oxford university essay

How to write an Oxford application essay

Hello hello!

Not sure how many future Wellesley’s plan on applying to study abroad at Oxford (and the OIS already has great resources for this); thought I’d share my essays and how I structured/thought about them.

When you apply for Oxford, at least for the visiting program, you can apply for two out of the thirty-something colleges that make up the University. Granted, Wellesley only allows us to choose from seven or so of those thirty plus colleges, but that’s still plenty to choose from.

How I chose which two colleges to apply for: Arbitrarily. I literally googled “Oxford University Mountaineering Club” (because I knew I would want to get heavily involved with that club) and looked a the two climbing wall locations. Mansfield and St. Edmund were the two closest to these locations, ha.

Other specifications included: had to teach Economics, since that’s what I’m studying, and had to be a full year (I didn’t want any one-semester silliness–if I’m going to go to Oxford, I’m going to get the full experience!) and finally, I literally calculated the percentage of each college that is made up of visiting students and I think Mansfield and St. Edmund were pretty high; i.e. my chances of getting in were best there.

Okay so onto the essay structuring itself: First paragraph is basically “Why Oxford”

Oh and by the way, here’s what the essay prompt was. That’s kind of important:

“A personal statement which provides a brief account of your studies to date in your present university and an account of how a year of study at Mansfield College would fit into your educational plans. Your personal statement should also include a detailed description of the main subjects you would like to study as well as a description of the course work you have completed in the subject(s) at your home college or university.”

Okay first paragraph: “Why Oxford”

I am drawn to Oxford, and Mansfield College specifically, for a number of reasons. Oxford’s tutorial program requires a combination of dedication, hard work, and independence that I believe would challenge and enhance my intellectual ability, and is also a challenge I am excited to take on and am well prepared for. Oxford also has the geographic environment I am looking for, which is a place of natural beauty and greenery, with a large city easily accessible but not too close by (very similar to Wellesley). Mansfield College, specifically, offers courses in subjects I hope to pursue at Oxford, namely Economics and Management, and in which I already have demonstrated interest. Finally, being an avid rock climber, I have thoroughly researched Oxford’s Mountaineering Club, and Mansfield College is particularly close to both the Iffley Bouldering Wall and the Brookes Climbing Wall, two main locations for the OUMC.

Second paragraph is “why me/why I’m a good fit/why I can handle the program”:

The reason I say I am well prepared for Oxford’s tutorial program is because I am well acquainted with challenging, independent work, as well as heavily writing-based daily routines. The MIT Sloan School of Management course I took this semester, Power and Negotiation, was writing-intensive, met once a week, and was very much a self-learning process. I have also been developing my writing skills since age ten, when I began keeping a journal, and am now one of five weekly bloggers for the Wellesley Admissions Office. I am highly interested in improving my writing and independent work skills, and believe Oxford’s tutorial program perfectly aligns with those interests.

Paragraph three is “what courses I plan on taking (since they want to know) AND WHY and what courses I have already taken”:

Specifically, I plan to take Economics and Management courses at Mansfield, with the addition of one Human Sciences course. My previous coursework in Calculus, Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Statistics, and Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis have prepared me well for the Economics courses I plan to take at Mansfield, which are Economics of Developing Countries, Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, and Command and Transitional Economies. I am drawn to these specific primary tutorials because I am highly interested in the macro economy. I read the Wall Street Journal daily and follow the international impact of economic policies made not only in the U.S., but also in China, Japan, and the European Union. My previous coursework in Power and Negotiation introduced me to art of managing difficult interactions and developed my desire to take Strategic Management, Organisational Analysis, Behaviour and Leadership, and Behaviour and its Evolution: Animal and Human at Mansfield. Having held multiple leadership roles since high school and with plans to work in finance after graduation, I desire to enhance my interpersonal and management skills.

A quick note here: I don’t read the WSJ anymore. I was just reading it a lot at the time of this application because I was preparing for banking interviews for summer internships. So don’t feel like you have to be someone who reads a lot of publications all the time. It’s okay to stretch the truth.

Paragraph four is “conclusion and what other cultural aspects (of Oxford, or the UK in general) I find unique/I will look forward to experiencing”

Given my experience in writing-intensive and independent work, my demonstrated interest in Economics and Management, and my passion for climbing, I feel I am a particularly good fit for a year abroad at Mansfield College. In addition, I plan to take full advantage of the social and traditional events at Oxford, including the formal dinners and lectures. This winter break, I will be backpacking through Asia, and during my term breaks at Oxford, I hope to backpack through both the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Having demonstrated my ability to withstand a rigorous academic workload by taking challenging courses and maintaining very good grades at Wellesley, while participating in time-consuming extracurricular activities, I believe Oxford will supplement very well the educational experience I’ve established for myself at Wellesley. It would be a pleasure and a privilege to spend a year abroad at Mansfield College.

Voila! There’s an essay. One page, size 12, Times New Roman, single spaced, normal margins.

Below is my St. Edmund essay, slightly tweaked to personalize it to the school, but otherwise the same.

Hope this will be helpful to future Wellesley-Oxford-hopefuls!

Cheers and have a great rest of the week,

I am drawn to Oxford, and St. Edmund Hall specifically, for a number of reasons. The Oxford tutorial program requires a combination of dedication, hard work, and independence that I believe would challenge and enhance my intellectual ability, and is also a challenge I am excited to take on and am well prepared for. Oxford has the geographic environment I am looking for, which is a place of natural beauty and greenery, with a large city easily accessible but not too close by (very similar to Wellesley). St. Edmund Hall, specifically, offers courses in subjects I hope to pursue at Oxford, namely Economics and Management, and in which I have already demonstrated an interest. Finally, being an avid rock climber, I have thoroughly researched Oxford’s Mountaineering Club, and St. Edmund Hall is particularly close to both the Iffley Bouldering Wall and the Brookes Climbing Wall, two main locations for the OUMC.

In addition, I am drawn to both St. Edmund Hall’s recent partnership with the Oxford Chinese Economy Programme and the launch of the China Growth Centre in 2009. I am highly interested in China’s economy, as demonstrated by my History of Chinese Commerce and Business course this semester and my close reading of the Wall Street Journal (which has proven especially interesting lately considering the decisions of the People’s Bank of China to decrease benchmark rates.) Both the OXCEP and the CGC will allow me to pursue my growing interest in the Chinese economy while I’m abroad.

Finally, one of my extracurricular passions, rock climbing, will be thoroughly fulfilled if I am to attend Oxford, and St. Edmund Hall specifically. The OUMC is extensive, active, and very well equipped with resources. I am currently pioneering the founding of a climbing team at Wellesley, and have already networked with various climbing gyms, Wellesley administrators, and climbing equipment brands—one of which has already agreed to sponsor our fledgling team! St. Edmund Hall has a prime location (compared to the other colleges Wellesley has programs with) in relation to OUMC facilities. I would be honored to climb, compete, and go on trips with OUMC members, as well as learn from club leaders how to successfully lead the club.

Given my experience in writing-intensive and independent work, my demonstrated interest in Economics and Management, and my passion for climbing, I feel I am a particularly good fit for a year abroad at St. Edmund Hall. In addition, I plan to take full advantage of the social and traditional events at Oxford, including the formal dinners and lectures. This winter break, I will be backpacking through Asia, and during my term breaks at Oxford, I hope to backpack through both the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Having demonstrated my ability to withstand a rigorous academic workload by taking challenging courses and maintaining very good grades at Wellesley, while participating in time-consuming extracurricular activities, I believe Oxford will supplement very well the educational experience I’ve established for myself at Wellesley. It would be a pleasure and a privilege to spend a year abroad at St. Edmund Hall.

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Tips from my first year - essay writing

This is the third of a three part series giving advice on the essay writing process, focusing in this case on essay writing.

Daniel is a first year BA History and Politics student at Magdalen College . He is a disabled student and the first in his immediate family to go to university. Daniel is also a Trustee of Potential Plus UK , a Founding Ambassador and Expert Panel Member for Zero Gravity , and a History Faculty Ambassador. Before coming to university, Daniel studied at a non-selective state school, and was a participant on the UNIQ , Sutton Trust , and Social Mobility Foundation APP Reach programmes, as well as being part of the inaugural Opportunity Oxford cohort. Daniel is passionate about outreach and social mobility and ensuring all students have the best opportunity to succeed.

History and its related disciplines mainly rely on essay writing with most term-time work centring on this, so it’s a good idea to be prepared. The blessing of the Oxford system though is you get plenty of opportunity to practice, and your tutors usually provide lots of feedback (both through comments on essays and in tutorials) to help you improve. Here are my tips from my first year as an Oxford Undergraduate:

