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In a few months time I will start my first year as university, where I will be studying biological sciences. In school I never really wrote extended pieces as I did not study subjects like history or english literature which place a huge importance on essay writing.
I'm worried that my writing skills are subpar and that I am unprepared for writing lab reports and and essays. This is really worrying me and I would like to work on my writing skills during these holidays.
Aside from reading lots of books, what should I do to improve my writing? What topics for essays could I write on? And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
I'm worried that my writing skills are subpar and that I am unprepared for writing lab reports and and essays. This is really worrying me and I would like to work on my writing skills during these holidays.
Aside from reading lots of books, what should I do to improve my writing? What topics for essays could I write on? And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
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#3
(Original post by Keira Larkin)
In a few months time I will start my first year as university, where I will be studying biological sciences. In school I never really wrote extended pieces as I did not study subjects like history or english literature which place a huge importance on essay writing.
I'm worried that my writing skills are subpar and that I am unprepared for writing lab reports and and essays. This is really worrying me and I would like to work on my writing skills during these holidays.
Aside from reading lots of books, what should I do to improve my writing? What topics for essays could I write on? And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
In a few months time I will start my first year as university, where I will be studying biological sciences. In school I never really wrote extended pieces as I did not study subjects like history or english literature which place a huge importance on essay writing.
I'm worried that my writing skills are subpar and that I am unprepared for writing lab reports and and essays. This is really worrying me and I would like to work on my writing skills during these holidays.
Aside from reading lots of books, what should I do to improve my writing? What topics for essays could I write on? And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
I had an essay and a lab report per module so 6 assessments each semester.Your topics could be on anything- I had essays ranging from plant intelligence to summarising an oncology paper or reviewing a scientist and their lifetime of work.
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#4
Your course should have a module in the first year that focuses and academic literacy. This will show you the different types of academic writing that you may use throughout the course. If you want a head start, search ‘essay layout’ etc. Online and it will tell you how it is structured and what is expected in each section. Your university may also have a particular way of doing things. As long as you pay attention to how they want you to do it, you’ll be fine - remember, it’s your tutors that mark it! A lot of marks are lost through students not paying attention to these details which can easily be avoided.
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#5
Essay style will be dependent on subject, some will be more descriptive I suppose.
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#6
(Original post by Keira Larkin)
And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
And if you study biology at university, how many essays do you write per week and what are they about?
Most universities will have at least 2 pieces of summative assessment per module - so you won't be writing essays every week.
For lab reports, look at the writing style used in academic/scientific journals. Lab reports tend to have a descriptive format of:
Abstract -> Introduction -> Methodology -> Results -> Discussion -> Conclusion -> References
Structure of essays is pretty much left up to you as long as it follows a logical path. As already stated though, the purpose of your first year is to orientate you around thi.s
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#7
Yep, but what they all have in common is that they need to be ‘constructed’. You can’t just write them in any old way. As mentioned, the course will teach them how they expect them to write it and you just make sure you do it to a T lol.
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Thank you everyone for all the replies. I was anxious about being thrown into the deep end so I'm quite relieved to find that most universities offer a course on academic writing.
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#9
(Original post by Keira Larkin)
Thank you everyone for all the replies. I was anxious about being thrown into the deep end so I'm quite relieved to find that most universities offer a course on academic writing.
Thank you everyone for all the replies. I was anxious about being thrown into the deep end so I'm quite relieved to find that most universities offer a course on academic writing.
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