Essay format.

Part of my essay title is: What is it that causes ……………..


Then we have been assigned three different reading materials; where there's three differing theories.

I have a sense of what to write, though I'm confused on how to structure it. Do I need to mention all three then weight them on which is the most significant or do I pick one and defend it throughout while referring back to the other sources?

Hard to tell without the full title. It sounds more like a History essay.
You can do either the pock one but reject the others or set up your essay examine all three and choose

Full Title: What is it that causes some people to be more violent than others?

What is the level and qualification this relates to?
Are you a non native speaker?

There are various ways of doing this, but it would seem to me that the purpose of the exercise is they want to estimate how well you understand english and can construct an argument.


The easier method is to set up your essay as an investigation then examine each one in turn and use an evaluation which warps it all up and includes your opinion.


The more advanced way is to pick one and as you explain its main points you contrast it with the other two and explain why this one was more convincing and the other two were not.

The other way is it may be asking you to extract and take bits from all three, which is more straightforward to do in the first method suggested.
the danger of choosing one is you may lose objectivity and fail to analyse two and three sufficiently.

Thanks for this, I'm a native speaker. This is one of the core modules for my foundation year programme.

So its for foundation GCSE?

Its more of a comprehension task so the most straightforward way is to do.


Introduction

1.
Focus on what the article says about violence and pick out the main points

2.

3.


Evaluation- explainwhere they conflict and where they agree.

Then explain which one or aspects of all you find convincing and in your experience which you find most credible/ persuasive.

conclusion- can be very short 2 sentences.

Foundation year for University, it's 1000 words +/- 10% with a full reference list.

Still the same unless you feel more confident and want to go advanced.

It doesnt really matter you can get a good grade either way.

Ah okay, in the marking rubric it says to link paragraphs in a clear logical way. Does that mean you present them in order of importance or that they link from one to the other?

If you discuss one after the other then you have linked them in sequential order and you have told them that in your introduction.

There is another way where you can impose your own framework on the essay and look at common themes are areas and then see what each one has to say about anything. hard for me to say as i havent read the sources.

That's great, thanks.

I think they just want a planned structured argument rather than it jumping all over the place.
There are multiple ways to write the essay, but as you are struggling then get used to simple and clear, so theres little room to go wrong.

I think the issue is the word count; it really restricts your writing.

which is why you have a plan and write to that plan.

I can't help but to waffle, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually.