LITERLITERWRITI JASON WRITINGBLAKE LITERATURESHORTESSAYS: A TEXTBOOK WITH EXERCISES FOR SLOVENIAN STUDENTS Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko Ljubljana, 2022
Jason LITERATUREWRITINGLjubljana,Blake2022SHORTESSAYS:A Textbook with Exercises for Slovenian Students
WRITING SHORT LITERATURE ESSAYS: A Textbook with Exercises for Slovenian Students
Za izdajatelja: Mojca Schlamberger Brezar, dekanja Filozofske fakultete
Recenzenta: Gašper Ilc, Uroš Mozetič
Izdala: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani
Za založbo: Gregor Majdič, rektor Univerze v Ljubljani
© Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, 2022. Vse pravice pridržane.
Naslovnica: VBG d. o. o.
Vodja Uredništva visokošolskih in drugih učbenikov: Janica Kalin
Oblikovanje: Jana Kuharič
BLAKE,808.1:82.0-4(075.8)JasonWritingshortliterature
Naklada: 300 izvodov
CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana
ISBN COBISS.SI-ID978-961-7128-79-6118748675
Cena: 15 EUR
Tehnična urednica: Irena Hvala Slika na naslovnici: Stock photo © anyaberkut
Avtor: Jason Blake
Prva izdaja, drugi natis
Prelom in tisk: Birografika Bori, d. o. o. Ljubljana, 2022
essays : a textbook with exercises for Slovenian students / Jason Blake. - 1. izd., 2. natis. - Ljubljana : Založba Univerze, 2022
Založila: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 5.5 Autobiography 25 5.6 Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5.7 Cultural Biography, Historical Background, Everything but the Book . . 27 5.8 Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 5.9 Mention not the Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 5.10 ...or the Type of Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 5.11 Phantom Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 5.12 Phantom Authors 30 5.13 Where’s the Hook and Heart? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6 Body Paragraphs (to be continued...) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 7 Problems in the Conclusion 31 7.1 Browbeating or Bullying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 7.2 Pleading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 7.3 Reticence and Reservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 7.4 This Great Author Is Really Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 7.5 Topics Better than your Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 7.6 “More work is needed” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 7.7 Verbatim Repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 7.8 Scant Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.2 Progression
.
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3 What is a Thesis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4 Thesis Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.1 Start
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1 Pre-Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2 Introduction and Thesis
. with the Thesis Vague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.2 Underline
.
5.4 Scant Introductions
Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.3 Avoid
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3Index Index Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 CHAPTER ONE – STRUCTURE
5.1 No Clear Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.3 Starting with a Rush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 5 Introduction – Common Problems . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 6.23
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 6.22
6.14 Top-Heavy Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.15 (Bibliographical Balance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
61 6.24 Extra
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 CHAPTER THREE – MECHANICS 63 1 Titles of Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 2 Capitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.17 Where Did I Find This? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.10 That Reminds Me of… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.5 It’s All about Context, Baby . 47
.
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.12 Circular Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.20 Use Adverbs and Adjectives to Show Your Stance I Think I Believe This Is a Good Argument Do Not Use an Image to Explain an Image Out-Poeting the Poet Quotations
6.4 Mocking 46
6.13 One Argument per Paragraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.9 Autobiography (again) and Tentative Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.6 Word Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.11 But It’s My Interpretation! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.8 Vagueness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4 Writing Short Literature Essays 7.9 Tacked-On Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 7.10 Hokey Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 CHAPTER TWO – ARGUMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 1 Persuasion 39 2 Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3 Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 4 Always Analyze and Interpret 42 5 Re-narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 6 Weak Arguments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.1 Attracting Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.2 Intentional Fallacies (not just the “Intentional Fallacy”) . . . . . . . . . 45 6.3 Hunting for Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.7 The Deeper Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.16 What to Quote 56
6.18 Hey! I’m about to Quote!
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.19 Add an Adjective or Adverb
.
. . . . . . . . . . . 58 6.21
3.15 Present Simple, and Tense Issues
3.9 First (not 1st) and Counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 1 Vague Academic Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 1.1 Jargon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 1.2 Vague Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 2 Purple Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 3 Tangled Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4 Short, Predictable Sentences 89 5 Linking Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 5.1 Misuse of Linking Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 5.2 Linking Words to Start Paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 6 Sticky Stylistic Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 6.1 First Person Singular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 6.2 First Person Plural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 6.3 Let Us Not Overuse Let us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 6.4 Should . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 6.5 To End a Sentence a Preposition With? 100 6.6 Sentence Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 6.7 (In Parentheses) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 6.8 Mixed Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 6.9 Minor Surgery and Amazing Enigmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 6.10 The Meal was Good, the Film was Bad, the Date was Interesting . . . . 106 6.11 Contractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.6 Colon to Introduce Quotations 71
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.11 Willie Shakespeare and Other References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.7 No Initial Suspense, or Suspension/Ellipsis Points . . . . . . . . . . . 72
. .
