Essay Success
Popular pages on the Skills website
Take a look at our selection of eLearning content designed to help you write your essay.
Understanding your assessment brief
What is covered:
- the different parts of the assessment brief
- using your assessment brief to plan and complete your assessments
- where to get help if you don't understand the assignment brief.
Estimated duration is 20 minutes.
Use Library Search to find academic information for your assessments
What is covered:
- perform searches for different types of academic information
- use filters to make your results more relevant.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
Read, take notes and use academic information in your assessments
What is covered:
- best practice tips for getting the most out of reading for academic purposes
- identifying different note-taking strategies
- how to use the academic information you have found in your assessments.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
Evaluating sources
What is covered:
- appraising and evaluating the information you find to check for issues of credibility, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
Using evidence in your work
What is covered:
- how to paraphrase and summarise evidence correctly in your writing
- why it's important to use in text citations
- when to use direct quotations
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
Critical writing
What is covered:
- what critical thinking is
- how to critically analyse
- the benefits of critical thinking
- the difference between critical and descriptive writing.
Estimated duration is 20 minutes.
Academic writing tips
What is covered:
- using an appropriate style for academic writing
- writing objectively and with caution
- showing the connections between your ideas
- the importance of drafting and editing.
Estimated duration is 40 minutes.
Approaching your essay
What is covered:
- How and when to get started with your first draft
- how to structure paragraphs and essays
- what to include in an introduction and conclusion
- how you can use evidence to write objectively.
Estimated duration is 20 minutes.
Using Microsoft Word to format your essay
What is covered:
- fonts
- line spacing
- paragraph alignment
- indentations
- margins
- numbering
- headers and footers
- footnotes
- spelling and grammar
- word count.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
Creating references using APA 7th edition
What is covered:
- what the APA 7th style looks like in your work
- how to use in-text citations
- what you reference list is for
- how to format you references.
Proofreading and editing
What is covered:
- the purpose of proofreading your work
- useful techniques for proofreading and editing.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.
eSubmission guidance
What is covered:
- how to submit a draft assignment
- what an Originality Report is and how to find and interpret it
- how to submit your work for marking
- how to access your grades and feedback.
Estimated duration is 15 minutes.