How to get 70%+ on all University essays

Summary

The speaker presents an approach to academic essay writing designed to produce stronger, more engaging work—and potentially higher grades. He says the advice helped him earn consistently high marks during his master’s degree, but emphasizes that results require practice, time, and repeated revision. Watching the video alone cannot guarantee a particular grade.

Core mindsets

• Write to engage readers, not merely to display knowledge. Aim to make the work worthwhile to read, including for audiences beyond university markers.
• Write to influence how readers think. Rather than simply listing what you know, connect your argument to the concerns and priorities of your intended audience.
• Ask “So what?” Explain why the topic matters in a real-world or disciplinary context, what could improve if the issue is addressed, and what the consequences might be if it is ignored.
• Aim for four qualities:
  • Clarity: Make your meaning easy to understand.
  • Organization: Present information in a logical structure.
  • Persuasiveness: Support a coherent argument with valid points.
  • Value: Show how the work could affect readers’ thinking, decisions, or actions.
• Recognize that high marks demand substantial effort. The speaker recommends multiple rounds of proofreading and says the advice works best when actively applied.

Practical advice for writing

• Choose words deliberately. Word choices can convey the relevance or importance of evidence. Vary your vocabulary, avoid needless repetition, and do not use complicated words just to sound academic.
• Create a clear sense of stakes. Define the problem and explain its significance to the people or field concerned. Where appropriate, show the risks of inaction as well as the benefits of addressing the issue.
• Use sentence length strategically. Long, complex sentences can be tiring. Put especially important points in shorter sentences or at the end of a longer sentence, where they are more likely to stand out.
• Treat “critique” as evaluation, not just fault-finding. Assess the quality and implications of research, including its methods, design, data, and limitations. A basic understanding of research methods and statistics can make this easier.
• Organize around themes and arguments. Use subheadings, especially in longer essays. Build sections around the question or learning objectives rather than simply reporting one study after another.
• Compare and contrast evidence. Discuss areas of agreement, disagreement, debate, and uncertainty. This can make an essay more engaging and help develop a nuanced argument.
• Let the structure evolve. It is normal to discover missing topics, reorder paragraphs, or revise the argument while writing. Essay writing involves repeated iteration.
• Consider the narrative flow. Ask whether one argument leads naturally into the next so that the essay reads as a connected piece rather than a sequence of unrelated findings.
• Use current evidence thoughtfully. Recent research is useful, but newer does not automatically mean better. Consider relevance and study quality, and use older work when it provides stronger or more suitable evidence. If high-quality or recent research is lacking, state this as a limitation of the evidence base.
• Include and interpret data. Where relevant, report findings such as statistical significance, correlations, or effect sizes, and explain what they mean for your argument.
• Use visual material when it helps. Tables, graphs, and figures can summarize information and give readers a break from continuous prose. Cite them correctly. If you adapt or create a figure, make that clear and follow your university’s referencing rules.

Additional tips

• Read the essay aloud during proofreading, and ask another person to review it if possible.
• Use acronyms sparingly when they improve concision, and define them appropriately.
• Write objectively: evaluate the quality of evidence rather than making unsupported judgments that something is simply “good” or “bad.”
• Look at well-written research papers for examples of clear sentence structure.
• Allocate essay space according to the marks or importance assigned to each learning objective.
• Follow your university’s citation and referencing rules, and do not plagiarize.
• Check whether each sentence and paragraph can be made shorter without losing meaning.
• Start research with a suitable literature review to gain an overview and find relevant references.
• Use planning tools, such as Notion, if they help organize your work.
• Ask a knowledgeable, approachable lecturer for guidance when you are stuck.
• For particularly strong analysis, identify gaps or unexplained findings in the literature and, where justified, propose a possible explanation or hypothesis. Clearly label this as your own interpretation.

Suggested essay structure

1. Title

   • Make it concise but informative.
   • Clearly signal the subject, scope, and key relationship or issue being examined.

2. Introduction

   • Establish why the topic matters and create a clear sense of its stakes.
   • Move from broad context to the specific question, issue, or hypothesis—the “funnel” structure.
   • Provide enough background for readers to understand the essay’s focus.

3. Main body

   • Present and interpret the literature in a formal academic style.
   • Organize the discussion by themes, arguments, and learning objectives, using subheadings where appropriate.
   • Evaluate the quality of the evidence, report relevant findings, and compare or contrast studies.
   • Identify limitations and gaps in the research, and explain their significance to the intended audience.

4. Conclusion

   • Summarize the essay’s main findings or the overall state of the evidence.
   • Do not introduce new arguments or citations.
   • Highlight important limitations and restate the key gaps in the literature.
   • Briefly explain what could be gained by addressing those gaps, or what the consequences might be if they remain unresolved.

Speakers and sources featured

• Peter McAdam — the video’s speaker and essay-writing guide.
• Chicago Writing Program — cited as a source for writing principles.
• Larry McEnerney — referenced by the speaker as a key figure associated with the Chicago Writing Program; the name is uncertain in the auto-generated subtitles.