GUIDE IN WRITING ESSAYS
This guide outlines some of the expected qualities in writing an essay.
Although it refers to essays in the first instance, its points apply equally to writing for examinations and projects.
Its remarks have been drawn from personal experience, and from published books.
It does not seek to be comprehensive or even-handed in its details, but it does hope to be a model of clear writing in itself:
omissions and/or solecisms should be kindly communicated to its author!
THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF ESSAYS
Essays are essentially exercises in learning and thinking.
They oblige you to acquire, analyse and criticise information on your own.
In a subject like archaeology, concerned with interpretation of the past and evaluation of its role in the present, explanations are produced by integrating premises and evidence.
In Conservation Studies, it is important to understand the history of the subject and apply the philosophical constructs you have been considering to provide good explanations for a current state of affairs and strong arguments for alternative actions or possibilities.
In either subject, good explanations are both interesting and logically strong, that is the premises are clear, consistent and reasonable and are demonstrably supported by facts.
Likewise, good essays present sufficient and relevant information in a clearly structured and well expressed manner.
Rarely is there a 'right answer', but there can be 'wrong' ones, in that premises may be muddled or not supported by facts, or 'facts' may be illusory (depend on questionable collecting methods or interpretations).
GETTING STARTED: READING AND THINKING
1. What to read:
In general, start by looking at one or two basic works to get an idea of the main arguments and data; look for the most recent works first,
because these will help establish the history of changing interpretations as well as being up-to-date on data; then use articles/papers (which tend to be short and focused);
follow up their references (footnotes/bibliographies) to their sources and other works - that is do not stick slavishly to the reading list that we give you;
leave the Great Tomes for vacation reading.
2. Where to find things:
Be resourceful. Remember there is life outside the JBM, including the King's Manor library, which also holds the departmental photocopy collection
(PLEASE put items BACK correctly); the holdings of the former Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies are on the top floor of the KM Library and we have continued to add to them -
they are invaluable (and an underused) resource for Conservation Studies and all archaeology of buildings, historical and industrial archaeology courses;
York City library has a very good local collection and may be a source for that vital book that someone else has taken out of the university collections;
the Borthwick Institute Library holds many complete runs of county archaeological journals. Use the recall system for ANY book which you need from the JBM.
You can use the computer to do this - when you have located the book you want on the library catalogue,
press S for select and a set of instructions will appear telling you how to do it. The library cannot give out information about the current borrower -
to do so would contravene the Data Protection Act.
3. How to read:
Reading should be active not passive; it is purposeful and reflective.
You read in relation to what to what you want to find out and to what you already know (an ability which obviously grows progressively).
Essay questions help you to focus - they are not set to persecute you, but to ensure focused and thoughtful reading,
leading to knowledge that will stay with you! From the start, think about the potential structure of the essay and likely subsections.
Pay attention to the key words in the question: for example, defining nouns and adjectives and time/space frameworks;
think especially about the commanding verb (some are specific, like 'Compare and contrast', which requires you to look for similarities and differences;
others are non-specific, like 'discuss', which leave you freer to construct your own analysis). As you read, you will probably modify your original structure.
Read tactically. While you will read many articles and some books in their entirety, do not do this slavishly from front to back.
Look at introductions, conclusions and key sections, as indicated in lists of contents, indexes or by headings
(some works are friendlier to their readers than others in this respect; see below for how you can make your own writing 'reader-friendly'!)
4. Taking notes:
Notes should be more than a straightforward summary or precis; but it is a good and useful discipline to summarise the gist of an article in about four sentences.
Cover the whole topic not just information relevant to the essay/seminar topic in hand, that is note the background and context of the argument as well as particularly useful details.
Try to write notes after you have read a section or even the whole paper, not as you read.
Remember to transcribe the bibliographic reference fully and accurately, and try to keep marginal notes of the page number to which each individual record in your notes refers
(it will save re-checking later when you want the full Harvard reference).
Read and take notes critically: deconstruct text.
Concentrate on arguments and their underlying assumptions; record important examples to support generalisations, but do not copy out all the detail;
isolate inconsistent arguments, inadequate or omitted evidence and misleading prose; record your own doubts and disagreements.
Do not be bamboozled because it is in print: authors can be fools or liars, and are simply human!
A first guide to reading critically may be found in Chapter 2 of 'The Good Study Guide'.
More advanced students might like to look at Chris Hart's 'Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination'.
And while you are taking notes from a book or other printed source that does not belong to you never, ever, ever write in or otherwise mark the pages unless you have permission;
library books, for example, will be used by many others—why would they want to see your scribblings or underlinings? If you borrow books from members of staff, treat them (the books!) especially carefully.
5. Starting a plan
The above sections have emphasised that reading and thinking go together, and that an essay plan should exist, in some form and however brief, from the start.
Equally, you cannot read for ever, so start composing as soon as the main issues become apparent.
Using a wordprocessor is a blessing here, encouraging and enabling 'top-down' thinking. Initial ideas can be entered and elaborated as reading proceeds.
Material can be added and sections restructured at the press of some buttons: no more blank sheets of paper staring at you or a load of screwed up scraps in the bin!
1. To show the omission of a letter; this is used mainly when transcribing spoken, vernacular English:
e.g. doesn't (= does not)
it's (= it is)
they're (= they are)
NB almost never will this use occur in a formal piece of writing
NEVER USE IT'S IN AN ESSAY. ALWAYS SAY 'IT IS' OR 'ITS' DEPENDING ON YOUR MEANING.
2. To show possession:
a) singular possessor - The essay of the student could more familiarly be written the student's essay.
Note that you write the possessor, in this case the student, then put in the apostrophe, then if the word doesn't end in s, add an s:- student's.
Go through it step-by-step:
Suppose the student's name is Louise.
Write the possessor - Louise
then place the apostrophe - Louise'
then add an s - Louise's
b) plural possessor - The essays of the students could be written the students' essays.
You follow exactly the same procedures:-
write down the possessor - students
then place the apostrophe - students'
does the word end in s? Yes! So it remains without an added s after the apostrophe - the students' essay
This rule is infallible, and works also with plurals which don't end in s, e.g. sheep, children, strata, phenomena, criteria...
E.g. the legs of those two sheep:
write down the possessor - those two sheep
add an apostrophe - those two sheep'
does the word end in s? No! Add one! - those two sheep's legs
E.g. the parents of the children
possessor - the children
add apostrophe - the children'
does the word end in s? No! Add one! - the children's parents
E.g. the appearance of the strata
possessor - the strata
add apostrophe - the strata'
does the word end in s? No! Add one! - the strata's appearance and the same procedure for phenomena and criteria
3. Very common misuses of the apostrophe - It is often inserted into possessive pronouns ending in s; these are much used words which are grammatically always possessive and don't need an apostrophe to make them so:
1. Its means 'of it' as in I don't know its date
NB it's always means it is and can be used only when reproducing conversation - it's a lovely day
2. His (never ever ever hi's - no such form). You wouldn't write that, now would you, so it is a good way of remembering its)
3. Theirs e.g. all this is theirs
4. Whose = of whom. E.g. I met a woman whose face was familiar
NB not to be confused with who's, which is who is e.g. I met a woman who's your cousin.
