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Analysing characters

February 25, 2014 by Roy Johnson

how to study and understand fictional characters

Analysing characters

When studying literature, you will be asked to write about the characters in stories, plays, and novels. Most people find it easy to describe characters – that is, what they look like and what they do in the story. But it is much more difficult to analyse them. That’s because analysing characters in fiction requires not only insight into human behaviour but also the ability to make moral assessments about their psychology, motivations, and the consequences of their behaviour. This skill distinguishes an academic study of literature from casual leisure reading.

You need to know how fictional characters have been constructed by the author. After all, the very nature of a literary character is that it is a fictional construct. It’s an account of somebody who doesn’t exist in real life, but has been created by words written on paper. The character is imaginary, but if the author has been successful, we think of these characters as if they were real people. This attitude is described as a ‘suspension of disbelief’: that is, we are temporarily willing to believe that the character and the story are like real people.

Analysing characters

Eugene Onegin

Character analysis also requires the ability to understand the complex relationship between fiction and real life – a skill which requires a fairly mature reading experience. Fortunately, most people have been exposed to fictional narratives from an early age, and will already be experienced readers by the time they are asked to make such analyses.


What is a fictional character?

A fictional character is somebody in an imaginative literary work created by an author. The character could be Peter Rabbit, David Copperfield, Macbeth, or Madame Bovary. In other media, it could be Luke Skywalker (feature film), Donald Duck (cartoon), Dan Dare (comic), Super Mario (computer game), or someone from The Archers (radio).

What we can know about a character in fiction depends almost entirely on what the author decides to tell us. Authors normally create characters using any number of devices. They might reveal to us –

  • their name
  • their physical appearance
  • how they dress
  • how they behave
  • what they think and feel
  • what they say

The composition of a character

Authors are at liberty to combine these elements in whatever way they choose. They may give different levels of emphasis to any of these options. There are no fixed rules they must follow, but the outcome must be a coherent piece of characterisation.

Charles Dickens for instance went to a lot of trouble to give his characters unusual and memorable names – Uriah Heep, Lady Honoria Deadlock, Josia Tulkinghorn, and Inspector Bucket for instance. At the other extreme, the Czech writer Franz Kafka reduced his most famous protagonist to the single letter K, with no first name or surname at all.

Some characters are memorable because of the way they are depicted visually. For instance, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations has shut herself away in an old house for years and years wearing the wedding dress she wore on the day she was jilted at the altar. She is described as a cross between a waxwork and a skeleton.

The fictional character might have a peculiar way of speaking, or a physical habit that becomes easily recognisable. Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The Rivals is memorable because she often uses the wrong word in her statements. She says “promise to forget this fellow – to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory” when of course she means obliterate. This characteristic is so easily recognisable that her name has been attached to that particular mis-use of language ever since – malapropism.

The good thing about this fictional technique is that it helps to fix the character in the audience’s mind. Its weakness as a technique is that it can reduce the character to no more than a verbal tic.

Some fictional characters are not given any name at all, and we know nothing about their appearance. Fyodor Dostoyevski’s Notes from Underground features a character whose name we don’t know, and whose appearance is never described. All we are told is what the character thinks – which is a torrent of existential rage against the world.

So – there are no fixed rules for the creation of fictional characters. Authors are free to tell us anything they wish about the characters they create. As readers we can merely hope that they are at least convincing or at best memorable. However, you need to be able to explain the mechanisms used to achieve this effect.


How to analyse a character

You can think of character analysis as a three part process. If you are a beginner, it will be safest to write about these parts separately. If you are more experienced, the parts may be combined – though you will still need to give your writing some structure.

  1. First – identify the character
  2. Second – describe the character
  3. Third – explain the character

Identify

In the first part of the process you are merely choosing the character you wish to write about. In many literary studies courses the character will be chosen for you by a question set for an essay or term paper. It is important to choose a character who is genuinely significant and who plays a dramatic part in the story.

Part of identifying a character is knowing their importance in the story. You will probably have no difficulty in distinguishing important characters (the protagonist or most significant character for instance) from lesser or secondary characters.

