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ECOP1001 ECONOMICS AS A SOCIAL SCIENCE
GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

1. INTRODUCTION
An essay is an exercise in individual expression, and the following comments should NOT be taken as
describing an idealised ‘blueprint’. Rather, they are intended to give you some general guidance for
preparing your essays. Within this framework there is considerable scope for the development of
your own personal style.

2. PREPARATORY READING
Preparing an essay is a research task. It cannot be done by relying only on the readings listed for a
topic. It is also expected that your university essays will show more sophistication than work done in
high school. Nor should you rely on high school texts as references.
It is usual to read some journal articles and/or book chapters before writing an essay. Sometimes
references will be suggested by lecturers. On other occasions no references will be specified, in
which case a starting-point could be the suggestions for additional or supplementary readings listed
on Canvas sites for specific topics. The important point is that on all occasions you should search the
library online for relevant material. Thus, even if some references are suggested, it is best to look
for other sources.
Books and journal articles should be the principal reference sources for your essays. In hunting out
sources, start by searching the library’s databases by subject and keyword.
You should remember that your own judgement, in selecting relevant
references, is of crucial importance.

3. WRITING A DRAFT
There are various opinions about the best method of synthesising your own views with the
knowledge culled from reading the works of other authors. Some contend that you should not begin
writing the essay until you have read and taken notes on several book chapters and journal articles.
Others contend that you should write an early draft, then read further chapters and articles, and
modify the earlier draft in the light of this reading. Which method is best depends on the nature of
the topic and your familiarity with it, and partly on personal preference. However, it is generally a
good idea to begin early to write a draft or at least an outline of your essay. This process helps to
develop your ideas and a framework to present your argument. Further reading can then be
considered in terms of your framework which can be modified, if necessary. If you read too many
references at first, assimilation and coordination of ideas becomes very difficult, and you may end up
with an essay full of disconnected points.

4. RELEVANCE
Of course, an essay MUST be relevant to the topic set. Equally important, it should be demonstrated
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to be relevant, in the sense that the analysis must be explicitly applied to be specified question.
Particularly undesirable is the tendency of some students to see a particular phase in the question
(such as “monetary policy” or “enterprise bargaining”) and then to write down everything they know
on the subject.

5. QUOTATIONS
An essay should not be merely a summary of ideas from a handful of references. In particular an
essay should not be constructed around a series of quotations from previous authors, even if the
quotations are acknowledged. It is your essay and it should be based on your assessment of the
topic in question. In this light, quotations from other works should be ONLY introduced as
supplementary evidence to illustrate your research and analysis.
If you do quote another author, you must provide not only the name of the author, but the year the
work was published, and the page number on which the quoted text can be found. For example:
“……….” (Chester 2024: 190). See sections 10 and 14 below for more details on referencing.

6. ORGANISATION
Clear and logical organisation is characteristic of a good essay. An unsystematic presentation
suggests you are unable to arrange your thoughts to present the logical flow of an analysis to
answer the essay question. Conversely, a well-organised answer suggests your ability to deal
systematically with the topic. Many students fail to carry out this relatively simple step, and they
lose marks unnecessarily.
A well-organised essay should take the following form:
(a) Introduction. Essay questions are open to several interpretations so it is useful to outline
the structure you adopt, to answer the question, at the outset. This will help you determine
how to balance the material presented to answer the essay question. The introduction
should alert the marker to the path along which you will be answering the essay question.
(b) The main body of the essay. Here the emphasis should be on the systematic development
of your argument and consideration of counterarguments. On every topic there are several
different views. It is preferable to present your consideration of alternative views at an early
stage of the essay and to outline their relative strengths and weaknesses.
(c) Conclusion. The strands of your argument should be brought together in a conclusion to
complete your essay. This should not be a summary of the preceding sections. The
concluding section should present the implications/consequences of your argument.

7. PARAGRAPHS
Each paragraph should present one idea but not so narrowly that paragraphs become one or two
sentences. For example, the one idea might be “Expansionary fiscal policy can help to reduce
unemployment”. The paragraph would go on to say what fiscal policy is, why it might generate jobs
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and what obstacles may need to be faced.
When you have finished the first draft of an essay, read to see if each paragraph can be
summarised by one sentence and that they form a clear sequence for the whole essay. If not,
some reconstruction of the essay is probably needed.

