Three Common Errors
Today we will focus on three common errors that I frequently see in student English essays.
- Describing the text rather than undertaking literary analysis
- “Dumping” quotes from the text rather than integrating them into your writing
- Minor errors in the conventions of English essays
Description vs. literary analysis
Your final paper must analyse the text and not just describe it!
Note the difference between:
- After arriving at the first outpost, Marlow recounts seeing a number of starving colonized people. He spends some time looking at them, describing their emaciated bodies.
- After arriving at the first outpost, Marlow recounts seeing a number of starving colonized people. He likens the colonized Africans to “shadows” (page number) and “air,” (page number). This language emphasizes their suffering but also makes apparent Marlows prejudice. Later in his narrative, Marlow characterizes the Africans attacking the steamer in similar ways, calling them “vague forms” (page number). The language of immateriality – “shadows,” “air,” and “vague forms” – supports Achebee’s argument that the Africans are effectively erased in the text and seen as less than human by Marlow.
The first example paraphrases or summarizes what happened in the text: it is as though the writer of this essay is simply describing the narrative to someone who has not read it. In the second example, there is literary analysis, that is to say, a reflection on the effect of the language. The second example is making critical judgements about the text, rather than simply describing it. It makes observations about the artistic choices that the author has made ie why he choose words like “air” and “shadows” and makes an argument for the effect on the reader. These observations are used to support a thesis.
Remember there is the close reading guidance paper on Blackboard which contains a list of possible things to discuss when trying to analyse text. Asking yourself what the tone of the passage is, and how you get a sense of the tone, is a good place to start if you are struggling with this.
Dumping Quotes
Make sure your examples from the text or your textual evidence is integrated into your writing. Avoid this:
Samuel Beckett’s Endgame makes use of a lot of repetition. “Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.” (13)
Aim for this:
Samuel Beckett’s Endgame makes use of a lot of repetition. An example of this is found in Clov’s opening lines, where he states: “finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.” (13)
Other examples of ways to integrate your quotes into your writing:
An example of this is found in the opening passage, where Conrad states “quote from text” (page number).
We see this in the part of the text that describes Marlow’s arrival at the station, which notes that “quote” (page number)
John Self’s appearance is particularly important to this argument. He is described as “quote” (page number), “quote” (page number).
The setting is highly significant in troubling this view. Consider this passage: “quote passage” (page number). This is significant because…
Other Minor Errors Regarding the Conventions of English Essays
- The first time you mention a text in an essay put its publication date in brackets ie Heart of Darkness (1902).
- The first time you mention a critic or an author you use both their first and their second name. After that, you just use their second name.
- Discuss the text in the present tense and always give evidence from the text if you can. This will make your argument more convincing.
Avoid: In Heart Of Darkness Marlow travelled to Africa. His face was compared to ivory.
Better: In Heart of Darkness Marlow travels to Africa. Throughout the text, his face is compared to ivory at multiple points, such as “example”(page number), “example” (page number) and “example” (page number).
- Conclusions are tricky. Restating your thesis is a good thing to do. You could also provide a brief summary of the structure of your essay – “I first discussed x, then y, and finally I consider z.” If relevant, you could think about other areas of research or questions that your paper opens up. For example, a sentence like “In this paper, I have suggested x. This opens the way to further questions, such as…..” Again, if it feels relevant, you could mention the way in which the text you have written about continues to be relevant to our contemporary world – the world of coronavirus, the world of Trump’s America…You could also take a look at some critical essay and see how they conclude for inspiration
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