Academic writing at the university level is both a discipline and an art-form, and learning how to approach it first requires a solid skill-base in critical and analytical note-taking.
When it comes to writing essays, whatever the subject, preparation in the form of essay notes is key. Below is a structured, easy-to-follow three-point plan to ensure that you are producing these essay notes as effectively as possible.
Firstly, before even beginning to approach your essay notes, make sure that everything contained in the rubric of your assignment is crystal clear from the outset. If anything is unclear, it is important to contact your tutor, supervisor, or professor as soon as possible. The worst thing would be to simply plough on and end up with essay notes (or even a fully-written essay) that fail to address the task at hand, solely because you did not understand all or some of the terminology used in the question.
Once everything is set, here are some ideas for taking essay notes more efficiently:
Once you feel armed with a topic about which you have plenty to say, get out a blank piece of paper and start brainstorming the key themes that will form the distinct sections of your essay. Simple lists of ideas can be a good start, but spider diagrams are usually the best way to get your thoughts together in one place:
This is now effectively your essay plan: your core thesis or argument should be starting to take shape, and it should be easier to trace the movement from general themes to specific examples that makes up any successful essay. This diagram is not meant to replace your more detailed essay notes, but to coordinate them: the more organised your essay plan, the less time you’ll spend trawling through that stack of essay notes in front of you.
To complete your essay plan, number your boxes to give the most logical progression to your overall argument, and draw dotted lines between points that are closely linked or specific examples that can be compared and/or contrasted. This approach will also add a greater sense of structure and reasoning to your essay, both of which are often lacking at the undergraduate level. As a rough guide, a standard 2,000-word undergraduate essay can be completed with three such sections (500 words each), plus introduction and conclusion (250 words each).
Now that your essay notes are in order, your own critical voice should become more apparent when it comes to the writing stage.
Remember that, at the university level, an essay looking closely and evocatively at one distinct part of a text or an issue is far more likely to succeed than a broad overview of everything you know on the subject. Limit your environment and examine it thoroughly using not all but your most significant essay notes. Successful essays (and essay notes) also avoid merely paraphrasing or summarising what has already been said in class—think about the ways in which those discussions might be extended using your own ideas. Ultimately, your essay should never revolve solely around “the text says X” or “then X happened’, but also how and potentially why.
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