Study guides, study notes, summaries, and essay examples

Preliminary Land Contamination Assessment Mill Meads

Phase 1 Land Contamination Assessment Mill Meads Site

Are you looking for a land contamination assessment sample? This report resents a phase 1 land contamination assessment Mill Meads site. Interested in this subject or sample? Download the preliminary land contamination assessment Mill Meads pdf.

Phase 1 Land Contamination Assessment/Preliminary Risk Assessment

Background Information

This report provides a phase 1 land contamination assessment for a site situated in the broader London region, along with the outcomes of the risk assessment. The assessment encompassed extracting information from a total of 47 maps spanning the period from 1867 to 2014, as documented in the study published by Grandsure. Furthermore, the assessment involved a thorough examination and retrieval of information pertaining to the site from various sources, including databases, historical maps, local authority records, environmental agency records, aerial photographs, land registry data, records detailing the history of pollution, trade directories, and previous monitoring and investigations. The subsequent section offers a detailed description of the site’s location.

Site Location and Description

The site is situated in Mill Meads, covers an approximate area of 10.70 hectares, and is shaped roughly like a scalene trapezium. The sloping site, tilting towards the south, encompasses seven gas holders, two tanks, two gas works, and railway buildings. It also houses two high-voltage electricity transmission cables running through tunnels. The site is surrounded by a perimeter of trees, creating a forested area around the gas works, gas holders, and tanks. Additionally, the Southend railway line is positioned in the northern part, following a general South West-North East direction. The site is bordered by the Channelsea River to the North, Bow Creek to the West, Twelve Trees Crescent and a subway to the South (generally in the west-east direction), and Crows Road to the East. Figure 1 displays a map of the site (highlighted in blue), and its surroundings. …. continue reading.

Looking for a preliminary land contamination assessment sample? Here is the complete preliminary land contamination assessment Mill Meads pdf download.

River Dove Catchment Management Plan Sample

River Dove Catchment Management Plan Example

A catchment management plan (CMP) is a document that provides a long-term strategy or framework for the sustainable utilisation and development of water and related resources in a given area. River Dove is an important in the UK supplying water for community, commercial, and industrial use and providing habitat for several species, some of them endangered. Considering the importance of River Dove to the UK and the sources of pollution in the area, it is only prudent that a catchment management plan is developed for the river. This research paper sample presents a River Dove catchment management plan sample. In case you are looking for a Dove catchment management plan sample doc or download, here is a River Dove catchment management plan sample pdf.

Download the River dove catchment management plan sample pdf

Dove Catchment Area Management Plan

General Site Information

River Dove catchment is situated in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, covering an approximate area of 1,020km2 according to the Dove Catchment Partnership in 2022. Originating at Axe Edge in the Peak District, about five kilometers from Buxton, the Dove is a tributary of the River Trent, flowing southward. Along its course, it is joined by various tributaries such as the Tean, Churnet, and Manifold rivers (Agricultural and Environmental Data (AEDA), 2013). The river passes through several towns, including Ashbourne, Uttoxeter, Cheadle, Tutbury, Hilton, and Leek, contributing to the local economies and landscapes. Rural areas within the Dove catchment also benefit from the river, supporting community life. Moreover, the Dove traverses the Peak District National Park, offering habitat and movement corridors for numerous wildlife species. The catchment area is home to several Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and protected areas, including the Tittesworth Reservoir (a water supply source) and the South Pennine Moors special area of conservation. In total, the Dove catchment area encompasses 31 water bodies, including 17 rivers, canals, surface water bodies, and four lakes (Environment Agency, 2022).

Description

The upper region of the River Dove catchment is predominantly characterized by small villages, pastureland, and scattered farms and cottages, as indicated by Derbyshire County Council (n.d.). Within these areas, the primary activities include intensive dairy farming, sheep rearing, and arable cropping, as highlighted by Derbyshire County Council (n.d.a). Livestock dipping, a common practice for controlling pests and diseases, continues to be prevalent in the upper catchment, according to The Wild Trout Trust (2009). Download the complete River Dove catchment management plan sample pdf.

Segmentation Targeting and Positioning Volkswagen

Segmentation, marketing, and positioning (STP) is an important concept and practice in marketing. A real life STP marketing case study example can help you understand what STP is and how it is applied by companies.

This article presents a segmentation targeting and positioning strategy example or STP example company. It also presents a segmenting targeting positioning example. It discusses market segmentation of cars and stp model marketing example, and is related to market segmentation for car industry, automotive market segments, automotive market segmentation, and marketing stp:

Psychographic segmentation of automobile industry
Geographic segmentation of automobile industry
Demographic segmentation of automobile industry
Behavioral segmentation of automobile industry

The article basically attempts to answer the question how do car companies segment their market (focusing on Volkswagen)? Here is the STP marketing example company essay preview:

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning by Volkswagen

Introduction

Many successful companies across the world apply segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) as part of their marketing strategies. Volkswagen (VW), a company that makes cars is one of the successful companies that apply STP. Established in 1937, the company manufactures several car brands including Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Lamborghini, Skoda, Porshe, Scania, Man, Bentley, and Bugatti, (Volkswagen, 2018a; Bhasin, 2017; Volkswagen, 2018b). While its headquarters is in Wolfburg, Germany, the company has several branches and plants spread out in different parts of the world. This enables it understand and meet the needs of its global clientele in addition to affording it a robust distribution network. This paper briefly discusses segmentation and targeting before focusing on how Volkswagen has segmented its market, its target markets (segments), and how the brand is positioned.

Segmentation and Targeting

Market segmentation, according to William Stanton, is the process of dividing the heterogeneous market for a product into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to display homogeneity in all important aspects (Rudani, 2010; Tabavar n.d., p. 63). Philip Kotler, on the other hand, defines segmentation as the process of dividing a market into discrete groups of buyers based on factors such as needs or characteristics, behaviour, marketing mixes, or who might require different products (Rudani, 2010). A company’s market can be partitioned or divided based on different factors. Some of the bases commonly applied in segmenting a market are demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, religion, income levels, family size), behavioural characteristics (such as brand loyalty status, usage rates/consumption levels, benefits sought by the buyer, response to a product, and occupation), geographic characteristics (such as geographic location, cultural preferences, language, population type and density (urban, rural, exurban, suburban), time zone, and climate/season, and psychographic characteristics (such as values, beliefs, interests, attitudes, lifestyles, personality traits, social status).

Targeting, according to Bihani (2004), is the process of evaluating how attractive market segments are and choosing the segment(s) to enter. It involves making choices taking into consideration available and necessary resources. Firms have a number of options with regard to the targeting strategy to apply. The main targeting strategies that companies can apply are mass marketing, niche marketing, segmented marketing, and micromarketing (Strydom, 2005; Kotler et al., 2015).

Segmentation and Targeting by Volkswagen

Volkswagen applies segmented marketing and has its market partitioned based on a mix of psychographic, demographic, geographic, and behavioural factors to meet the specific needs of different groups of customers. The following section discusses Volkswagen’s market segmentation based on these factors.

Psychographic Segmentation and Targeting

Psychographic segmentation involves partitioning a market based on customers’ values, beliefs, interests, attitudes, lifestyles, personality traits, social status, or other psychographic factors (Camilleri, 2018). With regard to psychographic segmentation, Volkswagen has partitioned its market based on customers’ interests, values, social status, and lifestyles. In this regard some of the segments the company targets include consumers who simply need to move (or transport goods) from one place to another conveniently and affordably, sports enthusiasts, technical/engineering enthusiasts, and consumers who need luxury and comfort as will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

Vehicles such as the beetle, Polo, Golf, Jetta, Touran, and Volkswagen Amarok pick-up and are aimed at catering to the needs of consumers who simply need to move from one place to another (or transport goods) conveniently and without spending so much money; they simply wish to enjoy the utility value of a car (Schmid, 2013; Skema Business School, 2014). This customer segment include people who wish to use the car as a tool. Some customers in this segment may go for the compact cars such as the beetle, polo, and golf to conveniently move around while some customers may go for the Touran (family van) so that they can easily transport their families with relative comfort. ….

