Listen up, English students. I’m sick of you lot coming to me with your crummy essays.
I love you guys. But you grind my gears sometimes.
90% of problems I see with English Literature essays are due to laziness.
The fixes are simple.
And I’m going to give them to you right now so all that debt you’ve accumulated for a worthless degree won’t be completely pointless.
How To Immediately Improve Your English Literature Essay
Put that can of Monster down.
Take those stupid Beats by Dre off your head.
Wipe that snarky grin off your face.
And listen good.
I’m only going to say this stuff once.
Assert an idea
What’s the point of your essay?
Answer that question in one sentence within the next 30 seconds or Christmas is cancelled this year.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
Can’t do it?
If you find yourself waffling, it’s because of two reasons:
- You haven’t done enough reading, research, or thinking (hit the books again).
- You’re overcomplicating things (stop trying to be so smart).
We don’t need anything groundbreaking here.
We just need a point you can argue for 2,000 words (or however long your word limit is).
If you need a tip to find a juicy “thesis statement”, just do this:
- Think of the most bog-standard argument that you could easily defend.
- Think of the craziest most messed-up argument that would be almost impossible to defend.
- Find an argument somewhere between those two poles.
If you can’t do that, think of a topic that interests you, that you’ve done a bunch of reading on, and you feel certain you could talk at length about.
Pick ONE idea.
Don’t overcomplicate things and try to assert a million different ideas at once. We’re not looking for watered-down broth here. We want some thick goulash with a cream and red wine base.
Here’s a boring example of me asserting an idea in an essay that got a first at Oxford:
Many of Shakespeare’s plays contain the structural and symbolic elements of mythology. The inheritance of mythological conventions, which shall be explored in this essay, create an effect that is ritualistic and leads to Nietzsche’s observation of ‘an overpowering feeling of unity which leads back to the heart of nature’.
See that first line?
No bullshit.
Straight in there, telling the reader what this essay’s all about.
One sentence and you know the idea I’m asserting.
Then I go a little further and bring my boy Nietzsche into the ring.
Want more?
Okay, here’s what I wrote next:
This essay is not claiming that Shakespeare applied mythic elements to his plays consciously but that Shakespeare’s plays demonstrate a strong level of acquaintance with ancient myths and folklore. This level of acquaintance is perhaps so deeply imbedded as part of the universal imagination that arguing whether or not the plays’ mythic elements were consciously applied is unnecessary. The aim here is to identify strong mythological strains in order to place Shakespeare in a wider historical and human context, and speculate as to the effects achieved by inclusion of these elements.
I’m such a pimp.
Not only have I told you what my aim is…
Now I’m telling you what my aim is NOT.
In layman’s terms, I’m like:
This is what I’m gonna tell you. Don’t be getting this shit mixed up. Here’s what I ain’t saying. And here’s what I am saying. Ya feel me?
I’ve shown you most of the introduction so I might as well show you how I finished up:
Through a consideration of Frazer’s canonical anthropological text, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890), primarily, this essay will assert that the effect of Shakespeare’s mythological aspects is one that communicates in a symbolic language that is universal.
Boom.
I brought in my main secondary resource and used it to springboard to the final sentence of my introduction, which hammers home my argument.
The intro began with a simplified version of my argument.
Then, as we get deeper into the intro, I starting niching that motherfucker down.
Now the reader knows that this dude is about to talk about mythology and the universal symbolic language.
Your turn.
What’s your idea?
Quote!
If in doubt, whip it out QUOTE!
Quoting relevant primary and secondary sources is one of the best ways to immediately elevate your essays.
You’ve asserted your idea, but that don’t mean diddly crap if you can’t find other smart dudes and dudettes to back it up for you.
The world of academia doesn’t care about you.
You’re an unpublished peasant and your ideas are so ridiculously ignorant you should be publicly flogged.
Begin with that mindset.
The only way your ideas are going to have ANY credibility is if you find enough support for them.
Dig deep in your primary sources and collect little quotes that back up your argument, then use them liberally!
Dig deep in your secondary reading, find where others have corroborated your argument, then quote them liberally!