3.10 Which Acronyms Are Common?
.
3.1 Quotation Marks (and Italicizing Quotations)
Quoting Primary Sources
3
3.5 Integrating Quotations (the same, again)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.3 Three Ways to Quote
.
3.14 Do You See It? Do You? Are You Sure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2 Square Brackets
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.4 Even Quotations Need Grammar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5Index
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.8 Where Draweth One the Line?.
3.13 “I don’t know what I mean” 77
3.12 “You know what I mean”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
CHAPTER FOUR – STYLE
Sentences . . . . . . . . . . 108
Vary Sentence Length, and Very
6.14 Steps
6 Writing Short Literature Essays
CHAPTER SIX –Lieu of a Conclusion: Bedtime
6.13 Lengthy
6.15 Moving
EXERCISES 139 1 Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 2 Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 3 Where Did Things Go Wrong? 141 4 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 5 Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.1 Register . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.2 Vagueness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.3 Slovenglish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.4 Commonly Misused Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.5 All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 6 In
Some
VOCABULARY
Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 6.1 Mechanics and Quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 6.2 Are You Persuaded? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 6.3 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Works Cited 155
6.12
Emojis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.16
Two
Forward… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
CHAPTER FIVE – AND TIPS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
...and Now, One Step Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Forward… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Still
This essay guide began life as a list. For several years I have been scribbling down student essay mistakes, and the resulting master list forms the backbone of Writ ing Short Literature Essays: A Textbook with Exercises for Slovenian Students. It is based primarily on my experience grading homework and in-class assignments of 300 to 1500 words for which no secondary sources were allowed. Because the errors and shortcomings I highlight here recur with each class of essays, they are clear ly endemic to Slovenian students. They are also easily preventable.
Another potential audience for this book are Slovenian humanities scholars who may find it a challenge to write in English. A common misconception is that repairing grammar is the main problem for the English proofreader. Not at all. The most difficult part of cleaning up a text originally conceived in Slov enian is cultural (and, consequently, I almost never run into major problems in texts written by professors of English. They are already in the English essay world). Arguments and stylistic conventions that sound adequate, or even excel lent, in Slovenian very often sound laughable in English. As an American profes sor once put it, “It seems to me that the goal of the Slovenian essay is to show how much you know and not to get to the point until the final page.” Many Slovenians, meanwhile, must wonder what the rush is when we Anglos write
7Introduction
I wrote this book with other students in mind: the last-minute types who might not be particularly interested in reading literature, let alone writing about it. For the next few dozen pages, you are my people. No guide can peel back the calendar to the week before the night before and no guide is a substitute for hard work, but if you follow the tips and suggestions presented here you should be able to hand in a passable essay. Even if you are philosophically opposed to deadlines and do not start writing until three days before D-day. (More directly and less hyperbolically: most of the problems outlined here are minor and you can repair them in a flash.)
The ideal student starts her literature essay weeks ahead of time – reading and re-reading the assigned poem or play or novel until it warms her heart; fer vently brainstorming, then planning the entire paper from title to conclusion; confirming details about references and preferable text editions; giving draft after draft to docile boyfriend or bosom buddy to read; and leaving the penul timate draft aside for a week in order to return to it with fresh, unbiased eyes. If right now you are screaming, “That’s me! That’s me!” you are not this book’s primary audience. You should be writing, not reading essay guides.
Introduction
Like any guide or textbook, this one is full of gross generalizations. My statements on the “Slovenian Essay” versus the “English Essay” suggest an im minent essay Cold War. Things are, of course, not as monolithic and uniform as I imply. And yet generalizations – such as the optimistic belief that drivers will stop at a red light – are a useful point of departure. Throughout this book I speak glibly of errors, but that is often overstatement. Before I began teaching in Slovenia, I never considered many of the essay gaffes highlighted here to be mistakes or even shortcomings. To provide three vocabulary examples, it would be wrong to ban the words so-called, namely, and above mentioned just because they are overused by Slovenians who write in English. The rampant overuse of these three words tempts me to ban them outright.
