specific about what the research should be on and what it should attempt to find out. 

There is more information on each of these sections below.

Planning for length

Planning starts with understanding your task, how much time you have, the number of words you have to write and what direction you're going to take.

Before you embark on research, give yourself realistic goals for the amount of material you need by sketching out a plan for length. This helps to breakdown the task into manageable sections, and to focus your reading.

Access this YouTube video talking about ' Planning for length '

Writing an essay outline

Elena talks about the structure of her science essay.

Elena: Once we have the essay topic - I found it also at the beginning very hard to just start writing. So what I do is I just write down thoughts or some bullet points of what I think I want my essay to go into. What I want to discuss, what the topics I want to include are, maybe some details, some of my thoughts. So I write that down first and then I actually don't have a structure I don't start with the introduction or I don't start with the conclusion. I usually start with what I feel most comfortable. So I take one of those bullet points that I jotted down. I do further research into it. Well, this is because it's also scientific, so it's a bit different. So I do research into it. I write notes, and I continue writing notes on what I find, and I just put that all into the document. Then once I have that, I begin to structure it. So I do the structuring later so that I have all the information that I want to include already in the document. So I structure it. And then what we have in scientific essays that's really important is the abstract or something that resembles an abstract, where in the introduction you have to include a summary of what the essay is about and the conclusions also. So then I work on that so that I have something that clearly defines what my essay will be about. So I work on that, and then I go into the body and then into the conclusions. And as a scientific essay or scientific topic, we always appreciate further research - like a little section of further research. So I develop that into the conclusion. And yeah, slowly, slowly it takes time. Editing, re-editing, maybe even proofreading. Having someone to proofread your essay is also very important. And yeah, like a student mentor. In first year, I would always go to student mentors to discuss my essay, how I can Improve it, how like critical opinions are always appreciated and what I did good as well, both negative and positive feedback.

After you have planned for length, you can start your research .

Before you plan the content of your essay, you need to decide a clear position on the question (e.g. you disagree with the question's statement, or you have identified the main reason for the phenomenon mentioned in the question) and think about a line of argument (i.e. how are you going to persuade the reader that you are correct?) You should identify evidence to support your argument, and find at least one counter-argument.

Next comes the writing! But starting an essay can be daunting, because you may not know exactly what to write about and in what order.  So, an easier step is to create a outline. It will also help you to stay on track throughout the process.  

An essay outline is like the skeleton of your essay. You include the essential information, and can play around with the order until you are happy with it. This is the experimental phase of your writing. Don't worry about writing full sentences or including every reference. Correct spelling and grammar aren't important in this phase. It's only after the essay outline is complete that you can start writing full sentences. You won't need to worry about wondering what each paragraph will be about or where to add a particular reference - you've already decided all this in your essay outline. 

 Your essay outline can be more or less detailed depending on what helps you. Some things you could include in your outline are:

• a word count for each section
• your thesis statement (main overall argument) in the introduction
• topic sentences describing the main idea of each main body paragraph
• concluding sentences for each main body paragraph
• citations and references.

Experiment with how much detail works for you in your plan. It is almost impossible to write well without planning something beforehand, but it is also easy to overplan as an excuse not to get writing!

Access this blank  PDF  Essay plan template: Structure of an essay.

Access this YouTube video talking about ' Planning for content'

Developing your argument

Imagine that you want to change the brand of coffee that you buy for you and your flatmates. By reading and researching, you have investigated the different options, and with critical thinking, chosen the one you want to switch to. You now decide to gather your flatmates together and persuade them that the coffee you want to get is better than the coffee you all currently drink.

 “ Stylised coffee mug ” by freesvg.org is licensed under CC0 .

Just like for a critical essay, in order to win them over you’ll need to develop your argument. It might be best to write down all of your the reasons for changing and deciding which ones are most likely to be persuasive:

• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties
• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme
• I really like the flavour
• it’s cheaper than the current choice
• it reminds me of my holiday in Italy
• it’s fair-trade.

