English for Academic Purposes

Essay Writing

Week 2: Paragraph Writing

Each paragraph in the essay should contain one main idea, perspective or point of
view.

There is no ‘golden rule’ about how long a paragraph should be. However, avoid very
short paragraphs of just one or two sentences.

One consistently effective approach is to have an opening descriptive sentence in

each paragraph that introduces the topic. Move on then to give examples or
evidence to support this opening statement, and think about how you are going to
make a link with the paragraph that follows.

The aim is to try and ensure a coherent and sequential flow of ideas from one
paragraph to the next; see example that follows.

However, despite the obvious impact the Web has made on the recruitment
The word ‘however’
signals and alerts
process, there are a number of concerns and drawbacks to using this medium. These
the reader to a include the issue of relevance of the medium, confidentiality, the large numbers of
change in direction. applications generated, and the problems that job seekers find in navigating
websites and communicating electronically with employers.

The first question recruiters need to ask themselves is ‘to what extent do members
In the previous of the target recruitment group have access to the Web?’ Despite increasing use of
paragraph the the Web, there are still considerable numbers of people, particularly older adults,
student briefly
outlines a who do not have access to a personal computer either at work or in their homes. It
number of is estimated, for example, that more than half the adults in West Yorkshire currently
concerns and do not use the Web, and that 27 per cent of businesses in the region do not use
drawbacks to computers (LSC 2001). It is clear that the Web is a major source of recruiting
using the Web for administrative, IT related or senior and middle management staff from a wide
recruitment and
selection geographical area. We can see though that it is used less for recruiting at junior
purposes. This clerical or administrative levels, for manual and practical jobs, or for jobs in a specific
paragraph locality. And even among the target groups, networking and personal contacts, or
focuses on the using trusted professional recruiters, tend to be the strategies most frequently
first of these currently mentioned as most effective for both job-seekers and employers (Feldman
concerns:
and Klass 2002).

Note how the student

uses referenced
evidence to back-up
points made (see Unit
4)
 Stuck for a suitable phrase to use in your essay?

It can be argued…

...that writing essays can be difficult at times!

If you can’t think of a suitable sentence to introduce or develop an

idea, then Manchester University can offer suggestions to help you
write your essay.

They have set up an online ‘Academic Phrasebook’ with suggested

phrases relating to different parts of an essay. Go to:

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Write the first draft

Some people just ‘dive in’ and start writing - but they usually have a rough
idea about structure in their minds; the structure begins to take shape as they
write.

Others work out a rough plan of the structure then start to write the first draft. If
you are relatively new to essay writing, this often proves the best approach.

The first draft should be written quickly, not worrying too much about style,
spelling or grammar at this stage.

Once the first draft has been written, leave it to one side for a few hours or
preferably longer.

Come back to the draft at regular intervals and ask yourself ‘have I really
answered the question?’ The answer will probably be ‘no’ or ‘only partially’, at
this stage.
 Rewrite – be ruthless

Be ruthless and cut out irrelevant points, but save these on a separate sheet as you
may want to refer back to them at a later date
Make sure you have addressed the essay task or question.
Go over it for spelling and grammatical errors and correct these.
Make sure you have included evidence and examples to support your points.

A quick guide to punctuation

Full stop . The full stop signals the end of a sentence.

Comma , The comma is used to separate out words or clauses in a

sentence.

Examples:

Society depends on its traditions, and the authority of the

written text is one of these.

Charles Handy, in his book ‘The Empty Raincoat’, has

argued that federalism is a way of making sense of large
organisations.

There is, however, one mistake that many students make...

After the death of his wife, Thomas Hardy went into a deep
depression.

Colon : The colon: can be used in the latter part of a sentence to

signal that there is more to come. It may substitute for
expressions such as:

‘Namely…’
‘In other words…’
‘For instance…’
‘For example…’
 ‘On the other hand…’
In particular…’

Examples of the colon in action:

The way ahead for the organisation was quite clear : to

reorganise, regroup, and rethink their strategy.

Other factors included: rising costs of fuel and feed,

labour costs, and the demographic changes in the
region.

Semi-colon ; The semi-colon; is used to link two related sentences, where

the use of full stops or conjunctions, such as ‘and’, would lead
to jerky or ungrammatical prose. It is also used to differentiate
and separate items in a list.

Examples:

At first the purpose seemed to be clear; however, this

soon changed.

Creativity has often been suppressed within adults by

the conventions and routines of everyday life ; but it is
still there and can be reawakened.

Apostrophe ‘ The apostrophe is used in the following situations:

To show where a letter(s) or figures have been left out.

Example: ‘Do not’ can be merged to don’t.

To indicate possession.

Examples: The School’s Mission Statement, or Women’s

Rights
 How to reduce the word count

Most students find they have written too much and need to reduce the text. You
need to write within strict word limits, e.g. 3,000 words and you can lose marks if you
go over this.

If you find that you have written over the word limit, you can reduce it by going back
over your assignment and cutting out redundant words and phrases. This last
sentence for example, can be reduced from 28 words to 19 quite easily – see below.

Before After

If you find that you have written over If you have written over the word
the word limit, you can reduce it by limit, you can reduce it by cutting
going back over your assignment out redundant words and phrases
and cutting out redundant words (19 words).
and phrases (28 words)

The meaning of the sentence is not changed; in fact, it makes it sharper and more
readable.

.
Example 1

Try to amend or re-write the sentence below without losing the meaning of it. Aim to
reduce the number of words by half. Write in the right-hand column.

To build a long term sustainable

change model to last 10 years is
the only way forward. In doing so,
there is need to retain all that is
positive about the current
performance of the organisation but
align this with an outwards facing
strategic enabling approach.

