Say what you are going to Say, Say it, then repeat what you have said
Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word
Oxford Tutorial Essay
Comrades, I promised some people that I would send out an email with advice on how to structure an essay, so here’s a great little guide I’ve borrowed from one of my tutors. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
B.1 Introduction:
A tutorial essay provides an answer to a question provided in the tutorial topics outlined above. It must include an introductory paragraph in which you outline the question, touch upon the societal and scientific relevance of this question, concisely define key concepts and briefly summarise the answer which you will give to it. Please keep your introduction short.
B.2 Argumentation:
The main body of the essay provides the argumentation you develop in support of your answer to the overall research question. It is important that you here answer the question itself: an essay is not a general discussion on a broad topic; it is an answer to a specific question. So, for example, if you are asked the question “Is economic growth a prerequisite for the development of a democratic political system?”, you cannot write a general discussion on democracy. You have to tackle this particular question. Accordingly, you must ensure, when writing the essay, that every single sentence and paragraph is directed to, and useful for, providing this particular answer.
In developing your answer, please provide several arguments that support it whilst also engaging with possible counter-arguments. It is thus important that the main body of your essay reflects the key debates within the field that you are writing about (i.e. in case of the question highlighted in the previous paragraph the study of democratisation). There are various ways of structuring this. A fairly standard one (and relatively safe!) is to make your case for a particular answer (X) and then examine and reject objections to X. Or vice versa.
One of the most common criticisms which essays elicit is ‘asserts rather than argues its points.’ It is one thing to say X; it is quite another to provide a justification for X. In an academic essay, you are asked to do the latter. One way of providing justification for the theoretical arguments you present is by backing these up with empirical examples. However, make sure that you do not engage with evidence in a merely anecdotal manner. For instance, in the example discussed above about economic growth and democracy an argument against a potential relationship between the two may be that it is not economic growth per se that leads to democratisation, but rather an egalitarian distribution of increasing economic wealth. A possible empirical example that could underline this point could be the fact that in many countries of the Middle East high levels of economic growth (mainly through oil revenues) have not led to the development of democratic political systems. This authors argue is mainly due to wealth has not trickled down to the middle class in society which in turn have not out forward demands for more political input. Providing this piece of empirical evidence is much more instructive than simply describing the situation in Libya under Gaddafi’s rule.
B.3 Conclusion:
You should finish the essay with a concluding paragraph which summarises the main findings, and, if appropriate, opens up the debate (e.g. by mentioning other issues which are relevant and interesting but which constitutes further avenues of inquiry). It is important that your conclusion entails the answer to the question posed. The Best Conclusions Relate to the Introduction. Introduction should be interesting. Please keep your conclusion short.
Nietzsche’s Toward the Teaching of Style
This is from a letter that Nietzsche wrote to Lou Salomé when she was beginning to write philosophy, and appears in her book on his work.
Nietzsche’s Advice for Writing Philosophy
Paul Graham’s Advice
As for how to write well, here’s the short version: Write a bad version 1 as fast as you can; rewrite it over and over; cut out everything unnecessary; write in a conversational tone; develop a nose for bad writing, so you can see and fix it in yours; imitate writers you like; if you can’t get started, tell someone what you plan to write about, then write down what you said; expect 80% of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong; be confident enough to cut; have friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which bits are confusing or drag; don’t (always) make detailed outlines; mull ideas over for a few days before writing; carry a small notebook or scrap paper with you; start writing when you think of the first sentence; if a deadline forces you to start before that, just say the most important sentence first; write about stuff you like; don’t try to sound impressive; don’t hesitate to change the topic on the fly; use footnotes to contain digressions; use anaphora to knit sentences together; read your essays out loud to see (a) where you stumble over awkward phrases and (b) which bits are boring (the paragraphs you dread reading); try to tell the reader something new and useful; work in fairly big quanta of time; when you restart, begin by rereading what you have so far; when you finish, leave yourself something easy to start with; accumulate notes for topics you plan to cover at the bottom of the file; don’t feel obliged to cover any of them; write for a reader who won’t read the essay as carefully as you do, just as pop songs are designed to sound ok on crappy car radios; if you say anything mistaken, fix it immediately; ask friends which sentence you’ll regret most; go back and tone down harsh remarks; publish stuff online, because an audience makes you write more, and thus generate more ideas; print out drafts instead of just looking at them on the screen; use simple, germanic words; learn to distinguish surprises from digressions; learn to recognize the approach of an ending, and when one appears, grab it.
The Day You Became A Better Writer by Scott Adams
I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.
Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.
Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy” when you can write “He was happy.” You think the word “very” adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.
Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”
Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence to this post. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.
Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.
Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball” quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.” Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work”?)
That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You’re welcome.
Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.
Along the way you’d trade detail for brevity. Hopefully adding clarity at each point. Each step requires asking “What’s really important?” That’s the most important question you can ask yourself about anything. The class would really be about answering that very question at each step of the way. Whittling it all down until all that’s left is the point.
The writing class I’d like to teach
23 March 2019