How to Write Better Essays

which leaves even the most resourceful student dispirited when it

comes to revising from them for the examination. In effect, those stu-

dents with a will of steel will revise by starting from page 1 and con-

tinuing until they have gone through them all. In the end their grasp

of the subject is likely to be confused, with little structure and organ-

isation. But this is only the fate of a few. The more reckless majority

will decide to ditch half their notes, gambling that what they’ve covered

will come up in the exam.

Reading

But now consider the impact of these assumptions on other areas of

our pattern of study. Quite reasonably we will argue that when we come

to read books and articles we cannot exercise any flexibility by adopt-

ing different, more appropriate reading strategies, like skimming and

scanning, for the different types of passages and texts we have to read.

We argue that the text must be read word-for-word, otherwise we might

miss something vital.

Remember, under these assumptions we believe that these are

the facts in the passage before us. If we fail to read it carefully we are

likely to miss a vital fact that we will need to trade for marks in the

exam. Reading, then, becomes a slow, time-consuming activity.

Along with note-taking it takes up nearly all of our study time. Con-

sequently, we never have sufficient time to read around our subject, to

make comparisons with what others are saying, and to explore our

understanding.

Writing

Much the same goes for our essay writing. No matter how many times

we might be told by our tutor that we must try to put things in our own

words, this makes no sense if we accept the assumption that education

is dominated by authorities, and our job is just to understand and recall

the facts.

We argue, again quite reasonably, that here is the text, the author-

ity, the source of right answers, so if we were to spend time putting it

into our own words, rather than copy passages from it accurately, we

would be changing what is already right. We would be making it less

right, in effect we would be getting it wrong. So, far better to plagia-

rise the text and put large chunks directly into our own work. And no

matter how many times students are told not to plagiarise, because

this is literary theft, a form of cheating that constitutes just about the

most serious offence in academic writing, they still continue to do it,

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