ENGLISH LITERATURE

GUIDELINES FOR ESSAY WRITING

            While most of you have already had experience of essay writing, it is important to realise that essay writing at University level may be different from the practices you have so far encountered.  The aim of this tutorial is to discuss what is required of an English Literature essay during your first year at University, including:

1. advice on writing style
2. general guidelines on essay format
3. how to plan and organise an essay
• Planning an Essay 
• Essay Structure
• Independence and Critical Reading 
• Use of Secondary Material
4. an introduction to the conventions of presentation.
5. a final checklist

1.         Writing Style.

            University level essays should be written in a formal style and demonstrate your understanding of the codes of academic discourse as they relate to the study of English Literature.  While there are variations between different disciplines, there are three main characteristics that are common to all academic essays.  As Dai Honsell explains, these are:

• An overriding concern to interpret and make meaning through the presentation of arguments
  
  
• Careful attention to the marshalling of relevant and valid facts, examples and other kinds of evidence to substantiate or refute arguments and interpretations;
  
  
• A structure or organisational framework which has not been chosen arbitrarily, but is instead designed to present arguments and evidence in a coherent and logically appropriate form.

            Clarity and expressiveness of language is obviously particularly important in essays on literature, and the development of an accurate and engaging writing style is one of the aims of a degree in English Literature. A satirical checklist of common errors that should be avoided is reproduced below:

2.         General Guidelines on Essay Format.

            Essays MUST conform to the following guidelines; failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in a lowered mark for presentation, which will affect your overall mark.  These guidelines help to ensure correct formal presentation and facilitate consistency in marking across the course. All essays must be:

• Word-processed or typed
• Double-spaced, in Times New Roman (Font size 12)

Essays should also have:

• clear pagination (Word: Insert page numbers)
• approximately 2.5 cm left and right hand margins (and retain standard header and footer options).

            In addition to these presentational guidelines, you should be aware that, in assessing essays, tutors are asked to bear in mind:

1. Relevance to the essay-subject as it has been set;
2. A well-defined line of argument, with each stage clearly marked;
3. Appropriate, economical, and accurate illustration;
4. Mastery of the relevant background material (contextual, critical, theoretical), and evidence of independent and wide-ranging reading;
5. Evidence of independent thinking about the subject, and, where ideas are taken from critics, ability to apply them to materials of the student's own choice;
6. Crisp expression. Failure to stay within the maximum number of words set for written work will be penalised;
7. Spelling, punctuation, grammar;
8. Accurate and comprehensive referencing of sources and list of Works Cited.

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3.         How to Plan and Organise an Essay.

Planning an Essay   / Essay Structure  / Independence and Critical Reading  / Use of Secondary Material

Planning an Essay.

            Careful planning is the key to producing a good essay.  Do NOT begin to write your essay the night before it is due to be submitted.  You should allow yourselves time to consider, plan, write, rewrite and revise, and proof read your essay before its submission.  The diagram and questions reproduced below will assist you in planning your essay.

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Essay Structure.

            Your essay should present a discussion and a reasoned argument: it should not be a set of random reflections on the texts or topic you have chosen. This will require some planning and organisation of your material before you begin to write, to ensure that your argument is coherent and engages directly with the question asked.

            A good introduction is often the key to a good essay. The first thing you should do is define any complex or potentially ambiguous terms in the question. This can also be one good way of effecting an introduction. Another is to consider why the question might be asked, what makes it interesting, or why it is relevant to the texts you are considering. You might also use your introduction to outline briefly your intentions in writing the essay: but remember that for a 1,000  or 2,000 word essay the introduction will necessarily be brief.

            The body of the essay of the essay should relate to the issues you outline in your introduction. It also needs a coherent structure: if you have used your introduction to identify the key issues of your discussion, structuring the essay becomes easier, as you can address these issues in separate paragraphs. Make the links and transitions between paragraphs clear. Remember that every paragraph and sentence should contribute directly to your argument.

            Your essay needs to strike a balance between argument and supporting evidence. Avoid unsupported generalisations. Stating that 'society is a patriarchy' or that 'evil is more interesting than good' without offering evidence to support the assertion is little different from claiming that 'the earth is flat' or 'tall people are more intelligent than short ones'. Even your more particular points about texts or issues always need supporting evidence, often in the form of quotations from the texts. Remember that you may need to explain how your evidence supports your point.

            Your essay needs a conclusion to avoid it petering out and losing its force. You might use the conclusion to draw together the threads of your argument, to re-visit the original question, or even to point towards new questions that your discussion has opened up. Whatever your conclusion, you should use it to step back slightly from the detail of the preceding argument to re-consider the wider picture.

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Independence and Critical Reading

            The purpose of an essay is to develop and present your own thinking about the texts and issues raised by the question. All essays are likely to draw on ideas taken from others, whether from critical books, lectures or discussions. But clearly an essay is not intended to be simply an anthology of others' ideas: those ideas should only be introduced in order to form and advance your own argument, which are both the substance and the purpose of the essay.

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Use of Secondary (Critical) Material

            Critical books and articles are often useful in stimulating your ideas about the literature you are writing on. It is also important to develop some awareness of the ongoing critical debate about works and literary issues; sometimes you may even be asked to write about the critical or theoretical works themselves. But ideas and words from other writers should never simply replace your own, either directly, or in the form of paraphrase. Quoted or paraphrased thoughts and words from another critic should be included in the text of your essay only if you wish to say something about them. You may want to take issue with them, or to develop them, or to illustrate a particular view which you then discuss. It is not helpful to quote from or paraphrase critics simply because you think their words sound more authoritative than your own.

            While you will often draw on other critics' ideas, you need to distinguish their words and opinions clearly from your own. If you do not, you will find that your readers are unable to judge your arguments. You will also lay yourself open to a charge of plagiarism, which is a serious academic offence. (See College Statement on Plagiarism.) The section below [An Introduction to the Conventions of Presentation] will help you to acknowledge your sources clearly. More general advice would be:

• words drawn directly from another writer should always be put in quotation marks: it is not acceptable to offer them incorporated into the body of your essay as if they are your own, even with minor variations.
  
  
• if you either paraphrase or quote directly from a critic, give a brief citation of the source within brackets at that point.
  
  
• if the ideas you discuss in a particular paragraph are based on, or drawn from, another writer you do not quote or mention by name in that paragraph, give a citation within brackets at the end of the paragraph as a whole acknowledging the source. You should be careful about using secondary material in this fasion: it should never be unclear whether a sentence in your essay contains your ideas you are drawing from another source, and this formof cittion can lead you into just this lack of clarity.
  
  
• works you have read which contribute in a general way to towards the essay, but whose ideas you do not address directly, do not need an in-text reference but should be included in the list of Works Cited.

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4.         An Introduction to the Conventions of Presentation.

            It is important that essays use the conventions of presentation that are appropriate for critical writing. This is not only for accuracy and ease of reading, but in order to avoid vagueness and confusion, for yourself and others. Acknowledgement of others’ work is a vital part of academic writing.  If you do not do so, you may find yourself open to charges of plagiarism, which, in some cases, may lead to disciplinary action and the refusal to award a Degree.

See University Statement on Plagiarism in a document available at www.aaps.ed.ac.uk/regulations/Plagiarism/130404/StudentGuidance.doc

There are many different presentational styles around. The Department of English Literature prefers the style approved by the Modern Language Association, known simply as ‘MLA Style’. All written work submitted to the Department should conform to the following guidelines, found at English Literature Style Sheet

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