The nature of the essay question
will affect the kind of essay that you write. In general, there are two types
of essay.
The first type of essay tends to be written in response
to an essay question that introduces a particular point
of view on a topic and then asks you to evaluate the
validity, accuracy or usefulness of that point of view.
Here are some examples of this:
'Dr.
Faustus is a morality play without a moral.'
How far do you believe this to be true?
'Dr. Faustus is a morality play
without a moral.' Discuss.
Is Dr. Faustus a morality play
without a moral?
In all of the above examples, a
particular critical point of view is being presented for you to respond to
and evaluate the worth of, in this case, that Dr. Faustus is a morality
play with no moral. This kind of essay question is asking you to evaluate
a point of view by considering the evidence for and against it, accepting
or rejecting it and, as appropriate, developing your own explanation.
The second kind
of essay tends to be written in response to an essay
question that introduces a particular topic for you to
discuss, but which does not present you with a critical
perspective to respond to and evaluate. Here are some
examples of this type of question:
Discuss
the role of the travelling players and the theatre scenes
within Hamlet.
What is the role of the travelling players and the theatre
scenes within Hamlet?
As you can see, the question introduces
a topic but does not do anything beyond that. It is up to you to decide how
to respond to it. The task that you have with this kind of essay is to explore
an idea or theme in relation to a particular text or texts, and to develop
your own point of view or thesis on it (however tentative this may be).
With the first kind of essay you
are expected to 'argue a case', in the legal sense of the phrase. In other
words, you prove or disprove the point of view foregrounded in the essay question
by considering the evidence for and against it and coming to some kind of
informed conclusion.
With the second kind of essay,
you do not have a ready-made point of view to prove or disprove, so your essay
might not 'argue a case' in quite the same way as the first kind of essay.
However, you will be putting forward a particular understanding of the topic
and coming to some kind of conclusion about it. For example, with the question
on Hamlet mentioned above, your essay would specify the role that you
think the travelling players and theatre scenes do play within Hamlet.
Many essay
questions give a critical point of view about a text,
author, literary period or genre, and invite you to
respond to it. This is often done through the use of a
statement or proposition, as here:
'Metaphysical
poetry offers a distinctive vision of the world and of
the individual within it.' Discuss.
The statements which appear in
this type of question may have been taken directly from the work of a particular
literary critics, or made up by the tutor. In either case, the proposition
is used by the tutor setting the question to highlight a specific subject
and also to introduce a particular critical opinion on it for you to respond
to. Sometimes the critical perspective which the essay question foregrounds
is a deliberately controversial or contentious one - the 'devil’s advocate'
position, intended to provoke debate. You should always remember that the
critical point of view highlighted by the question is not meant to be taken
as authoritative, something which you have to revere or agree with. On the
contrary, you are entitled in your essay to challenge that point of view,
disagree with it, even to try and prove it is an untenable critical position
to hold.
In any essay question there are
certain broad issues or topics which the tutor is expecting you to write about.
These may be obvious or more implied, requiring you to think through the question,
take it apart and interpret it in order to identify what those issues are.
If your essay does not address these key issues you will be seen as not having
answered the question and probably will not be able to get above a certain
mark.
However, it should be emphasised that when setting essay questions, the tutor
does not have a model answer. The reason why essays are used in literary
studies courses is to get you to think through certain issues in relation
to the texts you are reading, and to present and argue your own point of view,
backed up with appropriate evidence. The essay question does not present you
with a critical 'problem' to which there is a single 'correct' answer or solution.
There are no 'right' and 'wrong' answers or points of view in literary studies.
With most essay questions, there is a range of different yet still valid ways
in which the question could be interpreted, in exactly the same way that literary
texts are open to different readings. Indeed, part of the essay’s 'creativity'
or 'originality' can be about the way in which the question is understood,
and the exploration of issues and ideas which follows from that particular
interpretation. There are limits as to what counts as a valid answer, however.
If you twist an essay question too far in order to suit what you want to write
about, your essay might not adequately address the central issues of the question
and your final mark will be brought down.
So with both
types of essay, you will be asserting a particular
interpretation or point of view on the subject that you
are writing about. The point of view which is put forward
in the essay and the process through which it is put
forward together constitute the essay’s 'argument'.
Effective essays are seen to be
those which 'develop an argument'. Here, through the discussion of relevant
subjects and issues, some overall point of view is arrived at. Such essays
also contain a clear line of thought which is evident to the reader. All of
the points which are made contribute in some way to the final point of view
or overall interpretation which is being developed through the essay. By contrast,
essays which 'fail to develop an argument' are those in which the points and
observations being made do not contribute to the making of an overall point
of view on the issue which is being discussed in the essay.
There are two factors which will
determine the quality of the essay’s overall 'argument' (i.e. how persuasive
the point of view being put across is). The first is how well the individual
observations that you make are backed up by evidence from the primary text,
secondary reading and so on. (This is what tutors mean when they tell you
to 'argue your points' in the essay. You need to discuss your interpretations
in appropriate depth, and support them through reference to the text itself,
information from critical sources, etc.). The second is the overall scheme
into which your points are organised. Both of these aspects of essay writing
will be dealt with in the sections which follow.
