right. Double space, with an extra space between paragraphs. The first line
of a paragraph should be indented. Number the pages, and put in a header
with the short title of the essay and your name in it. A4 paper. If you
want to beautify it with illustrations, drop capitals, a beautiful title
page, hand illuminated or gold leaf embellishments, that's fine, though
it's not expected. (I should perhaps stress that the gold leaf is a joke.)
And: make sure you use the spelling checker, before you print it.
A note on safe computing. While you are actually working on a document,
it is held in RAM. All that you need to know about this is that RAM is
volatile. This means that if a passing friend trips over the power cable,
pulling it out of the wall, the computer will go down, and everything in
RAM will vanish utterly for ever. What you will lose is everything you
created since you last saved to disk. Moral: save to disk frequently. At
least every ten minutes. Secondly, you should develop the feeling that
whenever you switch the computer off, you are doing a dangerous thing.
Dangerous to your data, that is. When you switch it on again, there is no
guarantee whatsoever that it will come up and present you with your work.
It might crash. It probably won't, it's quite unlikely that anything bad
will happen, but nonetheless this is the time of maximum danger for your
essay. I have been working with computers equipped with hard disks since
1987, and in that time so far I have had three hard disk crashes. Wipeout.
Obliteration. Everything gone for ever. I have also had computers stolen
twice, from burglary: end result: once more, all the data on the hard disk
gone for ever.
As a result, I never switch off the computer without making sure that
all the data on it that I don't mind losing is backed up. Never. Ever. This
means that whatever I've worked on since the last time I switched the
machine off gets copied on to floppy disks or zip disks. If it's creative
writing, like your essay, I usually make two or even three copies. If I
feel really nervous about losing it, I print the file out on to paper, as a
final security. I really advise you to do the same.
One final point: the last time I had a computer burgled, I was
immaculately backed up, and I still lost some data. Why? I left one of the
backup disks inside the machine...
6.4. One side of the paper only
When I tell students to write on one side of the paper only, they give
me the same look that I frequently get from my cat: "Is this man totally
out of his mind?" it says. Look: it makes it easier for the reader. A lot
easier. Rule (iv) is? If that doesn't convince you, try sending any piece
of writing whatsoever to any form of publication whatsoever, written on
both sides of the paper, and see how long it takes for them to send it
back. Unread. (They'll also send it back unread if you don't type it,
incidentally.)
6.5. Spelling and punctuation
There is a simple but unpleasant rule about this.
(v) If you produce work that is mis-spelt and/or badly punctuated
and/or ungrammatical, however good the ideas are, people will tend to
think that you are stupid.
They will be wrong; it will just mean that you can't spell, or can't
punctuate, or don't know some of the grammar rules. Nonetheless, that's
what they will think. Since it will almost always be in your best interests
to show that you are intelligent, rather than stupid, if you have a problem
in any of these areas you should do something about it. If you have a word
processor, get a spelling checker. Persuade someone you know who can spell,
punctuate, etc. to read over your work first and check it: learn the sort
of mistakes you make, and don't make them again.
There are very good suggestions on how to manage punctuation in the Oxford
Guide to Writing. If you have a problem with punctuation, I strongly
suggest you get hold of this book.
Another much cheaper and also excellent book is Plain English, by Dianй
Collinson et al. (book details and current price) (Library reference).
There is one particular error that is very common, students quite often
are in the habit of running two or more sentences together and joining them
with commas, it is really a very bad idea to do this, a marker when he or
she sees it will become very irritated, I hope you are by now with the
strange breathless quality of this sentence. Don't do it. A sentence is a
sentence. It should end in a full stop. Putting two sentences together with
commas between them is becoming acceptable in creative writing, but it's
still a bad idea to do it in an essay.
