How I wrote 1st class essays at Cambridge University (how to write the best essay)
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Shane, a qualified doctor and Neuroscience supervisor at Cambridge University, shares a proven formula for writing top-scoring scientific essays. He breaks down the process into five parts, emphasizing the importance of a well-structured essay with a clear introduction, a main body focused on three key points supported by scientific evidence, and a conclusion that summarizes the argument. Shane also highlights the value of diagrams and active subheadings for clarity and engagement, aiming to help students achieve first-class essays.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script provides a formula for writing the best scientific essay, which has consistently earned top marks at university.
- 🏆 The speaker, Shane, is a qualified doctor and Neuroscience supervisor at Cambridge University, offering credibility to the advice given.
- 📝 The essay structure should include an introduction, main body, and conclusion, each serving a specific purpose in the argument.
- 🔑 The introduction should define key concepts and outline the essay's coverage and argument, capturing the reader's attention from the start.
- 🔍 In the main body, focus on three key points, providing scientific evidence and critically analyzing it, then relating it back to the question.
- 📈 Use diagrams and active subheadings to enhance the main body, making the essay more accessible and visually appealing to examiners.
- 📝 The conclusion should summarize the argument, bringing it to a mature end and providing a final verdict, similar to a more developed introduction.
- 📖 The essay should be well-planned, with an outline in the introduction that sets expectations for the reader and examiner.
- 📊 Critical analysis is key; not only should evidence be provided, but its validity, reliability, and potential for improvement should be discussed.
- 📚 The script emphasizes the importance of understanding the question, knowing what's important, and how to structure an essay for maximum impact.
- 🎓 The advice is aimed at achieving high marks in scientific essays, suggesting that following this formula can lead to success in academic writing.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video?
-The main topic of the video is about how to write the best scientific essay, with a focus on structure and content.
Who is the presenter of the video?
-The presenter of the video is Shane, a recently qualified doctor and Neuroscience supervisor at Cambridge University.
What are the five parts of the video?
-The video is split into five parts: a general overview of essay structure, a deeper dive into the introduction, the main body, the conclusion, and a worked example.
What is the foolproof formula mentioned for writing the best essay?
-The foolproof formula for writing the best essay includes having a clear introduction, a well-structured main body with three key points, and a conclusion that summarizes the argument.
What are the key components of an essay introduction according to the video?
-The key components of an essay introduction are defining the important concepts and outlining what the essay will cover and the argument it will present.
What is an example of a past exam question from Cambridge University used in the video?
-The example exam question used in the video is 'Discuss the extent to which humans use negative feedback and feed forward mechanisms to control movement.'
What are the three key concepts identified in the example exam question?
-The three key concepts identified in the example exam question are negative feedback, feed forward, and movement.
How should the main body of the essay be structured?
-The main body of the essay should be structured around three key points, with each point having a paragraph dedicated to it, including the key point, supporting scientific evidence, critical analysis, and a relation back to the question.
What is the purpose of using diagrams in the main body of the essay?
-Diagrams in the main body of the essay serve to convey a lot of information quickly to the examiner, showing that the writer understands the topic and making it easier for the examiner to assess the essay.
What are active subheadings and how do they benefit the essay?
-Active subheadings are sentences that summarize the whole paragraph and are placed at the beginning, underlined. They benefit the essay by quickly conveying the main focus of the paragraph to the examiner and reader.
What should the conclusion of the essay do?
-The conclusion of the essay should summarize the whole argument, bring it to a nice end, and provide a verdict, essentially reflecting on the evidence and analysis presented in the main body.
Outlines
📚 Mastering Scientific Essay Writing
This paragraph introduces the video's purpose: to share a formula for writing top-scoring scientific essays, as experienced by the speaker, a qualified doctor and Neuroscience supervisor at Cambridge University. The speaker, Shane, outlines the video's structure, which includes an overview of essay structure, detailed discussion of the introduction, main body, and conclusion, and emphasizes the importance of following this structure for essay success.
🔍 Structuring the Introduction
The speaker delves into the importance of the introduction in an essay, highlighting it as the gateway to the argument. The paragraph explains the need to define key concepts and outline the essay's coverage and argument. Using a neuroscience exam question as an example, Shane illustrates how to identify and define keywords, such as 'negative feedback,' 'feed forward,' and 'movement,' and the significance of movement in the context of the question. The introduction should set expectations for the reader and examiner about the essay's direction and main points.
📝 Crafting the Main Body
The main body of the essay is discussed as a critical component that requires careful planning and focus on three key points. Shane advises using the first sentence of each paragraph to state the key point clearly and succinctly. Following this, scientific evidence should be presented to support the point, and a critical analysis of the evidence's validity and reliability should be included. The paragraph should conclude by relating the evidence back to the essay's question, creating a 'sandwich' structure of point, evidence, analysis, and relation. Diagrams and active subheadings are suggested as effective tools to enhance the main body and convey information efficiently.
