university of manchester essay writing

Academic Phrasebank

• GENERAL LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS
• Being cautious
• Being critical
• Classifying and listing
• Compare and contrast
• Defining terms
• Describing trends
• Describing quantities
• Explaining causality
• Giving examples
• Signalling transition
• Writing about the past

The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ). Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing (see the menu on the left). The resource should be particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work. The phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can be used simply to assist you in thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate. In most cases, a certain amount of creativity and adaptation will be necessary when a phrase is used. The items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people’s ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism. For some of the entries, specific content words have been included for illustrative purposes, and these should be substituted when the phrases are used. The resource was designed primarily for academic and scientific writers who are non-native speakers of English. However, native speaker writers may still find much of the material helpful. In fact, recent data suggest that the majority of users are native speakers of English. More about  Academic Phrasebank .

This site was created by  John Morley .  

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Appendix 5: A practical guide to writing essays

Writing an essay is a big task that will be easier to manage if you break it down into five main tasks as shown below:

An essay-writing Model in 5 steps

• Analyse the question

What is the topic?

What are the key verbs?

Question the question—brainstorm and probe

What information do you need?

How are you going to find information?

Find the information

Make notes and/or mind maps.

• Plan and sort

Arrange information in a logical structure

Plan sections and paragraphs

Introduction and conclusion

• Edit (and proofread)

For sense and logical flow

For grammar and spelling.

For length.

My Learning Essentials offers a number of online resources and workshops that will help you to understand the importance of referencing your sources, use appropriate language and style in your writing, write and proofread your essays. For more information visit the writing skills My Learning Essentials pages: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/services-and-support/students/support-for-your-studies/my-learning-essentials/

Many students write great essays — but not on the topic they were asked about. First, look at the main idea or topic in the question. What are you going to be writing about? Next, look at the verb in the question — the action word. This verb, or action word, is asking you to do something with the topic.

Here are some common verbs or action words and explanations:

Once you have analysed the question, start thinking about what you need to find out. It’s better and more efficient to have a clear focus for your research than to go straight to the library and look through lots of books that may not be relevant.

Start by asking yourself, ‘What do I need to find out?’ Put your ideas down on paper. A mind map is a good way to do this. Useful questions to start focusing your research are: What? Why? When? How? Where? Who?

• Refer to the advice given in Writing and Referencing Skills for methods to search for information.

First, scan through your source . Find out if there’s any relevant information in what you are reading. If you’re reading a book, look at the contents page, any headings, and the index. Stick a Post-It note on useful pages.

Next, read for detail . Read the text to get the information you want. Start by skimming your eyes over the page to pick our relevant headings, summaries, words. If it’s useful, make notes.

  Making notes

There are two rules when you are making notes:

• Note your source so that you can find it again and write your references at the end of the essay if you use that information. Use Endnote (see the section on Referencing), or note down the following:
• page reference
• date of publication
• publisher’s name (book)
• place where it was published (book or journal)
• the journal number, volume and date (journal)
• Make brief notes rather than copy text , but if you feel an extract is very valuable put it in quotation marks so that when you write your essay, you’ll know that you have to put it in your own words. Failing to rewrite the text in your own words would be plagiarism.
• For more information on plagiarism, refer to the Second Level Handbook and the My Learning Essentials Plagiarism Resource http://libassets.manchester.ac.uk/mle/avoiding-plagiarism/.

Everyone will make notes differently as it suits them. However, the aim of making notes when you are researching an essay is to use them when you write the essay. It is therefore important that you can:

• Read your notes
• Find their source
• Determine what the topics and main points are on each note (highlight the main ideas, key points or headings).
• Compose your notes so you can move bits of information around later when you have to sort your notes into an essay.

For example:

• Write/type in chunks (one topic for one chunk) with a space between them so you can cut your notes up later, or
• write the main topics or questions you want to answer on separate pieces of paper before you start making notes. As you find relevant information, write it on the appropriate page. (This takes longer as you have to write the source down a number of times, but it does mean you have ordered your notes into headings.)

Sort information into essay plans

You’ve got lots of information now: how do you put it all together to make an essay that makes sense? As there are many ways to sort out a huge heap of clothes (type of clothes, colour, size, fabric…), there are many ways of sorting information. Whichever method you use, you are looking for ways to arrange the information into groups and to order the groups into a logical sequence . You need to play around with your notes until you find a pattern that seems right and will answer the question.

• Find the main points in your notes, put them on a separate page – a mind map is a good way to do this – and see if your main points form any patterns or groups.
• Is there a logical order? Does one thing have to come after another? Do points relate to one another somehow? Think about how you could link the points.
• Using the information above, draw your essay plan. You could draw a picture, a mind map, a flow chart or whatever you want. Or you could build a structure by using bits of card that you can move around.
• Select and put the relevant notes into the appropriate group so you are ready to start writing your first draft.

The essay has four main parts:

• introduction
• references.

People usually write the introduction and conclusion after they have written the main body of the essay, so we have put them in that order.

For more information on essay writing visit the My Learning Essentials web pages:

https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/learning-objects/mle/packages/writing/

  Main Body

Structure . The main body should have a clear structure. Depending on the length of the essay, you may have just a series of paragraphs, or sections with headings, or possibly even subsections. In the latter case, make sure that the hierarchy of headings is obvious so that the reader doesn’t get lost.

Flow . The main body of the essay answers the question and flows logically from one key point to another (each point needs to be backed up by evidence [experiments, research, texts, interviews, etc …] that must be referenced). You should normally write one main idea per paragraph and the main ideas in your essay should be linked or ‘signposted’. Signposts show readers where they are going, so they don’t get lost. This lets the reader know how you are going to tackle the idea, or how one idea is linked with the one before it or after it.

