Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

The Open University

LB160
Professional communication skills for business
studies
Book 2
Writing Successful Essays
Session 1
What is an essay?
Introduction
The world of business studies is a world of texts.
Essays are different because who writes them and why they
are written.
They are written:
exclusively by students
as a way of learning about an aspect of business
or for assessment purposes
What are essays like?
Essays are texts
They consist mostly of words

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Organized in particular ways to fulfill particular purposes

in particular situations.
To understand fully why essays are different, you need to
come back to their purpose.
An essay writer is doing three things at the same time:
1. Communicating
2. Learning
3. Being assessed
Spoken and written language
Spoken language

Written language

Can contain corrections,

Is more concise and tightly

changes of direction,

organized than spoken

hesitations and contradictions

language

Knowing the differences between spoken and written language

is an important basis for successful communication.

Features of spoken and written language

Spoken style

Written style

Context-dependent (here and

Context-independent (not

now) a text focuses on what is

here, not now) a text focuses

happening at the time of

on the events that are not

speaking. It includes words

happening at the time of

such as now, here, this.

speaking.

Personal (the use of first

Impersonal (the opinions in the

2

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

person pronouns: I've argued,

text are expressed

I'm not, my feelings)

impersonally

Informal, colloquial, everyday

Formal, specialist language

language
Many, generally short, clauses

Long noun groups, longer

joined by simple conjunctions

clauses, more complicated

conjunctions

What do tutors thing a successful essay is like?

Tutors want to find out how you are thinking, what you are
learning, and how you communicate your thinking and learning
through your essay.
The four main characteristics that tutors look for in an essay:
1. Relevance to the essay title
2. A reasoned argument
3. Use of source texts
4. Appropriate presentation
The four characteristics of a successful essay
1 relevance to the essay title
Essay titles include some or all of the following parts:
An introductory statement about the topic
Instruction words
Key concepts
3

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Guidelines about the scope of the essay.

Essays can be grouped into three main types:
Type of essay

Instruction words

What the essay

Examples

is about
Description

Summarize
Define

What or how

From your

something is

understanding

How two or more

Describe

things are

of the
organizational
context for

Illustrate

management,
define the
terms
'environment'
and
'structure'

Explanation

Explain
Analyse

How something

Explain why

works

Nike is the

How something
influences

Analyse

(university essays

Discuss

are often of this

type)

training shoe
company in

something
Discussion

biggest

the world

What people

Discuss how

think about

business

something

processes
might affect

Evaluate

an

Assess

organization's
ability to

Compare

compete

contrast

effectively

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Activity 1.6 important (the definitions of the instruction

words)
Key concepts of essay titles
Key concepts are abstract nouns (a single word such as
'investment') or noun groups (several words in a group
such as 'critical success factors')
Key concepts make up networks of knowledge in business
studies. They can be drawn as mind maps.
When you turn an essay title into a question, you can see more
clearly what you are being asked to do.
Tutors have certain expectations about how you go about
responding to the task. The most important of these
expectations is that you write an argument.
2 a reasoned argument
The essay introduction is a good place to begin to look at the
meaning of argument in essay writing.
Good essay introductions start an argument by linking back to
the essay title and linking forward towards the essay itself.
Using word connected with the title, identifying key concepts
that will frame the answer, proposing a general argument and
outlining the organization of the essay are all ways of making
sure that your essay is relevant to the set question and that
the essay is an argument.
Argument in essays-the body of the essay
5

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

An essay text is a large unit of language made up of the

following smaller units: text, section, paragraph, sentence,
word group, and word.
To write a successful essay each time you combine words into
any of the larger units, you have to control the flow of the
argument.
Argument in essays-paragraphs
The flow of the argument in within a paragraph can be
controlled by:
1. Repeating concepts from previous sentences
2. Moving up and down between high-level generalizations
and lower-level details or examples
3. Giving explanations by organizing information into causeeffect sequences.
4. Using linking words which tie the sentences together
5. Giving an evaluation of the ideas in previous sentences of
the paragraph
3 use of source texts
Tutors expect you to use other people's ideas. This is what
studying a subject means. It is the key to successful essay.
Three skills are involved in using source materials:
1. Learning other people's ideas through reading and note
making