📉 Analyzing and Enhancing the Main Body
Continuing the discussion on the main body, Shane emphasizes the importance of critically analyzing the scientific evidence presented. This involves evaluating the study's validity, reliability, potential confounding factors, and possibilities for improvement. The paragraph also suggests practical tips for improving the essay, such as using diagrams for quick information conveyance and active subheadings to summarize and underline the paragraph's focus, making the essay more accessible for examiners.
🏁 Concluding the Essay
The conclusion of the essay is portrayed as the culmination of the argument, requiring a summary of the entire discussion and a final verdict. Shane explains that the conclusion should reflect the maturity and depth of the analysis conducted in the main body, providing a rounded response that assumes the reader's familiarity with the detailed evidence. Using the example of human movement control mechanisms, the conclusion ties together the use of feed forward for rapid movements and negative feedback for automatic and refining movements, showcasing how to end an essay effectively.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Essay
💡Structure
💡Introduction
💡Main Body
💡Conclusion
💡Key Concepts
💡Critical Analysis
💡Scientific Evidence
💡Diagrams
💡Active Subheadings
💡Verdict
Highlights
A foolproof formula for writing the best essay is introduced, which has consistently achieved top marks.
The video is divided into five parts to cover essay structure, introduction, main body, and conclusion.
The structure of an essay should include an introduction, main body, and conclusion for clarity and impact.
Introductions should define key concepts and outline the essay's coverage to engage the reader.
An example from a Cambridge University exam question is used to illustrate defining key concepts in an introduction.
The importance of defining concepts like 'negative feedback', 'feed forward', and 'movement' is emphasized.
Outlining the essay's argument and key points in the introduction is crucial for setting reader expectations.
The main body of the essay should focus on three key points, each supported by scientific evidence.
Each paragraph in the main body should start with a clear statement of the key point.
Providing and critically analyzing scientific evidence strengthens the essay's argument.
Relating the evidence back to the question in each paragraph is essential for coherence.
Diagrams can be a quick and effective way to convey complex information in the main body.
Active subheadings can help to quickly communicate the purpose of each paragraph to the examiner.
The conclusion should summarize the argument, provide a verdict, and assume reader understanding of details.
An example conclusion ties together the use of feed forward and negative feedback mechanisms in movement control.
The video offers a worked example to demonstrate the application of the essay writing formula.
A call to action encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and share the video for those who may find it useful.
Transcripts
now this is a fantastic formula for
writing the best essay it's got me a
first every single year at University
and this is what I see time and time
again in students who score the highest
marks
hey guys welcome back to the channel if
you're new here my name's Shane and I'm
a recently qualified doctor and
Neuroscience supervisor at Cambridge
University and today we're going to talk
about how to write the best scientific
essay and we're going to be going
through a worked example so I'm going to
split this video up into five parts
firstly I'll give a general overview of
the structure of an essay then I'm going
to dive in a bit deeper and talk about
the introduction the main body and the
conclusion now this is a fantastic
foolproof formula to writing the best
essay so trust me if you follow this
structure you're going to do
fantastically
so how should you structure your essay
to make it fantastic well you need to
have an introduction where you define
the key Concepts and outline what you're
going to be covering secondly you need
the main body where you essentially talk
about your main points present
supporting scientific evidence
critically Analyze That evidence and
then relating it back to the question
then finally you should end with a
conclusion which essentially draws up
the whole argument into a summary and
gives a nice verdict now let's dive in a
bit deeper and look at each of these
sections in turn
right so let's start with the
introduction the introduction is
essentially a Gateway into your argument
it's what has the most attention from
the reader so you need to grab that
right from the beginning so how can you
achieve that with your introduction well
you need to firstly Define Concepts that
are important in your essay so let's use
an actual example past exam question
from Cambridge University so the example
I've chosen is this discuss the extent
to which humans use negative feedback
and feed forward mechanisms to control
movement and this was from a
neuroscience paper back in 2012. so what
are the keywords there well the keywords
for me would be negative feedback feed
forward and movement so once you've read
the question and decided what the key
concepts are you need to now Define them
so in my introduction I would say Okay
negative feedback is something like an
automatic response to restore a change
from a set value then for feed forward I
might say something like it provides a
mechanism to predict future changes and
responses based on current sensory input
now movement is a bit tricky because
there's no point in just defining
movement as is because well everyone
knows what movement is what you can do
is Define the importance of movement why
is it important well for that you can
say something like movement is required
for survival by allowing us to run away
from predators and run towards our prey
so defining the key Concepts in such a
way immediately tells the reader you
know what this person knows what's going
on they can decide what's important in
the question and they know what those
features are so after you've defined the
key Concepts move on and outline what