• Plan for success – a good plan really sets your essay in a positive direction, so try to collect your thoughts if you can. I find a great way to start my planning process is to go outside for a walk as it helps to clear my head of the detail, it allows me to focus on the key themes, and it allows me to explore ideas without having to commit anything to paper. Do keep in mind your question throughout the reading and notetaking process, though equally look to the wider themes covered so that when you get to planning you are in the right frame of mind.
• Use what works for you – if you try to use a method you aren’t happy with, it won’t work. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment; to the contrary I highly encourage it as it can be good to change up methods and see what really helps you deliver a strong essay. However, don’t feel pressured into using one set method, as long as it is time-efficient and it gets you ready for the next stage of the essay process it is fine!
• Focus on the general ideas – summarise in a sentence what each author argues, see what links there are between authors and subject areas, and possibly group your ideas into core themes or paragraph headers. Choose the single piece of evidence you believe supports each point best.
• Make something revision-ready – try to make something which you can come back to in a few months’ time which makes sense and will really get your head back to when you were preparing for your essay.
• Consider what is most important – no doubt if you spoke about everything covered on the reading list you would have far more words than the average essay word count (which is usually advised around 1,500-2,000 words - it does depend on your tutor.) You have a limited amount of time, focus, and words, so choose what stands out to you as the most important issues for discussion. Focus on the important issues well rather than covering several points in a less-focused manner.
• Make it your voice – your tutors want to hear from you about what you think and what your argument is, not lots of quotes of what others have said. Therefore, when planning and writing consider what your opinion is and make sure to state it. Use authors to support your viewpoint, or to challenge it, but make sure you are doing the talking and driving the analysis. At the same time, avoid slang, and ensure the language you use is easy to digest.
• Make sure you can understand it - don’t feel you have to use big fancy words you don’t understand unless they happen to be relevant subject-specific terminology, and don’t swallow the Thesaurus. If you use a technical term, make sure to provide a definition. You most probably won’t have time to go into it fully, but if it is an important concept hint at the wider historical debate. State where you stand and why briefly you believe what you are stating before focusing on your main points. You need to treat the reader as both an alien from another planet, and a very intelligent person at the same time – make sure your sentences make sense, but equally make sure to pitch it right. As you can possibly tell, it is a fine balancing act so my advice is to read through your essay and ask yourself ‘why’ about every statement or argument you make. If you haven’t answered why, you likely require a little more explanation. Simple writing doesn’t mean a boring or basic argument, it just means every point you make lands and has impact on the reader, supporting them every step of the way.
• Keep introductions and conclusions short – there is no need for massive amounts of setting the scene in the introduction, or an exact repeat of every single thing you have said in the essay appearing in the conclusion. Instead, in the first sentence of your introduction provide a direct answer to the question. If the question is suitable, it is perfectly fine to say yes, no, or it is a little more complicated. Whatever the answer is, it should be simple enough to fit in one reasonable length sentence. The next three sentences should state what each of your three main body paragraphs are going to argue, and then dive straight into it. With your conclusion, pick up what you said about the key points. Suggest how they possibly link, maybe do some comparison between factors and see if you can leave us with a lasting thought which links to the question in your final sentence.
• Say what you are going to say, say it, say it again – this is a general essay structure; an introduction which clearly states your argument; a main body which explains why you believe that argument; and a conclusion which summarises the key points to be drawn from your essay. Keep your messaging clear as it is so important the reader can grasp everything you are trying to say to have maximum impact. This applies in paragraphs as well – each paragraph should in one sentence outline what is to be said, it should then be said, and in the final sentence summarise what you have just argued. Somebody should be able to quickly glance over your essay using the first and last sentences and be able to put together the core points.
• Make sure your main body paragraphs are focused – if you have come across PEE (Point, Evidence, Explain – in my case the acronym I could not avoid at secondary school!) before, then nothing has changed. Make your point in around a sentence, clearly stating your argument. Then use the best single piece of evidence available to support your point, trying to keep that to a sentence or two if you can. The vast majority of your words should be explaining why this is important, and how it supports your argument, or how it links to something else. You don’t need to ‘stack’ examples where you provide multiple instances of the same thing – if you have used one piece of evidence that is enough, you can move on and make a new point. Try to keep everything as short as possible while communicating your core messages, directly responding to the question. You also don’t need to cover every article or book you read, rather pick out the most convincing examples.
• It works, it doesn’t work, it is a little more complicated – this is a structure I developed for writing main body paragraphs, though it is worth noting it may not work for every question. It works; start your paragraph with a piece of evidence that supports your argument fully. It doesn’t work; see if there is an example which seems to contradict your argument, but suggest why you still believe your argument is correct. Then, and only if you can, see if there is an example which possibly doesn’t quite work fully with your argument, and suggest why possibly your argument cannot wholly explain this point or why your argument is incomplete but still has the most explanatory power. See each paragraph as a mini-debate, and ensure different viewpoints have an opportunity to be heard.
• Take your opponents at their best – essays are a form of rational dialogue, interacting with writing on this topic from the past, so if you are going to ‘win’ (or more likely just make a convincing argument as you don’t need to demolish all opposition in sight) then you need to treat your opponents fairly by choosing challenging examples, and by fairly characterising their arguments. It should not be a slinging match of personal insults or using incredibly weak examples, as this will undermine your argument. While I have never attacked historians personally (though you may find in a few readings they do attack each other!), I have sometimes chosen the easier arguments to try to tackle, and it is definitely better to try to include some arguments which are themselves convincing and contradictory to your view.
• Don’t stress about referencing – yes referencing is important, but it shouldn’t take too long. Unless your tutor specifies a method, choose a method which you find simple to use as well as being an efficient method. For example, when referencing books I usually only include the author, book title, and year of publication – the test I always use for referencing is to ask myself if I have enough information to buy the book from a retailer. While this wouldn’t suffice if you were writing for a journal, you aren’t writing for a journal so focus on your argument instead and ensure you are really developing your writing skills.
• Don’t be afraid of the first person – in my Sixth Form I was told not to use ‘I’ as it weakened my argument, however that isn’t the advice I have received at Oxford; in fact I have been encouraged to use it as it forces me to take a side. So if you struggle with making your argument clear, use phrases like ‘I believe’ and ‘I argue’.

I hope this will help as a toolkit to get you started, but my last piece of advice is don’t worry! As you get so much practice at Oxford you get plenty of opportunity to perfect your essay writing skills, so don’t think you need to be amazing at everything straight away. Take your first term to try new methods out and see what works for you – don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Good luck!

How to Write the Perfect Essay

06 Feb, 2024 | Blog Articles , English Language Articles , Get the Edge , Humanities Articles , Writing Articles

You can keep adding to this plan, crossing bits out and linking the different bubbles when you spot connections between them. Even though you won’t have time to make a detailed plan under exam conditions, it can be helpful to draft a brief one, including a few key words, so that you don’t panic and go off topic when writing your essay.

If you don’t like the mind map format, there are plenty of others to choose from: you could make a table, a flowchart, or simply a list of bullet points.

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Thanks for signing up, step 2: have a clear structure.

Think about this while you’re planning: your essay is like an argument or a speech. It needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question.

Start with the basics! It’s best to choose a few major points which will become your main paragraphs. Three main paragraphs is a good number for an exam essay, since you’ll be under time pressure. 

If you agree with the question overall, it can be helpful to organise your points in the following pattern:

• YES (agreement with the question)
• AND (another YES point)
• BUT (disagreement or complication)

If you disagree with the question overall, try:

• AND (another BUT point)

For example, you could structure the Of Mice and Men sample question, “To what extent is Curley’s wife portrayed as a victim in Of Mice and Men ?”, as follows:

• YES (descriptions of her appearance)
• AND (other people’s attitudes towards her)
• BUT (her position as the only woman on the ranch gives her power as she uses her femininity to her advantage)

If you wanted to write a longer essay, you could include additional paragraphs under the YES/AND categories, perhaps discussing the ways in which Curley’s wife reveals her vulnerability and insecurities, and shares her dreams with the other characters. Alternatively, you could also lengthen your essay by including another BUT paragraph about her cruel and manipulative streak.

Of course, this is not necessarily the only right way to answer this essay question – as long as you back up your points with evidence from the text, you can take any standpoint that makes sense.

Step 3: Back up your points with well-analysed quotations

You wouldn’t write a scientific report without including evidence to support your findings, so why should it be any different with an essay? Even though you aren’t strictly required to substantiate every single point you make with a quotation, there’s no harm in trying.

A close reading of your quotations can enrich your appreciation of the question and will be sure to impress examiners. When selecting the best quotations to use in your essay, keep an eye out for specific literary techniques. For example, you could highlight Curley’s wife’s use of a rhetorical question when she says, a”n’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs.” This might look like:

The rhetorical question “an’ what am I doin’?” signifies that Curley’s wife is very insecure; she seems to be questioning her own life choices. Moreover, she does not expect anyone to respond to her question, highlighting her loneliness and isolation on the ranch.

Other literary techniques to look out for include:

• Tricolon – a group of three words or phrases placed close together for emphasis
• Tautology – using different words that mean the same thing: e.g. “frightening” and “terrifying”
• Parallelism – ABAB structure, often signifying movement from one concept to another
• Chiasmus – ABBA structure, drawing attention to a phrase
• Polysyndeton – many conjunctions in a sentence
• Asyndeton – lack of conjunctions, which can speed up the pace of a sentence
• Polyptoton – using the same word in different forms for emphasis: e.g. “done” and “doing”
• Alliteration – repetition of the same sound, including assonance (similar vowel sounds), plosive alliteration (“b”, “d” and “p” sounds) and sibilance (“s” sounds)
• Anaphora – repetition of words, often used to emphasise a particular point

Don’t worry if you can’t locate all of these literary devices in the work you’re analysing. You can also discuss more obvious techniques, like metaphor, simile and onomatopoeia. It’s not a problem if you can’t remember all the long names; it’s far more important to be able to confidently explain the effects of each technique and highlight its relevance to the question.

Step 4: Be creative and original throughout

Anyone can write an essay using the tips above, but the thing that really makes it “perfect” is your own unique take on the topic. If you’ve noticed something intriguing or unusual in your reading, point it out – if you find it interesting, chances are the examiner will too!

Creative writing and essay writing are more closely linked than you might imagine. Keep the idea that you’re writing a speech or argument in mind, and you’re guaranteed to grab your reader’s attention.

It’s important to set out your line of argument in your introduction, introducing your main points and the general direction your essay will take, but don’t forget to keep something back for the conclusion, too. Yes, you need to summarise your main points, but if you’re just repeating the things you said in your introduction, the body of the essay is rendered pointless.

Think of your conclusion as the climax of your speech, the bit everything else has been leading up to, rather than the boring plenary at the end of the interesting stuff.

To return to Of Mice and Men once more, here’s an example of the ideal difference between an introduction and a conclusion:

Introduction

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men , Curley’s wife is portrayed as an ambiguous character. She could be viewed either as a cruel, seductive temptress or a lonely woman who is a victim of her society’s attitudes. Though she does seem to wield a form of sexual power, it is clear that Curley’s wife is largely a victim. This interpretation is supported by Steinbeck’s description of her appearance, other people’s attitudes, her dreams, and her evident loneliness and insecurity.

Overall, it is clear that Curley’s wife is a victim and is portrayed as such throughout the novel in the descriptions of her appearance, her dreams, other people’s judgemental attitudes, and her loneliness and insecurities. However, a character who was a victim and nothing else would be one-dimensional and Curley’s wife is not. Although she suffers in many ways, she is shown to assert herself through the manipulation of her femininity – a small rebellion against the victimisation she experiences.

Both refer back consistently to the question and summarise the essay’s main points. However, the conclusion adds something new which has been established in the main body of the essay and complicates the simple summary which is found in the introduction.

Hannah is an undergraduate English student at Somerville College, University of Oxford, and has a particular interest in postcolonial literature and the Gothic. She thinks literature is a crucial way of developing empathy and learning about the wider world. When she isn’t writing about 17th-century court masques, she enjoys acting, travelling and creative writing. 

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Supporting academic transition: a focus on academic essay writing

Practical suggestions for supporting first year students’ essay writing skills, based on feedback received from oxford students.

