Monday, August 8, 2011

How to find academic sources for your essay

When you first begin working on an essay, what is the first place you usually go for information? Most students are likely to go to the internet to look for sources. But, can we trust that the information we will find on the internet is of an acceptable standard? It is hard to think so. When writing academic essays, you need to use academic sources for your research. However, information on most websites is classified as non-academic. It is easy to see why when we consider how easy it is to publish information on the internet. Anyone who can access the internet can write and publish anything there. It is still possible for a student to use the internet as a resource, but you need to know where to look to find information you can use. You are advised to search for information from reputable websites such as websites that are published by governments, national and international organisations, educational institutes and universities. This information is more likely to be reliable. But please keep in mind that in order for a source to be technically considered an academic source, it must have been written and published by an academic.

The easiest way to find academic resources is to go the library! Books, textbooks, journal articles and monographs written by academics are valuable sources for academic purposes. These kinds of sources are suitable for academic research because it is difficult for each book to be published, so they must be of a high standard. In academic publishing, a source must be written by an academic person, edited to meet the highest standards and rechecked several times by other academics through a process called ‘peer-review’ or refereeing. This is the process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field who conduct a pre-publication review of the academic’s work. That way, only reliable information of a high standard is published. This process can give you confidence when choosing books to be used in your research. At the library, a librarian can give you useful advice on finding suitable books and academic resources.

Written by:
Amy Jindaphan
Customer Service Night Manager
Elite Editing

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Hyphens, En Dashes and Em Dashes

When and Where to Use Hyphens

A hyphen is a small dash and this one is the most frequently used. It is the smallest of the three. It is mostly used to join words together. A simple example is joining two words before a noun, such as in the following examples.

‘John drove down a one-way street.’

'He was looking for house number twenty-five, where his step-sister had resided for thirty-two years.’

A hyphen can be used to join compound numbers (as shown above), and also for prefixes such as: ex-, self-, and all-.

‘Joan did not want to meet her ex-husband, as her self-confidence was at an all-time low.’

When and Where to Use En Dashes

It is important to avoid mistaking a hyphen for an en dash. The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen. If you are using Microsoft Word, the en and em dashes can be found by clicking the Insert tab and then clicking Symbols.

En dashes are usually used to indicate range instead of the word ‘to’, to highlight a relationship, or contrast values.

Here are some examples:

‘John knew the drive would take 2−3 hours.’

‘The essay should be 500−550 words long.’

‘To qualify for a pass in the exam, 70−80 points were required.’

Students and academics will use en dashes most commonly in page ranges in their references. For example, a Harvard in-text reference would look like this: (Lines 2010, pp. 69−72).

When and Where to Use Em Dashes

Em dashes are approximately the length of the letter m and can be used at the end of, or in the middle, of a sentence. Em dashes are usually used to set off a parenthetical thought, to display an interjection, or to amplify or explain an element.

Here are a few examples:

‘John was proud of himself—he had received 90 points in his exam.’

‘Joan was devastated—having just received her results—only achieving 65 points.’

‘Betty was resigning from her job—she had won the lottery.’

Written by:
Wendy Lee
Finance Manager
Elite Editing

Thursday, July 28, 2011

How to Use the Abbreviations i.e. and e.g.

i.e. and e.g. come from abbreviated Latin terms.

i.e. comes from the Latin id est, which means ‘that is’ or ‘in other words’.

e.g. comes from the Latin exempli gratia, which means ‘for example’.

Here are some examples of how to use e.g. correctly:

‘John had a large collection of classic cars, e.g., a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Phaeton and an MG, which he kept in a large warehouse.’

‘Joan had errors in her essay, e.g., no commas.’

Please note that when submitting essays or theses to universities in Australia, it is preferred that you only use e.g. within parentheses, such as in the following examples:

‘Many people thought that John had a large collection of classic cars, (e.g., a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Phaeton and an MG), which he kept in a large warehouse.’

‘Joan had errors in her essay (e.g., no commas).’

Otherwise, it is preferable for you to use ‘for example’ rather than ‘e.g.’
Here are some examples of how to use i.e. correctly:

‘Many people thought that John had a problem with collecting classic cars, i.e. he had too many of them.’

‘Joan didn’t spend enough time writing her essay to ensure there were few errors, i.e. she needs to spend longer on her essays if she wishes to improve her grades.’

i.e. and e.g. are now considered a common part of the English language so you should not need to italicise them, but remember that they are abbreviations so there is always a period after each letter.

Misuse of these two abbreviations is extremely high and many people confuse the two, so if you are not sure, you can always just write the words ‘for example’ or ‘in other words’.

Written by:
Wendy Lee
Finance Manager
Elite Editing

Monday, July 18, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 6. Professional Academic Editing

This article is the final article of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. These articles have all been published on this blog. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au

Once you have completed writing your essay, it is vital that you have it professionally edited by an academic editor. You have just spent a significant amount of time doing the best possible job on your essay or assignment, doing your research and writing up your results. After all this effort, it is critical that your work is presented in the best possible way. Using a professional academic editor will ensure that your work is polished, well written, and presented correctly. If English is your second language, having your essay or assignment professionally edited is even more important. You do not want mistakes in your writing to confuse your markers or distract them from the important arguments you are making. This could lead to you receiving a grade lower than the grade you really deserve.

When selecting an academic editor, it is important to consider qualifications, experience and quality of service, as well as price. Always research the editing company you plan to submit your work to thoroughly to ensure that they are a reputable business and that their past clients have been happy with their service. An academic editor should hold a PhD (doctorate) as a minimum qualification, and should possess over ten years of experience editing essays, assignments, theses and dissertations.

The professional academic editors at Elite Editing meet all these requirements and more. All of our academic editors hold a PhD (as well as up to four other degrees) and possess a minimum of ten years of experience as academic editors. We have edited literally thousands of essays, assignments, theses and dissertations for students and helped them to improve their grades significantly.

You can read the individual biographies of our academic editors on our website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/our-editors.php

You can read testimonies from a selection of our very satisfied clients at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/why-choose-us.php

Some examples of our editing appear on our website. However, if you would like to see further examples, or see an example relevant to the field you are studying, please contact us and we can arrange this.

At Elite Editing, we are proud to be more experienced, more qualified, faster and cheaper than the other top professional academic editing websites. Try us today!

Please note that some universities require students to obtain the permission of their tutor, lecturer or supervisor prior to having their work professionally edited. We recommend that students follow the policies of their universities. Elite Editing adheres to all university guidelines and policies. Our editing compiles with the Australian Standards of Editing Practice and the Guidelines for Editing Research Theses, adopted by most Australian universities.

