Essay Writing

Paragraphs and Structure
Paragraphs are a kind of map for the reader. A glance at a well-written text will be enough to tell quickly what the key ideas are and where the argument is leading. To help the reader, all paragraphs should have a key sentence or "topic sentence". As this is usually the first, looking quickly down the first sentences of each paragraph in a good text will usually give the reader a qick feel for the arguemnt of the essay as a whole.

The essay should have approximately five paragraphs. A longer  well-written essay (close to 350 words) could have as many as seven paragraphs. A shorter (close to 250 word) well-written essay could have as few as four paragraphs. In journalistic writing, writers often use short paragraphs of one sentence to make the reading 'visually' easier. In your UNIcert II exam you are not to write a journalistic story, but instead an academic essay.v Paragraphs should therefore as a rule have at least three sentences, and definitely not only one sentence. This also applies to the introduction.

Each paragraph should develop one main idea and should have a topic sentence which expresses this idea. The topic sentence should as a rule be at the beginning of the paragraph, but it can be at the end and, on rare occasions, in the middle.

Addressing the question
Even if you write accurate and fluent English, you will not pass the essay part of the exam if you do not address the question. For example, if the question was "Should Tony Blair resign for his involvment in the Iraq War" and you just wrote about how terrible the war was, without mentioning Tony Blair, you would fail.

Taking a position - and when to do it
We recommend that you make your position clear already in the introduction and arguing throughout from that standpoint.

This does not mean that in your essay you will  ignore possible counter-arguments; you should refer to them, in order to refute (challenge) or qualify them - not just to list them!

Basic Structure
You need to take a position and develop your argument so that readers are drawn to the conclusion you want them to reach. To do this in such a short essay, you must have the following structure:

Introduction

Body Paragraphs (between 2 and 5 of them)

Conclusion
Link your paragraphs together so that the essay flows evenly, allowing the reader to follow your argument easily. Transition words will help you to do this. You can find some examples of such words and phrases here.

Please note that the following points on argument are for guideline only: experienced writers may have other strategies but the essay has to flow logically and evenly.

The introduction
This serves to:

• focus the reader on the topic
• give them some context or background
• show them what the question or issue is.
• if you want, you can at this stage already make explicit your own position (see above)

The body paragraphs - developing the argument
There is not a fixed rule for what you put in the body, or in what order, but it has to follow logically and evenly. You will need to give arguments and examples for your case. Obviously you will need to consider obvious counter-arguments which will be in the mind of the reader, but you will need to address and challenge them (i.e. show them to be wrong, or show how they are limited or less important).

Many students have learned a very formulaic way of writing which is simply to give two body paragraphs, one for arguments "for" and one paragraph "against". This is not steering the reader toward your position. You cannot at the end of your essay say "In conclusion..." if in your body you have not refuted or challenged the "counter-arguments" you have just presented! This is not only rather boring, but also not logically consistent.

Here are some possible stategies, based on a 3-paragraph body:

• First body paragraph: statement of opposing viewpoint
• Second body paragraph: refutation of opposing viewpoint
• Third body paragraph: clarification and justification of your viewpoint

or

• First body paragraph: statement and refutation of opposing viewpoint
• Second body paragraph: statement and clarification of your viewpoint
• Third body paragraph: justification of your viewpoint

or

• First body paragraph: statement of opposing viewpoint
• Second body paragraph: statement and clarification of your viewpoin
• Third body paragraph: comparison of your viewpoint with the opposing viewpoint; justification of your viewpoint

The conclusion
Here you can do some (not all, perhaps two of three) of the following:

• restate your thesis
• reiterate the strongest arguments
• stress the importance of your thesis
• state the consequences of not following your recommendations
• state of the benefits of following your recommendations

finally, challenge the reader with a rhetorical question or bold assertion

The English skills the examiners take account of when marking your essay include the proper usage of grammar, idiom and vocabulary AND ALSO  punctuation (e.g. commas, decimal points, apostrophes).

Here are a few very common mistakes:

Grammar, constructions and expressions:
Time expressions: "The U.S. has been fighting terrorism for many years". But: "The U.S. has been fighting terrorism since 2001."

Use "Concerning", ""With regard to" or "regarding".

--> do  NOT use "referring to" as most students use it incorrectly!

Punctuation:
Names of peoples, countries and places and their adjectives need a capital e.g. an English meal.

Commas:

1. Do NOT use a comma to introduce a subordinate clause ("Nebesatz"). E.g. "I told him that you were coming."

2. Do NOT use commas to separate relative clauses which define what you are talking about E.g:

The man who came to dinner was my uncle
But DO use them when the relative calsue is not definining, but simply giving some more information, e.g.

His uncle, who I had met previously, came to dinner.

Articles:
We say "nature", NOT "the nature" and in most cases,"unemployment" and "pollution" (no article)

But we say "the countryside", "the environment", "the economy".

Articles before abbreviations:

NATO (no article, because it forms a word) - but the U.N., the U.S., the I.R.A. (where we pronounce the individual letters)

Spelling
intend and intent
interpret not interprete
there and their
whose and who's

"Appropriateness" here refers mainly to the style and register you use in your essay.  

Academic style
Your essay must be broadly in academic style. This is partly about your relationship to the reader, which needs to be slightly distanced, and assume that the reader is intelligent and does not need shouting at. Moroever, your essy should be addressed to the public at large, and not to the person you expect to be grading it.  You can bring your own personal experience into the essay, but avoid personal commentary about the exam itself. 
Use only complete sentences.

In particular:

• Sentences need a verb and a main clause
• Avoid sentences beginning with And.../But.../So... - Only start with "Because..." if you have a second half of the sentence, e.g. Because America is the most powerful nation, it has a responsibility to maintain peace." ...is a complete sentence. "Because America is the most powerful nation." is not a complete sentence.
• Make sure your sentence has a verb and a main clause (Hauptsatz)
• Avoid overuse of "you", "I" and other personalised forms ("I think", "We should", "You cannot"). You can often avoid "you" by using a Passive. For example, the last sentence could become, "Use of "you" can often be avoided by using the Passive." 
• English academic style uses many Passive forms e.g. "it can be seen that", or neutral forms such as "is preferable". The occasional use of "In my view,…", "I would argue that…" is acceptable.

Appropriateness in the way you start
Very often the essay task will be in the form of a question such as "Do you think that …" or "In your opinion should…"  Please do not answer these questions directly!  (e.g. do not say "I agree with this question"). It is a convention of academic writing to introduce the readers to the topic as if they do not have the title in front of them.

Thus, the following are examples of what is not appropriate:

• "This is a difficult question"
• " I don't think I know how you want me to answer this question…"
• "In the short time I have to write this answer…"

Writing something like the above examples will result in a lower grade.

Further points to remember in your composition:

• Vary the length of sentences. 
• Avoid the use of slang or informal language.
• Avoid the use of contractions (for example, "he'd", "it's")
• Avoid using abbreviations

Certain abbreviations, which indicate organizations (such as NAFTA or the UN) are acceptable, but avoid using grammatical abbreviations (such as etc, or e.g.).
Avoid using foreign (non-English) words.

• If you need to talk about something unique to Germany or some other country (such as Abitur) use an English equivalent and give the original in brackets the first time you mention it.
• Avoid over use of rhetorical questions.
• Do not generally use exclamations (sentences which end with, or feel as though they want to end with a "!").
• Finally, avoid banal and boring statements of the type "there are many advantages and disadvantages to this question/problem/solution." or "This is a very difficult question".