Describe

In the second part of the process you are ‘locating’ the character within the story and giving an overview of what part they play in its events. The term ‘describe’ implies that you can consider the character in isolation, and give a surface account of their presence in the story. You do not have to look under the surface to discuss any of their psychological motivation at this stage.

Explain

In the third part you will give an account of the character in relation to other people in the story or the play. You should explain what motivates the character, what the significance of their actions might be, and how they relate to other characters in the story or the theme of the work in general. At this stage you might also say something about their role in the story from an artistic point of view. That is, the role of the character in relationship to the events of the narrative.


Studying FictionStudying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and technical terms you need when making a study of stories and novels. It shows you how to understand literary analysis by explaining its elements one at a time, then showing them at work in short stories which are reproduced as part of the book. Topics covered include – setting, characters, story, point of view, symbolism, narrators, theme, construction, metaphors, irony, prose style, tone, and interpretation. The book also contains self-assessment exercises, so you can check your understanding of each topic. Best-selling title, written by the author of these web pages.

Studying Fiction Buy the book at Amazon UK
Studying Fiction Buy the book at Amazon US


Character analysis – example

Identify

Joe Gargery in Great Expectations is very significant as a character. He acts as a formative influence on Pip; he is unwavering in his support for him throughout the novel; and he is instrumental in rescuing Pip from moral shoddiness in the final parts of the novel.

Describe

Joe is married to Pip’s elder sister and is therefore technically his brother-in-law; but he acts very much as a protective father-figure during Pip’s early life. Joe is naive, sometimes unconsciously comic, hard working and loving.

Explain

Joe represents the simple good nature that Dickens contrasts with Pip’s self-seeking complexity. His role as a constant in Pip’s life throws into sharp relief Pip’s plunge into increasing bad faith. The character of Joe is used as a fixed point by which we can trace Pip’s downfall and finally his moral redemption and recovery. Joe is also a comic foil against Mrs Joe’s violent behaviour as his termagant wife.

There is also a complex element in Joe’s child-like characterisation in relation to his wife Mrs Joe. He tolerates and never challenges his wife’s abusive behaviour towards both himself and her young brother Pip.


Narrative perspective

Thus far we have basic information about a fictional character – which we might call characteristics. But in addition, the author might provide any of the following information as well.

  • what the author thinks about them
  • what other characters think about them
  • what happens to them

This does not obtain so much in plays, where the author normally prescribes the appearance of characters and what they say – but nothing else. The point of view or perspective in this case is provided by the director of the play, in deciding how the play will be presented and how the characters will behave on stage.

In narrative fiction (novels and stories) you are likely to be presented with information about characters from a number of different sources – from the author, from other characters, possibly from a narrator, and of course from the characters themselves. Not all these items of information carry equal weight, and you will need to make careful discriminations in making your judgements.


Stock characters

What is a stock character? It’s a fictional creation that is a recognisable type who occurs in lots of other stories. This is what’s called a stereotype. Here are some examples you will recognise:

  • the miser
  • the mysterious stranger
  • the wicked stepmother
  • the absent-minded professor
  • the whore with a heart of gold
  • the damsel in distress
  • the hard boiled detective
  • the femme fatale
  • the gentleman thief

New stereotypes are being created all the time – and may be generated by new genres of fiction from film, television, and other media, as well as from the traditional literary genres of story, novel, and play.


Two and three-dimensional characters

The term two-dimensional character is used as an expression of negative criticism to label a character who always behaves in the same way, and does not change or grow as a result of the events in the story. They are sometimes referred to as cardboard or flat characters – as being flimsy, undeveloped, and not particularly credible.

It is a term used in contradistinction to a three-dimensional character which is used to describe fictional characters who have the depth and complexities of real human beings, and are therefore deemed more successful creations.

This ‘third’ dimension might be the capacity to change as a result of events in the story; it might be the successful depiction of contradictory beliefs and behaviour; or it might be acting on an irrational impulse – something which human beings are doing all the time.

For instance, in A Tale of Two Cities Sydney Carton is a cynical and alcoholic barrister who acts in a self-indulgent and disreputable manner throughout the majority of the novel. But at the end of story he takes another man’s place at the guillotine – an act of self-sacrifice which atones for all his past wrongdoings. Dickens makes the change of character credible, and Carton’s last words (his thoughts) have become famous: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”


Dubious characters

Successfully realised characters are not necessarily likeable or even decent. Authors are at liberty to create characters who are flawed, and they might still be attractive or memorable..

