Study skills Archives - Page 9 of 16

Jargon in essays

August 23, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. Jargon is ‘the technical language of a profession or group’. The implication of this definition is that their language may not be understood by people outside the group.

2. For example, when solicitors use terms such as ‘probate’, ‘conveyance’, and ‘leasehold’, they are using the jargon of their profession, which is usually only understood by other solicitors. Similar examples could be given for doctors, engineers, and even bookbinders.

3. There is nothing wrong when jargon is used amongst members of the same group. It often functions as shorthand, which eliminates the need for lengthy explanations. However, when you are communicating with people outside a group, its use should be minimised.

4. The term jargon in its most negative sense describes the use of technical or obscure terms when addressing a general audience. For instance, a letter from the Inland Revenue to an ordinary member of the public which contains the following sentence is an example of bad manners (and poor communication):

The basis of assessment for Schedule D Case I and II, other than commencement and cessation, is what is termed a previous year basis.

Some steps have been taken to eliminate this occurrence in public documents, but there is still a long way to go.

5. Academic discussion can have its own jargon too, depending upon the subject in question. Terms such as ‘hegemony’ (political philosophy) ‘discourse analysis’ (linguistics) and ‘objective correlative’ (literary studies) would not be recognisable by an everyday reader, though they might be understood by someone studying the same subject.

6. Whatever the jargon of your own discipline, it should be used with precision, accuracy, and above all restraint. Only use the specialised terms of your subject if you are quite sure of their meaning.

7. Never use jargon to show off or ‘impress’ your reader. It is likely to create the opposite effect. Similarly, do not take half-understood jargon from one discipline and import it into another.

8. Take the trouble to learn the meanings of these specialised terms within the context of your subject. A word might have a particular meaning when used within a subject discipline which it does not have in general usage.

9. Do not use a jargon term where perfectly ordinary terms will be just as effective. There is not much virtue in using terms such as ‘aerated beverages’ instead of ‘fizzy drinks’. These simply cause disruptions in tone and create a weak style.

10. Here is an even more pretentious example, spotted recently.

‘Moisturising cleansing bar’ [in other words – ‘soap’]

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Joseph Conrad close reading

March 18, 2014 by Roy Johnson

how to read and analyse a text

In literary studies there are various types of close reading. It is possible and rewarding to scrutinise a text closely, keeping any number of its features in mind. These can reveal various layers of significance in the work which might not be apparent on a superficial reading. You might focus attention on the text’s –

language
meaning
structure
philosophy

The most advanced forms of close reading combine all these features in an effort to reveal the full and even hidden meanings in a work. The following tutorial shows a very simple form of close reading. It pays attention to the first two of these approaches – looking at the language that Conrad uses and how it is closely linked to what we know about the text.

This type of exercise can only be successful once the text has been read in its entirety. You need a grasp of the events and the story as a whole before it is possible to see how its meaning(s) are built up from small linguistic features of the narrative.

The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov once observed ‘Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only re-read it’. What he meant by this apparently contradictory remark is that the first time we read a text we are busy absorbing information, and we cannot appreciate all the subtle connections there may be between its parts – because we don’t yet have the complete picture before us. Only when we read it for a second time (or even better, a third or fourth) are we in a position to assemble and compare the nuances of meaning and the significance of its details in relation to each other.

This is why the activity is called ‘close reading’. You should try to get used to the notion of reading and re-reading very carefully, scrupulously, and in great detail.

The extract which follows is the opening of Conrad’s early story An Outpost of Progress, first published in 1897. It deals with two European characters who have recently arrived at a trading station somewhere in central Africa. If you wish to read the complete story in conjunction with these tutorial notes, it is available free at Project Gutenberg.

