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A comprehensive guide to writing an evaluation essay – tips, examples, and techniques.

Welcome to the ultimate guide on writing an evaluation essay! Evaluating a subject, be it a book, movie, restaurant, or a piece of art, requires critical thinking and analysis. In this comprehensive guide, you will learn valuable tips and examples to help you master the art of evaluation essays. Whether you are a student working on an assignment or a writer looking to sharpen your skills, this guide will provide you with the tools you need to craft insightful and compelling evaluations.

Writing an evaluation essay involves assessing the quality, value, or significance of a particular subject based on specific criteria. It requires careful evaluation, evidence-based analysis, and a clear presentation of your findings. In this guide, we will walk you through the essential steps of writing an effective evaluation essay, from choosing a topic and developing a thesis to organizing your arguments and refining your writing. By following our tips and studying the examples provided, you will be well-equipped to write a standout evaluation essay that engages and persuades your readers.

The Art of Writing an Evaluation Essay

Writing an evaluation essay requires a careful analysis and critique of a subject or a topic. To master this art, you need to develop a critical mindset and attention to detail. Here are some key steps to help you craft a compelling evaluation essay:

By following these steps and honing your critical thinking skills, you can master the art of writing an evaluation essay and create a compelling and insightful piece of writing.

Understanding the Evaluation Essay

An evaluation essay is a type of writing that assesses and critiques a particular subject, such as a movie, book, restaurant, or product. It requires the writer to analyze the subject and provide a judgment based on defined criteria. The purpose of an evaluation essay is to evaluate the subject’s quality and effectiveness, and to present a clear and coherent argument for the writer’s assessment.

When writing an evaluation essay, it is important to have a clear understanding of the subject being evaluated and to establish specific criteria for evaluation. These criteria can vary depending on the subject and the writer’s perspective, but they should be logical, relevant, and objective. The evaluation essay should also include evidence and examples to support the writer’s judgment and provide a well-rounded assessment of the subject.

Overall, the evaluation essay requires critical thinking, analysis, and effective communication skills. It is an opportunity for the writer to express their opinion and evaluation of a subject in a structured and persuasive manner.

Choosing a Topic for Evaluation Essay

When selecting a topic for your evaluation essay, it’s important to choose something that you have a genuine interest in and can thoroughly analyze. Here are some tips to help you pick the perfect topic:

• Choose a subject that you are knowledgeable about or have personal experience with.
• Select a topic that is relevant and timely to your audience.
• Pick a topic that can be evaluated objectively based on criteria.
• Consider choosing a controversial topic to spark debate and discussion.
• Ensure that there is enough information available for research and analysis.

By following these guidelines, you can find a topic that will allow you to write a compelling and insightful evaluation essay.

Structuring Your Evaluation Essay

When writing an evaluation essay, it is important to follow a clear structure to effectively communicate your assessment of the subject matter. Here are the key components of structuring your evaluation essay:

• Introduction: Start your essay with an engaging introduction that provides context for the topic and clearly states your evaluation criteria.
• Thesis Statement: Develop a strong thesis statement that presents your overall evaluation and main points.
• Criteria: Identify the specific criteria you will use to evaluate the subject. These criteria should be relevant to the topic and provide a framework for your assessment.
• Evidence: Support your evaluation with concrete examples, evidence, or data. Use specific details to illustrate your points and clarify your assessment.
• Analysis: Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the subject based on your criteria. Provide a balanced assessment that considers both positive and negative aspects.
• Conclusion: Summarize your evaluation and reiterate your main points. Offer a final evaluation that reflects your overall assessment of the subject.

By structuring your evaluation essay in a clear and logical manner, you can effectively convey your assessment to your audience and support your evaluation with strong evidence and analysis.

Tips for Writing a Successful Evaluation Essay

1. Choose a topic that you are familiar with and passionate about. This will make the writing process more enjoyable and engaging for you.

2. Clearly define the criteria that you will use to evaluate the subject. Make sure your criteria are specific, measurable, and relevant to the topic.

3. Provide evidence and examples to support your evaluation. Use facts, data, and examples to back up your claims and make your argument more convincing.

4. Use a clear and logical structure for your essay. Start with an introduction that provides context and introduces the topic. Then, develop your evaluation in the body paragraphs, and conclude with a summary of your main points.

5. Be objective in your evaluation. While it’s important to express your opinion, make sure to support it with evidence and consider different perspectives.

6. Edit and revise your essay carefully. Check for spelling and grammar errors, ensure that your arguments are well-supported, and make sure your writing is clear and concise.

Examples of Evaluation Essay

1. Movie Evaluation: “The Shawshank Redemption” is a classic film that touches on themes of hope, redemption, and friendship. The storyline, acting, and cinematography all contribute to the emotional impact of the movie. However, some critics argue that the pacing of the film is slow in certain parts, affecting the overall viewing experience.

2. Restaurant Evaluation: XYZ Restaurant offers a diverse menu, with options ranging from traditional dishes to modern fusion cuisine. The ambiance is cozy and inviting, creating a pleasant dining experience. However, some customers have complained about the slow service and inconsistent quality of food.

3. Book Evaluation: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a timeless classic that explores themes of racism, justice, and morality. The author’s evocative writing style and vivid characterizations make the book a compelling read. However, some critics argue that the novel oversimplifies complex issues and lacks nuance in its portrayal of race relations.

Revision and Proofreading

Once you have completed your evaluation essay, it is crucial to revise and proofread it thoroughly to ensure that it is polished and error-free. Follow these steps to refine your essay:

• Check for coherence and structure: Make sure that your essay flows logically from one point to the next. Check for transitions between paragraphs and ensure that your arguments are presented in a clear and organized manner.
• Verify the accuracy of your evidence: Double-check all the facts, statistics, and examples you have used in your essay to ensure their accuracy. Make sure that your evidence supports your evaluation effectively.
• Evaluate the clarity of your thesis statement: Your thesis statement should clearly state your evaluation and the criteria you are using. Make sure it is concise and specific.
• Scan for grammar and spelling errors: Proofread your essay carefully to catch any grammar or spelling mistakes. Use a grammar checker or have someone else read your essay to identify any errors you may have missed.
• Check the formatting and citation style: Ensure that your essay follows the required formatting guidelines and that your citations are properly formatted according to the citation style specified in the assignment instructions.
• Seek feedback: Ask a friend, family member, or teacher to read your essay and provide feedback. Consider their suggestions and make revisions accordingly.

By revising and proofreading your evaluation essay, you can ensure that it is well-written, coherent, and error-free, enhancing its overall quality and effectiveness.

Final Thoughts on Evaluation Essays

Writing an evaluation essay can be a challenging but rewarding endeavor. It allows you to critically assess a topic or subject and provide your own unique perspective on it. Remember to choose a topic that you are passionate about or have expertise in, as this will make the writing process more enjoyable and insightful.

When crafting your evaluation essay, be sure to provide a clear evaluation criteria and support your claims with evidence and examples. Use a balanced approach, acknowledging both the strengths and weaknesses of the subject you are evaluating. Additionally, make sure to structure your essay in a logical and organized manner, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

Overall, evaluation essays offer a valuable opportunity to develop your critical thinking and analytical skills. By following the tips and examples outlined in this guide, you can create a compelling and thought-provoking evaluation essay that engages readers and sparks meaningful discussions.

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Assessing student writing, what does it mean to assess writing.

• Suggestions for Assessing Writing

Means of Responding

Rubrics: tools for response and assessment, constructing a rubric.

Assessment is the gathering of information about student learning. It can be used for formative purposes−−to adjust instruction−−or summative purposes: to render a judgment about the quality of student work. It is a key instructional activity, and teachers engage in it every day in a variety of informal and formal ways.

Assessment of student writing is a process. Assessment of student writing and performance in the class should occur at many different stages throughout the course and could come in many different forms. At various points in the assessment process, teachers usually take on different roles such as motivator, collaborator, critic, evaluator, etc., (see Brooke Horvath for more on these roles) and give different types of response.

One of the major purposes of writing assessment is to provide feedback to students. We know that feedback is crucial to writing development. The 2004 Harvard Study of Writing concluded, "Feedback emerged as the hero and the anti-hero of our study−powerful enough to convince students that they could or couldn't do the work in a given field, to push them toward or away from selecting their majors, and contributed, more than any other single factor, to students' sense of academic belonging or alienation" (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/index.cgi?section=study).

Source: Horvath, Brooke K. "The Components of Written Response: A Practical Synthesis of Current Views." Rhetoric Review 2 (January 1985): 136−56. Rpt. in C Corbett, Edward P. J., Nancy Myers, and Gary Tate. The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook . 4th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000.

Suggestions for Assessing Student Writing

Be sure to know what you want students to be able to do and why. Good assessment practices start with a pedagogically sound assignment description and learning goals for the writing task at hand. The type of feedback given on any task should depend on the learning goals you have for students and the purpose of the assignment. Think early on about why you want students to complete a given writing project (see guide to writing strong assignments page). What do you want them to know? What do you want students to be able to do? Why? How will you know when they have reached these goals? What methods of assessment will allow you to see that students have accomplished these goals (portfolio assessment assigning multiple drafts, rubric, etc)? What will distinguish the strongest projects from the weakest?

Begin designing writing assignments with your learning goals and methods of assessment in mind.

Plan and implement activities that support students in meeting the learning goals. How will you support students in meeting these goals? What writing activities will you allow time for? How can you help students meet these learning goals?

Begin giving feedback early in the writing process. Give multiple types of feedback early in the writing process. For example, talking with students about ideas, write written responses on drafts, have students respond to their peers' drafts in process, etc. These are all ways for students to receive feedback while they are still in the process of revising.

Structure opportunities for feedback at various points in the writing process. Students should also have opportunities to receive feedback on their writing at various stages in the writing process. This does not mean that teachers need to respond to every draft of a writing project. Structuring time for peer response and group workshops can be a very effective way for students to receive feedback from other writers in the class and for them to begin to learn to revise and edit their own writing.

Be open with students about your expectations and the purposes of the assignments. Students respond better to writing projects when they understand why the project is important and what they can learn through the process of completing it. Be explicit about your goals for them as writers and why those goals are important to their learning. Additionally, talk with students about methods of assessment. Some teachers have students help collaboratively design rubrics for the grading of writing. Whatever methods of assessment you choose, be sure to let students in on how they will be evaluated.

 Do not burden students with excessive feedback. Our instinct as teachers, especially when we are really interested in students´ writing is to offer as many comments and suggestions as we can. However, providing too much feedback can leave students feeling daunted and uncertain where to start in terms of revision. Try to choose one or two things to focus on when responding to a draft. Offer students concrete possibilities or strategies for revision.

Allow students to maintain control over their paper. Instead of acting as an editor, suggest options or open-ended alternatives the student can choose for their revision path. Help students learn to assess their own writing and the advice they get about it.

Purposes of Responding We provide different kinds of response at different moments. But we might also fall into a kind of "default" mode, working to get through the papers without making a conscious choice about how and why we want to respond to a given assignment. So it might be helpful to identify the two major kinds of response we provide:

• Formative Response: response that aims primarily to help students develop their writing. Might focus on confidence-building, on engaging the student in a conversation about her ideas or writing choices so as to help student to see herself as a successful and promising writer. Might focus on helping student develop a particular writing project, from one draft to next. Or, might suggest to student some general skills she could focus on developing over the course of a semester.
• Evaluative Response: response that focuses on evaluation of how well a student has done. Might be related to a grade. Might be used primarily on a final product or portfolio. Tends to emphasize whether or not student has met the criteria operative for specific assignment and to explain that judgment.

We respond to many kinds of writing and at different stages in the process, from reading responses, to exercises, to generation or brainstorming, to drafts, to source critiques, to final drafts. It is also helpful to think of the various forms that response can take.

• Conferencing: verbal, interactive response. This might happen in class or during scheduled sessions in offices. Conferencing can be more dynamic: we can ask students questions about their work, modeling a process of reflecting on and revising a piece of writing. Students can also ask us questions and receive immediate feedback. Conference is typically a formative response mechanism, but might also serve usefully to convey evaluative response.
• Written Comments on Drafts
• Local: when we focus on "local" moments in a piece of writing, we are calling attention to specifics in the paper. Perhaps certain patterns of grammar or moments where the essay takes a sudden, unexpected turn. We might also use local comments to emphasize a powerful turn of phrase, or a compelling and well-developed moment in a piece. Local commenting tends to happen in the margins, to call attention to specific moments in the piece by highlighting them and explaining their significance. We tend to use local commenting more often on drafts and when doing formative response.
• Global: when we focus more on the overall piece of writing and less on the specific moments in and of themselves. Global comments tend to come at the end of a piece, in narrative-form response. We might use these to step back and tell the writer what we learned overall, or to comment on a pieces' general organizational structure or focus. We tend to use these for evaluative response and often, deliberately or not, as a means of justifying the grade we assigned.
• Rubrics: charts or grids on which we identify the central requirements or goals of a specific project. Then, we evaluate whether or not, and how effectively, students met those criteria. These can be written with students as a means of helping them see and articulate the goals a given project.

Rubrics are tools teachers and students use to evaluate and classify writing, whether individual pieces or portfolios. They identify and articulate what is being evaluated in the writing, and offer "descriptors" to classify writing into certain categories (1-5, for instance, or A-F). Narrative rubrics and chart rubrics are the two most common forms. Here is an example of each, using the same classification descriptors:

Example: Narrative Rubric for Inquiring into Family & Community History

An "A" project clearly and compellingly demonstrates how the public event influenced the family/community. It shows strong audience awareness, engaging readers throughout. The form and structure are appropriate for the purpose(s) and audience(s) of the piece. The final product is virtually error-free. The piece seamlessly weaves in several other voices, drawn from appropriate archival, secondary, and primary research. Drafts - at least two beyond the initial draft - show extensive, effective revision. Writer's notes and final learning letter demonstrate thoughtful reflection and growing awareness of writer's strengths and challenges.

A "B" project clearly and compellingly demonstrates how the public event influenced the family/community. It shows strong audience awareness, and usually engages readers. The form and structure are appropriate for the audience(s) and purpose(s) of the piece, though the organization may not be tight in a couple places. The final product includes a few errors, but these do no interfere with readers' comprehension. The piece effectively, if not always seamlessly, weaves several other voices, drawn from appropriate archival, secondary, and primary research. One area of research may not be as strong as the other two. Drafts - at least two beyond the initial drafts - show extensive, effective revision. Writer's notes and final learning letter demonstrate thoughtful reflection and growing awareness of writer's strengths and challenges.