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

2. Turning these ideas into quotations, paraphrasing or

summaries
3. Integrating the quotations, paraphrase and summaries
into the essay. This includes linking them with the
argument logically, making clear your own opinion about
them and using a referencing method.
4 appropriate presentation
Academic style

Academic grammar

Academic vocabulary

Tends to be more

Writers tend to pack

Specialized academic

formal, more

ideas inside each

words are important,

specialized, more

other. This tight

using specialized

abstract, more

packing of ideas in

vocabulary is more

precise, and more

academic writing calls

than just using

careful about what Is

for a particular kind

individual words; it

fact and what is

of grammar called

also means how to use

opinion

academic grammar.

words in specialized

Check agreement

combinations.

between subject and

verb.

Examples of word combinations:

Success story, marketing strategy, company mission, leading
brand, advertising slogan, advertising campaign, labor
intensive. (Activity 1.8)

Session 2
The process of essay writing
7

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Producing an essay
Inputs
Essay title
Course material
Personal experience

PROCESSES
Reading course material
Processing the course concepts
Considering the relevance to the essay title
Outlining the essay
Designing the essay
Consider reading expectations
Thinking
Writing drafts

OUTPUTS
Essays

Step 1: Analyzing the essay title

Focusing on the instructions

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

The first step of writing an essay is to be clear about what you

are being asked to do.
An essay title may contain some or all of the following
components:
An introductory statement about the topic
Instruction words
Key concepts
Guidelines about the scope of the essay
Focusing on key concepts
The key concepts of an essay title are the foundations on
which the piece of writing should be built.
They provide the basis for the framing of your essay.
It is important to indentify the key concepts in an essay title
and to recognize how they are linked; this link forms the basis
of the essay.
Rewording the title
It is worth double checking the understanding of the
instructions.
One way of doing this is to consider what alternatives wording
might mean the same as the given title.
Even if the essay title is not in the form of a question it usually
has a question at its heart. An early step in the essay writing
process is to identify this underlying question as it will provide
a clear focus for you in preparing your response.
9

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Fact and opinion oriented essay titles

An important distinction between the essay titles concerns the
difference between the notions of fact and opinion.
Fact-oriented essay title: where the idea in the essay title is
presented as an established fact.
Essay title does not ask whether you agree that this is the
case or not. It assumes that this is shared knowledge.
Opinion-oriented essay title: it does not assume an
established, shared acceptance of a particular state of affairs.
Rather it asks for your opinion on the topic in question.
Step 2: Pre-reading activities
A little preparation before start reading an essay will make
your reading much more efficient.
First, establish what you know and you don't know about the
topic to be written about, by exploring your understanding of
the key concepts of the essay title.
Second, use the key concepts as a basis for a brainstorming.
Brainstorming mind maps can help you draw out a group of
knowledge and ideas that you have about these topics, while at
the same time highlighting any gaps that need to be followed
up in your reading.
Third, questioning can refine your understanding of the essay
title and help you engage further with the topic.
Step 3: Reading for essay writing
10

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Consider what can help you understand the subject under

consideration.
This input consists of reading material such as chapters of
books, articles in journals or newspapers, web-based texts, and
case studies.
Reading is means of finding information that is relevant to the
essay requirements, it will also help to build up the language
associated with the subject are being explored.
The use of active reading techniques.
Selecting appropriate source materials
A check list for a successful essay
Checklist for a successful essay:
A use of source material- is information from study and research correct
and appropriate for the task?
1 relevant information from reading is used
2 irrelevant information from reading is avoided
3 information from reading or other research is interpreted correctly
4 information from reading or other research is transferred correctly
5 information is integrated with the text
6 text is free from plagiarism
7 bibliography is constructed correctly

Locating source materials

11

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

At times you will be provided with recommended reading in

connection with a particular essay or task.
You will need to read a range of materials, interpret their
content, combine selected ideas with your own and organize
them into a coherent argument.
Being selective
It is important to learn to discriminate between the
difference texts that may contain information about the topic
that you are interested.
Factors to consider when assessing the relevance of a
particular source text for a business essay:
Whether the author, or the publisher is reliable or
trustworthy.
What bias it might have, you should be aware that
sources may contain a particular bias and approach them
with that in mind. (That is the essence of critical
reading).
The date of publication: more recent publications tend to
contain more up-to-date information.
Primary and secondary sources
Primary sources

Secondary sources

Are real world data such as

Are one step away from

original documents, figures,

primary sources in that they

diaries, recording interviews

compile, interpret and

and responses to

comment on those original

12

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

questionnaire.

documents or data.

