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Unit 11: Writing skills

Throughout your life you will need to write e-mails, letters, web pages, blogs, essays and reports. Your written communication method and degree of fomality will depend on who you are writing to, and why. You will find additonal infomation with examples relevant to your course in your Learning Development Centre's GCULearn Community.

Essays and reports

What are essays?

Essays are "a short literary composition on a single subject”.

(Collins New English Dictionary (1997). London : HarperCollins, p. 253)

Quill and parchment

What are reports?

Reports are "to give an account of the results of an investigation”.

(Collins New English Dictionary (1997). London : HarperCollins, p. 655)

Essays and reports are formal methods of communication and require attention to detail and a good writing style.

Throughout your course you will be asked to write essays and reports. The guidance given in this section is general and not subject specific. You should always check the guidelines in your module handbook for detailed specifications for your subject. You'll find them on GCULearn.

There are 5 stages in preparing written assignments:

  1. interpreting the task (for a refresher see Unit 2 - Understanding the question)
  2. finding information (for a refresher see Unit 5 - Finding Information)
  3. planning and structuring your work
  4. writing
  5. proof reading and revision

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SMILE by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License