A "C" project demonstrates how the public event influenced the family/community. It shows audience awareness, sometimes engaging readers. The form and structure are appropriate for the audience(s) and purpose(s), but the organization breaks down at times. The piece includes several, apparent errors, which at times compromises the clarity of the piece. The piece incorporates other voices, drawn from at least two kinds of research, but in a generally forced or awkward way. There is unevenness in the quality and appropriateness of the research. Drafts - at least one beyond the initial draft - show some evidence of revision. Writer's notes and final learning letter show some reflection and growth in awareness of writer's strengths and challenges.

A "D" project discusses a public event and a family/community, but the connections may not be clear. It shows little audience awareness. The form and structure is poorly chosen or poorly executed. The piece includes many errors, which regularly compromise the comprehensibility of the piece. There is an attempt to incorporate other voices, but this is done awkwardly or is drawn from incomplete or inappropriate research. There is little evidence of revision. Writer's notes and learning letter are missing or show little reflection or growth.

An "F" project is not responsive to the prompt. It shows little or no audience awareness. The purpose is unclear and the form and structure are poorly chosen and poorly executed. The piece includes many errors, compromising the clarity of the piece throughout. There is little or no evidence of research. There is little or no evidence of revision. Writer's notes and learning letter are missing or show no reflection or growth.

Chart Rubric for Community/Family History Inquiry Project

All good rubrics begin (and end) with solid criteria. We always start working on rubrics by generating a list - by ourselves or with students - of what we value for a particular project or portfolio. We generally list far more items than we could use in a single rubric. Then, we narrow this list down to the most important items - between 5 and 7, ideally. We do not usually rank these items in importance, but it is certainly possible to create a hierarchy of criteria on a rubric (usually by listing the most important criteria at the top of the chart or at the beginning of the narrative description).

Once we have our final list of criteria, we begin to imagine how writing would fit into a certain classification category (1-5, A-F, etc.). How would an "A" essay differ from a "B" essay in Organization? How would a "B" story differ from a "C" story in Character Development? The key here is to identify useful descriptors - drawing the line at appropriate places. Sometimes, these gradations will be precise: the difference between handing in 80% and 90% of weekly writing, for instance. Other times, they will be vague: the difference between "effective revisions" and "mostly effective revisions", for instance. While it is important to be as precise as possible, it is also important to remember that rubric writing (especially in writing classrooms) is more art than science, and will never - and nor should it - stand in for algorithms. When we find ourselves getting caught up in minute gradations, we tend to be overlegislating students´- writing and losing sight of the purpose of the exercise: to support students' development as writers. At the moment when rubric-writing thwarts rather than supports students' writing, we should discontinue the practice. Until then, many students will find rubrics helpful -- and sometimes even motivating.

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How to Evaluate Essay Writing

Last Updated: April 25, 2020 References

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. This article has been viewed 39,196 times.

Essays are common assignments in high school and college. If you are a new teacher trying to evaluate student essays, then familiarizing yourself with the basic parts of an essay can also be helpful. Essays are usually broken into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In some cases, an essay may also need to include a works cited or reference page. If you also need to assign a grade to an essay, develop a rubric and deduct a set number of points for items that are missing, incomplete, or incorrect.

Evaluating the Thesis Statement and Introduction

• For example, in an essay about the first day of classes at a new school, the author might engage readers by providing a vivid description of what it was like for them to walk down the hallway for the first time.

• For example, if the essay is supposed to be about gun control, then the introduction should provide context for readers about this subject. This may be in the form of facts and statistics, an anecdote, or some background information on the controversy.
• On the other hand, a narrative essay on the first day of class at a new school would need to provide a scene from that experience or some kind of background information, such as why they had to start at a new school.

• For example, if the topic is declining bee populations, then the author might include something about how this will affect the food supply to get readers to care about the subject.
• If the essay is about a memorable family vacation, then the introduction might explain how this vacation changed the author’s perspective.

• For example, a paper about the benefits of recycling might include a thesis that reads, “Everyone should recycle because we have limited resources and recycling helps to conserve energy.”
• A narrative essay does not need to have an argument, but there should be a sentence that describes the main point of the essay, such as, “My family’s trip to Turkey taught me about different cultures, cuisines, and religions, and I learned so much about myself along the way.”

Reading the Body Paragraphs

• There would only need to be 3 body paragraphs if the essay is meant to be a 5 paragraph essay. If the essay is meant to be longer, then it should have about 2 body paragraphs per page.
• Multiply the total pages of the essay by 2 and then subtract 2 (for the intro and conclusion) to find the approximate number of body paragraphs a paper should have. For example, a 4 page essay should have about 6 body paragraphs.

• For example, if the topic sentence reads, “Polar bears require a large amount of food to sustain their body weight,” then the rest of the paragraph should expound upon what and how much polar bears eat.
• For a topic sentence that reads, “The meal consisted of a hearty goat stew for the main course, and several traditional side dishes in a variety of colors, flavors, and textures,” the paragraph should provide additional details about the meal.

• For example, if a sentence reads, “Male polar bears weight between 775 to 1,200 pounds (352 to 544 kg),” then there should be a source for this information because this is not information that most people know. [3] X Research source
• On the other hand, it would not be necessary to include a source for a sentence that reads, “Polar bears are large, white bears.”

• If a paragraph is describing a person, then the author might include details about the color of their hair, the sound of their voice, and the type of clothing they wore.
• For example, an effective descriptive paragraph might read, “Judy stood a whole head above me, but she also had an impressive afro that added about 6 inches (15 cm) to her height. She wore black Converse, ripped white jeans, a cherry red, v-neck t-shirt, and a silver locket that contained a picture of her father. Her voice was deep and raspy, as if she had smoked for 20 years, but she had never even had a puff.”

• Sequence: then, next, finally, first, second, third, last
• Cause and effect: for this reason, as a result, consequently, thus, therefore, hence
• Contrast or comparison: but, however, conversely, similarly, likewise, in the same way, also
• Example: for example, for instance, in fact, to illustrate
• Purpose: for this reason, to this end, for this purpose
• Time or place: before, after, immediately, in the meantime, below, above, to the south, nearby [6] X Research source

Reviewing the End of the Essay

• For example, if the essay was about the benefits of recycling and why it is important to recycle, then the conclusion might include a sentence that reads, “Despite all of the benefits of recycling and how easy it is to recycle, many people still don’t do it.”
• For a narrative essay that begins with a description of how nervous the author was to walk down the hall on the first day at a new school, the author could make a similar return to the introduction. The conclusion might include something like, “That first day was terrifying and walking down the hall felt like walking to my doom, but I learned that I was not the only one who felt that way.”

• For example, at the end of a narrative essay you might be left thinking about the vivid description of a favorite family meal.
• An argumentative essay may leave you thinking about the moral dilemma raised by the author regarding gun control.
• An expository essay about polar bears might leave you with a new appreciation for their size and strength.

• If the conclusion does introduce new information, note this in your evaluation.

Evaluating Cited Sources

• Make sure the citations are formatted according to the style guide listed on the assignment sheet, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago Style.

• You may not have time to do this for every single piece of evidence, especially if you have a lot of students. If this is the case, you could randomly check 1-2 pieces of evidence for each essay you grade.

• If you're in doubt about a source, use the information on the works cited page to find the original source and review it.
• Remember that the format should match the assigned style guide, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago Style.

Grading an Essay

• Some teachers and professors require students to rewrite essays that do not satisfy the basic requirements of an assignment. If you come across an essay like this, then you might want to meet with the student to discuss their options.

• Before you assign points to the criteria, rank them in order of importance for this assignment. This will help you create a points system that relates to the goal for this assignment.
• It's best to give your students a copy of the rubric when you make the assignment. This allows the students to understand your grading process and expectations.
• Introduction
• Thesis statement
• Organization
• Development of ideas

• For example, if you require students to include a thesis statement in the first paragraph to outline the paper’s argument, then you might deduct 15 points if it is missing, or 10 points if it is incomplete or incorrect.

Expert Q&A

• It's essential to clearly communicate your expectations to your students. Include all of the information they need to earn full credit in the assignment sheet, including your rubric. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are evaluating your own essay, use the teacher’s assignment guidelines to ensure that you have included all of the required elements of an essay. Ask your teacher if you are unsure. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://writerscentre.yale-nus.edu.sg/resources/elements-of-a-good-essay/elements-of-a-good-essay/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/expository_essays.html
• ↑ https://www.livescience.com/27436-polar-bear-facts.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
• ↑ http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/tran-cwp.htm
• ↑ http://core.ecu.edu/hist/zipfk/guidelines_for_grading_an_essay.htm

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How to write a successful critical analysis

• How to write a strong literature review
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For further queries or assistance in writing a critical analysis email Bill Wrigley .

What do you critically analyse?

In a critical analysis you do not express your own opinion or views on the topic. You need to develop your thesis, position or stance on the topic from the views and research of others . In academic writing you critically analyse other researchers’:

• concepts, terms
• viewpoints, arguments, positions
• methodologies, approaches
• research results and conclusions

This means weighing up the strength of the arguments or research support on the topic, and deciding who or what has the more or stronger weight of evidence or support.

Therefore, your thesis argues, with evidence, why a particular theory, concept, viewpoint, methodology, or research result(s) is/are stronger, more sound, or more advantageous than others.

What does ‘analysis’ mean?

A critical analysis means analysing or breaking down the parts of the literature and grouping these into themes, patterns or trends.

In an analysis you need to:

1. Identify and separate out the parts of the topic by grouping the various key theories, main concepts, the main arguments or ideas, and the key research results and conclusions on the topic into themes, patterns or trends of agreement , dispute and omission .

2. Discuss each of these parts by explaining:

i. the areas of agreement/consensus, or similarity

ii. the issues or controversies: in dispute or debate, areas of difference

ii. the omissions, gaps, or areas that are under-researched

3. Discuss the relationship between these parts

4. Examine how each contributes to the whole topic

5. Make conclusions about their significance or importance in the topic

What does ‘critical’ mean?

A critical analysis does not mean writing angry, rude or disrespectful comments, or  expressing your views in judgmental terms of black and white, good and bad, or right and wrong.

To be critical, or to critique, means to evaluate . Therefore, to write critically in an academic analysis means to:

• judge the quality, significance or worth of the theories, concepts, viewpoints, methodologies, and research results
• evaluate in a fair and balanced manner
• avoid extreme or emotional language

• strengths, advantages, benefits, gains, or improvements
• disadvantages, weaknesses, shortcomings, limitations, or drawbacks

How to critically analyse a theory, model or framework

The evaluative words used most often to refer to theory, model or framework are a sound theory or a strong theory.

The table below summarizes the criteria for judging the strengths and weaknesses of a theory:

• comprehensive
• empirically supported
• parsimonious

Evaluating a Theory, Model or Framework

The table below lists the criteria for the strengths and their corresponding weaknesses that are usually considered in a theory.

Critical analysis examples of theories

The following sentences are examples of the phrases used to explain strengths and weaknesses.

Smith’s (2005) theory appears up to date, practical and applicable across many divergent settings.

Brown’s (2010) theory, although parsimonious and logical, lacks a sufficient body of evidence to support its propositions and predictions

Little scientific evidence has been presented to support the premises of this theory.

One of the limitations with this theory is that it does not explain why…

A significant strength of this model is that it takes into account …

The propositions of this model appear unambiguous and logical.

A key problem with this framework is the conceptual inconsistency between ….

How to critically analyse a concept

The table below summarizes the criteria for judging the strengths and weaknesses of a concept:

• key variables identified
• clear and well-defined

Evaluating Concepts

Critical analysis examples of concepts

Many researchers have used the concept of control in different ways.

There is little consensus about what constitutes automaticity.

Putting forth a very general definition of motivation means that it is possible that any behaviour could be included.

The concept of global education lacks clarity, is imprecisely defined and is overly complex.

Some have questioned the usefulness of resilience as a concept because it has been used so often and in so many contexts.

Research suggests that the concept of preoperative fasting is an outdated clinical approach.

How to critically analyse arguments, viewpoints or ideas

The table below summarizes the criteria for judging the strengths and weaknesses of an argument, viewpoint or idea:

• reasons support the argument
• argument is substantiated by evidence
• evidence for the argument is relevant
• evidence for the argument is unbiased, sufficient and important
• evidence is reputable

Evaluating Arguments, Views or Ideas

Critical analysis examples of arguments, viewpoints or ideas

The validity of this argument is questionable as there is insufficient evidence to support it.

Many writers have challenged Jones’ claim on the grounds that …….

This argument fails to draw on the evidence of others in the field.

This explanation is incomplete because it does not explain why…

The key problem with this explanation is that ……


The existing accounts fail to resolve the contradiction between …

However, there is an inconsistency with this argument. The inconsistency lies in…

Although this argument has been proposed by some, it lacks justification.

However, the body of evidence showing that… contradicts this argument.

How to critically analyse a methodology

The table below provides the criteria for judging the strengths and weaknesses of methodology.

An evaluation of a methodology usually involves a critical analysis of its main sections:

design; sampling (participants); measurement tools and materials; procedure

• design tests the hypotheses or research questions
• method valid and reliable
• potential bias or measurement error, and confounding variables addressed
• method allows results to be generalized
• representative sampling of cohort and phenomena; sufficient response rate
• valid and reliable measurement tools
• valid and reliable procedure
• method clear and detailed to allow replication

Evaluating a Methodology

Critical analysis examples of a methodology

The unrepresentativeness of the sample makes these results misleading.

The presence of unmeasured variables in this study limits the interpretation of the results.

Other, unmeasured confounding variables may be influencing this association.

The interpretation of the data requires caution because the effect of confounding variables was not taken into account.

The insufficient control of several response biases in this study means the results are likely to be unreliable.

Although this correlational study shows association between the variables, it does not establish a causal relationship.

Taken together, the methodological shortcomings of this study suggest the need for serious caution in the meaningful interpretation of the study’s results.

How to critically analyse research results and conclusions

The table below provides the criteria for judging the strengths and weaknesses of research results and conclusions:

• appropriate choice and use of statistics
• correct interpretation of results
• all results explained
• alternative explanations considered
• significance of all results discussed
• consistency of results with previous research discussed
• results add to existing understanding or knowledge
• limitations discussed
• results clearly explained
• conclusions consistent with results

Evaluating the Results and Conclusions

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Essay question words: “critically evaluate/review”

(Last updated: 13 May 2021)

Since 2006, Oxbridge Essays has been the UK’s leading paid essay-writing and dissertation service

We have helped 10,000s of undergraduate, Masters and PhD students to maximise their grades in essays, dissertations, model-exam answers, applications and other materials. If you would like a free chat about your project with one of our UK staff, then please just reach out on one of the methods below.

What does it mean to critically evaluate something or to provide a critical review? We won’t lie – these terms are complicated. But the following paragraph, and the rest of this blog post below, may help your understanding:

Typically, the word “critical” has a negative connotation. Think of words like “critique” and “criticise” and you see why. However, with essay writing, being asked to write “critically” does not necessarily mean you need to be negative. Instead, you are voicing your opinion in a logical and coherent way that is based upon evidence and evaluation.

