Help with uni essay

Murtle

I would also advise looking at past essays / exam papers not necessarily from her course, just to get an idea on how essays are written as there is a general structure to them and then to just practice writing them - if not the whole essay at least the essay plans as the essay should "fall in" around the structure.

mumps

With reference to essay writing and A levels, surely it depends on the subjects. If she has A levels in Maths. Further Maths and Physics I don't think she will have written many essays.

kaz0705

Planning!

It took me ages to realise that everyone kept telling us to write an essay plan because it was *useful*!

Introduction (can save that til the end, to be honest)

Then main points- if needs be, this can just be key words and then she'll flesh them out to bulletin points. The key however is that, if needs be she should be able to link each paragraph back to the essay title

Conclusions- summarise the findings

So, for example:

Were romeo and juliet doomed? (old english essay from about 15years ago!)

Intro:

Main points:

• Refered to as star crossed lovers= fate written in stars
• "a curse on both your house" = cursed!

(in the actual essays she would then be able to say 'the curse implied that romeo and juliet would be doomed'- relating it back to the question)

Conclusion:

Throughout the play, references are made to the higher powers that seem to conspire to against the lovers such as the opening prologue when they are referred to as star crossed lovers.

This is so basic, but just wanted to try and illustrate.

The bottom line is, the sooner she starts putting some ideas down on paper in some sort of plan (which she can always rewrite as she hones her plan), the better for making a concise, coherent essay.

And, as everyone else said, her tutors are there to help! Jeez, the fees are enough, the should be doing something for them! :-)

bambinaUK

mumps wrote: »

With reference to essay writing and A levels, surely it depends on the subjects. If she has A levels in Maths. Further Maths and Physics I don't think she will have written many essays.

Anyone with A Levels in those subjects would most likely not be studying the course that the OP is talking about.

OP tell her to find out if there is a Learning Support Department at her Uni and go and ask them for help. The Library/Learning Centre might offer help too. She just needs to go and ask rather than sitting and worrying.

Pechow

You (well, she) really need to ask the tutor since each subject will want you to write their essays in a different manner. I'm supposed to be writing a Psychology essay right now, which is different from how I had to write Philosophy, which is different from Computing (all degree level). Being good at writing essays at A-level doesn't necessarily mean you'll be good at uni level, you need to know exactly what they expect of you, what style and what way of referencing they want and you can only do this by asking your tutor for the subject. Good luck to her!

mumps

bambinaUK wrote: »

Anyone with A Levels in those subjects would most likely not be studying the course that the OP is talking about.

OP tell her to find out if there is a Learning Support Department at her Uni and go and ask them for help. The Library/Learning Centre might offer help too. She just needs to go and ask rather than sitting and worrying.

One of my kids is doing nursing, their A levels aren't very different to the example I gave. After a gap year a big change in original plans, it does happen.

Person_one

mumps wrote: »

One of my kids is doing nursing, their A levels aren't very different to the example I gave. After a gap year a big change in original plans, it does happen.

Yep, people go into nursing from every background you can imagine.

Cherry_Bomb

OP tell her to join up to https://www.studentnurse.org.uk
It's a fab forum that has really helped me through out my training

Tell her not to worry about having trouble writing essays. I'm currently in my final year and I still even now struggle with the academic work. I haven't failed anything (yet) but don't get the best marks. I do however get fantastic fantastic feedback from all my placements so I'm not worried and never have worried in the slightest!
To me my hands on care with patients is far more important than getting a good grade in some infection control essay.

The essays mean nothing. When she qualifies no-one will care how well (or how badly) she's done.
All they will care about is she's qualified and has a pin

Oldernotwiser

Person_one wrote: »

Yep, people go into nursing from every background you can imagine.

But they should all have the minimum academic entry requirement.

Person_one

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

But they should all have the minimum academic entry requirement.

Equivalent to 3 A levels covers a lot!

Not to mention the number of mature students who apply, some of them have the requirements but have also had a long break from formal study.

I'm sure the OP's daughter will be just fine as soon as she's had a bit of help and got a couple of successful essays under her belt.