Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide (Published in association with The Open University)

I think this book is excellent - a must for students of all ages. It has been recommended to me by many different people over the years I've been studying, and it is a really great book for learning excellent essay writing skills, which once established, will stay with you forever.

I ordered this book as I have just started a course with the Open University and have not written an essay in over 30 years. The book is very clear and well presented and gives good grown up guidance without being too wordy. At any level of study, and not just for budding Social Scientists, I would certainly recommend this book Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide (Published in association with The Open University)

I'm doing an MA and this book is just about a pass in terms of help to write essays. To be brutally honest it would be better if Peter Redman wrote books on how to mark essays rather than how to write them. The Appendix at the back is ok - a glossary of abbreviations. But why oh why is etc missed off? OK we vaguely know it means another etc etc, but if he's included ie and eg why not etc? There are much better books out there to help you write essays and dissertations. Personally I find examples of essays depressing - I can't imagine myself ever sitting down and going through something someone else has written and 'marking' it unless I was getting paid to do it. Instead I want to get on with writing my own essays and this constant irrelevant distraction of examples does not help.

This book is really for people doing Open University degrees and needs to be more up front about this on the front and back covers. Marking systems, as far as I know, are not as specific as Redman tries to make out in the text. This book would improve vastly if there was more about the actual writing process - planning, structure, grammar, sentences and paragraphs for example.

So many new students, whether young or mature, are taking new courses where there are formal essay requirements.

99% of such students cannot write an essay according to markable academic criteria; but they think they can.

Unfortunately the standard we all produced in school is not good enough for formal academic work.

This books is legendary in the open university and it has been available as the gospel work to other academic institutions for some time now.

It does go a little too far in pursuing the golden prize; but its easy to ignore that part.

This will get you extra points in your assignment.
Follow the guidance and get those free extra marks!

I am so glad that I stumbled across this book before embarking on my journey to a degree, if I had started my studies without it and then found it I would have felt that I had missed out on some great advice. The book is orientated towards any student however it does focus on OU students with specific sections for this.

I feel the book facilitates advanced study to prepare for essays and helps the student to identify what they should be focusing on, for example how the layout of the essay should be and what you should be included, the book has helped me to clear up my misunderstanding of what `signposting' is and what clues I should be looking for in the essay question.

To conclude I think any student would benefit by adding this book to their bookcase, it does not take long to read and is well spaced out so that you can add your own notes if needed.