on development theory and thinkers.
| This is my understanding. The question asks me to: | |
| 1 Give an idea of how development and politics are related.(in general, probably in the introduction) | |
| 2 State what opportunities for development come from politics.(reference to my selected country, i.e. China, with the supporting development theory and/or thinkers) | |
| 3 State what constraints for development come from politics.(reference to my selected country, i.e. China, with the supporting development theory and/or thinkers) | |
| ‘appreciation of politics’: I think I should look at the importance of politics in order to relate it to the development.(somehow I wonder if there is any further meaning than that or how I can incorporate the appreciation of politics into my answers) | |
| The question says theory and thinker. For the thinker part: in my understanding, a thinker is a person that states his/her idea about certain topics. So in this case, I can use his/her opinion and thought to support my point. It does not have to be theory related. |
Tip
You will have to make many decisions about whether to include something in your essay or to leave it out, but you can work out the answer: remind yourself of the purpose of essays in general, and go back to your analysis of your specific question.
Remember
Break down the essay question to identify its exact meaning.
To analyse a question you need to look in detail and use your knowledge of English to understand the clues about what is expected.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help with understanding the question.
You need to demonstrate the ability to evaluate different points of view and demonstrate research skills.
You need to show awareness of the reader, of academic conventions and the way others in the discipline write.
2 
Aims
guide your reader through structure, signposting and cohesion
understand paragraph structure and how to connect paragraphs
Quiz
Self-evaluation
For each statement below, circle the word which is true for you.
| 1 I think the first sentence of an essay should be very general. | agree | disagree | not sure |
| 2 I know how to define key terms and concepts in an introduction. | agree | disagree | not sure |
| 3 I can indicate the importance of the topic in an introduction correctly. | agree | disagree | not sure |
| 4 I know how to introduce the aim and organization of the essay. | agree | disagree | not sure |
| 5 I can use organizational patterns and visuals in an essay. | agree | disagree | not sure |
| 6 I understand how to use tenses correctly in a conclusion. | agree | disagree | not sure |
Making your essay more readable
Your assessor is mainly concerned with the content of your essay. This partly depends on your research skills but also on your ability to get your points across.
You can make your essay easy to read in a number of ways, e.g. by using a clear structure and by guiding the reader through the text.
Essay structure
Glossary
outline (outlines) N-VAR An outline is a general explanation or description of something.
principle (principles) N-COUNT The principles of a particular theory or philosophy are its basic rules or laws.
When you wrote shorter essays, you learnt that the basic structure is: introduction / main body / conclusion, and that each separate idea needs a new paragraph. When you are writing a longer essay, the main principles are the same, but there are some differences.
The same three-part structure applies to any essay. In a longer essay, the introduction and conclusion will be more developed, but the biggest change will be in the main body, where there will be much more space to develop ideas. Although each new idea will still require a new paragraph, these separate ideas are likely to need more than one paragraph each to be fully developed. Before you do your research, you won’t know how many paragraphs you will be writing, but you are able to do an outline of the structure of the whole essay from the start.
The method we used in Chapter 1 can be used here to help with structure too. Look back at the example essay question about parallel trade and the three-step analysis of this question in the section Analysing key words and structure of essay titles.
This breakdown will lead to your outline, which can function as a plan for your writing as well as a starting point for your research.
Here, it would look like this:
| Introduction | background about parallel trade, including definition |
| Main body | Paragraph 1 a description of each of the causes of parallel trade Paragraph 2 the aims of international marketers / an explanation of the different problems that parallel trade causes them Paragraph 3 the importance of these problems, with reasons Paragraph 4 possible solutions with examples |
| Conclusion | comments about how big the problem of parallel trade is for international marketers and if it can be successfully minimized |
Exercise 1
Write an outline for the essay title below, from Chapter