An Outpost of Progress

An Outpost of Progress – the opening lines

There were two white men in charge of the trading station. Kayerts, the chief, was short and fat; Carlier, the assistant, was tall, with a large head and a very broad trunk perched upon a long pair of thin legs. The third man on the staff was a Sierra Leone nigger, who maintained that his name was Henry Price. However, for some reason or other, the natives down the river had given him the name of Makola, and it stuck to him through all his wanderings about the country. He spoke English and French with a warbling accent, wrote a beautiful hand, understood bookkeeping, and cherished in his innermost heart the worship of evil spirits. His wife was a negress from Loanda, very large and very noisy. Three children rolled about in sunshine before the door of his low, shed-like dwelling. Makola, taciturn and impenetrable, despised the two white men. He had charge of a small clay storehouse with a dried-grass roof, and pretended to keep a correct account of beads, cotton cloth, red kerchiefs, brass wire, and other trade goods it contained. Besides the storehouse and Makola’s hut, there was only one large building in the cleared ground of the station. It was built neatly of reeds, with a verandah on all the four sides. There were three rooms in it. The one in the middle was the living-room, and had two rough tables and a few stools in it. The other two were the bedrooms for the white men. Each had a bedstead and a mosquito net for all furniture. The plank floor was littered with the belongings of the white men; open half-empty boxes, torn wearing apparel, old boots; all the things dirty, and all the things broken, that accumulate mysteriously round untidy men. There was also another dwelling-place some distance away from the buildings. In it, under a tall cross much out of the perpendicular, slept the man who had seen the beginning of all this; who had planned and had watched the construction of this outpost of progress.

Close reading

01. ‘White men’ is significant because the story is about the exploitation of black Africans by white Europeans. And ‘in charge’ is mildly ironic because we rapidly learn that they are only nominally in charge. It is their African assistant Makola who really determines what goes on, whilst they are hopelessly incompetent.

02. The names ‘Kayerts’ and ‘Carlier’ tell us that the setting of the story is the Belgian Congo. Carlier is a French name, Kayerts is Flemish, and these are the two linguistic groups which comprise Belgium. The physical descriptions contrast the two men in a way that makes them slightly ridiculous, rather like the fat and thin man of comedy stereotypes. The term ‘perched’ reinforces this.

03. ‘Maintained’ suggests just the opposite – that Makola has given himself the name Henry Price because he wants to identify his interests with those of his European employers. Conrad’s use of the racist term ‘nigger’ would have been considered unremarkable in 1897 when he wrote the story.

04. The natives call him ‘Makola’ — and so does Conrad, which reinforces our interpretation of the previous sentence. His ‘wanderings’ suggest that he is experienced.

05. Makola speaks two foreign languages in addition to his own native African language and his wife’s, which would be different. He is also a skilled clerk. Thus he has absorbed European culture, in contrast to the two Europeans, who are completely incapable of absorbing his culture. Yet he still worships evil spirits. He has a foot in both cultures.

06. Loanda is on the coast of Angola, close to what was once called the ‘Slave Coast’. This is why it is ‘Mrs Price’ who understands what the slave traders are saying later in the story.

07. ‘Rolled about’ suggests that the children are at ease in their natural environment. ‘Shed-like’ tells us how poor their accommodation is.

08. ‘Impenetrable’ (a typically Conradian term) suggests that he keeps his feelings and motivation well hidden. It is a similar term to those which Conrad uses later to describe the topographical surroundings – ‘hopeless’ and ‘irresistible’. Such details contribute to why Africa in a moral sense defeats Europe in the story. ‘Despised’ however is a key insight into Makola’s judgement and feelings: this points to the element of racial conflict in the story.

09. We notice that the ‘trade goods’ are an assortment of cheap rubbish. They are being traded for ivory, which is a precious commodity in Europe. The Africans are therefore being cheated by the Europeans. But ‘pretended’ tells us that Makola might be engaged in a little cooking-of-the-books on his own account.

10. ‘Only one large building’: this is a very undeveloped trading station, and its isolation is emphasised.

11. ‘Neatly’ and ‘verandah’ contrast sharply with Makola’s ‘shed-like’ dwelling. In other words, the Europeans have the better accommodation.

12. The furniture is sparse, but the two men have a room each.

13. The mosquito net would be very important: they are close to the equator , and therefore a long way from their European homeland.

