Essay writing
Have a go...
How to go about the process
- Read through the criticism once more, (use the essay you read for homework, or the one we read together last week);
- Highlight statements that could be used in a question;
- Have a go at creating a question.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/writing/writingtasks/essays.aspx
Pre-writing: forming argument
1. Use your notes from the lessons and annotations in your texts;
2. Use essays and worksheets we have used in lessons;
3. Then use online resources, such as information on my blog;
4. Use critical essays from the blog or your wider reading;
5 Ideal student essays start with a succinct introduction and DEFINING THE KEY TERMS FROM THE QUESTION.
Examples
Creating questions: the process.
Use the criticism to create your question. Read through critical essays to find quotations that are confident statements about the work, that you can agree with, or disagree with.
"One reading of The Yellow Wallpaper takes the heroine's madness as a perverse triumph over the imprisoning domesticity in which she is trapped by patriarchy." [Jacobus]
Using the critical anthology to inform your argument, to what extent to you agree with this view?
Examples
Creating a question
"A thorough revision of gender roles seemed the most effective way of changing the power relations between men and women"
Using ideas from the critical anthology and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, to what extent do you agree with this view?
This is your opportunity to explore what interests you.
- Use a quotation from a piece of criticism in your question, to base you argument on;
- Use a quotation that you either agree with, or disagree with.
- Don't choose something where you are 'sat on the fence'. This usually makes for boring, indecisive, convoluted essays and low marks as a consequence.
Examples
"According to Paulina Palmer, if on the one hand, fairy-tales contribute to perpetuate the patriarchal ideology and status quo by making female subordination an inescapable fate, on the other hand they give Carter the opportunity to explore the theme of psychic transformation, liberating her protagonists from conventional gender roles."
Using ideas from the critical anthology to inform your argument, to what extent do you think Carter's The Bloody Chamber adheres to this view?