Sunday, July 19, 2020

EP 09 Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing

EP 09 Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing EP 09: Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing EP 09: Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing Welcome to Episode 9 of The Homework Help Show! Last week, we investigated the core of what makes a good essay and how to get there. We discussed how to properly read over your assignment instructions and marking rubric, creating a framework, thesis statement, forming your key arguments, the importance of editing, and more! The Homework Help Show is our brand new show where we will teach, assist, and offer valuable insights on different topics related to students academic and personal lives. Want your questions answered? Ask your questions on social media using the hashtag #askHHG TRANSCRIPT: Cath Anne: [00:00:00] It is a super busy time of year so I know that people are probably a little bit backed up on work. I know that Im definitely feeling the heat and even people who arent in the world of academia are definitely feeling like its a busy time of year. Christmas time and the holiday season always seems to add that extra level of pressure and sometimes anxiety. But also theres a lot of good things that go along with the season as well because you know you have the opportunity to take a vacation during the holidays. Thats great too. Im actually just going to move my Instagram over a little bit so I can look at both cameras at the same time and Im going to jump into the content. Cath Anne: [00:00:54] This week we are going to talk about how to write an effective essay. We did talk about how to formulate an appropriate thesis statement. We talked about how to do really great research. This week I wanted to discuss some tips around how to write a really effective essay. I was hoping to be able to show you my screen so we can do a few exercises but I dont think that I have quite figured that out. We might have to not do that this week unfortunately. Cath Anne: [00:01:33] Welcome back to this weeks Livestream of the Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. This week were jumping back into some more academic content which is fun and Im going to be giving you some exclusive tips on how to make your essays the best essays that you could ever write. Cath Anne: [00:01:51] We want to get you an A+. OK. Cath Anne: [00:01:53] My cat is just jumping up on my lap here so Im just going to move him just give me one moment. My apologies for that. That sometimes happens I forget to put him away when Im in mid prepping for the for the stream. So hes away now. Otherwise he would just be bugging me the whole time. Hes sweet but I wouldnt be able to concentrate a few jumping up on me. Cath Anne: [00:02:32] Homework Help Global, we are a custom essay writing organization and we do help with editing and resume writing as well. Of course we want to give you the best value around how to write an essay and we want you to get good grades as well. So lets jump in and get into some of the good stuff that I have prepared. Cath Anne: [00:02:58] One of the first things you want to do when youre beginning to write an essay is make sure you understand the topic and the question thats being asked. This is where I wanted to get into some questions, which I did type up and we will go over them. But when youre doing an essay you want to take the essay prompt and kind of deconstruct it. So I like to go through an essay question and you can even print it off on a piece of paper. I know that we should be saving the trees so if you want to do this on your laptop that can be great too or you can write it out in a little notebook. I just find that it helps to have it in a physical copy so you can go through and actually underline things. Of course if you are doing an essay question during an exam certainly you will have that on a piece of paper as well so youll be able to do this. I have found it most effective during an exam to do that because it really deconstructing the essay question really helps to kind of fra me what youre going to write. Cath Anne: [00:04:24] Basically here is one essay question. So it begins: Critically analyze the key concepts of working cross culturally, specifically in regards to effective communication and the impact on your work practice. Cath Anne: [00:04:40] I wanted to use that as an example. So if we had this question, how would we break it down? The question begins: Critically analyze the key concepts of working cross culturally. That is the first line. So it begins with critically analyze. When youre talking about being critical you want to identify and discuss both the positive and negatives of an issue. So when Im looking at this question Im going underline [the word] critically. Analyze it means that youre also going to bring in some kind of analysis and argument to the question. Cath Anne: [00:05:21] Ill underline that or circle it [analyze] just so that I know that thats the crux of my paper. That is an essential component of the question because [it indicates] that the prof is obviously looking for some specific terms. So youre going to know that when they say these key concepts or key words that is a really important line to make note of. Cath Anne: [00:05:48] (To Instagram Viewer): Hi, Coach Kaur. I see that you joined us on Instagram. Thank you. Hope youre having a good week. Cath Anne: [00:06:02] To keep going with the question. The key concepts of working cross culturally, so youll probably underline cross culturally and maybe circle working because thats not quite as important. Youre going to want to underline key concepts and cross culturally because those are the key components of the question. Then specifically in regards to effective communication and the impact on your work practice so effective communication, that is one component of the question and you going to relate it to your own work practice. What that implies is that there will be a level of reflection embedded into your response in the paper. Cath Anne: [00:06:51] As mentioned, youre going through the process of trying to write an essay youll want to print that off or type it up in a Word document or write it out in a book and go through and physically underlying these components. This will give you a sense of what youre looking for when you are writing your essay. I just wanted to go over so there are different ways that a prof might indicate something to you in terms of what they want out of the