Can be considered evidence.

Provide an explanation or
means of interpreting the
data.

Note making
It is one of the active reading techniques.
Using abbreviated forms
Examples of abbreviated codes:
Contracted words, acronyms, and symbols.
Acronym e.g. MNC (multinational corporations)
Effective note making
The effectiveness of not making will be by how well they
capture the key elements of the source text.
Mapping and framing
Mapping

Framing

Requires you to capture the

Involves reading the text

key content of each section of from a particular angle, looking

the whole text in brief note

for specific answers.

form
Therefore, your notes will be organized with such a framework
in mind.
Reviewing your mind map
Brainstorming mind map represents a starting for the
development of your ideas for your essay.

13

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

The aim of reading and making notes on the source texts is to

build on this state of knowledge.
Since you begin consider the essay title you start to connect
the new knowledge captured in your notes with your initial mind
map.
Step 4: Outlining the essay
Taking a position
An outline is a broad 'map' of the content and sequencing of an
essay.
It usually takes the form of series of headings, each of which
may be accompanied by sub-headings or brief references to
evidence or examples. These should be in order in which they
will appear in the essay.
Two kinds of essay outline:
Concept-based outline and point-based outline
The difference is that the later shows what you intend to say
about the concepts and topics in your outline.
The more you are able to start thinking about the argument
structure in the essay outline, the clearer the argument should
eventually be in the essay.
Writing your first draft:
This should represent the points of your essay in more detail,
using full sentences and paragraphs.
There is no set method for writing the first draft of an essay.
14

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Session 3
The design of an essay
Introduction
Successful essays are essays that are fit for purpose.
The idea of this course is that you can learn a lot from
studying how essays are designed.
Each time you write an essay, you will have to use your
understanding of essay design to make a new design.
How do essays develop professional communication skills?
Essays develop the skill of argument.
Practicing essay writing develops the skill of writing
persuasively.
A successful essay has a convincing and a coherent
argument.
The skills developed on writing successful argument
essays give the basis of successful workplace writing.
What is an argument?
Arguments are made up of two main elements:
Claims and basis.
To make this claim convincing, there need to be a basis for it.
In an argument essay there are two kinds of basis:

15

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Business studies concepts, models and theories which

explain how the business world works. An example is the
circular flow model of the economy.
Facts, figures and reports which are data or evidence
from the world business. An example is the Nike case
study.
Successful argument essays bring claims, evidence and
explanations together in a convincing text.

Essay design
Criteria for evaluating the argument of an essay

B structure and development of the text- is the structure and

development of the essay clear and appropriate to the title and its
context?
1. Text structure is appropriate to the task
2. Beginning of the essay introduces the argument
3. Beginning of the paragraph and sentences are oriented to be
argument
16

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

4. Argument moves between high level generalizations and lower-level

details and examples
5. Claims build up the argument
6. Evidence is used that supports the claims in the argument
7. Explanations link the evidence to the claims
8. Information flow in the argument is linked and connected
9. Statement of conclusion follows from argument and relates to title
Beginning and end
Essay should have a beginning, middle and an end.
The reader needs to know which part of the essay you are in and the
writer as well.
Reading an introduction

Introductions are important for readers.

Good introduction tell the reader what to expect in the essay and
strongly influence how they understand the essay.

Readers want to make sense of your writing. Your purpose is to

control the way they do this.

If you don't make it clear to them what the meaning is, they will
make some kind of sense out of it.

The introduction is an important place to make your meaning clear.

The design of an introduction

The introduction comes at the beginning of essay. It sets the
scene, introduces the reader to the argument of the essay and
indicates how it will be developed.