14. Notice how the two men do not know how to look after themselves. The floor is ‘littered’ with their ‘broken’ and ‘dirty’ goods. And how inappropriate some of those goods are: they have brought ‘town wearing apparel’ when they are in the tropics.

15. ‘Dwelling place’ is another irony of Conrad’s as the narrator of the story. What he is referring to is the grave of the first station chief who has died of fever. So, Africa has already killed off one representative of Europe when the story opens.

16. Conrad piles on more grim humour with the expression that the first director ‘slept’ under the cross – an ironic euphemism given that the director is dead. There is also a neat structural link here – because this is also the location of the story’s ending, where Kayerts will commit suicide, hanging himself on the cross.

Studying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and the language you will need for studying prose fiction. It explains the elements of literary analysis one at a time, then shows you how to apply them. The guidance starts off with simple issues of language, then progresses to more complex literary criticism.The volume contains stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Katherine Mansfield, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, and Charles Dickens. All of them are excellent tales in their own right. The guidance on this site was written by the same author.
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Joseph Conrad’s writing table

Joseph Conrad – video biography

Other writing by Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim (1900) is the earliest of Conrad’s big and serious novels, and it explores one of his favourite subjects – cowardice and moral redemption. Jim is a ship’s captain who in youthful ignorance commits the worst offence – abandoning his ship. He spends the remainder of his adult life in shameful obscurity in the South Seas, trying to re-build his confidence and his character. What makes the novel fascinating is not only the tragic but redemptive outcome, but the manner in which it is told. The narrator Marlowe recounts the events in a time scheme which shifts between past and present in an amazingly complex manner. This is one of the features which makes Conrad (born in the nineteenth century) considered one of the fathers of twentieth century modernism.
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Heart of Darkness (1902) is a tightly controlled novella which has assumed classic status as an account of the process of Imperialism. It documents the search for a mysterious Kurtz, who has ‘gone too far’ in his exploitation of Africans in the ivory trade. The reader is plunged deeper and deeper into the ‘horrors’ of what happened when Europeans invaded the continent. This might well go down in literary history as Conrad’s finest and most insightful achievement, and it is based on his own experiences as a sea captain. This volume also contains ‘An Outpost of Progress’ – the magnificent study in shabby cowardice which prefigures ‘Heart of Darkness’.
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Joseph Conrad web links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas
Brief notes introducing his major works in recommended editions.

Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, and further reading.

Joseph Conrad at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production notes, box office, trivia, and quizzes.

Works by Joseph Conrad
Large online database of free HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions of novels, stories, and occasional writings.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

The Joseph Conrad Society of America
American-based – recent publications, journal, awards, conferences.

Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in the context of the novel or story.

More on Joseph Conrad
Twentieth century literature
More on Joseph Conrad tales

Key terms in essay questions

August 23, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Key terms are those parts of a question which either state or reveal its subject.

2. Key terms should be distinguished from instruction terms, which tell you how to approach the question, and how to deal with the subject.

Question
‘Discuss the significance of railways in the Industrial Revolution’

3. Both the terms ‘railways’ and ‘Industrial Revolution’ are key terms here. These are the subject of the question. You are being asked to concentrate on one topic (‘railways’) in relation to a specified historical period (‘the Industrial Revolution’).

4. The term ‘discuss’ on the other hand is an instruction term. This tells you how to approach the question.

5. Don’t expect key terms to jump off the page at you – or to be
unproblematic. Sometimes you will need to think carefully about the possible implications of the subject. They might also be expressed in very ordinary language.

Question
‘To what extent was Clement Atlee a successful politician?’

6. It is the term ‘To what extent’ which acts as an instruction: you are free to construct your own response. The key term is ‘successful politician’, which isn’t as obvious as it might first appear. Does ‘successful’ mean winning general elections, or being the author of policies which are adopted? You would need to give careful thought to these issues.

6. In order to make these distinctions (particularly when they are not obvious) you should be prepared to analyse questions very carefully.

