A Beginner’s Guide to Essay-Writing
By Björn Heile
A Beginner’s Guide to Essay-Writing
By Björn Heile
How to Use This Guide
Where to Seek Help
What Do We Want from You and Why? Some Introductory Remarks
The Writing Stages: Before You Start, in the Middle, and After You Have Finished
Structure and Argument
Language Use and Style
‘Flow’
Sentence Structure
Spelling and Word Use
Citing and Quoting
Formatting and Bibliographic References
Online Sources
How to Use This Guide
Many new students feel ill-prepared to write essays, either because they lack confidence in their own abilities or because they are unsure about what is expected of them. While you will simply have to take the plunge eventually and while there is no better way of learning than by doing, this guide is intended to help you on your way and avoid some of the commonest pitfalls. It is based both on my own experiences as a writer and on what I perceive to be the most frequent problems encountered by students.
The best way to use it is to read it carefully before you embark on your first essays. Not everything will be of equal use to you at first, and you are not expected to get everything right from the start. But if you do find some of the advice useful, you may want to keep the guide in a safe place and consult it whenever you need it. Also keep in mind that the suggestions I make in this guide are only that: suggestions – you are not to follow them slavishly if they do not work for you. Everybody works differently, and it is for you to discover your particular method; we can only help you with that. So, make your own experiences!
Obviously this is only a very short introduction and will not prepare you for every problem you may face, but there are many books on the market that should provide further assistance; Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (London: Profile, 2003) has even become a bestseller! For music-specific problems, such as how to refer to musical works or specify pitches, one specially recommended book is D. Kern Holoman, Writing about Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-Century Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988) (some of Holoman’s advice concerns the specific journal he edits, and is therefore not universally applicable – he also tells you to avoid Britishisms – but in general the rules are sound). This will be available from both the main and departmental libraries as well as the university bookshop. But there are many comparable publications, either for music in particular or for academic writing in general (there’s a whole shelf load in the library under PF 290-292). Buying ordinary reference books such as a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a grammar will likewise always be a sensible investment: I personally prefer the Oxford and Longmans ranges, but there are sound competitors which are often cheaper. These days of course, a lot of reference works are available online: check the library’s link list at <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/reference/> (particularly note ‘Oxford Online Reference’, a superb source).
Where to Seek Help
If this guide doesn’t solve your problems and more books only seem to make matters worse, your first port of call should normally be your course tutor or your academic advisor. He or she won’t sort out your grammar woes for you, but they should be able to point you in the right direction. There are also student mentors in HUMS who give advice on study skills (<http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hums/1-4-3-3-1.html>), and there are even writers-in-residence (<http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hums/1-4-9.html>).
Additionally, the study skills page on the website of the Sussex Language Institute contains a range of fantastic resources, including an introduction to essay-writing similar to this one and a guide to punctuation: check <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/langc/skills/intro.html>. If you are dyslexic, or suspect that you are, you should contact the university’s student services department (if you haven’t already done so): check <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/equalities/1-2.html> for more details.
What Do We Want from You and Why? Some Introductory Remarks
In many of your courses essays form a large part of the assessment. You should see this as an opportunity to tell your side of the story. Whereas many other forms of assessment, such as unseen exams, focus largely on the reproduction of facts, essays bring your critical intelligence into play. Although knowing the facts is indispensable for a successful essay, it is your ability to make sense of them that really makes a difference. Another advantage of essays is that you can learn a lot while writing them: firstly, how to research a topic on your own, secondly, how to develop an original argument, and thirdly, how to fashion your ideas into a written text. While there can be a great variety of positive examples, a successful essay will normally demonstrate a sound grasp of the subject matter, present an original argument, and support this argument persuasively in a well-structured text.
Some students find it hard to accept the second and third items of this list. However, as mentioned above, being able to reproduce the facts is only the beginning in an essay; being able to evaluate them critically and making one’s case articulately are at least of equal importance. Demonstrating your capacity for independent thought does not mean that you have to square the circle or reinvent music history every time you write an essay, nor is it an invitation for purely subjective judgement. Rather, you should be able to show that you can critique what you read in books and complement it with your own assessment of the subject matter. Admittedly, getting the balance right is not always easy, but this can be learned over time. Moreover, there is more than one ‘correct’ spot on the continuum between a neutral summary of published material and completely independent ideas. As with so many things, learning by doing is the best method. What all this implies is that what counts is not which answer you give to an essay question, but how you substantiate the answer that you do give: what we look for as examiners is not the ‘right’ answer but consistency in your argument and in the evidence you cite.
What many students take issue with is that such aspects as language use, essay structure, and writing style form part of the assessment. At this stage, I could content myself with citing university legislation, but, as it happens, I support the legislation in this particular instance. What seems to have happened is that these students have fallen victim to a popular belief according to which there is a clear distinction between the content of an essay and the words used to express it. Proponents of this view regard language simply as a conduit for the ‘message’. Linguists have known for many years that this is erroneous: textual meaning only resides in words, not outside them. To put it closer to home: we can only give you credit for what you do say, not for what you may have wanted to say. As I mentioned above, part of your task is to make a persuasive argument, and this requires a certain facility in language use. (Interestingly, when I discuss books with students, they are more likely to critique the writing than the content, arguing that one is ‘more comprehensible’ than another, or that it makes a ‘more convincing case’ – you should follow the same ideals in your own writing.)
