The full title of this workshop was: The Mechanics of Good Writing in the Arts and Humanities. Although my English degree is now coming to an end, I thought I would go along to a programme wide lunchtime workshop about writing, which took place on 3 March 2026, facilitated by Cindy Benton. This was one of a series of workshops that I attended with the intention of picking up any potential useful tips. I’m really glad I went, since there were some very good tips to be gathered.
What follows are some notes I made, which I’m sharing with permission. When I use quotes, I’m either quoting directly from Cindy, or from the resource that she shared during her session. I would also like to add that the tips shared here may be useful to students who are studying subjects other than the humanities. These notes may also be especially useful for students studying the Computing and IT undergraduate project module, who have to submit a significant report during the end of their degree.
The workshop aim was to focus “on the skills needed to develop good academic writing at the sentence and paragraph level, including how to avoid common sentence structure errors, constructing effective paragraphs, signposting, and using an appropriate academic tone.” Cindy shared an interesting quote from Bourdieu and Passeron (1994); “academic languguage is no-one’s first language”, which I have since tracked down to the following source: Bourdieu, P., Passeron, J.C., & De Saint Martin, M. (1994). Academic discourse, linguistic misunderstanding, and professorial power. Stanford University Press.
I really like this quotation, since it reminds me of some related research that relates to the idea of academic literacies (ORO), that was published by a former OU colleague. From memory, the point is that you’re not just learning about something, you’re also writing about how that subject is discussed or expressed. Put another way, there are a bunch of these hidden rules that you need to figure out.
In computing modules, writing isn’t something that is foregrounded. Students are not typically expected to write essays. Students are, however, expected to write reports, and include short discussions within TMA submissions. Whatever the subject, writing is important.
If you’re a computing student, you might want to skip over the following section about the essay, and start on the section that highlights the importance of the introduction.
The essay
I understand an essay to be a formal piece of writing that is “structured, evidence based, balanced and formal”. It is something that “gives an opportunity to evidence understanding”.
We were asked a question: what makes a good essay?
I noted down three elements of a good essay: presentation, content, structure.
Presentation is important, since it helps the readability. Presentation can be helped by the use of correct use of language, appropriate use of paragraphs which have a clear structure, and correct referencing.
In terms of content, what you include should be relevant. You need to include evidence to support any claims you make and analyse any evidence that you share. Everything that you include should relate back to the essay question.
Turning to structure, there should be a clear introduction, a set of related paragraphs which uses signposts and transitional sentences to move between them, a clear conclusion, and a set of references.
There are things you should avoid: basic language errors (punctuation and word choice), overly personal language, contractions, colloquial language, emotive language, generalisations, and rhetorical questions. The point that we were implicitly returning to is that essays are formal and dispassionate.
Introductions
It is stating the obvious that essays and dissertations should contain introductions.
An introduction sets out the main points you are going to cover. It shares some context to outline what a piece of writing is all about. A rule of thumb is that an introduction should take up between 5 and 10% of a document.
During an introduction, offer a sketch of your conclusion. A practical suggestion is to avoid restating the essay question but instead aim to give an answer to your question. You may write what is called a thesis statement (which is a phrase I’ve not heard of before). A thesis statement should give your answer direction and focus. It should tell the reader about the topic and point out what will be discussed.
In an introduction to a report, you should say something about what you have done or what you have found out. You may also say something about why and how you have done what you have done, whilst also sharing some pointers to sections that follow.
Paragraphs
Each paragraph should share one main point before moving onto the next point. A paragraph should open with a sentence that relates to the thesis statement, or what the paragraph is going to cover. This opening sentence is called a topic sentence.
An effective paragraph has relevance (it has cohesion, which means that it addresses a single point), it has unity and completeness (it develops a point fully before moving on), and coherence (sentences should flow from one to the other and organised in a logical order). An important point to remember is that if your paragraph contains detail that is not related to the aim of the paragraph, leave it out.