You can probably cut out the personal reasons to persuade your flatmates because there isn’t any objective evidence for them. You are left with:

• tthe company has a carbon-offsetting scheme

Next, how are you going to group these points? Carbon-offsetting and fair-trade are both about sustainability, so your argument will be clearer if these two points are kept together.

• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme and the coffee is fair-trade
• it’s cheaper than the current choice.

Now think about the order they should be in. Which one of your reasons packs the biggest punch? All of your flatmates want to save money, so this is probably the best reason to put first. Decaf coffee isn’t drunk very often in your flat, so this one can go last.

• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties.

Your flatmates are going to want proof of what you say, so make sure you include evidence to back up each of your reasons for wanting to change coffee. 

• it’s cheaper than the current choice. Show them a receipt
• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme and the coffee is fair-trade. Open up the company website
• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties. Bring them some examples!

You’ve also found a counter-argument to swapping brands: Your coffee is only available in two shops in town. Let’s bring this up last of all since it isn’t really related to price, sustainability or varieties of coffee. To make sure your flatmates don’t agree with the counter-argument, you need to explain why it isn’t such a big problem. Put the counter argument at the end. 

• the brand is only available in two shops in town. However, one shop is on the bus route back from campus and you are happy to pick some up when needed.

Of course, you’ll start and end explaining that you want to change coffee brands.

You might not succeed in convincing your flatmates to switch what they put in their lattes, but you have succeeded in developing an argument. The process is the same for developing an argument in an essay, but with a bigger word count and more complex topics!

Complete the checklist to make sure you have done everything you can to develop the best argument possible.

• I’ve decided on my position
• I have a number of reasons for my position
• I’ve selected the reasons that are most persuasive and I have evidence for
• I’ve put the reasons into groups that are connected in some way
• I’ve ordered the reasons/groups of reasons, putting the strongest ones first
• I’ve attached my evidence to each reason
• I’ve thought of some counter-arguments to my position and I have included their weaknesses in my essay.

Access this excellent YouTube video on ' How do I develop an argument? '

For extra resources, look at Making an Argument .

Main Body Paragraphs

If your essay is a sandwich, and the introduction and conclusion are the slices of bread at the top and the bottom, then your main body paragraphs are the filling. This is where you will put the main flavour to your essay – the arguments, the details, the evidence, the examples etc. Get this right and the rest of your essay becomes much easier to write.

Remember that for each main idea, you need a new paragraph, for example one effect of a situation; one reason why you agree with the question; one event in a timeline. Putting all the reasons why you agree with the question in one paragraph is too confusing for the reader, and will probably be a very long paragraph. Likewise, splitting paragraphs by the different sources that you have found (e.g. Paragraph 1: source 1 says this...., Paragraph 2: source 2 says this....) is also not a good idea if both sources are talking about the same concepts. It's better to put each of the concepts that they both discuss in individual paragraphs, showing the reader that you have synthesised their opinions.

The structure of a paragraph

Paragraphs tend to follow a general structure. You can adapt it to your needs but always keep in mind the main shape:

• start with a topic sentence, which tells the reader the main idea of the paragraph. This main idea should of course fit with your argument
• next, you can give more detail on the main point. What does it mean? What are the ins and outs? What are the reasons for it? What are its implications? Why is it important? What examples are there?
• you need to include sources (usually more than one) to back up your main point, or the details of the main point.
• a good way to include sources - especially in science-based essays - is to use the fact:citation sentence pattern. This is a paraphrased fact, followed by the citation of the source. Keeping to this sentence pattern makes it easy for the reader to follow your argument and not get distracted by your referencing. 
• avoid starting or ending paragraphs with a reference.
• to round off, write a concluding sentence which summarises the paragraph or links to the question or the next paragraph.

You may also find this structure called the PEEL model of paragraph writing.