8. LENGTH
A maximum length will be specified for each essay. This is not only to make the task of the marker
manageable, but also to provide practice in writing concisely. You should not exceed that length.
Generally, essays that are more than 10% below or above the required length will incur a mark
penalty.

9. GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND STYLE
Proper grammatical construction and careful punctuation is essential for an effective essay. How you
express your ideas is just as important to your mark as the content of your essay. This requirement
takes time. It will usually mean rewriting and checking of sequential essay drafts in order to get a
carefully polished final version.
It is also important to develop your own clear and effective means of expression. This inevitably
involves some emulation of that which you read, but the process should be critical and selective.
Above all, express your points as simply as possible. Split up unnecessarily long sentences into
shorter ones. For example, instead of saying ‘however’ in the middle of a sentence, use it to begin a
new sentence.

10. CITATION, PARAPHRASE AND PLAGIARISM
Your essay is likely to draw on empirical evidence or particular arguments developed by other people
(e.g. “J.M. Keynes emphasised that profit expectations are volatile”). In all of these cases you must
clearly cite the source you have used (see section 14).
A related matter concerns paraphrasing. Paraphrase is the process of summarising arguments you
have read in book chapters and journal articles. Many students copy selected phrases and sentences,
and intersperse them with a few words of their own. This is to be avoided: it may be considered as
plagiarism. A good paraphrase requires that you reflect on what you have read and write your
interpretation wholly in your own words.
Of course, plagiarism - copying from other works without acknowledgement - is totally
unacceptable. Intentional plagiarism is deceitful: it is a violation of the educational process.
Unintended plagiarism may also occur if you are inexperienced in essay preparation. To avoid
plagiarism, a good piece of advice is not to write with a book/journal/website open: otherwise there
is a strong tendency to reproduce the author’s words rather than your own. So read, close the
book/journal/website, and then write. Of course, you can then go back and re-read, repeating the
process, if this helps your understanding. Further, if you make notes from a source before you start
drafting your essay, you must be careful to be clear in your notes about what, if anything, you have
copied down word-for-word. If you do copy anything word-for-word, make sure that you put quote
marks around these words, and note down the page number, author etc so that you don’t
unintentionally put a phrase, or sentence, written by another author in your essay with appropriately
referencing your essay. You must never download material from a Web site and cut-and-paste to
form part of your essay.
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The official policy of the University of Sydney is that essays containing plagiarism (intentional or
accidental) will be referred to the Faculty’s Academic Integrity Adviser for disciplinary proceedings.
You should study the plagiarism examples below very carefully, so that you are very clear about
what constitutes plagiarism, and how to avoid it.1

PLAGIARISM EXAMPLE NO.1 : Use of verbatim (word-for-word) quote with no quote marks, and no
citation

PLAGIARISM EXAMPLE NO.2 : Verbatim quote with no quote marks; acknowledgement of author,
but no year/page no details of quote

PLAGIARISM EXAMPLE NO.3 : Appropriate citation, but use of verbatim quote without quote
marks

1 These plagiarism examples are adapted from materials originally developed by Dr Damien Cahill in 2010 for the course ECOP1004
Economy and Society.
Source text:
“A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere” (Polanyi 2001: 74).

Plagiarism in student essay:
A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere.

Not plagiarism:
According to Polanyi (2001:74) “a self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional
separation of society into an economic and a political sphere”.
Source text:
“A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere” (Polanyi 2001: 74).

Plagiarism in student essay:
Polanyi argues that a self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation
of society into an economic and a political sphere.

Not plagiarism:
Polanyi (2001:74) argues that “a self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional
separation of society into an economic and a political sphere”.
Source text:
“A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere” (Polanyi 2001: 74).

Text in student essay:
Polanyi (2001: 74) argues that a self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional
separation of society into an economic and a political sphere.

Not plagiarism:
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PLAGIARISM EXAMPLE NO.4 : Appropriate citation, but lack of quote marks – the changing of the
word “demands” to “requires”, and leaving out the word “institutional” does not negate the need
for quote marks

PLAGIARISM EXAMPLE NO.5 : Not plagiarism, as the student essay contains the appropriate
citation, and uses quote marks where appropriate

11. DEFINITIONS
Most essay questions require some terms to be defined. This should be done as early as possible
although a series of definitions is not an essay. Moreover, you can normally assume that the reader
has some knowledge of the subject. Thus, it is not usually necessary to define basic concepts;
whether you understand them or not will be clear to the reader/marker by the way you apply the
concepts to the question. The general rule here is ‘don’t be pedantic.’

