One way of improving your essay writing is to see what other people have written. Of course you read books, you read articles, you listen to your lecturers, but how often do you get the chance to read an essay written by another student which has had a good mark? By looking at other people’s work you can see how they express themselves, what academic phrases they use, how they lay out their bibliography and so on. So I am going to show you an ‘essay pool’ where you can read what other students have written. This is not an excuse to copy work! There are huge problems around the issue of plagiarism (or copying) at university and lecturers are very strict on you creating your own work. Unfortunately, because of cultural differences in approaches to study and the language problems that some international students have, plagiarism does happen and when it happens the student will be in big trouble. However, you can still look at other students’ work to see what a good essay looks like. The essay pool set up by Lancaster University is here.
Two new things you might notice about the site: firstly, there is a new url which is https://englishforuniversity.com (don’t worry you will be redirected there automatically) and secondly I have added a message forum – please feel free to drop by, add a message, answer a message, ask a question, or whatever!