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Positioning of Volkswagen/ Volkswagen Brand Positioning

Market positioning, according to Wilkinson (2013), is the process of establishing the identity or image of a product or brand so that it is perceived in a certain way by consumers. Positioning relates to how the consumer perceives the product or brand in relation to other products or brands. It involves placing a product in such a way that it occupies a clear, distinctive, and favourable place, relative to competing products, in the minds of consumers in the target market (Walletzký, 2015). With regard to positioning, Volkswagen takes pride in being a leader in German engineering (which focuses on design precision and feel), and to this extent has in the past used the tagline “The Power of German Engineering” (Sherman, 2017). The company has also used the slogan “If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen” to highlight the brand’s reliability (Nevick, 2013)…

Conclusion

Volkswagen segments its market based on a mix of psychographic, geographic, demographic and behavioural factors to meet the specific needs of different groups of customers. With respect to psychographic segmentation, the company has segmented its market based on customers’ interests, beliefs, values, social status, and lifestyles. Some of the segments the company targets in this regard include consumers who simply need mobility, sports enthusiasts, technical/engineering enthusiasts, consumers who prioritise comfort, and individuals with high social status. With regard to demographic segmentation, VW segments its market based income level and age…

This is preview of the article.

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Outline
Introduction
Segmentation and Targeting
– Segmentation and Targeting by Volkswagen
– Psychographic Segmentation
– Demographic Segmentation
– Geographic Segmentation
– Behavioural Segmentation
– Positioning of Volkswagen
– Conclusion
– References

What to Write in an Essay

What to Write About in an Essay

Writing an essay can be a daunting task if you have just entered high school or college or are new to academic writing. Writing an essay on even a simple topic can prove to be a serious challenge especially if you do not know what to write in your essay. If what to write in an essay is a question you are seeking an answer to, here is good news for you: there’s a lot you can write in your essay as you will see from this article. This article gives you essay writing tips with a focus on the kind of information you can present in your essay or what to write about in an essay. So if what to write in my essay has always been a worry to you, you no longer need to fret.

Before we focus on what to write in an essay, it is important to note that there are different types of essays and essays come with different instructions or set of requirements. This also means that there are limitless essay topics. Although there are different types of essays, most of them have a common general structure; introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion. In addition to these three main essay sections, academic essays commonly have references, which are the sources you referred to when writing your essay. Each of the three main essay sections should contain information that is relevant to the topic or the question that the essay seeks to answer.

As you may well be aware, writing a high quality essay involves a lot of reading, thinking, and bringing together of different pieces of information and ideas. How to write an essay is, therefore, to focus on finding the right information from other sources or by applying critical thinking to choose the right words to write in an essay. The good thing is that you can learn academic writing by getting essay writing ideas and learning the words to write in essay writing. Now let’s focus on what to write in an essay or academic paper.

Although essays may differ by type, topic, and set of requirements, they often contain certain types of contents or information in common. In this section, we highlight some of the information that can be included in different academic papers and that you should consider including in your essay. Important to note is that you may not need to include all these types of information in one academic essay as not all of them will be relevant in all cases.

Read about: Introduction to essay writing

Definitions, Descriptions, and Backgrounds

what to write in your essay

One of the things you will almost always need to include in your academic essay is definitions. It is a good idea to include the definitions of important constructs in your essay. If you have to present definitions in your essay, be sure to present professional definitions – definitions that have been developed by experts or professionals in the subject or field you are writing on. This means that presenting a definition that you have come up with purely from your own thoughts as a college student non-professional is not be the right direction to go. The definitions you come up with based on your own thoughts may be too narrow, too broad, or may be misleading from a professional point of view.

The need to present professional definitions highlights the need to engage in research from which you will identify relevant definitions. When writing your essay, you will probably need to paraphrase and properly reference the definition that you have obtained from your research. Presenting two or more professional definitions in your essay is acceptable and often welcome. It is a good idea to come up with a definition that merges the ideas presented by different experts in their original definitions. Doing this demonstrates your ability to compare ideas, analyse, and synthesise information, which is one of the things that essay writing is all about.

Another thing that you can write in your essay, which is closely related to definitions, is descriptions. You can describe what something is, how something looks, how something feels like, how something is done, or even how something happened. Your description may also be a statement of the nature of something, its characteristics, applications, advantages, and disadvantages. Moreover, a description may be a statement of what something is not. For example, when describing a sapphire gemstone, one description that you can state is that a sapphire is a corundum of any colour but not red.

Another thing you can write in your essay is historical background. In this regard, you can provide the history of the subject, construct, or concept you are writing on. You can, for example, write when something began and how it has developed over time. A historical background may be closely related to the description of something especially if the subject or thing you are writing on is a historical event.

Find out the important essay writing skills you need to develop to write great essays.

Explanations, Purpose, and Justifications

what to write in my essay

Yet another thing you can write in your essay is explanation. An explanation is a statement that makes something clear explaining. Explanation comes from the word “explain”. So you can explain something in your essay. An explanation goes deeper than a description in that while a description focuses on what something is, an explanation focuses on answering why something is.

Still asking what to write in my essay? Objectives, aims, goals or purpose of your essay, study, or activity are some of the other things that you can include in your academic essay. For example, you can state in the introduction of your essay that the purpose or aim of your essay is to describe an event or explain why something happens in a certain way.

Another kind of information that you can provide in your essay is justifications. A justification is a statement that serves to show why something is right or reasonable. For example, you can justify your essay by stating why the subject you are writing on is important or stating that there is limited understanding of the subject you are writing on. You can also provide reasons for selecting a topic, method, or for performing a study. Your motivations is also something you can write in an essay. For example, you can write what has driven you to choose the topic you are writing on. In an application essay, you will probably need to write what has motivated you to choose a certain course, university, or career option.

Do you know the essential essay writing rules?

Arguments, Theories, and Methods

academic writing guide

Since essay writing is about bringing together several ideas, you cannot go without making statements or presenting discussions in your essay. Your statements can be in the form of claims, arguments and counter arguments, rebuttals, expert views or opinions, public views or opinions, or facts. You may write other people’s claims or your own claims. The main claim that you make in your essay may translate to your thesis statement. Your statements may also come in the form of logical reasoning, comparisons (compare and contrast), or the findings, results, or conclusions of past research studies. Additionally, they may come in the form of analyses of views, statements, or findings of other people or studies. As you can see, claims, arguments, counterarguments, opinions, and facts are some of the things you can write in your essay.

In your academic paper, you may discuss or highlight such things as processes, theories, models, events, steps involved, methods or methodologies. You may also may also discuss the importance or significance of the study, advantages (pros) and disadvantages (cons) of subjects or objects of interest, and uses or applications of things. Additionally, you can present or discuss controversies surrounding issues or events, critiques, relevant laws/ regulations/ policies and professional guidance. Professional guidance may especially be relevant if your essay is on a subject on human, public, or social health.

Causes, Effects, and Statistics

Essay writing tips

Causes and effects are some other things you can write in your essay. Cause and effect essays especially require you to focus on the cause and effects of something. You can almost never go wrong by providing examples in your essay. You can use examples to make constructs easier to understand, support your arguments, and make your essay more engaging.

Statistics is another common type of information that you can provide in your academic papers or essays. Statistics or statistical data is information that is presented in the form of numbers. Statistics can help you present complex information in a manner that is easier to understand. Statistics can also show the magnitude or importance of something in a simple yet effective way. Statistics are also useful when you need to present certain facts, analyse certain information and draw logical conclusions. In academic essays, statistics may be presented in the form of numbers, frequencies, percentages, quantities, values, fractions, proportions, correlation coefficients, regression coefficients, significance levels, effect levels, confidence levels, and odds (among others). Here is an example of a statistics in a statement:

Scientists estimate that the earth contains 1.386 billion km³ of water, out of which only about 2.5% is fresh water.

Discussions, Personal Views, and Summaries

Structure of an essay

Other information that you may include in your academic paper are discussions, personal views, and quotes. You can, for example, discuss the relationships between concepts, things, ideas, or variables. You can also discussion the limitations of your own or other person’s study. In some cases, you may include personal opinions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences in an academic essay. When writing a reflective essay, for example, you are required to write about your personal experiences and feelings. While you may include direct quotes in your essay or paper, it is important to keep these to a minimum as they tend to increase your plagiarism score. A lower plagiarism score is desirable as it portrays that your work is more original.

In your academic essay, you can also provide reviews or summaries of other articles or research works. Your essay may not be complete without signposting, evidence, and references (which may be in the form of in-text citations). Signposting involves telling the reader what to expect in the essay and using words that connect the different ideas of the essay to ensure its logical flow. Some of the words that you can use in your essay to signpost are: first, secondly, after that, therefore, because, additionally, however, in contrast.

An essay is almost never complete without a conclusion. As such, your essay should ideally include a conclusion. In the conclusion section of your essay, you can present a summary of the main points of your essay or the findings and conclusions of your own study. Where relevant, you can present the implications of situations, events, findings, arguments or ideas either as part of your conclusion or within the body of your essay.