essay. Cath Anne: [00:07:23] If they ask you to describe or summarize that basically just means to give the facts. The process or the event you want to describe the components of whatever they want you to describe. If theyre asking you to explain they want you to analyze something not simply describe or summarize it. Youre going to write you want to write it in a specific order. If theyre asking you to argue something youre going to systematically report or reject point. If they want you to discuss that theyre asking you to present a point of view. If theyre asking you to critique theyre asking you to identify and discuss both positive and negative aspects of an issue. Compare and contrast asks you do find similarities and differences between two issues or topics. Those are all the ways that a professor might frame an essay question. Cath Anne: [00:08:27] (To Instagram Viewer): Hi, The Neighbourly Consultant. Nice to see you. I see someone else joining us. Ira, I dont want to pronounce that name wrong, but its nice that you joined us as well. Cath Anne: [00:08:43] Were talking about how to write a great essay question and the first kind that I wanted to talk about is when you get the essay question how to kind of break it down and frame it out for yourself. Okay so moving on from there. From there once you have broken down the essay question youre going to want to go through your course notes and then even do a quick Google search. Cath Anne: [00:09:22] I know a prof would probably not be happy with me for saying this but sometimes when you want to get a good overall sense of the topic if you dont already know about it can be good to use Wikipedia just for your own reading because Wikipedia includes a lot of really good open source information. Please dont rely on that for an academic resource; thats just for your use in order to give an overview and a sense of what youre going to be writing about. Just do a little bit of brief research. Go over your content that youve acquired in class and then make sure that you have a really good grasp at the topic before you move on to the next question. Make sure youre using your sticky notes, you are using your highlighters, and youre really taking some time to figure out what that question means. Cath Anne: [00:10:24] The second component of writing a really good essay is taking the time to create a framework around your work. This will give you guidance on how to structure the essay. One of the most basic and helpful ways to structure an essay is to use the five-paragraph structure. It is really important to structure at your essay because this gives it a logical flow. Because the five-paragraph essay format is so common your professors or your reader will know what to expect. If anyone hasnt heard of the five-paragraph essay Im going to go through it a little bit more in-depth. Basically it is: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and then a conclusion. There are tons of templates that you can use if youre a type of person that likes to use a template. Cath Anne: [00:11:22] Take out a piece of paper and write down your topic and your research question or your thesis. Then writer your three body paragraphs and your conclusion. By doing this it gives you a bit of an outline to work with. The really best way to begin your essay is to write down your topic at the beginning of your page. Then you can work on figuring out what to include in your introduction. Use three body paragraphs and conclusion, which equals a standard five paragraph essay. Now, there are some people who might write have their topic and then write their body paragraphs but then write their introduction and conclusion to at the end because then it kind of summarizes everything. But when youre just starting out if youre an undergraduate student and you havent written many essays, the five-paragraph essay can give you a really strong basis. I would recommend writing your introduction first because it provides kind of a basis for you to go back to. In order to summarize everything and make sure that youre on the right track and that youre keeping focused. Cath Anne: [00:12:41] Then youre going to want to start planning each of your paragraphs. The introduction should open the discussion, introduce your argument, and indicate your response to the question. Remember that question that we talked about at the beginning youre going to make sure that in your introduction you are responding to that question. You will be formulating a thesis statement or research question around whatever the essay prompt indicates. Cath Anne: [00:13:15] You also want to make sure that your intro has a good hook. Even though academic writing can be a little bit dry maybe and somewhat professional, you dont want it to be boring. You want your reader to want to read your essay. You dont want them to just kind of toss it aside. What the hook means is that its going to hook your reader and so its going to make them engaged and interested. So you want to make sure that youre giving a good argument. Youre going to want to make your reader ask: Who cares about what you have to say. So like I said in Week 3 of The Learning Studio we talked about how to write a thesis statement. So if youre interested in accessing that session well put a link. Ill put a link in the comments below and you guys can take a look at how to write an effective thesis statement and some tips that I offered around that. Cath Anne: [00:14:24] Your argument is the most important part of your paper because it holds everything together. You can think about it kind of like the backbone of your essay. When youre making your argument youre going to want to make sure that its very strong so that you can fall back on that argument. Youll refer back to it several times throughout the paper. Youll be making reference to it in your body paragraphs as well. So you really want to make sure that it comes across strongly. Cath Anne: [00:15:09] In your introduction youre going to want to introduce your topic, introduce your thesis statement, and then you will want to discuss three points that youll be mentioning in each one of your body paragraphs. Keep in mind that you want your reader to know what to expect when they are reading your paper. In the introduction it can be really helpful to introduce the various points that youre going to be discussing and then tie them back into your argument. It also gives you something to fall back on when youre reading your essay. Each point that you make in your introduction