learning techniques essay

Learning Styles and Study Skills Essay

Learning is a challenging task to do because it requires all of the individual’s concentration, dedication, and persistence to succeed. The course proposes learning techniques which help to study, memorize information, and apply it. There are several teaching and learning strategies, which are universal; however, there are also useful techniques for an individual approach. The course helped me to understand the methodology of learning, what is necessary, how to use new knowledge and preserve it. Hence, it is a critical module that sets the basic understanding of how teaching and learning work together, instead of focusing on studying only.

Before the course, I had a stereotype that education utilizes reading as a primary method. In fact, all a student has to do is read, reread, and memorize information. However, this habit was proven to be ineffective, according to the course’s methodology. The active learning consists of writing and modeling a situation which uses the studied material. Hence, I changed my attitude to memorizing and manipulating with the learned information. The priority for me is to repeat the content by writing about it and trying to teach someone else, as these are practical techniques to increase comprehension and fill the gaps I might have. Nonetheless, overall I have become more of an active learner, more involved in learning, instead of only reading and seeing examples.

The understanding of how learning works and how it influences the overall academic success helps to prioritize the core aspects of education. For instance, instead of concentrating on an ineffective approach, it is more natural and more beneficial to take some practical tasks and test a real level of knowledge one has. By having a list of priorities, it is possible to manage time better as useless techniques should not take as much time as the effective ones. Typically, the student learns and reads everything without any system or time management, which decreases academic success. I believe prioritizing methods and subjects will improve my grades significantly as I would not spend limited resources on something irrelevant.

The module clearly states that writing is a vital component of any successful learning experience. It is a primary tool to memorize and use the knowledge in the future. However, nowadays, writing is underestimated, but it is one of the most effective techniques to learn anything. I would try to use writing as much as possible during lectures and labs as it positively influences memorizing and comprehending new information. As the course suggests, it is a universal method for everyone, despite one’s preferences. However, it is necessary to consider carefully what kind of information is important and what is useless for the course and oneself. A lack of a plan could create an unhealthy environment for education while prioritizing the tasks prevents it.

Overall, the course provides valuable and applicable information which helps to understand the methodology behind teaching and learning. It is a difficult job to study and be open to new information. However, it improves one’s understanding of the academic courses and experience from learning. Therefore, the course is useful and could be applied to different disciplines in the future. Without these concepts, new information would be much more ineffective and forgettable. New information needs time and effort to stay inside one’s head and be used as a helpful tool in the future. My personal, academic success and the level of understanding would only benefit from the strategies I have learned.

• How to Teaching Mathematics
• Aspects of Scientific Inquiry
• Delegation and Prioritizing Clients Care in Nursing
• Changes in American Education Practices
• Memorization Principles in the Classroom
• Reading Interest Survey: A Review
• Cheating in the Test: Issue Review
• Personal Learning Plan and Aspects of Developing
• Assessment Methods for Students.
• Large Scale or Classroom Based Assessment
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principal tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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Active essay writing: ten steps to success!

Dr Heather Taylor

What is the idea?

This chapter presents one approach to using the Active Essay Writing Programme (Taylor et al., 2019); an innovative approach we devised at the University of Sussex to support students in planning, preparing, and presenting original, insightful, and well-presented essays.

Why this idea?

From our experience, most students arrive at university with little-to-no understanding of how to approach essay assignments. If left unchecked, this can lead to them feeling overwhelmed and, in-turn, submitting incoherent and uninspired essays that do not accurately reflect their true potential. The Active Essay Writing Programme was designed to address these issues and make the task of completing essays more manageable and enjoyable for students.

How could others implement this idea?

To guide your students through this ten-step programme, you will need to create an example essay question that you can collaboratively answer with them. This will provide them with the opportunity to develop and subsequently apply the acquired skills to their own essay assignments.

Step 1:  Deconstruct the essay question

The first issue students sometimes face when approaching essay assignments is not fully understanding the question. This can result in them writing (potentially good) essays on completely the wrong topic! The first step is to therefore deconstruct the example essay question with your students, breaking it down into its component parts to ensure understanding and overcome any confusion.