When faced with the task to “critically evaluate” or to provide a “critical review”, it is important to remember that there is going to be some element of description. But you need to be able to build on that description to further justify your point. Let’s go through some examples.

Descriptive writing

Descriptive writing really focuses on answering the four ‘w’ questions – what, where, who, when. In descriptive writing you are going to need to focus on the following:

As you can see from the table above, all of the ‘w’ questions are really important and are essential components to writing a good essay . The purpose of these components is to let the reader get the essential information they need to understand the main idea. Yet if you stop here, you only end up with a descriptive essay, which does not meet the requirements of criticality that are requested by the professor or TA.

Critical writing

Critical writing gives you the opportunity to go beyond the descriptive, so when you critically evaluate or critically review something, you are moving toward analysis and evaluation. This type of critical writing asks you to assess the how, why, what if, so what and what next questions. As you will begin to notice, these questions require much more explanation that the ‘w’ questions (each of which you could likely answer in 10 words or less). Let’s look at some of these questions below:

Managing the descriptive and critical

Anyone who has done a lot of writing or who has seen many students’ writing will tell you that there are plenty of ways to write an essay . Yet while there are many strategies, when writing in English, there are certain expectations that the reader has when working through a paragraph or larger piece of writing. Therefore, in order to satisfy the reader that you have successfully completed a critical review or evaluation, you need to make sure that the reader gets what they are expecting.

The first step is to carefully read the article/piece of work that you are going to be critically assessing. Often, students feel like, just because something has been published in an academic journal, that it is an excellent piece of writing that cannot be questioned. But this isn’t necessarily true. The author of that article made certain decisions during the research and writing processes. It is your job to evaluate and analyse what they have done and whether the author has presented any evidence that you can draw conclusions from or make links between areas of knowledge.

In an academic journal article, there are often two places where you will be able to find the easiest opportunities to critically evaluate the work: the methodology and the discussion. In the methodology, the author has made certain decisions about how they are going to answer the research question presented. They have usually (in empirical research) identified a sample, context, and certain instruments (e.g. questionnaire, interviews, observations, etc.). Perhaps one of the easiest ways you can critically evaluate this information is to determine whether or not the sample size is big enough or whether the context applies globally or only to the region where the research took place. For example, a sample of 250 undergraduate students might seem like a lot, but if they are all from a remote area of Pakistan, their situation may not be applicable to undergraduate students who are studying in the UK. Highlighting this issue is one of the more basic forms of criticality because you are applying your own judgements to a situation.

Another area where you might be able to critically evaluate a paper is in the discussion section. It’s in this section where the author expresses their point of view and how their findings relate to other aspects of research. In some articles, you might find that the author has made claims . So if we consider the same group of 250 undergraduate students in Pakistan, the author might find that of the 250 students 225 felt that learning English was important for job security in the future. Therefore, the author might claim that students should learn English if they want to secure a good job in the future. With this argument you could evaluate whether this statement is actually true. We already know that 250 is not representative globally, but we can also assume that students in a remote area of Pakistan may not have access to the same opportunities as students in Beijing. These students may come to a different conclusion about English (potentially).

The point of a critical evaluation is to demonstrate that you can think beyond what you are being told. By taking steps to question what is being written and presented to you, you may be better able to write a critical review and to reflect on how and why the author took the position they did. No research study is perfect and it is your job to determine what could have been modified or changed to fit a different situation.

Focus on directive essay words: “to what extent…”

Focus on directive essay words: “summarise”, focus on directive essay words: “elaborate”.

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Essays: task words

Written Assignments

Explore what different task words mean and how they apply to your assignments

You'll need to understand what your assignments are asking you to do throughout your studies. Your assessments use 'task words' that explain what you need to do in your work.  

Task words are the words or phrases in a brief that tell you what to do. Common examples of task words are 'discuss', 'evaluate', 'compare and contrast', and 'critically analyse'. These words are used in assessment marking criteria and will showcase how well you've answered the question.

None of these words have a fixed meaning. Your lecturers may have specific definitions for your subject or task so you should make sure you have a good idea of what these terms mean in your field. You can check this by speaking to your lecturer, checking your course handbook and reading your marking criteria carefully.

Task words and descriptions

• Account for : Similar to ‘explain’ but with a heavier focus on reasons why something is or is not the way it is.
• Analyse : This term has the widest range of meanings according to the subject. Make a justified selection of some of the essential features of an artefact, idea or issue. Examine how these relate to each other and to other ideas, in order to help better understand the topic. See ideas and problems in different ways, and provide evidence for those ways of seeing them. 
• Assess : This has very different meanings in different disciplines. Measure or evaluate one or more aspect of something (for example, the effectiveness, significance or 'truth' of something). Show in detail the outcomes of these evaluations.
• Compare : Show how two or more things are similar.
• Compare and contrast : Show similarities and differences between two or more things.
• Contrast : Show how two or more things are different.
• Critically analyse : As with analysis, but questioning and testing the strength of your and others’ analyses from different perspectives. This often means using the process of analysis to make the whole essay an objective, reasoned argument for your overall case or position.
• Critically assess : As with “assess”, but emphasising your judgments made about arguments by others, and about what you are assessing from different perspectives. This often means making the whole essay a reasoned argument for your overall case, based on your judgments.
• Critically evaluate : As with 'evaluate', but showing how judgments vary from different perspectives and how some judgments are stronger than others. This often means creating an objective, reasoned argument for your overall case, based on the evaluation from different perspectives.
• Define : Present a precise meaning. 
• Describe : Say what something is like. Give its relevant qualities. Depending on the nature of the task, descriptions may need to be brief or the may need to be very detailed.
• Discuss : Provide details about and evidence for or against two or more different views or ideas, often with reference to a statement in the title. Discussion often includes explaining which views or ideas seem stronger.
• Examine : Look closely at something. Think and write about the detail, and question it where appropriate.
• Explain : Give enough description or information to make something clear or easy to understand.
• Explore : Consider an idea or topic broadly, searching out related and/or particularly relevant, interesting or debatable points.
• Evaluate : Similar to “assess”, this often has more emphasis on an overall judgement of something, explaining the extent to which it is, for example, effective, useful, or true. Evaluation is therefore sometimes more subjective and contestable than some kinds of pure assessment.
• Identify : Show that you have recognised one or more key or significant piece of evidence, thing, idea, problem, fact, theory, or example.
• Illustrate : Give selected examples of something to help describe or explain it, or use diagrams or other visual aids to help describe or explain something.
• Justify : Explain the reasons, usually “good” reasons, for something being done or believed, considering different possible views and ideas.
• Outline : Provide the main points or ideas, normally without going into detail.
• Summarise : This is similar to 'outline'. State, or re-state, the most important parts of something so that it is represented 'in miniature'. It should be concise and precise.
• State : Express briefly and clearly. 

Download our essay task words revision sheet

Download this page as a PDF for your essay writing revision notes.

Writing: flow and coherence

Writing clear sentences

Explore our top tips for writing clear sentences and download our help sheet.

English Composition 1

Evaluation and grading criteria for essays.

IVCC's online Style Book presents the Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments .

This page explains some of the major aspects of an essay that are given special attention when the essay is evaluated.

Thesis and Thesis Statement

Probably the most important sentence in an essay is the thesis statement, which is a sentence that conveys the thesis—the main point and purpose of the essay. The thesis is what gives an essay a purpose and a point, and, in a well-focused essay, every part of the essay helps the writer develop and support the thesis in some way.

The thesis should be stated in your introduction as one complete sentence that

• identifies the topic of the essay,
• states the main points developed in the essay,
• clarifies how all of the main points are logically related, and
• conveys the purpose of the essay.

In high school, students often are told to begin an introduction with a thesis statement and then to follow this statement with a series of sentences, each sentence presenting one of the main points or claims of the essay. While this approach probably helps students organize their essays, spreading a thesis statement over several sentences in the introduction usually is not effective. For one thing, it can lead to an essay that develops several points but does not make meaningful or clear connections among the different ideas.

If you can state all of your main points logically in just one sentence, then all of those points should come together logically in just one essay. When I evaluate an essay, I look specifically for a one-sentence statement of the thesis in the introduction that, again, identifies the topic of the essay, states all of the main points, clarifies how those points are logically related, and conveys the purpose of the essay.

If you are used to using the high school model to present the thesis of an essay, you might wonder what you should do with the rest of your introduction once you start presenting a one-sentence statement of your thesis. Well, an introduction should do two important things: (1) present the thesis statement, and (2) get readers interested in the subject of the essay.

Instead of outlining each stage of an essay with separate sentences in the introduction, you could draw readers into your essay by appealing to their interests at the very beginning of your essay. Why should what you discuss in your essay be important to readers? Why should they care? Answering these questions might help you discover a way to draw readers into your essay effectively. Once you appeal to the interests of your readers, you should then present a clear and focused thesis statement. (And thesis statements most often appear at the ends of introductions, not at the beginnings.)

Coming up with a thesis statement during the early stages of the writing process is difficult. You might instead begin by deciding on three or four related claims or ideas that you think you could prove in your essay. Think in terms of paragraphs: choose claims that you think could be supported and developed well in one body paragraph each. Once you have decided on the three or four main claims and how they are logically related, you can bring them together into a one-sentence thesis statement.

All of the topic sentences in a short paper, when "added" together, should give us the thesis statement for the entire paper. Do the addition for your own papers, and see if you come up with the following:

Topic Sentence 1 + Topic Sentence 2 + Topic Sentence 3 = Thesis Statement

Organization

Effective expository papers generally are well organized and unified, in part because of fairly rigid guidelines that writers follow and that you should try to follow in your papers.

Each body paragraph of your paper should begin with a topic sentence, a statement of the main point of the paragraph. Just as a thesis statement conveys the main point of an entire essay, a topic sentence conveys the main point of a single body paragraph. As illustrated above, a clear and logical relationship should exist between the topic sentences of a paper and the thesis statement.

If the purpose of a paragraph is to persuade readers, the topic sentence should present a claim, or something that you can prove with specific evidence. If you begin a body paragraph with a claim, a point to prove, then you know exactly what you will do in the rest of the paragraph: prove the claim. You also know when to end the paragraph: when you think you have convinced readers that your claim is valid and well supported.

If you begin a body paragraph with a fact, though, something that it true by definition, then you have nothing to prove from the beginning of the paragraph, possibly causing you to wander from point to point in the paragraph. The claim at the beginning of a body paragraph is very important: it gives you a point to prove, helping you unify the paragraph and helping you decide when to end one paragraph and begin another.

The length and number of body paragraphs in an essay is another thing to consider. In general, each body paragraph should be at least half of a page long (for a double-spaced essay), and most expository essays have at least three body paragraph each (for a total of at least five paragraphs, including the introduction and conclusion.)

Support and Development of Ideas

The main difference between a convincing, insightful interpretation or argument and a weak interpretation or argument often is the amount of evidence than the writer uses. "Evidence" refers to specific facts.

Remember this fact: your interpretation or argument will be weak unless it is well supported with specific evidence. This means that, for every claim you present, you need to support it with at least several different pieces of specific evidence. Often, students will present potentially insightful comments, but the comments are not supported or developed with specific evidence. When you come up with an insightful idea, you are most likely basing that idea on some specific facts. To present your interpretation or argument well, you need to state your interpretation and then explain the facts that have led you to this conclusion.

Effective organization is also important here. If you begin each body paragraph with a claim, and if you then stay focused on supporting that claim with several pieces of evidence, you should have a well-supported and well-developed interpretation.

As stated above, each body paragraph generally should be at least half of a page long, so, if you find that your body paragraphs are shorter than this, then you might not be developing your ideas in much depth. Often, when a student has trouble reaching the required minimum length for an essay, the problem is the lack of sufficient supporting evidence.

In an interpretation or argument, you are trying to explain and prove something about your subject, so you need to use plenty of specific evidence as support. A good approach to supporting an interpretation or argument is dividing your interpretation or argument into a few significant and related claims and then supporting each claim thoroughly in one body paragraph.

Insight into Subject

Sometimes a student will write a well-organized essay, but the essay does not shed much light on the subject. At the same time, I am often amazed at the insightful interpretations and arguments that students come up with. Every semester, students interpret aspects of texts or present arguments that I had never considered.

If you are writing an interpretation, you should reread the text or study your subject thoroughly, doing your best to notice something new each time you examine it. As you come up with a possible interpretation to develop in an essay, you should re-examine your subject with that interpretation in mind, marking passages (if your subject is a literary text) and taking plenty of notes on your subject. Studying your subject in this way will make it easier for you to find supporting evidence for your interpretation as you write your essay.

The insightfulness of an essay often is directly related to the organization and the support and development of the ideas in the essay. If you have well-developed body paragraphs focused on one specific point each, then it is likely that you are going into depth with the ideas you present and are offering an insightful interpretation.

If you organize your essay well, and if you use plenty of specific evidence to support your thesis and the individual claims that comprise that thesis, then there is a good possibility that your essay will be insightful.

Clarity is always important: if your writing is not clear, your meaning will not reach readers the way you would like it to. According to IVCC's Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments , "A," "B," and "C" essays are clear throughout, meaning that problems with clarity can have a substantial effect on the grade of an essay.

If any parts of your essay or any sentences seem just a little unclear to you, you can bet that they will be unclear to readers. Review your essay carefully and change any parts of the essay that could cause confusion for readers. Also, take special note of any passages that your peer critiquers feel are not very clear.

"Style" refers to the kinds of words and sentences that you use, but there are many aspects of style to consider. Aspects of style include conciseness, variety of sentence structure, consistent verb tense, avoidance of the passive voice, and attention to the connotative meanings of words.

Several of the course web pages provide information relevant to style, including the following pages:

• "Words, Words, Words"
• Using Specific and Concrete Diction
• Integrating Quotations into Sentences
• Formal Writing Voice

William Strunk, Jr.'s, The Elements of Style is a classic text on style that is now available online.

Given the subject, purpose, and audience for each essay in this course, you should use a formal writing voice . This means that you should avoid use of the first person ("I," "me," "we," etc.), the use of contractions ("can't," "won't," etc.), and the use of slang or other informal language. A formal writing voice will make you sound more convincing and more authoritative.

If you use quotations in a paper, integrating those quotations smoothly, logically, and grammatically into your own sentences is important, so make sure that you are familiar with the information on the Integrating Quotations into Sentences page.

"Mechanics" refers to the correctness of a paper: complete sentences, correct punctuation, accurate word choice, etc. All of your papers for the course should be free or almost free from errors. Proofread carefully, and consider any constructive comments you receive during peer critiques that relate to the "mechanics" of your writing.