Fagin in Oliver Twist is a grizzly old rogue who runs a children’s criminal gang. He mistreats the members of the gang, tells lies, and is partly responsible for the death of an innocent woman (Nancy). Despite all these negative characteristics, he is so vividly portrayed by Dickens that he remains a standout and very memorable figure in the novel.

Some characters might be likeable even though they commit reprehensible acts. Vladimir Nabokov’s protagonist Humbert Humbert in Lolita is attractively clever and very amusing, even though he abducts and sexually abuses a teenage girl and murders his rival, Claire Quilty. But the first-person account of events Humbert delivers is so full of jokes and witty observations of American life, that we tend to overlook his flaws.


Providing evidence

A detailed character analysis depends on a close reading of the text, coupled with an understanding of the character. It also requires evidence drawn from the text to support any argument about the character.

It is not enough to say that you don’t like a character, or disapprove of something they do in the story. What you are doing is closer to showing that you understand what the author is trying to demonstrate to the reader. This is the reason that it is necessary to understand the literary techniques by which characters are created.

© Roy Johnson 2014


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Analysing essay questions

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Analysing essay questions is the first thing you should do before you start answering them. You should read the question very carefully. Study it closely, and try to analyse its full meaning. Make an effort to understand the problem it is posing, the principal issue or concept behind it, or the topic it is asking you to explore.

2. One way you can help yourself in this is to write out the question fully and accurately on the papers you will be using for your essay plan.

3. Most questions contain within them (even if by implication both key terms and instruction terms. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

4. “Examine the significance of Iago’s role in Othello”

Examine here is an instruction term because it tells you to discuss the topic in a general manner.

Iago’s role is a key term because it sets
the limit of the question and is asking you to focus attention on this particular aspect of the play.

5. “Compare and contrast liberal-democracy and state-socialism as forms of government”

Compare and contrast are instruction terms because they indicate that you should be looking for any similarities and emphasising differences in the two systems of government.

The words liberal-democracy and state-socialism are key terms because they specify the two forms of government that should be examined.

6. Other typical instruction terms are – Discuss, Evaluate, Illustrate, Outline, Review, Trace, Explain – because they tell you what to do with the topic and which approach your answe to the question should take.

7. Most common problems in understanding questions usually arise from a failure to pay close enough attention to what they actually say. This often results in –

  • Answering the wrong question
  • Misunderstanding the question topic
  • Failing to see the emphasis of the question
  • Not following the instructions

8. Contrary to what many people think, questions are not set to catch you out, to surprise you with something new, or to be especially difficult and cause intellectual pain. In almost all cases they are set to give you the opportunity to show what you have learned in a course of study.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Analysis of a Shakespeare sonnet

October 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample answer to an examination question

This analysis of a shakespeare sonnet is an example of literary analysis at third year undergraduate level. It’s also an example of an answer to an essay question set for a final-year exam paper. It poses the fairly standard test of analysing one of the sonnets. This is one of three questions to be answered in three hours. So – allowing ten minutes for making notes and maybe an outline plan, this shows what can be done in fifty minutes!

Question
Write an essay on the following sonnet. Your answer should:

  • briefly summarize the argument of the sonnet
  • comment on the language Shakespeare employs and the way that language reflects the sonnet’s argument

You may wish to refer to other sonnets in your answer, but any references to other texts must be relevant to your broader argument.

Sonnet XXII
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me;
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary,
As I not for myself but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gav’st me thine, not to give back again.


Answer

In Sonnet 22, the speaker contemplates the difference in age between himself and his beloved, and asserts that he obtains youth through his relationship with the young man. In the second quatrain the speaker explains that the reason for this is the love between the himself and the young man which is portrayed as a mutual exchange of hearts, with the implication that the two have become one flesh. The speaker urges the young man to take care of himself and promises to be faithful to the young man. In the couplet, the motivating factor for the poem becomes clear, with the speaker acknowledging that he is afraid that his heart may be broken by the young man.