Let's look at an example of a paragraph:

Using Evidence

The quality of evidence you have in your essay depends on how well you’ve done your reading and note-making. How well you present the evidence depends on the quality of your plan. In each main body paragraph, you have a main point, and further details you want to address. Select relevant evidence from your notes during the planning stage so that you know which evidence belongs to which point, and weave it into the paragraph to support your argument. It can be very tempting to include material that isn't relevant because you’ve worked hard to collect it and it's interesting. However, if it doesn't fit with your argument, leave it out.

Synthesising evidence

In order to develop an argument, you have to consult and refer to a variety of different views. This shows the reader that you have read widely, and you have presented a balanced, non-biased argument. It’s very likely that you'll need to use more than one source per paragraph in order for your argument to develop. Putting these different sources together, or synthesising them, is an important academic skill. It can show that there are multiple people with the same view on a topic, or can help highlight the nuances between different schools of thought.

Read this example of a main body paragraph using synthesis of two sources:

The first topic sentence tells us that the paragraph will look at fabrication being a part of psychotic behaviour, and the second sentence gives more detail on this. The third and fourth sentences synthesise what Elphick and Mitchell write, since both have similar opinions. Note the synthesising language:

• and this viewpoint is also found in
• both Elphick and Mitchell see fabrication as
• albeit to varying degrees (This phrase acknowledges that there are some differences between Elphick’s and Mitchell’s work).

There are many more phrases that can be used to synthesise different sources! Keep an eye out for them when you are reading and note down useful ones.

Refuting Counter-arguments

Including counter-arguments in your essay shows that you have considered views that contradict ones which you have presented but have decided that they are not strong enough to sway your opinion. Using the synthesis table above, include a main idea that does not agree with your thesis and find some sources for it. Using your critical thinking skills, make sure to demonstrate why these main ideas are incorrect or refute them

Some counter-arguments may disagree with a small detail of a paragraph. In this case, it is fine to include them as one or two sentences towards the end of a paragraph. Other counter-arguments may disagree with a main point, or an entire section of your essay. If so, they deserve a paragraph or more dedicated to them. Read this example of a paragraph addressing and then refuting a main counter-argument.

This section of the essay is in support of Kernohan’s theories, but it would lose marks if the student did not mention some opponents of Kernohan. The topic sentence makes clear that this paragraph will introduce some counter-arguments, with more details in the second half of the sentence. Bayliss’ position is summarised, and then the rest of the paragraph explores the weaknesses of Bayliss’ argument.

Note the specifical language for refutation:

• however, Bayliss’s research did not take into account
• while it is true that (This is a concession that Kernohan’s work is not perfect, but the student then shows why this is not a big problem).

Like synthesis, there are many more phrases that can be used to refute counter-arguments, and you can collect them while you are reading. Look at this Academic Phrasebank for some great examples.

Writing Introductions, Conclusions and Discussions

While you are reading, pay attention to how the introductions and conclusions/discussions that you come across are written. Are the introductions similar to each other? Does each conclusion/discussion have a comparable structure?

Introductions should:

• introduce your topic, giving some background information such as a brief history or the current context
• explain how you have understood the question, in particular any terms that may have multiple interpretations
• include your position - your thesis statement. For example, do you agree or disagree with the essay title topic?
• list the issues you are going to discuss. Why are these the important ones? List them in the same order they appear in your essay
• be roughly 10% of your word count.

A triangle is overlaid in text going down the triangle to signify the scope, starting wide at the top and becoming narrower at the bottom, we have:

1) the background, history/context

2) definition of terms

3) the specifics of the topic in question

4) a thesis statement and position

Conclusions/Discussions should:

• restate your position
• summarise your main points
• make it clear why your conclusions are important or significant
• include a strong closing statement. This could be a prediction for the future, reference to further research, or a suggestion for a way forward

A triangle is overlaid in text going down the triangle to signify the scope, starting at the pointed top and becoming wider at the bottom, we have:

1) restate position

2) summarise main points

3) strong closing statemnet

Other topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing (this page) | Reflective writing | Reports | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback

Beyond the Essay? Assessment and English Literature

• First Online: 06 October 2017

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• Jonathan Gibson 3  

Part of the book series: Teaching the New English ((TENEEN))

