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Academic Writing at Third Level

Welcome all to GRC. What I am going to tell you here today is relevant to whatever subject or discipline you are taking, be it Business, Medicine, Law, Arts, Engineers, Science or social science. It doesn’t matter what areas you are studying, the key core elements of succeeding at third level are the same. So listen carefully to what I am about to say:

In fact, what I’m going to tell you today is something I wished somebody had told me at the beginning of my course at third level. I entered third level as an Undergraduate Arts student studying English, Philosophy, History and Psychology. I also took French up until the deadline when we had to finalise our subject choices. (Do watch out for the final deadline for changing course or subject options, as if you miss it and want to change, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, after the deadline.) So, think carefully, especially those in Arts, about your subject choices. You must be happy with your choice of study if you are to pursue it until the end.

As you know, in third level, you have to do a lot of independent study, reading and researching. Nobody is going to tell you how to do it, you have to figure a lot out for yourself… What follows are some helpful tips to get you started on the right foot.

 

How to write an academic essay:

Writing an academic essay is not like you are writing a secondary school essay in English. I know this because I was a secondary school English teacher. It is quite different, and this is how it is different. It is a critical essay. Now what does that mean, a critical essay? It means that you have to use argumentation backed by research to support anything you say. What do I mean by this?

Essays at third level are not essays in the sense we understand them at secondary school, rather they should now be seen as ‘research assignments’. So, anytime, you see the word ‘essay’, you will need to substantiate it with the words ‘research assignment’. Essays are no longer about your opinion per se, rather they must now be about your informed opinions, informed by your own reading and research. In other words, you have to validate your claims.

So, for instance, if you were asked to write an essay (or ‘research assignment’) on the nutritional properties of butter, you can’t just start writing, ‘I think butter is good for you because it has been around for centuries and has proven nutritional value’. You can no longer make this statement without substantiating it without research. In other words, you might say instead, Griffin’s study of 2009 proves definitively that butter has essential fatty acids not easily found in other foodstuffs, and this makes butter an essential part of a healthy balanced diet’. Or you might want to say, ‘O’Connor’s study of 2001, proved definitively that those who eat excessive amounts of butter were more likely to suffer from cardiac arrest ten years earlier than those who ate moderate or little amounts of butter’. Whatever way you argue, or you may still wish to argue that natural butter is a good nutritional source when taken in moderation. It doesn’t really matter what you say, the main point is, you have to prove your claims, and back them up by evidenced based research.

Read on, to find out how this is achieved.

– assistance with academic writing and research skills