Final Words on What to Write in an Essay

Writing an essay can be a difficult task if you do not know what to write in an essay. This article has touched on how to write an essay by covering some of the things that you can write about in an essay. It has answered the questions on what to write in your essay or words to write in an essay. Some of the essay writing tips that emerge from this article are that your essay can include information such as definitions, descriptions, discussion, statistics, and summaries. As you can see, there’s so much you can write about in an essay. You thus no longer need to ask what to write about in an essay.

Learn Academic Writing: Essay Formatting Introduction

Essay Formatting Introduction

One of the things that make an essay worth reading and professional is how it is formatted. Essay formatting is as important as the quality of content of the essay. This means that one way of improving the quality and score of your essay is by formatting it properly. It is thus important to learn essay formatting. But how do I format an essay? you may ask. You can learn formatting by reading formatting guides such as this essay formatting introduction article. This article presents an essay formatting introduction for students and those wishing to learn academic writing. This introduction to essay formatting provides the basic essay formatting rules that you should follow when writing an academic essay.

In case you are new to essay writing, here’s an introduction to academic writing.

Essay formatting introduction

What is essay formatting?

Before we delve into the simple essay formatting, let’s start by introducing formatting by answering the question: What is essay formatting? Imagine having to read a 10-page essay that is written using white font against a white background – you probably wouldn’t be able to read the essay content at all. Also imagine having to read a 10 page essay in which the size of the letters used is so tiny that squinting your eyes is of no use. Apart from taking ages to read the essay successfully, you would probably end up with strained eyes and a headache.

Once again, imagine having to read a 10-page essay in which all the words are written in capital letters – you will realise that such an essay is not as easy to read as one written mostly using lower case letters. Reading a lot of content written in lower case letters tends to be easier and more comfortable than reading content wholly written in capital letters. From these examples, you realise that there are things that can make reading the content of an essay easier, more comfortable, and faster.

There are certain fonts, font sizes, font colours, background colours, and other elements that have been found to make reading content easier, faster, more comfortable, and well organised. It is based on this knowledge that formatting guidelines, formatting styles, or referencing systems have been developed.

Formatting is how an essay is structured, laid out, and presented. Formatting has to do with such simple things as the font and font colours used, line spacing; paragraph spacing, the use of bold, italics, underlining, and highlighting. It also has to do more complex things such as whether and what to include in the title page, how to arrangement different things within the essay or document, what punctuation marks to use in separating the bibliographic information, how to show paragraphs, and how to present headings and subheadings. These are only a few examples of what essay formatting entails. Formatting is one of the essential skills for essay writing.

Why is essay formatting Important?

The way your essay is formatted affects how readable and organised your paper or document is. An essay that is well formatted is properly organised contributing to the logical flow of ideas within it. Formatting also contributes to the accurate and consistent citation of sources and lowers the risk of plagiarism. Formatting also makes your work more appealing to the eye of the reader and thus more inviting. An essay that is properly structured and presented looks attractive and is easy to read while one that is poor in its presentation can be unattractive and difficult to read. In college, an essay that is well formatted will likely attract a better grade than one that is not so well formatted if the two essays contain equally good content.

What is essay formatting

Formatting additionally reflects the professionalism of your work and effort especially when you apply the formatting style (such as APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago) prescribed by your institution or client. APA stands for American Psychological Association while MLA stands for Modern Language Association. As a student, you don’t need to learn or master all these formatting styles. You only need to learn the formatting style that is relevant to your course or institution.

As you can see, you have every reason to learn how to format an essay as a college student or someone interested in learning academic writing.

Simple Essay Formatting

Essay formatting touches on so many aspects of the essay. Additionally, there are different ways of formatting an essay as established by organisations such as APA, MLA, and Harvard. The formatting styles created by these organisations share some rules in common. This essay formatting introduction is good for learning simple essay formatting and contains rules that are mostly shared by different formatting styles. It contains some general formatting guidelines that you will like to follow and build upon as you develop your formatting and other essay writing skills.

Simple Essay Formatting Rules

In a past article, we have covered some basic rules for writing which you should follow when writing an academic essay. Here, we outline simple essay formatting rules that you should follow in structuring your essay to make it look presentable, professional, and is easy and comfortable to read. Of course you should give precedence to the instructions of your institution, organisation, or format guide over the rules outlined in this article. Here are the essay formatting rules.

1. Always provide a title in your essay. Title case (only first letter of every main word is capitalised) is usually applied when writing the title. Do not put a full stop after your title since it is not a sentence.

2. Do not underline your title, headings or subheadings. Italics are only used in certain subheadings and in some special cases.

3. When writing the title, don’t precede it with words such as “Title:”. Also, don’t put a colon (:), semicolon (;), full stop (.) or dash (-) after at the end of a title, heading, or subheading.

Inappropriate	Appropriate
Title: U.S. Elections 2020	U.S. Elections 2020
U.S. Elections 2020:	Influence of Employee Motivation on Work Performance
U.S. Elections 2020;
U.S. Elections 2020.
U.S. Elections 2020-
U.S. Elections 2020:-
Influence of Employee Motivation on Work Performance.

4. Do not capitalise the title of your paper (Do not use all caps). Use title case (Only the first letter of every main word is in capital letters).

Inappropriate (title):

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
INFLUENCE OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION ON WORK PERFORMANCE
Influence of employee motivation on work performance

Appropriate (title, title case):

History of the United States of America
Influence of Employee Motivation on Work Performance

Note: “of” “on” and “the” are not capitalised since they are not main words; they are words commonly used in the English language so they don’t qualify to be main words. Other words that don’t qualify to be capitalised in the title include: is, and, in, of, be, for.

5. For short essays (1-2 pages), you may not need to include headings and subheadings. However, when writing longer essays, it is important to divide your paper into sections using headings and if necessary subheadings. Using headings and subheadings to divide your paper improves its readability and serves to tell the reader what to expect in the paragraphs that follow the heading/subheading.

6. Never begin a sentence with numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 100 etc) (No exceptions). You may, however, begin a sentence by writing a number in words.

Inappropriate:

50 people got into the boat and sailed across the river.
2020 was the year in which the corona virus pandemic began.
15% of the Kenyan population lives in poverty

Appropriate:

Fifty people jumped into the boat and sailed across the river.
Approximately 15% of the Kenyan population lives in poverty.
The corona virus pandemic began in 2020.
It is in 2020 that the corona virus pandemic began

7. When writing numbers in the body of your paper, always write numbers (integers) below 10 (0-9) in words. This rule, however, may be ignored when dealing with decimal numbers and special units such as currencies, percentages, time, and dates.

Inappropriate:

When Moses got to the den, he found 3 people eating mangoes.
According to the government, 9 percent of the population lives in poverty.
According to the government, nine % of the population lives in poverty.

Appropriate:

When Moses got to the den, he found three people eating mangoes.
Currently, the exchange rate is Ksh. 100 per $1.
According to the government, nine percent of the population lives in poverty.
According to the government, 9.0% of the population lives in poverty.
According to the government, $2 billion was spent during the pandemic.
Jack found the distance between the door and the frame to be 2.54 cm.

8. Avoid fancy fonts and use an appropriate font size. Times New Roman is the most preferred font (font size 12). Other preferred fonts are Arial (font size 11) and Calibri (font size 12).

9. Your text should be in black (automatic) colour (perhaps with the exception of hyperlinks/URLs that appear on the references page). Ensure the shade of colour used is the same (for example, do not mix grey and black).

10. Unless otherwise specified, double space your work (set line spacing to double). To do so in Microsoft Word, highlight all the words of your essay, right click on the highlighted part. A dialogue box appears. Under line spacing, choose “Double”).

How to set line spacing

APA formatting style

11. In academic writing abbreviations (such as: e.g., etc, i.e.) and contracted words (such as couldn’t, isn’t, don’t) are not allowed. Write words and phrases in full. Instead of “e.g.” write “for example”, instead of “don’t” write “do not” and so on.

12. Acronyms (such as U.N., W.H.O., U.S., E.U.) may be included in your essay. However, you must always write the name in full followed by the acronym in its first appearance in the body of your essay. If you opt to use periods (full stops) between the letters of your acronym, do this consistently. If you opt not to insert periods between the letters, apply this option throughout your essay.

According to the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) , ….
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) , ….
The United Nations (U.N.) was established in 1945.
The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945.