Some signpost words and phrases are:

• ‘These changes . . . “
• ‘Such developments
• ‘This
• ‘In the first few paragraphs . . . “
• ‘I will look in turn at. . . ‘
• ‘However, . . . “
• ‘Similarly’
• ‘But’.

Figures: purpose . You should try to include tables, diagrams, and perhaps photographs in your essay. Tables are valuable for summarising information, and are most likely to impress if they show the results of relevant experimental data. Diagrams enable the reader to visualise things, replacing the need for lengthy descriptions. Photographs must be selected with care, to show something meaningful. Nobody will be impressed by a picture of a giraffe – we all know what one looks like, so the picture would be mere decoration. But a detailed picture of a giraffe’s markings might be useful if it illustrates a key point.

Figures: labelling, legends and acknowledgment . Whenever you use a table, diagram or image in your essay you must:

• cite the source
• make sure that the legend and explanation are adapted to your purpose.

Checklist for the main body of text

• Does your text have a clear structure?
• Does the text follow a logical sequence so that the argument flows?
• Does your text have both breadth and depth – i.e. general coverage of the major issues with in-depth treatment of particularly important points?
• Does your text include some illustrative experimental results?
• Have you chosen the diagrams or photographs carefully to provide information and understanding, or are the illustrations merely decorative?
• Are your figures acknowledged properly? Did you label them and include legend and explanation?

    Introduction

The introduction comes at the start of the essay and sets the scene for the reader. It usually defines clearly the subject you will address (e.g. the adaptations of organisms to cold environments), how you will address this subject (e.g. by using examples drawn principally from the Arctic zone) and what you will show or argue (e.g. that all types of organism, from microbes through to mammals, have specific adaptations that fit them for life in cold environments). The length of an introduction depends on the length of your essay, but is usually between 50 to 200 words

Remember that reading the introduction constitutes the first impression on your reader (i.e. your assessor!). Therefore, it should be the last section that you revise at the editing stage, making sure that it leads the reader clearly into the details of the subject you have covered and that it is completely free of typos and spelling mistakes.

  Check-list for the Introduction

• Does your introduction start logically by telling the reader what the essay is about – for example, the various adaptations to habitat in the bear family?
• Does your introduction outline how you will address this topic – for example, by an overview of the habitats of bears, followed by in-depth treatment of some specific adaptations?
• Is it free of typos and spelling mistakes?

Conclusion  

An essay needs a conclusion. Like the introduction, this need not be long: 50 to 200 words long, depending on the length of the essay. It should draw the information together and, ideally, place it in a broader context by personalising the findings, stating an opinion or supporting a further direction which may follow on from the topic. The conclusion should not introduce facts in addition to those in the main body.

Check-list for the Conclusion

• Does your conclusion sum up what was said in the main body?
• If the title of the essay was a question, did you give a clear answer in the conclusion?
• Does your conclusion state your personal opinion on the topic or its future development or further work that needs to be done? Does it show that you are thinking further?

  References

In all scientific writing you are expected to cite your main sources of information. Scientific journals have their own preferred (usually obligatory) method of doing this. The piece of text below shows how you can cite work in an essay, dissertation or thesis. Then you supply an alphabetical list of references at the end of the essay. The Harvard style of referencing adopted at the University of Manchester will be covered in the Writing and Referencing Skills unit in Semester 3. For more information refer to the Referencing Guide from the University Library ( http://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/referencing-harvard ).

Citations in the text

Jones and Smith (1999) showed that the ribosomal RNA of fungi differs from that of slime moulds. This challenged the previous assumption that slime moulds are part of the fungal kingdom (Toby and Dean, 1987). However, according to Bloggs et al . (1999) the slime moulds can still be accommodated in the fungal kingdom for convenience. Slime moulds are considered part of the Eucarya domain by Todar (2012).

Reference list at the end of the essay:

List the references in alphabetical order and if you have several publications written by the same author(s) in the same year, add a letter (a,b,c…) after the year to distinguish between them. Bloggs, A.E., Biggles, N.H. and Bow, R.T. (1999). The Slime Moulds . 2 nd edn. London and New York: Academic Press.

Todar K. (2012) Overview Of Bacteriology. Available at: http://textbookofbacteriology.net, [Accessed 15 November 2013].

Jones, B.B. and Smith, J.O.E. (1999). Ribosomal RNA of slime moulds, Journal of Ribosomal RNA 12, 33-38.

Toby F.S. and Dean P.L. (1987). Slime moulds are part of the fungal kingdom, in Edwards A.E. and Kane Y. (eds.) The Fungal Kingdom. Luton: Osbert Publishing Co., pp. 154-180 .

Endnote : This is an electronic system for storing and retrieving references that you will learn about in the Writing and Referencing Skills (WRS) unit. It is very powerful and simple to use, but you must always check that the output is consistent with the instructions given in this section.

Visit the My Learning Essentials online resource for a guide to using EndNote: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/learning-objects/mle/endnote-guide/

(we recommend EndNote online if you wish to use your own computer).

Note that journals have their own house style so there will be minor differences between them, particularly in their use of punctuation, but all reference lists for the same journal will be in the same format.

First Draft

When you write your first draft, keep two things in mind:

• Length: you may lose marks if your essay is too long. Ensure therefore that your essay is within the page limit that has been set.
• Expression: don’t worry about such matters as punctuation, spelling or grammar at this stage. You can get this right at the editing stage. If you put too much time into getting these things right at the drafting stage, you will have less time to spend on thinking about the content, and you will be less willing to change it when you edit for sense and flow at the editing stage.

  Writing style

The style of your essay should fit the task or the questions asked and be targeted to your reader. Just as you are careful to use the correct tone of voice and language in different situations so you must take care with your writing. Generally writing should be:

• Make sure that you write exactly what you mean in a simple way.
• Write briefly and keep to the point. Use short sentences. Make sure that the meaning of your sentences is obvious.
• Check that you would feel comfortable reading your essay if you were actually the reader.
• Make sure that you have included everything of importance. Take care to explain or define any abbreviations or specialised jargon in full before using a shortened version later. Do not use slang, colloquialisms or cliches in formal written work.