Although there are no personal pronouns which can confirm the sex of the addressee of the sonnet, the first 126 sonnets are assumed by critics to have been written to a young man. Sonnet 22 appears shortly after the early group of poems which urged the young man to have a child, and is one of the first sonnets to focus upon the speaker’s feelings.

The structure of the sonnet is 4-4-4-2, although there is a change of emphasis and tone after the 8th line which means that the sonnet has a distinguishable octave and sestet.

In the first quatrain, the speaker focuses upon youth and age and the disparity in age between himself and the young man. The opening line shows the speaker looking at himself in a mirror or ‘glass’ and is an echo of the opening line of sonnet 3 in which the young man was urged to look at himself in a mirror as a warning against growing old and remaining childless. The imagery of Q1 emphasises the disparity with ‘old’, ‘youth’, ‘date’, ‘death’ and the metaphor of ‘times furrows’ which effectively describes the wrinkles that the speaker has now and which the young man will have in the future’. The emphasis of this quatrain is on outward, physical appearance. The quatrain ends with the speaker looking forward to his own death which he hopes will be peaceful.

In the second quatrain, the emphasis changes and the poet uses an extended metaphor of the exchange of hearts to describe the mutual love between himself and the young man. The exchange of hearts was and still is a common motif of love poetry. However in this sonnet it is examined in a more literal way with the speaker suggesting that the two have actually exchanged hearts with the outward beauty of the young man being but ‘the seemly raiment of my heart’. Here the clothing imagery and the reference to the young man’s beauty link back to Q1 and the stress on external appearance.

Line 7, ‘which in thy breast doth live as thine in me’ is an allusion to the marriage service in which it is suggested that man and woman become one flesh. This, together with the opening lines which make the same suggestion, have convinced some critics that the relationship between the speaker and the young man is a consummated love affair. This however, is a contentious issue and one upon which critics remain divided.

The final line of Q2 links back to the opening line, with the speaker again referring to the age difference, this time asking the rhetorical question ‘How can I then be elder than thou art?’ again suggesting that the two have become one.

In the 3rd quatrain there is a change of tone, with the speaker making a direct exhortation to his beloved. ‘O therefore love, be of thyself so wary’. The heart imagery continues and the speaker uses similes of ‘nurse’ and ‘babe’ to describe himself and the young man’s heart. These similes have a two fold effect. Firstly, despite the speakers assertions to the contrary, they emphasis the difference in age between the speaker and the young man. However, they also change the imagery of the poems from those of old age such as ‘times furrows’ which was present in Q1, to ones of youth. In his way, the poem moves from age to youth. The structure of the sonnet therefore demonstrates the rejuvenation that the speaker is claiming to receive because of his relationship with the young man.

In the couplet, the motivation for the sonnet becomes clear. The poet is concerned that the young man will leave him and this will break his heart. He uses the word ‘slain’ which suggests murder and is in contrast to the peaceful death of old age that the speaker was wishing for in the first quatrain. The ‘heart’ is again the focus of the couplet, thus linking back to the 2nd and 3rd quatrains. Here however, there is the suggestion that the young man may want to take his heart back or leave the speaker. The poet warns him ‘presume not on thy heart when mine is slain’. The implication is that if the young man breaks the speaker’s heart, he will not get his own heart back – leaving him heartless – with the suggestion of cruelty.

In his sonnet, just as the imagery moves backwards from death to birth but with a final reference to death in the couplet, the quatrains take on new meanings in light of those that follow. Q1 is an assertion that the speaker is not old, Q2 explains the reasons for this assertion. Q3 is an exhortation to the speaker and the couplet explains the fear of being left broken hearted which is the underlying reason for the sonnet.

© 2000 Kathryn Abram – reproduced with permission.


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Apostrophes in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Apostrophes in essays (‘) have two functions. They indicate both the possessive case and contractions. This might seem simple, but apostrophes cause a lot of problems.

The Possessive Case

2. We can say either ‘the whiskers of the cat’, or ‘the cat’s whiskers’. This is the possessive case, when something belongs to somebody or something else.

3. When the possessor is single we indicate possession by using an apostrophe followed by the letter ‘s’:

The man’s coat      my sister’s hat.