13. Set your page margins to 1 inch all round (All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be set to 1″ or 2.54 cm). On MS Word 2007 and other newer versions, this is the default setting. However, here’s how to set page margins:

On MS word, click on “Page Layout” Menu, on the left hand side of your screen at the top, you will see “Margins”. Choose “Normal”. Alternatively, choose custom margins and set the margins to 1″ (or 2.54 learn academic writing cm).

Here is the procedure for setting custom margins to 1″ all round:

Essay formatting introduction

14. Insert page numbers in your paper. Page numbers are mostly inserted in the top right-hand corner of the page and are mostly numbered using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3 ….100).

To insert page numbers in Word, go to the “Insert” menu. Look for “Page Numbers” it is somewhere just past the middle of the toolbars. Click on it and Choose “Top of the Page”. Again choose “Plain number 3.”

How do I format an essay

15. Do not leave blank lines or spaces between your title/headings/ subheadings and paragraphs. Likewise, don’t leave blank spaces between paragraphs and headings/subheadings. Similarly, leave no spaces between your paragraphs.

16. Your paragraphs should be left aligned or justified (depending on the format style you are using). Always centre your title unless otherwise stated. Always use the centre align tool on your word processor (rather than the space bar or tab button on your keyboard) to centre words, titles, and other items. When you use the tab button and space bar to centre words or items, the words will most likely not be accurately centred.

Left Aligned
U.S. Election 2020

Centred
U.S. Election 2020

Right Aligned
U.S. Election 2020

Here is how to align text in Word:

essay formatting rules

17. In the body of your text generally avoid using the colon (:). Using the colon in your essay tends to encourage writing in point form.

18. Always ensure that you remove unnecessary hyperlinks or links from words, names, and titles in the paper and in the references page. To remove a hyperlink from a word or phrase, right click on the word or phrase and choose “Remove hyperlink”.

19. Unless specifically instructed to, do not include tables, images, and figures, (maps, photographs, charts, drawings etc) in short academic papers. You may, however, include these in longer papers such as proposals, dissertations/theses, and systematic reviews.

20 Always credit people with their contributions, perspectives and views. In other words, attribute ideas, facts, studies, arguments, research findings, definitions, statistics, etc to specific persons or organisations.

21. Always reference your work. References are basically the sources from which you got information to write your essay content. The entries in the references depend on the referencing style (MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago etc) and the type of source you are referencing. The references or sources are usually entered on a new page after the conclusion under the heading “References”, “Works Cited”, or “Bibliography” (without the quotation marks), depending on the formatting/referencing style you choose to use.

How much should you know to write an essay on a given subject?

22. Follow a punctuation mark with one space (insert one space between a punctuation mark and the next letter. Inserting two spaces after a punctuation mark is acceptable in some formats.

Inappropriate (spacing mistakes):

Several changes have been implemented following the 9/11 terrorist attack.For one,people have been subjected to more frequent and more thorough security checks.

Appropriate:

Several changes have been implemented following the 9/11 terrorist attack. For one, people have been subjected to more frequent and more thorough security checks.

Final Words

This article is an essay formatting introduction for college students and people who wish to learn academic writing. Academic essays and papers should be presented in a manner that makes them easy to read and comfortable to the eye, and professional, which is what formatting is about. The reader should be able to read the work quickly and be able to find the sources from which ideas or information has been drawn.

As stated earlier in this essay formatting introduction, essay formatting has to do with how your essay is structured, laid out, and presented. Essay formatting is important as it shapes how well your essay is organised and appealing to the reader. Essay formatting also reflects the professionalism of your work and potentially influences your essay score.

We have so far covered the basics of formatting. Later, we will go into greater depth by discussing a few of the formatting styles that are commonly used in academic writing. Formatting styles are also called referencing styles, referencing systems, or citation styles. Some of the most commonly applied formatting styles are APA referencing style, MLA referencing style, Harvard referencing system and Chicago referencing style. As a student, you don’t need to learn all the referencing styles mentioned in this essay formatting introduction; you only need to learn the referencing style that is relevant to your course or university.

Decolonisation and International Power Relations

Did Decolonisation Transform Power Relations in the International Economy? If not, why not?

DEcolonisation and international power relations Decolonisation has been defined by Tuhiwai (2010, p. 3) as “the long-term process involving the bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic, and psychological divesting of colonial power”. According to Klose (2014), decolonisation is a process that involves the dissolution of colonial rule together with its economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions. Although different scholars have defined decolonization in different ways, there is wide agreement that decolonization is linked to the transfer of legal and institutional control over territories and dependencies from colonial powers to indigenously based, formally sovereign, nation states (Duara, 2004). Decolonisation, in Duara’s (2004) view, was not only a process but also a movement for political solidarity and moral justice against imperialism. There is a lot of agreement among scholars that decolonization had a significant impact on the global sphere (Collins, 2016; Office of the Historian, 2018). This notion is especially supported by the fact that within thirty years of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, the European colonial empires in Africa and Asia completely disappeared, and in their stead stood new independent states (Klose 2014). For many territories under colonial rule, the thought of becoming independent states through the process of decolonization promised hope, freedom and prosperity. Decolonisation also promised positive changes in power relations between the newly formed independent states and imperial powers. This paper seeks to answer the question: Did decolonisation transform power relations in the international economy? If not, why not?This paper argues, based on dependency, New International Economic Order, and structuralism, that in spite of these promises, decolonisation did not truly transform power relations in the international economy.

Power in International Politics and Economy

The concept of “power” is perhaps the most fundamental in political science, international relations and political theory. Although there is general consensus regarding its importance, the definition of “power” remains a subject of great disagreement and debate. Indeed according to Barnett and Duvall (2005), scholars remain divided on how to define, conceive, study, and measure power, rendering the concept quite elusive. According to Barnett and Duvall (2005), power relates to the production of effects, in and through social relations, which determine the ability of actors to define or decide their circumstances and fate. Read more …

Did Decolonisation Transform Power Relations

Words Data Analysis: Change Words into Statistics

Words Data Analysis It is common knowledge that statistics involves manipulating data. It involves calculating such things as average, median, frequencies and percentages among other statistics from a set of data. Statistical analysis involves analyzing numerical data or data in the form of numbers. This granted, have you ever wondered how data that begins as words ends up being reported in the form of numbers? Many people and especially students undertaking a statistics course or who are undertaking a research study that involves collecting and analysing data statistically often wonder whether it is possible to change words to data and if so what to do to create numbers from words. If the question in your mind is, “how do you get statistics from words?” or “how to do you perform word data analysis?”, then you better read on. This article is for you if you want to learn how to perform words data analysis or go from words to numerical data.

At this point, you probably know that data may be categorized into two; qualitative data and quantitative data. Quantitative data is numerical data while qualitative data is non-numerical data. Quantitatve data is usually analysed mathematically or statistically. It is for quantitative data that we can determine or calculate such things as means, mode, median, standard deviation, and variance. When dealing with quantitative data, we can also perform tests such as correlation, regression, t-test, and chi-square test among others.

Since qualitative data is not in the form of numbers, it is usually analysed through methods that do not involve mathematical calculations. Some of the methods used to analyse qualitative data include content analysis, thematic analyisis, narrative analysis, and discourse analyisis. Despite the clear difference between quantitative and quantitative data, how is it that in quantitative research, many of the questions asked and the answers given are always in words and not in numbers?

One answer to this question relates to counting of the data items. You can count data to come up with statistics such as frequencies and proportions. How, you ask? Take a look at the questions and data below and notice that you can indeed get statistics from data that is presented in the form of words.

Assume we are conducting a study and ask a sample of 15 university students these three questions?

What is your gender?

Male
Female

What is your current marital status?

Single
Married
Separated or divorced
Widowed

How satisfied are you with your university?

Very dissatisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Very satisfied

Assume we collect the following data from the students.

