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.
