Academic writing

The writing process

Now you have gathered all of the information for your essay you will need to organise it in some way.

• Planning

  A good plan will help you to structure your essay.
  Visit the Learning Centre page on Organising your Ideas for help with critical thinking and planning your essay.

• Drafting

  Once you have formulated your plan, you need to begin your first draft. A draft will help you decide:

  • what you need to say
  • how you will answer the question
  • which evidence and examples you will use
  • whether you have enough information

  The Learning Centre has some guidelines for drafting your arguments into an essay format.

Any publications used in preparing an essay must be cited. Not citing these publications is plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. The module, Responsible use of information, discusses plagiarism in more detail.

• Revising

  Having written your first draft, you will be ready to edit and
  revise the draft.
  Questions you should consider

Consider these questions when revising:

• have I answered the question as fully as possible?
• is my essay clearly structured?
• does my argument make sense? Is it well balanced and researched?
• are my paragraphs and arguments clearly connected and coherent?
• are my examples and quotes relevant to and supportive of my answer?
• have I used a consistent referencing style?
• have I referenced all my quotes and paraphrases?
• have I remained within the set word limit?

Read more about revising your essay at the Learning Centre’s page on Editing your Essay

• Referencing

Finally, you are ready to prepare your final version and add your list of references. Read more about referencing on the next page.

• Time management for the writing process

  Throughout this process your time will be valuable so
  plan ahead to ensure that you are able to cover all of the tasks involved in completing your assignment.

  • The Academic Language and Learning Centre has some useful tips on planning your time successfully
  • another helpful tool is the assignment calculator at Dalhousie University’s website

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