Essay Title

Discuss the impact of Brexit on trade and foreign direct investment in the UK.

Guidance on tackling your essay

I suggest that you address the question in the following way:

Stage 1 – broad reading

To answer the essay question, you will need to read widely around the topic. You need to find and read academic articles, mainly academic journal articles, relevant to the essay question. Few references are given below each essay question but this is not an exhaustive list, you need to do your own literature review.

Stage 2 – selecting relevant material

Having undertaken wide reading, you need to bring your ideas together. Try to make a list of the theories/concept/arguments you have identified and ensure that you understand them (this might mean doing some further work). What issues are interesting here – do all of the authors agree with one another?

Stage 3 – organising the material you have identified into an argument

This is a creative part which demonstrates that you are able to undertake ‘critical’ and ‘evaluative’ work. Your task is to convey that you have understood the available literature, bring in your own arguments and put them together in a meaningful and original manner (not
copying other people). You need to think about the logical way of grouping different ideas and how you can best convey that.

Stage 4 – drafting your essay

Essays take a long time to construct and everybody goes about it in a different way. It is likely that you will have to draft it and edit it a number of times. The first attempt may look very rough.

Stage 5 – polishing your essay

Edit, edit, edit. Check that your introduction refers to the question. Make sure your references are presented in the right format. Does your essay have a conclusion? What makes your work original and interesting?