Running head: IN-CLASS ESSAY GUIDE 1

In-Class Essay Guide

The aim of the in-class essay is to give you an opportunity to practice writing an essay

under exam condition, with the support of your tutor and your classmates. The essay topic will

be provided during the lectures in Week 1, and the relevant content for the essay will be covered

in lectures 9 to 11 (Week 5 & Week 6).

The Week 9 in-class exam will take the form of an essay to be completed in your

scheduled lab class. You will have 30 minutes to complete the essay, which will be worth 10% of

your overall mark for the subject. The exam will be followed by a discussion of how you

approached the question and consideration of how the marking criteria will be applied. These

discussions are facilitated by your tutor so that you can develop a better understanding of how to

approach essays in the end-of-semester exam.

Marking Guide

This essay is worth 10% of your final marks. Essays under exam conditions in this

subject will be marked per the marking criteria shown in Table 1.

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Table 1.

Marking Criteria for In-Class Essay

% Section Details
20 Introductory How well have you defined the key terms and concepts in the essay
paragraph question? How clearly have you outlined your main argument?

40 Body of the This is a series of paragraphs, each exploring one specific point that
essay supports your main argument. Let the essay question guide your
decision of how many main points to write. For instance, if it asks
you to write three main points, write three main paragraphs, each
exploring one key point.

20 Concluding How well have you provided a concise summary of the specific
paragraph arguments of the essay? How logical is your conclusion?

20 Overall style How logical and realistic is the argument? How easy is the essay to
and logic read? How cohesive is the essay as a single piece of writing?

Advice on writing exam essays

The academic skills website contains an essay writing guide as well as resources on

developing study skills: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources.

Further guidance on how to answer an essay question is provided below:

Break down an essay question. It is important to break down an essay question so that

you are answering the question directly. A strategy for doing this well is:

1. Highlight key words in the question to identify the topic about which you are being asked.

2. Identify the directive in the essay question – what are you being asked to do? You might be

asked to explain, describe or outline a certain theory or body of research, in which case

you would present theories and evidence on the topic given. In contrast, if you are asked to

compare two theories, you would present the two theories in a way that their similarities

and differences are made clear rather than simply describe them.
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3. Identify the scope of the question – identify what the examiners do not want to know

about. Some weak essays fall into the trap of providing information that is not within the

scope of the essay. Stronger essays stay focused on the topic without straying into

irrelevant information.

Structure your essay. Essay questions require you to respond in prose. Dot-point

answers are not acceptable.

In the Introduction, briefly introduce the topic, define the relevant concepts, and state

your contention. Also (briefly) describe what the reader will be reading in the body of your essay.

The Body of your essay consists of several paragraphs that form the answer of your

question. Structure your paragraphs so that each paragraph presents a separate idea/argument,

and so that the paragraphs follow each other logically.

Finish your essay with a Conclusion that briefly summarizes your argument and re-states

your contention.