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Line references in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Some texts – such as long poems, plays, works of philosophy, or the Bible – require line references. You should identify the source of your first quotation with a numbered endnote. Then add a line number, thus:

NOTES
1. Tony Harrison, Selected Poems, Penguin, 1984, p.181, l.26.

2. If all your subsequent references will be to this text, you may
add a brief note:

All subsequent line and page references are to this edition.

Following this first full reference, you may afterwards give only a line number after the quotation in your text.

3. There is no need to give line references when quoting from a short text (say, up to twenty lines). Just give the source as an endnote to your first quotation.

4. When giving references to quotations from texts such as plays, the convention is to give the information in the sequence as follows:

Act – Scene – Line number

Act II, Sc iv, l.129

5. Notice that the act number is usually given as a Roman numeral in capitals (II), the scene number in lower case (iv), and the line reference in Arabic numerals (129). This type of notation is normally abbreviated to II.iv.129

6. Remember that you should produce your own argument first, and then add supporting quotations afterwards. Unless the essay question asks you to do so, you should not normally quote first and then offer a commentary on the extract.

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Moralizing in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. Moralizing should be avoided in academic essays and term papers. You should resist turning an essay into a vehicle for sermonizing or tub-thumping. Pious sentiments concerning ‘declining standards’ and ‘sexual promiscuity’ should be avoided – especially when they are delivered (as they often are) from a self-elected position of moral righteousness.

2. Moralizing often goes along with generalising and takes two common forms. The first case occurs when the writer makes sanctimonious judgements with a lofty tone of assumed superiority: ‘It is because we despise such immoral actions in others that … ‘. You should not assume too readily that ‘we’ will all agree with you, or even that readers will share your opinion.

3. The second form of moralising often arises from failing to acknowledge that ‘morals’ are relative. What is acceptable in one society may not be in another. Try to avoid sweeping statements on morality by keeping in mind that your own system of beliefs may seem strange or irrational to someone else. This will also help you to be specific and to present your argument concretely, rather than hiding behind empty generalizations and emotional rhetoric.

4. Note by the way that the term ‘moral’ is either an adjective as in ‘a moral victory’, or a noun as in ‘the moral of the story’. Statements such as ‘It was a moral thing to do’ and ‘She is a very moral sort of person’ do not actually make much sense.

5. The purpose of almost all academic essays is to present you with an exercise in precise thinking and objective argument. You are being asked to show fine discrimination based on concrete evidence.

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Names in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Names are always given capital letters when they are:

proper nouns	James Smith
particular places	Europe, East Anglia
days of the week	Wednesday, Friday
months of the year	June, November
public festivals	Easter, Christmas
organisations	British Broadcasting Corporation
institutions	House of Commons
titles	Archbishop of Canterbury

2. Capital letters are not necessary when a noun is being used in its general rather than its particular sense:

Manchester University / a university education

the King of France / kings and queens of Spain

3. Names which are formed from adjectival use of nouns do not take capital letters:

french doors indian ink roman numerals

4. The plurals of most names are formed by the addition of s

the Andersons the Joyces the Frys

5. Where the name ends in s, ch, or sh the plural is
formed by adding es:

the Rosses the Marshes the Finches

6. The following example, taken from The Guardian of 15 October 1991, combines the names of the Prime Minister, two political parties, an institution, and an organisation:

The Tories yesterday raised the stakes in the continuing battle over the credibility of John Major’s National Health Service assurances when they accused Labour of twisting statistics and the English language to sustain its claim that Mr Major is engineering a “creeping privatisation” of the service.

7. Capital letters are also used for the names of:

public thoroughfares	Bois de Boulogne
civic holidays	Christmas Day
geographical names	Straight of Gibraltar
important events	World War II
trade names	Xerox, Jaguar, Kleenex

8. Where an English form of a foreign place-name exists, it should be used:

Dunkirk Moscow Munich Naples Venice

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Narratives in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. Narratives are accounts that describe a sequence of events. When answering questions which concern events in a sequence, you should avoid drifting into merely retelling the ‘story of what happens’. This is called narrative paraphrase. This feature often occurs in fiction, poetry, drama, history, film, politics, or anything else which involves events which take place over a span of time.