your essay is going to cover and what
your argument is going to be now a lot
of students end up skipping this part
because they feel like they're just
going to repeat themselves later in the
essay however don't do that always
outline what you're going to cover to
set the examiner and the reader up to
essentially know what to expect so for
this example what would I write well I
would use one sentence to convey my main
message and the second sentence to
essentially talk about the key points
I'm going to cover that's going to lead
me or lead the examiner to that final
overall message so how would that look
in this example well sentence one where
you're conveying that overall message
might look like this feed forward is
used for Rapid movement and negative
feedback is used for slower automatic
movement so that's your overall message
and in sentence two you're going to tell
the reader or the examiner this is how
I'm going to get to that overall message
so the key points you're going to cover
you might say the essay will cover
movements utilizing feed forward
mechanisms negative feedback and those
utilizing both so definitely in your
introduction Define the key Concepts and
outline what your overall message is
going to be and what key points you're
going to cover
now let's talk about the main body this
can be very tricky for a lot of people
because they often end up overlooking
the big picture and the general ideas
and get lost in the nitty-gritty details
this again is why it's important to plan
and already outline the key points in
the introduction so for the main body my
advice would be to stick to three key
points select your best three key points
and focus on just that and devote one
paragraph for each key point so what's
the best way to structure each of these
paragraphs then well use the first
sentence of the paragraph to convey the
key point so as an example it might look
like this feed forward mechanism is key
for Rapid movement very short very
Snappy tells the examiner this is
exactly what this paragraph is going to
be about then in the second sentence
provide important scientific evidence
that backs up the point that you've just
made so that might look like this this
is shown by its importance in vestibular
ocular reflexes where the eyes move
equal and opposite to the head by
predicting the change needed so not only
have you just made the key points where
you've also batted up with scientific
evidence to add substance to that point
however don't stop at that go further in
your third sentence critically analyze
that piece of evidence essentially talk
about how good was that study that led
to that evidence is it valid is it
reliable were there any confounding
factors and importantly could it be
improved and the final sentence of your
paragraph you should always relate back
to the question so that might look like
this this therefore shows feed forward
mechanisms are utilized widely in Rapid
movements so think of the first and last
sentences as the bread of your sandwich
and the scientific evidence and the
critical analysis as the filling within
your sandwich this is one of the best
formulas for getting the top high marks
within your essays examiners are going
to love that you know evidence to
support your point and they're going to
love it even more when you actually
critically analyze that piece of
evidence two easy things that you can do
within the main body to actually spice
it up is use diagrams a lot of people
are scared of using diagrams because
they think you know what it's going to
take up a lot of time or it's not going
to be assessed as well as if I'd written
a good sentence that's just not true
diagrams can be very easy and quick they
convey a lot of information very quickly
to The Examiner because you have to
think that these people are mocking so
many essays in a day and they just want
to just quickly go through everything
and if they can see that you know what
this person has shown this diagram
therefore I'm pretty sure that they
understand what's going on here they're
much more likely to give you the mark
and move on to the next paragraph so for
example with negative feedback in that
paragraph that I'm talking about it I
might include a diagram rather than
going into detail in terms of how
negative feedback Works another good
thing that you can do within the main
body is using active subheadings so what
are active subheadings active
subheadings are essentially just a
sentence that summarizes your whole
paragraph by putting that right at the
beginning underlining it essentially
tells the examiner this is exactly what
the paragraph is going to be about that
again this is exactly like the diagram
in conveying a lot of information to the
examiner and the reader very quickly
right so now let's move on to the final
aspect of the essay which is the
conclusion so the conclusion has to
summarize your whole argument bring it
to a nice end and then give a verdict
it's essentially a grown-up version of
the introduction because if you think
about it in your introduction you're
just saying okay these are the key
points I'm going to be making then in
your main body you essentially spend all
your time flushing it out providing
evidence analyzing it and then now in
your conclusion you can finally give a
mature well-rounded response that
actually can assume that the reader has
read all the detail and evidence and you
can pretty much go to the Crux of the
problem and end it nicely so for example
in conclusion the evidence presented
suggests that humans utilize both feed
forward and negative feedback mechanisms
to control movement but for different
aspects feed forward for Rapid movement
where time delays of negative feedback
will be too costly and negative feedback
for automatic movements and for refining
movements right so there you have it
that was a worked example on how to
write the best scientific essay and
hopefully you get guys now have a very
good formula for writing those first
class essays if you've enjoyed this
video please give me a like and smash
that subscribe button and please do
share with anyone you think is going to
find this useful but that's it for me
for today and I'll see you guys next
time
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