How to write A Level Sociology Essay

Assessment

With reference to the present AEB syllabus, there are three main skills being assessed in your essays.

1. Knowledge and Understanding (9 marks)
2. Interpretation and Application (9 marks)
3. Evaluation (9 marks)

What Does This Mean?

What this means is that for writing an essay is that the content (studies, names of researcher, dates, figures, concepts, although important need to be organised coherently, applied to a variety of social situations and interpreted, and expressed in a critical fashion. You must be aware of the skills being highlighted in the question in order to use the appropriate skills in your essays. You should also practice writing essays regularly and develop a technique which addresses the skills required so that you can actually answer the question set. I hope that this handout should allow you to achieve this.

Stage One

Many students are too quick into diving into an answer. They have focused on certain key terms and ‘assumed’ what the essay requires from a quick look at the question. Instead, the question should be read a number of times.

Task One

With the title provided.

Analyze the question by underlining the key features in the essay title
Double underline the skills being assessed, e.g., describe and explain
Identify any terms or concepts contained in the question. These terms will need to be defined, i.e. concepts such as interactionists. Essay questions will also include terms, which highlight the skills being assessed, knowledge and understanding. E.g. (outline, explain the view, what do you understand, examine, describe, Interpretation and application, identify and illustrate, and Evaluation assess, criticise, how useful, how far, evaluate to what extent and so on.
In short, I view the skills like this...

Knowledge and Understanding: includes names of