Scholarly Sources | Examples & Explanation

A scholarly source is an article, webpage, or book written by an expert in the field of study. They use the most up-to-date research available and support their claims with evidence.

Anyone conducting research should aim to use scholarly sources in their work and should follow the best practices of scholarly writing. This involves:

  • Identifying the different types of sources
  • Locating sources for your research
  • Making judgments about the credibility and relevance of sources
  • Using the sources in your text and citing them properly
Tip
QuillBot’s Notepad can help you take online notes and keep track of relevant source information throughout the research process.

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How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis | Tips & Examples

Rhetoric, the craft of effective, persuasive speech and writing, has been studied for millennia. Rhetorical analysis looks at how something is expressed rather than what is being expressed. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are among the many great philosophers and writers who have written about the topic.

A rhetorical analysis, therefore, examines techniques employed by the author or speaker that are designed to sway the audience’s opinions or feelings. Perhaps the best-known technique is the rhetorical question, in which the questioner uses a question as a rhetorical device to have an effect on their audience.

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How to Write an Essay | Advice & Examples

There are many types of academic essays, and they are a central feature of education from junior high school right through to postgraduate studies. So learning the skills required to write effective, focused, high-value essays is definitely time well spent.

Although they vary in length and type, there are certain aspects to essay writing that are common to all. Whatever the length or type of essay, you will need an effective process to make your writing predictably good.

There are three main stages to follow:

  • Prepare: It can be tempting to skip or skimp, but that will never be a good idea. Decide on your topic (if it is set for you, then decide on your response to the prompt), do your research, and create your essay outline.
  • Write: Set out your argument, backing it up with references to source texts and appropriate quotations, and write your introduction and conclusion.
  • Review and revise: Perhaps the least popular part of the process. Often we are sick of the sight of the essay when we finish. But points can be lost and mistakes missed if we don’t carefully read and check our work.

This guide will take you through the writing process with examples and annotated guides to help you.

Tip
QuillBot’s free online Notepad can help you keep track of your notes during the essay-writing process.

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How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

A literary analysis essay seeks to explore and analyze a piece of writing (or, in some syllabi, a visual text like a film, advertising poster, or graphic text). In most cases, the text in question will be a novel, play, poem, short story, or a nonfiction text.

It is easy to fall into the trap (especially in examinations) of summarizing or explaining what the text says, but this is not what a literary analysis is. Rather, a literary analysis focuses not on what the author says but on how they achieve the effect on the reader that they do. So if a text amuses, or frightens, or intrigues the reader, we are concerned with understanding how the author has achieved that.

The essential preparation for writing a literary analysis text is to be familiar with the text being analyzed. In an examination where the text is unseen, this requires the courage and the discipline to spend adequate time reading and re-reading the text before writing.

Where the text is already familiar to you, then the better you know it, the better chance you have of writing a good analysis of it.

Once you are familiar with the text, then you need to follow certain steps to make sure your essay is effective. Your essay should comprise the following sections:

  1. An introduction that sets out the thesis statement and the approach your essay will take.
  2. The main body paragraphs, each introduced by a topic sentence and dealing with a discrete idea.
  3. The conclusion that neatly sums up the argument and how you have demonstrated your main point.
Essay outline example
Prompt: “In A Streetcar Named Desire, how does Williams bring the setting of the play vividly to life?”

Thesis statement: The initial stage directions before Scene One begins use a wealth of descriptions that appeal to our sense of sight, smell, touch, and sound.

Body paragraph topic sentences:

  1. The visual elements of the scene setting bring not just the look of the scene to life but contribute to how the play communicates to its audience.
  2. Hearing is appealed to by the mention of “tinny piano” music.
  3. The sense of smell is invoked by talk of coffee and bananas.
  4. Our sense of touch responds to the description of the “warm breath of the river.”
Tip
QuillBot’s online Notepad can help you take notes and plan your literary analysis essay. It can also help you catch grammar and spelling mistakes and rephrase sentences for clarity.

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How to Write a Narrative Essay | Tips & Examples

Unlike an analytical essay, a narrative essay tells a story. Usually, this is a personal story about your own experience (although it can be fictional, too). As is the case with a descriptive essay, this type of essay allows for more creativity than most academic writing.

The narrative essay is an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to articulate events and circumstances in engaging and creative ways. The structure is determined more by narrative flow than by logical progression.

Narrative essays are most common in high school, and apart from composition classes in some university courses, you are unlikely to encounter them after high school. Some college application processes also give you the opportunity to write a narrative essay.

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License or Licence | Spelling, Explanation & Examples

The word license or licence can be spelled differently according to its meaning and whether you are using American English or British English. In American English, license is the only spelling for both the noun and verb. In British English, the noun is spelled licence and the verb license.

