How I got a First Class in EVERY Essay at University (Part 1) | The Best Essay Technique

Summary

In this informative video, medical student Kenji shares his essay-writing process, from initial research to final drafting. He emphasizes the importance of using up-to-date research from PubMed for accuracy and suggests using RefWorks for citation management. Kenji's method involves creating two Word documents, one for notes and another for the essay itself, ensuring a clear structure and efficient referencing. His approach is designed to avoid plagiarism and streamline the writing process for academic success.

Takeaways

• 📚 Kenji, a third-year medical student at King's College London, shares his essay writing method used for biomedical science and medical school assignments.
• 🖊️ He starts by opening two Microsoft Word documents, one for 'SA Notes' to collect research and another for drafting the 'Essay'.
• 🔍 Kenji emphasizes the importance of dividing the essay into sections: introduction, main body, conclusion, and references.
• 🔑 He uses PubMed as the primary source for research, a database of up-to-date research papers, and recommends starting with review papers for a broad understanding of the topic.
• 🆓 Kenji advises to look for papers with 'Free Full Text' to avoid costs, as students often have limited budgets.
• 📑 He suggests downloading and organizing research papers in a dedicated folder, labeling them numerically for easy reference.
• 🖍️ Kenji highlights the need to rephrase information from research to avoid plagiarism and to integrate it into the essay's introduction, body, and conclusion.
• ✅ He stresses the importance of proper referencing, using a referencing software like RefWorks, which helps in managing citations and generating a reference list.
• 🔄 Kenji demonstrates how to import citations from PubMed into RefWorks and then cite them in the essay using the Vancouver referencing style.
• 📈 The process involves reading, highlighting key points, copying and pasting into 'SA Notes', and then rephrasing into the essay while citing sources.
• 🔍 Lastly, Kenji recommends using both old and new papers to cover the historical context and the latest findings in the field of study.

Q & A

Who is the speaker in the video and what is their educational background?

The speaker is Kenji, a third-year medical student at King's College London who also holds a degree in Biomedical Science.

What is the primary purpose of the video?

The primary purpose of the video is to demonstrate Kenji's method for writing essays, which he uses for both his biomedical science degree and medical school assignments.

How many Microsoft Word documents does Kenji open when he starts writing an essay?

Kenji opens two Microsoft Word documents, one for 'SA Notes' and another for the actual 'Essay'.

What does Kenji use as his main source for research when writing essays?

Kenji uses PubMed as his main source for research, which is a database of research papers.

Why does Kenji recommend starting with review papers when researching a topic?

Kenji recommends starting with review papers because they provide a summary of the topic, helping to scope and understand the subject before moving on to more specific primary papers.

What is the difference between review papers and primary papers according to Kenji?

Review papers are summaries written by someone who did not conduct the research themselves, while primary papers are novel works from individuals who have conducted experiments and research in the lab.

How does Kenji organize the research papers he uses for his essays?

Kenji organizes his research papers by saving them as PDFs in a folder on his desktop, naming each paper with a number for easy reference.

What method does Kenji use to ensure he does not plagiarize when writing his essays?

Kenji rephrases the information from his research in his own words and uses a citation manager to properly reference all sources.

Which referencing style does Kenji prefer and why?

Kenji prefers the Vancouver system because it uses a number for referencing instead of the reference being in the text itself, as in the Harvard system, and it also helps to increase the word count.

What software does Kenji use for managing and citing his references?

Kenji uses RefWorks as his referencing software to manage and cite his references within Microsoft Word.

How does Kenji handle the process of saving and importing citations from PubMed into RefWorks?

Kenji sends the desired papers from PubMed to his citation manager in RefWorks by creating a citation file, then imports it into RefWorks, and finally uses the quick cite feature in Microsoft Word to insert the citation.