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How can the academic progress of English literature students best be assessed? The study of literature is dialogic, involving rich overlapping conversations between students, the literature they read, and the teachers they meet. Assessment can enter into these conversations in many different ways and in many different guises. Part of the aim of this chapter is to celebrate the creativity with which departments of English in UK higher education are devising exciting new module-specific assessment tasks. To explain the value of such ‘innovative’ approaches to assessment, however, means discussing the deep but tortured relationship between English Studies and the essay. Set and marked well, essays can be powerful pedagogic tools. The qualities they demand of undergraduates are unlikely to go out of fashion. This chapter does not suggest their abolition: rather it advocates a flexible approach to assessment design and provides some prompts aimed at helping lecturers match up what they want students to do in their modules with a variety of different assessment methods.

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Gibson, J. (2017). Beyond the Essay? Assessment and English Literature. In: Knights, B. (eds) Teaching Literature. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31110-8_7

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Essays are one of the most commonly used types of assessment, requiring a student to write a continuous prose piece in response to a question or prompt. The question/prompt is either provided by a teacher, or devised by the student with support. Essays are particularly used in qualitative disciplines which value evaluation, argument and comparison, and students’ ability to work with multiple sources. The essay functions as an umbrella term for a range of different tasks: evaluation, comparison, application of theories, or discussion.

Advantages of essays

• Essays allow markers a clear view of students' higher order abilities (critical thinking, developing arguments).
• Students' performance is less time-constrained than in an exam, and relies less on memorisation.
• As students can consult sources (academic journal articles, monographs) as they write, essays allow for more precise engagement with sources than a closed-book exam.
• Prose writing skills are highly transferrable. Essays require students to develop their own voice while employing formal and technical language.
• Some of the stages in the development of an essay can be used as forms of assessment in themselves (e.g. annotated bibliographies, essay plans), to help monitor student progress.
• Essays pose less intrinsic difficulty than essay-based exams to students with dyslexia and those students for whom English is not their first language.

Challenges of essays

• Essays inevitably focus on a portion of the material covered by the course. This may lead to disengagement and even absenteeism in other parts of the course.
• If exams are used for the summative assessment it can be hard for students to see any transferrable benefits from formative essays.
• Essays may be more open to academic misconduct (ghost-writing, unauthorised collaboration or plagiarism).
• A student's capacity to demonstrate their abilities in an essay relies on them grasping the requirements of writing in this format. This can be influenced by their prior educational experience.
• Students with dyslexia may find essay writing and essay structuring difficult.
• Students learning in an additional language may find long-form writing rather taxing.
• Grading essays objectively poses problems.

How students might experience essays

Essays can be perceived as less stressful than some other assessment methods, and a more reliable measure of understanding (as they are less reliant on memorisation, and less at risk of a 'bad day') but the familiarity of the essay format is double-edged and students may over-estimate their understanding of what an essay requires. Students with multiple essays to complete may find time-management a problem. Essay feedback can be a really useful developmental tool; especially when it is delivered within a short time period and can be read alongside the originally submitted piece. Students often enjoy the opportunity to focus on an area of the course that is of particular interest, particularly if they are involved in devising their own essay title.

Reliability, validity, fairness and inclusivity of essays

Essay questions are often devised in teams and with the scrutiny of external assessors; this helps ground them and places reliability at the start of the assessment process. In writing essay titles colleagues can review possible interpretations of wording to expose ambiguity and briefly consider what a model answer for each question would include. This should help ensure that all questions give an equivalent chance to achieve and excel. If students devise their own title, it is a good idea to ensure, as far as possible, that it will allow the student to meet the marking criteria before authorising. The word count should allow the task to be completed. A very short word count can require extra work in editing for length. Consider providing exemplars to students from students from previous years (with their permission).

