Guide to spelling, punctuation and grammar

A
SSESSING THE ESSAY
Put yourself in the position of the assessor who has to grade this essay.
Ask yourself these questions:
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7 – S
AMPLE ESSAY
2:
LITERATURE

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•
Does the opening paragraph address the topic of the question and
say something specific about it, indicating the kind of ground that
will be covered in the remainder of the essay?
•
Does it avoid empty waffle?
Consider each of the next six paragraphs. 
•
Do they each have a key sentence? 
•
Do they all deal mainly with one key point? 
•
Is this key point developed and backed up by close references to the
text? 
•
Are relevant quotations used? 
•
Does the final sentence of each paragraph act as a kind of
summarising sentence for the paragraph or point towards the next
paragraph?
•
Are these six paragraphs linked together by a linking word or phrase?
•
Is there a sense of continuity or flow to these six paragraphs, the body
of the essay?
•
Does the essay indicate in the final paragraph that some kind of
conclusion is being reached?
•
Does the final paragraph act as kind of summary of the case the
writer has been making?
•
Does the final paragraph round off the essay appropriately, bringing
the essay squarely back to the overall topic of the question?
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H
OW TO WRITE ESSAYS

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