You might use the grammar checker if your word-processing program has one, but grammar checkers are correct only about half of the time. A grammar checker, though, could help you identify parts of the essay that might include errors. You will then need to decide for yourself if the grammar checker is right or wrong.

The elimination of errors from your writing is important. In fact, according to IVCC's Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments , "A," "B," and "C" essays contain almost no errors. Significant or numerous errors are a characteristic of a "D" or "F" essay.

Again, the specific errors listed in the second table above are explained on the Identifying and Eliminating Common Errors in Writing web page.

You should have a good understanding of what errors to look out for based on the feedback you receive on graded papers, and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about possible errors or about any other aspects of your essay. You just need to ask!

Copyright Randy Rambo , 2021.

Center for Teaching

Assessing student learning.

Forms and Purposes of Student Assessment

Assessment is more than grading, assessment plans, methods of student assessment, generative and reflective assessment, teaching guides related to student assessment, references and additional resources.

Student assessment is, arguably, the centerpiece of the teaching and learning process and therefore the subject of much discussion in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Without some method of obtaining and analyzing evidence of student learning, we can never know whether our teaching is making a difference. That is, teaching requires some process through which we can come to know whether students are developing the desired knowledge and skills, and therefore whether our instruction is effective. Learning assessment is like a magnifying glass we hold up to students’ learning to discern whether the teaching and learning process is functioning well or is in need of change.

To provide an overview of learning assessment, this teaching guide has several goals, 1) to define student learning assessment and why it is important, 2) to discuss several approaches that may help to guide and refine student assessment, 3) to address various methods of student assessment, including the test and the essay, and 4) to offer several resources for further research. In addition, you may find helfpul this five-part video series on assessment that was part of the Center for Teaching’s Online Course Design Institute.

What is student assessment and why is it Important?

In their handbook for course-based review and assessment, Martha L. A. Stassen et al. define assessment as “the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning” (2001, p. 5). An intentional and thorough assessment of student learning is vital because it provides useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting learning objectives. In their book Understanding by Design , Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offer a framework for classroom instruction — “Backward Design”— that emphasizes the critical role of assessment. For Wiggins and McTighe, assessment enables instructors to determine the metrics of measurement for student understanding of and proficiency in course goals. Assessment provides the evidence needed to document and validate that meaningful learning has occurred (2005, p. 18). Their approach “encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first ‘think like an assessor’ before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine if students have attained the desired understandings” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p. 18). [1]

Not only does effective assessment provide us with valuable information to support student growth, but it also enables critically reflective teaching. Stephen Brookfield, in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, argues that critical reflection on one’s teaching is an essential part of developing as an educator and enhancing the learning experience of students (1995). Critical reflection on one’s teaching has a multitude of benefits for instructors, including the intentional and meaningful development of one’s teaching philosophy and practices. According to Brookfield, referencing higher education faculty, “A critically reflective teacher is much better placed to communicate to colleagues and students (as well as to herself) the rationale behind her practice. She works from a position of informed commitment” (Brookfield, 1995, p. 17). One important lens through which we may reflect on our teaching is our student evaluations and student learning assessments. This reflection allows educators to determine where their teaching has been effective in meeting learning goals and where it has not, allowing for improvements. Student assessment, then, both develop the rationale for pedagogical choices, and enables teachers to measure the effectiveness of their teaching.

The scholarship of teaching and learning discusses two general forms of assessment. The first, summative assessment , is one that is implemented at the end of the course of study, for example via comprehensive final exams or papers. Its primary purpose is to produce an evaluation that “sums up” student learning. Summative assessment is comprehensive in nature and is fundamentally concerned with learning outcomes. While summative assessment is often useful for communicating final evaluations of student achievement, it does so without providing opportunities for students to reflect on their progress, alter their learning, and demonstrate growth or improvement; nor does it allow instructors to modify their teaching strategies before student learning in a course has concluded (Maki, 2002).

The second form, formative assessment , involves the evaluation of student learning at intermediate points before any summative form. Its fundamental purpose is to help students during the learning process by enabling them to reflect on their challenges and growth so they may improve. By analyzing students’ performance through formative assessment and sharing the results with them, instructors help students to “understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of their remaining studies” (Maki, 2002, p. 11). Pat Hutchings refers to as “assessment behind outcomes”: “the promise of assessment—mandated or otherwise—is improved student learning, and improvement requires attention not only to final results but also to how results occur. Assessment behind outcomes means looking more carefully at the process and conditions that lead to the learning we care about…” (Hutchings, 1992, p. 6, original emphasis). Formative assessment includes all manner of coursework with feedback, discussions between instructors and students, and end-of-unit examinations that provide an opportunity for students to identify important areas for necessary growth and development for themselves (Brown and Knight, 1994).

It is important to recognize that both summative and formative assessment indicate the purpose of assessment, not the method . Different methods of assessment (discussed below) can either be summative or formative depending on when and how the instructor implements them. Sally Brown and Peter Knight in Assessing Learners in Higher Education caution against a conflation of the method (e.g., an essay) with the goal (formative or summative): “Often the mistake is made of assuming that it is the method which is summative or formative, and not the purpose. This, we suggest, is a serious mistake because it turns the assessor’s attention away from the crucial issue of feedback” (1994, p. 17). If an instructor believes that a particular method is formative, but he or she does not take the requisite time or effort to provide extensive feedback to students, the assessment effectively functions as a summative assessment despite the instructor’s intentions (Brown and Knight, 1994). Indeed, feedback and discussion are critical factors that distinguish between formative and summative assessment; formative assessment is only as good as the feedback that accompanies it.

It is not uncommon to conflate assessment with grading, but this would be a mistake. Student assessment is more than just grading. Assessment links student performance to specific learning objectives in order to provide useful information to students and instructors about learning and teaching, respectively. Grading, on the other hand, according to Stassen et al. (2001) merely involves affixing a number or letter to an assignment, giving students only the most minimal indication of their performance relative to a set of criteria or to their peers: “Because grades don’t tell you about student performance on individual (or specific) learning goals or outcomes, they provide little information on the overall success of your course in helping students to attain the specific and distinct learning objectives of interest” (Stassen et al., 2001, p. 6). Grades are only the broadest of indicators of achievement or status, and as such do not provide very meaningful information about students’ learning of knowledge or skills, how they have developed, and what may yet improve. Unfortunately, despite the limited information grades provide students about their learning, grades do provide students with significant indicators of their status – their academic rank, their credits towards graduation, their post-graduation opportunities, their eligibility for grants and aid, etc. – which can distract students from the primary goal of assessment: learning. Indeed, shifting the focus of assessment away from grades and towards more meaningful understandings of intellectual growth can encourage students (as well as instructors and institutions) to attend to the primary goal of education.

Barbara Walvoord (2010) argues that assessment is more likely to be successful if there is a clear plan, whether one is assessing learning in a course or in an entire curriculum (see also Gelmon, Holland, and Spring, 2018). Without some intentional and careful plan, assessment can fall prey to unclear goals, vague criteria, limited communication of criteria or feedback, invalid or unreliable assessments, unfairness in student evaluations, or insufficient or even unmeasured learning. There are several steps in this planning process.

• Defining learning goals. An assessment plan usually begins with a clearly articulated set of learning goals.
• Defining assessment methods. Once goals are clear, an instructor must decide on what evidence – assignment(s) – will best reveal whether students are meeting the goals. We discuss several common methods below, but these need not be limited by anything but the learning goals and the teaching context.
• Developing the assessment. The next step would be to formulate clear formats, prompts, and performance criteria that ensure students can prepare effectively and provide valid, reliable evidence of their learning.
• Integrating assessment with other course elements. Then the remainder of the course design process can be completed. In both integrated (Fink 2013) and backward course design models (Wiggins & McTighe 2005), the primary assessment methods, once chosen, become the basis for other smaller reading and skill-building assignments as well as daily learning experiences such as lectures, discussions, and other activities that will prepare students for their best effort in the assessments.
• Communicate about the assessment. Once the course has begun, it is possible and necessary to communicate the assignment and its performance criteria to students. This communication may take many and preferably multiple forms to ensure student clarity and preparation, including assignment overviews in the syllabus, handouts with prompts and assessment criteria, rubrics with learning goals, model assignments (e.g., papers), in-class discussions, and collaborative decision-making about prompts or criteria, among others.
• Administer the assessment. Instructors then can implement the assessment at the appropriate time, collecting evidence of student learning – e.g., receiving papers or administering tests.
• Analyze the results. Analysis of the results can take various forms – from reading essays to computer-assisted test scoring – but always involves comparing student work to the performance criteria and the relevant scholarly research from the field(s).
• Communicate the results. Instructors then compose an assessment complete with areas of strength and improvement, and communicate it to students along with grades (if the assignment is graded), hopefully within a reasonable time frame. This also is the time to determine whether the assessment was valid and reliable, and if not, how to communicate this to students and adjust feedback and grades fairly. For instance, were the test or essay questions confusing, yielding invalid and unreliable assessments of student knowledge.
• Reflect and revise. Once the assessment is complete, instructors and students can develop learning plans for the remainder of the course so as to ensure improvements, and the assignment may be changed for future courses, as necessary.

Let’s see how this might work in practice through an example. An instructor in a Political Science course on American Environmental Policy may have a learning goal (among others) of students understanding the historical precursors of various environmental policies and how these both enabled and constrained the resulting legislation and its impacts on environmental conservation and health. The instructor therefore decides that the course will be organized around a series of short papers that will combine to make a thorough policy report, one that will also be the subject of student presentations and discussions in the last third of the course. Each student will write about an American environmental policy of their choice, with a first paper addressing its historical precursors, a second focused on the process of policy formation, and a third analyzing the extent of its impacts on environmental conservation or health. This will help students to meet the content knowledge goals of the course, in addition to its goals of improving students’ research, writing, and oral presentation skills. The instructor then develops the prompts, guidelines, and performance criteria that will be used to assess student skills, in addition to other course elements to best prepare them for this work – e.g., scaffolded units with quizzes, readings, lectures, debates, and other activities. Once the course has begun, the instructor communicates with the students about the learning goals, the assignments, and the criteria used to assess them, giving them the necessary context (goals, assessment plan) in the syllabus, handouts on the policy papers, rubrics with assessment criteria, model papers (if possible), and discussions with them as they need to prepare. The instructor then collects the papers at the appropriate due dates, assesses their conceptual and writing quality against the criteria and field’s scholarship, and then provides written feedback and grades in a manner that is reasonably prompt and sufficiently thorough for students to make improvements. Then the instructor can make determinations about whether the assessment method was effective and what changes might be necessary.

Assessment can vary widely from informal checks on understanding, to quizzes, to blogs, to essays, and to elaborate performance tasks such as written or audiovisual projects (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Below are a few common methods of assessment identified by Brown and Knight (1994) that are important to consider.

According to Euan S. Henderson, essays make two important contributions to learning and assessment: the development of skills and the cultivation of a learning style (1980). The American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) also has found that intensive writing is a “high impact” teaching practice likely to help students in their engagement, learning, and academic attainment (Kuh 2008).

Things to Keep in Mind about Essays

• Essays are a common form of writing assignment in courses and can be either a summative or formative form of assessment depending on how the instructor utilizes them.
• Essays encompass a wide array of narrative forms and lengths, from short descriptive essays to long analytical or creative ones. Shorter essays are often best suited to assess student’s understanding of threshold concepts and discrete analytical or writing skills, while longer essays afford assessments of higher order concepts and more complex learning goals, such as rigorous analysis, synthetic writing, problem solving, or creative tasks.
• A common challenge of the essay is that students can use them simply to regurgitate rather than analyze and synthesize information to make arguments. Students need performance criteria and prompts that urge them to go beyond mere memorization and comprehension, but encourage the highest levels of learning on Bloom’s Taxonomy . This may open the possibility for essay assignments that go beyond the common summary or descriptive essay on a given topic, but demand, for example, narrative or persuasive essays or more creative projects.
• Instructors commonly assume that students know how to write essays and can encounter disappointment or frustration when they discover that this is sometimes not the case. For this reason, it is important for instructors to make their expectations clear and be prepared to assist, or provide students to resources that will enhance their writing skills. Faculty may also encourage students to attend writing workshops at university writing centers, such as Vanderbilt University’s Writing Studio .

Exams and time-constrained, individual assessment

Examinations have traditionally been a gold standard of assessment, particularly in post-secondary education. Many educators prefer them because they can be highly effective, they can be standardized, they are easily integrated into disciplines with certification standards, and they are efficient to implement since they can allow for less labor-intensive feedback and grading. They can involve multiple forms of questions, be of varying lengths, and can be used to assess multiple levels of student learning. Like essays they can be summative or formative forms of assessment.

Things to Keep in Mind about Exams

• Exams typically focus on the assessment of students’ knowledge of facts, figures, and other discrete information crucial to a course. While they can involve questioning that demands students to engage in higher order demonstrations of comprehension, problem solving, analysis, synthesis, critique, and even creativity, such exams often require more time to prepare and validate.
• Exam questions can be multiple choice, true/false, or other discrete answer formats, or they can be essay or problem-solving. For more on how to write good multiple choice questions, see this guide .
• Exams can make significant demands on students’ factual knowledge and therefore can have the side-effect of encouraging cramming and surface learning. Further, when exams are offered infrequently, or when they have high stakes by virtue of their heavy weighting in course grade schemes or in student goals, they may accompany violations of academic integrity.
• In the process of designing an exam, instructors should consider the following questions. What are the learning objectives that the exam seeks to evaluate? Have students been adequately prepared to meet exam expectations? What are the skills and abilities that students need to do well on the exam? How will this exam be utilized to enhance the student learning process?

Self-Assessment

The goal of implementing self-assessment in a course is to enable students to develop their own judgment and the capacities for critical meta-cognition – to learn how to learn. In self-assessment students are expected to assess both the processes and products of their learning. While the assessment of the product is often the task of the instructor, implementing student self-assessment in the classroom ensures students evaluate their performance and the process of learning that led to it. Self-assessment thus provides a sense of student ownership of their learning and can lead to greater investment and engagement. It also enables students to develop transferable skills in other areas of learning that involve group projects and teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as leadership roles in the teaching and learning process with their peers.

