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Christopher Douce

Workshop: The Mechanics of Good Writing

Friday 6 March 2026 at 16:20
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Edited by Christopher Douce, Wednesday 18 March 2026 at 12:11

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:

And finally:

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).

Tags: writing, TM470, arts and humanities workshop, A335, arts and humanities, essay writing, essays, workshop
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Christopher Douce

Writing a TMA: one approach

Friday 2 December 2022 at 15:54
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This year I’m studying A230 Reading and Studying Literature from the OU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I’ve recently submitted my first TMA for A230. I quite enjoyed the process. I have no idea how I’ve done, but I’m hoping I’ll get a pass. 

This blog is a short summary of the approach that I took to write my first TMA. Without realising, I’ve adopted quite a structure approach which seemed to work for me. 

In some respects, this blog follows on from an earlier blog that reflects on my studying of an arts module: Unpacking a TMA question: tips from A111.

Part 1: The journey to the TMA

I began by a bit of productive procrastination. What I mean is that I began by sorting out all my study notes.

I have a A230 folder (a physical one) which is broadly organised in terms of time and weeks of study. I have a copy of the materials which I have ordered through the OU print on demand service. I like to have materials to look through, so I can take materials to a café without having to take my laptop and worry about internet connectivity. Plus, it’s easier to underline points with different colours of pen if I need to. 

At this point, I’ve read through the materials once; the weekly guides, the chapters in the blocks (the books that were sent to us), and the sections of the set text that we’ve been asked to read. In the case of A230, we’ve also been asked to read a copy of Othello, published by Oxford World Classics.

I create a fresh copy of the TMA question, by copy-pasting the TMA text from the assessment guide into a new Word document, and printing the whole document. I now have something I can annotate.

It’s time to create my word processing files.

On my laptop file store (which is backed up to the cloud), I have a folder called ‘modules’, and then a folder for each module that I’m studying. Within my A230 folder, I have one folder for each TMA. I also use this folder to save materials that have been sent to me by my tutor, so I have everything in one place. I create a blank TMA document, following the “submitting arts TMAs” guidance, making sure I have the right header, font size, and line spacing.

With my paper notes all sorted and an electronic submission file ready to go, it’s nearly time to get properly prepared to answer the TMA question. Before I do this, I have a sit down, have a read of the TMA (along with the set text), and make a whole set of pencil notes.

Part 2: Getting prepared

With my new TMA document open, following guidance from my tutor, I add a title and a references section, and make a note of the word count at the end of the document. Doing these things first ensures that I don’t forget the obvious.

My next step is to split the submission document into some temporary sections, even though the essay will be submitted as one main section (with an additional references section). These sections represent the three parts of the TMA question that I’m answering. I also made a note of the word budget for each of these sections, so I can get a feel for if I’m writing too much or too little.

I quickly re-read the module materials, playing particular attention to key headings, topics, and activities. The module activities there to help us to prepare for the forthcoming TMA. Although we can skip to the answers, it is a good idea to try to do them. I add some keywords that are used within the activities into the body of my solution document, just so I don’t forget about them.

My tutor has sent his tutor group a couple of useful documents that highlight some of the topics featured within the module materials. I copy these documents into my solution document, and edit them aggressively, distilling them so I have a summary of themes that may be useful to remember (or need to address) when writing my TMA. 

There are reasons why tutors run activities and talk about certain concepts during tutorials; they’re sometimes trying to give us a helpful steer. When attending tutorials, I tend to make loads of notes, most of which end up being unreadable. I look through these, and pick out the ones that look to be the most important, adding these next to the other points I have added to the TMA document.

I’ve done all this to pull a set of notes into one place; this way I don’t have to go looking for them when I start writing. I have three key headings, topics from the module materials, and heavily edited notes from tutorials, and a TMA covered with pencil scribble. To help to navigate my way through the Word document using the document navigator tool, I use the Word inbuilt headings.

My next step is to sort my references out. I add a set of references at the end of my TMA, getting the structure of each resource right by looking at the CiteThemRight website. It’s okay if I don’t use everything; I can always delete any references I don’t use or need. Besides, it’s good practice putting everything in the Harvard format.

Finally, I make a copy of my combined TMA submission document and notes document, so I can refer back to them later on if I need to.

Part 3: Writing the TMA

It’s time to start moulding the TMA. My tutor has given me some clear instructions. For the first TMA, it isn’t necessary to provide an introduction or a conclusion, but I might need to provide these with later TMAs.

I remember a bit of feedback from my A112 EMA, which was to make use of the PEEL technique for writing essays. 

PEEL is an abbreviation for Point, Evidence, Explanation and Linking sentence. I remember my EE811 tutor offered a similar bit of guidance about academic writing. Given the nature of their first assignment I’m writing, I don’t think I can (yet) make use of this specific approach, but if I were, I would be sketching out a set of points within my draft TMA document.

I refer back to the module materials, look through the set text again, and refer to some video materials that my tutor mentioned. I make sure that I reference everything carefully within the body of the TMA.

When I address a point that finds its way into the TMA, I delete my accompanying notes.

After quite a few cups of tea, and a bit of grocery shopping (a walk can help to put my thoughts in order), I think I’m done. I have three headings (one for each bit of the question), no remaining notes, and a TMA answer. I remove the three headings, leaving the ‘references’ section heading.

Part 4: Reviewing and submitting

After a couple of days have passed, I get a double spaced printout of my TMA (which is the format that the arts faculty suggest we adopt when we submit our TMA). I settle down at my desk, with another cup of tea, and a set of my favourite coloured pens and read everything back.

I correct a whole load of sentences that don’t make grammatical sense, scribbling on the paper, whilst resisting the temptation to rewrite everything.

When I’m done, I go to the word processed version and enact all the changes that I’ve noted. I make a note of the word count, save the document and then upload it to the eTMA system a couple of days before the TMA cut-off date.

The reason I submit it a few days before the cut off date is to take account of the potential of Sod’s law, which is: whatever could go wrong, will go wrong. 

Reflections

One thing I have done, but haven’t spent a lot of time on is the learning outcomes. Sometimes they are mentioned within a TMA in addition to being found within a module block. It’s important to revisit these too. Connection between the module learning outcomes and what the TMAs are assessing should be pretty clear. 

If I were doing a larger piece of writing, there would probably be a whole other section about structuring of my TMA (or EMA). With bigger bits of writing, I would have to find a way to structure my notes and to find quotes. I would also more vigorously apply the PEEL methodology. I might even give mind mapping a go, but that is not an approach I tend to gravitate to: I tend to prefer lists rather than spider diagrams. It all comes down to whatever works best!

Resources

There’s a whole host of resources about assignments, writing and study which can be found on the OU website. Here are some useful links.

Tags: a230, tma, tma preparation, tma writing, study skills, writing
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