Composing a geography essay, it's easy!

With the current global crisis with the coronavirus, the education system has been grounded in it's tracks and forced to retreat to online forms of learning which at its best is sufficient. Some students may want to push through that and gain the skills to compose a great geography essay which is particularly useful for a college student who wants the BEST possible mark! I have studied geography all the way through high school into college where I have written many essays from the global budget in a glacier to the effectiveness of management strategies in handling volcanoes and various other tectonic hazards. You get the idea it's a huge topic area with many different possible essays. By no means am I the best student at composing an essay, but I have been taught how things how to tackle them correctly especially under pressure. So if you are looking for a guide to tackle geography essays; sit back, relax and read.

The Question:

Exam boards across the UK vary their questions each year, however this is not an issue. The question will usually contain a command word. These may vary depending on the examination board but don't worry. Your exam board will have a list of all the command words on their website with definitions. My advise is USE IT! Yes the majority of your revision and work should be based upon consolidating your information before the final exam but taking some time to go over these command words will increase the odds in your favour considerable. I can't think of the number of times I've done practice questions and forgotten what the command word is asking of myself until I applied this extra but highly necessary piece of revision into my exam revision schedule.

Starting the essay:

My exam essay questions usually contain a topic of discussion or it is centred around something. When you start your essay this is the topic you want to discuss to begin with and use as much subject specific vocabulary as possible and if you can, use diagrams in your essay. They can help! Big Time! This is just the beginning of your essay there is lots more to come after this.

The middle section:

In geography essays there is usually more than just one area which can be discussed in your essay answer. For example if you have a question such as 'Examine the role of ground ice in the formation of one periglacial landform' you will want to start with the section above and discuss the role the of just the ground ice in the formation of one periglacial landform. Although when you move into the middle section of your essay, to access the best mark you will need to discuss other factors that may influence the formation of a periglacial landform as this will show to the examiner that you are discussing all the possible things in the time you have and marking your essay will hopefully be like a tick list as the examiner can clearly see that the content has been covered by doing this.

The forgotten part:

Most students when writing an essay focus too heavily on what I call an AO1 points which is basically what I have mentioned previously. What they should do to get the best possible mark out of their essay writing is too discuss AO2 factors, these are things which are not key points on a mark scheme but writing about them will allow you to bag maybe one, two or three marks which these days is the difference between a grade! This is, in my opinion the easier side to essay writing because it just takes a slight bit of explanation of knowledge of the area and you can very easily change the grade you read.

The conclusion:

In this part of your essay you will want to make a judgement by actually assessing the role of ground ice in this instance and comparing it to other factors and say whether it is the most important factor or actually other factors are just as important. Its important that you do this!

Overall:

Essay writing in geography changes, likewise actual geography does as well. With this way of essay writing I haven't gone wrong and haven't achieved anything less than a B. With some modification depending on how you write or the exam board you are with this structure to an essay is a great basis for you to not only learn but to also grow and become a better essay writer as time goes on.