Essay Writing Tips #1
Planning

• Read the essay question carefully and understand what it is asking you to do– all questions have at least 2 sub-questions.
• Notice if the essay question is asking you to acknowledge the networked environment or the impact of commercialization.
• Read the literature extensively –you need at least 10 academic references in the essay.
• Let your answer/explanation/essay structure emerge from the literature.

Writing and Analysis

• Do not repeat the lecture notes – the lecture notes do not answer the essay question.
• Explain, analyse and make connections between concepts and theories
  – do not just describe; and nothing is ‘obvious’.
• The essay question should be answered based on your interpretation of the literature and the different theories – not based on your personal opinion.
• Combine information from many academic sources (books and journal articles).
• Use at least 10 academic references
• Avoid describing examples from the news in detail – this essay is about the discussion of the literature.

Structure

• Avoid long introductions – get to the point quickly.
• Do not divide the essay in sections with separate headings – this disrupts the flow and coherence of the discussion.

Common mistakes

• Limited evidence of reading and too much reliance on few sources
• Factual and theoretical inaccuracies
• Answering only half the question
• Misunderstanding the question
• Lack of clarity in the writing and the argument
• Assuming something is ‘obvious’ when it is not
• Inaccurate referencing
• Plagiarism and poor academic practice

Essay Writing Tips #2

Below you can find some tips about how you can address each essay topic. Please note that these tips refer only to some of the main points that need to be discussed in each question. You need to decide how to develop your arguments. The quality of your essay will be judged based on the following:

• The accuracy and originality of your argument
• The research and reading – how extensively you have read about the topic
• Your engagement with the reading, e.g. how well you synthesise the different theories and how well you support your arguments with theory.

Essay questions

6. It is often argued that in the case of crime news, journalists fail to show a factual representation of the world out there. Instead, they promote and reproduce the interests and agendas of official sources and institutions. Do you agree with this statement? Support your answer with theoretical evidence from the relevant literature.

For this question you should explain the problems with the media-source symbiotic relationship and how this manifests itself in the case of crime news. You could answer this question by explaining that by relying on official sources such as police departments and courts, journalists end up reporting crime through the prism of these  sources only. This means that the voices of other actors (such as victims or organizations that may offer a different view of why a crime happened) may be omitted.

NOTE: it is not required to discuss moral panics.

Use reading from lectures 3 and 7