4. When the possessors are plural, the apostrophe is placed after the final ‘s’:

The girls’ bicycles      my cousins’ parents.

5. When names end with the letter ‘s’, either use is acceptable:

James’ wife    or    James’s wife.

(It is often said that the choice between the two should be made on how the word is pronounced.)

6. The apostrophe is never used with possessive pronouns:

his, hers, its ours, yours, theirs

But it is used with ‘one’: One must do one’s best.

7. Many shops and business concerns these days omit the apostrophe from their titles:

Barclays Bank      Coopers Wines

8. Note that the apostrophe is not required where a word has been formed by omitting its first part:

bus – NOT – ‘bus

phone – NOT – ‘phone

9. No apostrophe is required in the plural form of numbers and dates:

in the 1920s      the roaring twenties

10. The possessive of classical names ending in es is often formed by the apostrophe alone:

Demosthenes’ speeches
Sophocles’ plays
Xerxes’ campaigns

11. French names ending in an unpronounced s or x follow the normal rule, taking an apostrophe and an s:

Rabelais’s comedy      Malraux’s novels

Contractions

12. In formal prose we would write ‘She has told him’, but when speaking we would say ‘She’s told him’. The apostrophe is used to indicate the missing letters.

I am (I’m)      He is (he’s)      You are (You’re)

13. Note the difference between it’s (it is) and its (belonging to it).

14. There is no such thing as its’.

15. It’s may also be a contraction of it has

“It’s been a pleasure meeting you”

16. You should avoid the use of contractions in essays and formal writing.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Arguments in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. The term ‘arguments’ is used to describe your response to an essay question. Your arguments might sometimes be no more than an explaining or evaluating a subject, interpreting a text, solving a problem, or reporting on a project.

2. In its more particular sense, an argument can be a proposition which is put forward and then illustrated, discussed, and defended. It might be the assertion and defence of a particular moral belief (“Killing people is always wrong”) the judgement of a work of art (“Bleak House is Dickens’s greatest novel”) or the inspection of someone else’s belief (“How valid is Chomsky’s notion of a Universal Grammar?”).

3. An academic argument should not be confused with the sort of personal dispute we might have with a family member (“You ate the last piece of cake! No I didn’t!”) – though it is true that both are forms of persuasion. Academic essays should not include literary abuse or personal criticism.

4. The difference between these two notions is that an academic argument should be put forward in an objective and relatively neutral manner. It must also be accompanied by illustrative examples, evidence to support your propositions, and logically persuasive discussion.

5. The argument might be a single claim or a theory for which ‘proof’ is offered. Alternatively, it might be an idea or a notion which is explored in a discursive manner. In this case, the order of the topics being examined forms the structure of the ‘argument’.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Assessment criteria for essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. What follow are the assessment criteria used by a humanities department in a typical UK university.

2. Most institutions use similar criteria, but not all of them take the trouble to make them explicit to students. [However, this is beginning to change because of political pressure.]


First Class (70+%)

A first class answer has a thoughtful structure, a clear message displaying personal reflection informed by direct use of primary source material and/or wide reading of scholarly literature, and a good grasp of detail (as evidenced by the choice of relevant examples which are well integrated into the answer’s structure). Complete with no errors or omissions. Professionally presented including scholarly apparatus.

First class answers are ones that are exceptionally good for an undergraduate and which excel in at least one and probably several of the following criteria:

  • comprehensiveness and accuracy
  • clarity of argument or expression
  • integration of a range of materials
  • close analysis of texts
  • insight into theoretical issues
  • relates topic to wider field of knowledge

Excellence in one or more of these areas should be in addition to the qualities expected of an upper second class answer. Although there is no expectation of originality of exposition or treatment, a first class answer is generally expected to spot points rarely seen. A high first (75+%) is expected to display originality and excel in most if not all the aforementioned criteria.


Upper Second Class (60-69%)

An upper second class answer generally shows a sound understanding of both the basic principles and relevant details of the topic supported by examples which are demonstrably well understood and which are presented in a coherent and logical fashion. The answer should be well presented, display some analytical ability and contain no major error or serious omissions. Not necessarily excellent in any area. Professionally presented including scholarly apparatus.