2. The temptation to retell the story will always be strong, for two reasons:

it is always a lot easier than answering the question
it gives you the feeling that you are answering the question – when you are not

3. Remember that almost all essay questions require that you construct an argument which should be illustrated by evidence and examples drawn from your study materials. It is not enough merely to retell a story.

4. Select that one incident, character, event, or phrase which illustrates the point of your argument, then stop! You should resist the temptation to discuss ‘what happens next’.

5. If you discover on re-reading your essay that it is full of phrases such as ‘and then he…and then she … following this they … and then next they’ – something is likely to be wrong. Pick out the one point which provides the evidence you require, and eliminate the rest.

6. Obviously, if a question asks you to discuss a succession of events, you would normally deal with them in the sequence that they occur. Even in such cases however, you should keep in mind that merely recounting them as a narrative does not constitute discussion, analysis, or evaluation.

7. If the question asks you to analyse a series of events, you should split the account into its most important topics. Each one of these elements might be identified in turn – and then analysed. Resist the temptation to get caught up into the ‘story’.

8. Essays dealing with history or political issues of the past are normally and most logically written in the past tense.

Within six weeks of the revolution Cossack armies and other ‘white’ forces were already mustering in south-eastern Russia; the Ukraine, egged on by French and British promises, was in a state of all but open hostilities against the Soviet power; the Germans, in spite of the armistice, were a standing threat in the west.

E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923: Volume One, Penguin: 1984, p.167

9. Some people try to give a sense of vividness or urgency to their writing by re-casting narratives in the present tense. The result can seem modish and posturing. This should be avoided in academic writing.

Here is the last example, re-cast into what’s called the ‘dramatic present’ tense.

Within six weeks of the revolution Cossack armies and other ‘white’ forces are already mustering in south-eastern Russia; the Ukraine, egged on by French and British promises, is in a state of all but open hostilities against the Soviet power; the Germans, in spite of the armistice, are a standing threat in the west.

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Numbers in essays

August 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. A general rule for the presentation of numbers (excluding those dealing with science and mathematics) is that numbers below a hundred are written, and numbers above one hundred are presented by digits:

four brown horses	ten years old
she is twenty-two	3,500 tonnes of coal
286 casualties	200 metres long

2. Notice that numbers expressed in more than a single word are hyphenated:

thirty-six ninety-eight fifty-five

3. Even above one hundred, round numbers are often expressed as words:

one thousand two million three billion

4. However, very large numbers are often expressed in a combination of figures and units of millions or billions:

Social benefit payments were running at $7.8 million per day compared with only $5.6 million a year ago.

5. Where two different series of quantities are being discussed, it may clarify matters if words are used for one series and numbers for the other:

Ten wards in the county emergency hospital contained 16 beds each, but fifteen others contained as many as 30.

6. The following example taken from a piece of journalism illustrates this general rule with mention of numbers both below and above one hundred.

One of the nuclear weapons systems would be a four-boat Trident strategic missile fleet with 512 warheads compared with the 192 urged by Labour and the Liberal Democrats to match the numbers in the Polaris fleet it replaces.

7. Do not begin sentences with a numeral (such as 46 or 107). Either rearrange the sentence, or write out the number (as Forty-six or One hundred and seven).

8. Decimals and percentages should be expressed in figures, and the word ‘percent’ should be written out, except in scientific writing:

With interest currently running at 8 percent, the total monthly repayment figure would be almost $2.5 million.