Student No.	Gender	Marital Status	Level of satisfaction
1	Female	Married	Very dissatisfied
2	Female	Single	Somewhat satisfied
3	Male	Single	Very satisfied
4	Female	Separated or divorced	Somewhat satisfied
5	Male	Married	Somewhat satisfied
6	Female	Separated or divorced	Very dissatisfied
7	Male	Married	Somewhat dissatisfied
8	Female	Single	Somewhat satisfied
9	Female	Married	Very satisfied
10	Female	Separated or divorced	Very dissatisfied
11	Male	Single	Somewhat dissatisfied
12	Female	Widowed	Somewhat satisfied
13	Male	Married	Very satisfied
14	Male	Single	Somewhat dissatisfied
15	Female	Married	Very dissatisfied

From this raw data, we can determine frequencies and proportions (percentages):

Gender	Frequency (number)	Percentage
Female	9	60.0%
Male	6	40.0%
Total	15	100.0%

Marital status	Frequency	Percentage
Single	5	33.3%
Married	6	40.0%
Separated or divorced	3	20.0%
Widowed	1	6.7%
Total	15	100.0%

Marital status	Frequency	Percentage
Very dissatisfied	4	26.7%
Somewhat dissatisfied	3	20.0%
Somewhat satisfied	5	33.3%
Very satisfied	3	20.0%
Total	15	100.0%

As you can see, by counting the number of people in each category, we can determine frequencies and percentages. We can also determine modes and medians from the data by arranging and counting the data.

Can we go further to determine inferential statistics such as correlation coefficients and regression coefficients? The answer to this question is yes, but not before converting the word data to numerical data. The ability to perform even more statistical analysis even when the raw data is purely in words lies in the fact that in quantitative research, some words or phrases can be changed to numbers.

To perform word data analysis in quantitative research, you first need to change qualitative to quantitative data, so to say. So you more like need to transform words to statistics or text to statistics. Without transforming the necessary words or text to numbers, you may not be able to perform certain kinds of statistical analysis, especially inferential tests. Learning how to do a word to statistic transformation or words to statistic conversion is an easy thing. Once you learn how to change words to numerical data, performing different statistical analysis on your data will be a more straightforward endeavour.

If you are undertaking quantitative research, doing a course on statistics, or interested in using statistics for decision making, you no doubt need to learn how to perform words data analysis, that is, how to go from words to statistic. In case you are interested in learning how to calculate different statistics when the raw data that you have is presented in words (rather than in numbers), here is an opportunity that you cannot afford to miss. Download this article and learn how to statistically analyse raw data that is presented in word form.

The article explains how to change from word data to numbers using simple language and practical examples. In addition, the article uses worked examples to show how to statistically analyse raw data that is presented in words to come up with statistics such as means, modes, medians, standard deviation, and correlation coefficients. You have no reason to miss out on the important skill of words data analysis in quantitative research. Download the article now and learn how to change words to numeric data and analyse the data statistically.

19 Simple Essay Writing Rules to Writing a Great Essay

Simple Essay Writing Rules

Mastering the basic rules of academic writing is key to crafting insightful, clear, and well-structured essays. Understanding these essential essay writing rules can transform your writing, improving clarity and professionalism while helping you develop strong, persuasive arguments. Understanding and applying these rules will help you write a great essay. Do you want to learn the rules for writing a great essay? Here’s a simple guide to the essential rules for essay writing and here’s an introduction to academic writing.

It is important to note that these are general essay writing rules or rules of essay writing and not all of them will apply when writing all essays. Your instructor or client may, for example, require you to go against one or more of these rules. In such a case, the instructions given by your instructor, professor, institution, or client will override one or more of these rules.

1. Do not plagiarise

The first rule to writing a great essay is avoiding plagiarism. Copying other people’s content without crediting them with their effort or without paraphrasing their words is technically referred to as plagiarism. Engaging in plagiarism is arguably the worst form of mistake in academic essay writing. Not engaging in plagiarism is therefore one of the important academic essay writing laws or rules. When writing an academic essay, research information from other sources but write the essay content in your own words. The words you use and how they are arranged should not be similar to how someone else has written them. This means do not copy-paste other people’s words. There are software such as Copyscape and Turnitin that are used to detect when you copy someone else’s work or content. These software will almost definitely detect the content that you have copied directly from another source.

2. Use continuous prose

Essays are normally written in continuous prose. This means you have to write complete sentence and write in paragraph form – not in point, bullet, or numbered form. In other words, avoid numbering your points or using bullet points. There are a few exceptions where the use of numbering is acceptable. Such as in dissertations, theses, and research proposals. When writing a dissertation, theses and proposals, you may number your headings, objectives, tables, and figures. However, the body of these works is normally done in continuous prose. Paraphrasing, which is one of the essential essay writing skills, is key to writing in continuous prose.

Inappropriate (bullet points and numbering):

There are many ways of making money. These include:

Farming
Business
Employment

There are many ways of making money. These include:

Farming
Business
Employment

There are many ways of making money. These include: 1. farming, 2. business, 3. Employment.

Appropriate (sentence form/continuous prose)

There are many ways of making money including farming, business, and employment.

3. Present professional definitions and opinions

Essay writing rules Writing one or more definitions to a concept is a common thing in academic writing. When defining a term, concept, or construct, present professional definitions and not definitions based purely on your own thoughts. You may come up with a definition that combine elements of the definitions of two or more professionals.

4. Avoid hanging sentences

Avoid writing sentences that are incomplete or sound incomplete is one of the core rules for essay writing. Ensure that all your sentences make complete sense on their own. In other words, ensure all statements are a complete sentence. Each of your sentences should have a subject, verb and object (subject+verb+object). Software such as Grammarly and Hemingway Editor can help you detect and correct hanging or incomplete sentences.

Hanging sentence examples:

Throughout her period of study at the university, Mary wrote.
Although James, Peter, and Jane had just arrived at the bus station.
After completing their assignment, they went.

5. Provide relevant information

This means that the information you write should appropriately respond to the essay prompt, question asked, or topic given. Avoid providing irrelevant information – information that adds very little or no value to your essay.

Suppose you’re writing an essay on “The Impact of Climate Change on Marine Life.” Here’s an example of irrelevant information:

“Many people enjoy beach vacations and recreational activities like surfing, swimming, and sunbathing. Popular beach destinations like Hawaii, the Maldives, and the Caribbean attract millions of tourists each year. These places are also known for their unique food, culture, and music festivals, which add to the attraction.”

This information, while interesting, is irrelevant because it doesn’t contribute to the main focus of the essay: how climate change affects marine life. The passage about beach tourism and local culture doesn’t advance the discussion about ocean temperature, pollution, or the impact on marine species—points that are critical to the topic.

Instead, the essay should include relevant information, such as the effects of rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, or the decline of fish populations, as these directly address the impact of climate change on marine life.

6. Rely on other sources and cite them

academic writing rules

Essay writing normally involves research. Never rely purely on your own knowledge to do an academic paper. Here’s how much knowledge you need to write an academic essay.

You have to read widely relying on multiple sources. Generally, do not rely on only one or a few sources to come up with a research paper. Relying on more sources will likely present you with more points of view, more ideas to write on, and provide you with deeper understanding on the subject you are writing on. Find information from multiple sources, analyse, synthesize and bring them together.

7. Use quality sources for your research

Always rely on high quality sources for your research; books, journals, and reputable/ authoritative websites. Not every source you come across will be a good source to rely on for your research. For example, websites that market products or that offer certain services may not present an objective point of view as their main interest is selling their products or services.

8. Maintain objectivity

Always present different points of view, not just present the views that you favour. Always present both sides of an argument in your essay. For example, provide the advantages and disadvantages of something, not just advantages. If you are writing about whether abortion should be legalised, for example, present both arguments supporting its legalization and those that oppose its legalization.

9. Use unbiased and respectful language

Writing a great essay

Use neutral language and be gender sensitive. Do not be biased against certain groups of people. Even when presenting a position that you do not agree with, do not use confrontational or dismissive language. Be careful when using words and avoid bias against certain groups of people. For example do not use “man” or “mankind” to refer to both men and women, instead use “humans”, “humankind”, “people”, or “human beings”. Also, when referring to a person (who could be male or female) remember to take both gender into consideration by writing for example he/she. To be on the safe side you can use “they”. Only use pronouns that depict persons of male gender such as “he” “man” only when specifically referring to a male person.

Inappropriate

When a doctor is treating a patient, he should prescribe the right drugs – This sentence is gender biased (not all since doctors are male).

Appropriate

When a doctor is treating a patient, he or she should prescribe the right drugs – neutral (this is okay).

When a doctor is treating a patient, he/she should prescribe the right drugs – neutral (this is okay).

When a doctor is treating a patient, they should prescribe the right drugs – neutral (this is okay).

Note: It is correct and preferable to use “they” like has been done in this last example. “They” in this case includes both male and female doctors.

Inappropriate:

For a long time in history, man has desired to visit other planets – This sentence is bias against women.

For a long time, man has desired to explore the moon and the sun.

Appropriate:

For a long time in history, humankind has desired to visit other planets

For a long time, humans have desired to explore the moon and the sun.

