Undergraduate Writing Tips
The true skill in writing has to do with understanding the audience, the requirements of the document and the overall context of the situation. You need to know what the receiver of the message is capable of understanding, for example. And you may need to be aware of what the expectation from the receiver is about the message you’re delivering through the written communication channel.
That all sounds like a load of theoretical jargon so I’ll rephrase that in normal terms using the university undergraduate as an example. I didn’t make this one up though, it is from an Introduction to Management lecture on essay writing for undergraduates.
In business you need a concise writing style simply because the people you are dealing with are professionals and have an almost guaranteed background knowledge before reading your report. But also because nobody has time or the inclination to read a 50 page report when they should be reading a 6 to 8 page concise document that gives them the information they need to do their job effectively.
University at undergraduate level is different. At undergraduate level when you are asked to answer criteria in essays, reports and assignments the lecturer is aware many students can easily rote off terms without knowing anything about them. For example, the social contract or Fitt’s Law or Use Case Scenarios. A student can use these terms in a paragraph and sound very educated but the lecturer needs to assess how much an undergraduate understands. This is where credit marks turn into high distinctions because a lot of undergraduates under-answer! Trust me on this one, verbosity is your friend at university as long as you don’t get your facts wrong.
I’m quite often cited by other students on the verbosity of my writing style. Should it be more concise? At undergraduate studies – never. If an assignment is given a 5000 word limit it is the students mission to explain their understanding of the subject within the given parameters. And when it comes to assignments with no set guidelines of size except an approximate page or two pages then write to fill that space with as much as you know that is relevant. Don’t provide six concise lines for marking regardless of how well they answer the question. And don’t for a second believe when you mention a social contract that you don’t need to elaborate simply because the lecturer already knows about social contracts. The context is about discovering whether you know, and if you do know then how deep does your knowledge go?.
A superficial understanding of the subject receives a pass or a credit and a deeper understanding receives a distinction or a high distinction. This should really be obvious but to many undergraduates it has simply never been made clear. The good news is you can lift your game immediately from this simple bit of advice.
Lecturers don’t know what you understand or misunderstand. Its entirely your responsibility to put forward your understanding for the marker. I see so many people throw their effort away on subjects worth 70% in exams who believe concise is the right way to go. At university it isn’t. Be verbose, explain and elaborate.
