The Craft of Essay Writing

1
The Craft of Essay Writing

• Think about essay writing as a craft.
• Don't expect to be good at it straight away.
• Break things down into tasks.

2
Stages in writing an essay

• thinking about the title
• gathering material
• getting some ideas on paper
• organising ideas and material (plan)
• writing a first draft
• reviewing the first draft (NB the title)
• writing a final draft

3
Read around the subject

• Break the wording of the title down into phrases
  and even singe words
• study the title
• sleep on it
• make sure you fully understand it and get to
  grips with it before you move on.

4
gathering material

• Look at course materials, notes and reading
  lists.
• Research where appropriate.

5
getting ideas on paper

• Brainstorm in groups, making individual notes, to
  get started?
• Put notes to one side and write your thoughts...
  questions, cases for and against an argument.
  Don't be organised at this stage - just cover
  some paper with ideas.
• NB The quality of the final essay is often
  directly linked to the richness and range of
  these initial, informal jottings (GASG). If you
  find it hard to find enough to write about in
  essays, put more effort into this phase.

6
organising ideas and materials

• Begin by thinking in terms of an overview of the
  essay. Simple is best.
• Remember you are creating an argument.
• This is the phase in which it is best to decide
  what to leave out in order to stay within the
  word limit.

7
writing a first draft

• This is where you must explain and link your
  ideas together into a coherent, logical argument.
  
• Be experimental at this stage.
• At this stage of the course you are trying to
  find your 'voice'. Practice would help here. Try
  writing for ten minutes every day, on any subject
  at all, quickly and without constraint. Then put
  it away and read over it later in the week,
  looking for places you feel that your 'voice'
  breaks through.

8
reviewing the first draft

• Print out your draft when it is complete - it's
  easier to see faults on paper.
• Leave it until the following day (or later) to
  review... this helps with objectivity.
• Read it out loud (ideally to someone, even if
  they make no comment whatsoever)

9
reviewing the first draft

• Do the sentences work?
• Are the paragraph divisions appropriate and
  effective?
• Have you given enough explanation for your
  reader?
• Does the argument work? Have you signalled the
  main flow of your argument to the reader?
• Have you answered the question in the title?

10
writing a final draft

• Do print off a final draft and sleep on it. There
  are often trivial errors remaining after a major
  review.
• The phases of essay writing need not be rigid,
  especially in the early stages. You may prefer to
  treat gathering ideas, organising ideas, and
  getting ideas on paper as a single phase. Or you
  may simply move back and for between the phases.

11
Signposts

• Importance of link words phrases... Even if,
  although, either... or, but however.
• Exercise have a look at a magazine article from
  SoS or similar and underline the link words.
  Notice how the writer forms his argument.

12
Pace

• Vary sentence and paragraph lengths to make
  points stand out.
• Be imaginative.

13
Making a case

• Use references.
• Quoting (NB square brackets and ellipsis) be
  precise.
• Use illustration.
• Use logic and reason.

14
The experience of writing

• Revealing yourself - all the available examples
  are written by professionals.
• Take advantage of criticism.
• It's a poorly defined task.
• The uncertain relationship with your tutor.
• Being too close to see.

15
Use of the wordprocessor

• using word in layout mode
• inserting notes into text
• NB Follow the Style Guide

16
The Conclusion

• Useful exercise prepare a word template with an
  imaginary title, one reference and one
  bibliography entry.