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ESSAY WRITING The purpose of writing essays Essays in literary studies generally require you to carry out two related tasks: a) They invite you to show that you are familiar with the literary works you have studied. b) They invite you to show that you dominate those literary works in order to argue a ES ES specific aspect of them. It is extremely important to demonstrate this knowledge within a coherent or developing argument. This means the following: a) identifying an issue in a given area. b) Establishing different points of view. c) Presenting evidence in support of and against the question set. d) Reaching a conclusion consistent with the argument you have presented. Key ideas to bear in mind: 1. You develop ideas in paragraphs and then illustrate them with examples chosen from the text (either quotations if you have the text with you or the reference to the episode: these are used as supporting evidence of what you have previously said). 2. The originality of your essay lies in the way you compare and organise the material. 3. Keep asking yourselves questions about the topic set. 4. Language has to be simple but formal. Avoiá slang, coiloquialisms and contractions. 4. Remember: if reading is re-reading, writing is re-writing. However, in an exam question since you can't rewrite, you need practice and a good outline. Planning your essay is the most important stage in the process of writing a good essay. ESSAY WRITING Planning Your Essay Planning is a very important stage in the process of writing a good essay. What you need to reach is an overview of the content and structure of your essay, and one way of arriving at a plan for your essay is to write down headings on one or two pieces of paper so that the whole can be seen together. This helps to make the situation easier to see. One possible outline form the plan can take is along the following lines. 1. Introduction A. Comments on subject of essay or what you understand by it, why you think it important, etc. B. Which aspects you are going to cover and why. 2. Main Body of Essay Several main ideas, each illustrated and supported by evidence (see use of quotations in Roy Johnson's book, page 111-12) and argument — the relationship between these ideas made clear. Write down lots of paragraph headings and sub-headings for this main section. 3. Conclusion Firm or tentative answer to the question(s) set by the essay title-including your own views. 54 How to write essays U start again with it all clear, and sometimes | continue on to the end. Anyway | find Pm revising as | go because | know what | want to say. Anna: | write on coffee. | read over al my notes and then have a cup of coffee or take the dog for a walk. This lets the ideas bubble away at the back of my mind. Then | try and block out on a piece of paper the main points ) want to make. | also put down the quotes and refer- ences | know for sure 1 want to use, | mean 1 put the ideas in the order | think Pl write them in. Thi e | write from, you know, developing the ideas as 1 go but still coming back to the outline to check where Pm heading. Between coffee. | stop at each of the main sections and think again about where 'm going next. Ben: Wi 'm not so keen on working it out as you go along. | spend a lot of time thinking out the argument before 1 write a word. | make an outline, No, | make a series of outlines, building up the detail each time. And making the structure clearer, Then when | write, | try and get the first paragraph just right before | go on. Sometimes | work away at it for hours. Not just the same paragraph, but three or four different tries at it, til! | think P've got it periect. Or as good as | can, 1 do the same with each paragraph. | don't like thinking that when ! get to the end l'll have to do the whole thing again. So | revise as 1 go. That's not always true, though. Sometimes | have to go back to the first paragraph because the argument changed a bit along the way. Mostly | try to keep the argument in line on the way through. In fact all three strategies can be successful, but for different individuals. And it is misleading to suggest that one method is necessarily better than another. The one process that is necessary, and is achieved at different stages in all these approaches, is the conscious ordering of the material. You will notice also that in all three accounts the connec- tion between planning and writing is extremely fluid; that even Ben, who has the most rigidly structured approach, is reshaping his material in the light of what emerges in his writing. In this sense planning and writing are truly interac- tive, and creative, processes. General planning strategies Despite the wide variety of individual styles of planning, there are some strategies which seem generally useful. You may find the following sytem of working helpful. You can always adapt it as you go. 1 Analyse the essay topic. Check again how you are being directed to handle your material, Analysing and planning 55 2 Read through all your notes. Do this both to remind yourself of material you may have read many weeks before and partially forgotten, and also to get an overview of the material which is now available for your use, 3 Begin to identify key points. There are various things you may wish to do at this stage. You may find it helpful to use the margins of your notes to make cross-references. You may want to underline or highlight points which you now see are important to your argument. Maybe you will write out the key points and quotations on a separate sheet of pa- per, or cut them out of your pages of notes. You could sort your notes into categories depending either on their common content or according to some gradually emerging order. 