This was the final article in this series. If you missed any of the articles, please contact Elite Editing through our website. Stay tuned for more articles from Dr Lines about academic essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation writing.

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Monday, July 11, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 5. Write the First Draft of the Essay

This article is part of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. One article in this series will be published on the Elite Editing blog each day this week. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au

Writing the first draft has never been so easy!

Now that you have completed your research in an organised way and have written a final draft of your essay plan, writing the first draft of your essay will be easier than it ever has been. All of the following decisions about your essay have already been made:

1. What your answer to the essay question is
2. What main points you will discuss in order to back up your argument
3. The order in which to discuss your main points
4. How long to spend discussing each main point
5. What information each paragraph will contain (i.e. what information you will use to discuss each of your main points)
6. What references you will use to back up your argument

Thus, there is no reason for you to feel lost or stare at your computer screen not knowing what to write. If you do get stuck for any reason, the best thing to do is to just keep writing. You can always improve something once you have written something down. If you have not written anything, not much can be done until you do.

When you write your first draft following your essay plan and including all the information you have organised in your research document, pay attention to the following things:

1. Make sure you choose the best examples from your research to use
2. Make sure you use topic sentences to link each new topic back to the question and ensure your essay flows well
3. Ensure that you write in a formal academic style
4. Ensure that you format your essay correctly, according to the guidelines for your particular course (for example, line spacing, font, page margins etc)
5. Make sure you include your in-text references as you are writing; do not leave these until the end. Since you will be using information from your research document that provides you with the in-text reference to use, this should not be a problem

Academic Writing: Some general guidelines

Have you ever been told that your writing style is not academic, or that it is too informal?

Have you ever felt unclear on how to write an academic essay?

Are you not sure what rules to follow, what you can do and what you should not do?

This article contains some general rules and guidelines for academic writing. You will develop your own writing style or ‘voice’ over time, and the more academic sources you read, the clearer it will become to you what academic writing is and how your essays should sound. However, it is important to learn certain academic conventions as soon as you can and this guide will help you to do that. If in doubt about any of these guidelines, always check with your tutor or lecturer as different disciplines and courses sometimes have different approaches or expectations.

Formality

Academic writing needs to be formal and impersonal. This means that your writing should be clear, concise and professional. It needs to follow certain rules (such as those outlined below) in order to ensure that it meets academic standards.

Supported by evidence

The most significant difference between academic and non-academic writing is that academic writing puts forward arguments and ideas that are supported by evidence, most often in the form of citing other research or studies. Learning how to reference correctly is an important part of ensuring that your arguments and ideas are always supported by evidence. You must remember that you cannot make a claim or assertion in an academic essay without supporting it.

The use of the first person

Although there are exceptions, (for example, if you are discussing a field trip that you personally took in order to conduct research, or interviews that you carried out), normally academic writing does not make use of the first person. This means you would not use ‘I’ in your essays. The first reason for this is that academic writing must be formal and impersonal.

Consider the difference between these two sentences:
1. ‘In this essay, I will discuss the reasons why Critical Thinking is important to the role of Registered Nurses, including its role in improving the accuracy of diagnoses.’
2. ‘Critical Thinking is important to the role of Registered Nurses as it improves the accuracy of diagnoses.’

Not only is the second sentence more formal because it does not make use of the personal ‘I’, but it is also more direct and thus sounds clearer, more concise, and more academic. Instead of stating that a point will be made, as in the first sentence, the second sentence simply makes the point directly.

The second reason why the use of the first person is discouraged is because it is often redundant (unnecessary). Consider the difference between these two sentences:

1. I believe that Critical Thinking is relevant to the role of Registered Nurses.
2. Critical Thinking is relevant to the role of Registered Nurses.

It is unnecessary to state ‘I believe’. The reader knows that the statement is what the author believes, because the author is writing it in their essay. Further, which sentence sounds more convincing? The second sentence sounds more convincing because it is direct and straight to the point.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation

Correct grammar, spelling and punctuation are very important in academic writing. In order to writing formally and to a high academic standard, your writing must be accurate. Writing an essay that contains correct grammar, spelling and punctuation can make a significant difference to your final grade. Accurate writing affects not only your marks for presentation. If your grammar and sentence structure is so unclear that your tutor or lecturer cannot understand the point you are trying to make, for example, you could lose marks overall. Handing in an essay that is well written, accurate and highly polished can improve your grades.

It is important to remember that you cannot rely on the spell- and grammar-check on Microsoft Word. There are many reasons for this, for example, the spell-check will not detect your mistake if you type ‘four’ instead of ‘for’. In addition, the grammar-check will often provide suggestions that are incorrect. This is because Microsoft Word is a computer programme and it cannot understand what you are trying to say. While it can be a useful tool, you must remember that it cannot substitute for checking your own work carefully.

There are a significant number of rules to follow when writing academic essays, assignments, theses or dissertations. In order to ensure that you have followed all those rules correctly, and in order to ensure that your writing is polished, clear and concise, and free of grammatical and other errors, it is recommended you hire a professional, academic editor. This is the final step of academic essay writing, and it will be discussed in the next article.

The next article in this series is ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 6. Professional Editing’.

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Monday, June 13, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 4. Finalise the Essay Plan.

This article is part of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. One article in this series will be published on the Elite Editing blog each day this week. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/

What should be finished before I start writing?

In Step 2 of the essay writing process, you would have drafted a rough essay plan before you began your research. During the research process (as explained in Step 3), you would have developed this plan further as you learned more information on your topic.

The first draft of your essay plan may have looked like this:

Introduction (150 words)
1) Thesis statement: Through an examination of the evidence, it is clear that Critical Thinking is highly relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse for a number of reasons.
2) Introduce main points or topics to be discussed: accuracy of diagnoses, patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, communication

Topic 1: Accuracy of diagnoses (300 words)
Topic 2: Patient outcomes (300 words)
Topic 3: Prevent and solve problems (300 words)
Topic 4: Communication (300 words)

Conclusion (150 words)
1) Concluding statement: Thus, it can be seen that the concept of Critical Thinking is invaluable and highly relevant to Registered Nurses.
2) Sum up main points or topics that have been discussed: accuracy of diagnoses, patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, communication

However, as you were collecting, organisation and analysing information in your research document, you may have found that Topic 2: Patient outcomes and Topic 3: Prevent and solve problems were far more important than you thought. You might have decided that Topic 4: Communication is not something that should be discussed in the essay. Importantly, you would also have found out what information or points needed to be discussed under each of your topics. All of these changes would have affected your essay plan, and you would have made these changes to your essay plan (and the organisation of your research document) as you went along.