Upper second class answers cover a wider band of students. Such answers are clearly highly competent and typically possess the following qualities:

  • generally accurate and well-informed
  • reasonably comprehensive
  • well organised and structured
  • provides evidence of general reading
  • shows a sound grasp of basic principles
  • shows understanding of relevant details
  • succinctly and cogently presented
  • displays some evidence of insight

One essential aspect of an upper second class answer is that it must have competently dealt with the question set. It should also demonstrate an ability to evaluate the secondary sources used in writing the essay and should, where appropriate, offer evidence of an ability to observe closely and evaluate material evidence.

Lower Second Class (50-59%)

A substantially correct answer which shows an understanding of the basic principles. Lower second class answers display an acceptable level of competence, as indicated by the following qualities:

  • generally accurate
  • adequate answer to the question
  • work based on secondary sources and class notes
  • clearly presented
  • no real development of arguments
  • may contain errors or omissions

A lower second class answer may also be a good answer (that is, an upper second class answer) to a related question, but not the one set by the examiner.


Third Class (40-49%)

A basic understanding of the main issues, but not coherently or correctly presented. Third class answers demonstrate some knowledge or understanding of the general issue, but a third class answer tends to be weak in the following ways:

  • descriptive only
  • does not directly answer the question
  • misses key points
  • contains important inaccuracies
  • covers material sparsely
  • assertions not supported by evidence
  • poorly presented

Below Third Class

A pass presents the minimum acceptable standard at the bottom of the third class category. There is just sufficient information to indicate that the student has a general familiarity with the subject. Such answers typically:

  • contain little material
  • lack accuracy or depth of argument
  • adopt a cursory approach
  • are poorly written and presented

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Bibliographies in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Bibliographies are lists of books placed at the end of essays. They are a compilation of any works you have consulted or from which you have quoted. The list is called a bibliography.

2. The traditional manner of recording this information is to use the following sequence:

AUTHOR – TITLE – PUBLISHER – DATE

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

3. In more scholarly works, such as dissertations and theses, this information may be given with the author’s surname listed first – as follows:

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

4. If you are using the Harvard system of notation, the date follows the author’s name – thus:

Eagleton, T. (1983), Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell

5. When using a word-processor, put the book title in italics. [They are in bold here because italics don’t show up very well on screen.]

6. If you are using a ‘standard’ text, give the editor’s name first, as in the following examples:

Mark Amory (ed), The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.

Frank Kermode (ed), The Tempest, Methuen, 1954.

7. List the items of a bibliography in alphabetical order according to author’s or the editor’s surname.

8. Do not list works you have not consulted or from which you have not quoted. To do this creates the impression that you are trying to claim credit for work you have not actually done.

9. You might find that your bibliography repeats much of the information given in your endnotes. Don’t worry about this: these two separate lists have different functions. In addition, your bibliography may contain works from which you have not directly quoted.

10. See References for details of more complex bibliographic issues. Here is an extract from the bibliography of a second year undergraduate essay on the sociology of domestic labour:


Bibliography

Beeton, I., Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press, 1991.

Best, G., Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana, 1979.

Branca, P., Silent Sisterhood, Croom Helm, 1975.

Burman, S. (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm, 1979.

Burnett, J., Useful Toil, Allen Lane, 1974.

Darwin, E., ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century,
Vol.28, August 1890.

Davidoff, L., The Best Circles, Croom Helm, 1973.

Davidoff, L., ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Economic and Social History, Vol.7, 1974.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Blogging – publish your writing

October 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a selection of resources + how to get started

If you want to try the latest thing in Net publishing, it’s called Blogging. A Blog (short for Web Log) is usually a combination of a personal diary, links to items of interest on the Internet, a commentary on them, plus personal thoughts and essays. It is a form of self-publishing, and because you can write whatever you wish is very popular with authors who have strong and unorthodox opinions.

Blogging began as a medium for Web-based personal diaries, and most people still use it for this purpose. But some bloggers have started to develop the medium for what is essentially self-publishing. They might post notes reflecting briefly on a topic or discuss it with other bloggers, but they also upload essays, articles, or opinion pieces which count as serious pieces of journalism, expressing ideas and points of view which might not be available elsewhere.

