Essay Advice – SF Literature

An essay is a structured argument for or against a given proposition. You must decide your position
on a given question, and then argue for it – perhaps as if you were a lawyer in a court case. In a
relatively short space, it will be impossible to provide every relevant fact or argument – entire
shelves of books have been written on these topics. Therefore, you must be selective and decide on
the strongest points you can identify for your side of the argument. Knowing what is relevant and
what isn’t is also an important academic skill.

You must also clearly define your terms. For example, when trying to answer ‘Discuss the role of
action within Beckett’s Godot’, you must make clear, usually in the introduction, exactly what you
understand by action. Instead of trying to spread yourself too thin, you must decide your angle on
the question, and then make a convincing argument for it. It is stronger to come down in favour of a
firm position, rather than havering/hedging your bets between one side and another.

Make sure your essay is well-structured and your material is appropriately organised between your
points. Ideally your essay should flow from one point to the next, and your paragraphs should be
connected with linking sentences. A strong intro and conclusion in which your main points are
reiterated will round your essay off well. Make sure that each argument you make is supported by
evidence. In the humanities at undergraduate level, evidence means citations of research done by
other academics and published in books or academic journals (secondary literature), or quotations
from the primary text. A statement without evidence is just your opinion or an assertion, and is not
convincing.

At undergraduate level, you are not expected to do any form of original research on your topic.
What you are expected to do is read the work of others, synthesise it, decide what source material
and what arguments are most relevant to your answer, and use them (properly cited) as evidence
for a clearly-structured argument. Having said that, if you can come up with an interpretation based
on the primary source which is your own or original idea, that’s great!

If it isn’t totally relevant to the question, junk it! Don’t be self-indulgent and try to show off to the
marker how much you have read if not relevant to the question. Ask yourself which arguments
contained in what you have read you find most compelling, and then structure your essay around
these.

Source-material should be high-quality, peer-reviewed books and journals These materials have
gone through a process of quality control, meaning that they are reviewed by the author’s peers in
the academic field before publication. Do not rely on poor-quality sources which have not gone
through any process of review and which anyone could publish: this would include most low-quality
internet sources, blogs, Wikipedia etc. Anyone could write anything on these websites.

Essay-writing may seem a big task, but it shouldn’t be an unmanageable or overwhelming one. Do
your research but know when to stop reading and start writing. Leave yourself enough time to do
justice to the material. Check and proofread your essay to make sure it flows and that the arguments
make sense. Be sure that your writing style is appropriate for a formal academic submission. When
writing in French, leave enough time to check your language for agreements, conjugations, and
other sometimes overlooked errors.
Commentary Advice - SF Literature

An essay looks at a literary text at the macro-level, a commentary looks at a text at the micro-level.
This means that a commentary will look at an individual poem or passage from a novel, rather than
an entire text or body of work.

Around 10-20% of what you write in a commentary should be to situate the poem or passage in the
context of the whole novel or body of work. Why do you think this poem or passage was chosen?
What makes it important/interesting?

Read the passage in detail and ask yourself what the key themes or issues that are being explored
are. What does the passage do? What information does it convey? What ideas does it make us think
of? What emotion might it make us feel?

Then examine the language. How does the author achieve the effects you have identified above?
What is the function of sentence/paragraph structure, word choice, assonance/dissonance,
repetition, parallels/contrasts, narration, imagery, style, register? When analysing a poem, also
think about rhythm, rhyme scheme (if applicable), metre, versification.

Analyse the relationship between form and content. How precisely does the author convey
information/spark ideas/arouse emotions?

Avoid paraphrase (just telling the story), broad generalisations, and unsupported opinions.

See essay and commentary advice available via local access, TCD French website for more info and
examples.