When you are editing your essay, you will need to bear in mind a number of things. The best way to do this, without forgetting something, is to edit in ‘layers’, using a check-list to make sure you have not forgotten anything.

Check-list for Style  

• Tone – is it right for the purpose and the receiver?
• Clarity – is it simple, clear and easy to understand?
• Complete – have you included everything of importance?

  Check-list for Sense

• Does your essay make sense?
• Does it flow logically?
• Have you got all the main points in?
• Are there bits of information that aren’t useful and need to be chopped out?
• Are your main ideas in paragraphs?
• Are the paragraphs linked to one another so that the essay flows rather than jumps from one thing to another?
• Is it about the right length?

  Check-list for Proofreading

• Are the punctuation, grammar, spelling and format correct?
• If you have written your essay on a word-processor, run the spell check over it.
• Have you referenced all quotes and names correctly?
• Is the essay written in the correct format? (one and a half line spacing, margins at least 2.5cm all around the text, minimum font size 10 point).

School Writer in Residence

The School of Biological Sciences has three ‘Writers in Residence’ who are funded by The Royal Literary Fund. They are:

Susan Barker ( [email protected] )– Thursday and Friday   

Amanda Dalton ( [email protected] )– Monday and Tuesday

Tania Hershman ( [email protected] ) – Wednesday

The writers in residence can help you with any aspect of your writing including things such as ‘‘how do I start?’ ‘how do I structure a complex essay’ ‘ why am I getting poor marks for my essay writing?’

All you need to do is to bring along a piece of your writing and they will discuss with you on a one to one basis how to resolve the problems that you are having with your piece of writing.

The Writers in Residence are based in the Simon Building. Please see the BIOL20000 Blackboard site for further information about the writers’ expertise and instructions for appointment booking.

Academic writing

• Manchester Institute of Education

Research output : Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Access to Document

• 10.4324/9781351026949-15

Other files and links

• https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c50ffaec-be18-3a18-9f85-f78a4aacd56b/

Fingerprint

• Academic Writing Social Sciences 100%
• Writing Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 100%
• Knowledge Social Sciences 66%
• Essays Social Sciences 16%
• Content Social Sciences 16%
• Research Social Sciences 16%
• Schools Social Sciences 16%
• Materials Social Sciences 16%

T1 - Academic writing

AU - Firth, Miriam

PY - 2020/1/28

Y1 - 2020/1/28

N2 - Academic writing requires you to consider your understanding and position to publications on a topic. This is not simply regurgitating knowledge from reading sources, but offering your perspective on secondary material and an informed overview of current knowledge. Academic writing is unique in its content, form and structure. You may have written essays and reports at school or college which have previously been descriptive and fact based, but this chapter aims to develop your writing using the knowledge gained from academic sources and academic research. Using the previous chapters in academic development you should have found and read academic literature to develop your knowledge for an assignment. This chapter will appraise your ability to write about these sources and weave your authorial voice into the submission. Although this chapter focusses on academic styles of writing, it can also be used for professional and formal writing.

AB - Academic writing requires you to consider your understanding and position to publications on a topic. This is not simply regurgitating knowledge from reading sources, but offering your perspective on secondary material and an informed overview of current knowledge. Academic writing is unique in its content, form and structure. You may have written essays and reports at school or college which have previously been descriptive and fact based, but this chapter aims to develop your writing using the knowledge gained from academic sources and academic research. Using the previous chapters in academic development you should have found and read academic literature to develop your knowledge for an assignment. This chapter will appraise your ability to write about these sources and weave your authorial voice into the submission. Although this chapter focusses on academic styles of writing, it can also be used for professional and formal writing.

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c50ffaec-be18-3a18-9f85-f78a4aacd56b/

U2 - 10.4324/9781351026949-15

DO - 10.4324/9781351026949-15

M3 - Chapter

BT - Employability and Skills Handbook for Tourism, Hospitality and Events Students

A2 - Firth, Miriam

PB - Routledge

University Centre for Academic English

Useful links

Explore the following websites for additional resources to aid in your learning.

JCU Study Skills Online

This site takes you through the process of writing from analysing a question to final editing. It also provides very useful sample essays with criteria for assessment and lecturers' comments.

• How to write essay guides  

The Royal Literary Fund

Essay Writing: A Guide for Undergraduates. A useful and comprehensive guide to many different aspects of academic writing at this level.

• Writing Essays: A Guide

Victoria University of Wellington

A series of interactive exercises that focus on paragraph structure in academic writing.

• Writing exercises for self-directed study

Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for International Students

Comprehensive advice, materials and exercises on the four skills. Produced by Andy Gillett, Department of Modern Languages, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.

• View the guide

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This link to the Honk Kong Polytechnic University takes you firstly to a list of skills and functions associated with 'Essay Writing'. These include Explanation of Functions, Describing Trends, Cause and Effect for Developing Academic Writing Skills, and more. There are further useful categories such as Participating in Academic Discussions and Giving Oral Presentations. Follow this exercises link if you want to do some practice work on many of these.

• English for Academic Purposes

Randall's Cyber Listening Lab

Go down the page and try some of the "Listening Quizzes for Academic Purposes."

• Listening Quizzes

Student intranet

Study resources

Get the most out of studying Philosophy at Manchester.

Access online philosophy resources, get help with writing essays and other study skills, and join relevant societies and groups.

Study guides

See Blackboard Programme Hub

Online resources

A vast number of philosophical texts are available online. Once you know where to look and how to access them, they are an amazing resource for finding out more about a topic, locating journal articles that you need for your tutorials or essays or exams, seeing how a particular debate has played out in the literature, etc. This page gives you some information about how to use the internet for these purposes effectively.

