Writing a technical essay is practically every student’s nightmare. The long hours put into researching, writing, and editing can be extremely exhausting — which is why students put it off so much. Since the summative essay is just around the corner, here is my guide to writing a technical essay to (hopefully) help you out a little bit.

  1. Read the Essay Brief

Reading through the essay brief will provide you with a better understanding of what you’re supposed to write about. Once you’ve done that, identify the key ideas that you’ll need to cover, this will help you structure out your points in the essay.

  1. Choose a Good Subject

This is extremely crucial as a good subject choice will allow you more flexibility in your writing. Make sure you can produce an in-depth, detailed essay regarding your chosen topic as this will show your tutors that you have a concise and thorough understanding of it (in other words go for more depth rather than breadth). If you’re unsure about your choices, approach your tutor. They will provide you with proper feedback and may even give you some tips along the way!

  1. Start finding articles

Websites like ScienceDirect and Wiley are great for article-hunting. A good technical essay should have about 15 to 25 references. Don’t forget you can also use the references from the articles themselves! Download them and highlight information you find relevant, this will help you keep track of what you can write about in your essay.

  1. Plan!

Under ‘Essay Skills’ in BlackBoard, you can find an assignment task planner. Using this will help you allocate your time properly for research, structuring your essay, writing, and re-editing. There are also other tools that can help you as well so explore them!

  1. Starting Your Essay

Start writing your essay from the introduction or the essay body. The abstract is practically a summary of your entire essay, so save that and the conclusion for last. You should have a formal writing style, and I would recommend citing your sources as you go; it makes your life easier, trust me.

  1. Technicality vs. Simplicity

Striking a balance between technicality and simplicity is critical. Having too many technical terms will likely confuse the reader, and even digress them from what you were trying to say. A technical essay is a means of educating others; My advice is to write it so that people outside your field can understand and learn from it.

Happy writing! Don’t be shy to ask your seniors and tutors for help.

 

Writing a Technical Essay

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