(46 words).

Example 2
Again, try to cut the number of words in the left hand column below to less than half,
without losing the meaning of the section. Write in the right-hand column.

The power of fossil fuel companies

is such that that they can influence
developed countries not to sign up
to the Kyoto Protocol. Developed
countries are susceptible to the
influence of fossil fuel companies so
if they not told to sign up, they are
likely to give way to that pressure.

(51 words)

Example 3

Reduce the word count on this sentence to the minimum possible number, without
losing the meanings of the section.

The public’s knowledge of health is

poor and more government funding
for health education is needed
(Atkinson 2004).
Increased sums of money should be
spent on courses to make people
aware of personal health issues.
People don’t always know what they
can do to take care of their health, so
further investment is needed in
training on health matters.

(59 words)

Your tutor will discuss the results of this exercise with you. Alternatively, you can
check the answers yourself in the online tutor guidance notes for this Section and
Unit.
 Key points

It is very important to look carefully at the set essay title to identify key
words, propositions and assumptions, as these are your starting point Most
for writing the essay.

Pay particular attention to the introduction of your essay, as this is the

first impression the tutor has of your work.

Paragraphs should only contain one main idea.

Essays will usually involve both descriptive and analytical writing – but
it is the effective engagement with the latter that will result in the best
marks for you.

Your conclusion should remind the reader of the main arguments or

points in your essay.

It is likely you will have to write more than one draft of your essay
before you submit it.

Rewriting your essay will often involve you in cutting down on the
number of words, but this can often make your writing clearer and more
accessible to the reader.

essays require you to apply description and analysis to the subject.

An effective essay, therefore, is likely to include paragraphs that are:

Descriptive Analytical Combine Description

and Analysis

You present a situation Analytical paragraphs Typically these

in a factual way, usually often follow on from one paragraphs start with an
presenting an overview that was largely introductory statement
of the situation, which descriptive. (setting the scene),
might include data to which is then followed
back up factual In these paragraphs, by a deeper probe or
statements made. you would discussion, including
explore/discuss the examples, into or on the
implications or impact of implications/impact of
the situation earlier the situation in question.
described.
Exercise

Look at the following extracts taken from five consecutive paragraphs from an essay
evaluating the impact of the Iweb on practices for recruitment and selection and
decide if they are predominantly description or analysis, or a combination of the two.
Tick in the relevant column.

Extract Description Analysis Both

1. The Internet is a system of connecting

computers around the world. Linked to
this is the ‘Intranet’, which is a way
organisations can communicate
internally. The population connected to
the Internet in 1999 totalled some 196
million people, predicted to rise to over
500 million by the end of 2003. By the
start of 2000, the daily number of
Emails sent exceeded – each day – the
number sent in total for the whole of
1990.

2. The Web has had a significant impact

on the way both firms and job seekers
seek each other out. In Britain in 2000,
for example, the Chartered Institute of
Personnel estimated that 47 per cent of
all employers were making use of the
Web for recruitment purposes (Dale
2003). In the USA the Association of
Internet Recruiters estimated that 45
per cent of companies surveyed had
filled one in five of their vacancies
through on-line recruiting (Charles
2000).

More than 75 per cent of Human

Resources personnel in the USA are
now making regular use of Web job
boards in addition to traditional
recruitment methods of newspaper
advertising and links with employment
agencies (HR Focus 2001).
3. The main ways that firms use the Web
include developing their own web sites,
making use of recruitment agency
websites, or using ‘job boards’: external
websites that carry sometimes
thousands of vacancies that job
seekers can scan.

External recruitment agencies are

increasingly specialising in particular
types of niche vacancies, or acting as
career managers for job applicants and
helping to both place the applicant in
the right job and to support that person
during their career.

4. Job seekers too, use the Web to

contact prospective employers by
placing their CVs or work résumés on
to websites that employers can scan. A
survey in the USA in 1999, for example,
suggested that 55 per cent of
graduates had posted their résumé on
to an online job service, and that three-
quarters had used the Web to search
for jobs in specific geographic locations
(Monday, Noe and Premeaux 2002).

Some job seekers, with high demand

skills, offer their labour in electronic
‘talent auctions’, with job negotiations,
once a successful match has been
made, facilitated by the Auction House
representatives on behalf of the
applicants.

5. The main advantages to employers of

using the Web for recruitment purposes
are in the speed of operation, breadth
 of coverage, particularly if recruiting on
a worldwide basis, and cost saving that
can occur. Electronic advertising can
quickly connect with job-seekers in
many different places that might not
otherwise be contacted by more
conventional methods. Small to
medium sized enterprises too, find that
they can compete effectively
electronically with larger companies
and can begin to attract high-calibre
recruits to their web sites, which might
not otherwise be the case with more
traditional methods of recruitment.

With regards to cost saving, it has been

estimated that expenditure on
newspaper advertising and ‘head-
hunter’ fees dropped in the USA by 20
per cent as Web expenditure increased
(Boehle 2000). On-line recruiting, if it is
used effectively, is also estimated to
cut a week off the recruitment process
(Capelli 2001). Large organisations,
like L’Oréal and KPMG, use the Web to
recruit staff on both cost-saving
grounds, and because they feel it
increases their visibility and attracts
high-calibre recruits. With KPMG, for
example, the Human Resources staff
was handling 35,000 paper
applications a year, but decided to
switch all their recruitment online from
May 2001 to save time and printing
costs (Carter 2001).

Materials used and adapted with kind permission from

www.transitwestyorkshire.ac.uk