The mainstream media (MSM) made fun of blogging when it first appeared – but now they can’t get enough of it. Newspapers, radio and TV stations, and magazines of all kinds have their own blogs – and they can’t get enough user-generated content either. That’s writing done by you and me, which they don’t have to pay for.

Some bloggers with access to popular information have suddenly found their hobby has been transformed into a thriving business. Paul Staines’ Guido Fawkes started as an amateur political gossip blog, but now gets 2 million visitors a month and makes him a full time living via advertising. Ric Turner’s Blue Moon did the same thing for supporters of Manchester City FC.

In fact the latest generation of bloggers at the time of writing are uploading digital photographs, video clips, and audio files – which have spawned the term podcasting. It’s also free and easy to do. You simply add your own text into a ready-made form and press the SEND button.

Essential BloggingEssential Blogging offers a tour of the best blogging sites, how to upload and maintain your pages, and how to configure the options to get the best effects. A series of chapters, clearly written by enthusiasts, takes you through which Blog sites and software are available – from Blogger, Radio Userland (free software), Moveable Type, WordPress, and Blosxom. Some of these have developed rapidly beyond mere blogging tools into small-scale content management systems.

Are you likely to make an income from all this? Not directly – but there are all sorts of possible spin-offs. Lots of bloggers sign up as affiliates to Amazon, Google, and other commercial sites. They earn a small residual income from sending potential customers to buy books and software. Click one of the Amazon ads on this page, and you’ll see how it works.

There’s also the possibility of micro-payments. This is a system in which people are prepared to pay a small amount for downloading an article of interest. There’s still some resistance to this idea, but it’s now fairly common in downloading music files – so it might catch on.

 

Blogging GeniusBlogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content Biz Stone covers most of these new possibilities in his book. He shows how to log onto the most popular site of all – Blogger – and establish your Web presence. Then he shows you how to add colour, text manipulation, and layout variety to your pages, then on to the serious business of making money.

There’s a chapter on arranging archives of your blogs, which can be done on a weekly or monthly basis. He also shows you how you can increase traffic to your blog. This text shows how to turn your home page into a microportal with fresh content to keep your readers coming back.

There are now all sorts of blogging support and development services springing up as the number of bloggers gets bigger and bigger. These range from online tutorials which will show you how to get set up — try BlogBasics — to tracking and site visitor statistics — try BlogFlux. And just to repeat the point yet again — it’s all free. If you want to see our blog, go to mantex.blogspot.com

 

The Weblog HandbookThe Weblog Handbook Rebecca Blood’s book is for anyone who has ever thought about starting a Weblog but isn’t sure how to post, where to find links, or even where to go to register. She certainly knows what she’s talking about, as you can see if you look at her own blog at RebeccaBlood.net.

She blogs regularly on topics which range from food and knitting to political activism and blogging itself. The Weblog Handbook is a clear and concise guide to everything you need to know about the phenomenon that is exploding on the Web. She expertly guides the reader through the whole process of starting and maintaining a Weblog and answers any questions that might pop up along the way, such as the elements of good Weblog design and how to find free hosting.

 

Blogging for DummiesBlogging for Dummies Brad Hill’s advice is aimed at getting you up and running as quickly as possible – though he begins with what blogs are – and what they are not. He explains the different types of blogs, and how and why they are different from web sites. The good thing is that he looks at all the options and draws up comparison charts which show the features, cost, and options offered by the various providers and software programs.

 

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© Roy Johnson 2009


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Blogging for Dummies

June 27, 2009 by Roy Johnson

set up, publish, and maintain a blog that draws readers

The blog trackers at Technorati now reckon there are 450 million blogs in existence, and new ones are being created at the rate of one per second – that’s 86,400 per day. It’s an unprecedented opportunity for people to broadcast their thoughts and observations – and it’s completely free. So where do you start? Brad Hill’s advice in Blogging for Dummies is aimed at getting you up and running as quickly as possible – though he begins with what blogs are – and what they are not.

Blogging for Dummies He explains the different types of blogs, and how and why they are different from web sites. The good thing is that he looks at all the options and draws up comparison charts which show the features, cost, and options offered by the various providers and software programs. This includes popular features such as the ability to display adverts and upload photos.