Once you have completed your research, and before you begin writing your first draft, you need to re-think your essay plan and write a final version based on what you discovered during your research. Your final essay plan will contain more detail than your first draft and be a very specific guide to how to write your essay. It might look like this:

Introduction (150 words)
1) Thesis statement: Through an examination of the evidence, it is clear that Critical Thinking is highly relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse for a number of reasons.
2) Introduce main points or topics to be discussed: patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, accuracy of diagnoses

Topic 1: Patient outcomes (450 words)
a) Assessment
b) Planning of care
c) Implementing care plan
d) Evaluation of care and outcomes

Topic 2: Prevent and solve problems (450 words)
a) Types of problems
b) Prevention of problems
c) Solving problems

Topic 3: Accuracy of diagnoses (300 words)
a) Problems with inaccurate diagnoses
b) How critical thinking allows improved diagnoses
c) Benefits and outcomes of accurate diagnoses

Conclusion (150 words)
1) Concluding statement: Thus, it can be seen that the concept of Critical Thinking is invaluable and highly relevant to Registered Nurses.
2) Sum up main points or topics that have been discussed: patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, accuracy of diagnoses

Once you have completed the final draft of your essay plan, you are ready to begin writing the first draft of your essay. You might like to print out the essay plan and have it sitting next to you as you write. Depending on the length of your research document, you might print that or simply have it open on your computer. Your essay plan will let you know what information from your research document needs to be included in your essay as you write.

The next article in this series is ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 5. Write the First Draft’.

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit http://www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Friday, June 10, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 3. Conduct the Research. Part Two: Research Skills and Academic Sources

This article is part of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. One article in this series will be published on the Elite Editing blog each day this week. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au

Have you ever received feedback on an assessment telling you that the sources you used were not academic?

Have you ever used Wikipedia or another non-academic source in your research?

Do you find knowing what sources to use and what sources not to use confusing?

Do you have trouble knowing where to go to get the information you need for your research?

Being able to tell the difference between an academic source and a non-academic source, knowing where to find academic sources and deciding what sources are relevant to your research are important skills that you will develop during your tertiary studies. The aim of this information sheet is to point you in the right direction.

Books, monographs and textbooks

The first place you should go is the library, even if this means ordering in books from other libraries. For academics to have their books (and journal articles) published, they must go through a process called peer-reviewing. During this process, one or more other academics who are experts in the field will read and assess a book or article to decide if it is of publishable standard. This is why your research will be of the highest quality if you use books, monographs, textbooks and journal articles written by academics for your research, because the work had to meet academic standards. There is no such process for publishing on the internet; anyone can write whatever they like on any subject.

Journal articles and electronic databases

Your second stop after books, monographs and textbooks will be journal articles. Some of these will only be available in hardcopy from the library, but many will be available in their full-text versions through online electronic databases, such as JStore, ProQuest and Ingenta. (Access to these databases is through the university library catalogue.)

When you search the electronic databases, make sure you modify your search so that you are only given results from peer-reviewed journals. This will ensure that the journal articles you find have gone through the process explained above to ensure that they are of a high standard. You can also search so that you only receive results for articles that are available in their full electronic versions.

Internet resources

As explained above, there is no way of ensuring the standard of information that is uploaded to the internet. Anyone can publish anything on the internet, thus websites are not the ideal place for you to go to get your information.

When you do use the internet and website for your research, you need to be sure that you are consulting reputable sources. For example, websites published by governments, universities, the United Nations and national organisations like the Australian Practice Nurses Association, will generally contain quality information. However, it is important to note that these sources are not considered academic sources if they have not been written by academics. Nonetheless, unless you have been specifically requested by your tutor or lecturer to only use sources written by academics, you can often find valuable information from these reputable websites that may assist you in your research. Just be careful that you know exactly who has published the information on the internet and be sure to record the exact URL for your reference list.

A useful guide but not definitive: Where to go for more information

The above information is only a guide and ultimately where you find most of your sources will depend on what your essay topic is. For example, if you were writing a Sociology essay on an aspect of the media you would need to consult newspapers, television programmes and internet news websites.

If you are in doubt about what types of sources to use, check your course information booklet for more information about your particular assessment piece. Find out if there is a recommended reading list that you can begin with, and then use the sources listed in those readings to find further sources. If you are still not sure, check with your lecturer or tutor.

The next article in this series is ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 4. Finalise the Essay Plan’.

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Thursday, June 9, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 3. Conduct the Research. Part One: Organising your Research using a Research Document

This article is part of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. One article in this series will be published on the Elite Editing blog each day this week. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/index.php

Do you ever have any of these problems?

Have you ever started to write an essay and found that you were staring at a blank screen and a flashing cursor? Did you feel like you were starting from scratch?

Have you ever started writing an essay and found that you could not remember some of the information you read? Or tried to put a reference in and could not find the page number of the quotation you were using?

Is your research usually scattered all over the place, in the form of books, photocopied pages, bookmarked websites and some notes? Do you find it hard to create an essay out of disorganised research?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then learning how to create and use a research document can help! If you organise and record your research properly, you should never have any of these problems again.

How can you organise your research?

Your research should be organised so that the transition from doing your research to writing your essay is simple. The best way to do this is to organise your research so that it matches the organisation of the essay. In Step 2 of writing an academic essay, you would have written a rough essay plan before you began your research. This essay plan is the guide you need to use to organise your research.

Copy and paste this essay plan into a Word document. All your research for this essay will be recorded in this one document. Use each of the dot points from your essay plan (topics you are planning to discuss) as a heading in your research document. When you do your research, you will organise it in the order that the information will appear in your essay. Doing this means you will be organising your research by theme or topic, not by source.

This means that you will not simply record all the information from one source together and then go on to type up the information from your next source underneath it. If you do things that way, you would need to go back and re-organise your research later, into the correct order for your essay. That would be a waste of your time.

Why should you record your research (instead of just reading or taking a few notes)?

If you do not record your research properly, you can spend hours, days or weeks doing research, and then when you start to write your essay you will find that you have to go back and re-do things, like search for page numbers or correct quotations. You must record your research in a way that makes essay writing easier for you. It should be accurate, include all the information you need, and give you a chance to record your own ideas and thoughts on the material you are reading as you go along. Do not leave this until the end.