12. DIAGRAMS, MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICAL TABLES
Some parts of economic theory use mathematical and diagrammatic presentations. Where you
consider this to be useful you may introduce maths and/or diagrams into an essay. The main point
is that the relevance of such material should be explicitly pointed out in the text of your essay. The
same applies to tables of statistical data. If their relevance is not demonstrated then maths,
diagrams and tables add nothing to the essay.

13. A POLITICAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
A political economic approach makes certain demands that are not made in other approaches to
writing. Here are three examples which do not satisfy these demands:
Polanyi (2001: 74) argues that “a self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional
separation of society into an economic and a political sphere”.
Source text:
“A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere” (Polanyi 2001: 74)

Text in student essay
Polanyi (2001: 74) argues that a self-regulating market requires nothing less than the separation of
society into an economic and a political sphere.

Not plagiarism
Polanyi (2001: 74) argues that “a self-regulating market” requires “nothing less than the institutional
separation of society into an economic and a political sphere”.
Source text:
“A self-regulating market demands nothing less than the institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere” (Polanyi 2001: 74)

Text in student essay, not plagiarism:
Polanyi (2001: 74) argues that capitalism leads to an “institutional separation of society into an
economic and a political sphere”.
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1. “Tariffs went up in the 1920’s”. This is true, but if it is left at that it doesn’t inform
the reader of the process by which the decision was made to raise tariffs. Who
made the decision, under what circumstances and under what pressures?

2. “Australia’s high tariffs should be reduced in order to make industry more efficient”.
Such a statement is naive unless the context also shows an understanding of the
historical reasons for high tariffs in Australia, and the political and economic
difficulties of implementing such a policy.

3. “Rapacious multinational companies are exploiting third world economies”. Maybe,
but polemics are no substitute for arguments and evidence in a university essay.
Ultimately, the aim of a political economic approach is to attempt to understand economic events
in their social and political context. For example, you might ask questions like: How has the
economic analysis been influenced by a political position or by particular assumptions about
society? What are the groups with vested interests in a certain event? What is the balance of
forces leading up to a particular outcome? Who wins and who loses? You should also aim to
provide evidence to substantiate or illustrate your argument.

14. REFERENCING METHODS
References to all your sources should be acknowledged, whether explicitly quoted or not. Also, a
complete list of references cited in the text should be included at the end of your essay. Note: This
reference list is NOT included in the required word limit for an essay. There is no hard-and-fast rule
about the number of references which should be consulted and listed. As a rule of thumb, less than
half a dozen is definitely too few for a full length essay. What is appropriate depends on the nature
of the topic. It is not legitimate to ‘pad’ the list with works your have not consulted: markers can
usually identify where this is done and will reduce the marks given for the essay.
There are several methods for handling referencing. Whichever you choose, you must be
consistent. Some University departments recommend the Oxford system or the Chicago system,
which requires footnotes giving full detail of each reference cited and the repetition of all those
details in the bibliography. The simpler method is the Harvard referencing system and this is what
you should use for essays for this Unit of Study. This system requires you to prepare a complete
reference list of all works cited in the text, and to cite each in the text by its author and date. For
example:
The empirical evidence suggests that many firms can be relocated without any loss of
profitability, as noted by Cameron and Clark (1996: 48). However, Archibald (2001: 72)
argues that the effects on employment in the recipient region may be relatively minor
because of the low value of regional multipliers.