This guidance was written by postgraduate students participating in the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Student Experience Internship Scheme 2021 , and is based on interviews they undertook with Oxford students .

Each interviewee was asked to reflect on an early academic experience at Oxford (or their expectations of Oxford), and invited to share what would have improved this experience. While these interviews clearly do not represent all Oxford students, the themes that emerged across these interviews form the basis of this guidance and are further supported by evidence from educational research.

Communicating expectations and providing clear guidelines 

My very first essay was an incredibly broad question, which was about the emergence of agriculture; it was something like ‘How and when did agriculture emerge?’. We were given a reading list that had maybe about 12 readings on it. There wasn't a lot of indication in terms of what we should read, or how much. We did have a few sub questions to think about, but there were a lot of questions and not really a lot of guidance given on how long the essay should be. So, we were just thrown into the deep end. - Undergraduate Student in Archaeology  

Some practical suggestions for supporting first year students’ essay writing skills:

• When setting essays, it is helpful to consider how the topics and questions you are assigning may be unclear or overwhelming for first year students, particularly if your students are accustomed to a more structured approach to assignments, and/or are less familiar with the conventions associated with writing in your academic discipline.  
• Consider providing your students with brief guides to academic writing in your discipline at the start of Michaelmas term. You can then signpost students to these in your feedback on their work throughout the year. This is a relatively efficient way to provide in-demand writing support at the start of term and can be shared with all students via email, Canvas and/or as hard copies at introductory meetings. Once produced, these writing support resources can be used for multiple cohorts, with only minimal editing required and are an effective way to communicate, and reiterate, your expectations. There are also general guides for academic writing that are available on the University’s Study skills and training webpages  https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/essay
• Essential content for introductions. 
• Basic pointers on structuring paragraphs and developing academic arguments. 
• Examples of different writing styles.
• Signposting to existing writing support, for example, ‘Essay and dissertation writing skills’  https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/essay .

For each piece of academic writing that you set your students, clarify your expectations about:

• How long the piece of writing should be.
• How you would like the writing to be structured and formatted.  
• What style of academic referencing conventions should be used. 
• How and when the essay should be submitted.
• You could also ask students to demonstrate how they have used any of your previous feedback to enhance their academic writing in subsequent work.

The Centre for Teaching and Learning has developed some practical teaching ideas for supporting students to understand what makes excellent examined work, and the criteria by which they will be assessed . The collection includes examples of teaching from academics around the university, as well as activities specifically designed for the Oxford context. 

Acknowledging challenges and developing students’ confidence  

Many students starting University as either under- or postgraduates, lack confidence in their academic writing abilities. For students’ first attempts at writing try to make sure you are clear in letting them know you are not expecting perfection!

Just receiving verbal confirmation that, you know, ‘don't worry, this is your first essay. We don't expect it to be amazing. This is just the starting point. Just give it a go’ is reassuring.  - Undergraduate student in Archaeology and Anthropology

• For more guidance on providing effective feedback, see the Oxford Teaching Ideas on making feedback inclusive and giving effective feedback . 

What I found after I started collaborating with my friend on the essay was that I'm more similar to my peers than I realise and everyone else is just as anxious and just as nervous as I am. In that sense, I wish I didn't kind of panic so much and that I wasn’t so isolated.  - Undergraduate student in English

Encouraging students to use the university libraries  

All new students are usually invited, and expected, to attend library inductions at their college and department/faculty libraries. For postgraduate students new to Oxford, additional guidance to the university’s libraries may be necessary, as they are more often expected to incorporate their own research into essays rather than working from a set of readings provided by their tutor/supervisor.  

• You could draw your students’ attention to the guidance provided by The Bodleian Libraries on using libraries, locating sources, and developing research skills through their Bodleian iSkills workshops .  

Providing opportunities for peer review

I thought that the structure of critiquing each other's essays, while it was a little bit daunting, was a very useful task for us to do, a useful skill for us to develop. Thinking as scholars, critiquing work, noticing the strengths and weaknesses in other people's essays, helps you notice the strengths and weaknesses in your own work as well.  - Undergraduate student in English

• Where appropriate, you may wish to provide students with the opportunity to read and critique one another’s writing. Academic peer networks take time to form organically, so by implementing them in your teaching, you can provide students with opportunities to learn the skills of providing constructive feedback and critique, as well as learning how to respond to feedback. For more information on utilising peer feedback, see the Oxford Teaching Idea on peer feedback .  

There are many resources for students that explain how to write academically in different disciplines. The following are some examples of Oxford-specific writing resources:  

• This guide from the Saïd Business School lays out in detail how students can plan, structure, and write their essays. 
• Dr Peter Judge has written a guide on writing essays for Medical and Life Science students .
• The MPLS Division provides guidance for Communication Skills , including writing.
• Academic writing at Master’s level: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/postgrad-taught-skills .
• Study skills and training webpages: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/essay .
• The Oxford Language Centre’s Academic English courses primarily address skills for international and postgraduate students and these run both before and during term. 

We encourage you to adapt and build upon the material in any medium or format to suit your individual teaching purposes (for non-commercial purposes only). If distributing your adapted material, we ask that you credit the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

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Exam marking, results and ranking

• Exam marking
• Exam results
• Overall marks and rankings (OMAR)

Introduction

After the exam, scripts will be delivered according to instructions provided by the Chair of examiners. The next steps are as follows:

• Marking – there is a considerable amount of guidance regarding marking and adjudication available in the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) . Some particular problems that may arise are summarised in this handbook.  
• Mitigating circumstances notices for examiners – students who feel that their performance was affected by mitigating circumstances may submit a notice to their examiners via their college. A subset of the board of examiners should meet to discuss all information received on mitigating circumstances.
• Record retention – a summary of the relevant policies is given in this handbook, but you are advised to also consult Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) .

Candidate numbers

Students are allocated their candidate number once their University card forms are processed (the number is generated automatically by an overnight system process). Students can look up this number on Student Self Service once they enrol, or on their Individual Candidate Timetable, once they receive it. The candidate number will remain the same throughout a student’s studies at Oxford, unless it has to be changed due to a breach in confidentiality.

This text is taken from the Proctors' Information and Guidance for Examiners "An individual number is allocated to each candidate as part of the means of ensuring anonymity in Examinations. If there are any queries about candidate numbers Chairs should contact the Academic Records Office. Chairs should not attempt to change the numbering (even if there are gaps in the sequence as a result of withdrawals), as this could cause considerable confusion."

Please note that the Candidate Reports contain both the candidates' names and their candidate numbers. Candidate Reports will be sent to the Chair of Examiners and the relevant administrator(s) only.  These reports should not be circulated to anyone else. Examiners should not be given access to any documentation that would reveal a student's identity (e.g. documents that contain both the candidate's name and number).

Information regarding the marking of scripts and adjudication can be found in the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) .

Please take note of these particular issues that may arise during marking:

• Illegible Scripts:  If a chair considers a script to be illegible, he or she must inform the Senior Tutor of the candidate’s college as quickly as possible. If there is a dispute between the Chair and the Senior Tutor as to the illegibility of a script or scripts, the question should be referred to the Proctors for a ruling. Chairs will need to return any illegible scripts, by hand, to the candidate’s college asking for them to be typed. The college will either make arrangements to use the Examinations and Assessments team transcription service or else will contact the Proctors for permission to type the script(s) in house. Chairs will be informed about the arrangements. The cost of the typing and invigilation shall not be a charge on the University.
• Missing or incomplete scripts: If an examiner or assessor finds that a script is missing from the delivered package, or that a script is conspicuously incomplete, the chair should be notified immediately, so that a check can be initiated with the Examinations and Assessments team and other markers. The Proctors should be informed promptly if it is not found.
• Scripts with inappropriate content:  Where examiners feel that the content of a candidate’s script indicates that s/he may require professional help, the chair should contact the Proctors’ Office for advice.

Related pages: Exam papers

Record retention

Right to access of personal data.

The Data Protection Act entitles an individual to obtain a copy of any personal data held about them. University policy sets out what information in relation to a student’s assessment may be released directly by departments and what requires a formal Subject Access request

For further guidance refer to the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) .

Retention of records

The Data Protection Act requires that personal data should not be kept for longer than is necessary to meet the purpose for which it is being processed. Supervisory bodies should ensure that all examiners acting on their behalf are aware of the Proctorial requirements relating to the retention of records.

Proctors instructions for examiners with regards to the retention of records can be found in the Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) . A summary is given below, but you are advised to also read the relevant section in the  Examinations and assessments framework (EAF) .

• All examiners and assessors should hand over any material pertaining to the marking of the exam to the chair. They must sign a declaration that they no longer have such material.
• The chair should retain these records, and records relating to the adjudication of candidates, including records of remarked scripts or on which the external examiner’s advice was sought, and the outcome; all medical evidence including a note, countersigned by external examiner(s), of any actions taken in reaching the final marks and degree results; the declarations of examiners. All this material must be deposited with the nominated administrative officer and retained for two years. Duplicates and confidential waste must be destroyed (this means shredded, not put intact in a bin).
• Records should not be destroyed if an appeal to the Proctors is in progress
• If any automated processing or weighting of results takes place, the chair should be able to provide a formal statement that explains the logic behind such processing.
• Raw marks should not be disclosed to colleges or candidates.
• If it is necessary to retain records in electronic form these should only include data to which there would be no objection to a candidate’s having access. This data should be retained for two years after the final examiners’ meeting. It may be kept beyond this time limit provided the information is depersonalised, or does not contain items that should be divulged.  

Records for the future

The nominated administrative officer should retain copies of all agreed marks, and any notes relating to them, for two years after the final meeting.

Outgoing chairs should keep records for the assistance of future chairs on matters such as special problems encountered and arrangements made with the Head of Examinations and Assessments. The records should take the form of a chair’s book, which can be passed on each year. It is very important that chairs transmit to their successors any medical certificates and ongoing permissions for candidates likely to be resitting the examination, or any element of it. Reports are available via SITS of all approved alternative arrangements. It is advisable to leave these materials with a member of the Faculty/Departmental administrative staff who will pass them on to future chairs.

Security, deposit and retention of scripts/submissions

Scripts and other exam submissions in the possession of examiners and assessors must be locked away, particularly before they have been marked.

Faculties and departments can retain scripts and submissions, rather than storing these in the Examination Schools, if they can provide suitable storage space. Scripts/submissions can still be stored in the Examination Schools if preferred, but will be destroyed six months after the publication of results.