Instead of just taking notes when researching, a better and more efficient way to research is to critically arrange and organise material by typing out all the important information you find. You do not need to type out everything, just the critical, relevant and important information for your essay. Then you can add your own notes. (Make sure you use punctuation marks so you can see what is a quotation and what are your own words.)

There are a few important reasons for why it is better to type out sources word for word in your research rather than only take notes.

1. You do not have to remember everything you have written, all the important material is written down.
2. When you begin writing your essay you will have all information you need to make accurate direct quotations.
3. You will not make the mistake of writing something in your essay that you think you have thought of yourself, but is in fact something you are remembering from a book word-for-word.
4. You still have the opportunity to write your own notes about the sources as you go along, and develop your own ideas. But you will do this in a way that makes it clear what is from the book, and what are your own ideas.

How should you record your research?

You must record the following information from your sources:

1. Reference information about the source you are using
2. The subject or topic of each paragraph you type out (to help organise your ideas)
3. The exact wording of the source (using punctuation marks to show you are quoting)
4. The page number of the information you are typing up
5. Your own ideas and thoughts about the material you are reading

While you are doing all this, you can be working on your reference list at the same time. Each time you begin reading a source, type up all reference information into your reference list straight away. One good way of setting out your research is as follows:

The topic/subject of the paragraph
‘The exact wording of the source/paragraph that you are typing up goes here, using punctuation marks so you can see that you are quoting’ (Put the reference information here, the way you would in an in-text reference: Surname, Year, Page number).
[Your notes and ideas go here. Your own words go in square brackets and do not have punctuation marks, so you can easily see what are your own words and what words come from the source.]

So for example:

The number of people killed during the Spanish Civil War
‘The number of people killed during the Spanish Civil War is very difficult to ascertain. It was probably over one million people. Many people went “missing” and were never found’ (Nash, 1989, p. 61).
[This is very interesting information since it shows that the number of people killed could be much higher than was originally thought.]

How can you develop your essay plan while you are researching?

All the decisions about what will go into your essay and in what order are made at the research stage, not at the essay writing stage. This is a common mistake made by students who do not establish enough of a connection between the two stages.

At the beginning of your research, you started out with your rough essay plan as a basis for the headings in your research document. As you go along, you may add more headings or sub-headings to your research document. For example, you might find that there are three sub-topics under the first main topic that you wish to discuss, and so you will create sub-headings for them. The information under these sub-headings will eventually become paragraphs in your essay.

As you conduct your research, you must critically analyse the information that you find. Change your sections around in order of importance. Decide what information should be included and what should not. All these decisions should be made at the research stage, so that by the time you come to do your writing you know exactly what you will be writing about and in what order, down to each paragraph. You will have in front of you exactly what information needs to be used in each section and paragraph of your essay. This also means that you will never feel like you are starting from scratch or have nothing to go on when you begin writing your first draft.

The next article in this series is Part Two of this article: ‘Research Skills and Academic Sources’.
This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 2. Draft the Essay Plan

This article is part of the series ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing’. One article in this series will be published on the Elite Editing blog each day this week. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au
Have you ever borrowed some books to start your research and realised you did not know where to begin?

Have you ever spent time reading a great deal of information that in the end was irrelevant to the essay or assignment you were working on?

Have you ever started to write your essay and realised you had too much information on one topic, and not enough information on another topic?

If you write a first draft of your essay plan before you begin your research, you will be organised, prepared and save time.

You must write the first draft of your essay plan before you start your research. This will give your research direction and ultimately make it easier for you to write your essay. Having a plan will let you know what you need to research and how much research you need on each topic or subject that you will be writing about.

You will base this first draft of your essay plan on your essay question, and your current knowledge of your subject. It will not happen very often that you are asked to write an essay on a topic you know nothing about, since you will already be studying the subject and will normally have had one or more lectures or tutorials on the topic.

It is acceptable if your essay plan is rough or vague at this point, or if you do not have a great deal of detail. You will develop your essay plan (expanding it and including more detail) and possibly even change it as you go through the research process.

What does a first draft of an essay plan look like?

The first draft of your essay plan will show you what main topics you will discuss in your essay, how the essay will be structured, and roughly how many words you will spend on each part.

If your essay question was ‘Is Critical Thinking relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse?’ and you had to write 1,500 words, then your essay plan might look like this:


Essay question: ‘Is Critical Thinking relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse?’
Essay length: 1,500 words

Introduction (150 words)
1) Thesis statement: Through an examination of the evidence, it is clear that Critical Thinking is highly relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse for a number of reasons.
2) Introduce main points or topics to be discussed: accuracy of diagnoses, patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, communication

Topic 1: Accuracy of diagnoses (300 words)

Topic 2: Patient outcomes (300 words)

Topic 3: Prevent and solve problems (300 words)

Topic 4: Communication (300 words)

Conclusion (150 words)
1) Concluding statement: Thus, it can be seen that the concept of Critical Thinking is invaluable and highly relevant to Registered Nurses.
2) Sum up main points or topics that have been discussed: accuracy of diagnoses, patient outcomes, prevent and solve problems, communication


Introductions and conclusions

As you can see from the example essay plan above, an introduction and a conclusion will normally be approximately 10% of the word count of the entire essay. (This is a general guide and does not apply to essays longer than 5,000 words).

In order to be considered a true introduction your first paragraph must do two things: 1) answer the essay question in a clear statement (this is called your thesis statement) and 2) introduce the main points your essay will make to support your argument. You cannot discuss any major points or topics in your essay if you have not introduced them in your introduction. Also, you must discuss all your main points or topics in the order that you introduce them in your introduction. This helps to maintain the flow and structure of your essay.

Similarly, in order to be considered a true conclusion your last paragraph must do two things: 1) re-state the answer to the essay question and 2) sum up the main points your essay has made to support your argument. Remember, a conclusion cannot contain any new information.

Body of the essay and topic sentences

You can find out how many words you will write in the body of your essay by taking away the number you will spend on your introduction and conclusion from the total amount. How you divide the number of words in the body of your essay between your main topics will depend on how important each topic is to your argument. How long you spend writing about each topic should reflect the importance of each topic. If all of your topics were of equal importance, you would write roughly the same amount of words on each. If one topic was more important, you would write about it first and spend longer discussing it. If one topic was less important, you would write about it last and write fewer words on it.

Using topic sentences at the beginning of each new paragraph is essential for ensuring that your essay is well organised and well structured. It also ensures that the essay flows logically and reads well. A topic sentence must do two things: 1) introduce the new topic about to be discussed and 2) shows how this new topic helps to answer the essay question or support your argument in answering the essay question.

