About Essays: Big AND Little

I've done some more thinking and amending to those thoughts on essays that I presented to you during Thursday's class. Here they are then, updated to include formal as well as in-class essays.

Big stuff

· In full-fledged essays, a weak or incompletely expressed thesis is the number one cause of failure. Compare yours with classmates and ask for feedback from teachers you respect (possibly including me) if you have any doubts about yours.

· I believe any thesis that looks beyond the immediate plot and world of the work of fiction you’re analyzing is at least on the right track. Everything we read in this class does that implicitly. If you don’t take that into account when you sit down to write, you’ve begun with a very limited scope that may have worked very well through your sophomore year. Now you must replace it with a more adult perspective that ranges farther and deeper than many of you are used to.

· In timed writes, students too often tend to re-state the prompt in a tedious way that merely delays your thesis, which too often is a lame construction based literally upon the prompt.

· Quotes (in timed writes only) aren’t required and not expected. If they come at the cost of your time and add to your writer’s stress, they aren’t worth it. Use only what is at your fingertips.

· Quotes (in “black tie” essays) are essential in literary analysis & criticism (“lit-crit” for short). Without them your essay often degenerates into an abstract discussion that circles the subject without hope of achieving resolution.

· Horrible sentences I have read:

“Conflict with the society they live in is something everyone goes through…

“In almost every work of literature there is a character who is greatly conflicted and dissatisfied with his or her world…”

“Being different can cause a lot of problems for a person…”

“Societies often have important beliefs and values…”

Inevitably followed by:

“…and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is no exception.”

“…and Bernard Marx/John Savage/[you name it] is no exception.”
“…for Bernard this is certainly the case.”

· Don’t analyze at the character’s level of vision. Your view must be more holistic. You are—or should be—as close to the author’s level as possible. It’s his or her purpose that most occupies you. The characters serve to illustrate & advance that purpose.

· What do people and things represent? This is a pointed social critique, not just a good yarn. Above everything else, consider the author’s purpose.

· Don’t cross out more than a sentence during a timed write. You don’t have time to second-guess yourself to that extent. It’s worth the risk to keep it in—you won’t be sentenced to walk the plank.

·Context, context, context! This isn’t a conversation with a friend about some other friends. A brief identifying phrase to introduce any character or important feature of the literary work that you choose to discuss.

· As long as we’re on the subject of context— no shorthand references: “…when Bernard and Henry take the elevator together.” or “It’s just like the rock/wax metaphor”

· Use present tense—this is fiction, not history.

Little stuff

· Don’t use “so” as a sentence opener. “And” can be okay if your previous sentence and/or line of argument builds to it properly.

· “seems to”— Almost always a mistake: see the “Forever Incomplete guide to Proofreading” and the tentative language section of “Stuff to Avoid.”

· Second person—the lazy man’s approach to persuasive writing. Avoid at all costs.

· Dreary phrases guaranteed to provoke or bore (depending on his mood) your reader. You should chuck these and their relatives down the memory hole:

“Throughout the novel…”
“Throughout history…”
“Man has always…”
“It is stated…”
“He is thought to be…”
“The fact that…”

If you think about it, a line like “Because of his being cast out of society” can easily be improved to “Because he is cast out of society” or “Since society has ostracized him” or “Because he is an outcast” or…

· “…as the book marches on”—Use this exciting phrase sparingly, or it might just blow the lid off your essay!

· Get rid of the “ing” thing, as in: “Being John’s mother, Linda…”
I don’t like to see this sort of participle noun/adjective structure kicking off a sentence. It’s a hallmark of weak & unconvincing writing. If you notice you are using sentences like “Having my baby is a wonderful way to say you love me!” (not much chance of that yet, I hope, but it was the title of an monumentally stupid 70s pop song), start cutting back.

And now I'm going to cut out. See you Monday morning.

J.D.