4 Think about a potential order for your material. Give yourself time to think about the significance of the materials you have collected. Think about the various ways in which they could be combined and ordered in relation to the topic. Think about the ways in which these materials seem *natural- ly" to fall into a pattern, Think about the central aim of your argument and how your materials could be used to support and develop it. 5 Draw up a tentative plan. Block out on paper at least the main stages of your essay and a tentative conclusion. You may find it useful to include key names or points under each general stage. You may even want to pick out a particular quotation for your starting point. (But remember that this “plan' is not a rigid guideline. lt can be changed once you start writing.) If you want to see a variety of plans for a common essay topic, turn to Appendix 5. Finally, you may be disappointed to discover that there is no single foolproof method of planning your essay. Don't be. It means that you can forget the nagging worry that there is some 'skill” in chis whole business of thinking and writing which, if only you can obtain it, will set you up for academic life. In fact most essay topics do have an inherent structure hwhich emergés, almost sp cousty, as you work through the materials: Each tume yob Write an essay you are faced “with the same difficulty of discerning this structure and shap- ing it to your purposes. i 56 How to write essays Summary In this chapter we have looked at the related stages of analys- ing your essay topic in order to identify what you are directed to do with your material, and of working towards a tentative plan for your essay. We have stressed that planning is a process that takes place continuously throughout the pre- paration for and drafting of an essay. And that there is no one style of developing a plan which is “the best”. The important points to remember are: 1 You need to analyse your topic carefully. 2 Most essays involve both description and analysis. 3 Other common tasks in essays are evaluation of con- troversy, definition and clarification, and interpretation. 4 Planning is a process by which your ideas, your materials and the demands of the set topic are transformed into an ori- ginal piece of writing. 5 At some stage in the production of your essay you must develop a conscious plan, but how and when you do this depends on your individual style of working. 6 There are some steps which are useful in developing an essay plan, including close reference to the topic, reading over all your notes, and developing a tentative sequence of content. CHAPTER SIX Drafting and redrafting All writing involves hard labour: what T.S. Eliot calls the “intolerable wrestle with words and meanings”. By the end of secondary school you had probably developed a good system for working on essays. But university essay writing imposes new demands. As we have seen, the topics are more complex, and you are required to do a lot of independent reading and research. In addition, the essays are usually much longer than those you wrote at school, which raises new problems of structuring your material. And there are conventions of style and scholarship (use of bibliographies, references, etc.) which may be unfamiliar. You will need to adjust your system of writing to meet these demands. For a start, you can no longer get by with only one writing (draft) of an essay. Yow'll need to write at least two drafts because the first and second drafts are written for different purposes. In the first draft you are writing primarily for yourself. writing through the material in order to impose an order on it and to see, at the end of it all, exactly what you think. In the second, and possibly subsequent drafts, you are much more aware of your reader—your tutor or lecturer. At this stage you are constantly adjusting the style, tone, presentation and other features of the essay to meet his or her expectations. All writing involves a writer, a content and a reader. What distinguishes one type of writing from another is the context in which it takes place. The special characteristics of essay writing in an academic context are shown in the following diagram. . Context: You are now writing in a discipline within a university. Therefore you are immediately constrained in terms of your purpose, the content you may use, your voice, style and language. For example, the voice you adopt to present your argument must be a combination of your own personal voice and the specialist voice of the discipline-—cthe voice of the sociologist, the philosopher or the literary critic. 92 How to write essays Lecturers” expectations Lecturers” expectations about term essays (see Ch, 1) about exam essays 3 Itis expected that your essay 3 The same, though your exam will present a reasoned essay is not expected to be as argument (p. 8). well-structured because there is little time for redrafting. 4 It is expected that your essay will be competently presented (p. 9). 