Mistakes That Lose Marks

This might be the most important section in the site. It's about the things that students ask about most often, and the things that most often go wrong. There are four things here: they're all common mistakes, and they can all lose you marks.

Plagiarism - How to avoid it when you're writing essays.

References - Do them correctly and make your work look professional.

Spelling - Spelling isn't easy, but you can find out how to do it better.

Apostrophes - How to get them right. In Flash (download player) or Text/Print Version.

Writing Essays

More than any other topic, writing essays is the thing that students ask questions about. This section of the site has three parts.

Writing your essay - How to think of your essay in different stages, and the kinds of work which you should do in each stage.

Style - Should you use 'I'? How much should you assume your reader already knows? What's the right kind of style for an essay? Find out how to write in an appropriate style. Includes the exercise 'Formal or Informal?' which requires Flash Player.

Paragraphs - How to write effective paragraphs and link them together.

Samples of Essays

As well as thinking about essays and reports in theory, it's useful to look at examples. There are examples of written work here, all with detailed comments about the content, the style, the structure, and everything else. There are examples of excellent work, good work, and work with problems. You can see in detail just how a piece of written work got the mark it did. Whatever Programme you're doing, you should find something useful here.

This section currently contains essays from the School of Arts and Media.

Exams

Nearly all students do exams, and nearly all students hate them. There are four things here, to help you with exams.

Exams - What's the point of them? Common myths about exams.

Getting Ready - Preparing for exams, and how to cope with stress.

Tactical Planning - How to make the most of your time in the exam.

Checklist - What examiners like (and what they don't).

Test Yourself

How good are your study skills? Test yourself with the following exercises all contained within the site. Remember to look at the rest of the section when you have done an exercise to learn more about each topic and how to improve your skills.

Apostrophes - Do you really know where an apostrophe should go? Try our apostrophes tests.

Spelling - How good is your spelling? Find out how you do on 50 common spelling errors.

Writing style - Do you know what constitutes an appropriate writing style for your essays? Choose the right words in Formal or informal?. Decide Is this a good style for an academic essay?.

Plagiarism - Can you spot plagiarism? Do you know how to avoid it?