17

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

General
background to the
topic: general
effects of large
corporations in
places where they
operate

Gradually
moving to
more
specific

Central
Claim

Funnel-like view of the structure of an introduction

It is crucial to get your essay introduction right. When
the reader stands on the high level of the introduction
they should be able to see across the argument in the
rest of the text. The introduction communicates what
the essay is about.
Include a central claim in your introduction, which is an
overview of the argument in the essay. This will allow you
to take very firm control of your reader understanding of
your essay.
Not everybody can make a claim in the opening paragraph,
if you are not completely sure what the main claim is
when writing your introduction, go back to the
introduction and add the central claim afterwards.
18

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Designing the argument

An argument consists of three main parts:
1. Claim
2. Explanation
3. Evidence/data

CLAIM
What does
the writer
claim?

Why does
this writer
claim this?

CLAIM

EXPLANATION

How will they

show me the
claim is true?

EVIDENCE/DATA
BASIS

A model of argument structure

Argument essays are made of mini-arguments, complete with a
claim, data and an explanation, which provide a basis for the
19

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

central claim or main argument. This is why it is a good idea to

make your central claim clear in the introduction.
Five decisions to write short argument paragraphs:
1. What the paragraph is about-the key concept
The key concept creates a high level viewing platform; it gives
the reader a frame for the paragraph.
2. The sequence for the part of the argument
The parts of the argument can be sequenced in a different
ways. Example (data, claim, explanation or claim data
explanation.)
3. The way the ideas in the sentences are linked
4. The way the sentences are connected
Links and connectives
Links

Connectives

The link is a kind of repetition

Connectives are words which

of a word or group of words

join sentences but do not

from the first sentence.

contain information from the

previous sentence.

When two sentences are

These words tell you that this

linked, the link is usually at

sentence is a result of the

the beginning of the sentence.

previous sentence.

5. What information will go at the beginning of the sentence

and what information will go at the end.
20

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Beginning of the sentences, tell you what the sentence is

about.
Endings tell you the point of the sentence.

Session 4
Writing a critical discussion
In this session, the idea of argument is developed even
further by looking at what it means to be 'critical' in
your writing.
Understanding what is required
The verb of the word critically: to criticize, this word is
commonly associated with something negative, such as
complaining to the manager of a shop about the poor
service you received.
In the context of writing an academic text: critical
discussion is positive. It means to evaluate ideas:
To judge the strength and weakness of a particular
explanation, theory or idea, using a considered argument
to support your points.
Critical discussion is a good example of an academic style
of writing.
Understanding the topic

21

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

To do this first look at some key concepts business

tutors consider relevant to the essay.
Such as the market, the meaning of market failure, and
public goods..Etc
Look at the source texts students use for the essay.
Focus on particular language used in the texts.
Academic writing style and paraphrasing
One way of using source material is to paraphrase it.
Paraphrasing means: saying the same thing in different words.
When you paraphrase academic writing you have to decide how
much of the original wording to use.
Full paraphrasing generally involves changing the grammar of
the sentence as well as the vocabulary.
The extent to which you can do this will affect the quality of
your writing.
This means you should do this task carefully in order to avoid
writing a text which is too close to the original.
Plagiarism: happens when a text is too close to an original text,
also incorrect reference to the source text considered
plagiarism.
Box 4.1 Checklist for a successful essay
C control of academic writing style- does the writing style
conform to appropriate patterns of written academic English?
1. Appropriate use of vocabulary
22

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Appropriate
Appropriate
Appropriate
Appropriate
Appropriate

use of business concept words

use of other abstract words
use of combinations of words
relationship with reader
evaluation language

C1 means using the kind of words which are generally suitable

for an academic essay.
C2 refers to the language of technical business studies,
business terms that are relevant to the essay title.
To write a successful essay, you need to use business concept
words which are from academic business studies texts in which
business studies specialists use such terms in combination with
other abstract and academic words.
C1-C4 refers to the way you use the language of business
studies without plagiarism. The business concepts and academic
business words make the style of professional communication
for business studies.
C5-C6 using the language of critical evaluation.
Establishing a critical argument
To establish a critical argument is to question the claim, data
and the explanation whether are correct or not.
Sometimes it can be difficult to identify what is a claim, an
explanation, evidence or data. For this reason it is not always
useful to worry about whether to call some information a claim,
an explanation or data.
23