Internet for Philosophy tutorial

Go to the  University Library's Philosophy LibGuide . Click on the tabs along the top for lots of information about online journals and books, links to databases, etc. (You can also get to this site from the library home page by clicking on 'A-Z of subjects' under 'Academic Support' and searching for 'philosophy'. And you can download the guide onto your phone if you have a camera and bar code reader app.)

Now you've done both of those, you know pretty much everything you need to know about accessing philosophy resources on the internet! However, here are a few additional handy hints.

Accessing online philosophy articles

Library catalogue/Google Scholar

The vast majority of journal articles in philosophy can be accessed online through the University Library's subscriptions. The University Library's online catalogue includes journal articles, so you can search for a given article that way (you'll probably need to use 'advanced search' or you'll get too many hits). 

A third option is to use Google Scholar. Just type the name of the journal article (in double quotation marks) and hit 'search'. If the article is available anywhere online, it should be first in the list of hits. Note that there will often be 'cited by' and 'related articles' links as well; if you click on these you'll be able to follow up the ensuing debate.

How do I log in to the publisher's website?

Some articles are freely available (often from the author's own homepage). However, normally they are only available through the journal publisher's website, and are accessible only to institutions that subscribe to the journal. UoM has a very extensive portfolio of subscriptions, so it's very likely that we have one. If you're going through the University Library's A-Z list of e-journals, you should be able to get straight through to the pdf of the article. If you're using Google Scholar, click on the link to the article or look for a 'Find it at UML' link on the right; again, you should be able to get to the pdf.

However if you're not using a campus computer you may find that your only apparent option is to buy the article. If this happens, look for the 'institutional login' button (there should be one somewhere on the page). Click on this and search for 'University of Manchester'. You should then be able to login using your normal UoM username and password, and be taken back to the journal site. (Annoyingly, it might not have remembered what it was you were looking for, so you might have to search the site for it.) If you can't find an 'institutional login' button, look for the link to login options. If there is a 'log in via Shibboleth' option, that will work too.

Or, even easier …

Set your off-campus computer/laptop up so that it can connect to the UoM 'Virtual Private Network' (VPN), by following  the instructions . It's very easy! Once you've installed the VPN software, if you connect to the VPN your computer will act just like a campus computer, so you will automatically be logged in to publishers' journal sites and won't have to follow the institutional login procedure.

Top four online resources!

Well, it's a matter of subjective preference, but we can recommend:

• Philosophy Compass:  This is an online journal that publishes high-quality survey articles on philosophical topics, aimed at non-specialists.  Philosophy Compass  articles are a great way of finding your way around a particular debate and locating relevant texts to follow up.
• PhilPapers:  This is a huge database of philosophy books and journal articles. You can search for a particular item, browse the categories and sub-categories, and even make a personalised reading list or bibliography.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy : This is a really comprehensive online encyclopedia written by internationally recognised experts. It isn't written with undergraduates in particular in mind, but even if you don't understand everything you should be able to get a sense of the overall shape of the debate you're interested in, and there are lots of references for you to follow up. Please note that if you cite a SEP article in an essay, you need to cite and list it in your bibliography properly! Click on 'author and citation info' at the top of the article to find out how to cite it.
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy:  UoM library now has access to this encyclopedia, which has over 2,700 philosophy articles. It includes comprehensive cross-referencing and is fully searchable. Off-campus, you will need to access it through the  VPN .

Study skills and essay writing

Want to know how to write the perfect essay, how to deal with exam stress, or how to manage your study time more effectively? Then this is the page you need.

Philosophy study guide

You should already have this, but have you read it recently? It contains lots of useful and detailed information about how to write a good essay, how to prepare for exams, how to construct your bibliography and cite your sources, and lots of other things. A high proportion of students would get considerably better marks in their essays if they simply checked whether they were abiding by the Study Guide’s advice, so make sure you’re not one of them!

• Download the Philosophy study guide

In addition, you might buy or get from the library one or more of the following:

• Doing Philosophy , by C. Saunders, D. Lamb, D. Mossley and G. Macdonald Ross (ISBN 9781441173041, £14.99 or less; also available from the University Library) is a very helpful read, especially for new students. It’s a comprehensive guide to studying philosophy at university.
• The Basics of Essay Writing , by Nigel Warburton. This is a general guide to writing university-level essays, but it's written by a philosopher.

Bibliography and referencing guidance

From 2014-15, all students should consult  only  the guidelines contained in the Philosophy Study Guide when writing philosophy essays. In addition, we have adopted an official policy concerning how many marks should be deducted for various levels of failure to follow the guidelines. Read the student guidance on this policy .

More on essay writing

There's lots of additional advice online about how to write a good philosophy essay. Of course, philosophers across the planet don’t all agree with each other about exactly what makes for the perfect essay, and if you come across any advice that directly conflicts with the Study Guide, you should go with the Study Guide. But by and large we’re all looking for roughly the same thing, and one or more of these guides might be more helpful to you personally than our own Study Guide.

• Harvard Writing Centre’s  A Guide to Philosophical Writing
• Richard Price’s Tips on How to Write a Philosophy Essay
• Jim Pryor’s Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper
• Peter Lipton's advice on writing philosophy
• And last, but by no means least, there's  Jimmy Lenman's 'How to Write a Crap Philosophy Essay'

There are loads more as well; just do a Google search for ‘how to write a philosophy essay’!

Advice on exams

Again, there's lots in the Philosophy Study Guide, but here's a spot of online advice:

• David Bain's exam revision tips
• Nigel Warburton's 5 tips on preparing for philosophy exams .

One-to-one help with your written English

The University Centre for Academic English offers a one-to-one tutorial service aimed at improving your written English. You can submit a sample of work in advance and will then have a meeting of up to an hour to discuss how to improve. If you're an overseas student, you can make an appointment yourself. If you're a home (UK) student you have to be referred, so please speak to your academic advisor. Find out more .

