AS Level Coursework

AS level coursework requires good writing skill as well as depth knowledge in the subject. In this writing we will try to figure out some of the important points in writing AS level essays.

1)      Organization of the material:  The writer should not waste the most powerful arrow of his quiver in the first paragraph. At the junior stages the students are told that the first paragraph should be the most impressive paragraph whereas the rest of the essay may be just a slip shod treatment. It is a wrong notion. The essay, in fact should unfold itself by stages and the most important argument should be reserved for the climax of the essay. The opening paragraphs are just introductory and can be compared to a lift which brings us to the first floor where our imagination is higher enough to take its flight. So the first paragraph is just an introductory one bringing us to the pith of the essay.

2)      Contemporariness of the matter: One of the most important purposes of the examiner is to see the capability of the student applying the theoretical knowledge to the practical purposes. The students must have critical sense of judgment as well as material enough to have the power of evaluation. Naturally enough essays must be afloat in the present circumstances. Historical perspective of the problem may be given, but it should be used as a link argument and not as the main argument. As far as it is possible illustrations from the present day of life, present day knowledge and the present day set circumstances should be given. But illustration should be relevant; sometimes the students go off the subject in order to refer to some of the current problem. There should be contemporariness of the subject matter as far as essay is concerned.

3)      Critical evaluation: Presentation of the fact in an essay is already up to junior stages. Maturity of outlook and scholarly attitude demands that the matter should be critically examined. Some students misunderstand the meaning of critical examination and wrongly think that the critical examination means just criticism of the topic. In fact, critical examination stands not only for the study of pros and cons (with a proper and clear emphasis upon the personal line of thinking), but also an attempt to delimit or limit the topic. It means that the writer will have to qualify the implications and connotation of the topic itself. By introducing the modifications, he sifts the bullion from the dross. He establishes the truth and lays down some limitations for the acceptance of the truth. Critical examination should not be given in the form of a categorical statement because that would mean nothing but just an expression of convictions without making an attempt to bring the reader round to his own point of view.

4)      Argumentation: In the problem essays the writer should take help of argument and argumentative language. By arguments we simply mean that the writer should come to an inference with the help of premises and premises may themselves be based upon the factual data.