Additionally, avoid using derogatory, abusive, hurtful, or offensive remarks or names in your essays. For example, people who are mad will be persons with schizophrenia. Referring to someone as being “mad” is considered offensive in the academic world.

Inappropriate – Offensive language	Appropriate
Lucy is a mad person	Lucy is a person with schizophrenia
Lucy is a schizophrenic	Lucy is a person with schizophrenia Lucy is suffering from schizophrenia
Jacob is an AIDS victim	Jacob is a person with AIDS

10. Avoid informal and emotive language

Avoid informal (colloquial) language, clichés, figures of speech, emotive remarks, and sweeping statements. Maintain a neutral voice and a formal tone.

Examples of informal and emotive language

“more or less”
“time is money”
“at the end of the day”
“When all is said and done”
“cost an arm and a leg”
“Gonna”
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat”

Here is an example of a paragraph in which emotive and informal language has been used.

I had nice time during my internship; my mentors were great and the patients lovely. I realised that undergoing a surgery costs an arm and a leg. I also realised that to save more lives, we were gonna have to work fast. We had to attend to many many patients; one hundred patients more or less. Although we did the best we could, the workplace was a disaster because of the manager whose style of management was absolutely absurd.

11. Keep yourself out of the picture

In academic essay writing, generally avoid using first and second person pronouns (“I”, “we” and “our”); remove yourself from the picture and present the professional point of view. Use of these pronouns is acceptable in special cases such as when writing personal journals or reflections. The use of third person pronouns (he, she, it, they) is the norm in academic writing. Check out this introduction to academic essay writing.

12. Organize your ideas and points in a logical way

rules of essay writing

Ideally, your essay should have introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. Where relevant, present a strong thesis at the beginning of your essay. Always arrange your ideas in a logical progression. One way to do this is by presenting your strongest point first and moving down to your weakest point, or the other way round. This strategy is especially ideal when you are writing an argumentative essay. Another way of doing this is by presenting your points step by step. This strategy is especially effective when writing a cause and-effect essay.

Another way of achieving this goal is by grouping related points together within the same paragraph or section. For example, when discussing the advantages and disadvantages of a topic, you may discuss the advantages in one or more paragraphs and then proceed to discuss the disadvantages in one or more paragraphs. Of course there is no harm in starting with the disadvantages and then proceeding to the advantages. The main thing is ensuring that you don’t mix unrelated points that may confuse the reader.

After presenting an idea or argument, provide evidence, such as data, quotes, or examples, to substantiate it. Make sure each piece of evidence is relevant to the paragraph’s main idea. Creating and following an essay outline can help you organise your essay effectively.

13. Stick to one language

In your essay, choose one language or language variant and stick to it. For example, do not mix American and British English in one research article/paper. Choose one language and use it consistently in your essay. Here are a few examples of differences in spellings between American and British English.

American	British	American	British
Favor	Favour	Learned	Learnt/learned
Color	Colour	Diarrhea	Diarrhoea
Capitalize	Capitalise	Anemia	Anaemia
Marvelous	Marvellous	Center	Centre
Canceled	Cancelled	Savior	Saviour
Meter	Metre	Theater	Theatre
Fiber	Fibre	Savor	Savour
Dreamed	Dreamed/Dreamt	Gray	Grey
Analyze	Analyse	Honor	Honour

14. Do not ask rhetoric questions

rules for essay writing Avoid asking questions that you expect the reader to answer. Understand that you are supposed to be answering a question, not asking your reader or instructor questions, which may demonstrate your lack of knowledge. Here’s how much need to know to engage in essay writing. Research questions which are always presented in research proposals, research reports, theses, and dissertations are not considered to be rhetoric questions since it is you who will be answering the questions through your research work.

Examples of rhetoric question:

What good can you expect from this government that has ruined the economy?
What can be done to revive the country’s economy?
Getting a good grade requires hard work, right?

Here is an example of a rhetoric question in an essay paragraph:

Every sober college student desires to excel in their studies and achieve good grades. This desire is especially driven by the general appreciation that good academic achievement has a positive correlation with ease of finding gainful employment and achieving success in life. There are several factors that influence academic performance as measured by academic grade, one of which is hard work. Getting a good grade requires hard work, right?

15. Make use of transition words

Transitions are words such as: first, secondly, lastly, in addition, because, next, although, in contrast, in summary. Transitions help the reader understand your line of though and the relationship between your ideas. In addition to serving as signposts to the reader, transitions make the flow of ideas from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph smooth. Your use of transition also demonstrates your language proficiency, which is another important skill for academic writing.

16. Avoid contractions

Avoid the use of contractions or shortened word forms in your essay. Instead use the long word or phrase forms. For example, instead of using “shouldn’t”, in your essay, use “should not”. Likewise, instead of writing “don’t”, write “do not”.

Long form	Short form/ Contraction
Should not	Shouldn’t
Do not	Don’t
Are not	Aren’t
Cannot	Can’t
Will not	Won’t
I will	I’ll
He will	He’ll
That is	That’s
What is	What’s

17. Do not over-use words or phrases

Overusing certain words or phrases can make your essay sound boring and may indicate your lack of creativity and limited vocabulary. Here is an example of a paragraph where certain words or phrases have been overused:

I did my internship at ABCD hospital. My internship began at the outpatient department where I attended to patients with different illnesses. The next department I went to during my internship was the surgical department where I attended to patient who were being prepared to undergo major surgeries. The next department I went to during my internship was radiology. At the radiology department is where I learnt about different radiology machines including x-ray during my internship. Overall, I had a nice experience during my internship as I learnt a lot and interacted with many professionals.

In this example, the phrase, “during my internship” has been used so many times.

18. Avoid fluff in your essay

write a great essay

Fluff is any content (word or group of words) that serves to unnecessarily increase the number of words in your essay. Including fluff in your essay can make your essay boring to the reader, difficult to understand, irrelevant, or unprofessional. Always aim to pass your message as simply and quickly as possible.

Fluffy: In the year 2024, the United States conducted its presidential election. The presidential election candidates were two very strong opponents representing two very strong parties. Donald Trump represented the Republican Party while Kamala Harris represented the Democratic Party.

Better: In 2024, the United States conducted its presidential election. The presidential election candidates were two opponents representing two parties. Donald Trump represented the Republican Party while Kamala Harris represented the Democratic Party.

Fluffy: The University has extensive equipment and facilities that may be used by students in case they desire to gather first-hand information on the principles that they learn in class.

Better: Students can use the university facilities to further explore the topics they learn in class.

19. Thoroughly proofread your work

Always ensure you proofread and edit your work before submitting it. This way you rid your essay of any obvious errors such as spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, formatting mistakes, factual mistakes, lexicon mistakes, and tautologies.

Summary

Mastering the basic rules of essay writing is essential for crafting clear, persuasive, and impactful essays. From understanding avoiding plagiarism to developing a solid thesis to organizing ideas logically and maintaining a formal tone, each step in the writing process contributes to the essay’s overall effectiveness. By following these academic writing rules, including proper citation and thorough editing, you can elevate the quality of your work and ensure it meets academic standards. With consistent practice and attention to detail, applying these rules for essay writing will help you build strong writing skills that are valuable in both academic and professional settings.

How Much Do I Need to Know to Write an Essay?

A common question in the minds of many students, budding professionals, and people wishing to learn academic writing is: how much do I need to know to write an essay, post, or story on a given subject or topic? The concern of how much to know to write or “know how much to write” often becomes real when you are required to write an essay or research paper on topic, concept, or subject that you may not have even heard of. For people engaged in creative writing, their concern about how much knowledge to write may stem from their need to create a narrative or picture in the mind of the reader that is more realistic and not too far-fetched. In this article, we focus on answering the question: How much knowledge do you have to have to write? In other articles, you can learn the important essay writing rules and essential skills for essay writing.

The Amount of Knowledge Required for Essay Writing

If you are a college student and your assignment requires you to write an essay on a topic, subject, or concept that you have almost no knowledge on, you may be tempted to think that your lecturer or professor gave the assignment by mistake. This is especially the case if you were expecting your lecturer or professor to teach you something first and thereafter assess you on what they have taught, and not the other way round. There is no doubt that experiencing a situation in which you have to write an essay, story, or content on a topic or subject that you have little or no information or knowledge on can be quite frustrating and a cause for anxiety. If you are facing such a situation and are wondering how much knowledge you need to have for essay writing, be sure you are not alone. You have a genuine concern.

