Check out the handout for great essay writing

Essays 

A quick guide 

Essays are a part of almost every degree program. While 

you probably won’t write an essay when you become a 

professional, the skills needed in good essay writing are 

very relevant to other academic tasks. These skills— 

researching, analysing, applying, synthesising and 

evaluating—can also be transferred to any professional 

situation which requires you to respond critically and 

creatively to a problem or issue. 

The Essay Writing Process 

 

 

 

 

 

In this handout… 

Essay writing process 

Task analysis 

Finding ‘research’ 

Reading & taking notes 

Organising with Rationale® 

1. Analyse the 

task/question 

Research 

Read / take 

notes 

This process shows the cyclical 

research/read/write/reflect process 

which follows question analysis. 

Good essay writers do more than 

1 session of research because 

when they reflect on and analyse 

their drafts, they find that they 

need more (or different) evidence 

to fully support their arguments. 

Reflect on and 

analyse your 

draft 

Organise / 

write 

Analysing the task/question 

Before you research or write you should analyse the essay task/question. Task analysis helps us to 

find out exactly what the question is asking for, and ensures that we have correct focus in our 

answer. One strategy for question analysis is called MDUP: 

M 

Main ideas in the question or task - all the ‘content’ words and phrases in the task. These 

main ideas become search terms in your research. 

D 

Directive verbs - the words that tell you to do something. For example “analyse” or 

“evaluate”. These words tell you how to respond to the task. 

U 

P 

Underlying question. Often—but not always—we need to answer an unstated question 

before we can respond appropriately to the task. To find it, think deeply about the task 

and relate it to other ideas you have studied in your lectures. Write it down somewhere. 

Predictive thesis. This is your initial answer to the essay task, based on what you already 

know. Your predictive thesis gives you a place to start your thinking and helps direct your 

first research efforts. Often, our predictive thesis is very different to our final argument, as 

our research influences our ideas and our argument evolves. 

See over the page for an example of MDUP task analysis. 

Learning Skills Unit 

Saigon: Level 4 – In the Library / Hanoi: 1.2.010 – In the Library 

learningskills.sg@rmit.edu.vn / learningskills.hn@rmit.edu.vn

Main Ideas: legally binding 

contracts, mere agreements, legal 

consequences, case illustrations, 

distinguish (differentiate) 

MDUP task analysis in action… 

Example essay task: Using case 

illustrations, explain how legally binding 

contracts are distinguished from mere 

agreements which have no legal 

consequences. 

Predictive thesis: Contracts are 

written, agreements are spoken. To 

protect themselves, businesses 

should use contracts. 

Directive Words: explain… how 

= describe the process; using = 

apply cases to description; 

distinguish(ed) = show the 

difference between 

Underlying question: What’s the 

difference between contracts and 

agreements? What are the 

implications of this for businesses? 

Researching 

The main ideas you identify in task analysis should guide your research. Of course books in the 

library will be useful, but academic databases (Proquest, Emerald, Eric etc.) are great for finding the 

most up-to-date, reliable and sophisticated information relevant to your essay topics. You can find 

these databases on the RMIT online library. Use the basic tips below to get started on them. 

Reading & Taking Notes 

Once you have books/articles/websites related to you essay topic, the challenge is to read those 

sources efficiently and effectively – you should find the most useful information in the least amount 

of time. Follow the process below (Boddington & Clanchy 1999) for each source you’ve found. 

•Look at the title, sub 

titles, headings and 

contents pages 

•Find the most relevant 

sections 

1. Search 

2. Skim 

• Choose the paragraphs 

•Once you've found the 

most relevant sections, 

skim over them, 

focussing on the 

introduction and topic 

sentences of paragraphs 

that provide the 

information you need 

3. Select 

4. Study 

•Read those paragraphs 

carefully and critically 

and take notes relevant 

to the essay topic. 

• Try to paraphrase 




Organising the essay using Rationale® software 

This is the most important part of the process – it’s where you combine ideas from your research 

into a structured, logical and persuasive response to the essay task. Because those ideas in you’re 

your research can be complex, it’s often a good idea to organise them visually so that the 

relationship between them can be easier to find. One very powerful way of organising your ideas 

visually is to use the Rationale® argument mapping software, which is now available on the LSU 

computers. This easy-to-use software allows you to build a ‘tree’ of your answer—having a ‘picture’ 

of the arguments and reasons can help you focus on the logic of your answer, which is the most 

important aspect of essay writing. The very basic argument map below gives an example of what 

Rationale® can do for you. 

‘because’ links ‘reasons’ and ‘support for reasons’, 

‘but’ links objections. Organisation at this level 

shows ideas to support or object to the thesis 

statement. These can be seen as ‘main points’. 

At the top of the map is the 

‘contention’ – in an essay, this is 

called the ‘thesis statement’. 

Ideas at this level are more 

specific, and are used to support 

or object to the more general ideas 

above them. Ideas here can be 

seen as ‘evidence’. 

Generating an argument map using Rationale® is surprisingly easy, and the Learning Skills 

Advisers in LSU can help you with it. Simply book a consultation and let us know that you want to 

map your argument with Rationale®. We’ll show how to do it, and we’ll help you reflect on the quality 

of your argument. 

Writing the essay 

Essays have 4 essential sections: the introduction, body, conclusion and reference list. After you 

know what your thesis statement is, try to write the essay in this order: 

First: Write the body, focussing on one paragraph at a time 

Second: Write the conclusion 

Last: Write the introduction, complete the reference list and proofread! 

Importantly, you should attend very carefully to in-text referencing in the first drafts of your essays. If 

you don’t, it is possible that you will forget to correctly cite some ideas, and this could lead to 

concerns about plagiarism. 




I. INTRODUCTION 

Sections of an essay 

General statements - introduce the topic, the context and the 

question/ issue/problem that the essay addresses 

Thesis statement – your 1- or 2-sentence argument in response 

the questions/issue/problem above 

Signpost – briefly describe how the body of the essay is 

organised 

The introduction should be one 

paragraph only, approximately 

10% of the essay’s word limit. 

Avoid using expressions such 

as ‘nowadays’ and ‘all over the 

world’, as these are over used 

and lack sophistication. 

II. BODY 

Topic Sentence 

i. Support 

ii. Support 

iii. Support 

Link / summary sentence 


i. Support 

ii. Support 

iii. Support 



i. Support 

ii. Support 

iii. Support 

The number of body paragraphs 

is determined by the structure of 

your argument. Avoid very 

lengthy or very short paragraphs 

– try to keep each paragraph 

about the same length. 

The organisation of paragraphs 

in the body should show the 

reader your analysis and 

reasoning. Your analysis breaks 

the main topic into smaller 

ideas, and your reasoning 

shows a logical relationship 

between them. 


etc. 

III. CONCLUSION 

Summarise main points / restate thesis statement 

Final comment – relate thesis statement to the wider context 

The conclusion is approximately 

5-10% of the essay’s word limit. 

This is a place to restate your 

argument and main points. To 

create a good final comment, 

answer this question: “What are 

the implications of your 

argument being valid?” 

Summary 

Try not to think of essays as something you simply ‘write’. Instead, try to see essays as complex 

puzzles that take a lot of analysis, research, reading and thinking to respond to effectively. When 

generating and expressing your answer to the issue/question/problem in the essay task, always 

keep the audience (probably your lecturer) in my mind. If you can see your own essay from his or 

her perspective, you’ll be more able to meet their needs and expectations and more likely to do well.

Check out the handout for great essay writing

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