Analyse the quotes
Okay, so you’ve got your quotes.
But it’s not enough to just dump them in your essay and hope they’ll do the work for you.
My mentor in Oxford told me that essays are basically a bunch of paragraphs with each one introducing an idea you want to test.
You then throw a bunch of experts in the ring, pit them against each other, let them fight it out, and see what comes out in support of your idea.
You are the ringmaster.
Control the quotes, play them off each other, and unpick them endlessly.
Be one of those insufferable critics who has to pick up on EVERYTHING.
Don’t give these critics any slack.
If they say something that helps your point, show us HOW it helps your point.
If they say something that goes against your point, uppercut them in the face.
If you’re quoting primary sources, unpick everything you quote.
How does it support your argument?
Return to your assertion
Keep your assertion on a tight leash.
Always ask yourself in each paragraph, with each quote you introduce and analyse:
Am I sticking to the assertion I laid out in my intro?
How does that quote enhance your assertion?
Be blunt about it.
Don’t follow tangents.
I know you have a lot of crazy cool ideas bouncing around your noggin.
And I know it’s hard to concentrate when your Grindr notifications are blowing up your phone.
But focus on the ONE THING you set out to do in the essay.
Continuously rephrase your thesis statement.
PEE on your work
I do not mean urinate on your papers.
That never enhanced the marks I got on my English essays.
Actually, it did get me higher marks one time with one of my kinkier tutors. But that’s a story for another day.
When I say PEE on your work, I’m referring to this acronym:
- Point
- Example
- Explanation
This is how you structure your essays.
Don’t try it any other way. Certainly don’t wing it and make up your own structure on the fly.
Drink a gallon of Diet Mountain Dew, unzip, and unleash the yellow beast.
There are other ways of phrasing this. Some essay structure models make it more complicated. But it always comes down to this.
- Point: What’s your point? First sentence of your paragraph = tell me your theory/idea.
- Example: Give me an example in your next few sentences to back it up. Quote secondary sources (critics, theorists, etc).
- Explanation: Elaborate further. Unpick the critical sources you just cited. Do they support your point/hypothesis? Do they add nuance/complication to your argument?
That’s how you structure each and every paragraph in your essay.
Arrange your argument logically/thematically
Just say you’re writing an essay about a pretty little poem.
Break your essay down into paragraphs and assign a theme to each one.
Maybe you discuss rhyme scheme in the first paragraph.
Perhaps you chat about semantic field in the second paragraph.
Next you might explore form in the next.
Or if you’re analysing the novels of Thomas Hardy, you might want to split your essay up into different readings: historical, psychoanalytical, feminism, queer theory.
You get the idea.
Be tidy about this.
Essay markers love neat little packages.
Leave the amateur biographical/historical readings at home
Unless you knew the author personally or you’ve read a TON of compelling books and articles that prove they were a certain way, I recommend staying away from biographical readings.
Same goes for historical readings.
They are incredibly difficult to pull off and it’s easy to make blunders.
Argue that Yeats was a schizophrenic or Nabokov was a kiddy fiddler all you want…
Just understand that examiners aren’t impressed with the amateur psychologist angle.
It’s much more enriching to stick to analysing the themes and ideas in the text.
How does the piece your examining work as a PIECE OF ART?
Forget the artist.
Why does the artwork hold up after all this time?
That’s the fun stuff.
Proofread
I left the most important tip to last.
Proofreading gives you easy marks.
You’ll find formatting issues, spelling mistakes, holes in your argument.
Every time.
Those Grammarly adverts spamming you whenever you want to watch cat videos on YouTube aren’t lying.
Grammarly is a very easy and quick way to instantly improve your essays.
Consider picking up a Premium subscription here.
You can see my full review here.
Now Go Make Your English Literature Essay Better!
Do all that stuff and I promise you’ll have a pretty good English Literature essay.
If you’ve already done that stuff and your essays are still suffering, feel free to ask me for help.
I’d be more than happy to shoot the shit about English Lit…
As long as you implement all of those tips first!
