Academic essay

Academic essay

The academic essay is your chance to provide the selection committee with an insight into the quality of your writing skills.

Depending on the competition, you will need to write one or more academic essays (or submit abstracts of formerly written texts). The topics given are usually connected with the area of study for which you are applying.

Like any other essay-writing, academic essay-writing has certain rules (structure: introduction, body, conclusion) that need to be followed.

Useful advice

• Make sure your writing is clear and structured
• Be careful with citations and plagiarism
  • Academic writing usually involves using different resources (reference literature, Internet resources etc.) and citing other people’s works. Your sources must always be clearly stated, and citation rules strictly applied (using quotation marks, inserting footnotes or end-text notes, etc.).
  • Avoid long citations and paraphrasing

Samples of academic essays

• Example Academic Essay
  (Source: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk; English)
• Sample Academic Essay
  (Source: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~hschmidt; English)
• An academic essay example - an essay about essays
  (Source: http://ec.hku.hk; English)

Additional information

• Academic essay preparation courses
  • How to Write a Successful Application weekend workshop, Institute for the Development of Education
• Academic essay preparation books
  • IRO library - Institute for the Development of Education
• Internet resources
  • Academic Writing Centre, Central European University
    (Source: http://www.ceu.hu; English)
  • How to write a well-structured essay (Source: http://www.znanje.infostud.com; Serbian)
  • How to Write a Structured essay (Source: http://www.eastchance.com; English)
  • Writing academic essays and reports (Source: http://www.aber.ac.uk; English)
  • The academic essay 
    (Source: http://www.dtls.cqu.edu.au; English)
  • Some general advice on academic essay-writing
    (Source: http://www.utoronto.ca; English)