Ode on a Grecian URL

Reading through last week's hebdomadals, I'm noticing some fairly consistent problems that might translate into weak exam essays. Here is a short list of things you might want to keep in mind as you outline, practice and write these essays:

1. You need an interesting thesis. It's not enough, as I note in my previous blog post, to say "These two texts have differences and similarities," or even "There are three significant differences between these two texts." A strong thesis should...
• ...engage with the themes of the two texts involved, and not (just) the plots or characters
  
• ...connect to ideas that have come up in lecture without repeating those ideas
• ...offer a new way of understanding the texts, or a new way of understanding the role of novels in the nineteenth century
  
2. Details are crucial! Obviously you don't have to memorize passages from the novels we've read this semester; however, the more detailed you can be in your essays the better. I always privilege details that are relevant to the argument and that haven't come up repeatedly in lecture and discussion. You should feel free to take details from the passages in Part I. Here are some kinds of details you might want to consider including:
• A repeated word ("independent woman")
• An important phrase ("'What have you to do with me?'")
• A scene (Tess's flight to Stonehenge)
• A dialogue (Betteredge's discussion with Jenkins)
3. Listing details isn't enough! Use your reference to this word, phrase, scene or dialogue as a way to begin a short close reading: "Isabel asks Madame Merle what she has 'to do' with her just as she realizes the relationship between doing and being," or "Betteredge's resistance to Jenkins's instructions about laying down the old carpet and refurnishing Blake's apartment suggests the private sphere's resistance to outside forces forcing it to change. Yet, Jenkins's instructions are problematically conservative: he is asking Betteredge not to change the Verinder estate, but to reproduce it."
4. Don't tell me things I already know. While it is a good idea to ground your arguments in ideas that have already come up in class, it is not a good idea to make your whole argument a rehashing of previous lectures and discussions. Remember that this exam is specifically testing your literary analysis skills: the better you demonstrate you ability to analyze literature anew, the better your grade will be.
   
5. Don't be afraid to take risks. An interesting, innovative argument that makes good use of details will always do better than a tired old argument that is obviously true.
   

Labels: essays, exam