Writing essays is a predominant part of the learning for many courses here at Oxford. This essay-writing guide is intended for students who want to learn more about the skills associated with crafting an essay, as well as those seeking out course-specific advice. This resource is particularly useful for incoming or first year students who want to learn more about planning and writing tutorial essays. If you are a prospective applicant you can read our guide for writing essays for admissions tests here.
The resource is split into four parts, shown below - The ‘General Advice’ section has information that can help you develop key skills, such as active reading and structuring an essay. Course-specific advice can be found under their division heading. For example, if you want information about writing a History essay, you can find the History guide page in the ‘Humanities’ section.
General Advice
- Reading and Note-taking
- Planning and structuring an essay
- Referencing
- The tutorial system and what to expect from a tutorial
Humanities
- Classics
- Classics and Modern Languages
- Classics and Oriental Studies
- Classical Archaeology and Ancient History
- English
- English and Modern Languages
- History
- History Ancient and Modern
- History and Modern Languages
- History and Politics
- History of Art
- Modern Languages
- European and Middle Eastern Languages
- Oriental Studies
- Philosophy