will in turn correlate with each body paragraph throughout the essay. Once you move onto your body paragraphs youre going to want to make sure that each of your body paragraphs refers back to the introduction and each of the points that you made in your introduction. So make sure that you connect those dots although that seems kind of obvious. It can be challenging sometimes when youre in the m idst of writing an essay especially if youre doing it very quickly and within a time crunch to kind of forget and lose your way because you want to finish it. Cath Anne: [00:16:41] Thats why it can be really good to start with a strong introduction and introduce those body paragraphs and make sure that each body paragraph is referring back to the introduction. In each body paragraph youre going to use references and data that youve retrieved to kind of flush out those pieces of information. Youre going to use supporting evidence to connect it back to your argument that youre making, the one you introduced and your initial paragraph. Cath Anne: [00:17:16] Then in your conclusion that is where youre going to bring everything together and summarize everything. I wanted to make the point that in your conclusion youre not introducing any new information you are basically just summarizing everything that you already just talked about. Its really important that you dont bring up anything new you dont draw on any new theories or anything like that. Youre basically summarizing your argument and then summarizing all the body paragraphs and linking them back to the argument, that is your conclusion. So, thats basically the structure of a five-paragraph essay. Cath Anne: [00:18:01] The next portion that I wanted to discuss is to write in stages. Once youve completed the plan for your paper you can begin with the first draft. So the plan is basically your outline. Youve broken everything down into your introduction. You know what your argument is. You understand each body paragraph and what points you are going to make in your body paragraph and then your conclusion. Once you have completed that outline, then you can begin writing your essay. At that point youre just going to want to let your ideas flow. It can be really easy when youre writing to get stuck and get a little bit of writers block. But at this point rely on your outline and just let the ideas flow. Get them down on paper especially if you have a high word count. Cath Anne: [00:19:02] Youre not going to want to hold yourself back because in this if youre giving yourself enough time youre going to have lots of time to edit. Let the ideas flow, access all the research you can. Incorporate all your resources and just kind of go from there. Lean on your outline. Thats why its important to use an outline. Cath Anne: [00:19:32] It is also important to be mindful of when youre writing not to rely on the words I or me especially in academic writing. Now there are times where the prof will suggest that you are able to use the I or me. However, that would be in a reflective paper. I used to write a lot of those kind of reflective papers in social work school. We were allowed by the prof to use I or me. In general academia you dont use I or me in your writing. Its best to write in third person and not first person. So just make sure that youre writing in stages giving yourself time to edit and relying on your outline. Cath Anne: [00:20:32] Moving on to editing. Many of us do not give ourselves enough time to edit. A lot of students do not edit their work. You know I have to be honest I sometimes was a procrastinator. I was pretty good. Like I usually had time to overview my essay a couple of times before I passed it in. Even if you are an incredibly amazing writer youre still going to need to edit because youre going to make mistakes. Its just the nature of human beings. We all make mistakes so we all have to edit. Make sure that youre giving yourself a lot of time to edit and proofread. And again I know that it is best to save paper if we can, but in this case it can be really helpful to actually print off your essay and do the same thing that you did with the initial essay question just go through and highlight things, underline things, cross things out, and then you can go back onto your computer and type up and insert all of the edits that you made. Cath Anne: [00:21:48] I know that a lot of people rely on the computer these days running spell checks. I am guilty of that for sure. Those programs can be really helpful. There is one called Grammarly and it helps in correcting grammar. Its really helpful but really getting in the practice of actually physically editing your work on your own is effective. So I would recommend getting into that habit. When you edit youre looking for spelling issues, grammar issues, and making sure that the essay flows overall and its succinctly focused on your topic. If youre going off the rails a little bit you want to make sure that you kind of rephrase things in order to bring it back to the topic. You want to at least spend 15 minutes proofreading your essay. If youre not a procrastinator, its going to be really easy and beneficial for you to go back and edit your essay. So make sure that youre doing that. You can definitely, even if you take the time to do it for 15 minutes or even half an hour. You can you can potentially raise your grade by 5 percent which could be almost the letter grade or half a letter grade. So its important to take some time to edit. Cath Anne: [00:23:22] Another component of essay writing which is essential is to make sure that youre conscious of all of the components that go into essay writing. The prof will usually, when theyre giving you an outline for an essay, they will put all of their requirements in the description of the assignment. Make sure that youre paying attention to those. Dont only pay attention to the essay question and then just start writing. Sometimes professors can dock marks if you fail to adhere to their requirements. What Im talking about is making sure that youre using the correct reference style whether its MLA or APA or Chicago format. Make sure that youre using the one that is appropriate for the discipline that youre writing for and usually your prof will make note of that on the assignment template. The second piece is to make sure that along with that include in text citations and that they are all in the correct format as well. Cath Anne: [00:24:41] Then make certain that youre using the correct format for your title