But more importantly, being able to argue your case articulately and eloquently is one of the greatest assets you can gain while at university: there is no profession or walk of life where this skill is not a prime advantage. Finally, from my personal experience the old maxim that clarity of language shows clarity of thought is mostly true (with the exception of such cases as dyslexia). Accordingly, acquiring greater verbal dexterity may help you to achieve deeper insight too. This is not so surprising since mental processes are influenced by language, while, conversely, language structures to a certain extent reflect cognitive processes, that is the working of the mind.
In case this sounds intimidating – which it isn’t meant to be – help is at hand. Firstly, we as lecturers are aware that writing is a skill that isn’t acquired overnight: we are all still learning and few of us like to be reminded of our first efforts. This is reflected in our marking. But in order to improve you should read our comments carefully and try to take them on board: they are not designed to ‘tell you off’, but to help you progress. Furthermore, the good news is that, to a large extent, essay-writing can be learned; following the ground rules below may make the plunge easier! Before I go into details, however, here’s the most important rule: the best way of learning to write is to read. The publications we cite in our reading lists should normally be good models: try to emulate them (not slavishly of course). This may also teach you how to read more critically: you have probably been taught to distil the contents of books and articles; now try also to analyse how they are structured, how authors present the material to make their points, how they write, and how they cite. This skill may lead you to revise your opinion of certain publications, and this may in turn come in handy when it comes to demonstrate your personal judgement of which I spoke above.
The Writing Stages: Before You Start, in the Middle, and After You Have Finished
Let us imagine you have done all your research (normally the research and writing phases overlap because your writing may take you in unexpected directions – which is generally a good sign – or you discover that you are unclear about certain aspects, but let’s leave all that aside): how do you start writing? For most people it is not advisable to start writing the actual text straightaway, but first to produce drafts. This can take the form of keywords that reflect the structure of the argument, an abstract presenting the whole of the essay in a compressed version, or a mind map which represents key issues and their interrelations graphically. Experiment with these or other ways of sketching the basic ideas to find out what works best for you. In any case, it is almost always better to have a clear idea of what you want to say before you start writing – even if you revise your ideas at a later stage (that’s generally a good sign too!).
When you think you know what you want, start writing. It is important to note that you do not have to start with the very beginning; in fact, most writers write their introductions last so they know what it is they introduce (personally, I generally prefer starting with the introduction as it forces me to clarify what I’m really after). Whatever you start with, remember that you can always revise, reorder or erase what you write – and rigorously do so if you don’t find it satisfactory! Word processors have made this a lot easier. Particularly if you suffer from writer’s block, it may help you to know that whatever you write is only provisional. You may also want to start with what you are most certain about.
The third phase after planning and writing is revising. In my experience, students greatly underestimate the importance of this. At this stage, you have to be very hard on yourself: read your own text very carefully, always asking yourself whether you have actually written what you wanted to, whether this is the best way of expressing it, whether your text is consistent and the order of the material reflects the stages of your argument, whether syntactical structures used exist and whether they mean what you think they do, whether words used mean what you think they do, and so forth. It is always useful to give your essay to a friend to read (to avoid academic misconduct, this friend should not take the same course and should not comment on the actual subject matter). If you think that this is taking friendship too far, how about exchanging essays? If you are not quite happy with your text, try to analyse what is wrong (this may not be easy) and rectify it. Obviously, time is limited, but in your planning always leave some space for rigorous revision. I sometimes spend more time revising and rewriting a text than it has taken me to write it in the first place.
What is important about these three phases is that they overlap. While you are writing you will almost inevitably amend some of your initial assumptions. As I mentioned above, this is a good sign because it shows that writing helps you develop your thoughts. However, you may have to go back to your planning phase and reconsider what the consequences of your new line of argument are. Moreover, you may also have to revise some of your earlier text as this was written with an argument in mind that you have since altered. Therefore, always ask yourself whether what you have just written really continues to serve the function in relation to your argument that you originally had in mind (e.g. illustrating, supporting or challenging it). This implies that, just as you are going back to the drawing board while writing, you are also already revising. Obviously you should try not to be too obsessive and labour endlessly on your first paragraph – on the contrary, it is often a better idea to keep going and see that you ‘find your way in’ – but analysing your own writing is never a bad idea.
This may all sound more complex than it really is: the chances are that you are already working in this way – perhaps without being aware of it – and it will come quite naturally with more practice. Nevertheless, it needs saying as a mismatch between the ostensible argument of an essay and the evidence cited to support it is a fairly common flaw. A system of checks and balances between the three writing phases should ensure an argument that appears to flow naturally. Needless to say, this process takes some time, so don’t leave things for the last minute! This does not mean that you are going to spend more time writing: on the contrary, if anything, a well-planned and properly drafted essay will make for easier and more fluent writing. But ideas need time to mature.