“The deeper meaning” is another overused phrase. Although few poems re veal all their charms and secrets at first glance, and although I had obviously come across the term “deeper meaning” during my own studies, the apparent student obsession with a single interpretation rattled me (I say “single” since students always write “the deeper meaning,” never “a deeper meaning”). The phrase rattled me because I saw it more after a single in-class poetry essay at Filozofska fakulteta than I had in the previous decade of literature studies. Unfor tunately, many student essays never reveal what this profundity, this deepness of meaning might actually be! That’s when a swell-sounding term becomes a fetish or a tool for bluffing; that’s when words stop being our friends because they stop aiding clarity.
When so many students rely on the same few vague terms or popular expres sions (“Broaden one’s horizons,” “takes it to a higher level” and “does a good/ great/fantastic job…” have been particularly present in recent years), individual ity suffers. When almost every first-year student structures his essay “Firstly…,” “Secondly…,” “Thirdly…,” and “In conclusion…,” individuality dies. The result of such repetition is that each essay sounds like it has been written according to the same formula. I am talking about form, not content and ideas. But because form and content work together, a highly personal and enthusiastic and original essay can seem dull if it follows the exact same pattern as every other essay in the class.
Have you ever tried out one of those online poem generators? You plug in a noun, a pronoun, some verbs, and the computer churns out comic or romantic verse. Fun at first, it is not entertainment for an entire weekend. And neither is it enjoyable when a student’s razor-sharp thought is blunted by sameness of form. The essay form is rigid enough. Why make it more so by plugging all arguments
essays. We dive into the argument before having established our credentials as experts on a topic, before having shown that we are in a position to write capa bly on Shakespeare or Virginia Woolf.
8 Writing Short Literature Essays
Other instances highlighted in these pages are simply lax thinking in Slov enian that has sleepwalked into English territory. Often we catch these errors at the linguistic border, and often we think more clearly in another language precisely because we do not know enough words to bluff. Just as often, how ever, minor gaffes become major when we examine essays, arguments and style inter-culturally, or when we filter them through a second language. The English expression “clear as mud” obviously means not clear at all, but it has been used ironically so often that native speakers (including me) occasionally forget the original meaning – that is, some of us use the expression as a synonym for “ex tremely clear.” Even on the whitest of days, jasno kot blato makes no sense. There is also the problem of reception. When I first read the phrase “plesati po diktatu,” I saw pupils dancing at a spelling dictation (“simply dance in the dic tation” was once the mirthful Google translation). My point is that images and metaphors – even dead or dying metaphors like “table leg” or “break new ground” –are rejuvenated when we encounter them in another language. This is a boon for language awareness because we are often more careful when writing in a sec ond language. Students routinely point out treasures previously unseen to me, putting the love into “Slovenia” or the fall into “fallacy.” Sometimes writing or speaking in a foreign language even aids clarity of thought because, as Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami writes, one is “not overcome with the feeling of being swallowed up in a sea of words” (Murakami, 100).
Someago.perceived essay weaknesses underlined here have to do with cultural translation, including things as simple as turns-of-phrase that are uncommon in English. Perhaps there is a logical and gut-felt need to write “in the framework of literary studies” instead of just “literary studies,” or to slap the names of a few Big Thinkers in parentheses (npr. Freud, Foucault, itn.). My Slovenian ear is not developed enough to discern. In English essays, “in the framework of” is wordy; the Freud-and-Foucault example can look like showing off knowledge for its own sake – especially if these thinkers do not have a clear relevance for your es say. I say can look like (rather than is) showing off because reception depends so much on one’s cultural background. In other words, my years of reading English literary criticism tell me that such bracket-slapping is abhorrent, whereas yours might tell you it is preferable to and more economical than a lengthy explana tion of sources the reader probably already knows.
into a writing template meant for matura survival? To continue developing your writing skills, you have to leave behind the comfortable conventions learned a few years
9Introduction
This somewhat unconventional textbook consists of six sections: 1) Struc ture, 2) Argument, 3) Mechanics, 4) Style, 5) Vocabulary, and 6) Exercises. It is
10 Writing Short Literature Essays
practical, not theoretical, and negative in the sense that almost every point is illustrated by a slightly modified example from student writing or something I have proofread or translated. These are all errors with simple solutions, which are also provided. The improvements are ordinary rather than stellar, and there fore within the grasp of any student of English.
Chapter 2, on argument, makes a case for building your literature essay around quotations. Some guides on writing in English tell students not to quote too much. If you are typically Slovenian, you can forget that advice; far too many essays do not quote at all from the poem or play or story being ana lyzed. This is poor strategy. A direct quotation is the strongest way to provide evidence in a literature essay. Also, quoting directly is an excellent way of keep ing on topic. Examining the writer’s individual words promotes analysis and interpretation instead of simply re-telling the story or drifting into abstract musings on your life philosophy. In other words, it is not “Sara said X at the dinner table,” but “by saying X at the dinner table Sara was implying that…” (Per haps an argument can be made that a thesis is well-founded gossip). Chapter 2 concludes with common weak arguments – some of which would sound elegant and convincing in Slovenian – and suggests ways of improving them.
