7 tips that your tutor doesn’t know how to tell you when marking your essay

It’s the end of the semester in Australia and many of my colleagues are busy marking essays and exams. During these times, I usually find my colleagues getting grumpy. As a student, lecturer, tutor and marker for more than a decade, I want to share some thoughts of essay writing. This time, I take the marker’s perspective, because students seldom have a chance to hear about.

Note that these tips are only for political science students, or those from social sciences more broadly.

1. A well-structured introduction gives us good impression

Markers need to read quickly because there are tonnes of essay waiting for us. For me, I (can) only spend 15 minutes max in one 2000 words essay. To quickly understand what this particular essay is arguing, I only read the introduction very careful, then skim through the rest. So if you have a good introduction, it makes me feel excited to continue to read your work, instead of having the “get-this-task-done” feeling.

In an introduction, background information is indeed important, but your arguments are what we are looking for. You do not have to present the background or paraphrase the issue in detail. If you can suggest what is your central arguments, and how you are going to develop your ideas, this is a good introduction.

Tips: Straight to the point at the beginning.

2. What do they mean by defining key terms?

I often ask my students to define key terms in their essays, and many of them are confused: isn’t that the question is so easy to understand? 

Not quite.

My supervisor once said, “we, as political scientists, need to write precisely”. Every word matter. We give meaning to the word. Namely, by defining key terms, it is a training of framing the question in your own use. Of course, you should not defining key terms using your common sense — they are usually vague. We are in an academic world and we communicate with academic language. When doing this, you should tell your marker why your definition is plausible and justifiable. 

Tips: Common senses are usually not so common.

3. Just one direct quote or a citation is usually not that useful

Students sometimes have very good arguments, but they do not know how to provide evidences to support their claims, even when they have done a lot of research. Many of them always think a quote or a citation is an evidence, but not quite — they only show that you have done some research.

As a marker, I am interested in how do you use this piece of evidence to support your arguments, instead of what you have read. Quotes are not self-explanatory; and in political sciences, quotes are usually someone’s comments or views. Unless this person is very popular, we could doubt the authoritative of this piece of evidence or quote. Again, it is about how do you present your argument.

Tips: avoid using block quote in a 2000 words essay.

4. “Over-citation”

Did you ever feel fuzzy to delete all your hard work just to fulfil the word limit, especially when footnotes and citations were included in the word count? This isn’t an issue to be honest.

I usually find students submitting essay with overloaded references. One of the worst essay I saw in the past was that a student had 70+ footnotes in a 2500 words essay. The math is simple: you have one footnote in every 35.7 words  — which is like having citation in every sentence.

Some markers do not really care because they think the student have done extensive research and they only look for the main ideas. But if you have a responsive marker, like me, then you are doomed. We will think that this essay is just a collection of search result from Google, or “lacking originality” namely.

The magic word here is “implication” — meaning how do you imply this piece of evidence into your core argument. It always about explaining, not stating. You do not have to tell the marker that you have borrowed someone’s ideas in every sentence. What a really good essay does, is after doing all the research and knowing all the different views, what is your viewpoints, and why you have this approach?

Tips: Make sure your evidences always tie back to your main arguments.

5. “It is clear that…”

This is a standard reporting phrase, but sometimes confusing to understand. When writing essays, students usually are very concentrated to their arguments, and ignore the coherence of the entire passages. Remember, your marker is lazy to follow your arguments words by words. So, please, whenever you finish presenting your arguments, give a little signposting of how it relates to your core arguments in the introduction very clearly. This will make our work much easier.

Tips: Your topic sentence and your concluding sentence should be parallel.

6. Then how much research is enough?

This is also one of the very popular questions that students like to ask. The answer is always “it depends”, as most lecturers have told you. Having too much research, it is a waste of time; too little, it means you are lazy.

The fact is, research is never enough, but you need to write and submit with a due date. And that means research needs to be limited.

Markers usually do not cross check every citation you have (unless it sounds very weird). We do not have the time and effort to do it. We also do not care how much or how little you have read; we look for the strengths of your arguments and how you present it. If you have done enough research, the quality of arguments can reflect it. For example, we can tell whether it is only a one-sided argument, or whether it is actually an argument from others’ works. The more research you have done, the more comprehensive your arguments will be.

Tips: the more time you spend, the better the research is.

7. Counter-arguments?

Counter-arguments are always good in a political science essay, but they need to be handled with extra care. Three big “No-No”s. First, never put it in the conclusion and suggest that it is a future research direction. This will sound like you are presenting a new arguments. Second, never too brief. At least give some rooms for explanation how they make sense. Third, never say it is better than your main argument — you will lose credibility.

Tips: counter-arguments are only for HD students.

Here are some tips for my future students. Happy writing 🙂

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