Then, at the end of the essay, put the heading References and list all references cited in the text of
your essay alphabetically by author family name, as follows:
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Archibald, G.C. 2001. ‘Regional Multiplier Effects’, Oxford Economic Papers, 25 (2): 22-45.
Cameron, G.C., and Clark, B.D. 1996. Industrial Movement and the Regional Problem,
Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
NOTE: In the case of a book the information given is as follows:
(i) author’s name and initials, (ii) year of publication, (iii) title of book (in italics, (iv) place of
publication, and (v) publisher’s name.
For example: Fusfeld, D. 2001. The Age of the Economist, Boston: Addison-Wesley.
In the case of a journal article, the information given is as follows:
(i) author’s name and initials, (ii) year of publication, (iii) title of article in single quote marks,
(iv) name of journal (in italics, (v) volume and issue number (where applicable), (vi) page
numbers of the journal.
For example: Hamilton, D. 2003. ‘The Case for Fair Trade’, Journal of Australian Political Economy,
48 : 60-72.
In the case of a book chapter from an edited book, the information is as follows: (i) name and
initials of the author of the chapter, (ii) year of publication, (iii) title of the chapter in single quote
marks, (iv) name and initials of book editor(s), (v) title of the book (in italics,
(vi) edition number (if appropriate), (vii) place of publication, (viii) publisher’s name, (viv) page
numbers of the chapter:
For example: Jones, E. 1997. ‘Government Intervention’, in Argyrous, G. and Stilwell, F. (eds),
Economics as a Social Science: Readings in Political Economy, 3rd edition, Prahran: Tilde University
Press, pp.29-31
Where reference is made to more than one work by any author in any one year, they should be
identified as follows: Brown, A. 1983a, Brown, A. 1983b, and so forth.

15. USING INFORMATION FROM THE INTERNET
Where information is drawn from the internet, the full website address (URL) should be
presented in your list of references, following the name of the author (where available) and title
of the item (in italics). You should also include the date on which you accessed the information.
For example: Argy, F. 2003. Achieving Equality of Opportunity, Evatt Foundation,
http://evatt.labor.net.au/publications/papers/96.html [Accessed 17 March 2007]
Note that internet information may be of questionable validity, because it is not always subject to
the same academic review as information in published books and journals. So this source should be
used sparingly. You can use Wikepedia for background research, and as a guide, if you find it
useful but you should NOT use it formally as a reference for your essay.

16. FOOTNOTES
Footnotes should be used sparingly, it at all, for points ancillary to the main argument. Some authors
use large numbers of footnotes but this practice should be avoided. If a point is not directly relevant
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to the theme you are developing in the essay it is usually better omitted. If it is important, then
develop it in the text of your essay.

17. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL TERMS
For bibliographical material some abbreviation is possible using Latin terms. The following are some
of the most common:
op.cit. means “in the work cited”. This can be used to refer to a work when it is cited for a second
or subsequent time in the essay, so long as there is no reference to other works by that
author in the meantime.
ibid. means “in the same place”. This can be used for immediately sequential citations to the
same work.
sic. means ‘so; thus; in this manner”. On occasion an error or peculiarity occurs in a passage
you wish to quote. So that this error or peculiarity shall not be thought a mis-type or mis-
spelling, (sic) can be inserted after the relevant work or phrase.

18. CHECKING
Always read through the final version of your essay before submitting it, to check that there are no
grammatical errors, punctuation problems or typographical errors. This is very important, because
failure to do so results in the essay appearing slip-shod and losing marks unnecessarily.
Keep both an electronic of each essay before submitting it.

19. EVALUATION
Each essay will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
INTERPRETATION AND RESEARCH
1. Relevance of answer to question
2. Effective use of evidence
3. Critical use of scholarship
4. Extent of research
5. Development and originality of argument
PRESENTATION
6. Organisation and structure
7. Clarity and originality of expression (vs. paraphrase, summarizing)
8. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, proof-reading
9. In-text referencing, footnotes, bibliography

20. GRADES
Essays are marked out of 100.
85 and above denotes High Distinction. This requires consistently excellent standard according to all
of the essay marking criteria listed above.
75-84 means the essay is of Distinction standard. This normally requires consistently very good
standard according to each of the above criteria.
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65-74 means the essay is of Credit standard. This normally indicates a consistently good essay, or an
essay that has some features that are very good but others that are only satisfactory.
50-64 means the essay is of Pass standard. This normally indicates a satisfactory performance
according to most of the above criteria, although some relatively poor features may be compensated
by other good features of the essay.
49 and below means the essay is a Fail. This is because of the presence of some poor or very poor
features of the essay, according to the above criteria. Students who fail essays may still pass the Unit
of Study if the low essay mark is compensated by good marks on other assessment tasks. However,
it does indicate the necessity to work hard on doing better essays in future. Learning from the
marker’s comments in conjunction with re-reading this handout is strongly recommended.