If your essay question was ‘Is Critical Thinking relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse?’ and you were about to discuss the topic ‘accuracy of diagnoses’, then your topic sentence might sound like this: ‘Another way in which Critical Thinking is highly relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse is in ensuring accuracy of diagnoses’. This sentence clearly demonstrates to the reader that you are about to discuss ‘accuracy of diagnoses’ and you are doing so because it is another way that Critical Thinking is relevant to Registered Nurses, which is what your essay is arguing.

The next article in this series is: ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 3. Conduct the Research’.

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit http://www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit http://www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 1. Analyse the Question

There are generally two types of essays: argumentative essays and explanatory essays.

In an argumentative essay, you are expected to put forward an academic argument in answer to the essay question and support your argument with academic sources (references).

In an explanatory essay, you are expected to explain or describe a process or topic in answer to an essay question and support your argument with academic sources (references).

Regardless of the type of essay you are writing, it is very important that you understand what is being asked of you before you begin researching and writing your essay.

If you are given a question:

You must be sure that you understand all parts of the question and what it is asking you to do. You must be able to recognise the ‘task words’ in the question, which tell you what you have to do (for example, ‘discuss’, ‘compare’, ‘analyse’ or ‘argue’) and the ‘key words’ in the question, which tell you what you are being asked to write about (for example, Critical Thinking, or the roles of registered nurses).

If you have to write your own question:

If you are writing an argumentative essay and you need to write your own question, you must write a question that invites (or allows) you to make an argument. For example, a question that would invite an argument would be: ‘Is Critical Thinking relevant to the role of a Registered Nurse?’ A question on the same subject that would not invite an argument, but rather an explanatory essay, would be ‘What are two definitions of Critical Thinking?’ or ‘Describe two definitions of Critical Thinking’.

If you do not understand the question, what should you do?

First, check your course information booklet or course website for more information on the assessment. Check your lecture notes, textbook, other course information and recommended readings to see if this information helps you to understand what is being asked of you. If you still do not understand the question, ask your tutor or lecturer for help straight away. If you cannot understand the question, then you will have significant problems trying to answer it. This needs to be addressed immediately, before you begin your research and writing.

Monday, June 6, 2011

How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: The Six Steps to Academic Essay Writing

There are six steps to writing an academic essay. If you follow each of these steps correctly, you will find that you can write university essays that will earn you a distinction (or high distinction) every time. It is simply a matter of understanding what steps to follow, and then completing each of them thoroughly.

This article provides an outline and brief description of each of these steps. It is an introduction to a series of articles that will examine each step in more depth. Reading just this article alone will provide you with assistance in learning how to plan, research and write your essays. However, reading all the articles in the series will allow you to gain a more sophisticated insight into essay writing, and to improve your grades even further.

One article in this series will be published on this each day this week, at http://eliteediting.blogspot.com/. You can also access them through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au

These are the six steps you need to follow to write high quality university essays:

1. Analyse the Question

There are generally two types of essays: argumentative essays and explanatory essays. In an argumentative essay, you are expected to put forward an academic argument in answer to the essay question and support your argument with academic sources (references). In an explanatory essay, you are expected to explain or describe a process or topic in answer to an essay question and support your argument with academic sources (references). Regardless of the type of essay you are writing, it is very important that you understand what is being asked of you before you begin your research and writing your essay.

You must be sure that you understand all parts of the question and what it is asking you to do. You must be able to recognise the ‘task words’ in the question, which tell you what you have to do (for example, ‘discuss’, ‘compare’, ‘analyse’ or ‘argue’) and the ‘key words’ in the question, which tell you what you are being asked to write about (for example, Critical Thinking, or the roles of registered nurses). (More information on this step will be provided in the article ‘How to Write Distinction Essays Every Time: Step 1. Analyse the Question.’)

2. Draft the Essay Plan

You must write the first draft of your essay plan before you start your research. This will give your research direction and ultimately make it easier for you to write your essay. Having a plan will let you know what you need to research and how much research you need on each topic or subject that you will be writing about.

You will base this first draft of your essay plan on your essay question, and your current knowledge of your subject. It will not happen very often that you are asked to write an essay on a topic you know nothing about, since you will already be studying the subject and will normally have had one or more lectures or tutorials on the topic.

It is acceptable if your essay plan is rough or vague at this point, or if you do not have a great deal of detail. You will develop your essay plan (expanding it and including more detail) and possibly even change it as you go through the research process.

3. Conduct the Research

Part One: Organising your Research using a Research Document

Your research should be organised so that the transition from doing your research to writing your essay is simple. The best way to do this is to organise your research so that it matches the organisation of the essay. In Step 2 of writing an academic essay, you would have written a rough essay plan before you began your research. This essay plan is the guide you need to use to organise your research.

Copy and paste this essay plan into a Word document. All your research for this essay will be recorded in this one document. Use each of the dot points from your essay plan (topics you are planning to discuss) as a heading in your research document. When you do your research, you will organise it in the order that the information will appear in your essay. Doing this means you will be organising your research by theme or topic, not by source.

Part Two: Research Skills and Academic Sources

Being able to tell the difference between an academic source and a non-academic source, knowing where to find academic sources and deciding what sources are relevant to your research are important skills that you will develop during your tertiary studies.

The first place you should go is the library, even if this means ordering in books from other libraries. For academics to have their books (and journal articles) published, they must go through a process called peer-reviewing. During this process, one or more other academics who are experts in the field will read and assess a book or article to decide if it is of publishable standard. This is why your research will be of the highest quality if you use books, monographs, textbooks and journal articles written by academics for your research, because the work had to meet academic standards. There is no such process for publishing on the internet; anyone can write whatever they like on any subject.

Your second stop after books, monographs and textbooks will be journal articles. Some of these will only be available in hardcopy from the library, but many will be available in their full-text versions through online electronic databases, such as JStore, ProQuest and Ingenta.

4. Finalise the Essay Plan

In Step 2, you would have drafted a rough essay plan before you began your research. During the research process (in Step 3), you would have developed this plan further as you learned more information on your topic. Once you have completed your research, and before you begin writing your first draft, you need to re-think your essay plan and write a final version based on what you discovered during your research. Your final essay plan will contain more detail than your first draft and be a very specific guide to how to write your essay. Once you have completed the final draft of your essay plan, you are ready to begin writing the first draft of your essay.