How to maintain and ensure rigour in essays

Essays should be marked and moderated in accordance with departmental practice. Criteria should be established in advance and shared with students. Some LSE departments have a feedback form which combines a standardised section (showing specific criteria and levels of attainment) with a free text area. Essays can provide a chance to excel in one area and underperform in others (eg. a strong original argument combined with weak use of sources) therefore a clear marking system should help keep students working in line with the expected outcomes. When setting up essay questions, it helps to discuss with colleagues what grade different combinations might obtain. Using clear, set and shared criteria can help individual markers to mark each essay on its own merits.

How to limit possible misconduct in essays

Changing essay titles annually prevents previous cohorts sharing their essays with new students. Designing essays that test for complex cognitive skills deter academic misconduct as the skills on evaluation, application and original argument are harder to demonstrate. Teachers might require students to work with highly specific sources, for example a particular academic article, news story, or an aspect of a class discussion as this reduces the chance of pre-existing material being available. Requiring a brief additional element that demonstrates the students' understanding of its content, perhaps through a justification of which sources have been used, helps maintain good academic practice as students are tasked with justifying their approach rather than simply producing answers. Asking students to show plans or annotated bibliographies ahead of the final submission (these do not need to be marked, although mistakes should be identified) can also limit misconduct. If software such as Turnitin is being used, let students know in advance (students might also use Turnitin to check their own work for unintentional poor referencing).

LSE examples

Several departments offer specific, disciplinary support for essay writing: in Philosophy & Argumentative Writing (PAW) students write abstracts for their own essays. Legal Academic Writing Skills (LAWS) and Social Policy Academic Writing (SPAW) offer one-to-one-clinics where students can discuss essays they are writing.

Further resources

Leicester guide to essay terms – may usefully support students, but also assist you in wording your essay questions.

Richardson, J.T.E. (2015) Coursework versus examinations in end-of-module assessment: a literature review,  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education  Vol. 40 (3): 439-455

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Is the ‘time of the assessed essay’ over?

By phil race.

Let me say at the outset that in many disciplines, there are few problems caused by assessed essays – they may not even be used at all. Before 1791 when it is said that the University of Cambridge introduced the first unseen written examinations to Britain, assessment used to be mostly oral, with face-to-face questioning of students about what they knew and didn’t know. There are many advantages of oral assessment – not least the ability to use ‘probing’ questions to delve deeper into what students can do. Questions such as the following can give us far deeper information about the student’s knowledge status:

• Why do you think this is the strongest reason?
• What else could cause this?
• What do you think is the main weakness of Blogg’s theorem?

Face-to-face we have all the advantages of tone of voice, body language, facial expression, gesture, eye-contact, (all important in everyday human communication) to bring to bear both on asking questions and judging students’ answers. Just about all of these dimensions are completely missed with written answers. And there’s already lots of research showing that with handwritten answers factors such as legibility matter a great deal, despite this having ever-decreased significance in the everyday world around us.

I caused a bit of a stir back in September 2018 when I published in THE a short piece about dropping assessed coursework essays. This was prompted by recent publicity about online essay mills. Phil Newton’s  recent research  on the extent of “contract cheating” in the academy makes for sobering reading. Based on recent surveys, Newton, director of learning and teaching at  Swansea University  Medical School, concludes that as many as one in seven recent graduates across the world may have submitted assessed essays that someone else wrote. But of course here we’re thinking about coursework essays – are essays in exams safe?

Back in 2014 I published a table about the ‘status of essays’ and ‘disadvantages of essays’ relating both to coursework and exams. The status of essays against the criteria of validity, fairness (reliability), whodunit?, real-world relevance and feedback to students fares badly.

• Validity: rarely good (prose which comes out of a pen in an exam, or through a keyboard in coursework, is rarely the best way of measuring evidence of achievement of intended outcomes).
• Fairness: poor (a great deal of research evidence is available showing that different markers award very different marks for the same essay).
• Whodunit? very unsafe, except for essays under exam conditions. Coursework essays can be commissioned and purchased online from well-practised, skilled writers! That said, concerns about Whodunit? regarding coursework essays may be relatively minimal with small groups of students, where tutors regularly talk to students and would usually quickly know if submitted work was not their own.
• Real world: not close to the sorts of writing relevant to most careers.
• Feedback to students: can be useful, but usually comes too late, not least because of the length of time it takes to mark a set of essays. There is usually no feedback at all on essays handwritten in exams.

