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Producing a First Class essay

Depends completely on your subject and university. Pretty much everything in this thread is useless to someone not doing that particular degree. Some of this stuff is dead wrong for my subject.

Reply 21

username196545

19

Original post by Craig_D

Find every kind of relevant source you can, as kat2pult suggests. Try and reference them all.

Make your pre-essay narrative lead your choice and order of sources, rather than just letting your sources form your narrative during writing. We've all done the latter at some point, and you could easily get 65-70 that way, but really the best essays are the ones where you've done enough reading to know the direction you want to take before you start writing.

Use of relevant pictures, anywhere from 2 to 4. Easy marks.

Adequate proof-reading to avoid silly errors. Correct referencing, again another area where many people lose marks needlessly.

A couple of hundred words over the word limit is always better that a couple of hundred under. One of my highest scoring essays was about 30% over.

Haha, you say that but at SOAS if you go even one word over the word limit you're penalised. Whereas there's no lower limit, so you can write 500 words without being penalised.

Reply 22

kittyb99

11

Original post by Craig_D

Yeah, the department generally had a 10% rule, but 10% over was still better than 10% under. For some reason that specific lecturer had a 30% boundary, I guess he wanted to give more freedom for producing what the student felt was a good length.

I feel that my list was rather incomplete but I don't know what else to add. I think though that with loads of practice you get a 'feel' for it.

We're always told: "As long as I'm not bored, I don't really care how much over the word count it is! If it's really long and it's rubbish- I'll kill you."

My friend went to 3000 words on a 2500 word essay and still got a first. I consistently turn in 4500-5000 word essays for one subject as there is no solid word counts, just advised word counts :tongue:

Oh, and OP, try getting whiteboards to brain storm on- I do that and find my arguments are more intricate and connected than they would have been otherwise. Mainly though, lots of reading, thought and rewriting tends to yield first class marks :smile:

Reply 23

Craig_D

17

Original post by Bubbles*de*Milo

Haha, you say that but at SOAS if you go even one word over the word limit you're penalised. Whereas there's no lower limit, so you can write 500 words without being penalised.

Really?

Wow, there really is a lot of variation between universities. I hadn't realised anywhere would be so strict. In that case I take it back!

Reply 24

Samus2

17

The essays I've received firsts on have been incredibly well researched using a lot of different sources (books, journals, primary sources, articles, tv shows, videos) and they've been essays I knew what I wanted to say before I wrote the essay as opposed to just researching as i went along.

Reply 25

Samus2

17

Original post by Craig_D

Really?

Wow, there really is a lot of variation between universities. I hadn't realised anywhere would be so strict. In that case I take it back!

we're allowed 10% or 200 words which ever is less and then it's a 10 mark penalty for every hundred words.

Reply 26

SpicyStrawberry

18

- Give yourself plenty of time to write essays; a rushed assignment usually means lower quality

- Make sure your spelling and grammar are perfect, typos and spelling errors can cost you marks

- Use a variety of sources rather than limiting yourself to recommended texts (journal articles, textbooks, reputable websites - not Wikipedia! - etc.)

- Make sure you give both sides of the argument if the essay question is worded that way to make it balanced

- Your referencing needs to be excellent for it to be a first class essay, if you write references and citations out wrong this can also cost you

Reply 27

Bluth.

16

Before even you start to write do some research on the marker. Read some of their work, it will give you a good idea about the writing style and manner of referencing they prefer. I'm not necessarily saying all lecturers want a mirror of themselves (although most academics come with an ego that likes to be stroked :tongue:

) but it has never done me any harm. Tailor your essay to suit the audience.

Reply 28

Venom123

OP

16

Original post by Bluth.

Before even you start to write do some research on the marker. Read some of their work, it will give you a good idea about the writing style and manner of referencing they prefer. I'm not necessarily saying all lecturers want a mirror of themselves (although most academics come with an ego that likes to be stroked :tongue:

) but it has never done me any harm. Tailor your essay to suit the audience.

This ^

I found this out in my final year, I knew this guy was somewhat deeply into his academics purely on his lectures, but still decided to continue with my style of writing - sometimes reading outside my subject for example reading something in psychology bringing stuff in that related to the essay.

However this was such a bad move, he wanted specifics in his essay so I ny received 50... He told me that I was even lucky to get that.

All in all I just think he was a d***

Reply 29

Ash S

4

This thread is really helpful, thanks guys :biggrin:

Was my first year at uni this year and my essays improved loads throughout the course of the year (63% -> 70% -> 76%) so I'll try and offer a few tips too:

- Use lots of different kinds of sources. For example in my last essay I used books, journals, news articles, govt. websites, documentaries and even a fictional film and the lecturer really liked it.

- Read lots and lots of sources beforehand. Look where they agree and disagree, figure out your own opinion, and plan how you want to present it before you start writing. Don't rely too much on one or two sources.

- Make sure sources are talking about the time period you want them to. (ie. don't use an article about education in the 1950s and present it as if it was talking about education today)

- Have some kind of sensible structure. Chronological, thematic, whatever, just so long as you're not going all over the place.

- I suppose this one might depend on your citation system but using multiple citations for same point can show the breadth of your reading (and back up your point better too I guess).
ex. TSR is a great site (Jones, 2010, 288; Smith, 2011, 156; Adams, 2009) lol.

Reply 30

mijo

8

Just saw this thread, great stuff on here.When I was studying eco at uni I struggled to figure out how to get a first especially first class essays especially in units like macroeconomics and marketing.
Going into final year I held a borderline third class and required a first class in final year to graduate with my dream uni degree, my story is on tsr:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2423861

Long story short I achieved this goal and in the process mastered the art of writing first class essays both under exam pressure and outside exams.

So here's what I did to change from third class essays to first class essays:

The#1 thing I recommend is to get access first class essays written by students on your course and literally try and find patterns. What does the marker keep giving them extra marks for and even what can be improved?

Then compare these to your own essays. Maybe you notice you aren't using enough references, maybe you notice that you essays aren't long enough or deep enough. By modelling successful student's essays you can literally replicate their success. You don't have to copy their style word for word just look for patterns and replicate the patterns with your own “flair” and “unique” twist.

There's no point trying to reinvent the wheel especially in your crucial years, so ask for help. When I started hanging around students who consistently produced first class essays, I soaked up their energy and mind-set when it came to writing their essays.

As soon as I adopted their pattern of thinking I was able to produce similar results.
Writing first class essays is all about speaking directly to the examiner. If you can figure out what they want by looking at other students first class essays then you can deliver quality to them time and time again.
This was a major adjustment I made in my final year that really helped me achieve my grad degree dream.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 31

sixtus66

You can buy students' old 1st class essays on ebay if your department don't post any online. Then you can see how they structured it and how much analysis they used etc, then just pour your own ideas into that structure.

Reply 32

!J0J0!

1

Hi everyone I am having a problem with sentence starters for essays. Also how do you put everything you want to say down in a way that makes sense.

Reply 33

Ramiano4

7

Original post by Venom123

How do you guys go about consistently producing first class essays, what do you ensure you do?

I've been getting close but not breaking the first class boundary consistently would say average essay marks were 65.

What steps do you take; from planning to end product?

Cheers

Hi guys! I am currently a second year student studying sociology and criminology. However, what I want to know is how to get a first, or close to a first in an essay where I have to compare the works of Durkheim, and Weber and how their works contribute to an understanding of society?

Any ideas.

Thank you.

Producing a First Class essay

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