Things to Keep in Mind about Self-Assessment

• Self-assessment is not self-grading. According to Brown and Knight, “Self-assessment involves the use of evaluative processes in which judgement is involved, where self-grading is the marking of one’s own work against a set of criteria and potential outcomes provided by a third person, usually the [instructor]” (1994, p. 52). Self-assessment can involve self-grading, but instructors of record retain the final authority to determine and assign grades.
• To accurately and thoroughly self-assess, students require clear learning goals for the assignment in question, as well as rubrics that clarify different performance criteria and levels of achievement for each. These rubrics may be instructor-designed, or they may be fashioned through a collaborative dialogue with students. Rubrics need not include any grade assignation, but merely descriptive academic standards for different criteria.
• Students may not have the expertise to assess themselves thoroughly, so it is helpful to build students’ capacities for self-evaluation, and it is important that they always be supplemented with faculty assessments.
• Students may initially resist instructor attempts to involve themselves in the assessment process. This is usually due to insecurities or lack of confidence in their ability to objectively evaluate their own work, or possibly because of habituation to more passive roles in the learning process. Brown and Knight note, however, that when students are asked to evaluate their work, frequently student-determined outcomes are very similar to those of instructors, particularly when the criteria and expectations have been made explicit in advance (1994).
• Methods of self-assessment vary widely and can be as unique as the instructor or the course. Common forms of self-assessment involve written or oral reflection on a student’s own work, including portfolio, logs, instructor-student interviews, learner diaries and dialog journals, post-test reflections, and the like.

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment is a type of collaborative learning technique where students evaluate the work of their peers and, in return, have their own work evaluated as well. This dimension of assessment is significantly grounded in theoretical approaches to active learning and adult learning . Like self-assessment, peer assessment gives learners ownership of learning and focuses on the process of learning as students are able to “share with one another the experiences that they have undertaken” (Brown and Knight, 1994, p. 52).  However, it also provides students with other models of performance (e.g., different styles or narrative forms of writing), as well as the opportunity to teach, which can enable greater preparation, reflection, and meta-cognitive organization.

Things to Keep in Mind about Peer Assessment

• Similar to self-assessment, students benefit from clear and specific learning goals and rubrics. Again, these may be instructor-defined or determined through collaborative dialogue.
• Also similar to self-assessment, it is important to not conflate peer assessment and peer grading, since grading authority is retained by the instructor of record.
• While student peer assessments are most often fair and accurate, they sometimes can be subject to bias. In competitive educational contexts, for example when students are graded normatively (“on a curve”), students can be biased or potentially game their peer assessments, giving their fellow students unmerited low evaluations. Conversely, in more cooperative teaching environments or in cases when they are friends with their peers, students may provide overly favorable evaluations. Also, other biases associated with identity (e.g., race, gender, or class) and personality differences can shape student assessments in unfair ways. Therefore, it is important for instructors to encourage fairness, to establish processes based on clear evidence and identifiable criteria, and to provide instructor assessments as accompaniments or correctives to peer evaluations.
• Students may not have the disciplinary expertise or assessment experience of the instructor, and therefore can issue unsophisticated judgments of their peers. Therefore, to avoid unfairness, inaccuracy, and limited comments, formative peer assessments may need to be supplemented with instructor feedback.

As Brown and Knight assert, utilizing multiple methods of assessment, including more than one assessor when possible, improves the reliability of the assessment data. It also ensures that students with diverse aptitudes and abilities can be assessed accurately and have equal opportunities to excel. However, a primary challenge to the multiple methods approach is how to weigh the scores produced by multiple methods of assessment. When particular methods produce higher range of marks than others, instructors can potentially misinterpret and mis-evaluate student learning. Ultimately, they caution that, when multiple methods produce different messages about the same student, instructors should be mindful that the methods are likely assessing different forms of achievement (Brown and Knight, 1994).

These are only a few of the many forms of assessment that one might use to evaluate and enhance student learning (see also ideas present in Brown and Knight, 1994). To this list of assessment forms and methods we may add many more that encourage students to produce anything from research papers to films, theatrical productions to travel logs, op-eds to photo essays, manifestos to short stories. The limits of what may be assigned as a form of assessment is as varied as the subjects and skills we seek to empower in our students. Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching has an ever-expanding array of guides on creative models of assessment that are present below, so please visit them to learn more about other assessment innovations and subjects.

Whatever plan and method you use, assessment often begins with an intentional clarification of the values that drive it. While many in higher education may argue that values do not have a role in assessment, we contend that values (for example, rigor) always motivate and shape even the most objective of learning assessments. Therefore, as in other aspects of assessment planning, it is helpful to be intentional and critically reflective about what values animate your teaching and the learning assessments it requires. There are many values that may direct learning assessment, but common ones include rigor, generativity, practicability, co-creativity, and full participation (Bandy et al., 2018). What do these characteristics mean in practice?

Rigor. In the context of learning assessment, rigor means aligning our methods with the goals we have for students, principles of validity and reliability, ethics of fairness and doing no harm, critical examinations of the meaning we make from the results, and good faith efforts to improve teaching and learning. In short, rigor suggests understanding learning assessment as we would any other form of intentional, thoroughgoing, critical, and ethical inquiry.

Generativity. Learning assessments may be most effective when they create conditions for the emergence of new knowledge and practice, including student learning and skill development, as well as instructor pedagogy and teaching methods. Generativity opens up rather than closes down possibilities for discovery, reflection, growth, and transformation.

Practicability. Practicability recommends that learning assessment be grounded in the realities of the world as it is, fitting within the boundaries of both instructor’s and students’ time and labor. While this may, at times, advise a method of learning assessment that seems to conflict with the other values, we believe that assessment fails to be rigorous, generative, participatory, or co-creative if it is not feasible and manageable for instructors and students.

Full Participation. Assessments should be equally accessible to, and encouraging of, learning for all students, empowering all to thrive regardless of identity or background. This requires multiple and varied methods of assessment that are inclusive of diverse identities – racial, ethnic, national, linguistic, gendered, sexual, class, etcetera – and their varied perspectives, skills, and cultures of learning.

Co-creation. As alluded to above regarding self- and peer-assessment, co-creative approaches empower students to become subjects of, not just objects of, learning assessment. That is, learning assessments may be more effective and generative when assessment is done with, not just for or to, students. This is consistent with feminist, social, and community engagement pedagogies, in which values of co-creation encourage us to critically interrogate and break down hierarchies between knowledge producers (traditionally, instructors) and consumers (traditionally, students) (e.g., Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton, 2009, p. 10; Weimer, 2013). In co-creative approaches, students’ involvement enhances the meaningfulness, engagement, motivation, and meta-cognitive reflection of assessments, yielding greater learning (Bass & Elmendorf, 2019). The principle of students being co-creators of their own education is what motivates the course design and professional development work Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching has organized around the Students as Producers theme.

Below is a list of other CFT teaching guides that supplement this one and may be of assistance as you consider all of the factors that shape your assessment plan.

• Active Learning
• An Introduction to Lecturing
• Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
• Classroom Response Systems
• How People Learn
• Service-Learning and Community Engagement
• Syllabus Construction
• Teaching with Blogs
• Test-Enhanced Learning
• Assessing Student Learning (a five-part video series for the CFT’s Online Course Design Institute)

Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers . 2 nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Print.

Bandy, Joe, Mary Price, Patti Clayton, Julia Metzker, Georgia Nigro, Sarah Stanlick, Stephani Etheridge Woodson, Anna Bartel, & Sylvia Gale. Democratically engaged assessment: Reimagining the purposes and practices of assessment in community engagement . Davis, CA: Imagining America, 2018. Web.

Bass, Randy and Heidi Elmendorf. 2019. “ Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogies as a Framework for Course Design .” Social Pedagogies: Teagle Foundation White Paper. Georgetown University, 2019. Web.

Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Print

Brown, Sally, and Peter Knight. Assessing Learners in Higher Education . 1 edition. London ;Philadelphia: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Cameron, Jeanne et al. “Assessment as Critical Praxis: A Community College Experience.” Teaching Sociology 30.4 (2002): 414–429. JSTOR . Web.

Fink, L. Dee. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. Second Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print.

Gibbs, Graham and Claire Simpson. “Conditions under which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1 (2004): 3-31. Print.

Henderson, Euan S. “The Essay in Continuous Assessment.” Studies in Higher Education 5.2 (1980): 197–203. Taylor and Francis+NEJM . Web.

Gelmon, Sherril B., Barbara Holland, and Amy Spring. Assessing Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: Principles and Techniques. Second Edition . Stylus, 2018. Print.

Kuh, George. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter , American Association of Colleges & Universities, 2008. Web.

Maki, Peggy L. “Developing an Assessment Plan to Learn about Student Learning.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 28.1 (2002): 8–13. ScienceDirect . Web. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Print.

Sharkey, Stephen, and William S. Johnson. Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology . ASA Teaching Resource Center, 1992. Print.

Walvoord, Barbara. Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education. Second Edition . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.

Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. Second Edition . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print.

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design . 2nd Expanded edition. Alexandria,

VA: Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. Print.

[1] For more on Wiggins and McTighe’s “Backward Design” model, see our teaching guide here .

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University of Sussex

• Starting at Sussex
• Critical thinking
• Note-making
• Presentations, seminars and group work
• Reading and research
• Referencing and academic integrity
• Revision and exams
• Writing and assessments
• Time management

Maria introduces this section on writing and assessments

Maria: Welcome to this section on writing and assessments. Writing is a major part of your university life. In these pages, you'll find techniques and strategies to support you in the essay-writing process. You'll also find example essay types and features of academic writing. Additionally, you'll find information on how to make the most of your feedback. Over the academic year, we also run workshops on academic writing, so keep an eye out for those. Remember, we're here to help you.

There are six topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing (this page) | Reflective writing | Reports | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback  | AI

A very large part of your time at university will be spent writing, since it is the main method of assessment used at Sussex. While essay-writing is an opportunity to show your tutor how much you have understood of your subject and how widely and deeply you have researched the question, this is not the main purpose of an essay. The most important purpose of an essay is to critically analyse the main ideas of a topic and to decide on your own viewpoint. You then present this viewpoint in the form of an argument, weighing the evidence for and against your proposition. So you need to develop the skills of analysing materials and demonstrating what is correct and incorrect about them, and synthesising materials, i.e. comparing and contrasting the many different sources and texts you come across.   

Therefore, it is important to develop your writing skills. As with all academic skills, you are not expected to have perfect academic writing when you arrive ; it is a skill that you will develop as you practise it more and more. In these pages, we show you how to adapt your writing to different written assessments.

Ann Marie talks about her first essay assignment and how to get started

Ann Marie: It's a very scary process. You would just sit to start writing and then completely shut off and you'd be like, 'I don't know what to do.' And then after a lot of times, there was once when I sat down to write it, I took the whole day and I didn't write even two lines. It used to be like, sit down, read certain things, go back again, have a cup of coffee or tea or something like that, come back thinking I'll make it, make two lines. But then it didn't happen. But then again, it's a process of again, going back to it, I guess. The problem is, the more you read, the more ideas you have, and then the more you don't know where to start. And you're so confused. And it was one of my friends, actually, I was probably, I just was so lost. And I probably spoke to one of my friends and he was like, 'You should just know when to stop reading.' And then sometimes, and my housemate, because she did a course at Sussex the year before. So she was really very helpful. So she said, 'Just write, just continue writing. Don't think about the word limit. Don't think about what you're writing. Don't think if there is a structure to it or if it's beautiful and it's what you want to present as final. Just keep writing. Put down your thoughts. Let it all be there on a paper, on a piece of paper.' And when you see it and then when you re-read it, you yourself can formulate it and structure it better. But if you just keep it in your head and not start anywhere, you're not going to get it out. So that was a good piece of advice, I felt. So then that's how I started. I just started writing whatever I wanted to, whatever I thought could be an answer. I didn't think about perfection at that time. Just went with the flow and then took a break, went around, came back, re-read it, reorganised it - it probably looked nothing like how I had started it off with, but then yeah.

What type of academic writing do you need to focus on?

There is a lot to think about and practice when it comes to academic writing. Look in at the six areas below and see which applies to you. You can go directly to the ones you want to focus on:

• Have you been asked to write an essay and need help to understand what is involved? If yes , go to Critical essay writing below (this page) for a plethora of information on academic essays.
• Have you been set a reflective writing assessment and are wondering what to do? If yes , head to Reflective Writing for more information (takes you to a different page).
• Are you writing a report and trying to figure out its components? If yes , the section on Reports will help you out (takes you to a different page).
• Do you have a dissertation  to write and need some pointers to help start you off? If yes , good Luck! Click over to Dissertations to get the basics plus some encouragement (takes you to a different page).
• Do you need some support with writing in correct academic English style or want help with editing and proof-reading? If yes , try looking through the information on Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading to check you are following the guidelines (takes you to a different page).
• Would you like to know how best to collect feedback from your assessments and how to benefit from it? If yes , the section on Feedback has useful advice on the best ways to deal with this (takes you to a different page).

Critical essay writing

Georgia talks about her first essay assignment.

Georgia: I think my first assignment was an essay for one of my modules. I found it quite overwhelming because it's just, 'Here's an essay topic - go away and do it.' Although I'd done essays before in A-level and I'd done psychology ones before, it wasn't to the same level, and I didn't have to do anywhere near the same kind of research. Doing research for the essay was probably one of the things that took maybe the most time, especially at the beginning. I used Library Search, which was fantastic, and that's what I still use to find most of my research because it's a great way to see what the university has access to and you can break it down into chunks for keywords for what you need for your assignment, and then it will just pull up everything that has that in it. Obviously, that's not something I knew straight away. And those were skills that I developed. But the first one was a lot of going through the marking criteria, going through research, trying to understand the research, trying to bring it all together and making sure I answered the question, which is quite important and it's very easy actually to derail from. Referencing as well was something that I'd done a bit of previously. I did an EPQ and I'd had to do referencing for that. So I'd had some experience, but figuring out the referencing style and things like that, which I used Skills Hub for. I also used referencing software and that really helped me and took a bit of the stress away from having to figure out how to do references and how to write long references. It put all my research into one place and kept it for me whereas I know lots of people who did research and then couldn't remember where they found that bit of information from. And so that really helped me with my first assignment.

For many students, writing critical essays will form the majority of their assessment at Sussex. Because setting out an argument is such an important part of academic work, learning how to do it well is fundamental for university success.

There are many parts to writing a successful essay. This list is a basic order, but most essays require moving back and forth between stages as you refine your thinking and writing, rather than following a strict linear path.

• understanding the essay title or creating your own
• planning for the length of your essay
• researching the subject
• creating a brief essay plan
• developing the argument
• adding counter-arguments
• writing a detailed outline
• developing the paragraphs
• sticking to academic writing conventions
• proof-reading.

In order to get a good grade, your essay must :

• prove you understand the topic
• answer the question
• show that you have read widely
• demonstrate you have evaluated the evidence
• display critical thinking
• have a clear argument
• contain relevant information to support your argument
• be well structured and organised
• conform to academic style
• use consistent and accurate referencing
• be professionally presented
• be grammatically correct
• have been proofread for mistakes.