Setting aside the dangers of contract cheating, ten disadvantages of assessed essays can be summed up as follows:

• Essays take forever to mark, and marking is unreliable (unfair) anyway, as proved by a great deal of research!
• Tends to advantage students who are good at written ‘waffling’!
• Unless there are tight word-limits, a longer essay will usually score higher than a shorter one.
• Where there is an element of choice (e.g. coursework essays) some choices may prove harder to bring off in practice than others, disadvantaging some students.
• In coursework essays, there can be a tendency to copy in (suitably rephrased) sentences from literature sources, without really thinking about the meaning of the elements copied in.
• Spelling, punctuation and grammar may disproportionately affect marking.
• ‘Coherence’, flow, ease of reading essays disproportionately influences most markers. A ‘smooth’ essay is usually awarded higher marks than a ‘jerky’ one, even if the content of the latter is much better.
• Where essays are handwritten in exams, it is not at all easy for students to edit and adjust along the way, e.g. to go back and rephrase the start of the essay appropriately after the main thrust has been addressed.
• Handwritten essays in exams are subject to concerns about measuring ‘what comes out of a pen’ rather than ‘what’s in a head’, and are subject to the effects of speed of writing, legibility and so on.
• Handwriting an essay in an exam is quite a different game than composing a word-processed coursework essay, so coursework is poor preparation for the exam experience, and feedback on coursework essays may not help exam candidates.

What may be the advantages of using assessed essays ? In 2015 I suggested the following are included:

• Essays allow for student individuality and expression. They are a medium in which the ‘best’ students can distinguish themselves. This means, however, that the marking criteria for essays must be flexible enough to be able to reward student individuality fairly.
• Essays can provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their own particular ‘take’ on a topic. While this may be an advantage, it is also a disadvantage in that it can turn out to be particularly troublesome to assess students’ own ‘take’ fairly and without prejudice.
• Essays can reflect the depth of student learning. Writing freely about a topic is a process which can demonstrate understanding and grasp of the material involved.
• Essay-writing is a measure of students’ written style. It is useful to include good written communication somewhere in the overall assessment strategy. The danger of students in science disciplines, where essays are used less, missing out on the development of such skills is becoming increasingly recognised.
• Students are relatively familiar with essays. They’ve normally done this sort of writing beforehand, but assessors at university level justifiably grumble that students don’t seem to have had any real training in structuring essays, particularly when it comes to logical argument and coming to a resounding conclusion.

But I also redeveloped the disadvantages:

• The assessment of essays is well proven to be unreliable. Different markers often award the same essay quite different marks, and students are quick to notice such unfairness. Essays are demonstrably the form of assessment where the dangers of subjective marking are greatest. Essay-marking exercises at workshops on assessment show marked differences between the mark or grade that different assessors award the same essay – even when equipped with clear sets of assessment criteria.
• The validity of essays as an assessment device remains questionable. Students’ knowledge of the subject is only tested to a limited extent, and technique for essay-writing is tested rather better sometimes.
• Essay-writing is very much an art in itself. Students from some backgrounds are disadvantaged regarding essay-writing skills as they have simply never been coached in how to write essays well. For example, a strong beginning, a coherent and logical middle, and a firm and decisive conclusion combine to make up the hallmarks of a good essay. The danger becomes that when essays are over-used in assessment strategies, the presence of these hallmarks is measured time and time again, and students who happen to have perfected the art of delivering these hallmarks are repeatedly rewarded irrespective of any other strengths and weaknesses they may have.
• Essays take a great deal of time to mark. Even with well thought out assessment criteria, it can be difficult to ‘get into one’s stride’ applying a marking scheme, and it is not unusual for markers to need to work back through the first dozen or so of the essays they have already marked, as they become aware of the things that the best students are doing with the questions, and the difficulties experienced by other students.
• ‘Halo effects’ are significant. If the last essay answer you marked was an excellent one, you may tend to approach the next one with greater expectations, and be more severe in your assessment decisions based upon it.
• Essays take time to write (whether as coursework or in exams). This means that assessment based on essay-writing necessarily is restricted regarding the amount of the syllabus that is covered directly. There may remain large untested tracts of syllabus.
• With coursework essays, it is increasingly difficult to guarantee that the essay is the work of the candidate. Ready-made essays can be purchased online on just about any subject, or even directly commissioned. Plagiarism is always a possibility, and there is the need to check authenticity by some other means, such as face-to-face questioning to guarantee that the work is the students’ own. This adds even more time to what is already a high-burden kind of assessment.
• Traditional ways of giving students feedback on essays are known to be problematic, and rarely worth the time taken. Writing comments on students’ work is particularly troublesome, in that it is well known that students don’t often make good use of the feedback, not least because it often arrives too late, when they’ve already moved on in their studies. Using the comments function in word-processing ‘track-changes’ can be much better, however.