5. Write the First Draft of the Essay

Now that you have completed your research in an organised way and have written a final draft of your essay plan, writing the first draft of your essay will be easier than it ever has been. All of the following decisions about your essay have already been made:

1. What your answer to the essay question is
2. What main points you will discuss in order to back up your argument
3. The order in which to discuss your main points
4. How long to spend discussing each main point
5. What information each paragraph will contain (i.e. what information you will use to discuss each of your main points)
6. What references you will use to back up your argument

Thus, there is no reason for you to feel lost or stare at your computer screen not knowing what to write. If you do get stuck for any reason, the best thing to do is to just keep writing. You can always improve something once you have written something down. If you have not written anything, not much can be done until you do.

6. Professional Academic Editing

Once you have completed writing your essay, it is vital that you have it professionally edited by an academic editor. You have just spent a significant amount of time doing the best possible job on your essay or assignment, doing your research and writing up your results. After all this effort, it is critical that your work is presented in the best possible way. Using a professional academic editor will ensure that your work is polished, well written, and presented correctly. If English is your second language, having your essay or assignment professionally edited is even more important. You do not want mistakes in your writing to confuse your markers or distract them from the important arguments you are making. This could lead to you receiving a grade lower than the grade you really deserve.

For more information on our professional essay, assignment, thesis and dissertation editing service, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/essay-editing.php

To submit your essay assignment, thesis or dissertation for professional editing now, please visit www.eliteediting.com.au/submit.php

This article (and the remainder in the series) has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing. If you require further assistance with essay writing or with the professional editing of your completed essay, please contact her through the Elite Editing website at http://www.eliteediting.com.au/contact.php

Stay tuned for the in-depth articles in this series, which will explain in detail each of the above six steps. Understanding and following these steps will mean a significant improvement in the quality of your essays!

Friday, June 3, 2011

How to analyse an essay question

In order to write an essay that answers the essay question effectively, you first must be able to analyse the essay question. Firstly, you should know the kind of essay you are expected to write. There are two main types of essays: explanatory essays and argumentative essays.

An explanatory essay, as its name implies, is an essay that explains or presents a certain topic in a descriptive way conveying the information in detail. This type of essay does not require the writer’s opinion, argument, ideas or criticism.

In an argumentative essay, the writer’s opinions are needed. In this type of essay, you must include information about the topic and your own argument, personal ideas or viewpoints on the topic. When writing an argumentative essay, you need to demonstrate both the knowledge you have regarding the topic, and your analytical skills.

In order to know what kind of essay you are going to write, you must be able to understand what the essay question is asking you to write about. There are usually task words in an essay question, for example, ‘explain’, ‘discuss’, ‘argue’, ‘analyse’ or ‘compare’. The essay questions will also contain key words that will help you understand more about your essay question. For example, the essay question ‘Explain the state of world politics between World War I and World War II’ is asking you to write an explanatory essay with descriptive details on world politics during that time. If the essay question asks you ‘Are there feminist aspects in Renaissance art?’, answering this question will require you to express your opinion and argue a viewpoint on the topic.

In cases when you are not given an essay question and must write your own question, you should consider which type of essay you are going to write or are being asked to write. If you will write an argumentative essay, your essay question should be one that allows you to express a point of view, i.e. it should invite or allow you to make an argument on the topic. For an explanatory essay, your question should ask you to describe or explain something, for example, ‘What are the main characteristics of Renaissance art?’

If you do not understand what the essay question is asking you to do, it is advisable to check your course information booklet or website. Textbooks, lecture notes and recommended books may help you to get some ideas of the answer for your essay question. Your tutor or lecturer can help you if you really do not understand what the question is asking you to do. Do not hesitate to consult with them right away to address the problem before you can begin researching and writing your essay.

Written by:
Amy Jindaphan
Customer Service and Marketing
Elite Editing

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Shortened phrases

A shortened phrase is an abbreviation of a group of words form a phrase or name that have been contracted for ease of writing. They are especially useful in essays and theses that repeat the same phrase or name many times. Understanding their correct usage can help avoid errors and confusion, and add to the polished appearance of your document. There are two types of shortened phrases: acronyms and initialisms.

An acronym is a shortened phrase that usually contains the first letter of each word from a phrase. An acronym is pronounced as a word, for example: ‘SACE’ and ‘CAPA’.

An initialism is similar to an acronym; however, it is not pronounced like a word—each letter is pronounced as though it is being spelt-out. Some common initialisms include: ‘UN’, ‘USA’ and ‘NSW’.

Each letter in an acronym or initialism should be capitalised. The only exception to the rule of capitalising shortened phrases is if an acronym is well known and is used like a proper name, for example, ‘Qantas’ and ‘sonar’.

Full stops should not be used between the individual letters in a shortened phrase. The only exception to this rule is if an initialism has been used in a heading that consists of uppercase words. In this instance, full stops would be used between the individual letters of the initialism to prevent it from being read as a word, for example: ‘MAJOR VICTORY FOR U.S.’.

The expanded version of a shortened phrase should not always be capitalised, the normal rules of capitalisation apply. To make a shortened phrase plural, a plural ‘s’ is added without an apostrophe.

It is important to introduce a shortened phrase in the first instance it is used in a document, even if the shortened version is common. This is achieved by writing the expanded version of the phrase, followed by the acronym or initialism in brackets. For example, ‘The United Nations (UN) press release stated … ’. Thereafter, the initialism ‘UN’ would be used for the remainder of the document.

The same rule applies for theses: if a shortened form has been introduced in a previous chapter, it does not need to be introduced again. The only exception is the abstract of a thesis. Any shortened phrase that has been introduced in the abstract must be introduced again the first time it is used in the body of the thesis. In addition, if your thesis uses many shortened phrases, you should include a ‘List of Abbreviations’ in the preliminary pages of your thesis.

Did you know, the longest acronym in the English language contains 22 letters? It is ‘ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC’ and stands for ‘Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command’. However, this is dwarfed by the world’s longest initialism, which contains 56 letters: ‘NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT’. It stands for ‘The laboratory for shuttering, reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations for composite-monolithic and monolithic constructions of the Department of the Technology of Building-assembly operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for building mechanization and technical aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’.

You should now have a clearer idea of shortened forms and know how to use them correctly. Remember, you must always introduce acronyms and initialisms, even if they are commonly used. They do not use full stops, unless an initialism appears in an uppercase heading and may be confused for a word. Using shortened phrases correctly will certainly add to the polished appearance of your essay or thesis.

Written by:
Nick Brandenburg
Quality Assurance Manager
Elite Editing

Monday, May 23, 2011

What is a Topic Sentence?

