Student Handbook - The School of Language, Linguistics and Film

Planning the essay
Perhaps the most difficult part of writing an essay is beginning it. Looking at a blank sheet of
paper can be very daunting. To get over this initial hurdle, it is sometimes helpful to
‘brainstorm’, jotting down any thoughts that occur to you, in any order.
The next step is to decide your strategy for answering the question. Planning and structuring
your answer are essential; poorly planned essays are unlikely to be very coherent. Decide
what the main points are that you need to make. Ask yourself in what order they should be
considered. What emphasis does each point deserve within your essay? You need to
ensure that your answer is full (that no part of the question has been ignored), balanced
(that each component or point is given due weight) and appropriately illustrated.
There are no simple universal rules about how to decide on structure because it will depend
so heavily on the specific question asked. Some general principles, however, are worth
bearing in mind:
• Essays need to be clearly shaped and signposted. It is useful to think in terms of an
introduction which engages the interest of the reader, picks up on the title (or at least an
important aspect of it), and tells the reader how you are going to handle the topic.
Equally important is a concluding paragraph, in which you summarise and draw together
what you have said. Those are the easy parts to define (though not necessarily to
write!). What comes in between needs to be just as structured and clear in purpose and
function.
• A statement at the beginning of your essay (often in the introduction) should clarify the
direction and aim of your argument. The argument (most of the rest of your essay) is the
setting down of the various specific aspects you have decided to discuss.
• Arguments need to be developed. Where your essay is of the ‘survey’ type, the different
aspects should be the subject of different paragraphs or series of paragraphs which are
presented in a sensible and effective order. It should be clear to the reader where the
argument is going. In essays of the critical type, planning and laying out the argument
can be more complicated and need more thought, but the basic principle is the same;
the reader should always know where the argument is going and why you are making
the points that you are.
• Avoid ‘telling the story’ in literary essays. Concise reference to plot in a way that
immediately relates to a specific point you are making in your essay can enhance your
argument; but you must take care to avoid lapsing into telling the story for its own sake.
Essays which follow this route very quickly become diffuse and aimless and lose sight of
the argument. It is more effective in argument to allude to the events of the plot than to
spell them out.
You should adhere closely to the word-limit that has been set for your essay. The questions
set are designed to be answerable within the limit and essays which are more than about
10% longer than the limit will be penalised. On the other hand, an essay which is
substantially shorter than the limit will also be penalised, as it is unlikely to cover the topic in
sufficient depth.
Style
Clarity and succinctness are the most important qualities to aim for, and that applies to the
detail as much as the overall approach. Written work should be formal (avoiding the
colloquial) without being pompous or verbose. Here are some suggestions:
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