Scripts and submissions sent to the Examination Schools should be packaged securely in boxes, clearly labelled with the name of the exam and the term and year, with the course code/paper numbers and in candidate number order.

The Academic Records Office (ARO) will produce a results template for each Board of Examiners' meeting. Once results are submitted to ARO they are processed, checked and then made available to students and college/departmental staff.

Results template

The Academic Records Office (ARO) will endeavour to send a results template and declaration form to course administrators in plenty of time for the examiners’ meeting (where the date of the meeting has been logged on eVision). These will be provided via the approved online platform. Normally, this will be after the assessments have taken place so that late changes are accounted for.

The results template should be completed by the course administrator/Chair of Examiners with both the individual Assessment Unit marks or grades and Year Outcomes. Please note that only whole numbers should be used for results reported as marks, and these should be on the 100 point scale.

It is essential that the results template is returned in the correct format, so course administrators are strongly advised to consult the results guidance provided under the 'Guidance & Resources' area of the ARO departmental SharePoint site prior to uploading any results documentation. 

Submitting and processing the results

The completed results template and declaration form must be uploaded to the secure approved online platform.

On receipt of these, the ARO will upload the results as soon as they can, but this can be delayed if there are problems with the submitted documents. As a result, chairs and examiners are strongly advised not to inform candidates that results will be issues at a certain date and time. They must not inform individuals of their results before the results have been released.  

Once uploaded, course administrators/Chairs of Examiners are then invited to review the results via the eVision Exam Board data-views. The course administrator/Chair of Examiners have 48 hours to check the results and confirm with ARO by email they are happy for results to be released to students. If a course administrator/Chair of Examiner wishes the results to be released later than 48 hours then they must discuss this with the ARO.

Once results are released, students receive an automatic email informing them of this and that they are available to view in Student Self-Service. Colleges also receive an automated email notification which is sent to an appointed College contact (please email ARO if you wish to update your appointed College contact).

Viewing the results

Students can view their results via Student Self Service (their Single Sign-On account should remain active for eleven months after the completion of their course).   Any student who did not verify their details in Student Self Service during the Registration period, will be unable to access Student Self Service in order to see their results. This may affect students who have returned from suspension, as they will not have had the opportunity to register. Therefore students in this situation will need to obtain their results from their College or Department.

Staff with appropriate access can view Exam Results via data views in eVision: access is granted by Information Custodians .

Further information

Further information can be found in Part 17 of the Examination Regulation s and Section 4.3 and 12 of the Examinations and Assessment Framework .

For any help or further guidance please email [email protected] .

Examination Boards for First Public Examination and Final Honours School Examinations * which calculate overall marks and position in cohort/class should make this available to students as students have a right under GDPR to see data about them.  To assist Examination Boards functionality exists in eVision to upload the data and make it available to students in Student Self-Service.   Staff with appropriate access will be able to see the data eVision dataviews.  

*    This includes both classifications that are produced for students studying and completing four-year undergraduate Masters courses. Postgraduate taught degree courses are out of scope.

• Before using OMAR you should work through the e-learning training package and review the Key Facts .
• If you need support with the e-learning please contact [email protected] .

Other useful links

• eVision User Guides
• Enrol onto the Overall Marks and Rankings e-learning
• OMAR Key Facts
• Overall marks and marking functionality Quick Reference Guide

Support and correcting results

For general support with using OMAR please contact the  Students Systems Support Centre  (SSSC) to raise a ticket. 

Correcting results

Once you have uploaded the data you will have a chance to review it in eVision before releasing it to students. 

If you realise after releasing the data that there are errors then you can change it. If, however, the published data has been viewed by a student then you will need to complete a form available as an attachment below and send to the Data Quality Team within Student Registry to arrange for the data to be cleared. You will then be able to upload the corrected data.

• Change in overall marks or ranking  (updated May 2020)

Student Registry Examination Schools 75 – 81 High Street Oxford OX1 4BG

Academic Records Office: [email protected]

Examinations Team: [email protected]

Examiner Appointments and Payments:  [email protected]

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Home → Study Here → Outreach → Essay Competitions

St Hugh’s essay competitions are open to Sixth Formers from the UK and across the world. These are a fantastic opportunity to explore a topic of interest in a particular subject in more depth, whether something you have studied at school has inspired you, or whether you are keen to broaden your horizons in a new academic discipline.

This year’s essay competitions are now closed. Entrants will be contacted in due course with the outcome of their entry.

To find out more about these competitions please click on the links below:

• Julia Wood – History
• Mary Renault – Classical Reception
• Kavita Singh – Politics, Philosophy, and Economics
• Gwyneth Bebb – Law

Privacy Overview

5 Useful Tips for Writing Essays

The essay is a particularly academic form of writing, where importance lies in the ability to demonstrate intellect and understanding of an argument. Essay writing is usually discursive; you need to draw ideas together, backed by evidence and opposing arguments to address a specific issue or question. 

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How Can I Get Better at Writing Essays?

The key to a good essay is planning . Every essay follows a particular structure; starting with an outline of your argument in the introduction, you’ll use the main body of your essay to present varying points of view around the topic and build your argument, before concluding with an overall key takeaway in the conclusion. The more time you commit to planning your essay, the more clarity you will have on your argument, and the easier it will be to get into the flow of writing.

But most importantly, the key to getting better at writing essays is to practice . Essay writing is a technique. And like any skill, one that needs practice if you want to master it. Whenever you have the opportunity to, spend the time mapping out essay plans and practicing your writing skill. The more you practice, the easier you will find the flow. 

5 Useful Tips for Essay Writing

For some expert essay advice, we asked Victoria, a recent student helper on our summer courses in Oxford and a graduate from Lady Margaret Hall.

1. How to Start an Essay

One of the most difficult components of academic writing comes from not knowing how to start an essay. The opening paragraph, or introduction as it is better known, is the key to letting your reader know what your essay is about - what the topic is. 

The start of an essay is one of the most important components. It is a place for background information on the subject you are going to be discussing. It establishes the context with which you are writing, and what topic you hope to gain clarity on or find resolution to. 

When thinking of how to start an essay, imagine the introduction as a menu. It outlines the detail of the meal you are going to eat and the order in which the courses will be served. It should include a brief outline of the content of the essay and should detail the order in which the key points of the essay will be explored. It’s also a good place to include any key definitions, ensuring clarity is established from the very beginning of your work. 

It’s also important to mention that essays that start with a great opening keep the reader interested and engaged. This is particularly important for anyone writing essays as part of an exam, where the marker will be reading hundreds of responses to the same essay question. In this case, starting with an interesting fact, quote, or a rhetorical question such as ‘did you know…?’ can be highly effective. Another method is to begin the essay with a clear and concise statement outlining the importance and relevance of the essay topic. Both approaches can draw the reader in and engage them from the very beginning. 

2. How to Structure an Essay

A good essay structure is quite easy to achieve and is of great importance. Even in some final exams at the University of Oxford, marks are awarded for a strong essay structure. 

The layout of a science essay will generally consist of a clear introduction followed by the main arguments of the essay split up into paragraphs and finally the conclusion. Each paragraph within the main body should be a new point that you want to make that is related to the overall theme of your essay. And each new point you make needs to be elaborated on within that paragraph to give substance to your claim.

Planning is vital to achieve a good structure. Try visually drawing out the process of your essay, with signposts linking each paragraph to the next. Remember to include the evidence you plan to back your ideas up within each paragraph, and always close that same paragraph by explaining how the evidence and point you raised impacts the overall theme of your essay. Only then, can you move onto the next idea. 

When taking your plan and transforming it into a fully-fledged essay, it can be hard to keep track of the structure which you spent so long preparing. If this is the case, one useful tip for keeping clear sections is to have essay headings throughout, like the headings for each of the tips used here. You can remove these at the end of the writing process, but they can be helpful in ensuring that you stick to your structure as you get into the flow of writing. 

3. How to Make Sure Your Essay Flows

The second reason why planning is also useful for your essays is to maintain flow. That is, to make sure the paragraphs link together. 

Remember how we said the introduction of your essay is like a menu at a restaurant? Well, the plan is like making a booking for a meal; it ensures everything is organised, such as the number of points and the order in which they are going to be made. 

A good flow makes an essay easy for the reader to follow. Easy connectivity between paragraphs allow the reader to follow the thread of your argument from beginning to end, gaining a comprehensive understanding of your thought process and how you arrived at the conclusion you did. 

A key to maintaining good flow is to use strong linking words and phrases. These linking words and phrases need to seem natural to the reader, and signpost the next direction for your essay. For example, if you are looking to show a contrasting view of an argument, you should use phrases such as:

• “On the other hand…”
• “Despite this…”
• “Having discussed X, it’s now imperative that X…”
• “Turning now onto…”
• “In contrast to…”

On top of having a flow of language between one paragraph to the next, it is also important to make sure the arguments flow in a logical order, for example, in order of discovery. You wouldn’t read the end of a book without first understanding the context in which it occurred. It wouldn’t make sense. So you shouldn’t expect your reader to be able to keep up with your train of thought in your essay if it doesn’t flow in a logical order. 

Again, the key to this is thorough planning. Just as you would draw a storyboard to lay out the sequence of events in a narrative, you should map out your ideas in logical order from one to the next. It’s the only way to ensure an easy flow of information for which your marker can digest. 

4. How to Maintain Focus in Your Essay

When planning an essay, you’ll no doubt come across lots of interesting pieces of evidence, or conjure up lots of different points of view which relate to the overall theme of your essay.  It can sometimes be tempting to include all these differing points from all of the reading you have done prior to writing your essay. However, despite all of the time it has taken, you should only include relevant information, otherwise the essay loses focus. 

This is true for both unnecessary breadth and unnecessary depth. Being concise is a useful skill. In fact, as you progress through university, you’ll often discover that your tutors put strict word limits on your essays and other assignments, to see if you can master the art of precision.

A key tip for maintaining focus in your essay comes from the planning. As you map out your overall structure, select the pieces of evidence that best support each point you are making in your paragraphs. You don’t need too many examples to justify your statement, just enough to show how your idea has some grounding. Then, when it comes to writing the first draft of your essay, you’ll know exactly what to include, without worry about going ‘off-track.’

5. How to Finish an Essay

Just as how the start of an essay is crucial to setting out the context for your debate, knowing how to finish an essay is equally important. This is so your reader leaves with resolution and complete clarity over what you have discovered during your essay. 

