writing an academic essay

   

   1.      Choosing the topic and planning the organisation of the thesis

   ÿ        Define the field you are interested in -- methodology, literature or linguistics

   ÿ        Recognise a problem that you are capable of dealing with

   ÿ        Select material to serve as the basis for your research (corpus)

   ÿ        Set out broad objectives that your thesis should achieve (hypothesis)

   ÿ        Come to an understanding of the problem (reading reference books)

   ÿ        Determine what options are possible (combining ideas suggested by the reading with
   own conclusions based on the material under investigation)

   ÿ        Evaluate those options against objectives (testing your hypothesis)

   ÿ        Assess the results of your research (confirmation or denial of the hypothesis)

   ÿ        Monitor and observe the results (self-assessment -- methodology + research
   achievements; stating goals for further research)

   2.      The structure and content of the thesis

   ÿ        Introduction -- State what you intend to write about, explain why you consider it to
   be a topic worth writing about, suggest what methodology/approach you are to use, present the
   structure of your thesis -- Firstly, the thesis will deal with ..., secondly ..., thirdly ...

   ÿ        Main body of the text -- Do NOT just describe problems and ideas, discuss and assess
   them critically.

   There are two approaches available to the organisation of an academic thesis:

   A. The theoretical (r) practical part structure

   The theoretical part discusses the reference literature and is divided into several
   sub-chapters according to the theoretical issues discussed. The final part of the theoretical
   part is the conclusion where the standpoint of the author of the thesis is stated clearly, so
   as to be used as a theoretical basis for the analysis of the materials in the practical part.
   The practical part presents the work with the language material and the solution to the
   problems stated in the introduction. The results are summarised in the conclusion pointing to
   the evaluation of the objectives stated in the introduction (hypothesis) and bridging back to
   the theoretical part.

   B. The objectives (r) options (r) arguments structure

   The thesis is divided into chapters according to the issues (objectives) to be discussed in
   the text. Each chapter presents some theoretical preliminaries gathered from the reading,
   which serve as a basis for the discussion of the options available for the solution to the
   problem (demonstrated on the language material) and the logical sequence of arguments
   supporting the best alternative proposed by the author. Thus the issues discussed study the
   problem under investigation from several viewpoints linking theoretical considerations to
   their practical implementation on the language material. Each chapter is closed by a
   conclusion reviewing the main points which make the argument progress coherently towards the
   achievement of the objectives stated in the hypothesis, evaluates the options suggested and
   announces the issue to be analysed in the following chapter.

   ÿ        Conclusion

   Summarise what you have written about, explain why it was worth writing about, discuss how
   appropriate the methodology or approach was that you have opted for. State clearly whether
   your expectations stated in the hypothesis were confirmed or denied. Highlight what is the
   contribution of your research in the context of the field of study/issue you have written
   about. Mention possible related problems which you would consider worth examining.

   3.      Guidelines concerning your writing style

   ÿ        The choice of point of view -- impersonal, personal (We or I) or a possible interplay
   of the three (that interplay should be conscious and should achieve some emphatic effect, not
   just a chaotic change of viewpoint). Notice that when using scientific prose style, you are
   not supposed to be emotive; you are supposed to provide logical argumentation and not to
   appeal to the emotions of the readers to prove your point of view.

   ÿ        The length of the thesis -- the approximate length required is 60 pp. Therefore
   writing less than 58pp is more than inadvisable, less than 50pp unacceptable. Writing more
   than 75-80 pp, though, is not a sign of good quality, it is a sign that the author is unable
   to express his/her ideas in a concise way.

   ÿ        Using ideas from the reading -- Do NOT just repeat or state ideas and material from
   books and magazines -- discuss and apply the ideas; do NOT just state personal opinions -- use a
   well constructed argument to prove your opinion. When you refer to ideas from books and
   magazines without quoting directly, you have still to refer to the author, publication,
   chapter and/or pages where the idea is discussed.

   ÿ        Using numbering and lettering -- the logical structure of your essay should be
   explicit, using linkers and other devices for highlighting a coherent development of the
   arguments.

   ÿ        Quoting -- there are two basic ways for quoting from a text.

   If the quote is coherently integrated in your text (it is a part of your sentence), then you
   integrate it into the text using quotations and refer to the reference in brackets after the
   unquote.

   If you quote a longer passage which is illustrative and does not form an integral part of your
   text, then you present it as a separate indented paragraph using smaller size letters and
   again you point to the reference in brackets after at the end of the quotation.

   A sample model for referencing: (Cook 1981a: 130)

   A sample model when mentioning the author in the reporting clause: G. Yule relates the concept
   of distance to the notion of spatial deixis "where the relative location of people and things
   is being indicated." (Yule 1996:12).

   ÿ        A list of useful verbs when referring to ideas you have read about

   add, address a problem, accept, achieve, analyse, announce, argue, apply a concept, assess,
   attempt, be interested in, capture, centre on, cite, claim, clarify, confirm, consider,
   construct, comment, conclude, conceptualise, deal with, define, deny, develop a view, devote
   attention to, describe, discuss, draw the attention to, elaborate a theory, emphasise,
   explain, explore, examine, evaluate, favour, find, differentiate, focus, foreground, forecast,
   go on to point/summarise, highlight, include, investigate, introduce a concept, implement,
   label, make an issue of, mention, maintain, note, notice, offer, point out, present, predict,
   promise, proves, put forward a hypothesis, provide a methodology/answer/argument, prove,
   quote, question, refer to, renew, research, run into problems, show, study, state, suggest,
   stress, summarise, support, tackle, treat, underscore, underline, warn, write

   ÿ        A full bibliography of references and sources used

   A sample entry for the bibliography/sources list:

   Cook G. (1981): Discourse, OUP.

   If you quote an article from a collection of articles:

   Montgomery G. (1995): Reading comprehension. In Burton R. (ed.) (1995): Reading Skills, CUP.

   ÿ        Terminology

   If the terminology used in the field you intend to write about tends to be idiosyncratic to
   the authors you may consider including a glossary of terms as an appendix to your work. If the
   terminology is particularly controversial you may decide to discuss it, stating whose
   terminology you agree with and why.