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Developing a critical understanding of a reading text

The best way to do this is to ask yourself questions about
the text you are reading which will help you critically
assess its information or argument.
Asking questions is one of the active reading skills.
When you think critically it is useful to remember how
much of what people consider is a fact is actually based
on opinion.
Critical reading often involves looking out for the ways in
which facts are expressed as opinions or opinions are
expressed as facts.
You are expected to be aware that some statements are
opinions and others are facts.
When you build an argument, you negotiate a way through
opinions and facts.
Part of the skill of successful argument is to make it
clear how strongly you are expressing an opinion.
The verbs: argued, assumed, suggest, claim, maintain, and

conclude, used to introduce information we should therefore

regard as opinion.
Also, the use of modal verbs such as could and can are often
associated with opinion.
The reason modal verbs are used with opinion is that they show
how strong or how certain the writer is about the statement.
24

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Fact verbs allow the writer to express facts, such as is, for
example: The UK currency is sterling.
If a writer knows that a statement is not generally accepted as
a fact, either because it is in the future and no one can be
sure, or because there are differences of opinion about it,
they can show this with a modal verbs such as: may, might,

could, should, ought to, can, is able to, would, must.

Critical discussion in writing
Critical discussion in an essay begins with you
summarizing and paraphrasing the source texts.
As you summarize source texts, you are deciding what to
select, how you introduce the information you select, how
you use the information to build an argument, and how you
show your opinion, evaluation and judgment of the
information you select and use.
Critical discussion is successful if you can find a basis for
questioning what you read.
The best way to do this is to read different texts which
have different opinions and different arguments.
Writers have different opinions because either they have
different data and evidence or they have found different
explanation.
They question claims, point out different evidence and/or
present different explanations.
Conclusions
25

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

The conclusion is an important part of an essay.

It is often the place where the student's critical discussion is
most obvious.
The purpose of a conclusion is to ensure that you and your
reader are both clear you have answered the question in the
essay title.
The conclusion is a good place to reinforce the point of the
essay. It can remind the reader what the essay was about. It
can summarize the main points in support of the claim, and it
cab show the added value that the argument in the essay has
created.
Link back to the title and central claim

Summarize the argument

Show the added value

Move to a higher level

Structure of an essay conclusion

Session 5
Writing a 'costs and benefits' essay
There is no summary for this session because it is all
about practicing to introduce an essay about MNCs so
26

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

you have to refer to the book and do the activities to

represent an essay at the end of it.
Session 6
Quality control in essay writing
The essay writing checklist
Section D includes the following features of a
successful essay:
1. Clause structure follows recognizable and
appropriate patterns of English
2. Correct subject-verb agreement
3. Consistent and appropriate choice of tense,
correctly formed
4. Correct singular/plural noun agreement

Section E the checklist covers the following

features:
1. Generally correct spelling
2. Appropriate word processing
3. Paragraphing reflects essay structure
4. Capitals, italic, etc.

27

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Reflecting on your essay writing

Reflecting on your essay writing is checking what areas
in your essay that can be improved and what still
challenging, in summary focusing on the strengths and
weaknesses of your essay.
Developing you essay
The essay writing process is a dynamic one during
which your level if understanding and views about a
particular subject area evolve through reading and
reflection.
Writing your first draft of your essay is a significant
point in this process in its attempt to bring your
existing knowledge and perspectives together and
present them in the form of a coherent argument.
Redrafting: is the process of reworking your text, it is the
most important stage in the production of your essay.
Reframing your essay
This means to read more additional texts and think back to the
mind map and the concept-based outline that you devised and
develop them.
Language work: quotation, reporting and referencing

Quoting
28

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Is when you use the exact words that someone has said or
written as support or evidence for the points that you make in
your essay.
Quoting follows particular conventions as follows:
Quotations can be used for a single word, parts of a sentence
or several sentences
The quoted words are normally enclosed within single quotation
marks- ''.
Words should be quoted as they are in the source text and
using the same punctuation.
All quotations should be accompanied by an in-text reference,
indicating precisely where they came from.

