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Introduction
A university is a place where students gain extensive knowledge in their fields of study. This knowledge is gained not only from the day-to-day lectures that students attend but also from personal research. Indeed, the academic essay is one of the assignments that university students undertake and tests the depth of their knowledge in the respective subjects. Writing the academic may be considered an easy to a few students but a challenging task to the majority. Just what exactly do lecturers and tutors expect from their students’ essays?
Body
A high-quality essay is free from grammatical errors, typographical errors and spelling mistakes (Virgo 2005). This requires students to have strong writing and English language skills which can enable them to construct the proper sentences, and use the most appropriate words. In today’s era of computers and information and technology, producing a grammatical-error-free essay has been made easy. A number of software programs such as the Microsoft Word Suite have tools that enable users to detect errors in grammar, typography and spelling and to make the necessary changes. Grammatical errors can also be avoided through thorough proofreading once the student has finished writing the paper. It is also advisable for students to give their papers to their peers who can go through them and make the necessary comments. At the university level, lecturers do not expect students to produce essays that are full of grammatical errors.
A high-quality essay is original in nature and does not plagiarize. Plagiarism refers to the use of another writer’s words or work without giving him/her credit (Lathrop & Foss 2000). It involves direct copying of words and phrases or paraphrasing without citing the source of the text. Plagiarism is considered to be a serious offense in most academic institutions of higher learning and students who are caught plagiarizing are often heavily punished and sometimes even expelled from their universities. In order to avoid plagiarism, lecturers expect their students to properly cite the sources of their work. This applies to cases in which students have borrowed direct texts and in cases where they have paraphrased. In cases where direct texts are used, students should enclose them in quotation marks followed by the sources where they were borrowed. Quotation marks indicate that the text is borrowed text. It is also important to note that there are different referencing styles including the American Psychology Association (APA) style, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, the Harvard style and the Chicago/Turabian style among others (McClain & Roth 1999). Different faculties, departments and lecturers have their own preferences as to the referencing style that is to be used. Lecturers, therefore, expect their students to master the different referencing styles and to use them properly in their essays when required.
A high-quality essay demonstrates some critical thinking skills. These skills are demonstrated in the manner in which students make an argument and support the argument with credible facts and examples. This demonstration often requires the students to read and research widely on the given topic, give both sides of the debate and support each side with facts and then state their own opinion (Soles 2005). An academic essay should therefore not be mere summaries of reading texts but it should also illustrate that the student is well conversant with the topic or problem in question. Indeed, demonstration of critical thinking skills is one of the most important things that lecturers look for when assessing their students’ essays.
A high-quality essay uses simple and concise language (Beaufort 2007). On the one hand, students are required to demonstrate through their essays their familiarity with the specific words used in their fields of study. These words are referred to as jargon and each field of study has its own jargon. However, students should be cautioned that the excessive use of jargon makes the essay difficult to comprehend. Lecturers may also not be in a position to understand the point the student is trying to make. As a result, lecturers often expect their students to use words that are simple and easy to understand. It should be remembered that the audience of the essays may not be well familiar with the specific field of study and hence it is important for students to use the layman’s language that anyone reading the essay can understand. If the student uses jargon they should be few and followed with illustrations, for instance, through examples. In addition, an academic essay should use formal language. Informal language such as slang, shortened words and abbreviations should be avoided at all costs (Academic Skills Advisor 2005).
Conclusion
Lecturers have great expectations of their students when it comes to writing academic essays. No lecturer finds it enjoyable reading an essay that is full of grammatical, typographical and spelling errors. Lecturers expect the usage of simple, concise and formal language in their students’ essays. Students should also be able to demonstrate critical thinking skills in their essays. Most importantly, university students are expected to produce original and authentic essays.
Reference List
Academic Skills Advisors, Student Life 2005, Academic style, Deakin University, Geelong, pp. 1-2. Web.
Beaufort, A 2007, College writing and beyond: a new framework for university writing instruction, Utah University Press, Utah.
Lathrop, A, & Foss, K 2000, Student cheating and plagiarism in the internet era: a wake-up call, Libraries Unlimited, Englewood.
McClain, M, & Roth, J 1999, Schaum’s quick guide to writing great essays, McGraw-Hill Professional, London.
Soles, D 2005, The academic essay: how to plan, draft, revise, and write essays, Studymates, London.
Virgo, G 2005, Writing an academic assignment: preparing a model essay on globalization, Pearson Education, New York.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
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NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.