9. When expressing dates before the Christian era, remember to put the numbers of the earlier date first, and give the later date in full to avoid confusion:

Nebuchadnezzar (1792-1750 BC) not Nebuchadnezzar (1792-50 BC)

10. Dates after the Christian era should be expressed in the same way, but with the era written first:

Nebuchadnezzar (1792-1750 BC) but Pope Sixtus III (AD 432-440)

11. The use of Roman numerals is normally confined to the names of monarchs and popes, for the acts of plays, and for the volumes and subdivisions of books:

Edward VI	Pope Pius IV
Othello III.iv.18	Chapter XII
Part III	Act V, Sc 3

12. In numbers above a thousand or more, the thousands are marked off with a comma:

10,000 BC 1,500 metres

13. Notice that the plurals of numbers are formed by the addition of s alone. The apostrophe is not required:

in the 1920s pilots of 747s

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Overcome writer’s block

September 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

techniques for getting started

1. Writer’s block is much more common than most people imagine. But it can be overcome. Don’t imagine that you should be able to write impeccably at your first attempt. Most successful writers make several drafts of their work. They edit what they write, correct mistakes, make additions and deletions, and generally re-write extensively. Writing fluently and clearly is an advanced skill.

2. Don’t just sit staring at the blank piece of paper or the editing screen: it will only make you feel worse. Do something else, then come back to the task. Best of all, write something else – something you know you can write. This will help you to feel more confident.

3. Do some different type of writing as a warm-up exercise. Write a note or a letter to one of your friends. Re-write some of your earlier work, or just write something for your own amusement. This may help to release you from the blocked condition.

4. Don’t try composing in your head if you get stuck. Put down even your scrappiest ideas, so that you can see what you are dealing with. It may help you to identify any problems which are holding you back. If in doubt, put it down anyway. You can always delete it or change it later.

5. Get used to the idea of planning and making notes for what you are going to write. Don’t try to work with all the information stored in your head. A sound working plan and good notes will take the strain off you – and will prompt you with ideas, which in turn will prevent any ‘blocks’ developing.

6. Be prepared to make two or three attempts at anything you write. The first may not be very good, but it can be corrected, altered, changed – or even thrown away. Nobody need see your first attempts, so you don’t need to worry how bad they are – provided you pass on to a second or a third draft.

7. Some people develop a block because they think that mistakes and crossings-out on the page will result in ‘wasted paper’. Use scrap paper for your first drafts. The most common causes are a lack of preparation and the misguided idea that it is possible to write successfully at the first attempt.

8. If you are using a computer, you might try printing off your first attempts and editing them on paper. Some people work best in this combination of two mediums. Even professional writers edit on both screen and paper.

9. Writer’s block is a very common problem. Even experienced writers sometimes suffer from it. Don’t think that you are the only person it affects. What you need to know is how to get out of the blocked condition.

10. Here are some statements made by people suffering from writer’s block. They could help you identify your own case if you have this problem. They are followed by tips on how to effect a cure.

‘I’m terrified at the very thought of writing’

Cause – Perhaps you are just not used to writing, or you are out of recent practice. Maybe you are over-anxious and possibly setting yourself standards which are far too high.

Cure – Limber up and get yourself used to the activity of writing by scribbling something on a scrap of paper or keying in a few words which nobody else will see. Write a letter to yourself, a description of the room you are in – anything just to practise getting words onto paper. Remember that your attempts can be discarded. They are a means to an end, not a product to be retained.

‘I’m not sure what to say’

Cause – Maybe you have not done enough preparation for the task in hand, and you don’t have any notes to work from and use as a basis for what you want to say. Perhaps you haven’t yet accumulated enough ideas, comments, or materials on the topic you are supposed to be discussing. Possibly you have not thought about the subject for long enough.

Cure – Sort out your ideas before you start writing. Make rough notes on the topics you wish to discuss. These can then be expanded when you are ready to begin. Brainstorm your topic; read about it; put all your preliminary ideas on rough paper, then sift out the best for a working plan. Alternatively, make a start with anything, then be prepared to change it later.

‘My mind goes blank’

Cause – Maybe you have not done enough preparation on the topic in question and you are therefore short of ideas or things to write about. Perhaps you do not have rough notes or a working plan to help you make a start. Maybe you are frightened of making a false start or saying the wrong thing.

Cure – Make notes for what you intend to write about and sort out your ideas in outline first. Try starting yourself off on some scrap paper or a blank screen. You can practise your opening statement and then discard it once you are started. Put down anything that comes into your head. You can always cross it out or change it later.

‘It’s just a problem of the first sentence’

Cause – These can be quite hard to write! There is quite a skill in striking the right note immediately. You may be thinking ‘How can I make an introduction to something which
I have not yet written?’ Maybe you have not created a plan and don’t know what will follow any opening statement you make. Perhaps you are setting yourself standards which are much too high or unrealistic. Maybe you are fixated on the order of your statements – or just using this as an excuse to put off the moment when you will have to start.

Cure – Leave a blank space at the beginning of what you are going to write. The first sentence can be written later after you have finished the rest. Make a start somewhere else and come back to it later. Alternatively, write any statement you wish, knowing that you will change it later.

‘I’m not quite ready to start yet’

Cause – This could be procrastination, or it’s possible that you have not finished digesting and sorting out your ideas on the subject.

Cure – If it is procrastination, then use the warming up procedure of writing something else of no importance just to get yourself into the mood. If it is not, then maybe you need to revise your notes, drum up a few more ideas, or make a working plan to give you a point from which to make a start.

‘I’ve got too much information’

Cause – If you have several pages of notes, then maybe they need to be digested further. Maybe you have not selected the details which are most important, and eliminated anything which is not relevant.

Cure – Digest and edit your material so as to pare it down to what is most essential. Several pages of notes may need to be reduced to just one or two. Don’t try to include everything. Draw up a plan which includes only that which is most important. If your plan is too long, then condense it. Eliminate anything which is not absolutely necessary for the piece of work in hand.

‘I’m just waiting for one small piece of information’

Cause – Maybe you feel that a crucial piece of background reading – a name, or just a date is holding you up. You may be waiting for a book to be returned to the library. But this is often another form of procrastination – making excuses so as not to face the task in hand.

Cure – Make a start without it anyway. You can always leave gaps in your work and add things later. Alternatively, make a calculated guess – which you can change if necessary at a later stage when you have acquired the missing information. Remember that your first draft will be revised later anyway. Additional pieces of information can be added during the editing process.

‘I’m frightened of producing rubbish’

Cause – Maybe you are being too hard on yourself and setting standards which are unnecessarily high. However, this can sometimes be simply a fear of putting yourself to the test.

Cure – Be prepared to accept a modest achievement at first. And remember that many people under-rate their potential ability. It is very unlikely that anybody else will be over-critical. If you are a student on a course, it is the tutor’s job to help you improve and become more confident.

‘I’m stuck at the planning stage’

Cause – This may be a hidden fear of starting work on the first draft, or it may possibly be a form of perfectionism. It may be that you are making too much of the preparation stages, or alternatively that you are stuck for ideas.

Cure – Make a start on the first draft anyway. You can create a first attempt which may even help you to clarify your ideas as you are writing it. This first draft may then be used to help you devise and finalise another plan – which can then be used as the basis for your second or final draft.

‘I’m not sure in what order to put things’

Cause – Maybe there are a number of possibilities, and you are seeking the best order. Perhaps there is no ‘best’ or ‘right’ order. You are probably looking for some coherence or logical plan for your ideas.

Cure – Draw up a number of different possible plans. Lay them out together, compare them, then select the one which seems to offer the best structure. Be prepared to chop and change the order of your information until the most persuasive form of organisation emerges. Make sure that you do this before you start writing, so that you are not trying to solve too many problems at the same time once you begin.

‘It’s bound to contain a mistake somewhere’

Cause – You may be so anxious to produce good work that your fear of making a mistake is producing the ‘block’. Alternatively, this may be a form of striving for the impossible, or setting yourself unreachably high goals so as to create an excuse for not starting.

Cure – Your first efforts should only be a draft, so you can check for mistakes at a later stage. Be prepared to make a start, then deal with any possible errors when you come to re-write the work later. Very few people can write without making mistakes – even professional authors – so there is no need to burden yourself with this block.

