What am I looking for in a good essay?
When it comes to marking your essays, I will be looking for a few basic things:
An understanding of the psychological issues
Why is this an interesting question? Why do psychologists care about this topic at all? Why are these important or interesting things to investigate?Familiarity with the psychological literature
Knowledge of different psychologists and their work. What research have they carried out, and how did they go about it? What were the findings? What are the implications of these findings? When was the research published? What else was going on in psychology at the time (what was the context)?Evidence of critical thinking
How well does the psychological evidence fit together? Can you see any major flaws in the methods psychologists have used, or the conclusions they came to? It's fine to use criticisms you've come across in books, but you should give the author(s) credit, just as you would do for a piece of research.An understanding of the relationship between different parts of the material
How does it all hang together? Which psychologists agree with each other, and which ones have opposing views? What kinds of research have they done to support or refute each other's ideas?Originality and creativity
I don't expect you to come up with a ground-breaking new theory or an idea for an experiment that will change the face of psychology forever. But a straight regurgitation of material from lectures or the course textbook isn't going to get you a very good mark either! Can you think of a different way to tell the story, or a more interesting perspective to take on the question? Perhaps you can see connections between different areas of research? Or maybe you've thought of a way to investigate an unresolved question? Remember that you must be able to justify everything you write, so giving me your own opinion about something is not necessarily the best way to demonstrate "originality" (unless you can supply some evidence to back up your argument!).Clear expression of ideas
Unfortunately I can't teach you how to write in a "good essay style" - that's something you have to develop for yourself. But I bet that you yourself know good writing when you read it: it comes in bite-sized chunks (paragraphs), it doesn't sound too informal or too "flowery", the sentences are short enough to be easily understood, the ideas fit together in a way that makes sense, so that the whole thing unfolds like an interesting story... There's no point writing something down if you don't really understand it yourself - it will show! It might help to read your essay aloud into a tape recorder. Any dodgy bits should be obvious when you listen back to it.Good presentation
Did you check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors? Have you helped me to mark your essay (by word processing it, leaving wide margins, using double line-spacing and 12 point font)? Did you fill in the cover sheet correctly?Appropriate referencing
Every time you cite a reference, you should include a name (of a person or people, usually) and a year of publication. Any direct quotes should also come with page numbers. At the end of your essay, there should be a comprehensive reference list presented in APA style. Every single reference you've cited in your essay should be on this list. APA style is quite complicated but there are lots of sources of help, including Bangor University's APA guide for undergraduates.
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last updated 21st June 2002