6.6 Handing it in.
Controversy rages over the best way to bind the thing. My own view is
this. It should be simple, cheap, and easy for the examiner. The pages
should not be stapled, clipped, or in any way fastened together. They
should not be bound! Some people like to bind them in a presentation
folder, often designed by the same person who invented the rat trap,
featuring spiked and sharpened strips of brass. Sometimes the essays come
back with the examiner's blood on them. This doesn't necessarily guarantee
a lower mark, but there's always that possibility. I accept that the
motivation behind this kind of presentation is good, and appreciate it as
such, but it's really not a good idea. Go for loose sheets, each page
numbered, your name at the top of each page, of course written on one side
only, and held together in a simple plastic sleeve: the kind with punched
holes down one side and an opening in the top only. This keeps the essay
clean and coherent, is unlikely to lacerate the examiner, and takes up no
extra room, so the essays can be stacked without them falling all over the
place.
7. How to write
Style is not something I can prescribe in a set of notes like this.
Write well: if you have any problems in this direction, it is for your
tutor to tell you about them. But here are a few random points instead.
Register
This is what linguists call a style appropriate to the occasion. Be
aware: a certain scholarly gravity is called for. Not too heavy so that
it's uninteresting. But avoid colloquial abbreviations: should not, not
shouldn't. Jokes are hazardous: if they don't [do not follow my practice as
regards don't] work, they can cost you a lot. Avoid them, on the whole: or
at least don't be jokey. Don't for goodness sake imitate the way I'm
writing here, either the rather flippant colloquial style or the somewhat
overbearing tone, or the numbered subheadings. This is an essay on how to
write a literary essay, not a literary essay.
Quotations
Firstly, quote sufficiently but not too copiously. Not more than a third
of a (handwritten) page at the very outside, and usually just a few lines
at a time. It's your thought, not the quotation, that is the point. On the
other hand, never forget that your ideas should be tied firmly into the
text, and that you should demonstrate this by quotation. Secondly, always
give page numbers for your quotations: you will need to know where to find
them again.
Short paragraphs
No short paragraphs.
Length
A non-assessed essay should be about six sides of handwritten or four
sides of typed A4 at least.
Copy it
Always make a photocopy of any essay you do before you hand it in.
Academics are very unreliable, and not uncommonly lose essays.
8. Getting it back
Here is a summary of things to keep in your mind about writing an essay.
When I mark an essay, they are the things that I particularly look out for:
. Use of critics (ie don't slavishly agree with them)
. Range of reference to literary texts, including obscure ones
. Clear and perceptible structure
. Interesting ideas tied in to quotations
. The paragraph:
1. Length
2. Topic sentence
3. First sentence, last sentence
4. First paragraph (sets out themes)
. List of works consulted (properly styled)
. Quotations properly laid out, and references styled properly
. One side of the paper only
. Spelling and punctuation
9. Two how-to-do-it books
MLA Handbook for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations
, (New York: MLA, 1977) Gen. Ref. Z 253.
This is the most useful text to buy. It has notes on everything you
need, including how to do indented outlines. It's not as full or as easy to
understand as the next title below, but it's all there.
Update (27/3/99): you don't have to buy it any more. It's here, in a really
helpful frame format. This is wonderful. All students should use this site
all the time.
Kane, Thomas S, The Oxford Guide to Writing , (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1983).
This book has it all: how to make an indented outline, how to spell,
how to punctuate, how to write a paragraph, how to take notes, how to
sharpen your pencil--everything. The bad news is that (a) it's rather
American, and (b) it's out of print. Go and look at the short loan copy and
photocopy anything you find useful. It's of particular use if you have any
punctuation problems.
10. Read a different poem every day.
Finally. One of the key attributes of success in an English course is
knowledge of a wide variety of styles, periods, and topics in English
Literature. Here is a painless way of learning this. Subscribe to this site
and they will email you a different poem every day. Take time every day to
read the poem, think about it, and post a short comment on their bulletin
board. The site is frustrating and often bizarre, but the exercise is the
most useful single thing I can think of at the moment for an English
student to do.
