What makes a good TSA essay?

From your TSA essay, tutors are wanting to get an idea of how you think. The essay also provides you the opportunity to demonstrate your subject interest, by using information and arguments you have come across when doing extracurricular reading. In what follows I'll set out the skeleton of a good TSA essay. The introduction is really important for setting out your argument. A brief and clear exposition of how you intend to answer a question and reach a conclusion, will demonstrate organisation of thought, and will enable tutors to better engage with the substantiation of the argument that will follow. Including your conclusion in the introduction will force you to have clarity over it, which will make your argument more focussed. The main body of your text should set out your argument, in a logical fashion, with each paragraph building on the last to lead to your conclusion. Begin each paragraph with a "substantive" sentence, briefly summarising the point of the paragraph, and how it relates to answering the question. When presenting your argument, try and anticipate potential rebuffs, and demonstrate why your conclusion should be selected, over and above alternatives. This demonstrates the ability to think critically, which is key in writing PPE/E&M essays and tutorials. Where possible substantiate your arguments with evidence, or by referring to arguments by respected thinkers. This adds weight to your argument, and demonstrates genuine interest in your subject. However, do not "name drop" for the sake of it - if you're going to refer to something for instance Rousseau has said, explain why its pertinent to the question at hand, or present a critique of what he has presented. A final key recommendation would be to plan before you begin writing - without doing this it will be difficult to set out your argument clearly in your introduction, and follow through with a clear structure.