Reporting: uses a form of paraphrase to refer to their words

or ideas.
All reported words and ideas should be accompanied by an intext reference to indicate their source.
Referencing
There are two parts to the referencing process: in textreferencing and making a list of references
In-text referencing
In-text references are incorporated into the essay. They need
to be used each time you include someone else's ideas in your
writing. Whether, you do this by summarizing, paraphrasing,
quoting or reporting.
29

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

List of references
This is a detailed compilation of all the sources of information
that you refer to in your essay. It should be under the heading
references or 'bibliography' at the end of your essay. The list
is normally presented in alphabetical order of the authors'
surnames.

In-text referencing

List of references

are incorporated into the

This is a detailed compilation

essay

of all the sources of

information that you refer to
in your essay

used each time you include

should be under the heading

someone else's ideas in your

references or 'bibliography'

writing, (summarizing,

at the end of your essay

paraphrasing, quoting or
reporting)
The list is presented in
alphabetical order of the
authors' surnames.
They generally contain the same kind of information but vary in
how this is ordered and punctuated.

The Harvard system referencing:

30

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

The Harvard formatting rules for documents in a list of

references:

1 a Journal article
Author's

Initial(s)

surname

Year of

Publication

Title of

Title of

work

journal

In inverted

Italicized or

commas

underline

Volume

No.

Page
nos

Jenkins, R. (1984) 'divisions over the international divisions of

labour', Capital and Class, vol. 2, pp. 28-57

2 a book or a complete publication

Author's

Initial(s)

surname

Year of

Publication

Title of work

Publisher

Place of
publication

Italicized or
underline

In
brackets

Lipietz, A. (1987) Mirages and Miracles: The Crisis of Global

Capitalism, Verso, London

3 a web page
Author's

Initial(s)

Surname or

Year of
Publication

institution

In
brackets

Title of

Website

Date

work

address

accessed

Italicized

Underlined

In square

or underline

brackets

Biz/ed (2006) 'The cause of inflation' [online],

www.bize.ac.uk/virtual/dc/copper/theory/th17.htm (accessed
21 January 2007).

4 a chapter from a book

31

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Author's

Initial(s)

surname

Year of

Title of

Publication

work

In brackets

In

in

Author's

Initial(s)

surname

Title
of
work

inverted
commas

Junne, G. (1995) 'Globalization or rival trade blocs', in Lucas,

M. (ed.) Understanding Business: Environments, Routledge,
London, pp. 81-89
Additional notes:
Where two or more authors are associated with a particular
publication, they are listed as in the reference below:
Sloman, J. and Sutcliffe, M. (1998) 'When markets fail', in
Suneja, V. (ed.) (2000) Understanding business: Markets,
Routledge, London, pp. 117-44
If a work appears as a chapter in a book, the book itself should
be included as a separate entry in the reference list.
For edited collections, you should add (ed.) or (eds.) after the
editor(s), as in the example above (a chapter from a book)
Editing your work
Editing involves the quality control checks that are needed in
the final stages of essay writing. Editing should be done from
two main perspectives: grammatical corrections and quality of
presentation.
Grammatical correctness

32

www.aoua.com/vb

Page
nos

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

This concerns the appropriate construction of sentences,

agreement between nouns and verbs and other aspects of using
language correctly.

Section D includes the following features of a

successful essay:
1. Clause structure follows recognizable and
appropriate patterns of English
2. Correct subject-verb agreement
3. Consistent and appropriate choice of tense,
correctly formed
4. Correct singular/plural noun agreement
Run-on sentences and incomplete sentences
Run-on sentences

Incomplete sentences

Are sentences that should be

Are the opposite. These sentences

broken up by full stops into shorter

fragments sound odd when read

sentences, with full stops in

independently of the sentences

between. Instead they continue

before or after them, as a part of

into the next sentence and perhaps

them missing. They can often be

the one beyond, often with only

corrected by creating a link

commas separating them.

between them and the sentence

preceding or following them.

E.g. there are three key reasons

E.g. by diversifying their

for the success of Nike, the list of

advertising and building

these is their production and

relationships with customers off all

manufacturing policy.

ages and all fitness levels. They

build on people's dreams of being
the next Michael Jordan.
33

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Correction is: there are three key

Correction is: by diversifying their

reasons for the success of Nike.

advertising and building

The list of these is their

relationships with customers off all

production and manufacturing

ages and all fitness levels, they

policy.

build on people's dreams of being

the next Michael Jordan.