First he covers MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 – both of which combine written blogs with lots of picture uploading features. Each step of the process is illustrated with screenshots – so you can follow his instructions and have something online within a few minutes.

Next comes the ubiquitous Blogger (which I use at Mantex) where he points to two disadvantages. One is that you see their templates everywhere, and the other is that Blogger forces you to edit your template code by hand if you wish to personalise your pages.

However, Blogger lets you do so many other things that its benefits outweigh the disadvantages. You can create audio blog entries (podcasting) and send photo postings from your mobile phone (moblogging). Then he does the same thing for TypePad, another popular blog service.

Unlike the other blogging manuals I have read and reviewed he takes on the crucial issue of blogging frequency. If you want a regular readership, you have to maintain regular postings.

Then comes the more complex option of installing blogging software on your own hard disk. This gives you more control, but more technical responsibility and expense. If you go down this route you are basically controlling your own blog from your hard disk, but it’s running from your blog provider’s server. This is an option for the more ambitious or technically gifted, but he gives you plenty of support and talks you through Moveable Type, WordPress, and Radio Userland.

His latter chapters deal with what he calls ‘Total Blog Immersion’ – that is, the techniques you need if you want to take blogging seriously, as many people now do. He explains RSS feeds, which help you to syndicate your blog content; making money from your blog by including adverts; and setting up the two most popular recent spinoffs, audio-blogging and photo-blogging.

So it’s not really just for Dummies at all. He covers the whole issue of blogging – from beginners to quite advanced users. The style is friendly and chatty – though you have to put up with a few lame jokes which are part of the Dummies house style.

But the main efficacy of his approach has already been proved to me. A friend of mine who read the book and followed its advice has recently gone quite quickly from novice to blogger to someone quoted in the national press. Now that’s not bad going.

© Roy Johnson 2006

Blogging for Dummies   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Blogging for Dummies   Buy the book at Amazon US


Brad Hill, Blogging for Dummies, Indianapolis: IN, Wiley, 2006, pp.367, ISBN: 0471770841


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Brackets in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. The term brackets in essays is used to describe both square brackets [these] and round brackets (these) – whose technical name is ‘parentheses’.

2. The difference between the two is that a parenthesis represents an aside, an associated remark, or an additional piece of information which is closely related to the main subject of the sentence in which it is placed.

Goodwin argues that Thompson’s policies (of which he clearly disapproves) would only increase the national debt.

3. Square brackets on the other hand are used to indicate that something has been added to the original text for editorial purposes of clarification or comment.

The reporter added that this woman [Mrs Wood] had suffered severe injuries.

A mother wrote to the headmaster that her son was ‘fritened [sic] to go to school’

4. A common use for the parenthesis in academic writing is to indicate a bibliographic reference within the text of an essay – particularly when using the Harvard (or the short title) system of referencing.

Sartre’s account of ‘bad faith’ (Sartre 1938) differs slightly from that offered by Simone de Beauvoir (de Beauvoir 1949).

5. Notice that when a parenthesis occurs at the end of a sentence, the full stop falls outside the bracket (as this one does).

6. Any statement within brackets should be grammatically independent of the sentence in which it occurs. That is, the sentence should be gramatically complete, even if the contents of the brackets were to be removed.

The republican senator (who was visiting London for a minor operation) also attended the degree ceremony.

7. If a quotation contains a mistake in the original you might wish to indicate that the error is not your own. This too is indicated by the use of square brackets.

The senior government minister who was recently acquitted of kerb-crawling claimed that at long last his ‘trails [sic] and tribulations’ were at an end.

8. The expressions within brackets should be kept as brief as possible, so as not to interrupt the flow of the sentence in which they are placed.

9. The use of brackets should be kept to a minimum. If used too frequently, they create a choppy, unsettling effect.

© Roy Johnson 2003

Buy Writing Essays — eBook in PDF format
Buy Writing Essays 3.0 — eBook in HTML format


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Filed Under: Writing Essays Tagged With: Academic writing, Brackets, Essays, Punctuation, Study skills, Term papers, Writing skills

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