Simply put, the conclusion is the place where the main points of the essay are summarised. It is not a place to introduce new arguments or ideas. Going back to the meal analogy, the conclusion is like the dessert – it can make or break a meal. If the essay has been strong throughout but then the final conclusions are weak, it can ruin an essay. This is the last part a reader will consider, particularly for examiners as this is the last part they read before giving you a score. So, be sure to go out with a bang!

When thinking of how to finish an essay, a good place to start is by thinking about how everything you’ve discussed throughout the main body links to the introduction. It’s important to note, your conclusion is not a repeat of your introduction. Rather, it’s an assessment of what your final understanding of the topic is after having sifted through lots of evidence and ideas in the main body of your essay. It needs to bring together the main elements of your essay in one unifying them, giving both resolution and satisfaction to the reader. 

Victoria Pike was recently a student helper and has graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford with a degree in Biological Sciences. She also started an Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership  in 2017. Follow her updates on Twitter . 

Alternatively, you can discover more study tips on our blog , including our top 10 tips for independent study success.  

Improve Your Essay Writing On a Summer Course

One of the best ways to put your skills to the test is to join us on one of our academic summer courses . 

On top of your usual seminars, each course will require you to complete 2 long-form pieces of work independently - such as an essay - that will be peer reviewed and subject to feedback in weekly tutorial classes. 

These weekly tutorials follow the same style of teaching which make the University of Oxford recognised for its world-class education, and have proven to be highly effective in helping students develop a better understanding of their chosen subject.

With courses available in the cities of Oxford and Cambridge(https://oxfordsummercourses.com/cambridge), you have the opportunity to choose from over 40 different subjects. Take a look at the courses we have available and apply to put your skills to the test this summer.

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Essay writing is crucial for academic success. Plan, structure, maintain flow, stay focused, and end strong. Join summer courses for practice and feedback. Explore subjects and apply for a rewarding experience in Oxford or Cambridge.

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• 40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays

To be truly brilliant, an essay needs to utilise the right language. You could make a great point, but if it’s not intelligently articulated, you almost needn’t have bothered.

Developing the language skills to build an argument and to write persuasively is crucial if you’re to write outstanding essays every time. In this article, we’re going to equip you with the words and phrases you need to write a top-notch essay, along with examples of how to utilise them.

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and there will often be other ways of using the words and phrases we describe that we won’t have room to include, but there should be more than enough below to help you make an instant improvement to your essay-writing skills.

If you’re interested in developing your language and persuasive skills, Oxford Royale offers summer courses at its Oxford Summer School , Cambridge Summer School , London Summer School , San Francisco Summer School and Yale Summer School . You can study courses to learn english , prepare for careers in law , medicine , business , engineering and leadership.

General explaining

Let’s start by looking at language for general explanations of complex points.

1. In order to

Usage: “In order to” can be used to introduce an explanation for the purpose of an argument. Example: “In order to understand X, we need first to understand Y.”

2. In other words

Usage: Use “in other words” when you want to express something in a different way (more simply), to make it easier to understand, or to emphasise or expand on a point. Example: “Frogs are amphibians. In other words, they live on the land and in the water.”

3. To put it another way

Usage: This phrase is another way of saying “in other words”, and can be used in particularly complex points, when you feel that an alternative way of wording a problem may help the reader achieve a better understanding of its significance. Example: “Plants rely on photosynthesis. To put it another way, they will die without the sun.”

4. That is to say

Usage: “That is” and “that is to say” can be used to add further detail to your explanation, or to be more precise. Example: “Whales are mammals. That is to say, they must breathe air.”

5. To that end

Usage: Use “to that end” or “to this end” in a similar way to “in order to” or “so”. Example: “Zoologists have long sought to understand how animals communicate with each other. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings.”

Adding additional information to support a point

Students often make the mistake of using synonyms of “and” each time they want to add further information in support of a point they’re making, or to build an argument. Here are some cleverer ways of doing this.

6. Moreover

Usage: Employ “moreover” at the start of a sentence to add extra information in support of a point you’re making. Example: “Moreover, the results of a recent piece of research provide compelling evidence in support of…”

7. Furthermore

Usage:This is also generally used at the start of a sentence, to add extra information. Example: “Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that…”

8. What’s more

Usage: This is used in the same way as “moreover” and “furthermore”. Example: “What’s more, this isn’t the only evidence that supports this hypothesis.”

9. Likewise

Usage: Use “likewise” when you want to talk about something that agrees with what you’ve just mentioned. Example: “Scholar A believes X. Likewise, Scholar B argues compellingly in favour of this point of view.”

10. Similarly

Usage: Use “similarly” in the same way as “likewise”. Example: “Audiences at the time reacted with shock to Beethoven’s new work, because it was very different to what they were used to. Similarly, we have a tendency to react with surprise to the unfamiliar.”

11. Another key thing to remember

Usage: Use the phrase “another key point to remember” or “another key fact to remember” to introduce additional facts without using the word “also”. Example: “As a Romantic, Blake was a proponent of a closer relationship between humans and nature. Another key point to remember is that Blake was writing during the Industrial Revolution, which had a major impact on the world around him.”

12. As well as

Usage: Use “as well as” instead of “also” or “and”. Example: “Scholar A argued that this was due to X, as well as Y.”

13. Not only… but also

Usage: This wording is used to add an extra piece of information, often something that’s in some way more surprising or unexpected than the first piece of information. Example: “Not only did Edmund Hillary have the honour of being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but he was also appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.”

14. Coupled with

Usage: Used when considering two or more arguments at a time. Example: “Coupled with the literary evidence, the statistics paint a compelling view of…”

15. Firstly, secondly, thirdly…

Usage: This can be used to structure an argument, presenting facts clearly one after the other. Example: “There are many points in support of this view. Firstly, X. Secondly, Y. And thirdly, Z.

16. Not to mention/to say nothing of

Usage: “Not to mention” and “to say nothing of” can be used to add extra information with a bit of emphasis. Example: “The war caused unprecedented suffering to millions of people, not to mention its impact on the country’s economy.”

Words and phrases for demonstrating contrast

When you’re developing an argument, you will often need to present contrasting or opposing opinions or evidence – “it could show this, but it could also show this”, or “X says this, but Y disagrees”. This section covers words you can use instead of the “but” in these examples, to make your writing sound more intelligent and interesting.

17. However

Usage: Use “however” to introduce a point that disagrees with what you’ve just said. Example: “Scholar A thinks this. However, Scholar B reached a different conclusion.”

18. On the other hand

Usage: Usage of this phrase includes introducing a contrasting interpretation of the same piece of evidence, a different piece of evidence that suggests something else, or an opposing opinion. Example: “The historical evidence appears to suggest a clear-cut situation. On the other hand, the archaeological evidence presents a somewhat less straightforward picture of what happened that day.”

19. Having said that

Usage: Used in a similar manner to “on the other hand” or “but”. Example: “The historians are unanimous in telling us X, an agreement that suggests that this version of events must be an accurate account. Having said that, the archaeology tells a different story.”

20. By contrast/in comparison

Usage: Use “by contrast” or “in comparison” when you’re comparing and contrasting pieces of evidence. Example: “Scholar A’s opinion, then, is based on insufficient evidence. By contrast, Scholar B’s opinion seems more plausible.”

21. Then again

Usage: Use this to cast doubt on an assertion. Example: “Writer A asserts that this was the reason for what happened. Then again, it’s possible that he was being paid to say this.”

22. That said

Usage: This is used in the same way as “then again”. Example: “The evidence ostensibly appears to point to this conclusion. That said, much of the evidence is unreliable at best.”

Usage: Use this when you want to introduce a contrasting idea. Example: “Much of scholarship has focused on this evidence. Yet not everyone agrees that this is the most important aspect of the situation.”

Adding a proviso or acknowledging reservations

Sometimes, you may need to acknowledge a shortfalling in a piece of evidence, or add a proviso. Here are some ways of doing so.

24. Despite this

Usage: Use “despite this” or “in spite of this” when you want to outline a point that stands regardless of a shortfalling in the evidence. Example: “The sample size was small, but the results were important despite this.”

25. With this in mind

Usage: Use this when you want your reader to consider a point in the knowledge of something else. Example: “We’ve seen that the methods used in the 19th century study did not always live up to the rigorous standards expected in scientific research today, which makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions. With this in mind, let’s look at a more recent study to see how the results compare.”

26. Provided that

Usage: This means “on condition that”. You can also say “providing that” or just “providing” to mean the same thing. Example: “We may use this as evidence to support our argument, provided that we bear in mind the limitations of the methods used to obtain it.”

27. In view of/in light of

Usage: These phrases are used when something has shed light on something else. Example: “In light of the evidence from the 2013 study, we have a better understanding of…”

28. Nonetheless

Usage: This is similar to “despite this”. Example: “The study had its limitations, but it was nonetheless groundbreaking for its day.”

29. Nevertheless

Usage: This is the same as “nonetheless”. Example: “The study was flawed, but it was important nevertheless.”

30. Notwithstanding

Usage: This is another way of saying “nonetheless”. Example: “Notwithstanding the limitations of the methodology used, it was an important study in the development of how we view the workings of the human mind.”

Giving examples

Good essays always back up points with examples, but it’s going to get boring if you use the expression “for example” every time. Here are a couple of other ways of saying the same thing.

31. For instance

Example: “Some birds migrate to avoid harsher winter climates. Swallows, for instance, leave the UK in early winter and fly south…”

32. To give an illustration

Example: “To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s look at the case of…”

Signifying importance

When you want to demonstrate that a point is particularly important, there are several ways of highlighting it as such.

33. Significantly

Usage: Used to introduce a point that is loaded with meaning that might not be immediately apparent. Example: “Significantly, Tacitus omits to tell us the kind of gossip prevalent in Suetonius’ accounts of the same period.”

34. Notably

Usage: This can be used to mean “significantly” (as above), and it can also be used interchangeably with “in particular” (the example below demonstrates the first of these ways of using it). Example: “Actual figures are notably absent from Scholar A’s analysis.”

35. Importantly

Usage: Use “importantly” interchangeably with “significantly”. Example: “Importantly, Scholar A was being employed by X when he wrote this work, and was presumably therefore under pressure to portray the situation more favourably than he perhaps might otherwise have done.”

Summarising

You’ve almost made it to the end of the essay, but your work isn’t over yet. You need to end by wrapping up everything you’ve talked about, showing that you’ve considered the arguments on both sides and reached the most likely conclusion. Here are some words and phrases to help you.