Using internet resources

Having trouble locating philosophy texts online? See the  online resources section .

My Learning Essentials

The Library's award-winning skills programme contains lots of generic advice about managing your time, reflecting on your academic development, coping with exam stress, and so on. 

• My Learning Essentials - The University of Manchester Library

In response to student feedback, we are making available some past essays to help you get a better sense of the kinds of things that we're looking for when we mark them.

To start with, there are two essays from last year's first-year Philosophy & Social Science course; but we'll be adding to these in due course. Please note, however, that what we're looking for is pretty much the same across all courses and levels (except, of course, that the higher the level, the higher the standard required). So you should find these useful even if you're not taking that particular course, and indeed even if you are a 2nd- or 3rd-year.

Included in each pdf is a short summary of the philosophical topic, a bunch of in-text comments, a summary of the essay's main strengths and weaknesses, and an indicative mark. Do please note that there is a lot more feedback on these essays than you can expect on the essays you submit! Our hope is that by providing very extensive feedback on a small sample of essays, you will be able to see how similar considerations might apply to your own work. Don't forget that if you want more feedback on an essay than the marker has provided on the essay itself, you can always go and see them in their office hours to ask for more advice on how to improve.

• 1st year sample essay 1 (Philosophy & Social Science) .
• 1st year sample essay 2 (Philosophy & Social Science) .

Societies and events

• The British Undergraduate Philosophy Society (BUPS)  runs an annual conference and an online journal –  The British Journal of Undergraduate Philosophy  – both aimed at and run by philosophy undergraduates. If you’ve written a stormingly good essay you might think about submitting a version of it to the journal, or presenting it at the annual conference. Or you might think about getting involved in the society. These will help you improve at philosophy and look great on your CV!
• The University of Manchester Philosophy Society  runs various events. Visit their  Facebook group page .
• Philosophy@Manchester  is the Facebook group for the Discipline Area. Take a look, and join up if you haven’t already!

Referencing guide at the University of Manchester: Home

• Harvard Manchester Updated
• American Psychological Association APA
• Modern Humanities Research Association MHRA
• Referencing Software
• EndNote online

Specialist Library Support

The Library provides expert support to students, staff and researchers in the specialist areas of business data, copyright, maths and statistics, referencing support, advanced searching and systematic reviews. This includes:

• Online resources

If you’ve tried our online resources and workshops and need more help, you can get expert help via our online help pages , attending a drop-in session, giving us a call or arranging a consultation.

What is referencing?

Referencing is a vital part of the academic writing process. It allows you to:

• acknowledge the contribution that other authors have made to the development of your arguments and concepts.
• inform your readers of the sources of quotations, theories, datasets etc that you've referred to, and enable them to find the sources quickly and easily themselves.
• demonstrate that you have understood particular concepts proposed by other writers while developing your own ideas.
• provide evidence of the depth and breadth of your own reading on a subject.

What is a reference list?

This is your list of all the sources that have been cited in the text of your work. The reference list includes all the books, e-books, journals, websites etc. in one list at the end of your document.

What is a bibliography?

The bibliography includes items which you have consulted for your work but not cited in the main body of your text. The list should appear at the end of your piece of work after the list of references. This demonstrates to the reader (examiner) the unused research you carried out.

Always check with your School if you need to produce a bibliography.

Word count and referencing

Generally, the word count of your work will include everything that is in the main text (citations, quotes, tables, lists etc) but will not include what is in the reference list/bibliography.

As always, you need to check the referencing advice given in your course handbook usually found in your Blackboard space, as rules can change from school to school.

• When to cite?
• How to cite?
• Citing secondary sources

Whenever you quote, paraphrase or make use of another person’s work in your own writing, you must indicate this in the body of your work (a citation) and provide full details of the source in a reference list (all the sources you have referred to directly in your work) or a bibliography (all the sources you have read in the course of your research, not just those you have cited).   

Your reference list should include details of all the books, journal articles, websites and any other material you have used.

You do not need to reference:

• your own ideas and observations
• information regarded as ‘common knowledge’
• your conclusions (where you are pulling together ideas already discussed and cited in the main body of your work).

Understanding when to cite references is an important part of your academic progression.

The way that you cite references will depend on the referencing style you are using. There are many different referencing styles and you must ensure that you are following the appropriate style when submitting your work.

Getting started with referencing  - is a MLE resource that explores the principles behind referencing, highlighting why it is good academic practice.

Check with your course handbook or supervisor to be sure that you are following the specific guidelines required by your school.

Commonly used referencing styles at The University of Manchester include Harvard, APA, MHLA, MLA and Vancouver.

These referencing pages will provide you with a useful introduction to the principles of referencing in various styles.

There are cases when an author discusses the research of another author in their work. When you are unable to track down the original research document you can cite them as a secondary source. In the citation include the (primary) source and where it was cited (secondary).

Only secondary cite when you cannot gain access to the primary source

In Harvard style: (Author, Date)

In-text citation:

Use either 'quoted in' or 'cited in' depending on the included detail.

 Hirst places the importance of taste squarely at the feet of the regurgitated... (2016, cited in Stevenson, 2017).

"It is the regurgitated that I lay complete blame"... (2016, quoted in Stevenson, 2017).

For referencing purposes, only include the research you did consult because you did not read the original document and are taking any inference on the work from that author.

Stevenson, M. (2017). The genius in action: tales from the reference world , Oxford University Press: Oxford.

In Vancouver (numeric) style:

According to Hirst as cited in Stevenson (3) importance of taste is squarely at the feet of the regurgitated...

"It is the regurgitated that I lay complete blame"... Hirst quoted in Stevenson (3).

3. Stevenson, M. The genius in action: tales from the reference world. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2017.

Quote, paraphrase and summarise

There are several ways in which you may want to utilise other people’s ideas in order to add substance to your work. The most common ways to accomplish this are to quote, paraphrase or summarise.