4 Less important, except possibly the ldegibility of your handwriting. Identifying probable exam topics How can you set about revising effectively when you don't know what the exam will be about? l''s certainly a problem but there are ways in which you can start to identify the topics which will probably be set. You can never be certain that a particular topic will turn up, and you will have almost no clues as to the precise wording and focus of the actual questions on the paper. However, you can narrow the range of topics with some confidence. Here are three ways in which you might start this process: guides. There may have been a change of lecturer, or of some of the course content, or of the style and format of the exam (for example, a shift from three essays to three short answers and a multiple-choice section). Initially your purpose in skimming past exam papers is to: e identify the main topics which are covered, For example, is there usually a question on kinship in the Anthropology exam? Or on meteorology in the Geography paper? * become familiar with the format of the exam. For exam- ple, how many questions are set, and within what time limits? Is the paper divided into sections? Are any sec- tions compulsory? 2 Use any departmental sources which you can find to clarify your understanding of the content of the course and, there- fore, of the probable scope of the exam paper. Departmental handouts and the course outline in the Faculty Handbook A Exam essays 93 should give you a brief summary of the aims and content of the course. This can help you to identify both the key con- cepts and issues which have been covered during the year and the rationale underlying the whole course. 3 Read through all your lecture notes and tutorial notes, both to refresh YOur memory of the whole sweep of 1he course and to identify the mán divisions into wbi € course falls. Now you should be in a position to pick out the specific topics you want to concentrate on in your revision, Reading and other revision activities In your reading for a term essay you are trying to find're- levant sources and extend your understanding of the topic. In revising for exams, by contrast, you are trying to consolidate and clarify the knowledge you have already acquired. So your study strategies must change. Revision must be an ac- tive process in which you rework and rethink your materials in a variety of ways. Here are some suggestions: Lo . ( Make summaries of your notes as you read and try to con- “dense a whole section of the course into a page or two of notes, Ir this way you “are forting" yourself to “identify key points. These points, recombined in new ways to meet the specific demands of your exam questions, will be as much material as you can handle in the exam time. These summaries also have the advantage that they can be used effectively in the final stages of your revision when you are desperately trying to remind yourself of everything you should already know. They can give you confidence that the task is manageable, ta Lo : 2 ¿Check your revision notes against past exam papers: e which questions relate to the material you have been re- vising? e what points would you need to cover in order to answer ... each question? 2 3.Y ou can also try framing your own exam questions based on the materials you are revising. (These three strategies are particularly valuable if you are working in a study group. The comments, insights and 94 How to write essays your own ideas.) : . ma 4 You may also find it useful to write a trial answer to one question, without looking at your revision notes and within the time limit of the exam. Some lecturers and tutors are willing to skim through these trial efforts and comment on your performance. Other students may be helpful in suggest- ing ways in which you could have handled the topic more eftectively. And even if you can get no outside feedback, this exercise is still useful in demonstrating just how much—or limited time. Sn some courses you may be allowed to take notes and other materials into the exam room. However, you"! need to organise these materials beforehand so that you can use them quickly and efficiently within the exam time limits. Planning and writing Exams demand a quick response; but also a response that is accurately directed to the terms of the set question. You may find it helpful to keep these three steps in mind as you start your actual exam: ' : 1Once you have chosen the questions you will answer. “make notes for each (on the exam paper, on rough paper, anywhere) on the points, facts, names, dates and other re- levant information which immediately come to mind. Later these first responses must be reorganised coherently, but they can be very helpful both in starting your mind working and in assisting you to switch your concentration to the next question as soon as you have completed one answer. Wwording of the question. Make quite sure that you have understood the content you must cover and the way in which you are directed to use it. :3 Plan your answer as clearly as possible |b, Writing. y 35 pi [ eforelyou start By comparison with term essay writing, the exam allows you the opportunity for paly one drafi, Inevitably this will re- Pro etc a Exam essays 95 sult in a rougher presentation: there may be awkward links Lx between one point and the next; the direction Of yoúr drgu- ment may shift, You may remember points late in your essay which should have appeared earlier; the introduction and conclusion may not be very polished. "To "somé extent