Hello, my name's Nicholas Morton, I'm a lecturer at Nottingham Trent. In this
talk we're gonna be thinking about getting good grades on essays. Now I
can't cover every possible factor that could possibly contribute to a good
overall essay grade, but I can focus on some of the things that typically make
the difference between getting a fair grade and a great grade, so let's think
about what those things are. The first thing is you've got to show a real
understanding of the topic, that you really get this. Weaker responses tend
to rely heavily on quotes, which rather flags up to a marker that you don't
really know what you're talking about, but that you're relying on quotes that
sound reasonably plausible from someone else – no. Show a deep knowledge of
events, get stuck into the cut and thrust of whatever issue or topic or event it
is that you're discussing and demonstrate that mastery. Likewise, engage
with the primary sources, particularly those that you haven't been set for your
seminar reading because that shows independent research – though of course
you can use the ones you've been set as well. But engage with the sources, show
how they prove the points you want to make, but engage them critically, show an
understanding of the author of that source or its creator, their
perspective, their agenda, what they're trying to achieve, and then how that
material can then be used to prove your ultimate point. Likewise, show a deep and
broad understanding of the historiography, what other scholars have
said on that particular topic. Engage with them, show who you agree with and
why, you can still show independence of thought even if you agree with a scholar
because you can explain why you agree with them. Likewise, if you disagree with
a scholar, explain their views, show that you understand them, then explain why it
is that you think their views should be changed in some way, or maybe you may
think or feel they're entirely wrong. Other key break points between a good
and a great grade are having– making sure that everything in your argument, all
your main factors are very well-evidenced and that everything you're saying is relevant
both to the question and to the overall argument that you want to make, and that
that overall argument is clear and progresses from word one to the last
word, and your reader can see how your argument progresses leading to its
logical conclusion throughout the course of the essay. Another point: it's got to
be well written. What you're looking for from your marker is when they mark your
work that they go "Ah yes, I can see what they're saying, I'm following sentence by
sentence what the student says all the way down through to the end of the essay."
What you don't want is for the marker to start "Okay that's fairly clear, but
hang on, what? I don't know. Maybe they said that before", and the meaning becomes
lost. It's got to flow well, it's got to be clear, from the word go all
the way through to the end, how your argument is progressing and how it's
answering the question. Likewise, another good thing to make sure you've got
right – this is just a technical matter, really, but it is really important – make
sure your work is correctly formatted, make sure it's correctly referenced, make
sure there's no instances of plagiarism, that you haven't failed to reference a
quote or a key idea or statistic that you've taken from another source, just
make sure that that's all got right and then it won't cause you any problems. These
are typically many of the break points. Another one to make for the higher end
marks is you need to show a degree of originality. Now that doesn't mean you
need to turn to Indiana Jones and go and discover some entirely new piece of
evidence, what it means is you show independence of thought, that you've read
the available sources, you've read the available secondary sources, and that you
have come to your own unique view on this, and the chances are that when you
have read everything or you've read a great deal, primary and secondary, you won't
simply think the same thing as everyone else, you will have areas where actually
your view is different and you can say why. That's where originality comes
in, it links back to this whole business of becoming, you know, really
knowledgeable on your subject. Hope this is useful, and do look at
my other video clips. Thank you.