Basic Essay Writing Guide
If you would like a clear basic guide
to writing an essay, here it is. You
will need to adapt this to suit your
needs but it is a very good general
model. The essay is based on an
assignment about the contribution
of key Victorian engineers to the
Industrial Revolution in Britain.
Good essay writing depends on you knowing how to write in
paragraphs. If you are not sure how to do this you can follow our
simple paragraph guide below or look at the BBC Skillswise guide:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/extendedreading/controlledassess
mentrev3.shtml
A good essay will contain a beginning, a middle and an end. These
are normally called the introduction, main body of the essay and
the conclusion.
Introductions
An introduction is a paragraph. It tells the reader what you will be
saying in your essay. The first sentence is the topic sentence. e.g.
Engineering played a huge part in shaping the Industrial Revolution in
Britain.
The next few sentences will each make one point which you will
use later on in your essay.
Engineering made new methods of transport possible.
Some engineers helped speed up the process of manufacture.
Others inventive engineers developed the use of new materials
Your final sentence will round off your paragraph with a sentence
that sums up what you are trying to say.
Without the contribution of engineering in Victorian Britain we would not
have the technological infrastructure we enjoy today.
The Main Body of your Essay
In an essay, the main body has a number of paragraphs. Each
paragraph is based on one of the middle sentences in your
introduction. So in our example the first paragraph might show
the contribution engineers made to transport.
Victorian engineers like George and Robert Stephenson as well as Isambard
Kingdom Brunel were responsible for rapidly improving communications in
Britain. George Stephenson engineered Britain's first intercity rail link
between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830 (Smiles, 2011). This enabled
factories in Manchester to import and export via Britain's biggest port,
Liverpool. Brunel was responsible for building steamships like the Great
Britain which made transatlantic travel and commerce more reliable (Dugan,
2003). This enabled more efficient trade links with America. Engineering in
the 1800's therefore helped the Industrial Revolution get people and goods to
the places needed for industry to succeed.
Now let’s look at how Paragraphs are written.
Paragraph Writing
Think of paragraphs as the basic building blocks of your essay,
assignment or report. Each paragraph should really be able to
stand on its own as a piece of writing though it will of course link
to the rest of your work. Treat paragraphs like a mini-essay; they
should have a beginning, middle and end.
A paragraph should have one specific idea and that idea should be
the subject of the first sentence. For example:
Victorian Coal mining was often a dangerous business with little heed being
given to the safety of workers, many of whom were children.
The next sentence or group of sentences should provide some
evidence to back up your initial statement:
(Gallop, 2003) explains that children as young as 8 were often employed to
open ventilation doors or to push the coal carts underground. He also recalls
the terrifying mining disaster in Silkstone, Yorkshire when 26 children were
killed as workings flooded after a summer lightning storm in 1838.
The remaining sentence or sentences should provide an argument
or development; that is it should use the evidence you have
provided to make a specific point.
The appalling loss of children’s lives during this period of history lead to a
growing realisation among those in Parliament that more needed to be done to
protect industrial workers. The result was the Mines and Collieries Act of
1842.
Conclusions
Conclusions never present new information. Ideally they should
be no more than a paragraph in length. The first sentence is quite
often an opening one that sums up what your essay has been about
overall:
In summary then the role of Engineering in Victorian Britain was a pivotal
one in bringing about great economic advancements for British Society.
The remaining sentences should some up the content of the main
body of your essay. Use one sentence for each paragraph.
Engineers like Brunel, Stephenson and Locke expanded the system of
communication within Britain and overseas by designing steam railways and
reliable ocean going vessels. The new railways and ships got the raw materials
to the factories efficiently and cheaply and allowed the development of mass
market economics by getting goods to customers rapidly. Engineers like
Nasmyth made vast improvements to iron and steel production making larger
components for factories and for transport infrastructure more feasible. In
Electrical Engineering Cooke and Wheatstone had revolutionised
communications by setting up a viable telegraph system that made steam
railways and transatlantic transport safer and more viable.
The final sentence on sentences is there to sum up the impact of
the material you have covered.
Victorian Engineering changed the British economy beyond all recognition and
by the midpoint of Queen Victoria’s reign British exports had more than
tripled (Dugan, 2003) turning Britain into one of the wealthiest and most
influential economies in the world.
References Section
(see also ‘An Introduction to Referencing’ pp 37-38)
Referencing correctly is an essential skill in assignment writing. It
allows whoever is reading your work to see how you have drawn
on the work of others legitimately without plagiarism. As well as
having a full reference section to all your sources at the end of
your assignment you will also need to need to reference (make
citations) every time you refer to somebody else’s work in your
text.
Referencing can seem very complicated. Not all subjects use the
same referencing criteria. For example Psychology, Modern
Languages and Sociology all use different systems. Grwp
Llandrillo Menai generally uses Harvard Referencing but if in
doubt, your tutor will tell you what method to use.
We do have a number of guides in the College Library on how to
reference as well as information on Moodle. The reference to one
of these is in the booklist at the end of this handbook.
Whatever method you use, the most important thing is
consistency. Always follow exactly the same format.