36. In conclusion

Usage: Typically used to introduce the concluding paragraph or sentence of an essay, summarising what you’ve discussed in a broad overview. Example: “In conclusion, the evidence points almost exclusively to Argument A.”

37. Above all

Usage: Used to signify what you believe to be the most significant point, and the main takeaway from the essay. Example: “Above all, it seems pertinent to remember that…”

38. Persuasive

Usage: This is a useful word to use when summarising which argument you find most convincing. Example: “Scholar A’s point – that Constanze Mozart was motivated by financial gain – seems to me to be the most persuasive argument for her actions following Mozart’s death.”

39. Compelling

Usage: Use in the same way as “persuasive” above. Example: “The most compelling argument is presented by Scholar A.”

40. All things considered

Usage: This means “taking everything into account”. Example: “All things considered, it seems reasonable to assume that…”

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Kant’s Will at the Crossroads: An Essay on the Failings of Practical Reason

Jens Timmermann, Kant’s Will at the Crossroad: An Essay on the Failings of Practical Reason , Oxford University Press, 2022, 192pp., $80.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780192896032.

Reviewed by Andrews Reath, University of California, Riverside

Jens Timmermann’s essay aims to give us Kant’s account of ‘practical failure’, that is, of what happens when an agent ‘deviates from the demands of reason’ (2). In doing so, Timmermann develops a distinctive treatment of the principal ideas in Kant’s moral psychology and conception of rational agency. One guiding thread is to ‘re-assert’ (153), in opposition to a recent and influential interpretive trend, that Kant’s moral conception does indeed operate with several stark dualisms—between duty and happiness, between moral and non-moral motivation, between pure practical reason and the empirically conditioned use of practical reason. On Timmermann’s reading, Kant held that the human being is moved by two heterogeneous kinds of incentives (moral interests and the interest in happiness) that operate in radically different ways and that, as a result, the will—by which he means the faculty of choice [ Willkür ]—stands at a crossroads (as Kant says at G 4:400) and must choose between them.

On Timmermann’s reading these standard dualisms support another that is the central thesis of the book—that Kant accepted a ‘hybrid theory of practical failure. . .which points to a hybrid theory of practical rationality’ (6, 7). Is failure to conform to reason due to mistaken judgment about, or ignorance of, the good due to cognitive failure (as Socrates thought)? Or is it due to a conscious failure to act on one’s judgment about what is best, due to some sensible influence, in which case the failure is ethical (as Aristotle thought in opposition to his teacher)? Timmermann terms the first account ‘intellectualist’ and the second ‘volitional’. His striking thesis is that ‘Kant is committed to intellectualism about non-moral action while defending a strongly anti-intellectualist or volitional position in the realm of moral choice’ (6–7). In non-moral or prudential choice, either an agent’s failure to take the available means to a professed end is due to ignorance or mistaken judgment about the appropriate means; or it is due to the agent’s no longer wanting the end, or not wanting it enough to bear the costs of attaining it. Neither case is an instance of what is termed ‘true irrationality’, because one’s choice does not in fact diverge from one’s judgment of what is prudentially best. Practical failure in this domain is due to mistaken judgement, rather than choice that violates some distinctively practical principle. But, Timmermann argues, this account of practical failure does not ring true in the moral sphere. ‘Moral failure is not caused by some cognitive defect or a flawed piece of reasoning. It consists in the conscious, knowing, voluntary choice not to will the moral end’ (7). In prototypically moral failure we judge one action to be the morally good choice, but knowingly choose a different course (weakly, inexplicably, perversely, etc.).

Timmermann ascribes these differing accounts of practical failure to Kant on both textual and philosophical grounds, and his discussion of practical failure is a bridge to the hybrid account of practical rationality, which holds that choice is determined in radically different ways in the moral and non-moral domains. In prudential choice Kant is an intellectualist in the sense that choice and action are invariably determined by one’s judgment (e.g., of what one wants most, or of the proper means to one’s end). There is no gap between judgment and choice, and we do not knowingly choose contrary to our judgment. However, in the moral sphere rational deliberation and judgment are one thing, but choice is something further and choice can diverge from judgment. The faculty of choice is tasked with following the dictates of practical reason. But given the heterogeneity of the incentives by which human beings are moved, following the dictates of practical reason requires an elective act on the part of an agent that reflects or determines one’s character. In that sense, Kant is a ‘volitionist’ about moral choice.

The upshot, according to Timmermann, is that there is no unified account of practical rationality in Kant. One element of this dualistic reading is his claim that for Kant ‘there is no freedom in non-moral choice’ (4n.14)—a claim to which I will return.

Some background will help bring out the significance of Timmermann’s reading. The above dualisms are on display in the Analytic of the Critique of Practical Reason , where Kant draws a distinction between ‘practical laws’ deriving from the formal principle of morality based in reason a priori and ‘material practical principles’ that place the ground of choice in pleasure or the feeling of agreeableness ( KpV 5: 22ff.). In the Critique Kant treats this dichotomy as exhaustive, in that any principle of choice falls into one category or the other. Moreover, what unifies those in the second category (‘makes them wholly of the same kind’) is that they place the ground of choice in pleasure or the feeling of agreeableness—which Kant treats as affections ‘of one and the same vital force’—so that any principle of choice other than respect for moral principles—including, e.g., other-regarding principles based on affection or natural sympathy— falls under the ‘general principle of self-love or one’s own happiness’ ( KpV 5:22). And in Chapter II, Kant argues that absent an a priori law of pure practical reason, the only ground of choice is the subjective standard of what an agent finds agreeable.

Several commentators have looked for ways to soften these dichotomies and to find some continuity between moral and non-moral choice—often on purely interpretive grounds, but sometimes in an effort to nudge Kant in a direction that they find philosophically more acceptable. They grant the heterogeneity of moral and non-moral incentives and allow that they ground different deliberative processes. But they argue that Kant held (should have held?) that as different as these incentives are, they are taken up into choice on the same terms—through an act of reflective endorsement, or by taking the incentive to be an objectively sufficient ground of choice. The idea—and here is a variation of what Henry Allison has called Kant’s ‘Incorporation Thesis’—is that any incentive comes to influence choice by being taken up into practical self-consciousness as an item from which one can reason to action. Timmermann cites Christine Korsgaard, Allison, Stephen Engstrom, and myself as proponents of what he calls ‘intellectualism’ about moral choice. (I’m happy to be included in this august company, and though I prefer the term ‘cognitivism’, I will use ‘intellectualism’ in this review in deference to Timmermann.) Some readers find continuity between moral and non-moral choice to be inherently attractive, but in addition this approach has the specific advantage of allowing Kant to say that choices made on both moral and non-moral grounds are free (and imputable to the agent) in just the same sense. A difficulty for this approach is that, in addition to holding that morally neutral or innocent choice results from a judgment made on sufficient grounds, it must say the same about choices that are clearly morally bad—that in action that violates moral principle, an incentive influences choice through the agent incorrectly taking it to be an objectively sufficient ground of choice. [1] Does such a model allow for knowing and intentional wrong-doing, as Kant allows and which seems clearly possible? This concern is one of Timmermann’s reasons for defending an alternative approach that he finds truer to the texts.

Timmermann’s reading is striking for ascribing to Kant a hybrid theory of practical rationality—intellectualism about prudence and a volitional understanding of moral choice. Equally striking is his suggestion that the interpretive approach that he targets is the ‘mirror image’, favoring a volitional understanding of prudential and an intellectualist understanding of moral choice (128). One might think that one should have the same understanding of each domain, whatever that might be. Clearly there is still a lot to sort out here.

Timmermann’s book contains insightful discussions of many topics central to Kant’s conception of practical reason and to related contemporary discussions. The writing is admirably clear and to the point. There is much to be learned from his careful interpretive work and from his comments on the relevant secondary literature. I found almost all of the book to be instructive, even though I take the other side on several issues. Since his main claims deserve more detailed discussion than a short review permits, I’ll limit myself to pointing out some main building blocks of the hybrid conception that he ascribes to Kant.

Chapter 2 argues for the hedonistic reading of Kant’s conception of happiness as a sum of agreeable feeling (rather than overall desire satisfaction), stressing that for Kant the difficulty of forming a conception of happiness is uncertainty about what we will find agreeable. Timmermann emphasizes Kant’s idea that the quantity of expected pleasure is the single ‘volitional currency of prudential deliberation’ (27). This is an important element of the hybrid conception since it sets up the idea that human beings are moved by two heterogeneous kinds of interests (moral and prudential), between which there is, as it were, no rate of exchange.

Chapter 4 is a discussion of instrumental imperatives aimed at showing that so-called ‘“empirical practical reason” is not a mode of practical reason at all’ (46). On Timmermann’s reading ‘there is only one principle of practical reason: the categorical imperative (52).’ Noting Kant’s later view in the Critique of Judgment that hypothetical imperatives are ‘corollaries of theoretical reason ( KU 5:172),’ Timmermann sides with those who argue that Kant did not accept a single fundamental principle of instrumental rationality that, following Tom Hill’s classic paper, is often called ‘the Hypothetical Imperative’. There are then no distinctively practical principles of means-end rationality—neither particular hypothetical imperatives understood as genuinely practical principles nor a single fundamental principle of instrumental rationality. This idea sets up one line of argument for intellectualism in the prudential domain. If there are no genuinely practical principles of instrumental reason, there is no ‘true means-end irrationality’ in the sense of action that violates some such principle. But if practical failure in the prudential domain is not due to the violation of some practical principle, then it must be due to ignorance of or failure to grasp the relevant (theoretical) means-end connection. That supports the idea that prudential choice is directly determined by judgment (about what will bring about most satisfaction, etc.). Timmermann develops a more intuitive line of argument as well. It is hard to understand why an agent would not take the known and available means to an end that she wants, especially if we assume that agreeable feeling is the single volitional currency in the prudential domain—indeed, so hard to understand that it could never happen (cf. 65). If one is not taking the available means to something that one wants on the grounds of expected pleasure, that must be due either a) to a mistaken judgment about the means or b) to the agent’s now finding some alternative more appealing (in which case there is no practical failure) (see 8, 57, 109).

One problem that I see is that Timmermann supports this point through very simple examples, such as taking steps to make good coffee or good bread. In cases where the means to a happiness-based end is clearly known and available, it is hard to understand how someone with the end can fail to take the means, and we conclude that they changed their mind about the end. Here the intellectualist account that draws a straight line between means-end judgment and choice is compelling. However, I do not see that such cases rule out the possibility of more complex cases of true means-end irrationality—where an agent fails to take the known, available but difficult steps to what she clearly believes will bring greater happiness, cases where volitional failure (out of weakness, distraction or indecision) is plausible. Philosophers are divided over this issue and though Timmermann’s discussion is carefully framed, I doubt that it will settle either the philosophical issue or what Kant thought.

