I found the contents of this post on a handout I gave out to students a few years ago. I thought it was a good handout so I've posted it to you.
After marking your draft essays I realised there were many similar points I was making on each essay. I suggest you read this handout in conjunction with your essay draft and edit it as soon as possible. You could work on your drafts before we meet for our one to one interview.
- To enable you to write an essay in the right amount of detail, you should answer the essay question with reference to either, two poems per poet or two poems from one poet and one short story or two episodes from two short stories from one author. Your essay must include the work of one poet.
- Remember to write a lot about a little. For every quotation you use try and write at least three relevant comments on the quotation. Your comments must draw from the literary and or linguistic frameworks. This includes commenting on grammar - verbs, nouns & adjectives - lexis, register – formal & formal, syntax – simple, compound and complex sentences, declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and instructional sentences – as well as imagery – metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism and sound techniques such as, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance & onomatopoeia. You can also refer to rhetorical devices such as, contrasting pairs, lists of three, direct address to the reader and repetition. You can also refer to the connotations or associations linked to key words. Remember to always comment on the effects of these techniques on the reader – us. Effects are usually emotional – anger or sympathy for example. Or techniques are used to create a strong impression; they make things stand out for us.
- When you are writing about poems refer to to the poetic voice or narrative voice of the poems. Don't write about Heaney or Plath. Avoid biographical details of the lives of the poets. But you can write about the poems as having an autobiographical feel to them.
- Remember this is a comparative essay. I think ideally you write about one text in a paragraph. Then using a link sentence write a comparative paragraph to your comparison text. For example you may refer to Heaney’s poetic voice of excitement and enjoyment in nature in one paragraph. And in a second paragraph write about the child character in the Dubliners short stories full of excitement and anticipation. Use a link sentence to connect the two paragraphs showing how one writer is either similar or different to the other. For some of you, you will need to rearrange some of your paragraphs.
- All essays should include a full, detailed and concise introduction. An introduction includes the title and writers you are going to use, write a brief summary of the plot of short stories and poems - where appropriate - or main subject or themes of more reflective poems. You should state what you intend to compare in your essays be specific, for example, Plath's settings are urban and domestic were as Heaney sets his poems in nature at first as exciting and then… . You could outline the main techniques the writers use to communicate their themes.
- Some of you try and communicate complex ideas in complicated sentences. But these can be confusing. Try and break ideas down into simpler sentences.
- Remember the paragraph structure of making a straightforward point, expand on the point in more specific detail to the writer you are about to examine, introduce a relevant quotation – by referring to the context of the quotation, - a quotation should be a word or a phrase, it should prove the point you want to make and have at least three different comments you can write about it, comment on the quotation – drawing on literary and language frameworks and the effect on us as readers - see bullet point 2.
- Make sure there is a structure to your essay, introduction, main body and conclusion. Write the most important and significant points and comparisons first.
- Make sure you adopt a formal academic register. Avoid colloquial language, buzz words etc.
- Remember to comment on the genre you are writing about – poetry and or prose. Let the examiners know you know about the short story and poetry genres.
· Finally, keep your draft essay. It will need to be submitted with your final essay.
Hope you find this helpful
David
Tuesday 5.30 am
