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Some Tips for Essay Writing

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8/13/2019 Some Tips for Essay Writing

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Some tips for essay writing

1. Have a strong opening paragraph.Your opening paragraph is there to interest your reader, to make them want to go on reading, andto set an agenda for the essay. It might contain some contextual information (though it doesn’thave to – and see point 4 !ut it shouldn’t focus on small details of the text. It has !egin to showthe way you are going to tackle the "uestion# which aspects will !e your main focus, or whatapproach you are going to use, or even $ust simply which texts you have chosen. It might soundparadoxical, !ut it can !e a good idea to work on your opening at the end, once the rest of theessay is written and you have a !etter idea of exactly what points you’ll !e making. %t the veryleast, you should re&read the first paragraph !efore you hand in the essay, and ask# have I statedwhat the essay will !e a!out' %nd does the essay match that claim' If not, consider re&writing theopening.2. Try to avoid technical language, jargon or overly-complex sentence structures.

echnical language has its place, !ut it shouldn’t !e used where ordinary )nglish can express thesame point. *hile essays should !e written in formal )nglish (so avoid contractions like +can’tand +won’t , this is not the same thing as loading sentences with $argon or endless clauses. Irealise that many of you have !een taught to use the phrase +semantic field # I cannot recallseeing this used in any work of pu!lished literary criticism I’ve read in the last six years. -ut,

following riday’s seminar, I know many of you find it a useful tool, so you can keep on using it forthe time !eing. I don’t think I will ever learn to love it, !ut I will tolerate it. You should !ear in mind(looking !eyond your degree that there will !e an awful lot of readers whose response to thephrase will range from !emusement to outright dislike.

. !emem"er the !#$S%&S why you are as'ed to use secondary sources.It has !een drilled into you all to use secondary sources !ut to use them to !est advantage youneed to !ear in mind what are the purposes of referring to them. here are two main reasons forreferencing another piece of writing#

a to su!stantiate a claim which you do not have time or space to prove in detail withinthe confines of your essay. hese will generally !e a!out factual matters that cannot !e assumedto !e common knowledge. )xamples would !e !iographical details a!out writers, historical eventsor details of pu!lication. %void providing references for definitions of words.

! (this is the one that is more important for achieving higher marks to convey to your

reader an idea of the argument expressed in your source and what your relationship to thatargument is. You are trying to show that you are aware that there are different opinions on asu!$ect, to explain (concisely to your reader what those opinions are and then show where theseexisting ideas fit into your arguments. /ay!e you agree wholeheartedly with them, may!e youdisagree completely# either response (and any shade in !etween is accepta!le, !ut you shouldkeep asking yourself# have I made it clear to the reader what ideas I am taking from thissecondary source' %nd how is its argument different from my own' You can do this with"uotation or paraphrase !ut you are trying to make it clear that you understand your sourcematerial and you are sharing that understanding with your reader.(. )e very wary of generalisations.You need to !e really careful a!out statements like, +0o&one in the nineteenth&century talkeda!out sex or + he romantics !elieved the rench 1evolution was a good idea . 2ood criticism isa!out teasing out the complexities of the way people thought and wrote# even if there is sometruth in the a!ove statements, they say too much and lump too many people together. houghsometimes generali3ation is unavoida!le, it is !etter to aim for smaller, more specific claimswhich can !e !acked up with evidence.*. +a'e sure you ma'e the most of your chosen uotes.

% surprisingly common feature of many of your essays was to stop talking a!out material $ust asyou’d hit on something interesting. You may have selected a really key "uote with rich potentialfor analysis, then $ust stop and move onto the next point. ry to develop the confidence to pursueyour strongest lines of argument until you have really developed your argument. *hen you find agood primary "uote or secondary source, make sure you get the full !enefit from it. )specially ifyou find yourself ending a paragraph with a "uote, there will almost certainly !e more you could

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have said a!out it. !viously you also have to avoid repetition and stretching material too thinly!ut in many cases you will find you can expand and develop simply !y paying more detailedattention to the words you have already "uoted.

. Test the relevance of everything you include. %sk yourself whether each paragraph really adds to the overall argument you are trying to make.-e really honest with yourself a!out why it is there. -ecause it is an important and integral part ofyour essay' r !ecause you found it on the internet, or spent half a morning trying to write it'Irrelevance, even !rilliantly thought&out or well&written, will always lose you marks. If you think it isnot sufficiently clear why you are including something, then explain why within the essay. If youcan’t, that may !e a sign it has no place there.

. /f you0re going to discuss verse form, it needs to add something to your argument.5escri!ing rhyme schemes and parts of speech without any further analysis is pointless. If youwant to write a!out such features, your discussion needs to add to the overall point you are tryingto make. *hy does the writer choose to arrange language in this way' *hat is the effect, andhow does it contri!ute to the meaning'