Chapter 3 is boring. It is mostly about technical details like how to quote properly within the body of an essay. Please read it. Too many students and professors refer to novels as if they were short stories or poems, to newspaper articles as if they were entire newspapers. In English, Cankar’s “Martin Kačur: The Biography of an Idealist” does not exist as a translation; Martin Kačur: The Biography of an Idealist does. Chapter 3 also includes gentle reminders about con sistency: if you write “MLA” or “Queen Maria” in the first paragraph, let them not become “mla” and “Queen Marie” two paragraphs later. I don’t really know what a towpath is, though I do know that it can be spelled tow-path and tow path (all three spellings were used in a single paper I proofread). The moral: choose one spelling and stick to it consistently throughout your essay. If you provide the Slovenian original for one line of poetry, provide it for all lines you quote, and in the same language order as in your first example. And do not forget to
In the first two chapters I focus on particular errors, the loose screws instead of the nuts and bolts of producing an essay. There are already many fine guides out there, aimed at both native speakers of English and specifically at Slovenian students. My discussion of essay structure, including the all-important thesis, is merely an addition to what you have no doubt already been taught. The most valuable part of Chapter 1 will be the examples of thesis statements gone wrong or common mistakes in the opening paragraph as well as the conclusion.
11Introduction
tell the reader that “MLA” stands for Modern Languages Association when you first mention the organization.
As you probably saw from the previous sentence, and as you will see through out this guide, I consciously ignore my own suggestions and advice on occasion. I ignore them in order to encourage careful reading and a critical spirit among readers. Follow my tips slavishly, and you will end up like the many armchair pedants who strike every instance of the passive voice and every first person pro noun from an essay because once upon a time that’s what they were taught to do. This is rule-following, not thinking. Though firm rules have their place at the heart of language education, knowing when to ignore them is equally important. You might feel that some of the tips given here are irrelevant. Such a re action already indicates serious thought about the words you write – unless it merely shows knee-jerk internalization of a rule you were once taught, or a refusal to see that English writing often differs from Slovenian writing. If you have a reason for using slang in your essay, fine; if you use it because you read in an excellent Slovenian essay guide that foreign words, archaisms, slang and jar gon are systematically employed by essay writers (Poniž, 23), you may be missing a cross-cultural point. Not all writing conventions travel well.
Chapter 4, on style, includes more theoretical justification than the rest of the book does. Whenever I do post-essay feedback, students always spot weak arguments immediately; this takes longer when it comes to style, which is why Chapter 4 deviates from the usual pattern by enlisting the help of everyone from novelist Vladimir Nabokov, to ex-Baywatch icon David Hasselhoff (to use a dated reference). Even the best and simplest English style guides are helpful only to a point in a cross-cultural context, and sometimes you have to call in the literary experts and the hairy chests to find answers. Other guides often stop short of saying exactly what is wrong with broken sentences, presuming that native English speakers will somehow just spot the error. Also, Chapter 4 might not be in line with what you learned at the beginning of your English career. I try to explain why. Then I move on to individual stylistic hiccups and possibleChapterremedies.5,the final body chapter, is a long list of phrases and words regu larly misused when Slovenian students write about literature. These are terms with different connotations in English, overused terms, and words rendered strange by their new English surroundings. Well, let’s say that’s what it’s all about in the framework of the afore-mentioned chapter.
I aim for a light-hearted tone in hopes that students will continue reading this book on raising awareness about differences in writing conventions. This is a rather informal book about writing essays, not an essay, so please do not
If you do not feel like savouring every word, just pay close attention to the examples and the brief explanations that surround them. Each example is marked with at least one asterisk to indicate degrees of awfulness. Generally speaking, one asterisk is poor, two is immoral, and three is illegal in some coun tries. There are some borderline cases that are marked accordingly: “*(?).” To earn three asterisks, an error has to be a combination of extremely sloppy essay writing and it has to be an extremely frequent problem – such as the tendency to autobiography, to talking about yourself rather than the literary work. (Too many papers begin: ***“When I first sat down at the computer on my desk to write this essay…” If you wrote standing up, that would be worth noting.) Keep this Michelin-style point system in mind, especially when skimming the guide; do not confuse the negative examples with the positive ones.
