Changing from High School to University Essays
Disclaimer: Some people may discover these things way before university and some people may have university instructors who tell them to do these things still. These are my observations and advice only. This is intended to be a general resource, not to be a resource for individual papers. My advice always is to follow the instructions given to you on an assignment sheet. As always, different things work for different people.
You can have more than three body paragraphs… in fact, you probably have to. High school really drills in the idea of the five paragraph essay, which is great. However, when you are asked to write a 10 page paper, it needs to be much more than five paragraphs, or else each paragraph is going to be 2 pages long.
You don't have to put so much emphasis on having a hook in your intro. Some profs would prefer that you start your paper by saying "In this paper, I will argue…" The more academic works you read, the more you will realize that not that many essays really start with a compelling anecdote or a quote prompt.
Your thesis doesn't always have to answer a yes or no question. It is often a lot easier if your thesis does, but don't get hung up on it if you can't shape it that way. For example, if you are doing a comparison essay, you likely won't be able to start your thesis with a definite yes or no answer, and that is okay.
You don't need to follow any formulaic paragraph writing style taught to you in high school. In my high school, we were taught to use "point, proof, explanation" where you said your topic sentence, said one piece of evidence, and then explained how that evidence related back to the topic sentence. This may be a good technique, but sometimes other formats work, too. For example, you may have a paragraph that is all dedicated to explaining a longer piece of anecdotal evidence, or a paragraph with five pieces of evidence that only need one sentence to link back to the thesis.
You don't need quotes for every piece of evidence, or even in every paragraph. I was taught in high school that quotes were the most reliable piece of evidence and to use them liberally. However, in university, you can lose marks for using too many quotes, and it is easy to fall into the trap of putting in quotes without really explaining them. Only use quotes when you couldn't explain it better yourself.
You have to cite things even if you knew them from high school or have prior knowledge of them. A lot of people get this confused. The time when you don't have to cite something is if it is a common fact that could be located in any source about the topic. Even if you have a lot of very specific knowledge about something because you have studied it in the past, you still have to cite it.
Don't cite: World War One began in 1914.
Do cite: Highly specific information that you just happen to know from personal research or past assignments.
You need to cite things that were paraphrased or taken from a source in any way, not just quotes. A lot of people also don't know this going into university. If you take an idea from a book, it is not your idea. Even if you read the book, wait a few weeks to write you paper, and then remember the fact from the book… it is still not your idea.
My dad who is a writing teacher uses this example: if you hear a song and remember it in your own mind, does that mean you wrote it? No. Just because you remember something, doesn't mean that it becomes yours.
You may have to cite most of the sentences in an essay. If you are writing a research essay, the only sentences that wouldn’t have a citation are in your introduction, your topic sentences, and your explanations of how the evidence links to your topic. Anything that constitutes evidence should likely be cited. It is not abnormal to have a footnote after every sentence, or to have 50-100 citations in a paper (depending on length of course).
You can start a sentence with "because." This rule is taught to kids when they are first learning to write so that they avoid using sentence fragments, which likely isn't a problem anymore when you get to uni.
Yes: "Because the book was so old, the pages were falling out."
You can use I in academic writing. You don't want to put your opinion in where it isn't necessary, but you can use I.
Yes: "I plan to argue.." or "In this essay, I will…"
No: "I think x is a horrible idea!"
You should try your best to stick to the page limit. In high school, there is often the idea that a longer paper is better and, at least in my experience, a sense of competition of how long you can make your paper. This is not a good idea. The page limit is set because that is how much space you should be using. If you paper is a lot longer, there is a good chance you are rambling or getting off topic.
You need to follow formatting rules. I have a lot of friends who get annoyed when they lose marks for silly things like not having the right page numbers or having their title in the wrong font size. But you will lose marks for that, so you should just do it. It doesn't take that much extra energy to format a paper according to the guidelines given, and it will usually get you some extra marks.
You do not need to inflate your language. Write what you want to say. That's it. People often ask me, "how can I make this sound better?" and a majority of the time, it already sounds fine. Adding extra fancy words or using a thesaurus to enhance your language can easily end up making your writing convoluted.
I am also including a link to a resource from the University of Toronto website that addresses this same topic! You can find that here.