When using quotations, remember to make sure they are relevant and thoughtfully used. Short and direct quotations provide the most succinct and direct way of conveying the ideas of others in support of your work.

• Use single quotation marks to indicate direct quotations and the definition of words.
• In quoted passages follow the original spelling, punctuation etc.
• Short quotations (usually less than 40 words) should be enclosed in single quotation marks (‘…’) and be part of the main text.
• Longer quotations should start on a separate line not italicised, with no quotation marks, and indented throughout.
• Double quotation marks (“…”) are used for a quote within a quote.
• Always include page numbers when using direct quotations to point the reader directly to the relevant point.

It is worth remembering that direct quotations count as part of your overall word count and excessive use can affect the flow of your work when reading.

Burroughs provides a great examples of the synthesis between the 'I' as author and the 'you' as reader  'You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative' (1959, p. 184)

Longer quotations should form their own paragraphs and be indented. Quotation marks are not a prerequisite when paragraphs and indentation are used.

Hirst describes the changes in societal landscape in his own inimitable way:  

In a time of turbulent war and electrical fascination, rise a group of people with a different ideology to what had previously been commonplace. They became the new masters of their domain and the overlords of a world I no longer related to, nor understood. (Hirst, 2017, p. 1)

Non-English quotations should follow the same rules but always be displayed in the original source language.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the expression of someone else’s thoughts or ideas in your own words. One of the benefits of this is that you can better describe the intentions of the author and your understanding, while maintaining your own writing style.

Although this is a way of manipulating text, you must not betray the original meaning of the author you are paraphrasing.

Original Text:

Paraphrased:

Hirst (2017, p. 1) discusses the turbulence of this era of war and the new onset of electrical fascination, he continues on the theme that these changes resulted in people becoming the owners of this new domain acting as overlords of a world he no could no longer fathom.

Summarising

When summarising, you condense in your own words the relevant points from materials such as books, articles, webpages etc.

Summarised:

Hirst (2017, p. 1) promulgates his feelings in relation to the turbulence of war and man's changing ideologies and his disenfranchised view of this new world landscape.

Additional online resources

Online resources:.

• EndNote desktop: getting started
• EndNote desktop: collecting references
• EndNote desktop: organising your references
• EndNote desktop: formatting your references
• EndNote desktop: YouTube playlist
• EndNote online: YouTube playlist

Other resources

• Introducing reference management tools
• EndNote desktop workbook for windows
• EndNote desktop workbook for MacOS
• EndNote online workbook
• Mendeley workbook

www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/learning-objects/sls/packages/referencing/

My Learning Essentials

My Learning Essentials i s the Library’s programme of skills support, including both online resources and face-to-face workshops to help you in your personal and professional development. Workshops offer a relaxed group environment where you can try out new strategies while learning from and with peers. The online resources cover everything from referencing, to managing your procrastination, to writing a CV and you can access them through the Library website from wherever you are, whenever you need to!

Further help

The information contained within these pages is intended as a general referencing guideline.

Please check with your supervisor to ensure that you are following the specific guidelines required by your school.

• Next: Referencing Styles >>
• Last Updated: May 7, 2024 2:58 PM
• URL: https://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing

Academic Phrasebank Enhanced Version

Navigable PDF – 2023 Edition

The Academic Phrasebank is an essential writing resource for researchers, academics, and students. You can download the enhanced version of the Academic Phrasebank as a 158 page navigable PDF file here:

You can view sample pages of the enhanced PDF version by clicking on the icon below:

Enhanced PDF includes:

Hundreds more phrases, additional sections on:, writing abstracts, indicating shared knowledge, writing acknowledgements, written academic style, using gender-neutral language, british and us spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph structure, commonly confused words, phrases used to connect ideas, commonly used verbs.

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Alternatively, use our A–Z index

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Download our course brochure

Discover more about this subject area

MA Creative Writing

Year of entry: 2024

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We normally expect students to have a First or Upper Second class honours degree or its overseas equivalent in a humanities-based subject area.

Full entry requirements

Course options

Course overview.

• Engage with writers, editors and agents.
• Become part of a network of esteemed alumni .
• Learn from a distinguished team that includes novelists Jeanette Winterson CBE, Ian McGuire, Kamila Shamsie, Beth Underdown, Honor Gavin and Luke Brown; poets John McAuliffe, Frances Leviston, Vona Groarke and Michael Schmidt; and non-fiction writers Ellah Wakatama and Horatio Clare.
• Discover the rich literary fabric of Manchester, a UNESCO City of Literature, through Literature Live, Manchester Literature Festival, The Manchester Review, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and Manchester-based publishers.

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For entry in the academic year beginning September 2024, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MA (full-time) UK students (per annum): £12,500 International, including EU, students (per annum): £26,000
• MA (part-time) UK students (per annum): £6,250 International, including EU, students (per annum): £13,000

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive for the course tuition, administration and computational costs during your studies.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of courses lasting more than a year for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

Self-funded international applicants for this course will be required to pay a deposit of £1000 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. This deposit will only be refunded if immigration permission is refused. We will notify you about how and when to make this payment.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

Each year the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures offer a number of  School awards and  Subject-specific bursaries  (the values of which are usually set at Home/EU fees level), open to both Home/EU and international students. The deadline for these is early February each year. Details of all funding opportunities, including deadlines, eligibility and how to apply, can be found on the School's funding page  where you can also find details of the Government Postgraduate Loan Scheme.

See also the University's postgraduate funding database  to see if you are eligible for any other funding opportunities.

For University of Manchester graduates, the Manchester Alumni Bursary  offers a £3,000 reduction in tuition fees to University of Manchester alumni who achieved a 1st within the last three years and are progressing to a postgraduate taught masters course.

The Manchester Master's Bursary  is a University-wide scheme that offers 100 bursaries worth £3,000 in funding for students from underrepresented groups.