In Chapter 6 there is a short batch of exercises focusing on argument, me chanics, and style. With questions about mechanics, it’s a matter of right or wrong (ah, back to the blissful clarity of English at gimnazija…); with the other exercises, things are murkier. The suggested solutions are intended as food for thought. You will surely come up with other acceptable solutions. If you can justify your answers to yourself, that’s a good sign. If you can justify them to your roommate, you have a very kind roommate who is a good listener. Remember that by this stage in your English career, you've moved beyond the simplicity of right and wrong.
emulate its style for your next assignment. Every page is littered with imper atives, contractions, personal addresses to you, and a fair amount of me! me! me! Though there are many bad jokes and sometimes ludicrous examples, the subject matter remains serious. The lighter moments are meant to make the examples easier to remember. In terms of vocabulary, I have tried to be clear without retreating to monosyllabic lowlands. The tone is personal precisely because – even if many other English teachers and editors have noticed similar problems when correcting Slovenian essays – this book is ultimately a result of my own experiences grading essays, translating and proofreading. I have opted against an objective-sounding third person point of view for three main reasons: to encourage the reader to question and to be sceptical about my tips and sug gestions; to highlight the fact that writing conventions that may seem usual to you appear strange to my typically Anglophone ears; and, most importantly, to emphasize the frequency of an error.
Some tips, such as avoiding vagueness, getting to the point and the useful ness of reading aloud, resurface in every chapter. They repeat so that the more casual reader will not miss a particularly important aspect of essay writing. The suggestions might be applicable to other types of essays or even longer term papers, but the focus here is on analyzing literature on your own and without
12 Writing Short Literature Essays
external sources. Think of it as emergency aid for your next English Poetry or American Short Story assignment. These tips will not necessarily help you sail the opinion-paper waters of “The Death Penalty,” or shoot the narrative rapids of “How I Spent my Summer Vacation.” Especially concerning mechanics, much of what you read here is only marginally helpful for your linguistics papers, where different writing and bibliographical conventions rule.
For instance, the first sonnet on the power of time is number 12 and its first line concerns a “clock” – which counts in twelves. (Bate, 38)
Like a good nickname, a good essay argument should inspire jealousy. The argu ment should seem so clear, so straightforward and commonsensical, so right that you think, “Now why didn’t I think of that.” Jonathan Bate, a leading Shake speare scholar, has a knack for inspiring such envy. Here is part of his claim that numerical order was crucial to the 1609 quarto edition of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets – that there is a clear relationship “between a sonnet’s subject matter and its place in the sequence”:
Not a word is wasted, and the straight-forward argument has the eerilyconvincing power of propaganda. And yet, unlike empty slogans and jingoistic phrases, Bate’s argument stands up to scrutiny. Bate does literary criticism for a living, but any student of English could produce the same sort of persuasive sentence.Here is Sonnet XII in its entirety:
Now for Some Encouragement…
13Introduction
Similarly, because essay conventions differ from country to country, what I (playing the native speaker trump card) regard as weak or bizarre might be standard practice in Slovenian, Russian, German or French. What does this mean? It means that these tips might be useless when chatting about Chekhov, prattling about Prešeren, honking on about Heine, or mumbling about Molie`re. Enough alliteration. A great part of studying English at an advanced level is being aware of English-language ways of the world – as odd and varied as they might sometimes seem.
When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls, all silver’d o’er with white;
9 789617 128796
ISBN 978-961-7128-79-6
LITERLITERWRITI
Writing Short Literature Essays: A Textbook with Exercises for Slovenian Students je prvi učbenik, ki se osredotoča na specifične težave, ki jih imajo slovenski študenti, ko pišejo o literaturi v angleščini. Glavna tematika knjige s petimi poglavji so medkulturni nesporazumi pri formalnem pisanju o literaturi. Ta poglavja se ukvarjajo s strukturo eseja, argumentacijo, citiranjem ter navajanjem na literaturo, stilistiko in besediščem (oziroma »Slovenglish«). Čeprav so ciljna tarča študenti anglistike, je učbenik primeren ter koristen tudi za strokovnjake s področja humanistike, ki pišejo prispevke ali želijo pisati v angleščini.
JASON BLAKE uči na Oddelku za anglistiko in amerikanistiko Filozofske fakultete v Ljubljani. Je avtor monografije Canadian Hockey Literature (University of Toronto Press, 2010) in kulturnega vodnika Culture Smart! Slovenia (Kuperard/ Random House, 2011). Iz slovenščine je prevedel različne knjige, pa tudi leposlovje in veliko akademskih člankov, predvsem s področja kulture. Je glavni urednik revije Central European Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'Études Canadiennes en Europe Centrale.