How to Write Essays and Dissertations: A Guide for English Literature Students

by Fabb; Nigel

• ISBN13: 9780582784550
• ISBN10: 0582784557
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-06-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This essential guide to writing essays and dissertations for English literature students offers step-by-step instruction on each stage of writing, from organising initial ideas through to submitting a completed piece of work. It also explains the general principles that underlie essay topics and exam questions, building on a description of those principles to help you develop effective writing and editing strategies. Fabb and Durant offer a clear account of what makes a successful essay in literary studies, and demonstrate why alternative forms of argument and presentation are not considered to work so well. They outline various ways of solving problems encountered during the process of writing, and emphasise the importance of finding solutions that suit the writer and the topic. The advice in this updated and expanded second edition is supported by: Detailed commentary on extracts from actual student essays Short follow-up exercises at the end of each unit Special consideration of longer coursework projects and dissertations Fabb and Durant show that original ideas gain good grades only when turned into coherent writing. More generally, they encourage you to see writing not just as a way of expressing ideas you've already had or research you've already done, but as a means of discovering new ideas and thinking things for the first time. Nigel Fabb is Professor Literary Linguistics at the University of Strathclyde, and an editor of the Journal of Linguistics. Alan Durant is Professor of English Studies at Middlesex University London. The authors have written numerous books on literature and linguistics, and are contributing authors to Ways of Reading (3rd edition, 2005).

Author Biography

Alan Durant is Professor of English Studies at Middlesex University London.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION	1	(8)
The importance of writing in literary studies	1	(1)
Four basic principles	2	(4)
Practice and experimentation	6	(1)
Preparing for work	7	(2)
UNIT 2: WRITING ON A PRESCRIBED TOPIC	9	(8)
What essay questions ask you to do	9	(1)
Types of prescribed question	10	(3)
Exam questions	13	(4)
UNIT 3: DEVISING YOUR OWN TOPIC	17	(10)
Some questions to ask yourself	17	(4)
Giving your chosen topic a structure	21	(4)
Giving your essay a title	25	(2)
UNIT 4: WHAT MARKERS WANT	27	(12)
Assessment criteria	28	(3)
Learning outcomes	31	(3)
FAQs about how you are marked	34	(2)
Imagining your reader as someone particular	36	(3)
UNIT 5: SELECTING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TEXTS	39	(8)
How to choose your primary texts	39	(2)
Kinds of primary text and how to use them	41	(2)
How to choose secondary texts	43	(2)
Keeping notes on your reading	45	(2)
UNIT 6: GETTING HELP FROM REFERENCE WORKS, ONLINE RESOURCES AND YOUR SUPERVISOR	47	(11)
Using secondary texts	47	(2)
Reference books	49	(4)
Keeping references	53	(2)
Reading what you found	55	(1)
Learning by being supervised	56	(2)
UNIT 7: THE FIRST DRAFT	58	(9)
Starting to write	58	(2)
Keeping to a given format	60	(1)
Writing to an outline	61	(6)
UNIT 8: DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT	67	(10)
Causation, correlation and coincidence	67	(1)
Assembling a description or commentary	68	(1)
Classification	69	(2)
Presenting alternative arguments	71	(1)
Experimenting	71	(1)
Providing contexts for texts	72	(1)
Comparing texts	73	(2)
Building an argument around a word	75	(2)
UNIT 9: WEIGHTING DIFFERENT ELEMENTS IN YOUR ARGUMENT	77	(13)
Asserting, justifying and presupposing	77	(7)
Generalising	84	(1)
Giving examples	85	(1)
Signalling attitude to your own argument	86	(4)
UNIT 10: THE VOICE TO WRITE IN	90	(18)
Your register and your voice	90	(6)
Mode of address	96	(4)
Reacting to voices outside your adopted register	100	(2)
Incorporating expressions from outside your adopted register	102	(2)
Expressing taste and value	104	(4)
UNIT 11: REVISING AN ESSAY DRAFT	108	(11)
Showing your essay's structure	108	(4)
Sign-posting and connectives	112	(3)
Mediating essay material for the reader	115	(1)
Making local edits	115	(2)
Keep earlier drafts or discard them?	117	(2)
UNIT 12: EDITING THE BEGINNING AND ENDING	119	(9)
Particular prominence: the first paragraph	119	(4)
Particular prominence: the last paragraph	123	(3)
Beginnings, endings and essay structure	126	(2)
UNIT 13: INCORPORATING OTHER PEOPLE'S WORDS INTO WHAT YOU WRITE	128	(9)
Quotation and paraphrase	128	(3)
Indicating where someone else's words come from	131	(3)
Plagiarism	134	(3)
UNIT 14: MISTAKES IN SPELLING, GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION	137	(13)
What makes something a mistake and why does it matter?	137	(4)
Problems with grammar	141	(3)
Punctuation and the boundaries of the sentence: full stop, comma and semi-colon	144	(6)
UNIT 15: HANDING IN	150	(13)
Meeting your deadline	150	(1)
Judging when your essay is finished	151	(1)
Bibliography	152	(4)
Footnotes and endnotes	156	(1)
Abstract or summary	156	(1)
Table of contents	157	(1)
Acknowledgements	157	(1)
Final stage before submitting	158	(1)
Preparing for a viva	159	(2)
Publishing your work	161	(2)
Bibliography	163	(4)
Index	167