your examiner will make allowances for these shortcomings, On the other hand, he will appreciate those exam answers which exhibit the qualities of a good essay. Editing Editing (if it takes place at all) is a very hasty process, in exams. lt is commonplace advice that you allowhve minutes (or_more) at.she-end..of.cach exam, answer for”edicing: ln practice, if you do have time to spare, certainly go back over your answers to correct errors of fact, style and grammar. However, in many exams you will find you have little time, or taste, for rereading what you have written. You must rely on the fluent style and the habits of accuracy and clarity which you have been consciously developing over the year's work, Summary In this final chapter we have discussed some of the adaptations you must make to your essay-writing methods when you are handling exam essays. The most significant differences arise from the constraints on time and access to source materials. Efficient revision is the basis for effective Exam answers. The main points to remember are: 1 In your exam essays you should aim for the same qualities as in your term essays, though your answers will probably be less competently argued and less polished. 2 You should begin your revision by trying to identify the topics on which exam questions will probably be based. 3 Good revision is an active process in which you rework your material so that it can be used with flexibiliry and efficiency in the exam. ESSAY AND/OR EXAM QUESTIONS It is helpful to bear in mind these recurrent instruction words (“discuss”, “contrast”, etc.) but it is also necessary to link up these instruction words with other aspects of questions. These are several different categories of exam questions: a) Questions on given passages. b) Questions which explicitly invite debate, and the weighing of evidence (these might be called “to what extent” or “discuss” questions). €) Other specific types of questions. d) General invitations. e) Complex questions. a) Questions on given passages. Examples: - How appropriate is the use of archaisms and literary language in the passage? - By what means, stylistic and other, does the author attempt to establish the physical appearance of the main characters in the following passage? The examination is testing what skills you have developed over time. You have to concentrate on isolating suitable phrases or passages for comment, and on drawing general observations from them. b) Questions which explicitly invite debate. and the weighing of evidence (these might be called “to what extent? or “discuss” questions). Examples: - “Drabble's fiction is overtly concerned with the moral issue of responsibility”. Discuss. - To what extent can Fenella”s voyage be described as an educational joumey? The answer is never just a long version of “yes” or “no”.These questions are meant to provoke reaction, so you have to justify your own view and opinion, £) Other specific types of question. Examples: - In what ways can Shakespeare”s female protagonists be regarded as subversive? - Consider some of the linguistic and/or dramatic effects achieved by Harold Pinter in The Birthday Party. Here you must pay a lot of attention to the instruction words of the questions set (see list of terms). d) General invitations, Examples: - Write on Fielding?s use of the joumey in two of his works. - Write on Austen's irony. Roughly speaking, you can take “write” as synonymous with “describe and discuss”. In your first paragraph you will have to make very clear to your examiner what shape you are imposing on your discussion, e) Complex questions. Example: - “In natural objects we feel ourselves, or think of ourselves, only by likenesses-among men too often by differences” (Coleridge). In the light of this statement consider the presentation of the relationship between the self and the world in the work of any one writer of the period. Here we have the following pattern: a) A quote captures a general perception. b) You are asked about some other writer where it is plausible to think the quote may be relevant. e) You are asked to discuss this second writer in the light of the quote. Prove: Proof demands confirmation or verification. In such discussions you should establish something with certainty by citing evidence by logical reasoning. Relate: Your answer should stress connections and associations in descriptive form. Review: You should analyse and comment briefly in organised sequence upon the major points of the problem. State: In questions which direct you to specify, give, state, or present, you are called upon to express the main points in clear form, giving details, and usually illustrations or examples, as appropriate. Summarize: You should give in condensed form the main points or facts. FURTHER READING Clanchy, John €: Brigid Ballard. How to Write Essays: A Practical Guide for Students. 1981. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1989. * Coe, Norman, Robin Rycroft and Pauline Emest. Writing Skills: A Problem-Solving Approach for Upper-Intermediate and More Advanced Students. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Fabb, Nigel and Alan Durant. How to Write Essays, Dissertations £ Theses in Literary Studies, London and New York: Longman, 1993. * Greetham, Bryan. How to Write Better Essays. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001. Pirie, David B. How to Write Critical Essays. London and New York: Routledge, 1985. 
