How effective are essays as an academic genre? The case of examinations

Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently focus on specific genres.* In this episode, we focus on the genre of essays. In particular, we discuss the use of essays in examinations. Engy Moussa (University of Cambridge) and I debate:the strengths and weaknesses of essays as an assessment toolmultiple ways to help students improve the quality of their essays*Examples include abstracts, blogs, book proposals, dissertations, emails, funding proposals, letters, online lectures, newsletters, pitches, preprints, podcasts, posters, reports, and white papers.Further listeningWe hope you found this episode rewarding. If so, you might find the following of particular interest:Dissertations and books: how are they related?On line lectures: Bart Hallmark on pitfalls and good practiceReferenceStella Cottrell, The study skills handbook (Palgrave)CreditsSound production: Bart Hallmark (who on this episode struggled nobly with poor recording quality!)Music: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber OrchestraSupport the showAbout the publisherThis episode is published by Frontinus Ltd. We're a communications consultancy that helps organisations and individuals to communicate scientific, professional, and technical content to non-specialist audiences. We provide consultancy mentoringediting and writingtrainingand work on presentations, bids and proposals, and publications (for example, reports and papers).To learn more about services or explore ways of working together, please contact us via our website, http://frontinus.org.uk/.