The body of an essay includes many paragraphs that each paragraph discusses a new topic to substantiate the essay’s thesis statement (i.e. answer the essay question). Before you start writing a paragraph, it is important to have a topic sentence to unify the paragraph’s content and to ensure the paragraph discusses the topic coherently.

A topic sentence is a single sentence that states a single idea or a topic in a paragraph. It must be presented at the beginning of a paragraph to tell the reader what the topic of the paragraph is and how the paragraph will discuss it. Another important function of a topic sentence is to prove the essay’s thesis statement (answer the essay question). It can also specify the order of the content of a paragraph. This way, the reader can see the organisation of your essay as it will be written in an organised and smooth way, without illogical or sudden shifts or jumps.

For example, if you were writing an essay on the causes of the Holocaust in Germany and your thesis statement was ‘There were many complicated and inter-related causes for the Holocaust, including the economy of Germany, the ideology of the fascists, and Hitler’s personal racism’, then from this thesis statement, your first topic sentence might be:

‘The most significant cause for the Holocaust was the economic state of Germany.’

This topic sentence tells the reader what the paragraph will discuss. After this topic sentence, you can give background information. Then you start to discuss the topic by applying facts, incidences, argument, analysis, or examples from your research. In the final step of writing a paragraph, you should wrap up the connection between your discussion in the paragraph and the topic sentence of the paragraph to ensure the main message of this paragraph stays in the reader’s mind.

Once you have finished discussing the economy of Germany in relation to how it caused the Holocaust, you would move on to the next cause for the Holocaust that you gave in your thesis statement (which was presented in your introduction). In order to transition smoothly from one topic to the next, and to explain to the reader why you are discussing a new topic, you would need to begin your next section with a topic sentence like:

‘Another important cause for the Holocaust was the ideology of the Nazi Party.’

This signals that you are discussing a new topic, which is the ideology of the Nazi Party, and explains that you are discussing it because it answers your essay question.

Written by:
Chloe Anuwong
Customer Service
Elite Editing

Thursday, May 19, 2011

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is a sentence or sentences that present the main idea or the central argument of your essay. It tells the reader what your essay is going to argue. Your thesis statement must be presented in your introduction. A good thesis statement will answer your essay question and outline what you will write about, clearly and concisely.

Why should your essay comprise a thesis statement?

The thesis statement guides you to write your essay in a developed and organised way, allowing you to present your argument in a manner that is not too broad. In addition, it provides the reader with an overview of what your essay is going to argue.

For example:

There were many complicated and inter-related causes for the Holocaust, including the economy of Germany, the ideology of the fascists, and Hitler’s personal racism.

From this thesis statement, a reader will know that the essay is going to talk about the causes of the Holocaust. It also clear that the main causes the essay will discuss are: 1) the economy of Germany; 2) the ideology of the fascists; and 3) Hitler’s personal racism.

How to write a thesis statement

1. From the general issue that you are interested in arguing, you should narrow down which part of the issue you are going to discuss. From the example above, you select the Holocaust and narrow it down to discuss only the causes of the Holocaust, not the results, consequences or its influences.
2. Question the issue that you are going to discuss. For example, if you are going to discuss the causes of Holocaust, you might ask yourself, ‘What were the causes of the Holocaust in World War II?’ This should be done as part of your research for your essay.
3. Answer your question with one main idea and provide main valid points to support your answer. For example, from the question above, your main answer might be, ‘There were many complicated and inter-related causes for the Holocaust’. Then you might support your main answer with these reasons:
- The economy of Germany
- The ideology of the fascists
- Hitler’s personal racism
4. Try to write your thesis statement in one or two sentences, concisely and comprehensively. From the above example, your complete thesis statement might be, ‘There were many complicated and inter-related causes for the Holocaust, including the economy of Germany, the ideology of the fascists, and Hitler’s personal racism’.

Once you have written your thesis statement you are well on your way to writing a high-quality essay!

Written by:
Chloe Anuwong
Customer Service
Elite Editing

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Time Management and Motivation

When studying at school or university, you will normally be enrolled in more than one subject or course each semester. The busiest and most stressful time of a semester is when examinations and assignment deadlines are approaching, usually all at the same time! But you can easily reduce this stress or even avoid this situation with good time management and motivation.

The first thing you should have in order to organise your time is a schedule. It is not easy to remember everything without putting it down onto your schedule or planner. You may need to find a paper planner, which you can buy from a bookstore or download from a website. Or, you can make your own D.I.Y planner. It is suggested that you use one that contains a yearly planner, weekly planner and daily planner. Alternatively, if you are a technology expert, it is a good idea to use an online calendar or planner such as Google Calendar or any online planner that you can use to create to-do lists, make notes, and on some websites, set reminders to remind you about an activity or event via email or text message.

To manage your time effectively, you need to have good self-management. Your plan will not be successful if you cannot manage yourself to follow the plan. Planning how and when you will study and complete your assignments is crucial, and you need to stick to your plan as much as possible. When you make your plans initially, you should note them down even though you may change them later. Sometimes, you may not be able to complete a task or an assignment following the plan. You can be flexible about this depending on situation. If you need to cancel a plan or change it, you must ensure you do so only if you have no other choice because there is something more important that must be done at that time. Do not postpone the completion of tasks just because you are lacking motivation or prefer to have leisure time. It is important to manage your daily life, family issues, employment and hobbies to ensure you have enough time left for studying.

When managing your time, you can organise yourself by determining the priority of each task. A task that is due to be completed sooner must come first. For tasks that need a long time to complete, for example, studying for your final exam, you can divide it into sections. It is easier and less boring than do it in one sitting.

Some tasks may be hard for you or you may not want to do them. For example, you may have an assignment from a difficult subject that you do not like. You must find motivation to complete it. It is advisable to list the benefits of completing the task as well as the disadvantages of not doing it. When you have written this list, it allows you to decide using reason rather than emotion.

If there is an unexpected situation or a problem, it is likely that you will be able to deal with it easily once you have made this good start with time management and motivation. This planning will give you enough time to prepare yourself to effectively complete any task!

Amy Jindaphan
Marketing
Elite Editing

Monday, May 16, 2011

Studying for Exams

Exams are the most general indicator used to evaluate the knowledge or skills you have gained during the semester. The period before your exams can be a very stressful time and knowing that your exams will affect your grade point average can make you very anxious. To reduce your stress and anxiety during this time, you should know how to study efficiently and be adequately prepared. The following are the key points for successful exam preparation.

Firstly, you should pay close attention and concentrate when in class. Most of the content in exams is taught in the classroom. If you do not attend class frequently, or just pay no attention to what the teacher says in the class, you will surely miss important information. Remember that teachers will not test what they have not taught.