So what am I saying overall? That as an assessment device, essays are unsafe and far too time-consuming for everyone involved. Contract cheating and the work of essay mills is not confined to essays however. Just about any form of submitted written product can be involved, including post-graduate and doctoral theses, so just banning the use of essays is only a first step perhaps. Let me however emphasise that I’m not saying we shouldn’t help students to become good at writing essays – and indeed give students feedback on their developing skills at writing essays. Just that it shouldn’t contribute to assessment.

(Phil Race is a writer and speaker on assessment, feedback, teaching and learning in higher education. He is a visiting professor at Edge Hill and Plymouth universities and emeritus professor at Leeds Beckett University).

Newton, P. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00067/full

Race, P. (2014) Making Learning Happen: 3 rd edition, London: Sage.

Race, P. (2015) The Lecturer’s Toolkit: 4 th edition, London: Routledge.

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Methods of assessment

Different courses at Imperial College London will use different methods of assessing their students, but they all have the same purpose – to help you achieve the best grade you can.  You will discover during your time at Imperial that you have strengths in different types of assessment. Make sure you know what your tutor is looking for with each piece of work, and ask for advice if you are unsure.

Depending on your course, you may benefit from the opportunity to choose how you approach certain assessments. For example, some subjects may offer a choice of essay titles, optional modules that have different assessment methods (e.g. exams or coursework), or allow you to decide the focus of your third year projects.

Take a look at some of the assessment methods you may encounter during your degree:

Problem sheets

This method of assessment is similar to a traditional “test” that you might have taken at school. They are a highly efficient and targeted way of testing a specific area of knowledge, and they’ll let your tutor build up a good picture of how comprehensive your knowledge is.

Laboratory work and lab reports

Working in a laboratory environment requires a special set of skills, and these assessments will examine your ability to handle equipment confidently, competently and safely. Follow-up reports will show how well you have understood the underlying scientific principles behind the work.

Presentations

Oral presentations test your ability to communicate effectively with others in a clear, concise and interesting way. You may also be asked questions after a presentation, which will assess the depth of your knowledge and your ability to deal with unexpected situations.

Group projects

These test your ability to work with others. Different people bring different strengths to a project, and you will need to develop an understanding of the roles individuals play – as well as your own contribution to the team. Find out more about working with others .

Essays and reports

Essays and reports are an effective way for you to demonstrate many of the desired skills you should be learning on your course - critical analysis, qualitative knowledge, mathematical and logical skills, and written communication capability.

Written exams

Written exams can be used to demonstrate all the skills you use in writing essays and reports, but under a different set of conditions. They also test your ability to use these skills under pressure and without help from anyone else.

Formative and summative assessment

Every piece of work you do will fall into one of two categories: formative assessment or summative assessment.

Each one has a different purpose, but both are very important parts of the learning process.

Formative and summative

Formative assessment.

Formative assessment helps you to improve. It doesn’t count towards your final degree, but the lessons you learn through doing this type of assessment will help you to achieve a better final grade. For this reason the feedback you get on formative assessments is very important – this will tell you where your weak points are, and what you need to do to improve.

