Write An Essay With Me - #1 Choosing An Essay Question

So this is the first in a short series about writing an essay. I'm planning on having 8 sections which will include the planning stages, researching, actually writing it and even editing.

To write an essay you've first got to start by knowing what question you're answering.

Make A Note Of The Details

The very first step is to write down the word count you need, the date of the deadline and if there's any particular things you need to include. Like this:

• Word Count: 2'500

• Deadline: 16/06/2021

• Include:

  • Strong argument

  • Comparisons to other media

  • Reference to multiple critical perspectives

After this the advice changes depending on if you need to come up with your own question or if you're choosing from a specific list of them.

Choosing From A List Of Questions

• Which questions am I immediately not wanting to touch with a ten foot pole? Cross any that fit into this category off your list. You don't want to be looking at a list of 12 questions when you're only ever going to think about answering 5 or 6.

• Mark any that you're so-so about with a ? next to the number. These are the "I've messed up and thought another question was easier but I need to write something else".

• Any that you really want to do put a * next to. If you've got multiple of these then move onto the next part. If you only have one then that's your question chosen and you're ready for Part 2 of this series - Planning Your Research!

Narrowing The Questions Down For The Essay

• Which question suits my style of thinking?

• Which can I write the most about?

• Which can I write about well?

• Do I have sources for one of them already?

• Could I find sources for these easily?

• Are these sources varied?

These questions will help you to narrow down which options you can actually write about. For me, my essays were always better when I could compare two pieces of literature rather than looking at one in depth. I learned this earlier on in my undergrad, so I tried to play to my strengths with this. I also liked writing in depth analysis of characters and their growth throughout a novel, so I would try and choose these as well if possible.

When I was left to decide my own questions I went along the lines of "The way in which the presentation of werewolves has changed throughout time" and "Does the appearance of these characters affect how readers perceive them? An exploration of the trope of beauty equalling goodness".

This was because I already had an interest in these areas and was doing my own research into that topic outside of class. If you have something like this, then use it.

What essay will we be writing?

I'm focusing my effort on one of three questions:

1. Explore humanity in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

2. Explore themes of gender in Twelfth Night

3. Discuss imagery related to women in Romantic poetry

These are all ones that I looked and and thought - hey that sounds like it would be fun to research- so I marked them with an asterisk. I like the two novels and that genre of poetry and wouldn't mind spending a lot of time looking at them.

Next, choose something that you know you can write about. You have a word count. Remember that.

This narrows the list down to either 1 or 2 for me. Looking at the questions again I find myself drawn to looking at Frankenstein. This is because of the "comparisons with other media" part of the brief.

Always go back to your brief before making your choice on which essay topic to write about.

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Next week: Planning!

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.