It’s There, Look!

Students often are upset because they’ve got low marks.

The feedback says, they missed out important information. And they point to their essay.

It’s there! Look, it’s there! And it’s here! And it’s here!

It happens so often, we need to wonder why. What is it that stops the lecturer seeing what you’ve put in your essay?

The answer may be simple. You did not lead them from idea to idea in a way that helped them see your developing thoughts.

Imagine the reader as a great big lumbering bull.

And you’ve got to lead that bull across a swamp, and there are little stepping stones on the swamp. You need to lead the bull from one idea, one stepping stone, to another idea, another stepping stone. To keep your reader engaged, you need to show how one idea connects to the next.

The problem is, if the stepping stones are too far apart – the bull will fall in the mud. While they are struggling to get back out of the mud they are lost and confused.

That’s what’s happening in your essay.

You’re jumping from idea to idea, making those leaps too great for the reader, not joining the dots for them, not helping them go from “stepping stone” to “stepping stone” to “stepping stone”.

When they get lost, when they get confused, when they are “in the mud” they miss what you’re trying to say in the next few paragraphs.