License or license in a sentence examples
Sadly for all James Bond fans, there is no such thing as a license/licence to kill in real life!

One of the best income sources for musicians is when they are able to license/license their music for TV commercials.

Getting your license/licence to drive is a modern rite of passage in many cultures.

Note
There are some other words that can help you to decide the correct spelling in British English. The word that is easy to remember is advise or advice, because they are pronounced differently. Advise [ad-vize] is the verb, and advice [ad-vice] is the noun.

This can help with practise (verb) and practice (noun), as well as license (verb) and licence (noun).

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Backward or Backwards | Spelling & Definition

Backwards and backward are two different spellings of basically the same word. As an adverb, both ways of spelling the word are acceptable in American English and British English, although there is a strong preference for backward in American English. In British English, backwards is prevalent, but the preference is not as strong.

As an adjective, only backward is recognized as a standard spelling in both American English and British English.

Backward or backwards in a sentence examples
Sci-fi fans love the idea that you can travel backwards/backward in time, with all the potential for drama and disaster that it brings.

It was a classic mistake—looking backwards/backward instead of paying attention to the road ahead.

Sean started to panic as the current was sweeping him backwards/backward no matter how hard he paddled the kayak.

Note
There is a group of word pairs that have subtle spelling differences in American English and British English, including:

You can use the QuillBot Grammar Checker, which has selectable language regions, to make sure you have the correct spelling of “backwards” or “backward” and all these other examples.

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Skeptical or Sceptical | Spelling, Definition & Examples

In American English, the correct spelling of the adjective is skeptical. In British English, there is no dominant spelling, although sceptical is probably more widely used in academic writing.

Skeptical vs sceptical in a sentence examples
It’s a thin line between being healthily skeptical/sceptical and falling down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

Although I was deeply skeptical/sceptical about it, the collagen drink had a near-miraculous impact on my arthritis.

It doesn’t pay to be too skeptical/sceptical, because it can suck all the joy out of your life.

Note
Even in the UK, people might describe themselves as a skeptic, despite using the spelling sceptical in most circumstances. This tends to be the accepted spelling for the Skeptic movement.

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The Five Main Essay Types | Quick Guide & Examples

The simple word essay describes quite an extensive range of document types. They vary in length, structure, and purpose, but they all share some commonalities: the language used should be formal academic English, and they should be carefully planned to ensure they are cohesive and purposeful.

Some essays are designed to explore a topic or area of study, while others focus on persuading the reader of the author’s point of view. Essays are usually set by academic institutions to test one or more of a student’s skills. There are four main types of essay commonly required.

Types of essay
Essay type Skills tested Example prompt
Argumentative Using research to form an opinion
Constructing an argument based on evidence
Does the prevalence of social media have a positive or negative impact on adolescent mental health?
Narrative Presenting an engaging narrative
Creative use of language
“Character is forged in adversity.” To what extent has this been your experience?
Expository Subject knowledge
Clear communication
Explain the impact of antibiotics on medical procedures in the 20th century.
Descriptive Creative use of language
Describing sensations
Describe your most precious possession.

High school and university essays might often include textual analysis, especially when studying literature.

Note
Examination essays, written under supervision within a strict time limit, usually without access to research material, require additional skills. But they also share the elements described in this article for essays written outside of exam conditions.

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Chili or Chilli | Definition & Examples

How to spell chili can be a bit of a hot topic! There are two popular options, chili (the most common spelling in American English) and chilli (mainly found in British English, including most Commonwealth countries apart from Canada). This applies equally to the spicy pepper and, for example, a dish like chilli/chili con carne.

Chilli or chili in a sentence examples
After a three-week trip to India, Adele thought she might have become addicted to chilli/chili sauce, and she added it to almost everything she ate!

The first time my brother saw a whole raw chilli/chili pepper for sale, he bought it and took a bite as he walked home. It wasn’t a mistake he would make again!

Although popular in the US, the chilli/chili dog has never caught on in the UK.

Note
In American English, the word chili on its own is most commonly used to describe the stew-like dish made (typically) of beef, tomatoes, and beans and seasoned with chili powder. In most other cases, chili is used as part of a compound noun (e.g., “chili powder,” “chili sauce”).

The term “chili peppers” is sometimes used to refer generically to any number of small red or green spicy peppers. However, it is more common in the US to refer to these peppers by their specific names (e.g., “jalapeño,” “cayenne,” “poblano”).

In British English, chilli is commonly used on its own to refer to a small spicy pepper (e.g., “Would you pick up a chilli at the store?”). This use is not common in American English.

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