A paragraph or two to define key terms and themes and indicate how you intend to address the question. A series of paragraphs written in full sentences that include specific arguments relating to your answer. Try to focus on the question but avoid repeating what you wrote in the introduction. An introduction provides your reader with an overview of what your essay will cover and what you want to say. Essays introductions should set out the aims of the assignment and signpost how your argument will unfold introduce the issue and give any essential background information including a brief description of the major debates that lie behind the question define the key words and terms be between 5% and 10% of the total word count. Some students prefer to write the introduction at an early stage, others save it for when they have almost completed the assignment. You should use evidence to support the arguments you make in this section, referencing your sources appropriately.

You should use evidence to support and challenge the issues you cover in this section, referencing your sources appropriately. You can choose to deal with all of the supporting and all of the challenging evidence separately take each issue in turn, describing and evaluating it before moving on to the next issue describe all the issues first before moving on to your evaluation of them. Although you will need to clearly describe the issues related to the essay title e.g. Concepts and theoretical positions , you are expected to go further than mere description. This type of essay requires you to make a balanced and well argued case for the strength of one position over another.

You might do this by comparing and contrasting things such as arguments put forward by individual scholars. To explore all the elements involved in a particular concept or theory in an even handed way. In all cases, you will be expected to clearly describe what your essay is trying to do and define any essential terms present an argument that is balanced base any conclusions you draw on evidence present evidence using references to the original published work. It should reinforce your introduction and include a reference to the wording of the title. If your essay has presented evidence or data, ensure that the conclusions you draw are valid in the light of that evidence and data. Draw your conclusions cautiously: use phrases such as 'the evidence suggests that. Summarise the key elements of your argument clearly and concisely demonstrate how you've answered the question perhaps suggest what needs to be considered in the future.

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For an assignment of fewer than 1,500 words a conclusion of 50 100 words is probably enough repeat examples, phrases or sentences from the main body of your essay. The open university uses an adaptation of the harvard referencing style for most of its courses in other words, references are incorporated within the text parenthetically with a reference list. To cite books using the open university referencing system use the following: author in the form of surname and name/initials followed by a comma publication date in brackets, followed by a full stop title in italics followed by a comma place of publication followed by a comma publisher followed by a full stop. Thus, the citation of a book in the open university referencing system would read like this: brown, j. To cite an electronic source in the open university referencing style, use this format: author in the form of surname and name/initials followed by a comma publication date in brackets, followed by a comma title of document in italics followed by 'online' in square brackets followed by a comma publisher followed by a comma url date accessed in brackets. Hence, an electronic source in the open university referencing style would be cited thus: taylor, john, 2008 ou referencing online , the open university, we have multiple resources that will help you with your studies the skills team run the following relevant workshops: for all our workshops please visit our skills workshops page. Skills4studycampus has an interactive module on writing skills.

Being able to write a good essay is a key skill to master if you want to succeed at university. Here you find our top tips for creating effective essays to maximise your grades! most essay titles contain a key instruction word such as lsquo explain rsquo , lsquo discuss rsquo or lsquo analyse rsquo. These have specific meanings in the context of an academic essay and you can find a full list to help you here: as well as this instruction word, essays titles will usually also contain a topic and a focus. The topic is the big picture: the broad area that you are going to write about.

The focus is the specific aspect or aspects that you must concentrate on. You are never going to get a question that says 'write everything you know about x'. You need to make sure you focus on the particular aspects of x required by the question.

note that the instruction word is sometimes not explicit in the title itself but is just implied. individual open university courses have difference referencing styles and you will need to consult the course handbook to check which is expected of you. The open university offer the following general guidance on referencing: why is acknowledging your sources so important? it shows your tutor not only what you have been reading but also where you have been reading around the subject. It shows that the points you are making in your work are supported by other people your arguments are stronger if you can back up what you say with evidence. It enables other people reading your work to find the things you have referred to quickly and easily. You will be recognizing the intellectual input someone else has made to your work passing off someone else's work as your own is called plagiarism.

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How to organise references and bibliographies one of the main ways of avoiding plagiarism is to learn how to properly acknowledge the sources you have used in your work. There are two steps to acknowledging your sources: citing your references in the text, and listing them at the end of your work. Citing your references in the text means indicating in your work where you have used ideas that are not your own. Depending on how you are presenting these ideas, and the referencing 'style' you are using the example below shows the 'harvard' style , your citations might look like any of these: further work brown, 19 supports this claim. Further work by brown 19 supports this claim this theory is supported by recent work brown, 19, p.25 step 2: list your references at the end of your work once you have indicated in the text where you have used someone else's ideas, list all the information you used at the end, whether it is from books, journal articles or web pages these are called your 'references'.

References should contain all the information needed to identify the item, and these details should always appear in a standard and consistent form. Your list of references should list in full the sources that you consult for your research, and may also contain the sources which you find useful in developing your ideas but do not refer to. Electronic sources need to be cited systematically and consistently, just as printed sources do, so that others can identify and access them. The main difference lies in the need to indicate when you accessed the electronic source. This is because websites, for example, change quite frequently giving the date of access is therefore rather like specifying the edition of a book.

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Most journals and learned societies have their own requirements, the trick is to check with who you are writing for, pick a style and apply it consistently throughout your work. The examples here follow the open university house guide style which uses a version of the harvard system of citing references, which you might come across in your course materials. In the harvard system, references in the text are referred to by the author's name and year of publication and in the list of references once in alphabetical order. In the list of references at the end of your work, books, journal articles and web pages should be listed in the following formats: author's or editor's surname and initials, year of publication in brackets , title in italics , place of publication, publisher for example: chalke, s.

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Author's surname and initials, year of publication in brackets , title of article enclosed in single inverted commas , the title of the journal in italics , the volume, issue number and, if given, the date, and the pages on which the article appears for example: thompson, k. Author's surname and initials, year of publication if given in brackets , title of document in italics followed by 'online' in square brackets, publisher, 'available from' information such as the url and, in round brackets, the date you accessed the site for example: spitzer, k. 1998 information literacy: essential skills for the information age online , syracuse, n.y. Ed 427 780 available from: for information on how to cite other information types in the ou harvard style, download this helpsheet.

In a numbered style, instead of giving the author's name and year of publication, references in the text are given a number, sequentially as they appear in the text. In the reference list, they are then numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. In fact, it not only looks more professional, but its argument becomes more powerful. This is often only a hypothetical issue, but a look through the list of your references will allow others to judge your argument quickly. Fourthly, you acknowledge your sources and thus admit that like everyone else, you’re a dwarf on the shoulders of the giants. The essential bits of referencing require you to provide enough information to others so that they can identify the source.

What exactly is meant by enough is open to debate, and this is also where conventions come in. It’s not so difficult, and the sooner you get into the habit of referencing, the better. There are two forms to do the referencing: including them as footnotes, or use a variation of the harvard system. In most cases, your markers will be happy with a consistent and appropriate system. The harvard system is also known as author/date, and will be described here in more detail. Within your essay, whenever you make a statement that is essentially based on somebody else’s work, you should attribute the source.