page. For APA format youll want to have a running header at the beginning up at the top and on each page and youre going to have page numbers on each one. Youll have a title page with the title and your name and the institution and the profs name. In MLA format its a bit different. You put all the information up in the top left corner. You put a page number up to the right, with your last name beside it. Make sure that you access Owl Purdue, which has the breakdown of the various referencing formats. Make sure that youre accessing those sites. Where youre able to see the appropriate format for that discipline and for what your prof is asking you to do. Cath Anne: [00:25:48] Another thing that you want to check for is that you have the right word count. Make sure that when youre when youve finished your essay that youre meeting the required word count or required page count depending on what your professor is asking you to do. Also be conscious that youre not counting words that are in your title page or your references in your word count or your page count because usually those dont count. There may be the very rare time where a professor might say that counts as your word count but Ive never really seen it. Make sure that youre only counting the body of your work in the word count. Cath Anne: [00:26:34] Another tip is if you can and this is something that I used to really have a problem with when I was in my undergrad because I wrote a lot of English papers and I wasnt really good at paraphrasing things so I really had trouble kind of taking the information that I read and then paraphrasing it to put it into an essay. I would often rely on block quotations. Id have a paragraph introduction, and then Id have four or five lines of an indented block quotation and then another paragraph and then in another block quotation. What happens is that the prof doesnt recognize if you are really grasping the concepts because youre relying only on quotations to make your argument. So make sure that you develop the skill of being able to paraphrase and summarize. Cath Anne: [00:27:30] Lets discuss a bit of the difference around that. Paraphrasing refers the process of taking some language and reworking it in your own words but still capturing the same theme. You really want to make sure that you are not plagiarizing when you do this because it can be really tempting especially if somethings written very eloquently and you dont feel that you can do it justice. You may be tempted to copy it and think that no one will notice. That is not the case because we have programs now, which can track where theres whether things have been plagiarized, or not. So it is likely that when your prof runs something through the plagiarism checker and it comes up as plagiarized then you could be docked for that. So make sure when youre paraphrasing really break down the concepts in the same way that you did in the initial question really breaks down the concepts in that paragraph. Cath Anne: [00:28:34] If you think its a really strong paragraph that you want to include in your essay then certainly use it but you have to put it in your own words so make sure youre going through underlining highlighting circling and then reworking it in your own words. Theres no shame in using a thesaurus or a dictionary to flesh out and figure out new words to use that capture the same essence. Cath Anne: [00:29:01] Then I wanted to differentiate between paraphrasing and summarizing. Paraphrasing is where youre taking something and putting it into your own words, whereas summarizing is you are regurgitating the same information just in different words. So theyre very similar. Summarizing is kind of getting more to the crux of the theme of something, while paraphrasing is youre almost saying word for word what it is just in different language. Yes. Cath Anne: [00:29:50] So make sure that when you do quote some thing, and there are times when you can use quotations. Sometimes profs will you will want you to do that particularly in literature courses or English courses theyll want you to cite directly from the work. So there will be times when you will have to rely on direct quotations. It wont be plagiarism as long as you cite it properly so make sure youre going back to your citation guides. Make sure youre putting your in text citations into your essay and what that means is just putting a citation right beside where your quotation is and making sure that youre indicating that that is not your words. That is the words of whoever wrote the essay. Then include that citation within your works cited or your references at the end of your essay. Cath Anne: [00:30:54] Universities take plagiarism very seriously. You could end up either failing a class or even getting expelled from the program if you are caught plagiarizing. That is something that we take seriously at homework help as well, just making sure that we are offering the highest quality of writing and not plagiarizing at all. All of our stuff is run through plagiarism checkers as well. It is really important that we are all using our own words to communicate in an academic form. Cath Anne: [00:31:37] So that is actually all the information I have for you guys this week. Cath Anne: [00:36:50] This weeks session was a little bit short and sweet. I know everyones super busy. You guys are doing great. Im so happy that this semester is winding down and I know that you can get through this next little while with the same vigor that you gave the rest of the year long. Then you get a nice break for the holiday. So this is Cath Anne signing off with Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. Cath Anne: [00:37:21] If you guys want to access us we are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Plus, YouTube, Medium. Now we are also on SoundCloud Anchor, iTunes Apple Podcast and Google Play Music. So just search Homework Help Global and you will be able to find us. [00:37:45] Otherwise jump back on with me next week at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. We will probably be talking more academic content next week. If you have any questions leave them on Instagram and our DMs. You can leave them on Facebook in the comments. You can leave them in on our YouTube channel or even tweet us on Twitter. You can use #askHHG and we will get them. Well respond to them and include them in our next session. So thank you guys so much for joining me. I hope that was helpful and good luck with all your essay writing. Have a good week! EP 09 Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing EP 09: Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing EP 09: Essay Writing Hacks, Essay Outlines, Writing in Stages Editing Welcome to Episode 9 of The Homework Help Show! Last week, we investigated the core of what makes a good essay and how to get there. We discussed how to properly read over your assignment instructions and marking rubric, creating a framework, thesis statement, forming your key arguments, the importance of editing, and more! The Homework Help Show is our brand new show where we will teach, assist, and offer valuable insights on different topics related to students academic and personal lives. Want your questions answered? Ask your questions on social media using the hashtag #askHHG TRANSCRIPT: Cath Anne: [00:00:00] It is a super busy time of year so I know that people are probably a little bit backed up on work. I know that Im definitely feeling the heat and even people who arent in the world of academia are definitely feeling like its a busy time of year. Christmas time and the holiday season always seems to add that extra level of pressure and sometimes anxiety. But also theres a lot of good things that go along with the season as well because you know you have the opportunity to take a vacation during the holidays. Thats great too. Im actually just going to move my Instagram over a little bit so I can look at both cameras at the same time and Im going to jump into the content. Cath Anne: [00:00:54] This week we are going to talk about how to write an effective essay. We did talk about how to formulate an appropriate thesis statement. We talked about how to do really great research. This week I wanted to discuss some tips around how to write a really effective essay. I was hoping to be able to show you my screen so we can do a few exercises but I dont think that I have quite figured that out. We might have to not do that this week unfortunately. Cath Anne: [00:01:33] Welcome back to this weeks Livestream of the Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. This week were jumping back into some more academic content which is fun and Im going to be giving you some exclusive tips on how to make your essays the best essays that you could ever write. Cath Anne: [00:01:51] We want to get you an A+. OK. Cath Anne: [00:01:53] My cat is just jumping up on my lap here so Im just going to move him just give me one moment. My apologies for that. That sometimes happens I forget to put him away when Im in mid prepping for the for the stream. So hes away now. Otherwise he would just be bugging me the whole time. Hes sweet but I wouldnt be able to concentrate a few jumping up on me. Cath Anne: [00:02:32] Homework Help Global, we are a custom essay writing organization and we do help with editing and resume writing as well. Of course we want to give you the best value around how to write an essay and we want you to get good grades as well. So lets jump in and get into some of the good stuff that I have prepared. Cath Anne: [00:02:58] One of the first things you want to do when youre beginning to write an essay is make sure you understand the topic and the question thats being asked. This is where I wanted to get into some questions, which I did type up and we will go over them. But when youre doing an essay you want to take the essay prompt and kind of deconstruct it. So I like to go through an essay question and you can even print it off on a piece of paper. I know that we should be saving the trees so if you want to do this on your laptop that can be great too or you can write it out in a little notebook. I just find that it helps to have it in a physical copy so you can go through and actually underline things. Of course if you are doing an essay question during an exam certainly you will have that on a piece of paper as well so youll be able to do this. I have found it most effective during an exam to do that because it really deconstructing the essay question really helps to kind of fra me what youre going to write. Cath Anne: [00:04:24] Basically here is one essay question. So it begins: Critically analyze the key concepts of working cross culturally, specifically in regards to effective communication and the impact on your work practice. Cath Anne: [00:04:40] I wanted to use that as an example. So if we had this question, how would we break it down? The question begins: Critically analyze the key concepts of working cross culturally. That is the first line. So it begins with critically analyze. When youre talking about being critical you want to identify and discuss both the positive and negatives of an issue. So when Im looking at this question Im going underline [the word] critically. Analyze it means that youre also going to bring in some kind of analysis and argument to the question. Cath Anne: [00:05:21] Ill underline that or circle it [analyze] just so that I know that thats the crux of my paper. That is an essential component of the question because [it indicates] that the prof is obviously looking for some specific terms. So youre going to know that when they say these key concepts or key words that is a really important line to make note of. Cath Anne: [00:05:48] (To Instagram Viewer): Hi, Coach Kaur. I see that you joined us on Instagram. Thank you. Hope youre having a good week. Cath Anne: [00:06:02] To keep going with the question. The key concepts of working cross culturally, so youll probably underline cross culturally and maybe circle working because thats not quite as important. Youre going to want to underline key concepts and cross culturally because those are the key components of the question. Then specifically in regards to effective communication and the impact on your work practice so effective communication, that is one component of the question and you going to relate it to your own work practice. What that implies is that there will be a level of reflection embedded into your response in the paper. Cath Anne: [00:06:51] As mentioned, youre going through the process of trying to write an essay youll want to print that off or type it up in a Word document or write it out in a book and go through and physically underlying these components. This will give you a sense of what youre looking for when you are writing your essay. I just wanted to go over so there are different ways that a prof might indicate something to you in terms of what they want out of the essay. Cath Anne: [00:07:23] If they ask you to describe or summarize that basically just