Literary and Cultural Studies:Writing academic texts
Contents
First thoughts
You will have to make a statement
A good piece of academic work is a text others could quote - either for its new and substantial information or for its new evaluation of a situation.
A text others can quote has to be written with a preconception of what you think your readers should quote. Your readers must become aware of the question you studied, they must be able to summarise your result or your position in the debate you entered.
You will have to explain why your question is interesting
Research answers questions - yet not all questions are interesting. You can challenge the results of someone else's work - that will be fascinating if you attack thoughts most of your readers share. You can just as well answer a question no one has asked before - in which case you will have to make sure that your audience realises why one should be interested. Both - the question and the possible answers - must be interesting. You will have to write an introduction to create this interest.
On the dissertation level this can only be done with a look at research and the current debate. On the student level it will be sufficient to begin with a surprising contradictory, startling aspect out of which you develop your question:
- Le Morte Darthur (1471/1485) is published as Christian Arthurian epic, yet the heroes of this epic fight mostly without even asking for a just cause. They kill other knights at random - strangers they meet on their ways - as if to avoid the fight would be dishonourable; they fight for their honour even if the accusations against them are, objectively, justified. How is this extreme and often indiscriminate violence justified?
...that is already all you need to go ahead and to ponder how one would answer such a question.
Get into a situation in which you can offer more than one solution
You are not demanded to give your perfect answer. Your work is much rather evaluated with a look at the awareness with which you worked. Do you just recapitulate what you read elsewhere? Do you just give your personal thoughts? Both alone are bad options.
The interesting piece of academic work reaches a point, at which you can actually give more than one solution. You do not have to be schizophrenic to do this nor is it a sign of having no position of your own. Your position should, however, anticipate other positions. In order to reach this point think of different answers (among which you will make your own points):
- the answer your reader is likely to give,
- the answer you would have given three weeks ago, before you invested more work on it,
- the answer one would give considering a far more prominent text in the field,
- the answers research has already given,
- the different answers one gets depending on what kind of research one applies.
You will write a good opening section once you feel you know what kind of work others would have written - and what decisions have become your decisions in the process of writing your essay.
You will make points if you can briefly touch the alternative options - and you will fascinate your reader if his or her personal solution is actually mentioned (it proves circumspection to know what others might expect - and it does not force you to fulfill their wishes later on).
The good piece of academic work is an honest invitation to take steps with you. Beginners show this weakness in their seminar presentations: They offer a talk and then they conclude with some questions for further discussion - carefully selected pseudo questions which make sure that the person who selected them can also answer them in case no one else wants to do so (which is the normal situation because people do not answer questions once they feel that it is only a game of questions and answers). The fascinating talk, the fascinating statement in a debate, the fascinating piece of academic research is one in which you actually handle the limits of your considerations openly, as an invitation to join you in these considerations. Most people blush at the thought that someone might reach the point beyond which they did not get. Few people see discussions as a means to see how others handle the problems they have when writing about a certain question.
Check research
See our Literary Studies:Research guide for further help.
The structure of your essay should follow the questions you asked
Beginners are often tempted to think of a standard solution: "One does not understand my topic if I do not give first an introduction to the period, secondly say some important things about my author, and thirdly about his works. The result is an essay of 15 pages filled with an enormous amount of "necessary" background information - which can indeed be taken from Wikipedia or the greatest professors in the field without the slightest difference.
Remember: You are not writing an introduction into your topic - hence do not try to write outlines on periods and authors which will have to be brief and superficial (speak of such trivia only if your work is written to prove how mistaken these notions are). You are actually trying to answer a question with the aim to be quoted with this answer by others. Deal with the question - directly.
A second problem is that beginners tend to think of the materials they have to analyse: If a, b, and c are my materials, then my structure is clear: First chapter: my analysis of a; second chapter: my analysis of b; third chapter: my analysis of c; last chapter my conclusion.
Do rather structure your work under headings which each propose a project of research. What do you want to find out with your look at material b?
The opening section
- should open the question
- should offer the answer(s) one might give at first sight and take the step into a deeper analysis
- should tell your reader how you will proceed with your investigation (and why you chose this path rather than an alternative one...)
Secondary literature
You have to make clear where your work stands among existing research. This means:
- You have to give footnotes wherever you do something others have done already with the same or with contradicting results
- You have to position your whole work in the field of research:
- is there any research on this question
- where would others locate your work in this field if they had to speak about it
It is advisable to spend a whole chapter on the last question. Offer this chapter after the introduction - or as a final paragraph at the end of your introduction.
Good chapters lead your work a step further
Good chapters are written with self awareness: You can tell what point you are going to make, and you can even tell why it is interesting to make this point. Ideally they are written with an awareness of different chapters that would have come to different results. You know what you wanted to prove and you anticipate criticism and alternative views by discussing these views within your work.
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 got 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?
Yes! The most interesting work is the one which leads your readers to second thoughts.
The problem is the essay in which you simply state your opinion, offer your arguments for it and think you have done your job. If your professor reads your essay with an awareness of all the criticism and questions you invited and simply did not think of - you have lost. The good essay allows you to defend any position you want to defend as lon 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 that you were simply trying to appear wise - feeling that it is wise not to get involved in any argument. The good step within any confrontation is the one that leads the participants one step further - the step which leads to a new understanding of the real problem debated here.
But if I am not interested in academic work?
Well actually it is a mark of professionalism if you can start research with the aim to get involved. After all you are expected to do this for the rest of your life: make sure that others get interested in what you are doing. Scientific work is not designed to motivate pupils - it is much rather a test whether you can get the attention of someone interested in the subject - and whether you will be able to risk a mature tone, a tone in which you are no longer a pupil but a colleague. If you simply feel you are not interested you have possibly just avoided to do the amount of research which would have affected and involved you. Once you have a certain knowledge and understanding of a subject you will feel tempted to take part in the exchange. (It can of course happen that you will finally tell the participants of a controversy that they have so far asked the boring questions only...)
How do professors evaluate our work?
- Is the question asked with precision?
- How is the question positioned in the scientific debate? Is its relevancy reflected?
- How stringent and coherent is the line of argumentation?
- How fluent and differentiated are language and style?
- How relevant are your sources? How accurate is your documentation (quotes, bibliography)?
Basically we aim at performances you can offer anywhere else publicly. Hence, do avoid references to "our seminar" and all thoughts of your professor as your reader. Think of a public audience. Try to write for the reader of an article published in a scientific journal.
Secondly we evaluate your work first of all with a look at what you were aiming at: Did you achieve your goals as explained in the outline and the summary of your texts? It is part of this perspective that we wonder whether you choose goals you could be expected to achieve - not too trivial and not too ambitious.
Your professor feels in a safe position if he or she could show your work to a colleague (who will not have seen the materials you were dealing with) - the colleague will ideally come to the same evaluation:
- that's very good piece of work - I did not know much about the subject matter, yet I came to realise that this is an interesting topic and I am beginning to understand why people work in this field...
- that's good work, I understood it, and realise the student took a good step with this piece of work.
- that's a satisfying piece of work - the student understood the topic, yet he/she did not get into a deeper reflection of alternative options - it is the very work he/she could write and it serves its purpose
- the topic was handled with less care than it deserved, the considerations were not always conclusive, one can accept this piece of work, however, as the student has managed to avoid gross errors
- ...
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
