I don't understand how to write an essay.

[ExtraPlinky]

Arggggghhhh

I've read about ten books on how to do it. I've written four or five of them (never did better than a C despite tons of research)

I don't understand how to do it.
I feel stupid!

title edited by MNHQ as requested by OP.

To be clear (apologies, am on my phone!)

Follow the tone and structure of writers you admire to understand the mechanics of an essay. A first-class student in their third year will be writing something of publishable or near-publishable quality, so the best way to train yourself is to follow other academics’ style. This is what I did in my first year before developing my own way of doing things.

Also for art history my tutor always said the three basic things are:

Subject matter - why this subject matter? Context

Interpretations - what is the artist trying ton say. How is it interpreted now?

Aethetics - how is it painted/style. What was important about this style in this period?

Sorry if you know all this. These points just helped me to clarify my thinking.

For an argument type essay, you might find the following simple outline helpful:

Intro
Thesis - what is your argument/what do you want to assert?
Antithesis - what evidence out there contradicts or challenges your thesis?
Synthesis - bring parts one and two together by reasserting your position based on what you've written
Conclusion (sum up part three)
As pp have said, write your intro and conclusion after you've written the main body.

Whatever structure you decide to use, plan everything out with bullet points first, and don't start writing until.youre happy with your plan.
Good luck!

One piece of advice I was given is that someone marking your work should be able to put a tick or other mark every 2 or 3 lines.

So take an old essay and look for where you have made a point, then look at what you have written after it. Is it waffle? then it doesn't need to be there.

So another student would understand some terms and jargon so you do not need to elaborate, eg if you are describing a feature of a painting such as chiaroscuro you do not need to elaborate on the term, but you can discuss how the artist used the technique in a particular work.

Also write as though you were writing to someone ar another uni doing the same or a similar course.

So I'm writing about the idea of sublime/awe in various works - including film and art - in how they show monsters!

And then I'll be expanding on this for my dissertation.

Everyone's responses are really useful to me - I know because I am on the spectrum that my brain needs to click into place on the understanding and I will be able to do this - I just need to really understand it. My degree has had many starts and stops because of personal life and parenting and illness. They also put me straight in the second year because of life experience - but it set me back because I think I would have benefitted from the experience of essay writing.

So I have had to pick it up sporadically.

Agree with PP to write the intro and conclusion last.

Write out what your main points are - depending on the word count this could be a paragraph each, or each one might be an entire section.

Reorder the points so there's a logical flow or link between each one.

Start each next point by referring to the previous one.

Write conclusion and intro.

When I feel like this, it's often because I haven't finished reading. Over research but stop frequently to relate it back to the terms of the question. Let yourself have ideas and jot them down in pencil with the page number of the book you were reading when you had it. Notice when your points relate to each other. Notice when the research you are reading seems to disagree with each other. Different critics have different views and you may be, at the heart of the question, supposed to have clocked that and decided who you agree with on balance, and on what evidence. Eventually I have so many points that I have a great deal to say but no clear way how to structure it, often. I often find that if there are conflicting positions or views, it can often be related to different interpretations of the terms in the question. There can be ambiguity there, always. Your essay seems to touch on the paradox of something sublime (which would inspire awe) being at times juxtaposed or merged with the grotesque. Are those things so different? I'm reminded of paradise lost where heaven and hell seem so very different, yet so representative of existential joy and horror that are integral to the human condition. These realities coexist within us, inextricably. The potential for horrific pain (illness, grief, mortality, poverty, oppression) and our ways of trying to articulate, distance and contain that through art. The desire to hope that something better, some benign deity exists but the fear that if there is anything sacred in this world or the next, it may be monstrously cruel. These thoughts come from thinking deeply about the terms and reflecting on what I know about why people create at art (I know nothing about art). But I know other academics will have reflected properly on this and I would read what they have to say carefully, noting the key points repeatedly made about the issue and any paradox, tension, ambiguity. I would identify key quotes for these and start each paragraph with one of these, then explain why it's significant. At the beginning of the essay, I would refer to the terms (quotations on the terms or synonyms absolutely crucial here) and any general quote you have found that sums up a conflict. Explain you will consider the extent to which this can be said to be accurate and the case for an an alternative view. Make your points, showing you're an a star student who researched widely and reflected on what they read, making connections and relating them to the question. Towards the end give your opinion without using I think. "Given x, the concept of y seems to carry most weight.."

I always leave the intro until last, but you can do it first if you prefer.

Think of what you're trying to say. What's the hypothesis?