means to give the facts. The process or the event you want to describe the components of whatever they want you to describe. If theyre asking you to explain they want you to analyze something not simply describe or summarize it. Youre going to write you want to write it in a specific order. If theyre asking you to argue something youre going to systematically report or reject point. If they want you to discuss that theyre asking you to present a point of view. If theyre asking you to critique theyre asking you to identify and discuss both positive and negative aspects of an issue. Compare and contrast asks you do find similarities and differences between two issues or topics. Those are all the ways that a professor might frame an essay question. Cath Anne: [00:08:27] (To Instagram Viewer): Hi, The Neighbourly Consultant. Nice to see you. I see someone else joining us. Ira, I dont want to pronounce that name wrong, but its nice that you joined us as well. Cath Anne: [00:08:43] Were talking about how to write a great essay question and the first kind that I wanted to talk about is when you get the essay question how to kind of break it down and frame it out for yourself. Okay so moving on from there. From there once you have broken down the essay question youre going to want to go through your course notes and then even do a quick Google search. Cath Anne: [00:09:22] I know a prof would probably not be happy with me for saying this but sometimes when you want to get a good overall sense of the topic if you dont already know about it can be good to use Wikipedia just for your own reading because Wikipedia includes a lot of really good open source information. Please dont rely on that for an academic resource; thats just for your use in order to give an overview and a sense of what youre going to be writing about. Just do a little bit of brief research. Go over your content that youve acquired in class and then make sure that you have a really good grasp at the topic before you move on to the next question. Make sure youre using your sticky notes, you are using your highlighters, and youre really taking some time to figure out what that question means. Cath Anne: [00:10:24] The second component of writing a really good essay is taking the time to create a framework around your work. This will give you guidance on how to structure the essay. One of the most basic and helpful ways to structure an essay is to use the five-paragraph structure. It is really important to structure at your essay because this gives it a logical flow. Because the five-paragraph essay format is so common your professors or your reader will know what to expect. If anyone hasnt heard of the five-paragraph essay Im going to go through it a little bit more in-depth. Basically it is: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and then a conclusion. There are tons of templates that you can use if youre a type of person that likes to use a template. Cath Anne: [00:11:22] Take out a piece of paper and write down your topic and your research question or your thesis. Then writer your three body paragraphs and your conclusion. By doing this it gives you a bit of an outline to work with. The really best way to begin your essay is to write down your topic at the beginning of your page. Then you can work on figuring out what to include in your introduction. Use three body paragraphs and conclusion, which equals a standard five paragraph essay. Now, there are some people who might write have their topic and then write their body paragraphs but then write their introduction and conclusion to at the end because then it kind of summarizes everything. But when youre just starting out if youre an undergraduate student and you havent written many essays, the five-paragraph essay can give you a really strong basis. I would recommend writing your introduction first because it provides kind of a basis for you to go back to. In order to summarize everything and make sure that youre on the right track and that youre keeping focused. Cath Anne: [00:12:41] Then youre going to want to start planning each of your paragraphs. The introduction should open the discussion, introduce your argument, and indicate your response to the question. Remember that question that we talked about at the beginning youre going to make sure that in your introduction you are responding to that question. You will be formulating a thesis statement or research question around whatever the essay prompt indicates. Cath Anne: [00:13:15] You also want to make sure that your intro has a good hook. Even though academic writing can be a little bit dry maybe and somewhat professional, you dont want it to be boring. You want your reader to want to read your essay. You dont want them to just kind of toss it aside. What the hook means is that its going to hook your reader and so its going to make them engaged and interested. So you want to make sure that youre giving a good argument. Youre going to want to make your reader ask: Who cares about what you have to say. So like I said in Week 3 of The Learning Studio we talked about how to write a thesis statement. So if youre interested in accessing that session well put a link. Ill put a link in the comments below and you guys can take a look at how to write an effective thesis statement and some tips that I offered around that. Cath Anne: [00:14:24] Your argument is the most important part of your paper because it holds everything together. You can think about it kind of like the backbone of your essay. When youre making your argument youre going to want to make sure that its very strong so that you can fall back on that argument. Youll refer back to it several times throughout the paper. Youll be making reference to it in your body paragraphs as well. So you really want to make sure that it comes across strongly. Cath Anne: [00:15:09] In your introduction youre going to want to introduce your topic, introduce your thesis statement, and then you will want to discuss three points that youll be mentioning in each one of your body paragraphs. Keep in mind that you want your reader to know what to expect when they are reading your paper. In the introduction it can be really helpful to introduce the various points that youre going to be discussing and then tie them back into your argument. It also gives you something to fall back on when youre reading your essay. Each point that you make in your introduction will in turn correlate with each body paragraph throughout the essay. Once you move