Essay Questions

Feedback from tutors often focuses on students not answering the question. It may be that you know plenty of information about the topic and are keen to show off everything that you have read, but if you do not focus on responding to the question, you will lose marks. Take time to make sure that you have understood exactly what the question means, or composed a question that you can answer with precision.

Sara and Tavian talk understanding essay questions and structure

Sara: So when I get a question, I really have to have a think about that because I know often times it's the case of when you write a perfectly good assignment, but you haven't answered the question. So I think I break down the question. I see what the keyword is. Is it 'evaluate', is it 'discuss', is it 'compare'? I think that is a key thing to look at. And then what they're actually asking of you and what you're answering. So when I'm writing my assignments, I always make sure when I'm done with the paragraph to read that paragraph back and see if it's actually adding to what the question has asked of me. And I think that's very important because you can be so invested in your work and just writing a lot, but then at the end you're not actually answering the question and you're not going to get any marks, no matter how good your writing is. So I think going back, reading it through and keeping the question in mind constantly really helps. Tavian: So the Skills Hub, I was mostly looking at the formatting of an essay because I hadn't really written an essay. As I mentioned, well reports are mostly what we do in the Business School, at least for my course in my modules. So it had been almost since first year since I'd written an essay, and so I just wanted to understand a little bit more, okay, what the difference was. You know, do you use appendices or not? Because reports are very appendix heavy. And so yeah, that was really helpful for me to understand then, okay, what's expected? And then I had to adapt my approach.

Essay questions at Sussex

There are different types of academic essays at university. You may start university with essay questions that ask for description and explanation. As you progress throught your course, there will be more focus on critical writing. See Critical Thinking for more details.

Description

A description is not intended to persuade the reader to agree with a view. You will be asked to give an account of a concept or a process. It should be accurate and factual. The aim of this essay type is to give the reader an informed understanding of what is being described.

Explanation

Similar to a description, the purpose of an explanation is not to convince the reader of a point of view. The aim of this essay type is to give explanations as to why or how something happens and to establish the meaning of a theory or argument. Unlike a description, it also includes causes, purposes and consequences.

Critical argument

The most common type of essay question. The aim of this essay is to state a clear position and present a persuasive line of argument in order to convince the reader of this particular view. An argument should consider alternative perspectives and be supported with evidence throughout.

Decoding your Essay Title

Here are some useful tips to help you understand the question:

• highlight words which tell you the approach to take (the directive words)
• circle the words which guide you on selecting the subject matter of the essay (the topic words)
• underline the words which the question is asking you to focus on (the limiting words)
• ask yourself what the essay is really looking for. Can you identify the central question? How many sections are there to it?
• find the links between what you have learnt through reading or lectures and the title.

Cottrell, S. (2013)

Let’s look more at directive, topic and limiting words:

• directive words tell you what you need to do
• topic words show you what content you must discuss
• limiting words provide boundaries for your essay.

Look at the example question below. Can you identify the directive, topic and limiting words?

Discuss critically how semantics and pragmatics both have a role in the understanding of meaning

Now look below to reveal the three parts that are indicated:

Directive = Discuss, critically, both

Topic = Semantics, pragmatics, the understanding of meaning

Limiting = have a role in

Now, practise by breaking down the following question into the three types of question words:

Review the evidence for links between cholesterol levels and heart disease, and evaluate the usefulness of cholesterol screening programmes in preventing heart disease.

Directive words

Making sure you understand the directive word helps to stay on task and answer the question.

Activity: Directive words

Use the Dialog cards below to reveal the meaning of some of the most common directive words (seven) used in essay questions (there is a text only version below the activity):

1. Compare = Identify the similarities of two or more things.

2. Criticise = Identify weaknesses and disadvantages. You should also point out favourable aspects, so it should be a balanced view.

3. Evaluate = Assess how important or useful something is.

4. Critically Evaluate = similar to evaluate / weigh up the arguments for and against / assess the strength of the evidence on both sides.

5. Analyse = Break an idea into parts and consider how they relate to each other – investigate.

6. Assess = weigh up how important something is – similar to evaluate.

7. Contrast = similar to compare / looks at the differences.

Devising your own Essay Question

As you progress through university, there will be opportunities to devise your own essay titles. While this may seem to be a luxury at first, it soon becomes clear that it is harder than you think!

Here are some key points to consider when creating your essay title:

• check the marking criteria first. You’ll need to come up with a question that enables you to meet the criteria
• consider the right kind of directive word for the topic. If there are two main competing theories in the literature, a compare and contrast essay might be suitable. If you want to explore an innovative approach, you might like to critically evaluate the evidence in support of and against it
• some words are not suitable as directive words. Describe, for example, leads to purely descriptive writing. Analyse or Evaluate would be better alternatives
• keep the title concise, and stick to just one question
• you may choose to use a short quotation in your title, but make sure that it links to the academic debate you want to focus on. The quote may provide the topic and limiting words, but you might need to follow it with a typical essay question to focus your essay. For example:

‘ There is not a brick in the city but what is cemented with the blood of a slave .’ (Bristol Annalist, early 18th century)

Critically evaluate this assessment of the impact of the slave trade on Bristol.

• essay titles do not always use directive words – it’s up to you whether to use them. This title does not contain a directive word

        ‘In what respects was the debate over slavery fundamental to later history of the British Empire?’

• ask a friend or family member to read your title to make sure it can be understood.
• check that you can find research evidence relevant to the topic.

Planning and Structuring your Essay

Saira and amelia talk about planning their essay structure.

Saira: For me, what I do is I first start with a plan, so I'll just have a general idea of what's my argument. Because for some modules or some degrees, I guess you might need to have a bit of a balanced argument, but I know for Law you need to be quite persuasive and you need to understand what it is that you're trying to argue and set that out in the beginning. A lot of people tend to think that you have to wait till the end to say what you want to say. But that's probably the worst way to go about it, because you're going to be lost while you're writing. So I usually just have a bullet-point plan with headings. What's my introduction, what are my middle paragraphs and what's my conclusion? And then I have a separate section where I think about what are my academic sources I'm going to use. How am I going to compare them? Do they show different points of views? And then I just make sure that I have all my referencing and things sorted out. And then I usually do about two drafts. So the first draft, I just write things in my own words. And then the second draft I go through and make it more formal and put in, you know, proper referencing and then make it look nice: 1.5 line spacing, edge to edge, Times New Roman size 12. And then, yeah, that's pretty much how I go through essays. Amelia: The biggest thing for me coming from high school into uni was analysis. In high school, a lot of the analysis was like, what was my personal analysis? And then I came to uni and they're like, no, no, no. Like, you can have an opinion, but it has to always be backed up by academic research. And so changing my analysis from a personal analysis to an academic analysis was hard and still is really hard. And like, it's not, 'What is your opinion?' It's, 'What is your opinion on the research?'

The planning and structuring of your essay goes hand in hand with reading and researching it. Usually, they both happen at the same time: as you read more and develop your knowledge and opinions on the subject, you start to picture the shape of the essay in your mind. And as the structure of the essay begins to become clear, you will know which sources of information you need to investigate more, and which you can leave behind. 

Basic Structure of Critical Essays

Critical essays have three sections: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion  (or a discussion for science-based essays) .  

You can imagine an essay like an hourglass, with the introduction and the conclusion/discussion as the wide top and bottom parts, where the general context of the essay is discussed. The main body is the very narrow part of the hourglass, where the focus is on very specific aspects of the topic . 

Read  the lists below of which   features are found in the three main parts:

Introduction

• the hook - a strong statement or surprising fact about the topic which engages the reader
• background information - some background information about the topic. For example, a brief history or an explanation of the context
• a thesis statement – what your argument and position is. This is the most important part of your essay and what the essay can be reduced down to. All the other parts of your essay act as extra details to your thesis statement. 
• signposting - tell your reader what you will cover.
• topic sentences – the sentence in each paragraph which outlines its main idea. 
• use of sources, explanations, examples and data to support your topic sentence idea. Most essays, and all science-based ones, need multiple sources per paragraph.  
• critical analysis of the evidence and sources. (In science-based essays, rgis comes in the discussion )
• concluding sentences – final sentences in each paragraph which sum up the idea and may link back to the next question or to the next point.

Conclusion (for non-science-based essays)

• a brief restatement of your argument
• a summary of your main points
• a strong closing statement - perhaps a prediction or a recommendation.

Discussion (for science-based essays)

• a brief summary of your argument
• critical analysis of the evidence and sources
• a strong closing statement - perhaps the implications of your argument on other parts of the discipline, or a recommendation for more research.

Remember! Stating that ' more research is needed ' is not a very useful recommendation. Be specific about what the research should be on and what it should attempt to find out. 

There is more information on each of these sections below.

Planning for length

Planning starts with understanding your task, how much time you have, the number of words you have to write and what direction you're going to take.

Before you embark on research, give yourself realistic goals for the amount of material you need by sketching out a plan for length. This helps to breakdown the task into manageable sections, and to focus your reading.

Access this YouTube video talking about ' Planning for length '

Writing an essay outline

Elena talks about the structure of her science essay.

Elena: Once we have the essay topic - I found it also at the beginning very hard to just start writing. So what I do is I just write down thoughts or some bullet points of what I think I want my essay to go into. What I want to discuss, what the topics I want to include are, maybe some details, some of my thoughts. So I write that down first and then I actually don't have a structure I don't start with the introduction or I don't start with the conclusion. I usually start with what I feel most comfortable. So I take one of those bullet points that I jotted down. I do further research into it. Well, this is because it's also scientific, so it's a bit different. So I do research into it. I write notes, and I continue writing notes on what I find, and I just put that all into the document. Then once I have that, I begin to structure it. So I do the structuring later so that I have all the information that I want to include already in the document. So I structure it. And then what we have in scientific essays that's really important is the abstract or something that resembles an abstract, where in the introduction you have to include a summary of what the essay is about and the conclusions also. So then I work on that so that I have something that clearly defines what my essay will be about. So I work on that, and then I go into the body and then into the conclusions. And as a scientific essay or scientific topic, we always appreciate further research - like a little section of further research. So I develop that into the conclusion. And yeah, slowly, slowly it takes time. Editing, re-editing, maybe even proofreading. Having someone to proofread your essay is also very important. And yeah, like a student mentor. In first year, I would always go to student mentors to discuss my essay, how I can Improve it, how like critical opinions are always appreciated and what I did good as well, both negative and positive feedback.

After you have planned for length, you can start your research .

Before you plan the content of your essay, you need to decide a clear position on the question (e.g. you disagree with the question's statement, or you have identified the main reason for the phenomenon mentioned in the question) and think about a line of argument (i.e. how are you going to persuade the reader that you are correct?) You should identify evidence to support your argument, and find at least one counter-argument.

Next comes the writing! But starting an essay can be daunting, because you may not know exactly what to write about and in what order.  So, an easier step is to create a outline. It will also help you to stay on track throughout the process.  

An essay outline is like the skeleton of your essay. You include the essential information, and can play around with the order until you are happy with it. This is the experimental phase of your writing. Don't worry about writing full sentences or including every reference. Correct spelling and grammar aren't important in this phase. It's only after the essay outline is complete that you can start writing full sentences. You won't need to worry about wondering what each paragraph will be about or where to add a particular reference - you've already decided all this in your essay outline. 

 Your essay outline can be more or less detailed depending on what helps you. Some things you could include in your outline are:

• a word count for each section
• your thesis statement (main overall argument) in the introduction
• topic sentences describing the main idea of each main body paragraph
• concluding sentences for each main body paragraph
• citations and references.

Experiment with how much detail works for you in your plan. It is almost impossible to write well without planning something beforehand, but it is also easy to overplan as an excuse not to get writing!

Access this blank  PDF  Essay plan template: Structure of an essay.

Access this YouTube video talking about ' Planning for content'

Developing your argument

Imagine that you want to change the brand of coffee that you buy for you and your flatmates. By reading and researching, you have investigated the different options, and with critical thinking, chosen the one you want to switch to. You now decide to gather your flatmates together and persuade them that the coffee you want to get is better than the coffee you all currently drink.

 “ Stylised coffee mug ” by freesvg.org is licensed under CC0 .

Just like for a critical essay, in order to win them over you’ll need to develop your argument. It might be best to write down all of your the reasons for changing and deciding which ones are most likely to be persuasive:

• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties
• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme
• I really like the flavour
• it’s cheaper than the current choice
• it reminds me of my holiday in Italy
• it’s fair-trade.

You can probably cut out the personal reasons to persuade your flatmates because there isn’t any objective evidence for them. You are left with:

• tthe company has a carbon-offsetting scheme

Next, how are you going to group these points? Carbon-offsetting and fair-trade are both about sustainability, so your argument will be clearer if these two points are kept together.

• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme and the coffee is fair-trade
• it’s cheaper than the current choice.

Now think about the order they should be in. Which one of your reasons packs the biggest punch? All of your flatmates want to save money, so this is probably the best reason to put first. Decaf coffee isn’t drunk very often in your flat, so this one can go last.

• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties.

Your flatmates are going to want proof of what you say, so make sure you include evidence to back up each of your reasons for wanting to change coffee. 

• it’s cheaper than the current choice. Show them a receipt
• the company has a carbon-offsetting scheme and the coffee is fair-trade. Open up the company website
• there are both caffeinated and decaf varieties. Bring them some examples!

You’ve also found a counter-argument to swapping brands: Your coffee is only available in two shops in town. Let’s bring this up last of all since it isn’t really related to price, sustainability or varieties of coffee. To make sure your flatmates don’t agree with the counter-argument, you need to explain why it isn’t such a big problem. Put the counter argument at the end. 

• the brand is only available in two shops in town. However, one shop is on the bus route back from campus and you are happy to pick some up when needed.

Of course, you’ll start and end explaining that you want to change coffee brands.

You might not succeed in convincing your flatmates to switch what they put in their lattes, but you have succeeded in developing an argument. The process is the same for developing an argument in an essay, but with a bigger word count and more complex topics!

Complete the checklist to make sure you have done everything you can to develop the best argument possible.

• I’ve decided on my position
• I have a number of reasons for my position
• I’ve selected the reasons that are most persuasive and I have evidence for
• I’ve put the reasons into groups that are connected in some way
• I’ve ordered the reasons/groups of reasons, putting the strongest ones first
• I’ve attached my evidence to each reason
• I’ve thought of some counter-arguments to my position and I have included their weaknesses in my essay.

Access this excellent YouTube video on ' How do I develop an argument? '

For extra resources, look at Making an Argument .

Main Body Paragraphs

If your essay is a sandwich, and the introduction and conclusion are the slices of bread at the top and the bottom, then your main body paragraphs are the filling. This is where you will put the main flavour to your essay – the arguments, the details, the evidence, the examples etc. Get this right and the rest of your essay becomes much easier to write.