Will I be able to write an essay on a subject or topic that I do not have prior or adequate knowledge in? The answer to how much knowledge is required for essay writing depends on three main factors; the level of complexity of the essay, the type of essay you are writing, and the circumstances under which you are writing the essay. However, before focusing on the three main factors, is there is a simple yes or no answer to the question?

know how much to write

To answer this question, consider this situation: Everyday newspapers and radio and television stations report news that their representatives or journalists did not personally gather on the ground. A newspaper in Kenya may, for example, report in depth about a terrorist attack that has occurred in the U.S. or the destruction caused by a massive earthquake in Haiti without having a journalist in the location where the event has taken place. What the journalists working with the media house will typically do is search what other media houses and people are reporting about the event, and based on these, come up with their own news article on the story. They can search for relevant information on the Internet, social media, or any other relevant source. It is, however, important that the journalists draw their information from credible sources or verify the accuracy of the information they get from the other (secondary) sources. As a reader or viewer of the news article/ item, you will probably not realise that the media house had no journalist(s) on the ground to capture the news first hand. From this illustration, you realise that the journalist in Kenya writing or reporting on an event that occurred in the US or Haiti did not have prior or first-hand knowledge of what happened. He or she is relying on what others have stated, written, or reported about the event.

how much knowledge for essay writing

Academic writing involves researching (reading what other people have written, professional thoughts and opinions, and facts) and then coming up with content based on what you have read and learnt. Since a lot of what you will write in an academic essay is based on the information you get from your research, you need not have prior knowledge, information or training on a subject to write a research paper or essay on it. This implies that you need not to have undertaken a course in psychology, for example, to write an essay or research paper on a topic in psychology. Similarly, you don’t necessarily need to have attended law classes to answer a question in law. You can be a mechanical engineer by training and yet be able to write an excellent essay on a topic in business, psychology, biology, or strategic management – subjects not directly related to engineering. What you need to do in this case is read what other people (especially experts or scholars) have written or are saying on the subject, digest this information and come up with relevant content for your essay.

Likewise, you may not need to be a subject expert to write an excellent blog post or marketing copy. In any case, majority of bloggers and content creators are not experts in the field they are writing on. You simply need to read extensively what others have written on the subject or product, understand the main issues, and come up with your own content.

In the college and university setting, it is common for students to be required to write on a topic or subject they have not been taught on. This is because they are actually expected to engage in research, which is part of the process of building their knowledge and developing into a well moulded professional. Lecturers and professors understand that one way of ensuring that you engage in own learning is by subjecting you to a situation where you have to accomplish a task that you have to start from a point of not knowing. From this point, the way to know is to research about the subject by finding relevant sources, evaluating the sources, and getting the information that will allow you to write your essay.

Learn what to write in any essay.

Complexity, Essay Type, and Situation

Although it is very possible to write an excellent academic essay, blog post, or marketing copy without any prior knowledge on a given topic or subject, this may not always be the case. There are some subjects or topics that you may not be able to effectively write on without some relevant background education or knowledge. For example, if you have no background knowledge in solid mechanics, you may not be able to effectively write an essay on bending stress analysis especially where calculations are involved as part of the essay. Likewise, if you have no background knowledge about hypotheses and hypothesis testing, you may not be able to handle an essay that requires you to develop and test your own hypotheses on an issue. These two examples indicate that the level of complexity of your essay topic or subject dictates “how much knowledge to write essay”.

While personal reflections, descriptive essays, and narrative essays are relatively easy to write and may not require high level of know how to write, other types such as dissertations and systematic reviews are complex and require a high “level of know to write”. With regard to the circumstances under which you are writing an essay, factors such as the deadline that you have and whether or not you can refer to external sources dictate how much you need to know to write an essay. If you have an extremely short deadline and are not allowed to consult other sources, such as in an examination environment, you really need to have a considerable amount of background knowledge to write a quality essay on the given subject. On the other hand, if you are not constrained by time and are allowed to refer to other sources, such as when writing an ordinary research paper or term paper, you don’t really need to have a lot of background information on the topic or subject. This is because in the latter case, you have the opportunity to research and gain as much knowledge as is relevant during the essay writing process.

Summary

If you’re asking, “How much knowledge do I need to write an essay?” or “How much do I need to know to write well?”— the answer is, it depends. In many cases, you don’t really need to have any background knowledge on the subject, topic, or course to write a great essay. You can start from a point of not knowing anything at all on the subject and end up with an absolutely amazing essay or piece. What you need to do is engage in extensive research to learn about the subject you want to write on. That said, the amount of knowledge required for essay writing often depends on the topic’s complexity, the essay type, and the circumstances under which you are writing the essay. A more detailed piece will need extensive research, while a personal reflection might rely more on your personal experience and insights. But remember, you don’t need to be an expert to write an essay—you just need a solid grasp of the main points and some supporting details to bring your ideas to life.

Do you wish to learn academic writing for free? Read this article for an introduction to academic writing. Here are the important essay writing rules and essential skills for essay writing.

10 Essential Skills for Essay Writing: Learn Academic Writing

Writing a high quality academic essay or paper requires a mix of important skills for essay writing and following important writing rules. Whether you are tackling an essay, research paper, dissertation, or any other type of academic paper, the outcome will be measured by three main things; content quality, organisation, and timely delivery.

skills for academic writing With respect to quality content, your essay should answer the question that you are supposed to answer, which means that the content of your essay should be relevant. The content of your essay should also be based on sound reasoning or logic, founded on sound research, and should present different viewpoints and arguments. Here’s how much you need to know to write an essay on a topic. No one wants to waste their time reading a boring essay and so your essay should be interesting to read. Your essay should also be so organised that it flows naturally or logically, is easy and comfortable to read and understand, and is well presented. If the content, organisation, and structure of your work is top notch and yet you deliver the work well after the deadline that you were given by your professor, superior, or client has passed, your work may ultimately be rejected. Delivering your essay or academic paper within time is one of the ways of avoiding a poor score in college and university. In any case, you never want the effort you have applied towards coming up with a high quality paper to go to waste just because you could not deliver in time.

In order to succeed in academic writing or be able to write a good essay, there are certain skills that you need possess or develop. If you wish to learn academic writing, you definitely wish to pay attention to these skills. Once you develop these skills, you will probably find writing an academic essay or paper to be an easy exercise. What skills do you need to write an essay that stands out? Here’s a look at the skills needed for essay writing that every student should develop and why they matter.

Language proficiency

Academic writing involves communicating ideas. For you to effectively communicate, you should be proficient in the language you will be using in your academic writing work. This means that you have to have adequate knowledge of the language you in terms of grammar and syntax. In simple terms, you should have adequate vocabulary, be able to compose correct sentences, and be able to use punctuation. Having proficiency in the language you are using to write your essay helps you choose the right words, ensuring your ideas are clear and precisely conveyed. This reduces misunderstandings and keeps the reader engaged.

Being able to communicate effectively in the language will help you avoid errors that can distract or confuse those reading your work. Having language proficiency helps you be able to express complex ideas, which is important in persuasive and analytical writing. Having strong vocabulary can help you avoid repetition and add sophistication to your writing, making your arguments more compelling and engaging. Language proficiency also helps you adapt an appropriate tone – whether persuasive, formal, creative, or analytical. Adopting an appropriate tone can render your essay more appealing and appropriate for its intended audience. Language proficiency also contributes to the logical organization of ideas, such as through the use of transition words, sentence variety, and paragraph structure, which contributes to smooth reading.

How to improve writing skills in this area? Read books and literature written in the language, read the dictionary to learn new vocabulary and how to correctly use them, listen attentively when others speak in the language. Having conversations in the language frequently and practicing writing in the language are equally effective ways of gaining language proficiency.

2. Paraphrasing skills

Learn essay writing Closely related to language proficiency is paraphrasing skills. Academic writing involves drawing information from different sources and writing this information in your own words. The ability to understand what others are communicating and express the same ideas in your own words is, therefore, an invaluable skill. Paraphrasing involves analysing and reinterpreting other people’s ideas. Your ability to effectively paraphrase the information that you have gotten from other sources can help you avoid or reduce the risk of plagiarism. Avoiding plagiarism is crucial in academic writing as originality and proper source attribution are required. Being able to rephrase what others sources have stated demonstrates your understanding of the material, which often leads to better insights and stronger arguments. Having effective paraphrasing skills additionally helps you seamlessly blend sources into your narrative, which translates to better essay flow, and helps translate complex ideas into powerful statements that support your arguments and thesis.

How to develop essay writing skills like paraphrasing? Build your vocabulary, practice writing in your own words using synonyms and by changing the order of words, and practicing summarising text.

