do all uni courses have a mandatory essay?
sorry this maybe a very silly question but i see all the talks around essays in uni etc.
surely they all cant be literature or english courses right? do BEng courses have this?
surely they all cant be literature or english courses right? do BEng courses have this?
Reply 1
Original post
by Anonymoussorry this maybe a very silly question but i see all the talks around essays in uni etc.
surely they all cant be literature or english courses right? do BEng courses have this?
surely they all cant be literature or english courses right? do BEng courses have this?
Yes
Reply 2
Original post
by PQYes
omg whaat, what do BEng courses even write about?
Reply 3
I’d be shocked if a course didn’t have essays.
Essays are a fundamental part of any course as it shows your understanding of the subject by putting it in a particular structure whilst also showing you can be concise in your writing by keeping to strict word counts.
Normally essays tend to be a minimum of 1,000 words and at most (minus your dissertation which tends to be around 5,000 which IS SMALL for a whole year of content), 2,500 words.
So essays are effectively the university’s way of getting people to say a lot without saying much if that makes sense?
I remember I had to do a case study of a patient who long story short I diagnosed with multiple myeloma and end stage renal failure whilst eliminating other diseases (and citing) and keeping it all within 1,500 words.
In the end, after some serious trimming, my word count was 1,499!
Essays are a fundamental part of any course as it shows your understanding of the subject by putting it in a particular structure whilst also showing you can be concise in your writing by keeping to strict word counts.
Normally essays tend to be a minimum of 1,000 words and at most (minus your dissertation which tends to be around 5,000 which IS SMALL for a whole year of content), 2,500 words.
So essays are effectively the university’s way of getting people to say a lot without saying much if that makes sense?
I remember I had to do a case study of a patient who long story short I diagnosed with multiple myeloma and end stage renal failure whilst eliminating other diseases (and citing) and keeping it all within 1,500 words.
In the end, after some serious trimming, my word count was 1,499!
(edited 11 months ago)
Reply 4
Original post
by Anonymousomg whaat, what do BEng courses even write about?
Engineering
Reply 5
Hey there,
Many BEng courses have a mix of essays/coursework, exams and practicals as your assessments! I would look at the assessment types for individual Universities that you are looking at as they may have some additional assessment types, and might tell you whether you will have more exams or more essays for certain modules.
Coursework/essays for an engineering course might include analysing certain concepts for example, and may range from 1,000 to 2,500 words.
Hope this helps!
Jorja (LJMU Student Rep)
Many BEng courses have a mix of essays/coursework, exams and practicals as your assessments! I would look at the assessment types for individual Universities that you are looking at as they may have some additional assessment types, and might tell you whether you will have more exams or more essays for certain modules.
Coursework/essays for an engineering course might include analysing certain concepts for example, and may range from 1,000 to 2,500 words.
Hope this helps!
Jorja (LJMU Student Rep)
Reply 6
Pretty much every course will bring in essays sooner or later, and likely structured reports.
My uni did little optional sessions where they went over essay/report methods and expectations and I found it very useful.
My uni did little optional sessions where they went over essay/report methods and expectations and I found it very useful.
Reply 7
Original post
by LJMUStudentRepsHey there,
Many BEng courses have a mix of essays/coursework, exams and practicals as your assessments! I would look at the assessment types for individual Universities that you are looking at as they may have some additional assessment types, and might tell you whether you will have more exams or more essays for certain modules.
Coursework/essays for an engineering course might include analysing certain concepts for example, and may range from 1,000 to 2,500 words.
Hope this helps!
Jorja (LJMU Student Rep)
Many BEng courses have a mix of essays/coursework, exams and practicals as your assessments! I would look at the assessment types for individual Universities that you are looking at as they may have some additional assessment types, and might tell you whether you will have more exams or more essays for certain modules.
Coursework/essays for an engineering course might include analysing certain concepts for example, and may range from 1,000 to 2,500 words.
Hope this helps!
Jorja (LJMU Student Rep)
Thanks I’ll check that out 😀
Original post
by Anonymousomg whaat, what do BEng courses even write about?
Well invariably you'll have your final project/dissertation, which is longform academic prose and thus similar to "essays" you've done in school. You might also have other independent projects that are similar but smaller in scope to write up. You'll also have to write other reports and longform prose work, obviously lab reports and such but potentially other activities. When I was doing engineering we had to for example write up a management project we did at one point (not experimental or anything, purely market research type stuff), and we also had to write a "white paper" style report on some (then) new technology in terms of existing UK government policies and such.
While the joke is that engineers are all incapable of writing (and I will say some who didn't do any A-level essay subjects or equivalent struggled a bit with these), you will need to learn to write reasonably well as an engineer both for the course and when you're working professionally. You aren't going to be just solving differential equations in an engineering degree (although yes that and similar mathematical stuff will be a lot of your day to day work)
Reply 9
Original post
by artful_loungerWell invariably you'll have your final project/dissertation, which is longform academic prose and thus similar to "essays" you've done in school. You might also have other independent projects that are similar but smaller in scope to write up. You'll also have to write other reports and longform prose work, obviously lab reports and such but potentially other activities. When I was doing engineering we had to for example write up a management project we did at one point (not experimental or anything, purely market research type stuff), and we also had to write a "white paper" style report on some (then) new technology in terms of existing UK government policies and such.
While the joke is that engineers are all incapable of writing (and I will say some who didn't do any A-level essay subjects or equivalent struggled a bit with these), you will need to learn to write reasonably well as an engineer both for the course and when you're working professionally. You aren't going to be just solving differential equations in an engineering degree (although yes that and similar mathematical stuff will be a lot of your day to day work)
While the joke is that engineers are all incapable of writing (and I will say some who didn't do any A-level essay subjects or equivalent struggled a bit with these), you will need to learn to write reasonably well as an engineer both for the course and when you're working professionally. You aren't going to be just solving differential equations in an engineering degree (although yes that and similar mathematical stuff will be a lot of your day to day work)
Thank you for the detailed response, I appreciate that!! Guess i have a lot more English to learn before uni
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