Remember that for each main idea, you need a new paragraph, for example one effect of a situation; one reason why you agree with the question; one event in a timeline. Putting all the reasons why you agree with the question in one paragraph is too confusing for the reader, and will probably be a very long paragraph. Likewise, splitting paragraphs by the different sources that you have found (e.g. Paragraph 1: source 1 says this...., Paragraph 2: source 2 says this....) is also not a good idea if both sources are talking about the same concepts. It's better to put each of the concepts that they both discuss in individual paragraphs, showing the reader that you have synthesised their opinions.

The structure of a paragraph

Paragraphs tend to follow a general structure. You can adapt it to your needs but always keep in mind the main shape:

• start with a topic sentence, which tells the reader the main idea of the paragraph. This main idea should of course fit with your argument
• next, you can give more detail on the main point. What does it mean? What are the ins and outs? What are the reasons for it? What are its implications? Why is it important? What examples are there?
• you need to include sources (usually more than one) to back up your main point, or the details of the main point.
• a good way to include sources - especially in science-based essays - is to use the fact:citation sentence pattern. This is a paraphrased fact, followed by the citation of the source. Keeping to this sentence pattern makes it easy for the reader to follow your argument and not get distracted by your referencing. 
• avoid starting or ending paragraphs with a reference.
• to round off, write a concluding sentence which summarises the paragraph or links to the question or the next paragraph.

You may also find this structure called the PEEL model of paragraph writing.

Let's look at an example of a paragraph:

Using Evidence

The quality of evidence you have in your essay depends on how well you’ve done your reading and note-making. How well you present the evidence depends on the quality of your plan. In each main body paragraph, you have a main point, and further details you want to address. Select relevant evidence from your notes during the planning stage so that you know which evidence belongs to which point, and weave it into the paragraph to support your argument. It can be very tempting to include material that isn't relevant because you’ve worked hard to collect it and it's interesting. However, if it doesn't fit with your argument, leave it out.

Synthesising evidence

In order to develop an argument, you have to consult and refer to a variety of different views. This shows the reader that you have read widely, and you have presented a balanced, non-biased argument. It’s very likely that you'll need to use more than one source per paragraph in order for your argument to develop. Putting these different sources together, or synthesising them, is an important academic skill. It can show that there are multiple people with the same view on a topic, or can help highlight the nuances between different schools of thought.

Read this example of a main body paragraph using synthesis of two sources:

The first topic sentence tells us that the paragraph will look at fabrication being a part of psychotic behaviour, and the second sentence gives more detail on this. The third and fourth sentences synthesise what Elphick and Mitchell write, since both have similar opinions. Note the synthesising language:

• and this viewpoint is also found in
• both Elphick and Mitchell see fabrication as
• albeit to varying degrees (This phrase acknowledges that there are some differences between Elphick’s and Mitchell’s work).

There are many more phrases that can be used to synthesise different sources! Keep an eye out for them when you are reading and note down useful ones.

Refuting Counter-arguments

Including counter-arguments in your essay shows that you have considered views that contradict ones which you have presented but have decided that they are not strong enough to sway your opinion. Using the synthesis table above, include a main idea that does not agree with your thesis and find some sources for it. Using your critical thinking skills, make sure to demonstrate why these main ideas are incorrect or refute them

Some counter-arguments may disagree with a small detail of a paragraph. In this case, it is fine to include them as one or two sentences towards the end of a paragraph. Other counter-arguments may disagree with a main point, or an entire section of your essay. If so, they deserve a paragraph or more dedicated to them. Read this example of a paragraph addressing and then refuting a main counter-argument.

This section of the essay is in support of Kernohan’s theories, but it would lose marks if the student did not mention some opponents of Kernohan. The topic sentence makes clear that this paragraph will introduce some counter-arguments, with more details in the second half of the sentence. Bayliss’ position is summarised, and then the rest of the paragraph explores the weaknesses of Bayliss’ argument.

Note the specifical language for refutation:

• however, Bayliss’s research did not take into account
• while it is true that (This is a concession that Kernohan’s work is not perfect, but the student then shows why this is not a big problem).

Like synthesis, there are many more phrases that can be used to refute counter-arguments, and you can collect them while you are reading. Look at this Academic Phrasebank for some great examples.

Writing Introductions, Conclusions and Discussions

While you are reading, pay attention to how the introductions and conclusions/discussions that you come across are written. Are the introductions similar to each other? Does each conclusion/discussion have a comparable structure?

Introductions should:

• introduce your topic, giving some background information such as a brief history or the current context
• explain how you have understood the question, in particular any terms that may have multiple interpretations
• include your position - your thesis statement. For example, do you agree or disagree with the essay title topic?
• list the issues you are going to discuss. Why are these the important ones? List them in the same order they appear in your essay
• be roughly 10% of your word count.

A triangle is overlaid in text going down the triangle to signify the scope, starting wide at the top and becoming narrower at the bottom, we have:

1) the background, history/context

2) definition of terms

3) the specifics of the topic in question

4) a thesis statement and position

Conclusions/Discussions should:

• restate your position
• summarise your main points
• make it clear why your conclusions are important or significant
• include a strong closing statement. This could be a prediction for the future, reference to further research, or a suggestion for a way forward

A triangle is overlaid in text going down the triangle to signify the scope, starting at the pointed top and becoming wider at the bottom, we have:

1) restate position

2) summarise main points

3) strong closing statemnet

Other topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing (this page) | Reflective writing | Reports | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback

Essay Exams

What this handout is about.

At some time in your undergraduate career, you’re going to have to write an essay exam. This thought can inspire a fair amount of fear: we struggle enough with essays when they aren’t timed events based on unknown questions. The goal of this handout is to give you some easy and effective strategies that will help you take control of the situation and do your best.

Why do instructors give essay exams?

Essay exams are a useful tool for finding out if you can sort through a large body of information, figure out what is important, and explain why it is important. Essay exams challenge you to come up with key course ideas and put them in your own words and to use the interpretive or analytical skills you’ve practiced in the course. Instructors want to see whether:

• You understand concepts that provide the basis for the course
• You can use those concepts to interpret specific materials
• You can make connections, see relationships, draw comparisons and contrasts
• You can synthesize diverse information in support of an original assertion
• You can justify your own evaluations based on appropriate criteria
• You can argue your own opinions with convincing evidence
• You can think critically and analytically about a subject

What essay questions require

Exam questions can reach pretty far into the course materials, so you cannot hope to do well on them if you do not keep up with the readings and assignments from the beginning of the course. The most successful essay exam takers are prepared for anything reasonable, and they probably have some intelligent guesses about the content of the exam before they take it. How can you be a prepared exam taker? Try some of the following suggestions during the semester:

• Do the reading as the syllabus dictates; keeping up with the reading while the related concepts are being discussed in class saves you double the effort later.
• Go to lectures (and put away your phone, the newspaper, and that crossword puzzle!).
• Take careful notes that you’ll understand months later. If this is not your strong suit or the conventions for a particular discipline are different from what you are used to, ask your TA or the Learning Center for advice.
• Participate in your discussion sections; this will help you absorb the material better so you don’t have to study as hard.
• Organize small study groups with classmates to explore and review course materials throughout the semester. Others will catch things you might miss even when paying attention. This is not cheating. As long as what you write on the essay is your own work, formulating ideas and sharing notes is okay. In fact, it is a big part of the learning process.
• As an exam approaches, find out what you can about the form it will take. This will help you forecast the questions that will be on the exam, and prepare for them.

These suggestions will save you lots of time and misery later. Remember that you can’t cram weeks of information into a single day or night of study. So why put yourself in that position?

Now let’s focus on studying for the exam. You’ll notice the following suggestions are all based on organizing your study materials into manageable chunks of related material. If you have a plan of attack, you’ll feel more confident and your answers will be more clear. Here are some tips: 

• Don’t just memorize aimlessly; clarify the important issues of the course and use these issues to focus your understanding of specific facts and particular readings.
• Try to organize and prioritize the information into a thematic pattern. Look at what you’ve studied and find a way to put things into related groups. Find the fundamental ideas that have been emphasized throughout the course and organize your notes into broad categories. Think about how different categories relate to each other.
• Find out what you don’t know, but need to know, by making up test questions and trying to answer them. Studying in groups helps as well.

Taking the exam

Read the exam carefully.

• If you are given the entire exam at once and can determine your approach on your own, read the entire exam before you get started.
• Look at how many points each part earns you, and find hints for how long your answers should be.
• Figure out how much time you have and how best to use it. Write down the actual clock time that you expect to take in each section, and stick to it. This will help you avoid spending all your time on only one section. One strategy is to divide the available time according to percentage worth of the question. You don’t want to spend half of your time on something that is only worth one tenth of the total points.
• As you read, make tentative choices of the questions you will answer (if you have a choice). Don’t just answer the first essay question you encounter. Instead, read through all of the options. Jot down really brief ideas for each question before deciding.
• Remember that the easiest-looking question is not always as easy as it looks. Focus your attention on questions for which you can explain your answer most thoroughly, rather than settle on questions where you know the answer but can’t say why.

Analyze the questions

• Decide what you are being asked to do. If you skim the question to find the main “topic” and then rush to grasp any related ideas you can recall, you may become flustered, lose concentration, and even go blank. Try looking closely at what the question is directing you to do, and try to understand the sort of writing that will be required.
• Focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t.
• Look at the active verbs in the assignment—they tell you what you should be doing. We’ve included some of these below, with some suggestions on what they might mean. (For help with this sort of detective work, see the Writing Center handout titled Reading Assignments.)

Information words, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject. Information words may include:

• define—give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning.
• explain why/how—give reasons why or examples of how something happened.
• illustrate—give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject.
• summarize—briefly cover the important ideas you learned about the subject.
• trace—outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form.
• research—gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you’ve found.

Relation words ask you to demonstrate how things are connected. Relation words may include:

• compare—show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different).
• contrast—show how two or more things are dissimilar.
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation.
• cause—show how one event or series of events made something else happen.
• relate—show or describe the connections between things.

Interpretation words ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Don’t see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation. Interpretation words may include:

• prove, justify—give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth.
• evaluate, respond, assess—state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons (you may want to compare your subject to something else).
• support—give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe).
• synthesize—put two or more things together that haven’t been put together before; don’t just summarize one and then the other, and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together (as opposed to compare and contrast—see above).
• analyze—look closely at the components of something to figure out how it works, what it might mean, or why it is important.
• argue—take a side and defend it (with proof) against the other side.

Plan your answers

Think about your time again. How much planning time you should take depends on how much time you have for each question and how many points each question is worth. Here are some general guidelines: 

• For short-answer definitions and identifications, just take a few seconds. Skip over any you don’t recognize fairly quickly, and come back to them when another question jogs your memory.
• For answers that require a paragraph or two, jot down several important ideas or specific examples that help to focus your thoughts.
• For longer answers, you will need to develop a much more definite strategy of organization. You only have time for one draft, so allow a reasonable amount of time—as much as a quarter of the time you’ve allotted for the question—for making notes, determining a thesis, and developing an outline.
• For questions with several parts (different requests or directions, a sequence of questions), make a list of the parts so that you do not miss or minimize one part. One way to be sure you answer them all is to number them in the question and in your outline.
• You may have to try two or three outlines or clusters before you hit on a workable plan. But be realistic—you want a plan you can develop within the limited time allotted for your answer. Your outline will have to be selective—not everything you know, but what you know that you can state clearly and keep to the point in the time available.

Again, focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t.

Writing your answers

As with planning, your strategy for writing depends on the length of your answer:

• For short identifications and definitions, it is usually best to start with a general identifying statement and then move on to describe specific applications or explanations. Two sentences will almost always suffice, but make sure they are complete sentences. Find out whether the instructor wants definition alone, or definition and significance. Why is the identification term or object important?
• For longer answers, begin by stating your forecasting statement or thesis clearly and explicitly. Strive for focus, simplicity, and clarity. In stating your point and developing your answers, you may want to use important course vocabulary words from the question. For example, if the question is, “How does wisteria function as a representation of memory in Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom?” you may want to use the words wisteria, representation, memory, and Faulkner) in your thesis statement and answer. Use these important words or concepts throughout the answer.
• If you have devised a promising outline for your answer, then you will be able to forecast your overall plan and its subpoints in your opening sentence. Forecasting impresses readers and has the very practical advantage of making your answer easier to read. Also, if you don’t finish writing, it tells your reader what you would have said if you had finished (and may get you partial points).
• You might want to use briefer paragraphs than you ordinarily do and signal clear relations between paragraphs with transition phrases or sentences.
• As you move ahead with the writing, you may think of new subpoints or ideas to include in the essay. Stop briefly to make a note of these on your original outline. If they are most appropriately inserted in a section you’ve already written, write them neatly in the margin, at the top of the page, or on the last page, with arrows or marks to alert the reader to where they fit in your answer. Be as neat and clear as possible.
• Don’t pad your answer with irrelevancies and repetitions just to fill up space. Within the time available, write a comprehensive, specific answer.
• Watch the clock carefully to ensure that you do not spend too much time on one answer. You must be realistic about the time constraints of an essay exam. If you write one dazzling answer on an exam with three equally-weighted required questions, you earn only 33 points—not enough to pass at most colleges. This may seem unfair, but keep in mind that instructors plan exams to be reasonably comprehensive. They want you to write about the course materials in two or three or more ways, not just one way. Hint: if you finish a half-hour essay in 10 minutes, you may need to develop some of your ideas more fully.
• If you run out of time when you are writing an answer, jot down the remaining main ideas from your outline, just to show that you know the material and with more time could have continued your exposition.
• Double-space to leave room for additions, and strike through errors or changes with one straight line (avoid erasing or scribbling over). Keep things as clean as possible. You never know what will earn you partial credit.
• Write legibly and proofread. Remember that your instructor will likely be reading a large pile of exams. The more difficult they are to read, the more exasperated the instructor might become. Your instructor also cannot give you credit for what they cannot understand. A few minutes of careful proofreading can improve your grade.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind in writing essay exams is that you have a limited amount of time and space in which to get across the knowledge you have acquired and your ability to use it. Essay exams are not the place to be subtle or vague. It’s okay to have an obvious structure, even the five-paragraph essay format you may have been taught in high school. Introduce your main idea, have several paragraphs of support—each with a single point defended by specific examples, and conclude with a restatement of your main point and its significance.

