So when is an essay not an essay?

So, when is an essay not an essay? When it’s a ramble; when it’s a rant. Crude labels, I know; but all too often as a university tutor I was presented with work which, over the course of a few random pages, meandered without purpose or raged at top volume.

The shame was that my students were keen and bright. Many had come from good schools and had achieved excellent exam results. They couldn’t understand why they weren’t getting the grades now, and I could appreciate their frustration and confusion.

For these students did not know the difference between argument and opinion. They did not know the difference between conjecture and fact.  They did not know how to analyse or criticise. They did not know how to plan, structure and build their work. They had never learnt how to write an essay.

This gap in their knowledge made academic life difficult for them; more, it was a lack to be missed for its own sake: a beautifully-written and structured essay is as perfect and satisfying in its way as music. But the good news is that essay skills can be taught, and learnt. An ability to argue, not dictate; to focus, not wander; to plan, not hope – these are the techniques that transform the arbitrary into the ordered, and turn writing into an essay.