Singular/plural noun agreement

Identify and rewrite sentences containing incorrect
singular/plural noun agreement.
Ex. For the time Nike was not concerned with the ethical
considerations of using cheap labor, as they did not consider
this their responsibility. Nike now employ a vice president..
Corrections:
They did not =to= it did not
Their responsibility=to= its responsibility
Nike now employ =to= Nike now employs
Note: Companies or organizations they can be considered
either singular or plural entities. Both are acceptable but it is
important to be consistent with using one or the other.
Qualities of presentation

Section E the checklist covers the following

features:
1. Generally correct spelling
34

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

2. Appropriate word processing

3. Paragraphing reflects essay structure
4.

Capitals, italic, punctuation, etc.

Spelling
English spelling can cause problems because it is not
systematic. It is important to double-check any words that you
are not sure about in a dictionary or computer-based spellchecking facility. However, be careful with the latest as It is
not foolproof.
Punctuation
Review the punctuation of your text.
Applying the essay writing checklist
Apply the essay writing checklist to your essay and identify
your particular strength and weaknesses, then move to the
next stage.

Creating a personalized version of the essay-writing

checklist
The intention here is not to replace the original checklist with
an entirely new version. Rather, you should maintain the original
version as a reference point, and write and adapted,
supplementary version that is more suited to your specific
requirements when redrafting and editing essays.
35

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Further reading
The internet
It is important to take time when using internet sources to
assess their relevance and reliability with respect to your
work.
Integrating text
The next step is to integrate this new information into the
original draft essay which you wrote earlier, (in session 5).
Combining new content into the argument of an essay requires
reworking of the whole essay to ensure a seamless fit.
This impact on all three parts:
The introduction
The body
The conclusion

Writing a new essay outline

Revising a redrafting you essay
You are now at the point of returning to your first draft and
rewriting it according to the new outline you devised.
Review

36

www.aoua.com/vb

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

This final session of book 2 brings together all the essaywriting processes that you have encountered in this book.
You have processed a range of additional source material,
revised your essay outline to accommodate new ideas and
perspectives, and finished by redrafting and editing your essay
using a personalized version of the essay-writing checklist.

37

www.aoua.com/vb

Essay writing checklist

A use of source

B structure and development of

material- is

the text- is the structure and

information from

development of the essay clear

study and

and appropriate to the title and

research correct

its context?

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

C control of academic writing

style- does the writing style
conform to appropriate
patterns of written academic
English?

Section D includes the

Section E the checklist

following features of a

covers the following

successful essay:

features:

and appropriate
for the task?
1 relevant
information from

1.

Text structure is
appropriate to the task

1.

Appropriate use of
vocabulary

reading is used

1.

Clause structure
follows

1.

Generally correct
spelling

recognizable and
appropriate
patterns of
English

2 irrelevant
information from

2. Beginning of the essay

introduces the argument

reading is avoided
3 information from

3. Beginning of the

reading or other

paragraph and sentences

research is
interpreted

2. Appropriate use of
business concept
words

2. Correct subject-

3. Appropriate use of
other abstract words

3. Consistent and

verb agreement

2. Appropriate word
processing

3. Paragraphing

appropriate choice

reflects essay

are oriented to be

of tense, correctly

structure

argument

formed

correctly
4 information from
reading or other

4. Argument moves
between high level

4. Appropriate use of
combinations of words

4. Correct
singular/plural

38

www.aoua.com/vb

4. Capitals, italic,

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

research is

generalizations and

transferred

lower-level details and

correctly

examples

5 information is
integrated with

5. Claims build up the

argument

the text
6 text is free
from plagiarism

6. Evidence is used that

supports the claims in

noun agreement

5. Appropriate
relationship with
reader
6. Appropriate evaluation
language

the argument
7 bibliography is
constructed

7. Explanations link the

evidence to the claims

correctly
8. Information flow in the
argument is linked and
connected
9. Statement of conclusion
follows from argument
and relates to title

39

www.aoua.com/vb

punctuation, etc.

Prepared by Mujtahidah in November, 2009

Done

40

www.aoua.com/vb