Writing Essays For Dummies, UK Edition

by Mary Page, Carrie Winstanley

Do ever wish that you could write the perfect university essay? Are you left baffled about where to start? This easy-to-use guide walks you through the nuts and bolts of academic writing, helping you develop your essay-writing skills and achieve higher marks. From identifying the essay type and planning a structure, to honing your research skills, managing your time, finding an essay voice, and referencing correctly, Writing Essays For Dummies shows you how to stay on top of each stage of the essay-writing process, to help you produce a well-crafted and confident final document. Writing Essays For Dummies covers:

Part I: Navigating a World of Information
Chapter 1: Mapping Your Way: Starting to Write Essays
Chapter 2: Identifying the essay type

Part II: Researching, Recording and Reformulating
Chapter 3: Eyes Down: Academic reading
Chapter 4: Researching Online
Chapter 5: Note-taking and Organising your Material
Chapter 6: Avoiding Plagiarism

Part III: Putting Pen to Paper
Chapter 7: Writing as a process
Chapter 8: Getting Going and Keeping Going

Part IV: Mastering Language and Style
Chapter 9: Writing with Confidence
Chapter 10: Penning the Perfect Paragraph
Chapter 11: Finding Your Voice

Part V: Tightening Your Structure and Organisation
Chapter 12: Preparing the Aperitif: The Introduction
Chapter 13: Serving the Main Course: The Essay's Body
Chapter 14: Dishing up Dessert: The Conclusion
Chapter 15: Acknowledging Sources of Information

Part VI: Finishing with a Flourish: The Final Touches
Chapter 16: It's all in the detail
Chapter 17: Perfecting Your Presentation
Chapter 18: The afterglow

Part VII: Part of Tens
Chapter 19: Ten Tips to Avoid Things Going Wrong
Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Make Your Essay Stand Out

Genres: Writing, Reference, Essays, Nonfiction

314 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2009

Reviews

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive, but an invaluable resource for new university students. A good refresher for my upcoming courses.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly decent guide to essay writing. The section on how to compose the main body of your essay was disappointingly small - most space was given over to things like research guides and management. While these were useful I was hoping for more than a paragraph or two on how to actually write the essay!

There were also a few glaring errors. A couple of things could be due to the fact that I read an early edition and maybe later ones were corrected - saying to write “he or she” instead of “they” for example. However other things were flat out wrong. Person first language has been out of fashion in disability circles for many decades, so to insist that someone use “a person with autism” rather than “an autistic person” was outdated at the time the authors would have been planning this session. While it’s true a select few prefer person first language, the vast majority don’t. A simple check in with disability advisors could have avoided that. There were also spelling and grammar mistakes! In a book that repeatedly tells you to check these and has a whole chapter on proofreading and the suchlike, it’s rather lazy that so many mistakes got through.

The content was useful as a general guide, and I’d be happy to keep it as a reference book. But if you’ve never written an essay before this does not do what it says on the tin, so best to look elsewhere for help.

[Rik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a great introduction to essay writing, with many little tidbits of knowledge.

The writing was concise and clear and gave many perspectives, such as how the tutor would judge different parts of an essay. Insider knowledge!

I had to subtract one star because it’s easy to lose yourself in the ocean of little packages of information. And nowhere in the book are all the fragments put aside to present the entire process in its totality. At the end, after making a million notes, I still had trouble to actually start writing.

Do I write an analytical essay or descriptive one, a critical or argumentative, and what was the difference between them again, and which type of annotation belongs to who?

One of these days I’ll puzzle it together! Great book nonetheless.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really have much to say regarding this book besides that it's quite solid and has lots of useful little tips. Unfortunately, I already graduated last year and I picked this book up to help with a passion project I have lined up. So most of the lessons learnt would be useful during my undergraduate course but ultimately lessons learnt.

3/5 stars, these books are always well structured so it makes for pleasant reading.

[MK · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is basically the case with the Dummies series, but this book also has too long explanations for each chapter, making it difficult for the reader to grasp the overall picture.

First of all, I need to briefly explain the process of writing an essay, but the Dummies series always starts with the details, which makes it very difficult to understand.

[Olga Tsygankova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чудова книжка, щоб ознайомитися зі специфікою написання есе для британських університетів. Від загальних вимог до деталей щодо референсів, структури окремих частин, цитування і формату. Написано просто і з гумором.

[Jess Checkland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for any university student at any level. I decided to spruce up my writing abilities before doing my second degree and this book helped immensely. Would definitely recommend

[Chrissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent guide to essay writing and I used it throughout my degree

[Fausto Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little annoying with the extra unnecessary info but it is the style of "books for Dummies"

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and refer to it regularly with students. It is concise, easy-to-read and is well-indexed. All the basics of essay-writing are covered, including 'brushing up your grammar', planning an essay, how to research effectively, choosing a writing form, and proper referencing.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for brushing up on your essay writing or learning to write an essay from scratch.