Im a first year and its almost time for my first essay to be handed in.
I would really like someone to go over the differences from high school and university essays.

Many thanks.

Well I hope I don't sound pompous but I swept the graduation awards in highschool for any subject related to writing. However my style was more of a word limit busting ramble that approached the point I was trying to make from a variety of "angles" with a large amount of usage of vocab thrown in there.

However University was a bit difficult for me at first
#1 Citation: This was my biggest enemy; I never had to cite in highschool and could ramble about whatever I wanted with impunity. My first few essays suffered because I had difficulty figuring out what exactly is cite worthy and what not, ALOT of stuff seemed common sense/knowledge to me hence I didn't cite it. It isn't! Atleast according to the T.A's. I did work with TA's in all my classes to improve that(not alot like just a few minutes after class and a visit or two during office hours asking them to go over my drafts). It did pay off and I was able to get A's I deserved for my "content" in the essays once the citation issues were sorted out.

#2 If you are in Social Sciences you have to write every essay through a certain theoretical construct or framework. A polisci essay has to be "political" in nature; Same with a Peace Studies or Philosophy essay. A Prof usually has a guideline of expectations of what he wants to see in this essay! You must realize it or you will lose marks. For example I wrote essays on similar topics for Environmental Economics and PoliSci; however both of them were constructed differently with different approach even though I did recycle the content within them. You can't delve too much into history if it isn't a history essay for example!

#3 Get a clear and concise thesis statement; this is more important then people think. Thesis statement should not be an afterthought that you just put in because your prof was putting emphasis on it. Your essay should revolve around it! You should bring it up at the end of paragraphs linking the thesis to whatever you were just talking about.

These are just the issues I personally felt were relevant to me ! There must be more tips as well but I can't think of them right now!

It all really depends on your high school and how well they prepared you in terms of essay writing (it also depends on what you're writing an essay for).

In short, expectations are WAY HIGHER. The average grade for a first year essay in English/CSCT for example is a C (63-65). Most students don't get better than a B, especially on the first paper.

For example, you need to know how to properly cite something in university; so that includes within text as well as the works cited list and the title page (for MLA there is specific guidelines for all three you must follow). You need to realize that essay writing isn't limited to the intro, three body and conclusion paragraphs. You need to know how to write a proper thesis statement.

Length is something some students struggle with too. Word limits aren't as lenient in uni, and generally papers seem to be longer than what you'd encounter in high school.

My first is a poli sci essay. The problem is there is almost no outlines, no expectations, just two questions and a video I should watch.

Originally Posted by lorend

In short, expectations are WAY HIGHER. The average grade for a first year essay in English/CSCT for example is a C (63-65). Most students don't get better than a B, especially on the first paper.

Soo true! I had CSTC 1BB3 with the uber awesome Oulette but the best I managed was a B+ There were no A's in the class the whole year! The expectations were pretty stringent though! I guess the prof didn't demand a basic essay with a good thesis and content, he wanted a whole new frame of thought!

Length is something some students struggle with too. Word limits aren't as lenient in uni, and generally papers seem to be longer than what you'd encounter in high school.

That actually was the other way round for me! I used to end my 2000 word limit essays at 2400-2500 words and then had to cut out pieces; that actually took me longer then writing! But yeah usually people DO struggle to fill up the world limit and hence start putting in quotes and paraphrasing large amounts of words directly from sources. Which obviously leads to plagarism problems!

Originally Posted by bestinc

My first is a poli sci essay. The problem is there is almost no outlines, no expectations, just two questions and a video I should watch.

Is It JS Mills On Utility? And the video about What is wrong with so and so guys view of Canada was it?

This one is very general. You just have to effectively get the content from the video/article into the JS Mills theory of utilitarianism. Its the second term Polisci essay that will have complicated requirements that you will have to be careful about because that won't be called a normal essay it would be a "research assignment"

Yes it is the JS Mills essay. There is almost no information on what the prof expects. The video was sorta linked to free speech but almost irrelevant. I'm not sure how I will tie the both together.

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

Soo true! I had CSTC 1BB3 with the uber awesome Oulette but the best I managed was a B+ There were no A's in the class the whole year!

I took a third year class with him, and he had to have a "talk" with the class because people were still failing at using MLA (i.e formatting errors). Marc actually took marks off because he was so frustrated, heh. I was one of two who apparently knew how to use it properly and didn't loose marks, yay!

Mayfield English expectations ftw!

Originally Posted by bestinc

Yes it is the JS Mills essay. There is almost no information on what the prof expects. The video was sorta linked to free speech but almost irrelevant. I'm not sure how I will tie the both together.

I vaguely remember it from last year. There is a link about allowing free speech no matter how strongly offensive it is vs Potential damage on society(Eg: Enraging people, creating misconceptions etc) in the whole predicament. I was as confused as you are at this time of the year, even reading the book itself was a challenge given the wierd way Mills rights!

But a year on I'm completely in love with the philosophy of utilitarianism! Just try reading the whole book and taking notes while you go of what you think he is saying! The message of philosophy is different on different people

I'm about 3/4 done the book and have about 3 pages of notes but the entire books seems to be a large overlapping mess of words ahah. It seems to be the same conflict with more and more examples.

From what I've heard, the key for essays is talking to T.A.s about what they expect. They won't proof-read for you, but their feedback is important since they're marking them.

Originally Posted by lorend

It all really depends on your high school and how well they prepared you in terms of essay writing (it also depends on what you're writing an essay for).

Bingo. I found University essays to be a small step up from Highschool essays, while others found it to be leaps and bounds ahead of difficulty.

I hate essays... I'm going to be writing my first essay since grade 12 in a week for one of my elective classes.

I'm expecting it to be pretty bad :p

essays depend a lot on what subject your writing it for. there is lots of help available. csd offers writing clinics. you can sign up here (you need to take your essay with you): http://csd.mcmaster.ca/centre-for-st...writing-clinic

this year, the first year experience office is also offering a couple of sessions on essay writing. http://fye.mcmaster.ca/firstgen.html

one of the biggest differences will be they types of resources you use for the essays - you need good scholarly resources. the library can help you find those.