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Page layout for essays

August 23, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Academic page layout – using word-processors
Modern word-processors allow you to create attractive page layout for your documents. The impression made by your essays or reports will be enhanced by good design. You should practise controlling the basic functions of your word-processor to improve the presentation of text on your pages.

2. Margins
The default settings of most word-processors create a margin of one inch at each edge of the page. You should try increasing your side margins (say, to one-and-a-half inches). This not only improves the appearance of your work on an A4 page, it leaves more room in which your tutor can write comments.

3. Fonts
For the main text of your essay, choose a font with serifs (‘Times Roman’, ‘Garamond’, or ‘Schoolbook’).

These make the text easier to read. Avoid sans-serif fonts such as ‘Arial’ or ‘Helvetica’: these make continuous reading more difficult. They may be used for headings however.

Display fonts (such as ‘Poster’ or ‘Showtime’) should not be used at all for academic work. They are designed for advertising.

4. Font Size
In most cases, the size of font chosen should be eleven or twelve points. This will be easy to read, and will appear proportionate to its use, when printed out on A4 paper.

5. Quotes
Where you have quotations of more than three lines, they should normally be set in the same font as the body of the text, but the size may be reduced by one or two points. This draws attention to the fact that it is a quotation from a secondary source.

6. Spacing
Your word-processor will have single line-spacing as its default. This will produce a neat page. However, your text may be more usefully laid out in double line-spacing. This will leave more room for tutor comment.

7. Paragraphs
If you decide to stay with single line-spacing, put a double space between each paragraph. (In this case you do not need to indent the first line of the paragraph.)

8. Justification
You have two choices. Full justification arranges your text in a straight line on both the left and right-hand margins Left-justified will be straight only on the left, leaving the text ‘ragged’ on the right. This has the advantage of producing more regular word-spacing – but full justification will probably have a better visual effect overall.

9. Indentation
Never adjust your indentation using the spacebar. This will create very uneven layout when you print your document. Always use the TAB stop and the INDENT key. Remember that a TAB stop indents just the first line of a paragraph. The INDENT key will indent the whole of the paragraph.

10. Indenting quotes
Take full advantage of indenting to regularise your presentation of
quotations. Use double indentation for those longer quotations which would otherwise occupy more than two or three lines of the text in your essay. Try to be consistent throughout.

11. Indenting paragraphs?
If you do not show paragraphs by double-spacing, you will need to indent the first line of each new paragraph.

12. Italics and bold
Use italics for the titles of books and journals. (Also use it for emphasis.) Bold is best reserved for headings and sub-headings.

13. Headings
Headings, sub-headings, or essay questions may be presented in either a slightly larger font size than the body of the text, or they may be given emphasis by the use of bold.

14. Capitals
Don’t use continuous capital letters in a heading. This looks unsightly, and it makes the heading difficult to read.

15. Underlining
There is no need to underline headings or titles [even though many people think it is good practice]. If something is a title, a heading or a question at the top of an essay, then the larger font, or the use of bold should be enough to give it emphasis and importance. Underlining just makes text harder to read.

16. Page numbering
Use the automatic page-numbering feature to place numbers on all the pages of your essays. If for some reason you find this problematic (which many do), add the numbers by hand.

17. Hyphenation
If your word-processor automatically hyphenates words at the end of a line, take care to read through the work and eliminate any howlers such as ‘the-rapist’ and ‘thin-king’.

18. Widows and orphans
In laying out your pages, you should avoid creating paragraphs which start on the last line of a page or which finish on the first of the next. (These are called, in the jargon of the printing trade, ‘Widows and Orphans’). The solution to this problem is to control the number of lines on a page so as to push the text forward. An extra space at the bottom of a page is more acceptable than just one or two lines of text at the top of the next.

19. Page density
Do not create pages which are dense with closely-packed text. These will have an unattractive and off-putting effect.

20. Form
Don’t try to imitate the appearance of a printed book. Remember that an academic essay serves a different function. Leave plenty of white space around your work, and let the text ‘speak’ to the reader.

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Page layout for essays

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