What Is the Social Science Essay

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What is a Social Science Essay?

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The structure of a basic social science essay What is distinctive about a social science essay? Common errors in essays Four golden rules for writing a social science essay Why an essay is not a report, newspaper article or an exam answer

In this chapter we consider what is distinctive about essay writing and, in particular, essay writing in the social sciences. To start with, we look at the structure of social science essays.

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The structure of a basic social science essay

There are different types of social science essay, and essays of different lengths require slightly different approaches (these will be addressed later). However, all social science essays share a basic structure which is common to many academic subject areas. At its simplest, a social science essay looks something like this: • • Title Introduction Every essay should begin with the title written out in full. In some cases this will simply be the set question or statement for discussion. The introduction tells the reader what the essay is about.

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Main section

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Conclusion List of references

The main section, or ‘body’, of the essay develops the key points of the argument in a ‘logical progression’. It uses evidence from research studies (empirical evidence) and theoretical arguments to support these points. The conclusion reassesses the arguments presented in the main section in order to make a final statement in answer to the question. This lists full details of the publications referred to in the text.

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What is distinctive about a social science essay?

As you are no doubt aware, essay writing is a common feature of undergraduate study in many different subjects. What, then, is distinctive about essay writing in the social sciences? There are particular features that characterize social science essays and that relate to...