After your classes, when you revise the lessons for exams, have paper and a pen handy for taking note of the main points and important information while reading. Taking notes is very useful because you will think before you write something and your brain will automatically memorise it. It is stored in either the short-term or long-term memory depending on how much attention you pay and how many times you revise it. When taking notes, it is best to take notes in your own words, rather than simply copying from your textbook, as this process will help you to remember the information more easily. Another good thing about taking notes is that you do not need to read everything again for the next revision. You can read the notes taken in order to recall the lessons.

In addition, you have to know what kind of exam it will be so you can arrange the way you will study. If it is a multiple-choice exam, it would be better to find old exams from the library or exercises to test yourself. This way, you can pre-evaluate your knowledge and correct yourself, as there are usually correct answers or even explanations available. If not, you can still find the answers in your textbook. If it is an essay exam, you must study the detailed information. This kind of exam frequently tests your ability to memorise details and organise your ideas. It is a good idea to identify the main topics and try to write the essay from these topics. If you do this when studying rather than waiting until you are sitting the exam, you will have more time to organise your ideas and check if you missed any important information.

Your surroundings are also important when you are studying. It is likely that you will not be able to focus on your study if there is noise or any disturbance. You may end up paying attention to other things that are distracting you. You should find a quiet place with a comfortable chair and table but you need to ensure that it is not too relaxing as you may fall asleep! Lighting should be adjusted to be suitable for reading so that your eyes will not experience strain.

If you follow the advice above, passing your exam with a high score will not be too hard for you!

Written by:
Amy Jindaphan
Customer Service and Marketing
Elite Editing

Monday, May 9, 2011

How to Write Your First Draft

After researching and arranging your information and topic sentence in an organised way, it is time for you to present your ideas or arguments in an essay. The most difficult process for many students is writing the first draft. How do you put all ideas into your first draft comprehensively and relevantly? Many times, you may find yourself sitting and facing a blank screen for a long time, not knowing where to start, and end up with nothing. It would be helpful if you have answers for the following questions before you start writing your first draft:

1. What is your answer to the essay question?
2. What main points will you discuss in order to support your argument?
3. In what order will you discuss your main points?
4. How long will you spend discussing each main point?
5. What information will each paragraph contain (i.e. what information will you use to discuss each of your main points)?
6. What references will you use to support your argument?
(http://www.eliteediting.com.au/step5-write-first-draft-essay.php)

Write your first draft as quickly as possible and try to finish it in one go. Your first draft should include all your ideas and supporting facts or examples, following your organised outline from your research. Do not worry about adding adjectives, adverbs or producing words. Concentrate on your ideas/main points that have to be relevant to and support your topic sentence or thesis statement, and try to finish your draft in one sitting as quickly as possible. This is important for your first draft writing.

Keep the thesis statement or your topic sentence as a guideline of your whole essay. You have to know the main points that will be used to support your topic sentence. In addition, those main points have to support your topic sentence flowingly. Put examples or facts in your first draft to support your main points in each paragraph. If you have found that some sections of your essay need more facts or examples but you do not have them, mark or bracket that section to remind yourself that it needs more supporting facts and keep on writing your draft until you finish.

Ensure that your essay is written in an academic style and in the correct format according to the guidelines that you refer to. The academic writing style has to be formal and impersonal. Avoid using the personal ‘I’ in your essay because it will make your essay look unprofessional. Instead of using ‘I agree with...,’ you might use ‘This essay agrees with…’, which makes your essay looks formal and reliable. The readers know automatically that this essay is your idea as it is written by you.

Make sure that you write the essay in the correct format, consistent with the guidelines that you use for your essay, for example, line spacing, font and page margins. The in-text references or footnotes should be included while you are writing your first draft, as you have to refer to the sources of your supporting examples or facts from your research anyhow. Putting the necessary information and ideas comprehensively in your first draft will help you edit your second draft.

Written by:
Chloe Anuwong
Elite Editing
www.eliteediting.com.au

Friday, May 6, 2011

Academic Writing: Some general guidelines

Have you ever been told that your writing style is not academic or that it is too informal?

Have you ever felt unclear on how to write an academic essay.

Are you unsure what rules to follow, what you can do and what you should not do?

Formality

Academic writing needs to be formal and impersonal. This means that your writing should be clear, concise and professional. It needs to follow certain rules (such as those outlined below) in order to ensure that it meets academic standards.

Supported by evidence

The most significant difference between academic and non-academic writing is that academic writing puts forward arguments and ideas that are supported by evidence, most often in the form of citing other research or studies. Learning how to reference correctly is an important part of ensuring that your arguments and ideas are always supported by evidence. You must remember that you cannot make a claim or assertion in an academic essay without supporting it.

The use of the first person

Although there are exceptions, (for example, if you are discussing a field trip that you personally took in order to conduct research or interviews that you carried out), normally academic writing does not make use of the first person. This means you would not use ‘I’ in your essays. Therefore, instead of writing ‘I will argue’, you might write ‘this essay will argue’. The first reason for this is that academic writing must be formal and impersonal.
Consider the difference between these two sentences:

1. ‘In this essay, I will discuss the reasons why Critical Thinking is important to the role of Registered Nurses, including its role in improving the accuracy of diagnoses.’

2. ‘Critical Thinking is important to the role of Registered Nurses because it improves the accuracy of diagnoses.’

Not only is the second sentence more formal because it does not make use of the personal ‘I’, but it is also more direct and thus sounds clearer, more concise, and more academic. Instead of stating that a point will be made, as in the first sentence, the second sentence simply makes the point directly.

The second reason why the use of the first person is discouraged is that it is often redundant (unnecessary). Consider the difference between these two sentences:

1. I believe that Critical Thinking is relevant to the role of Registered Nurses.

2. Critical Thinking is relevant to the role of Registered Nurses.

It is unnecessary to state ‘I believe’. The reader knows that the statement is what the author believes, because the author is writing it in their essay. Further, which sentence sounds more convincing? The second sentence sounds more convincing because it is direct and straight to the point.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation

Correct grammar, spelling and punctuation are very important in academic writing. In order to write formally and to a high academic standard, your writing must be accurate. Writing an essay that contains correct grammar, spelling and punctuation can make a significant difference to your final grade. Accurate writing affects not only your marks for presentation. If your grammar and sentence structure is so unclear that your tutor or lecturer cannot understand the point you are trying to make, for example, you could lose marks overall. Handing in an essay that is well written, accurate and highly polished can improve your grades.