A well-known approach to working with paragraphs goes by the abbreviation PEEL: make a point, give evidence from your readings, explain how evidence relates to your point, and then add a linking sentence. Your linking sentence helps with flow and readability. It ensures a clear connection between everything that you have discussed, and can relate back to the question being answered. The explain bit is the analysis bit; it is the part of your paragraph that does a lot of the heavy lifting.
Reflecting on the application of PEEL, a bit of advice I was told by my own tutor was: “don’t end on a quote”. You need to explain what that quote it all about to your reader.
To conclude this section, a very practical tip was: if you’re struggling with your word count, ask whether every paragraph contributes to the overall argument. If not, then consider cutting it.
Signposting
Signposts guides a reader through your argument, essay or report. They can show how points and paragraphs are connected together. They can work at different levels: within sections, at the start of paragraphs (to highlight the point that is going to be addressed), and within sentences. Sentence level signposting makes use of words such as however, alternatively, additionally (adding more ideas). Signposts can also be used within the conclusion, which can offer a reminder of where you got to at the end of the report or essay. They can also work within your conclusion to offer a reminder to the reader about the route they took to get to the end.
Conclusions
Reflecting the introduction, the conclusion to an essay should be anything between 5 to 10% of the total word count. The aim of the conclusion is to bring different threads together, which are expressed in the paragraphs. A conclusion should also show how your essay has addressed the question, and state points that have been identified or shared. Don’t introduce anything that is new. Present your main point or points. Don’t surprise your reader.
A set of questions to ask were shared. These are: is our conclusion related to our essay question? Is it based on evidence? Does it bring thread and points together? Does it avoid adding anything new?
Sentence level errors
The next bit was a quick summary of some small errors that could come up in your writing.
Run on sentences: "are two (or more) sentences that could, and should, stand alone, but that have been spliced together without the proper punctuation or conjunctions" (the word ‘and’). (Thank you Cindy for that precise definition!)
Comma splices: This is where commas, rather than full stops, are used to connect entire sentences together. It can be solved be adding a full stop, or by using a semicolon. A semicolon is used to show that two separate sentences are closely related.
I find all this low level language stuff quite difficult, especially when terms such ‘clause’ and ‘conjunction’ are used. The following resource from the University of Waterloo, Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices offers some helpful guidance.
Another topic that was mentioned was the dreaded apostrophe. I have no shame in declaring that it took me a long time to properly figures this out, although it is inherently very simple. Essentially, the apostrophe relates to possession or ownership. This blog is Chris’s blog. It is my blog. The University of Sussex has a helpful page on The Apostrophe.
This resource is from a wider set of pages on the topic of punctuation, which is worth looking through.
Resources
The PowerPoint resource that accompanied the workshop contained a number of useful resources. I’ve pulled a number of them together and summarise them below:
- Essays (University of Hull): a detailed guide about essay writing. It also contains some useful video tutorials.
- Thesis statements (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): A handout that summarises what a thesis statement is, and what it can do for you. This is a page from a larger resource.
- Paragraph transitions (Las Positas College): A set of useful dos and don’ts (note the use of the apostrophe!)
- Punctuation (University of Sussex): The detailed resource that was mentioned earlier.
- Grammar and Punctuation (University of Bristol): A series of pages that you can dip in and out of, or go through a page at a time. It also contains a series of help quizzes.
- Writing Centre (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): A very thorough resource that covers a lot of topics.
And finally:
- OU Study Skills Booklets: always worth a look. Written in an accessible format.
Reflections
Even though I’m an experienced student who has been around the block a few times, this session reminded me that attending events, however familiar, still helps me to pick up new ideas. I came out of this session learning the terms: thesis statement, topic sentence, and comma splices. I still struggle with the idea of an argument when it comes to English essays, but I think I’m getting there.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments are duly given to the Arts and Humanities team that set up this programme of workshops, and to Cindy Benton (whose excellent suggestions for edits spared my grammatical blushes).