Contact details

See: About us

Courses in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of courses in related subject areas.

• English Literature, American Studies and Creative Writing

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview, english language.

An overall grade of IELTS 7.0 with 7.0 in writing and no skill below 6.5 is required or 100+ in the TOEFL iBT with a minimum writing score of 25 and no skill below 22.

If you have obtained a different qualification, please check our  English language requirements  to ensure that it is accepted and equivalent to the above requirements.

English language test validity

Other international entry requirements, application and selection, how to apply, how your application is considered.

Entry to the course is competitive and there are always many more applicants than places. Applications are mainly considered on the basis of their portfolio, an assessment of past and predicted academic achievements, the academic references and any other supplementary evidence that supports the application.

Because of the competitive nature of this course, we assess applications together at three separate points in the year:

In the first two weeks of January (12 January, 2024)

In the Easter holidays whenever they fall (25 March, 2024)

In the first week of August (9 August, 2024)

You will be notified of the progress of your application shortly after whichever of these dates comes first after you have applied.

On each of these three assessment periods we will offer no more than twelve places, though if you are not offered one of these, you may be offered a chance to become a reserve candidate which could turn into an offer of a place in August if the course is not filled by then. If you apply after the first week of August you will not be considered for a place until the following academic year.

The final submission date for applications for the 2024/25 academic year is 9 August, 2024*.

* Please not that the application form and portal will show a deadline of September 13th for administration purposes only. The 9th August is the final submission date for entry in 2024.

Overseas (non-UK) applicants

We accept a range of qualifications from different countries that equate to a UK 2.1. For these and general requirements including English language see entry requirements from your country .

If English is not your first language, please provide us with evidence of: 

• an overall grade 7.0 (with a minimum writing score of 7) in IELTS; or
• 100+ in the IBT Internet-based TOEFL).

The other language tests we accept can be found here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/new-approved-english-tests.pdf

Exceptions to needing a language test (if English is NOT your first language) are:

Antigua & Barbuda; Australia; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Ireland; Jamaica; New Zealand; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; UK; USA.

Re-applications

Portfolio requirements.

All applicants without exception must provide a portfolio of either:

• 3,000 words prose, or
• 7/8 poems, or
• a combination of the two.

The portfolio is a fundamental part of the admissions decision making process and it will therefore be assessed by an academic within the department. The final date for submission of a portfolio is the last day in July. Any work submitted with funding applications will not be taken as the final submission for a decision of a place unless specifically requested by the applicant.

Course details

Course description.

Study on our MA Creative Writing master's course and you'll be part of the prestigious Centre for New Writing, where we bring together world-famous writers to teach people how to produce novels, short stories, creative non-fiction, poems and screenplays.

It's a place where talented writers and critics can meet to exchange ideas and opinions. The Centre is founded on the simple but important principle that good writing and good reading go together.

The course will see you study literary technique through reading and discussing the work of other contemporary writers in seminars, and you will have the opportunity to develop your own work via regular workshops and individual tutorials. Writers may choose to work on writing a novel and/or short stories and/or creative non-fiction and/or poems.

You'll benefit from seminars with Jeanette Winterson, workshops in fiction and poetry writing led by published, award-winning writers, and intensive, one-to-one instruction from writers-in-residence.

You will also have access to Literature Live, a fortnightly reading series bringing the best contemporary novelists and poets to Manchester, skills-related sessions delivered by professionals in the publishing industry, and regular visits from literary agents and editors.

We work with talented, committed students - whatever their style or genre - and we pride ourselves on giving students detailed, individual feedback both in writing and face-to-face.

Special features

Literature events

Manchester Literature Festival holds literary events across Manchester throughout the year, many in partnership with the University. The Centre for New Writing also hosts a regular public event series, Literature Live, which brings contemporary novelists and poets to the University to read and engage in conversation.

Find out more about literature in Manchester .

The Manchester Anthology

As an MA student at the Centre for New Writing, you will get the opportunity to have a piece of fiction or poetry published in The Manchester Anthology when you graduate.

Learn from experts

You will have the opportunity to engage in masterclasses and regular events with world-renowned Professor of Creative Writing, Jeanette Winterson. We also host a series of talks by visiting agents from the publishing industry.

Find out more about our people .

Teaching and learning

You will learn through a variety of teaching methods depending on the units you choose, including seminars, lectures and independent study.

Please note that both the full and part-time options are taught between 9am to 5pm. We do not offer evening classes. 

Coursework and assessment

All writing workshops meet for two to three hours per week, and are worth 30 credits. You will also be offered three individual half-hour tutorials per semester to discuss the progress of your writing. Each workshop is assessed by a portfolio of poetry or fiction.

Seminars meet for three hours per week and are also worth 30 credits. They will usually be assessed by one 6,000-word essay or the equivalent.

Over the summer, you will complete a 'dissertation' of 12,000 to 15,000 words of fiction or 15-20 poems. This is worth 60 credits.

Course unit details

You will undertake units totalling 180 credits. Core units combine to make 120 credits, with the remaining 60 credits allocated to the dissertation.

There are no mandatory units as part of this course. Students are required to choose a combination of workshops and seminars based on their individual focus, either poetry or fiction writing.

You may choose to take two workshops - one in fiction writing and one in poetry - or you may take one workshop and one seminar. Typical seminars will be The Art of Short Fiction and Poetics.

Students wishing to focus on poetry writing will take a poetry workshop and a seminar on Contemporary Poetry.

Students wishing to focus on fiction writing will take a fiction writing workshop and a seminar in Contemporary Fiction.

Dissertation

Your dissertation will comprise 15,000 words of your own fiction writing, or 16 to 25 poems.

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

Take your inspiration from one of the best university libraries in the country, as well as the Whitworth Art Gallery, the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama and the special collections at the John Rylands Library, which include Shakespeare folios, a Gutenberg Bible and extensive modern literary archives.