Some physiological tips

Just think—we expect athletes to practice constantly and use everything in their abilities and situations in order to achieve success. Yet, somehow many students are convinced that one day’s worth of studying, no sleep, and some well-placed compliments (“Gee, Dr. So-and-so, I really enjoyed your last lecture”) are good preparation for a test. Essay exams are like any other testing situation in life: you’ll do best if you are prepared for what is expected of you, have practiced doing it before, and have arrived in the best shape to do it. You may not want to believe this, but it’s true: a good night’s sleep and a relaxed mind and body can do as much or more for you as any last-minute cram session. Colleges abound with tales of woe about students who slept through exams because they stayed up all night, wrote an essay on the wrong topic, forgot everything they studied, or freaked out in the exam and hyperventilated. If you are rested, breathing normally, and have brought along some healthy, energy-boosting snacks that you can eat or drink quietly, you are in a much better position to do a good job on the test. You aren’t going to write a good essay on something you figured out at 4 a.m. that morning. If you prepare yourself well throughout the semester, you don’t risk your whole grade on an overloaded, undernourished brain.

If for some reason you get yourself into this situation, take a minute every once in a while during the test to breathe deeply, stretch, and clear your brain. You need to be especially aware of the likelihood of errors, so check your essays thoroughly before you hand them in to make sure they answer the right questions and don’t have big oversights or mistakes (like saying “Hitler” when you really mean “Churchill”).

If you tend to go blank during exams, try studying in the same classroom in which the test will be given. Some research suggests that people attach ideas to their surroundings, so it might jog your memory to see the same things you were looking at while you studied.

Try good luck charms. Bring in something you associate with success or the support of your loved ones, and use it as a psychological boost.

Take all of the time you’ve been allotted. Reread, rework, and rethink your answers if you have extra time at the end, rather than giving up and handing the exam in the minute you’ve written your last sentence. Use every advantage you are given.

Remember that instructors do not want to see you trip up—they want to see you do well. With this in mind, try to relax and just do the best you can. The more you panic, the more mistakes you are liable to make. Put the test in perspective: will you die from a poor performance? Will you lose all of your friends? Will your entire future be destroyed? Remember: it’s just a test.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. Cooper. 2016. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing , 11th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Fowler, Ramsay H., and Jane E. Aaron. 2016. The Little, Brown Handbook , 13th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Gefvert, Constance J. 1988. The Confident Writer: A Norton Handbook , 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Kirszner, Laurie G. 1988. Writing: A College Rhetoric , 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Woodman, Leonara, and Thomas P. Adler. 1988. The Writer’s Choices , 2nd ed. Northbrook, Illinois: Scott Foresman.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Evaluation Criteria for Formal Essays

Katherine milligan.

Please note that these four categories are interdependent. For example, if your evidence is weak, this will almost certainly affect the quality of your argument and organization. Likewise, if you have difficulty with syntax, it is to be expected that your transitions will suffer. In revision, therefore, take a holistic approach to improving your essay, rather than focussing exclusively on one aspect.

An excellent paper:

Argument: The paper knows what it wants to say and why it wants to say it. It goes beyond pointing out comparisons to using them to change the reader?s vision. Organization: Every paragraph supports the main argument in a coherent way, and clear transitions point out why each new paragraph follows the previous one. Evidence: Concrete examples from texts support general points about how those texts work. The paper provides the source and significance of each piece of evidence. Mechanics: The paper uses correct spelling and punctuation. In short, it generally exhibits a good command of academic prose.

A mediocre paper:

Argument: The paper replaces an argument with a topic, giving a series of related observations without suggesting a logic for their presentation or a reason for presenting them. Organization: The observations of the paper are listed rather than organized. Often, this is a symptom of a problem in argument, as the framing of the paper has not provided a path for evidence to follow. Evidence: The paper offers very little concrete evidence, instead relying on plot summary or generalities to talk about a text. If concrete evidence is present, its origin or significance is not clear. Mechanics: The paper contains frequent errors in syntax, agreement, pronoun reference, and/or punctuation.

An appallingly bad paper:

Argument: The paper lacks even a consistent topic, providing a series of largely unrelated observations. Organization: The observations are listed rather than organized, and some of them do not appear to belong in the paper at all. Both paper and paragraphs lack coherence. Evidence: The paper offers no concrete evidence from the texts or misuses a little evidence. Mechanics: The paper contains constant and glaring errors in syntax, agreement, reference, spelling, and/or punctuation.

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Essay assessments ask students to demonstrate a point of view supported by evidence. They allow students to demonstrate what they've learned and build their writing skills.

An essay question prompts a written response, which may vary from a few paragraphs to a number of pages.

Essay questions are generally open-ended. They differ from short answer questions in that they:

• require more time
• are less structured
• require students to integrate information and interpretation.

When to use an essay

Essays can be used to test students' higher order thinking.

Advantages and limitations

• Limitations
• Test analysis, reasoning, synthesis and evaluation skills.
• Are open ended. This allows students to answer the question in a variety of ways and demonstrate depth and creativity.
• Allow for deep learning and connections.
• Allow students to draw on research and reasoning to provide justification and show integration.
• Opportunity to assess a student’s writing ability.
• Can be quicker to prepare than other item/assessment types.
• Can be structured in different ways.
• Can limit the range of assessable content and the number of assessment items that can be used.
• Favour students with good writing skills.
• not too open ended
• align with content and learning outcomes.
• Can allow for plagiarism.
• Can be difficult to moderate.
• Time consuming to assess.
• Markers need to identify knowledge and understanding, despite levels of expression, i.e. elegant language can mask superficial thinking, while clumsy language can disguise understanding of ideas.

Guidelines for developing essay assessments

Essay question.

Effective essay questions provide students with a focus (types of thinking and content) to use in their response.

Make sure your essay question:

• is aligned with the intended learning outcome
• is an appropriate length
• contains a clear task or a specific problem situation
• is worded and structured in such a way that it will be clear to the students what they are expected to do
• is not indeterminate, vague or open to numerous and/or subjective interpretations
• contains verbs that match the intended learning outcomes (if you use verbs like discuss or explain , indicate which points should be discussed/explained)
• defines the scope of the task to avoid students going off on an unrelated tangent
• allows for answers at different levels, i.e. a basic, satisfactory response and an extended, high level response
• includes differentiating aspects in the way the question is written.

Review the question and improve using the following questions:

• Does the question align with the learning outcome?
• Is the focus clear?
• Is the scope specific and clear enough?
• Is there enough direction to guide the student to the expected response?

Alignment to learning outcomes

To ensure the assessment item aligns with learning outcomes:

• prepare a model answer or an outline of major points that should be included in the answer
• critically review the essay item for clarity
• check the question is aligned with the intended learning outcome and model answer.

Student preparation

Make sure your students are prepared by:

• teaching them how to approach essays
• scaffold learning so there are opportunities to guide and practise essay writing
• ensuring students know the recommended time for completing their answer
• ensuring students know the weighting of the essay.

Examples of essay question verbs

In the table below you will find lists of verbs that are commonly used in essay questions. These words:

• relate to learning outcomes
• can be thought of as aligning with critical essay questions or descriptive essay questions
• can be used as starting points for the development of essay questions.

Evaluation Essay

Evaluation essay generator.

Creating an essay is a part of every student’s academic journey. There are different kinds of essays that can be a part of a  student writing  task. One of these essays is the evaluation essay. What can set apart an evaluation essay from various kinds of academic essays is that it can also be used in different undertakings within the corporate and professional environment. Evaluation essays are not limited to be used for educational purposes as it can also be beneficial in the fields of business, research and community development.

An evaluation essay contains an objective assessment that is written by an individual who should be fully-knowledgeable of what he or she is writing about. More so, this essay relays the sound judgement about a specific subject matter or topic of discussion. Each evaluation essay are based on evaluative writing that are commonly created in accordance to a set of criteria or value measurements. We have curated ten evaluation essays that you can refer to if you want to write your own evaluation essay.

Self-Evaluation Essay Sample

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Student Self-Evaluation Essay

Size: 121 KB

Things to Remember When Writing an Evaluation Essay

An evaluation essay should always be direct to the point and specific as it contains factual information that is essential to be known by the readers. To avoid  common essay mistakes , some of the things that you should always remind yourself when writing an evaluation essay are listed below.

• When writing an evaluation essay, a writer must always be backed up by evidences so that he or she can support the evaluation being made. If you are writing an evaluation essay, you should always be objective with the content that you are presenting. Your opinion matters but you should make sure that it is based on reality. Evaluation essays work best if the readers can identify the sources that you have used to come up with the assessment that they are currently reading. If you will ensure that there is enough evidences to support you, then your evaluation essay can be more credible and relevant.
• Be specific with the kind of evaluation essay that you are creating. An evaluation essay can only be effective if you are aware of the purpose on why you are writing the document. Being able to present details, comments, and information that is directly related to the kind of evaluation essay that you are writing can help you create a highly-usable output. There are different kinds of evaluation essays and you should be aware that each of them have differences depending on the purpose of their creation. Come up with a highly-usable and effective evaluation essay by directly providing the needs of your readers.
• Always be clear when presenting your evaluation. Since the main purpose of an evaluation essay is to relay your viewpoint about a specific subject, you have to make sure that you will be precise and concise when delivering the message that you want your readers to be knowledgeable of. You have to explain how you were able to create the evaluation which includes the specification of the factors that you have considered within the entirety of the evaluation and writing process.

Humanities Project Evaluation Essay

Size: 331 KB

Printable Self-Evaluation Essay Example

Size: 128 KB

Purposes of an Evaluation Essay

There is a wide variety of evaluation  essay examples that are specifically created for particular purposes. Evaluation essays can cover a lot of topics which is why it is used in a range of industries and processes. The different kinds of evaluation essays can be used for the following instances and activities:

• To create a book report or a review of a book’s content and how it has affected the reader
• To identify critical points of a written work may it be a poem, another essay or a research paper
• To create a literature or literary review to fully identify the content of a literary piece
• To give critique about an initial analysis or a full process
• To support the processes of employment regularization or employee promotion
• To assess and analyze the results of a reading activity
• To add value to a recommendation letter
• To analyze a research topic that can fully affect the entire research activity
• To evaluate the work performance of either a student or an employee
• To identify the strengths and weaknesses of an individual through a self-evaluation

With the different ways on how you can use an evaluation essay, it is safe to say that there are a lot of fields of expertise that can benefit from this document. When creating your own evaluation essay, you should always keep in mind that the content of your essay must be relevant to the message that you would like to disseminate or share to your target readers.

Thesis Paper Evaluation Essay Example

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Evaluation Essay Sample in PDF

Size: 282 KB

Qualitative Evaluation Essay Example

Size: 396 KB

Steps in Writing an Evaluation Essay

If you want to create an evaluation essay, you should be strategic when it comes to the presentation of information that can be helpful in the writing activity. Your evaluation essay can only be fully-maximized if there is an organized discussion of your evaluation as well as the facts that can support your thesis statement.

Here is an  essay writing basic guide  that you may follow when writing an evaluation essay:

• Be aware of your topic. The first thing that you need to do when writing an evaluation essay is to be knowledgeable about the topic that you will write about. As much as possible, research about the subject of discussion so you can easily identify the characteristics that you can evaluate and the criteria that you will use for evaluation.
• Make sure to have a set of criteria that can help you determine your evaluation. Once you are already aware of your topic, you can already set criteria that will serve as the basis for your evaluation. If you will properly identify the criteria that will best fit your needs for the specific evaluation, then you can make your evaluation essay stronger and more effective.
• Refer to samples and templates of evaluation essays. It will be helpful if you will look at different kinds of evaluation essay samples and templates. These documents can help you be more familiar with what an evaluation essay is and how the details present in this kind of essay should be arranged and presented.
• Create an evaluation essay draft. It will depend on you if you will use a template as your guide when writing an evaluation essay. You can also just browse through samples and start your evaluation essay from scratch. One thing that we highly suggest you should do is to make a draft or an outline of the discussion that you would like to have. This can help you ensure that all the necessary information will be placed in your final evaluation essay.
• Start writing the content of your evaluation essay. Through the help of the draft that you have created, write a thesis in the first paragraph of your essay. This is the part where you can discuss the topic that you will use for evaluation and the statement on whether you think positively or negatively of the subject. The way that you create a thesis statement will be based on the nature of operations or functions where the essay will be used.
• Incorporate evidences in your discussion so you can support your claims and/or opinions. After your thesis statement and discussion of important details, your next paragraphs should contain your opinions as well as the evidence that you have used as references. You can end your evaluation essay by having a firm statement of your conclusion.

Printable Self-Evaluation Essay Sample

Size: 13 KB

Self-Assessment Essay Example

Size: 29 KB

Simple Self-Evaluation Essay Example

Size: 51 KB

Evaluation Essay as an Important Written Document

An evaluation essay should be taken seriously especially in matters where its content can affect other people or even an entire community. Since an evaluation essay is not only a part of  college essay examples  as it can also be used in business and corporate processes, you have to understand the weight of its effectiveness. May it be a self-evaluation essay or a project evaluation essay, always keep in mind that you should put together all the evident facts and your statements in a professional and objective manner.

Whether it is a  last minute essay writing  or a thoughtfully planned evaluation essay composition, being aware of the items that we have discussed in this post can help you further improve the content and structure of an evaluation essay. It will also be easier for you to come up with an evaluation that can be trusted by your readers. Present all the details that you need to discuss in an organized and informative manner so you can come up with an evaluation essay that will truly work.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Write an Evaluation Essay on the effectiveness of online learning platforms.

Discuss the quality of a school cafeteria's lunch options in an Evaluation Essay.

Assessment Resources

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Readings & Additional Resources

• Conferences & Organizations
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Office of the Provost

Denise Shaver,  Ph. D.  

Director of academic assessment , she/her/hers, [email protected].

Assessment now has a plethora of resources. Find seminal works and long-standing journals and books in this section. This is not an exhaustive collection, rather it is a place to begin your assessment journey.

• NIOLA List of Assessment Journals The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) provides a list of assessment journals in this document. We have institutional access to many but not all of these journals. Any article you find in a journal outside of our subscriptions, you can request through InterLibrary Loan.

Journals at Pratt

• Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
• Assessment Update
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability
• Journal of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness
• Journal of Higher Education
• Journal of Writing Assessment
• Large-scale Assessments in Education
• Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation
• Prior Learning Assessment Inside Out
• Research & Practice in Assessment

Articles & Book Chapters

• Hutchings, P. (2016). Aligning educational outcomes and practices (Occasional Paper No. 26). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
• Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. doi:10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2
• Singer-Freeman, K. E., & Robinson, C. (2020). Grand Challenges for Assessment in Higher Education. Research & Practice in Assessment, 15(2).
• Suskie, L. (2009). Examples of Evidence of Student Learning from Assessing student learning: A common sense guide (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Assembling Evidence of Student Learning Portfolios
• Effective Assessment Practices
• Setting Meaningful Standards or Targets

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• URL: https://libguides.pratt.edu/assessment

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• How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

• Braille was an extremely important invention.
• The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

• The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
• The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

• Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

• Historical, geographical, or social context
• An outline of the debate you’re addressing
• A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
• Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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