Step 2: Generate ideas

Students are often under the misconception that before they can answer an essay question, they must read everything ever written on the topic. Their attempts to do this creates more confusion than it solves and, in turn, can result in submissions that are largely incoherent regurgitation of academic texts. Instead, we encourage our students to ‘think first’ to help them develop a focused strategy for identifying relevant literature to support their essays. To demonstrate this, ask your students to generate ideas, arguments and counterarguments that might help to answer the example essay question and add these to a mind map.

Step 3: Find evidence

After developing their own mind maps, students will need to see if evidence exists to support their ideas. To demonstrate this process, select some ideas from the example mind map and search for relevant reliable evidence.  If no evidence exists for certain ideas, important learning has still taken place; we know that these ideas are unsupported and should therefore not make it into an essay, and, in doing so, greater insight into the topic has been acquired.

Step 4: Critically evaluate the evidence

The type, style, and depth of critical evaluation will differ by discipline and your students’ level of study. In consideration of this, critically evaluate some of the sources identified for the example essay with your students to model the skills involved. While revisiting these sources, also be sure to take more detailed notes as these will be used at the next step.

Step 5: Get organised

Another stumbling block for our students lies in their assumption that there is one correct way to organise an essay. We alternatively encourage them to organise their essays based on their own narrative. To illustrate this, separate (either on paper or digitally) the ideas, summaries of evidence, and critical evaluations generated for the example essay and ask your students to organise this information in a way that makes sense to them. No two students will present the information in the same exact order, illustrating that multiple presentations can be ‘correct’.

Step 6: Flesh out the essay outline

The end-product of Step 5 is an essay outline, and so the natural next step is to develop paragraphs. The key here is to ensure that students are not wasting words through unconcise writing and/or inclusion of unnecessary detail, while still providing the reader with sufficient context for understanding the points being made. At this stage, it is also good idea to encourage students to cite and reference their sources as they go. Work on a couple of paragraphs with your students and/or provide them with examples of pre-made poorly written paragraphs and ask them to identify issues and edit accordingly.

Step 7: Introduce the essay

Unlike the main body of the essay, when illustrating how to format an informative introduction paragraph, we encourage our students to adhere to the following three rules:

• Set the scene by introducing the context and importance of the essay.
• Signpost the reader to the key points that well be considered.
• State the overall argument/ answer to the essay question so that the reader is made aware of this right from the start

Work collaboratively with your students to create an introduction paragraph for your example essay.

Step 8: Conclude the essay

Our main suggestion here is for students to go beyond simply summarising to synthesising the content of their essay. Using the example, encourage your students to take a step back and consider the essay in its entirety before working together to connect the main points and develop a take-home message for the reader.

Step 9: Check citations and references

As we encouraged students to cite and reference as they went along, the formatting of these may not be 100% correct. To ensure that your students understand how to format correctly, provide them with a guide and ask them to either apply it to specific sources used in your example essay or correct errors in pre-made examples.

Step 10: Proof-read

By this point students will have spent a great deal of effort panning, preparing, and presenting their essay – wouldn’t it be a shame if the reader could not understand it? To illustrate this, provide them with the example essay (or a select few paragraphs) full of typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors for them to correct, so that they can see first-hand the difference between an unchecked first draft versus a carefully proof-read and edited submission.

Taylor, H., Garnham, W.A. & Ormerod, T. (2019). Active essay writing: Encouraging independent research through conversation. In T. Betts, W. A. Garnham, & P. Oprandi (Eds.) Disrupting traditional pedagogy: Active learning in practice . University of Sussex Library. https://doi.org/10.20919/9780995786240

About the author

name: Dr Heather Taylor

institution: University of Sussex

After several years working as a Doctoral Tutor,  Dr Heather Taylor was appointed in 2019 as a Teaching-Focused Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex. Since then, Heather has convened two Foundation Year Psychology modules and taught on other Undergraduate Psychology modules. Within her role, Heather has focused heavily on developing her students’ academic skills via active-learning approaches and has been appointed the Head of Attainment for the School of Psychology. 

100 Ideas for Active Learning Copyright © 2022 by Dr Heather Taylor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.20919/OPXR1032/34

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