Study Skills / Common faults in the structure of essay

Symptom of weakness in structure

Analysis of the problem

The magical mystery tour.

This type of answer rambles on, drifting from point to disconnected point with no real structure.

The essay may contain valuable content, but marks will be lost because this is not organised and parts are not connected appropriately to create a coherent response.

No introduction and / or conclusion. The main body contains many useful points, but fails to draw conclusions based on them.

Facts, concepts and ideas alone are not enough – evidence must be provided of deeper-level analytical thinking. The introduction and conclusions are important parts where this can be achieved.

The overly-detailed answer.

The main body of the answer contains a wealth of information, some of which is relevant and some not. Despite the finely-grained detail, little structure is evident and there is no discrimination between the important and the unimportant.

The writer has probably been preoccupied with showing how much has been memorised, without showing how much has been understood. Relevance of the material in relation to the instruction given has not been considered at the planning stage, or as the essay-writing progresses.

The stream of consciousness.

Often written as if it were a conversational monologue, this lacks internal organisation, few (or too many) signposting words, no (or few) paragraphs, and little apparent logic.

Academic writing style involves structural as well as linguistic components. Both are important elements of a good answer. Hence, the writing needs to guide the reader along a logical path to enable understanding.

The waffly, irrelevant answer. Unfocussed, fails to get to grips with the question and may contain large amounts of irrelevant information, offered up seemingly without regard for the topic set.

Greater attention needs to be paid to analysis of the instruction given and converting these thoughts into a coherent answer plan. Irrelevant material should not be used as it will gain no marks.

The half-an-answer.

Fails to appreciate that there were two (or more) parts to the question. Focuses solely on the first part.

The essay should cover all aspects of the questions as more marks may be allocated to the secondary part (s). This should be reflected in the essay plan and eventual structure

Structure dominated by quotes.

This might start with a hackneyed quote or be interspersed with extensive memorised quotes, with little effective use of these.

This type of structure leaves little room for evidence of original thought. Few marks are given for having a good memory – it’s what is done with the information that counts.