4.2 Bibliography
For this you need a booklist, either computer-based, or in the form of
a card index. A bibliography, some call it. Every book you read should have
its details listed in your master book-list, your card index or computer
file. Author/s, title, date, publisher, shelf mark, place of publication. I
repeat: every single book and article you read should be in this list. In
(only) two and a bit years' time when you are desperately trying to find
something original to say about The Book of the Duchess for an exam that is
going to happen in a few weeks' or days' time, you will need this booklist
and these carefully filed notes, containing your ideas about literary
texts. Believe me.
5. Planning and structuring
So: you've gathered the material, read it, made notes, had ideas,
written them down on separate slips, headed and filed them. How do you
write the essay?
Like this. You gather together all of the slips you have on the topic
of the essay. You read through, writing new ones and rewriting old ones if
more or different ideas come to you, and making sure each of them is
headed. You put the headings together in a logical order (headings, sub-
headings, sub-sub-headings) on a sheet of paper in the form of an outline
of the essay. You arrange the slips in order of the outline. You assemble
the pile of slips, the outline, and blank paper (or a blank word-processor
screen) in front of you. You write the essay, going from heading to heading
and slip to slip. The essay writes itself, painlessly, because you've done
most of the thinking already. On the way, you observe the following rules
and wise bits of advice.
5.1 The outline
The plan you construct should be in the form of an indented outline.
This is a series of headings and subheadings, indented, like this:
Main heading
subheading 1
notes on subheading 1
subheading 2
notes on subheading 2
and so on...
Behind every essay there must be a plan of that sort. This essay on
essays is built from such a plan, as you can see. If you remember any
lectures that use outlines, you will (I hope) remember how useful it was to
have that written out in front of you so that you knew where you were in
it. Now think of an examiner, having to read up to a hundred student
essays. A decent level of concentration is hard to maintain. They get lost,
and lose the thread, just as you do in lectures. It is essential therefore
that an outline like that must be obvious to him or her, clearly
perceptible in the way the essay is written. In order to achieve this
effect the easiest way is to have one, written out for your own benefit
beforehand.
5.2 The paragraph
The second thing, in order to maintain and make obvious a clear
structure, is to be aware of the nature of the paragraph as the basic
structuring unit in the essay. Basically, every paragraph should represent
and flesh out a heading or sub-heading in the outline. The paragraph is the
building block of the essay. Therefore:
. It should be at least a third to half a page in length, but not too
long or the reader will get lost. No one-sentence paragraphs! They
give the impression that you read the Sun a lot. It's not good to give
that impression.
. It should have what's known as a topic sentence, near the beginning,
that announces the theme of the paragraph. The paragraph should not
deviate from this theme or introduce any new themes.
. The first sentence should somehow be linked to, or contrast with, the
last sentence of the previous paragraph.
. The first paragraph should announce clearly the theme of the essay. I
prefer first paragraphs that quite baldly say "I am going to do this
and that in this essay". (Some don't, however). In the first paragraph
also you should define your version of the title and make it clear. If
the marker knows from the beginning what you are going to do, s/he can
bear it in mind and be aware that you are sticking to the point and
developing it, because s/he will know what the point is.
. The last paragraph is not so important. You can proudly announce that
you have fulfilled the aims of the first paragraph, if you like, or
you can just end: it's up to you.
But the main thing is to make each paragraph a solid unit that develops
a clearly announced sub-theme of the essay. This way the indented outline
that's behind it will be obvious (not too obvious: don't write subheadings
before every paragraph) and the marker will not have that terrible lost
feeling that immediately precedes giving the essay a low mark in disgust.
6. Presentation
Behind everything I've said so far there are two themes. One, just to
repeat it yet one more time, in case you might have formed the idea that I
don't think it's important, is: your ideas about literary texts are what
matters. The other is this:
(iv) Always put the reader first.
Up to now, most of the writing you've done has been for people who are
paid to read what you've written. They have no choice: they have to do it.
After you leave here, most of the writing you will do (in the course of
your working lives) will be writing you are paid to do for other people.
They won't, on the whole, have to read it: if they don't follow it or feel
offended by its scruffy presentation or even are having an off-day and are
not instantly seduced by its beauty and clarity, they will just throw it
away and do something else instead.
University teachers are somewhat in between these two classes. On the
one hand, they are in fact paid to read your essays. On the other, if you
can imagine the sheer labor of having to read a large number of long
assessed essays on the same topic, you can imagine that no-one really likes
doing it. It's extremely hard work, and they would normally rather be doing
something else. Therefore, if they're not immediately seduced by the
clarity and beauty of the thing they're reading, they may get irritated. If
this happens they won't be able to throw it away and do something else, so
they will get even more irritated. The end product of this will be: a lousy
mark. Or at least, a worse mark than you would otherwise get, even if the
ideas are good. This is a good thing, in fact, because you can use it to
train you to
ALWAYS PUT THE READER FIRST.
Therefore, make your essay as beautiful, compelling, and as
professionally presented as possible, is my advice. Here are some
guidelines.
6.1. The list of works consulted
Every essay without exception should end with a list of books and
articles used. Often a marker will look at this first, to see what kind of
work you've done: where, as it were, you're coming from. On the whole and
within reason, the longer this is, the better. As long, that is, as you can
reasonably show that you have indeed used the works on the list.
6.2. Styling references
This list should be set out in a particular and consistent way. The way
I use is like this:
Horace Hart, Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University
Press, Oxford , (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) Main Library
General Reference 1 Z 253
A.S. Maney and R.L. Smallwood, MHRA Style Book, Notes for Authors,
Editors and Writers of Dissertations , (London: Modern Humanities Research
Association, 1981) Main Library General Reference 1 Z 253 Main Library
Lang. & Lit. Ref. 1 Z 253
MLA Handbook for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations ,
(New York: MLA, 1977) Gen. Ref. Z 253 and, appropriately enough, these are
the books that tell you how to do it properly.
There are various ways of styling (as printers call it) references (ie
book and article titles) and it doesn't matter which you adopt, but you
should learn one and adopt it. Hart's Rules is a beautiful little book,
the printer's bible and ultimate authority, and it's very nice to own a
copy; the MLA \f16 Handbook is more use for students (it has a chapter on
how to do indented outlines, for instance--see section 8 for more on
this.) I have both, right by my desk, all the time. These books will tell
you how to style your references and how also to lay out quotations in an
essay, how to refer to a book or an article in the body of an essay, how
to punctuate, and so on. I would buy one of them, if I were you, and use
it. I very rarely look at mine now: I more or less know what they say. So
should you: it's the essence of professionalism in writing.
Note (1997). The English Department has now published its own ideas
about how to do styling. There are here. My advice is, start using
this document NOW!
Check also the method for arranging references in the text. They should
be indented on each side and separated from the rest of the text with a
white line above and below, if they are longer than a line or so. And they
should have a reference: author, title, and page number.
6.3. Type it if at all possible
No, you don't have to type it. But if you do then it will be far easier
for the reader. And rule (iv) is? Right: put the reader first. In any case,
studies have shown that particular kinds of handwriting influence (without
their knowing it) readers of literary essays such that they get lower
marks. I would guess that typed essays tend to get higher marks, but this
is just a guess. But it is my honest and truthful opinion that if you hand
in an assessed essay (that is, an essay written for marks that will count
towards your final degree) and it's not typed, you would be making a
foolish mistake.
If you are using a word processor, take some time to get the layout
