Advice on Writing Essays
. Don't try to write what you think your seminar tutor wants to hear. Try to be original. You鈥檙e likely to score higher for making an original argument that seems problematic than for repeating the arguments you鈥檝e read or heard.
. Don鈥檛 repeat what you hear in seminars – especially without citation. Seminar discussions are invitations to research, not information to be repeated.
. Don鈥檛 generalise. Stick to one solid specific demonstrable argument.
. Stick to your title.
. If you make promises of an historical framework, don鈥檛 then wander between times (e.g. books from 1958 and 1989 can鈥檛 easily fit into an argument about post-war consensus without some work to link these times).
. Proof-read your essay before submission.
. Avoid retelling the plot, or allowing your argument to become structured around telling the plot. Try to think about how questions of form, language, narrative structure impact on your argument. Don鈥檛 just focus on thematic content, dialogue, or 鈥榳hat happens鈥�. Think about the text as an object in itself that does things with language, rather than as something that has to be 鈥榠nterpreted鈥� to complete it.
. Try to do something small, focused and in-depth than trying to tackle a huge subject by only skimming the surface. Philosophical ideas are complex and need to be unpacked, explained and developed – dropping them in halfway through your essay without warning feels rushed.
. Make sure your paragraphs are connected together in a logical way and your argument isn鈥檛 just a series of points or general statements. Create a thesis statement and develop it over the course of your analysis. Often adding a final sentence at the end of a paragraph will help the reader follow your thinking.
. Don鈥檛 put 鈥榝iller鈥� in your first paragraph. Try to make sure your argument is crystallised in the first paragraph, especially in a very short essay like this.
. Revise the terms that are fundamental to the module: devolution/ independence; England/ Britain; language/ dialect/ accent/ Standard English鈥�; middle class/ working class.
. Try to avoid cliche ('quintessential'; 'identity'; 'marginalised'...)
.Technical or theoretical terms need to be defined – but rather than saying 'The Oxford English Dictionary defines "a novel" as鈥�', cite and work through the conceptual vocabulary of your preferred commentators.
. Read history books, but try to be discerning. Find books that avoid journalistic clich茅 or pop-history descriptions that are too broad or general. This will help you show how the text at hand is embedded in a material history and avoid overly simplistic readings that reduce history to a set of 鈥榗ontexts鈥�.
. Use the extensive module booklists as a basis for research. It鈥檚 good to find new sources, but be careful of going straight for whatever comes up on a google search. - Be judicious with Jstor – not everything on there is academically rigorous or suitable. Build your bibliography by looking at the secondary reading list, then use the indexes of those works to expand your secondary knowledge. Same goes for newspapers and internet sources. Think about how informed the sources you find really are, and when they were published.
. Don鈥檛 assume that 鈥榗ritics鈥� are a special source of textual analysis – it is often better to trust your own close reading and your overall historical sense – and don鈥檛 resort to newspaper interviews for help interpretation of texts by that author. . Avoid journalese, overwriting, and review-type writing (e.g. 鈥楢 Clockwork Orange is a thrilling and outstanding work of fiction鈥�).
. 鈥極riginality鈥� doesn鈥檛 always come from finding a completely new angle. You can put theoretical and critical analyses in dialogue with one another in a way that is aware of history and your argument will develop more nuanced and original dimensions without it being forced.
. Don鈥檛 use 鈥業鈥� (e.g. 鈥楳any have suggested that Hunger is pro-nationalist, but I believe鈥︹��). Avoid examples from your own life.
. Don鈥檛 tub-thump (鈥楤ecause of Thatcher, hard-working communities all over the UK were decimated鈥�). Stay scholarly.
. Don鈥檛 describe Scotland as a colony (unless you have a serious contrarian argument behind this).
. Don鈥檛 assume individualism is always the goal, at least without having a serious theoretical rationale for this (e.g. 鈥楴ineteen Eighty-Four shows how the individual is oppressed by society鈥�).
. Don't overorganise, e.g. 'This essay will show' three pages in; 鈥淚n conclusion鈥︹��.
. Revise basic punctuation, especially apostrophes and inverted commas.
. Check the MLA style guide. Note that all entries need actual and original publication dates, if these are different.
. Don't repeat material from another essay submitted to another module.
. Try to finish your essay well before the deadline, to reduce stress and allow for accidents.
. If you see your module tutor during office hours, talk about the content of the module rather than trying to work out how to structure your essay. We are constrained as to how much we can talk about the writing of the essay, but genuine engagement with content always shows.