Attend lectures and exhibitions at the internationally renowned Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, as well as cutting-edge research talks at the English Research Seminar and Critical MASS: the American Studies research seminar.

Away from campus, the city of Manchester is home to an excellent network of public libraries , as well as a wealth of literary and arts institutions, venues and attractions such as the Portico Library , the International Anthony Burgess Foundation , Elizabeth Gaskell's House , HOME and Chetham's Library .

You will also find independent publishers such as Carcanet Press, Comma Press, Cillian Press and Saraband in Manchester, along with bookshops such as Blackwell's (which is located on campus), Waterstones, Chorlton Bookshop and Chapter 1 Books.

Manchester Literature Festival holds events featuring an array of authors each year, while other literary events also take place around Manchester throughout the year, including talks and spoken word events.

Learn more about our facilities .

Disability support

Career opportunities.

Some students pursue their literary careers and go on to become published writers, while others follow their passion through publishing, journalism and careers in the arts sector.

Other graduates undertake PhD study or follow careers in law, librarianship and teaching. Our alumni include Rebecca Perry, Sophie Hannah, Chris Killen, Alys Conran, Emma Jane Unsworth, Beth Underdown, Alex Allison, Jenn Ashworth, Evan Jones, Katherine Horrex, Rory Gleeson, Joey Connolly and Marli Roode.

Upon successful completion of their course, many postgraduates go on or return to jobs as teachers or librarians, continue their research, or go on to academic jobs. Career paths are extremely varied, and other fields include law, publishing and retail.

Read more about our graduate career destinations .

The University has its own dedicated Careers Service that you would have full access to as a student and for two years after you graduate. At Manchester you will have access to a number of opportunities to help boost your employability .

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Sunak to Urge University Leaders to Protect Jewish Students on Campus

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet with a group of British university leaders on Thursday to discuss ways to tackle antisemitism, as pro-Palestinian protests on campuses spread.

By Stephen Castle and Isabella Kwai

Reporting from London

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain will tell university leaders on Thursday to do more to combat antisemitism on college campuses, in a sign of rising dissatisfaction within government about the recent growth of encampments set up by students protesting the war in Gaza.

Vice chancellors from some of Britain’s prominent universities have been invited to Downing Street to discuss “escalating antisemitic abuse toward Jewish students in the U.K.,” Mr. Sunak’s office said in a statement issued in advance of the meeting.

Britain has so far not seen the sort of unrest witnessed on American campuses . But small-scale, largely peaceful protest encampments have sprung up recently around several universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester.

“Universities should be places of rigorous debate but also bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community,” Mr. Sunak said in the statement released by his office ahead of the meeting. “A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse. That has to stop.”

The prime minister’s office did not mention specific encampments in its statement, but it cited the concerns of the Union of Jewish Students, which says it represents 9,000 Jewish students across Britain and Ireland. The organization said recently that “while students have a right to protest, these encampments create a hostile and toxic atmosphere on campus for Jewish students.”

Downing Street also cited data from a charity that aims to protect British Jews from antisemitism, the Community Security Trust, which in 2023 recorded 182 college-related antisemitic incidents , triple the number recorded in 2022. Tell Mama, a government-funded group that monitors Islamophobic incidents and supports victims, said it has also noted a recent rise in anti-Muslim incidents on campuses.

While British police so far have not intervened significantly to break up student protests, they have been on the front line during large-scale pro-Gaza demonstrations, particularly in London.

Last year, Mr. Sunak and the former home secretary, Suella Braverman, urged the police to ban one march, which ultimately went ahead. Ms. Braverman was then fired after she described the tens of thousands of people who attended regular Saturday protests in London in support of Palestinians as “hate marchers,” “Islamists” and “mobs,” despite the fact that the demonstrations had mostly been peaceful.

On Thursday, the government plans to make it clear that universities must take immediate disciplinary action if any student is found to be inciting racial hatred or violence, and must contact the police if they believe a criminal act has been committed, Downing Street said.

The talks will also aim to help shape new official guidance on combating antisemitism on campus. The government says that the Office for Students, a regulator for higher education, might also be given the power to impose penalties if there were clear evidence that universities were failing to take sufficient or appropriate action to tackle harassment, including antisemitic abuse.

Gavriel Sacks, co-president of the Cambridge University Jewish Society, said in a phone interview that the group had stepped up its support for students by offering mental health events and movie nights.

Mr. Sacks, 20, said that anxiety at Cambridge had increased among some Jewish students in recent months, and especially so in the past week, after the establishment of an encampment on Monday.

But the encampment and the protests themselves had been “mostly peaceful,” he said, and though people had reasons to be anxious, he said he still felt safe and secure on campus.

“We don’t want to overplay it or make people more anxious,” he said.

Mr. Sacks said that he had been told about a few antisemitic comments made to identifiably Jewish people at rallies. Two Jewish students who were on their way to morning prayers on Tuesday were called “pigs,” he said.

“We do believe it represents the minority,” he said of the antisemitic rhetoric. Still, he said, there were concerns.

Groups representing Jewish students at Cambridge and other campuses have also been among those supporting pro-Palestinian encampments, however. The SOAS Jewish Society at SOAS University of London, for example, said on social media that it stood “shoulder to shoulder” with classmates who set up an encampment on Monday.

“We will not stand by as the media cynically employs fake concern for Jewish safety to demonize our cause,” the group said.

Professor Deborah Prentice, the vice chancellor of Cambridge, said in a statement that the university was “fully committed to freedom of speech within the law, and the right to protest.” She added that the university’s priority remained “the safety of our staff and students. We will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any other form of racial or religious hatred in our community.”

Stephen Castle is a London correspondent of The Times, writing widely about Britain, its politics and the country’s relationship with Europe. More about Stephen Castle

Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends. More about Isabella Kwai