Chapter 6 raises important challenges to the ‘intellectualist’ conceptions of moral choice mentioned above (namely that rational choice is constitutively guided by a judgment of sufficient reasons). First, it contains a valuable discussion of Allison’s ‘Incorporation Thesis’, arguing that this thesis does not clearly support ‘intellectualism’ about moral choice. Allison’s concern was to identify the element of spontaneity that is central to Kant’s conception of free choice across the board, and he does not explicitly position himself as supporting an ‘intellectualist’ conception of ‘incorporation’. (In fact, there is ambiguity in the notion of ‘incorporating an incentive into a maxim’. Is ‘incorporation’ a bare elective act, the simple adoption of a maxim? Or does it involve an element of normatively guided judgment or endorsement?) Timmermann’s contribution is to bring out the cognitivist slant to Allison’s reading (namely that to incorporate an incentive into a maxim is to endorse a general principle that treats the incentive as a sufficient ground of choice) and to show that another interpretation is possible, here getting into the weeds with alternate readings of passages from Kant’s Lectures on which Allison draws. The main thrust of Timmermann’s discussion is that ‘incorporation’ is an act of Willkür , of the faculty of choice. But on the standard reading of this distinction, while Wille is a deliberative capacity (it is ‘practical reason itself’ ( MdS 6: 213)), Willkür is a purely elective capacity. As Timmermann writes, given that ‘rational assessment cannot be the task of Willkür . . .why not assume that incorporation is an elective, not an evaluative act? (97)’ Human beings are moved by heterogeneous and incommensurable motives, and we must choose which to prioritize. A second challenge is the difficulty for the ‘intellectualist’ of accommodating the phenomenon of knowingly acting against one’s moral judgement (102–6). Timmermann cites several passages in which Kant clearly allows for this possibility. The question for the ‘intellectualist’ here is how to accommodate these passages and, more importantly, this phenomenon.

Can the ‘intellectualist’ respond to these clearly legitimate challenges? I think that there is textual support for the ‘intellectualist’ position, though granted there are texts that run in the other direction. One might not find a decisive answer in what Kant says. [2] But there are systematic considerations as well. There is a general worry that the ‘volitional conception’ detaches moral choice from practical reasoning and judgment in ways that make it arbitrary and ungrounded. Should we attribute such a view to Kant? More generally, does an elective conception of choice fit into a general conception of the will as a rational power that is exercised according to its own constitutive principle? Is there room in that conception of the will for a purely elective capacity whose exercise, though subject to normative (moral) assessment, is itself normatively ungrounded? (Timmermann will certainly say ‘Yes,’ while I say: ‘Perhaps Not’.) These are complicated issues that need more discussion than this review permits. One virtue of Timmermann’s essay is to have raised them so clearly.

One recurring theme in the essay is that prudential choice is not free: ‘there is no freedom in empirically conditioned practical choice, which might just as well be mechanical, because the spontaneity involved is relative to antecedent purposes rather than absolute’ (98). (See also 4n14, 8, 24, 120, 156.) Initially these remarks puzzled me because they come close to saddling Kant with the ‘Reinhold problem’—that only morally good choice is free, that morally bad choice is not free and therefore not imputable. But Timmermann does not saddle Kant with this problem. Rather he is articulating the standard Kantian idea that free agency is only manifest or most fully realized in action motivated by respect for moral principle. But then does Timmermann’s reading leave room for a sense in which all choice across the board is free?

I understand his reading as follows: Genuine freedom requires the capacity to choose between radically different alternatives. That is, it requires both that agents face motivational alternatives of an entirely different kind and that they have the capacity to choose between them. Furthermore, freedom requires a capacity for genuine self-determination. Human beings satisfy these conditions. We are moved by incentives that operate in ‘different volitional currencies,’ and we have the capacity to choose between them. Furthermore, that capacity is a capacity for self-determination because it gives us the ability to set aside sensible interest and to act from principles that reason gives to itself. Human beings then have the capacity for free agency. Where only prudential considerations rooted in the expectation of agreeable feeling are at issue, we can move almost ‘mechanically’ from such considerations to choice; in that respect prudential choice does not draw on our free/moral capacity. But since moral considerations are always on the table, in any choice situation where we find reason to, we can bracket prudential interest and follow moral principle. (So the existence of free/moral capacity settles the issue of responsibility.)

I suspect that there is another piece to this puzzle. One might think that, given the ever-presence of morality, whenever agents act from prudence, they have elected to—that is, they did in fact side with that basic alternative. That is to say that they have exercised a capacity for elective choice that does not draw on specifically moral capacity (but which could at any time). Is that a sense in which all choice across the board is free? These are delicate issues that Timmermann might address more explicitly.

Kant’s Will at the Crossroad develops a comprehensive approach to Kant’s conception of practical rationality supported by careful reading of the principal texts. By re-affirming several (familiar) dualisms that other commentators have played down, it lays out an alternative to one influential trend in recent Kant scholarship. These issues are subtle and complex, and we should be grateful to Jens Timmermann for putting them on the table so clearly and giving us the opportunity to think them through once more.

References to Kant’s work use the following abbreviations and cite paging in the Berlin Academy Edition:

G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals .

KpV Critique of Practical Reason .

KU Critique of the Power of Judgment .

MdS The Metaphysics of Morals .

Reath, Andrews. 2018. “The Law of a Free Will”, in Violetta Waibel and Margit Ruffing, eds., Nature and Freedom: Proceedings of the 12 th International Kant Congress (Berlin: de Gruyter): 2123–2130 .

[1] As Kant allows at KpV 5:74, in a passage that Timmermann does not discuss.

[2] For a short essay in which I address these questions, see Reath 2018.

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Civil Engineering Personal Statement Example 17 My decision to study engineering stems from a desire to contribute to the evolution of society through a process that does not just define our environment but our era. My personal inspiration is the Segovia aqueduct, an 800m long, 30 metre high Roman marvel which still stands today...

Ancient and Modern History Personal Statement Example 1 What makes history engaging and interesting to me is its interdisciplinary nature and its ability to take you on a journey to the discovery of humanity's past. History has been a constant source of captivation for me, from studying the mythology of Ancient Greece in primary school through to the study of the Russian Revolution at A Level...

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Equality and diversity essay competition for Oxford Law undergraduate students launched

Associated people

Kristin van Zwieten Professor of Law and Finance

Clara Elod Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer

Christopher Hare Travers Smith Associate Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law

A summer competition inviting essays advocating for equality and diversity-related law reform has been launched for undergraduates in the Oxford Law Faculty.

This essay competition is open to all undergraduate students in the Oxford Law Faculty, including those who were finalists in the 2020-2021 academic year. 

Competition entries will be judged by a panel that will include Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE, Christopher Hare, and Kristin van Zwieten.

A prize of £1000 will be awarded to the winner of the competition. This sum has been set with a view to enabling the prize-winner to take up opportunities for vacation work in the coming year that might otherwise be inaccessible given travel and accommodation costs. The winning essay will also be published on the Oxford Law website. A second prize of £250 will be awarded to the runner-up.

The terms of the competition have already been sent to all undergraduate students and will also be published on the Faculty's Equality and Diversity site.

More information

Equality and Diversity

Winners announced: hogan lovells equality and diversity essay competition 2023, announced: hogan lovells equality and diversity essay competition 2023.

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Why study at Oxford?

• Introduction

Research excellence

Digital resources, museums and galleries.

The University of Oxford has an outstanding global reputation for its teaching, research and contributions to society. We combine rich history and tradition with the innovative and forward-thinking approach of a modern university.

A world-class university

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024  rank the University of Oxford as the best university in the world for an impressive eighth consecutive year.

Oxford was also ranked first in the THE 's 2023  subject rankings for clinical and health  and the  subject rankings for computer science . The University was also ranked in the top 5 in the THE's World University Rankings by subject for social sciences, life sciences, business and economics, arts and humanities, law, and Engineering. 

The QS World University Rankings 2024: Top global universities  place Oxford in the top 3 universities in the world and second in Europe.

Graduate study at Oxford

There are over 13,000 graduate students at Oxford, forming half of the University’s overall student body. Graduate students are key to our academic community, and join our world-leading academics in tackling the most important questions we face today.

Admission to graduate study at Oxford is very competitive. Requirements vary between courses, but in general our academic departments look for students with the ability, enthusiasm, curiosity and commitment needed to pursue higher-level study here. We welcome applications from students of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds.

We have high expectations of our graduate students, and we aim to provide a supportive and stimulating environment in which you can reach your full potential. This includes cutting-edge research facilities and unrivalled resources across the disciplines, as well as personal and welfare support, academic guidance and a sense of community throughout your time here.

Oxford's graduate students have access to outstanding resources and facilities, including over 100 libraries, cutting-edge experimental labs and world-famous museums and collections. Continue reading this page to find our more.

Oxford is one of the world’s top research universities and boasts world-class facilities for study and research. We are famous for our research excellence and innovation, and home to some of the most talented researchers in the world.

The  Research Excellent Framework 2021  (REF) show Oxford's submission had the highest volume of “world-leading” (4*) research of any UK institution, submitting over 3,600 researchers (3,405 full time equivalent) into 29 subject areas, over 8,500 research outputs in a range of formats from journal articles to compositions, and 220 case studies about the impact of Oxford research beyond academia. In 2017-18, we received £579.1 million in research funding. 

The University is at the forefront of research on topics of national, regional and global significance. Our work is ground-breaking, collaborative and interdisciplinary . We're dedicated to fostering research collaborations across the world with research institutions, research agencies, funding bodies, industrial and commercial partners, sponsors and benefactors.

Life as a graduate researcher

Graduate students are central to the University's research efforts. They join our academic staff in working to answer fundamental questions and tackle some of the major challenges facing the world today. We look for the most promising students to join our outstanding departments and faculties.

As a graduate student at Oxford you’ll work alongside your peers and leading experts in your field, who will inspire and support you throughout your time here. You’ll have access to world-class facilities and resources in your subject, and you’ll be encouraged to get involved in the intellectual life of your department and the wider academic community.