Summative assessment

Summative assessment measures how well you’ve done. All summative assessment counts towards your final degree, and is likely to happen at the end of a set period (term, semester, academic year, etc.). The feedback from this work will show you how well you have performed - and what your next steps should be.

Depending on the assessment, your tutor may provide examples of good assignments to review and reflect on. Identify what makes those assignments excel. Why is it a great piece of work? What makes this assignment stand out? What can I learn from this to improve my assignments?

For more on feedback and how to use it, head to the  Improving through feedback  pages.

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Paragraphs main body of an assessment

Writing better assignments

Good paragraphs make up the main structure of essays and other assignments

Using paragraphs effectively will help you structure your assignments, meet your marking criteria and improve the quality of writing in your assessments.  

There is more that one way to  structure an assignment . You'll need to check your course requirements before you submit your work because different fields and assignments can have their own requirements.

Although this page is aimed at qualitative assignments, the principles of signposting, using well-formed paragraphs, and writing a strong concluding sentence apply to most types of assignment.

The example text on this page uses the fictional essay title: 'Chocolate is good for you. Discuss.' This content is used to model paragraphing and citations and has been invented for these examples.

Overview of paragraphs

A paragraph should make sense on its own, address a single topic and fit into the material (paragraphs) that surround it. Although each paragraph focuses on one topic you should avoid using one very long paragraph to keep related content together.

Your introductory paragraph should outline your assignment focus. You should create additional paragraphs for sub-points, elements of a point, or a different angle.

A paragraph has three parts:

• A signpost , sometimes called the 'topic statement', to tell the reader what the paragraph is about. It should be clear if you're starting a new topic, narrowing down the focus to talk discuss it in more depth, or continuing the same topic from a different angle.
• The paragraph body  to expand on the topic. You should include evidence from experience (particularly for practice-based assignments), reflection, and talk about your reasoning using relevant texts, media, data, formulae, facts, a model, or a theory.
• A concluding sentence or sentences  to indicate whether the topic or point continues in the next paragraph, or draws to a close.

Identifying well-structured individual paragraphs

Your reader needs to be able to identify a single topic in your paragraph. If you can't identify the topic in your paragraph, your reader will struggle to identify it.

Before you submit your assignment read your paragraphs to check:

• your first and last sentences fit together
• the key points in your paragraph focus on your topic/what you planned to talk about
• the focus, flow and coherence of the whole paragraph

Identifying problems with flow: the whole assignment

Tips to check the flow of your assignment: 

• Your assignment show flow even if you only read the first sentence of every paragraph, and you should signpost any changes in focus, direction, topic, theme or point.
• Read the last sentence of a paragraph and the first sentence of the next – check that it either flows or is clearly signposted. This helps you to check for coherence, logic and flow. If you find a problem, read the paragraphs before and after it –  you might only need to tweak a sentence to put it right.

Download our paragraphs revision sheet

Download this page as a PDF for your essay writing notes.

Basic essay structure

Writing clear sentences

Explore our top tips for writing clear sentences and download our help sheet.

Better Essays: Signposting

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There’s a New Covid Variant. What Will That Mean for Spring and Summer?

Experts are closely watching KP.2, now the leading variant.

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By Dani Blum

For most of this year, the JN.1 variant of the coronavirus accounted for an overwhelming majority of Covid cases . But now, an offshoot variant called KP.2 is taking off. The variant, which made up just one percent of cases in the United States in mid-March, now makes up over a quarter.

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The current spread of Covid

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Protection from vaccines and past infections

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The latest on symptoms and long Covid

Doctors said that the symptoms of both KP.2 and JN.1 — which now makes up around 16 percent of cases — are most likely similar to those seen with other variants . These include sore throat, runny nose, coughing, head and body aches, fever, congestion, fatigue and in severe cases, shortness of breath. Fewer people lose their sense of taste and smell now than did at the start of the pandemic, but some people will still experience those symptoms.

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Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times. More about Dani Blum