Writing Tips « Writers Workshop

Writing Tips « Writers Workshop The thesis statement often comes at the end of the introduction, although it can be written earlier. Writing your introduction last means you are more likely to have a tighter fit between the introduction, main body and conclusion because you already know what your essay will be about. There is no set model for an essay, but the English for Uni website presents one popular way to do it. The following example is based around a 1000 word discussion essay. To read about essays in greater detail, download this PDF or Word document. Scope â€" where you outline what exactly is going to be covered in relation to your argument.2. ‘Contrast’ often appears with ‘compare’ in essay questions.CriticiseEvaluate an argument or a text to see if it is good. ‘Criticise’ does not mean you have to be negative.CritiqueEvaluate an argument or a text to see if it is good. ‘Critique’ does not mean you have to be negative.DefineExplain the meaning of a word or a term, especially in the context of your essay. However, chocolate’s inherent popularity does not equate to it possessing healthy properties, as suggested by the title. The realities of chocolate are more down to earth; a number of these realities will be addressed in this essay. Topic sentenceThe topic sentence can function as a sentence of transition from the previous paragraph. Once you have brainstormed your ideas and done some initial research, start putting them into a logical order as part of the essay planning process. Brainstorming helps you to see what you know about the topic. Brainstorming, researching and planning are cyclical, which means that each process helps the other processes and you might want to do each process more than once. Leave yourself enough time to look at your essay more than once. For a 1000 word essay you need at least three days to redraft your essay. Essays also sometimes begin with an issue, outline the scope and then move on to end the introduction with the thesis statement. Sometimes, particularly in very short essays, the essay will begin with an issue rather than a background statement. The thesis and scope are sometimes combined to form one or more sentences known as a thesis statement. Another possible positive dimension to chocolate is a correlation with cardiovascular health. Yet the potential benefits of flavanols in chocolate are currently offset by the high fat/carbohydrate content of most forms of chocolate. Whether chocolate is a food or a drug is also unclear. It can therefore be said that chocolate is not a healthy food, but can be enjoyed as part of a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle. The first two articles have been cited 90 times and 103 times respectively, suggesting that they might be good sources for your essay. The links to the right indicate that you can access the articles through your university website. The best place to start (assuming you haven’t already been given a prescribed reading list!) is by using an academic database. To write a 1000 word essay, ideally you should allow yourself about 3 weeks. You might wonder how you can include your own voice and still sound academic when you are writing about a subject area in which you have little knowledge. Including your voice does not mean that you should say ‘I think’ or ‘in my opinion’. Since Spanish explorers brought back chocolate from the new world, chocolate consumption has become a worldwide phenomenon. At first, chocolate, a derivative of the cacao bean, was consumed as a drink, only later achieving mass popularity in tablet or bar form. If you are not sure how to use a database, then book an appointment with your subject librarian at your institution. ‘Compare’ often appears with ‘contrast’ in essay questions.ContrastShow the differences between two sets of information or arguments. Chocolate has chemical properties that can influence mood and there is possible evidence for some positive impacts of chocolate on cardiovascular health. Yet, such positive attributes are counterbalanced somewhat by the argument that, in some instances, chocolate can be viewed as a drug rather than a food. Moreover, there is the possibility of some correlation between over-consumption of chocolate and obesity. Thus, it will be argued that despite chocolate’s positive effect in some cases on mood and the cardiovascular system it has also been linked to addiction and obesity.