onto your body paragraphs youre going to want to make sure that each of your body paragraphs refers back to the introduction and each of the points that you made in your introduction. So make sure that you connect those dots although that seems kind of obvious. It can be challenging sometimes when youre in the m idst of writing an essay especially if youre doing it very quickly and within a time crunch to kind of forget and lose your way because you want to finish it. Cath Anne: [00:16:41] Thats why it can be really good to start with a strong introduction and introduce those body paragraphs and make sure that each body paragraph is referring back to the introduction. In each body paragraph youre going to use references and data that youve retrieved to kind of flush out those pieces of information. Youre going to use supporting evidence to connect it back to your argument that youre making, the one you introduced and your initial paragraph. Cath Anne: [00:17:16] Then in your conclusion that is where youre going to bring everything together and summarize everything. I wanted to make the point that in your conclusion youre not introducing any new information you are basically just summarizing everything that you already just talked about. Its really important that you dont bring up anything new you dont draw on any new theories or anything like that. Youre basically summarizing your argument and then summarizing all the body paragraphs and linking them back to the argument, that is your conclusion. So, thats basically the structure of a five-paragraph essay. Cath Anne: [00:18:01] The next portion that I wanted to discuss is to write in stages. Once youve completed the plan for your paper you can begin with the first draft. So the plan is basically your outline. Youve broken everything down into your introduction. You know what your argument is. You understand each body paragraph and what points you are going to make in your body paragraph and then your conclusion. Once you have completed that outline, then you can begin writing your essay. At that point youre just going to want to let your ideas flow. It can be really easy when youre writing to get stuck and get a little bit of writers block. But at this point rely on your outline and just let the ideas flow. Get them down on paper especially if you have a high word count. Cath Anne: [00:19:02] Youre not going to want to hold yourself back because in this if youre giving yourself enough time youre going to have lots of time to edit. Let the ideas flow, access all the research you can. Incorporate all your resources and just kind of go from there. Lean on your outline. Thats why its important to use an outline. Cath Anne: [00:19:32] It is also important to be mindful of when youre writing not to rely on the words I or me especially in academic writing. Now there are times where the prof will suggest that you are able to use the I or me. However, that would be in a reflective paper. I used to write a lot of those kind of reflective papers in social work school. We were allowed by the prof to use I or me. In general academia you dont use I or me in your writing. Its best to write in third person and not first person. So just make sure that youre writing in stages giving yourself time to edit and relying on your outline. Cath Anne: [00:20:32] Moving on to editing. Many of us do not give ourselves enough time to edit. A lot of students do not edit their work. You know I have to be honest I sometimes was a procrastinator. I was pretty good. Like I usually had time to overview my essay a couple of times before I passed it in. Even if you are an incredibly amazing writer youre still going to need to edit because youre going to make mistakes. Its just the nature of human beings. We all make mistakes so we all have to edit. Make sure that youre giving yourself a lot of time to edit and proofread. And again I know that it is best to save paper if we can, but in this case it can be really helpful to actually print off your essay and do the same thing that you did with the initial essay question just go through and highlight things, underline things, cross things out, and then you can go back onto your computer and type up and insert all of the edits that you made. Cath Anne: [00:21:48] I know that a lot of people rely on the computer these days running spell checks. I am guilty of that for sure. Those programs can be really helpful. There is one called Grammarly and it helps in correcting grammar. Its really helpful but really getting in the practice of actually physically editing your work on your own is effective. So I would recommend getting into that habit. When you edit youre looking for spelling issues, grammar issues, and making sure that the essay flows overall and its succinctly focused on your topic. If youre going off the rails a little bit you want to make sure that you kind of rephrase things in order to bring it back to the topic. You want to at least spend 15 minutes proofreading your essay. If youre not a procrastinator, its going to be really easy and beneficial for you to go back and edit your essay. So make sure that youre doing that. You can definitely, even if you take the time to do it for 15 minutes or even half an hour. You can you can potentially raise your grade by 5 percent which could be almost the letter grade or half a letter grade. So its important to take some time to edit. Cath Anne: [00:23:22] Another component of essay writing which is essential is to make sure that youre conscious of all of the components that go into essay writing. The prof will usually, when theyre giving you an outline for an essay, they will put all of their requirements in the description of the assignment. Make sure that youre paying attention to those. Dont only pay attention to the essay question and then just start writing. Sometimes professors can dock marks if you fail to adhere to their requirements. What Im talking about is making sure that youre using the correct reference style whether its MLA or APA or Chicago format. Make sure that youre using the one that is appropriate for the discipline that youre writing for and usually your prof will make note of that on the assignment template. The second piece is to make sure that along with that include in text citations and that they are all in the correct format as well. Cath Anne: [00:24:41] Then make certain that youre using the correct format for your title page. For APA format youll want to have a running header at the beginning up at the top and