Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Dr Inger Mewburn, Katherine Firth, Shaun Lehmann, NewSouth Books, $22.99.
This book shows you how to write a better university essay: one that earns you the marks you deserve for all your hard work. It’s for anyone who needs to write essays in the arts, sciences and professional disciplines and wants to improve their academic results.
Written by the people who mark your essays, it will show you step-by-step how to write high-quality essays that will get you top marks.
“The disconnect between high school-style essays and those you are asked to write at university is a well-known problem. So well-known, in fact, that a whole profession of experts, like ourselves, exists to help you make the transition.”
Level Up Your Essays is the second book written by the three authors. The first was How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble which was written for PhD students and working academics.
“In this book we show you the ‘hidden rules’ that your university lecturers know about writing but fail to tell you. Your teachers don’t hide this information deliberately; most they have just forgotten what it’s like to be a beginner. Sometimes they give you plenty of feedback o help you improve, but the feedback may not make sense to you. Giving practical feedback is a complex task and most of your university lecturers are the content-matter experts, not writing experts.”
Skills needed like writing and structuring essays, taking good notes and planning and editing academic writing are discussed. Every section in this book is designed to make sense on its own.
This book – through 22 worksheets with exercises and checklists – will guide you through all the stages, including your essay plan, developing research strategies, writing with distinction, finishing strongly with editing and getting your referencing right every time. It’s bursting with insider tips and tricks on what markers are looking for.
