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  • Essay Writing
    • The Missing Manual
    • About Writing Essays
    • Improve your Essay Marks
    • What is an Essay?
    • Types of Essay>
      • Bachelor of the Arts Essay
      • Bachelor of Science Essay
      • A-Level Essays
      • Postgraduate
    • Writing Essays in an Exam
  • The Stages
    • Before you Begin
    • Interpreting the Question
    • Researching an Essay>
      • Referencing>
        • Styles of Referencing
        • Why is Referencing Important
        • Harvard Referencing
        • Chicago Referencing
        • Using Footnotes
    • How to Structure an Essay
    • How to Plan an Essay
    • Writing an Introduction
    • The Main Body
    • Writing a Conclusion
    • Proofreading and Editing
  • Presentation
    • Wordpower
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      • Is there an 'I' in 'Essay'?
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Researching an Essay

If you have studied a topic in classes or lectures, you should already have a good idea of what your essay will need to cover, but this awareness is not a substitute for thorough research, and you should be wary about going in with fixed ideas about what your essay will argue. Keep an open mind and be prepared to change your opinion.

An academic essay should draw on a wide range of resources, including journals, monographs, edited volumes and, where appropriate, online sources. In some cases, you may also be required to cite governmental documents, doctoral theses and other published materials. Part of the challenge is to find a good balance between these resources: you should not depend too heavily on any one type of resource.

Where do I start?

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If you're a student at college or university, your subject librarian will help you to find relevant materials, and your lecturers should be willing to assist you, too. If not, assistants at your local library will likely be happy to help. Often, your tutors will provide a reading list or bibliography which you can take away and look up. Each of the items within the reading list will have its own bibliography, too, so you can start a chain of interlinked texts and resources. 

When you go into the library, be prepared to spend a good deal of time finding exactly the right materials. .Lots of students make the mistake of 'thinking past' their research; by this I mean that they tend to view the research an interruption or an obstacle to the 'real work' of drafting the essay. For these students, time in the library can become needlessly stressful. Eat a proper meal first, then go in and get comfortable. Take off your coat, put down your bag and find a space to work in peace. If you need to carry lots of books home, a cotton 'bag for life' can be a great way of keeping extra bag space handy.

• When choosing your resources, think quality not quantity.

• Include a minimum of five quality texts.

• Aim for one reference for every 100-200 words.

How many resources do I need?

Your resources should be about quality, not quantity. You should reference each resource listed in your bibliography, and you should have a clear idea what stance each resource takes, i.e. you shouldn't just grab choice quotations within knowing their context.

Whether you are agreeing with it or challenging it, any given reference should be relevant and should relate clearly to your argument.
Disclaimer: the following are very crude numbers intended as a very rough guide only!

Although quality is king, you still need to have several supporting texts. The bibliography for a 2,000-word assignment should have a minimum of five entries, and at least one more text should be added for every further 500 words.So, a 2,500-word essay should have at least six entries; 3,000 words make for at least seven, and so on. Essays which are shorter than 2,000 words should still have a minimum of five entries in their bibliography.

How many references should I include in my essay?

This again is hard to say with any degree of accuracy but, as a very rough guide, you should aim for one reference every 100-200 words. A reference could take the form of a quotation, a paraphrase, a citation or a 'namedrop'. Name-dropping is much less compelling than a really good quotation.

  • What is referencing?
  • Why is referencing important?
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About The Missing Manual

Essay Writing Manual
The Missing Manual essay-writing guide is due for online publication in summer 2014.  Presented as clearly and unambiguously as an instruction manual, it is a practical, easy-to-use reference guide for how to write better essays.

The guide covers fundamentals such as how to write an essay introduction or how to conclude an essay persuasively, as well covering all the little jobs that really make the difference when it comes to gaining marks: how to edit your essay into a more cohesive piece; how to make your research work for you; how to get the most of your word power; and much more besides.

About the Author

Dr. Daniel Pressley is an essay-writing expert and author of The Missing Manual for writing great Essays. Having worked for several years as a University of Warwick lecturer in the arts and humanities, he now works as a freelancer writing on effective communications for academic study and business.

Daniel's approach to essay writing is highly systematic.  It involves a ten-step process which has been designed to produce consistently better essays and better marks.  Daniel is also available for seminars and courses on effective essay writing and business communication.

Copyright © Daniel Pressley 2013. The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

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