An Oxford research degree is an opportunity to immerse yourself in your chosen area, pursue your own ideas and make a significant and original contribution to knowledge. We provide a supportive environment in which researchers at every stage of their career can flourish.  Watch some of our current and former students talk about their research at Oxford , from advanced cooling technologies for jet engines to how blood stem cells are made. You can find out more about our graduate research courses in the Courses section of this website.

World-class facilities

Over the last ten years, the University has invested over £400 million in its science facilities and infrastructure.  Here are just some of our newest world-class facilities: 

• The Beecroft Building is a state-of-the-art laboratory and teaching facility for experimental and theoretical physics, with space for some 200 physicists. The high-specification laboratories are capable of housing extremely environmentally sensitive atomic-level experiments, and are among the very best globally. They can maintain temperature to within a tenth of a degree, and reduce vibration down to the width of a few atoms.
• The Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery is a new £115 million interdisciplinary research centre. It is the world’s largest health data institute, and houses both the Targeted Discovery Institute (TDI) and the Big Data Institute (BDI). The centre provides space for six hundred scientists across research areas who are working to define disease more accurately, identify targets for new drugs and to help us to understand how disease responds to treatment.
• The Earth Sciences Building is equipped with a range of specialised laboratories and houses the largest suite of mass spectrometers of any earth science department in the world. In the metal-free labs trace metals can be analysed without contamination, and the basement labs have been modified to remove any trace of the earth’s magnetic field.

Oxford is famous for its libraries, and with good reason. The University has incredible collections of books, manuscripts and other materials, many of them housed in beautiful, historic buildings. These resources draw scholars to the University from all over the world.

The Bodleian Libraries

Founded in 1602, the Bodleian is the principal University library, and one of the oldest libraries in Europe. For 400 years, it has received a copy of every item, digital or online, published in the UK.

The Bodleian Libraries is also the largest library system in the UK. It includes the main Bodleian Library and libraries all across Oxford, including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals, and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.

As a graduate student, you’ll be issued with a Bodleian Reader Card (often called a ‘Bod card’), which will give you access to the Bodleian Libraries and their world-class resources. To help you get the most from Oxford’s libraries, the Bodleian runs workshops to develop your research skills and help you to keep up with emerging research in your area, get access to the scholarly materials you need and manage your research data.

Department and faculty libraries

The Bodleian is networked with around 30 department and faculty libraries. These libraries not only offer large holdings of books and journals, but they’re invaluable resource hubs for any student engaged in study or research in a particular subject area. 

For example, the Radcliffe Science Library , the University’s main science library, holds about 1 million printed items across the scientific disciplines. It hosts training workshops on topics such as working with sensitive research data and open-access scholarship, and runs inductions for graduate students in science subjects. The library also offers 3D printing and scanning services, VR equipment and a 360° camera, with drop-in sessions to let students try out these resources and learn more about using them in research. 

College libraries

Oxford’s colleges boast impressive libraries. Most colleges have large holdings across the disciplines, and some also offer specialist collections in a particular subject area. You can view just some of these incredible books, manuscripts and other ephemera on  Digital Bodleian . 

Many college libraries are open 24 hours a day, and offer graduate students access to fantastic resources as well as a quiet, comfortable place to study. You can find out more about each college’s library in our colleges A-Z .

Oxford combines a rich heritage with infrastructure and facilities that are adapted to the needs of today’s students and scholars.

Across the University, digital technologies are enabling new kinds of research and learning, from computational approaches to drug discovery to exploring the Colosseum in VR. Oxford has been a centre of excellence for computing and engineering for decades, and is at the forefront of research in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

But no matter your subject, we want to enable you to make the most of technology to enhance your study and research. We have one of the largest private networks in the UK, providing high-speed internet and excellent IT facilities and support, with hundreds of computers for use throughout the University. Our virtual learning environments (VLEs) allow students to access course materials and collaborate, and many lectures are captured as audio or video podcasts.

Enhanced research

At Oxford, fantastic research materials are often just a few clicks away. Using SOLO, the University’s main search engine for library collections, students can search almost all of the holdings in the Bodleian, as well as departmental, faculty and college libraries across Oxford — that’s millions of printed books, e-books, online journals, articles, reports and databases at your fingertips.

Our museums and libraries use new technologies to provide digital access to their collections, including many objects and texts you might not otherwise get to see.  Digital Bodleian makes the Bodleian’s unique riches freely available to the world. It features over 650,000 digital objects, including images of manuscripts, rare books, maps and ephemera, from medieval Arabic cosmographies to maps of Middle Earth annotated by JRR Tolkien, and from classical papyri to drafts of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Ashmolean Museum has also embarked on a major project to digitise its collections, with over 60,000 object records available for you to browse or search . 

Oxford’s academic community is committed to providing the widest possible access to its world-class research. We have a policy of open access for publications that result from the University’s research. All researchers are encouraged to deposit their research publications in the Oxford Research Archive (ORA), the University’s digital repository, which holds more than 225,000 works including datasets. 

Skills and development

We provide many opportunities for graduate students to gain valuable digital research skills and develop a better understanding of finding and working with data. The Bodleian iSkills programme offers workshops for graduate students in information discovery and scholarly communications, and training in digital research skills are also run by our graduate schools. The Bodleian Data Library can advise you on finding data and statistics and managing your research data. It also manages access to restricted data collections, and helps researchers apply for access to sensitive datasets held offsite.

The University’s IT Learning Centre (ITLC) runs many classroom-based IT courses, taught in state-of-the-art learning rooms. Courses cover topics such as programming, digital media and platforms, data analysis, data management, data visualisation and high-performance computing.

All University members also have free access to a vast library of video learning courses on LinkedIn Learning. These courses are taught by industry experts and cover thousands of topics, from Python to project management.

As a graduate student, you’ll have free access to Oxford’s world-famous museums and collections. They offer astonishing resources for study and research. 

The Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum  is the University’s museum of art and archaeology, and the oldest public museum in the world. Opened in 1683, it has important and diverse collections from around the globe, ranging from Egyptian mummies and classical sculpture to the Pre-Raphaelites and modern art. 

For graduate students working with historical materials, the Ashmolean is a uniquely rich resource. You might be encouraged to explore the Ashmolean’s collections, both on display and behind the scenes, and have the chance to work with some of the museum’s materials as part of your study or research. 

Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum

Situated in the heart of the city,  Oxford’s Botanic Garden  is the oldest in the UK, and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. With over 6,000 different types of plant, it is an incredible resource for research and teaching. Current research at the Botanic Garden includes the evolution of parasitism, conservation plant collections from biodiversity hotspots, and carnivorous pitcher plants. 

History of Science Museum

The  History of Science Museum  offers an unrivalled collection of early scientific instruments in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum building. The museum houses around 20,000 objects that represent almost all aspects of the history of science from antiquity to the 1990s, including 13th century Islamic astrolabes, Lewis Carroll’s photographic equipment and a blackboard preserved from Einstein’s second lecture in Oxford in 1931. 

Museum of Natural History

A ‘cathedral to science’, the  Oxford Museum of Natural History  has been a centre of world-leading research and scientific debate since its opening in 1860. The stunning neo-Gothic building houses over 7 million scientific specimens, 20,000 books and half a million manuscripts, including the fossilised remains of the first dinosaur discovered by scientists and the only surviving soft tissue remains of a dodo. The museum is a major research centre, and its collections are used in research by the Department of Earth Sciences, Department of Zoology and the School of Archaeology. 

The Pitt Rivers Museum

The  Pitt Rivers  is a museum unlike any other. Founded in 1884, the museum houses more than half a million objects from all over the world, arranged not by age or origin but by type – a ‘democracy of things’. Here you’ll find both great cultural treasures and everyday objects that illustrate the diversity of cultural solutions to the basic problems we face as humans. Graduate students in archaeology and anthropology can borrow from the Balfour Library, one of the UK’s leading museum research and teaching libraries for the study of anthropology, archaeology and world music.

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$25,000 for the best essays on global problems.

Pivotal is an essay competition for high school students with world-class judges and no entry fee.

Get notified for future events and opportunities.

Essay questions that get you closer to changing the world..

Our questions are inspired by research conducted at Oxford University's Global Priorities Institute . We are excited to be partnering with them to judge your essays.

Artificial Intelligence

We will award prizes worth a total of $25,000 for the top three entrants, along with access to the Pivotal Library for the top 50 finalists.

$15,000 — 1st place $7,000 — 2nd place $3,000 — 3rd place

$25,000 in prizes for the best essays.

of the participants will be invited to the Pivotal Circle.

Join the Pivotal Circle, a community of exceptional students.

Up to 10 books

for each finalist (top 50).

You will be able to choose 10 physical books that we'll ship to you for free from the Pivotal Library, a curated collection of books.

Pivotal is a prime opportunity for students to showcase their critical and creative thinking. I expect that it will help set up students on a trajectory to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

We will notify you when we launch new events and opportunities.

Read our privacy policy .

Enter the Pivotal Essay Contest.

TOM ROCKS MATHS

Maths, but not as you know it…, oxford university maths essay competition 2024.

The Tom Rocks Maths Essay Competition is back – with a new home at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Full details and entry form here .

This exciting competition asks students of all ages and abilities to explain their favourite mathematical topic in an essay aimed at a non-specialist audience. Originally launched in 2020 as a partnership between Tom Rocks Maths and St Edmund Hall, the competition aims to provide the participants with the opportunity to communicate complex ideas in an understandable manner, and to encourage them to engage with maths beyond any curriculum.

There are no eligibility requirements, all you need is a passion for maths and a flair for writing to participate! The closing date is Monday 1st April 2024 and the showcase of entries (including the announcement of the winners) will take place throughout summer 2024.

There are two strands of entry: 1. Under 18’s (student); and 2. Over 18’s (adult) Please note: A ‘student’ is defined as anyone who is still studying full-time at school or college, university students fall into the ‘adult’’ category.

There is no word limit for the essays, but as a guideline 1000-2000 words is sufficient. All entries must be submitted using the online form as PDF or Microsoft Word documents. The submission form can be accessed here .

The winners will be selected by Dr Tom Crawford, Public Engagement Lead and Departmental Lecturer, and the creator of the award-winning ’Tom Rocks Maths’. All entries will be published on the Tom Rocks Maths website as part of the essay showcase.

The student prizewinner will receive a cash prize of £100 alongside the publication of their winning essay on the University website.

The adult prizewinner will receive free registration to an online live-time weekly class (WOW) of their choosing and the publication of their winning essay on the University website. The full list of courses available can be found here .

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