Literary and Cultural Studies:Writing academic texts

How do I find a good topic?

A good piece of academic work challenges existing views. There is more than one way do do this. You can attack general notions, you can offer insight into a subject matter that has been underestimated and hint at blind spots in existing research, you can question existing debates by opening new ones, you can just as well support a position... these are thoughts for a dissertation rather than a 15 page seminar essay, yet they give you an idea of the direction you are supposed to take during your studies.

For student purposes it is enough to find a topic you will be able to advertise as interesting - your interest can be personal, yet to sell it to others you have to find arguments why others should share your fascination, and these must be independent from all personal views.

It might be sufficient to note a surprising contradictory, startling aspect - Le Morte Darthur (1485) is a Christian Arthurian epic, yet the heroes of this epic fight without even asking for a just cause; how is their extreme violence justified? - that is already all you need to go ahead and to wonder how one would answer such a question.

If you are at a loss where to begin just look back. What were your first thoughts about the subject matter? Did your views change? Are there questions you would no longer answer the same way? Was there any thing that surprised you?

A topic is often inspired by research - you read someone's statements and you feel you would not arrive at the same conclusions if you had to present the case. Why did your author arrive at his or her view? Why did he or she not reach the conclusions you reached?

If there simply is a thing you'd like to know more about - begin to wonder why you might want to know more and try to find out whether others have already done the research with the very result you would aim at (you must not do work others have done with very same result).

Before I begin...

First: check research (see the Literary Studies:Research guide for further help). Secondly think of simple and more complex answers on your question. The good essay will take different views into account, it will show that you have anticipated criticism - of your topic, of your work and of your opinion. The good essay stands the test of criticism, because its author is able to answer that criticism right at the beginning (or at least in the conclusion).

How do I structure my work?

Beginners are often tempted to think of a standard solution: One does not understand my topic if I do not give an introduction about the period, the author, the work in question - once I'll have done this introduction, I'll answer the question I am supposed to answer. The result is an essay of 15 pages filled with background information (which can be taken from Wikipedia or the greatest professors in the field without much of a difference) and scattered remarks on the original question.

First advice: drop the standard solution. Deal with the question - directly. Speak of the question and its implications, show why it is interesting to ask this question, think of the best sequence of follow up questions needed to answer it.

How do I handle background information on period, author, living conditions, gender relations in that period...?

...avoid all generalities. Speak about these things only if you feel that your work has the power to question these general notions. If that is the case offer the general notion, and tell your reader where it has been contradicted already before you go ahead in your attempt to come to a new perspective.

The opening section

...should raise the question, give a first view of possible answers, tell your reader how your essay will proceed.

Secondary literature

Try to give an overview of the general perspective on this question and evaluate this perspective. It is often better to do that at the beginning in a single chapter than in a continuous battle between your view and other views throughout the essay.

Good headlines, good chapters

You might have a question and three texts to look at - and you might feel tempted just to create three chapters on each of your three texts: Chapter one, text one, chapter two text two and chapter three, text three.

Think back: Why did I decide to take a look at these three texts (these three characters of the play, these three episodes of the movie, these three aspects of a particular problem...)? Each chapter should be written with an awareness of what you wanted to prove with your investigation. Good headlines will tell your reader why he should take a look at this text/character/aspect - what he is going to find out when reading your chapter.

Good conclusions of chapters reflect your work: Did you arrive at the result you promised? Do things look more difficult at the end of your research? Or have they become more simple? Both can be interesting results.

The conclusion

A good essay leaves its reader with an awareness that things are much more difficult than considered at first - it inspires more work, shows you, the author, involved in a debate.

You can just as well arrive at the conclusion that the question was asked the wrong way in the beginning - can you present the question that should have been asked at the end?

You can come to the conclusion that the answer did not get you to where you thought to arrive - and that the whole topic is problematic as not leading us any step further. Even professional authors have reached such conclusions; see for example the epilogue to John J. Richetti's Popular Fiction before Richardson. Narrative Patterns 1700-1739 (Oxford, 1969), in which the author considered all the books he had read to be not worthy a second reading - the result was quite on the contrary a wave of research proving him wrong, yet a wave turning an immense interest to his book and his conclusion.

Do not think that you have to give the only and true right answer and that's it. There might not be such an answer. Do rather think of a conversation in which your contribution might be one others will like to return to as a good starting point.

Can I risk to state my own opinion - even if it contradicts my professor's?

by all means! The most interesting work is the one which leads to second thoughts.

The problem is the essay in which you simply state your opinion, offer your arguments for it and think that's all you have to do. If your professor reads your essay with a growing number of remarks he would make - you have lost. The good essay allows you to defend any position you want to defend as it is written with an awareness of other possible views on the problem. It anticipates the criticism and deals with it.

The worst of all essays is the mild compromise - an essay in which you say: both sides are right once they accept the arguments of the others. The worst case is that your reader comes to the conclusion: you are not really interested in the topic, all you wanted is to look like interested. The good step within any confrontation is the one that leads one step further - that leads to a new understanding of the real problem debated here.

Practical hints

• Observe the Literary Studies:Style sheet
• Take a look at the Literary Studies:Research guide
• Remember the advice that helped you in your first assignements