3. Computer skills

what skills does essay writing give you Academic writing mostly involves researching online and typing your work on a word processor (such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs). It is, therefore, important that you have at least basic knowledge of how to use the computer and the Internet. This means you need basic knowledge on how to use a word processor and a browser – such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer – to access and find information on the Internet. Having knowledge and experience in using word processing software can make drafting, editing, and formatting your work easier and helps you work more efficiently. Tools such as spell check, grammar suggestion, formatting options, review options, QuillBot, Grammarly and Hemingway help save time, avoid or correct certain errors, and enhance the clarity, readability, and professionalism of your essay. Proficiency in the use of other software (such as statistical, spreadsheet, project management, computer programming) can be an added advantage to you especially if your essay work requires complex data analysis or decision making.

Writing a good academic essay often requires that you access and read a lot of information from multiple sources. With computer skills, you can quickly access a wealth of online resources including databases, libraries, journals, books, and websites which increase the depth and quality of your research. Today, many essays require specific formatting styles (such as APA, Harvard, MLA). Having computer skills makes it easier to apply the specific formatting and presentation styles through the use of formatting tools within the word processor and advanced formatting tools such as MyBib and Mendeley.

Developing your computer skills can be as simple as using a computer regularly, seeking necessary help when using a computer, and searching online for solutions on how to accomplish specific functions or tasks when using computer programs. You can also improve your computer skills by enrolling in a computer course or tutorial.

4. Typing skills

Time is a limited resource that should be used prudently. The existence of deadlines and the fact that several important things compete for your time brings to focus the need to work fast when writing an essay. Having good typing speed allows you to type quickly which makes it easier to capture ideas as they come to your mind or as you paraphrase. It also helps you avoid interruptions, stay focused, and write more efficiently as you write without struggling with mechanics of typing. Your ability to type well often translates to fewer errors and greater accuracy, which in turn helps you spend less time on proofreading and corrections. Your ability to type efficiently can help reduce strain and fatigue especially when you are working on longer essays and projects that require prolonged working periods. Typing faster can help you save time that you can then use for researching, organizing, revising, and polishing the essay.

You can improve your typing skills by practicing to type. The more you type, the faster you will be able to type. You can also improve your typing speed by learning touch typing. Applications such as Typing Master and TypingClub are excellent options for learning touch typing.

5. Research skills

writing skills for academic writing Strong research skills are important skills for essay writing, as academic essays require credible, well-researched sources. In academic writing, you will not just engage in superficial Internet search. You will have to engage in deep research as you start from a point of not knowing. The level of research you engage in will ultimately impact on the quality and credibility of your essay. Having good research skills will enable you find several and diverse sources that will deepen your understanding of the topic and make you aware of the different perspectives that you can include in your essay. Having good research skills also allows you to locate reliable and relevant evidence that you can use to support your claims and arguments.

Not all sources that you encounter in the process of essay writing will be credible. Having research skills allows you to quickly screen sources and to identify credible, reliable, and up-to-date sources which you can rely on in writing your essay and boosting strength and validity of your arguments. Having strong referencing skills also help you efficiently organise the information you have, save time thus allowing you to put more focus on writing and analysis. Practicing how to search and find sources online, from databases, and from libraries and how to evaluate sources is a sure way of learning research skills.

6. Critical thinking and analytical skills

Coming up with an excellent essay requires the application of critical and analytical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the kind of thinking which involves questioning, analysing, interpreting, and evaluating the information or ideas you get come up with or get from other sources. Researching only provides you with the information or ideas that you may write. Thereafter, you need to analyse that information and form an opinion based on your findings. This is where critical thinking comes in. Critical or analytical thinking helps you go beyond surface-level observations to analyse concepts, arguments, and data in detail. The result of this is deeper insights and a more thorough exploration of the topic. Critical thinking also enables you analyse issues objectively, taking into consideration multiple points of view leading to quality arguments and conclusions. Critical thinking also enables you to break down a complex topic into smaller parts that are more manageable, analyse relationships, and come up with logical solutions or interpretations. Additionally, critical thinking enables you to develop intellectual independence as you develop the ability to form your own reasoned opinions and conclusions rather than relying on those of other people. This happens as you question assumptions, explore alternatives, and consider different viewpoints.

Learning to question assumptions, appreciating different points of view, being objective when engaging in different activities, and engaging in reflection are important ways you can apply in improving your critical thinking skills. Reading research articles and academic essays written by other people are also potent ways of improving your critical thinking and analytical skills.

7. Argumentation skills

Academic writing often involves argumentation – making claims, providing reasons or evidence to back up or refute those claims, drawing conclusions, and applying the conclusions to the case you are discussing. Argumentation helps you construct a clear, persuasive thesis backed by strong evidence. It also enables you influence the reader’s perspective by presenting compelling reasons and solid support for your position. Strong argumentation skills is fundamental when considering what skills does essay writing give you as it encourages you to develop critical thinking as you analyse sources and consider alternative points of view. This helps you build a more nuanced and robust argument rather than relying on weak or one-sided claims.

Good argumentation skills involve acknowledging and addressing opposing views. This shows that you have considered multiple perspectives, strengthening the overall argument and showing respect for differing opinions. When arguments are well-reasoned, backed by credible evidence, and acknowledge counterarguments, the credibility of your essay increases. Your reader is more likely to take you seriously if you present a balanced and thoughtful perspective. Here’s how much you need to know on a subject to write a well-balanced essay or academic paper.

You probably want to improve your argumentation skills by learning to appreciate different points of view, reading widely, and through academic writing practice.

8. Formatting skills

learn academic writing Formatting is another one of the several skills needed for essay writing. Formatting has to do with the organisation and presentation of your essay. An essay that is well formatted is well organised, easy to read and understand, has good flow and looks professional. Having formatting skills requires attention to detail and demonstrates respect for formatting guidelines and conventions. Having good formatting skills helps you properly organise and format your essay or paper enhancing its readability, flow, and presentation, and appeal to the reader.

Your ability to format a document or file will likely be influenced by your computer skills. Learning how to format will thus be easier if you have at least basic computer skills, giving you a good reason to invest in gaining basic computer skills. You can learn and improve on your formatting skills by reading relevant formatting style guides, practicing how to format in a style that is relevant to you, and by searching for solutions online when you face a formatting challenge. Some of the most commonly used formatting styles in academic writing include APA, MLA and Harvard.

9. Referencing skills

Researching is a crucial and natural element of academic writing. It is through research that you get ideas to write on, alternative viewpoints to consider, and data and evidence to back up your statements and claims. Researching involves reading and understanding other people’s ideas, expressing these ideas, and crediting other people for their ideas. It is important to credit other people with their ideas, views, work, and contributions. Referencing is a means through which you will credit other people for their works, ideas, and contribution to science. Referencing skills help you paraphrase, quote and cite sources correctly. They further help you ethically integrate into your essay the information you have gotten from other sources, avoid plagiarism, and maintain the integrity of your work.

By reading on and practicing how to cite and reference sources from referencing guides and other resources, you will learn how to reference using the referencing styles that may be relevant to you. Learning and practicing how to use one or more referencing managers, such as MyBib, Mendeley, and Cite This For Me can also help you improve your referencing skills.

10. Time management skills

how to improve writing skills

How you manage your time dictates how much time you have to accomplish the different activities involved in essay writing. It also determines the quality of these activities, and whether or not you will deliver your work in time. Good time management allows for thorough research, ensuring that you have enough time to find credible sources, analyse information, and build a well-informed argument. Without sufficient time, the quality of the research may suffer. Writing is a process, and the best essays require multiple drafts and revisions. Effective time management means you will have adequate room for editing, refining arguments, and fixing any mistakes, resulting in a more polished final draft, better quality work, and a more enjoyable writing process. In the work or academic setting, you will probably need to manage multiple assignments and deadlines. Good time management skills help you prioritize tasks, allocate time appropriately, avoid wasting time on tasks that could be completed faster, and avoid missing deadlines. As you can see, time management is crucial for students learning how to improve writing skills.

You can develop your time management skills by always prioritising tasks – performing more urgent or important tasks first and less urgent ones later. Other strategies for developing this skill include always setting realistic goals and deadlines, breaking down large tasks into manageable pieces, taking measures to minimise distractions, and delegating work where this is possible.

By focusing on these skills, you can learn how to develop essay writing skills that result in clear, polished, and professional academic papers that abide by the essential essay writing rules. Wish to learn academic writing? Here‘s an introduction to academic writing.