on each page and youre going to have page numbers on each one. Youll have a title page with the title and your name and the institution and the profs name. In MLA format its a bit different. You put all the information up in the top left corner. You put a page number up to the right, with your last name beside it. Make sure that you access Owl Purdue, which has the breakdown of the various referencing formats. Make sure that youre accessing those sites. Where youre able to see the appropriate format for that discipline and for what your prof is asking you to do. Cath Anne: [00:25:48] Another thing that you want to check for is that you have the right word count. Make sure that when youre when youve finished your essay that youre meeting the required word count or required page count depending on what your professor is asking you to do. Also be conscious that youre not counting words that are in your title page or your references in your word count or your page count because usually those dont count. There may be the very rare time where a professor might say that counts as your word count but Ive never really seen it. Make sure that youre only counting the body of your work in the word count. Cath Anne: [00:26:34] Another tip is if you can and this is something that I used to really have a problem with when I was in my undergrad because I wrote a lot of English papers and I wasnt really good at paraphrasing things so I really had trouble kind of taking the information that I read and then paraphrasing it to put it into an essay. I would often rely on block quotations. Id have a paragraph introduction, and then Id have four or five lines of an indented block quotation and then another paragraph and then in another block quotation. What happens is that the prof doesnt recognize if you are really grasping the concepts because youre relying only on quotations to make your argument. So make sure that you develop the skill of being able to paraphrase and summarize. Cath Anne: [00:27:30] Lets discuss a bit of the difference around that. Paraphrasing refers the process of taking some language and reworking it in your own words but still capturing the same theme. You really want to make sure that you are not plagiarizing when you do this because it can be really tempting especially if somethings written very eloquently and you dont feel that you can do it justice. You may be tempted to copy it and think that no one will notice. That is not the case because we have programs now, which can track where theres whether things have been plagiarized, or not. So it is likely that when your prof runs something through the plagiarism checker and it comes up as plagiarized then you could be docked for that. So make sure when youre paraphrasing really break down the concepts in the same way that you did in the initial question really breaks down the concepts in that paragraph. Cath Anne: [00:28:34] If you think its a really strong paragraph that you want to include in your essay then certainly use it but you have to put it in your own words so make sure youre going through underlining highlighting circling and then reworking it in your own words. Theres no shame in using a thesaurus or a dictionary to flesh out and figure out new words to use that capture the same essence. Cath Anne: [00:29:01] Then I wanted to differentiate between paraphrasing and summarizing. Paraphrasing is where youre taking something and putting it into your own words, whereas summarizing is you are regurgitating the same information just in different words. So theyre very similar. Summarizing is kind of getting more to the crux of the theme of something, while paraphrasing is youre almost saying word for word what it is just in different language. Yes. Cath Anne: [00:29:50] So make sure that when you do quote some thing, and there are times when you can use quotations. Sometimes profs will you will want you to do that particularly in literature courses or English courses theyll want you to cite directly from the work. So there will be times when you will have to rely on direct quotations. It wont be plagiarism as long as you cite it properly so make sure youre going back to your citation guides. Make sure youre putting your in text citations into your essay and what that means is just putting a citation right beside where your quotation is and making sure that youre indicating that that is not your words. That is the words of whoever wrote the essay. Then include that citation within your works cited or your references at the end of your essay. Cath Anne: [00:30:54] Universities take plagiarism very seriously. You could end up either failing a class or even getting expelled from the program if you are caught plagiarizing. That is something that we take seriously at homework help as well, just making sure that we are offering the highest quality of writing and not plagiarizing at all. All of our stuff is run through plagiarism checkers as well. It is really important that we are all using our own words to communicate in an academic form. Cath Anne: [00:31:37] So that is actually all the information I have for you guys this week. Cath Anne: [00:36:50] This weeks session was a little bit short and sweet. I know everyones super busy. You guys are doing great. Im so happy that this semester is winding down and I know that you can get through this next little while with the same vigor that you gave the rest of the year long. Then you get a nice break for the holiday. So this is Cath Anne signing off with Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. Cath Anne: [00:37:21] If you guys want to access us we are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Plus, YouTube, Medium. Now we are also on SoundCloud Anchor, iTunes Apple Podcast and Google Play Music. So just search Homework Help Global and you will be able to find us. [00:37:45] Otherwise jump back on with me next week at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Homework Help Globals The Learning Studio. We will probably be talking more academic content next week. If you have any questions leave them on Instagram and our DMs. You can leave them on Facebook in the comments. You can leave them in on our YouTube channel or even tweet us on Twitter. You can use #askHHG and we will get them. Well respond to them and include them in our next session. So thank you guys so much for joining me. I hope that was helpful and good luck with all your essay writing. Have a good week!

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