Then explain point, evidence, expand, conclude section. Repeat 4-5 time (or however long). Conclusion.

This is interesting - I think I have a block where I think essay writing is beyond me yet I have written business reports!

You daft sod

You have a very good basis for some excellent essay writing. Trust yourself. Take in all the advice you have been given here and apply it to how you would write a business report, just to round out the edges and hit the essay question highglights.

Work to your strengths.

If you have time try re-writing one of your essays in the same way you would have tackled it as a business report. If you have a good relationship with your tutor get their support in having that version marked or get some feedback on it, for comparison.

Then write yourself a list of the suggestions here that feel right for you and use them!

Good luck.

I think this is the best thread ever that is helping me no end. I think I get stuck in trying to compare and contrast rather than using the literature to explain the point. Then I waffle!

If you have lots of points to make that relate directly to the question and conflicts within it, and lots of amazingly pertinent quotations that seem just made for the issue, you'll have so much to say there will be no time to waffle.

Clean writing. Your ideas should get complex as you read more and see the interrelated nature of the different elements. That can lead to hopeless waffling because the thoughts don't seem to lend themselves to a sentence (where things have to be one after the other). Maybe I'm the only one who had that problem. I would score highly in essays but see the word 'awkward' in the margin beside sentences that I thought were just wonderfully complex. So clean writing became the goal and it has done so much for my ability to structure thoughts. You're laying a pyramid. You have to step back and ask yourself what exactly you're trying to say and what is the first point that has to be made to convey that. Then what would need to be noted. What has been running concurrently and needs to be acknowledged also. What is the final piece in the simplest language you can muster. Shift F7 can suggest words that it's easier to be succinct with. It's a great discipline.

Reading with interest! Essays can be a torture chamber for me!

Has no one/tutor given you any feedback? Surely they can recognise a tortured essay a mile off 🤷

I've just had another thought OP

I'm dyslexic and I use Inspiration to plan essays (not many at the moment because I'm studying maths).

Lots on universities have this on their machines, you build up a mind map or a flow chart of all the points you want in your essay - you can then add links or take links out and it will produce a plan for you.

It's not cheap but you mentioned being on the spectrum and you might be able to get DSA to fund it.

I often make the mistake of trying to tell the reader everything I know/think about the topic.

When I've written a draft I like to print it out and mark it myself. Get a red pen and cross out bits, circle bits that don't make sense, make notes on stuff that is missing. Somehow it is different than reviewing a digital copy.

I think it takes time to find your "academic voice" and hopefully that progression shows as each essay improves on the last.

@PomPomChatton

I often make the mistake of trying to tell the reader everything I know/think about the topic.

When I've written a draft I like to print it out and mark it myself. Get a red pen and cross out bits, circle bits that don't make sense, make notes on stuff that is missing. Somehow it is different than reviewing a digital copy.

I think it takes time to find your "academic voice" and hopefully that progression shows as each essay improves on the last.

Yes I don't have my academic voice yet! This is so true.

@sashh

I've just had another thought OP

I'm dyslexic and I use Inspiration to plan essays (not many at the moment because I'm studying maths).

Lots on universities have this on their machines, you build up a mind map or a flow chart of all the points you want in your essay - you can then add links or take links out and it will produce a plan for you.

It's not cheap but you mentioned being on the spectrum and you might be able to get DSA to fund it.

I'm going to look at this!

Maybe look up the SEE method of writing too this really helped me structure paragraphs

Bumping for the new academic year …

🍀

An essay, to me, is like a discussion you'd have with your friend except you're having it all on your own. It's not a monologue or rant.

For example: "Mumsnet is not a good place. Discuss."

You need to provide an introduction as to what Mumsnet is. I would probably also include how I found Mumsnet. Then you need to discuss (ideally using examples) of times where it has been good and times where it has been bad. You would then discuss the forwards and back discussions which you might have with your best friend about the merits of MN. You need to explore each argument. You can then come to an absolute conclusion or you can leave the reader to form their opinion.

An essay is basically a way of spewing out your thoughts onto paper.

Depending on what level/field you're in will dictate certain norms.

I would give specifics, examples, a generalised pro view, a generalised against view and then I'd give examples of studies conducted about the use of social media etc.

Has been a long time, and mine is more of a scientific field but I finally cracked it with the SEX structure.
Statement
Explanation
Example

Not much point in waffling either as you'll get marks for the various points you raise and subsequent justification but once you've said it, move on.

SEED

Statement
Expand
Evidence
Develop.

Has helped me when writing assignments. Another vote for contacting your uni library and study skills departments also.