HINTS FOR WRITING AN
ESSAY AND A SAMPLE ESSAY
I. Use of secondary sources
a).
You must use at least three secondary/critical sources for each paper. A
secondary source (article or book) is one other than the work itself. For
example, a secondary source for The Canterbury Tales would not be The
Canterbury Tales. Instead, an example of a secondary source would be Chaucer
and the Medieval Church, a work about Chaucer.
b). Where do you find these sources?
i).
Use the computer catalog to locate the call numbers of most books by and about
the author.
ii). Most of these books are grouped together in the same area
of the library. Go to this area and browse.
iii). The best
places to browse are the table of contents and, especially, the index in the
back of the book.
iv).
Also consult handbooks, guidebooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, on the
second floor of the library.
v). Do not use the Norton textbook or the class notes as a
secondary source. Although, strictly speaking, these can be cited as
secondary sources (the introductions in the Norton text), you should be able to
locate other secondary sources.
AN EXAMPLE OF LOCATING AND USING SECONDARY SOURCES:
Suppose I want to find material on Alexander Pope's view of
nature. I would follow these easy steps:
1. I go to the computer catalog and enter ALEXANDER POPE under AUTHOR (or SUBJECT). Most of these books have similar call letters, so I
write down the exact call number of one of these books and find its location on
the second and third floors of the library.
2. I find the book located among dozens of other books by and
about Pope. I browse through these books.
3. I go through several books about Pope (e.g. Maynard Mack's Alexander
Pope: A Life, The Garden and the City). I
look in the indexes of these books, under "Nature." Most books have
this entry, but some don't. Others have the topic listed under "Pope: and
nature." These entries tell me on which pages the author discusses Pope
and nature, so I don't have to read the entire book to find the specific topic.
4. Although I obtain considerable information from the books, I
still want more information. Consequently, I stop on the second floor of the
library and consult some reference works, such as The Oxford Companion to
English Literature. I look under "Pope, Alexander" for a little
more on his views on nature.
5. I also use the on-line computer indexes to locate essays on
the subject. The library teaches classes on how to use these indexes that
probably would be well worth the time (an hour or two); my internet site
includes a link to these indexes, the most helpful, in regards to literature,
being the MLA Bibliography.
6). MOST FREQUENT
PROLEM: "I can't find a source on the specific topic" [nature in
Shakespeare, prose in the Renaissance, politics of modernism, whatever].
SOLUTION: You don't have to! Find a quote on the general subject [Shakespeare,
Renaissance, Modernism, or even English Literature] and put the quote in the
introduction or conclusion.
EXAMPLE ESSAY
Nature
in the Eighteenth Century
Nature in the 18th century was more than falling leaves, snowy
mountains, rainstorms, or raging seas. Nature, in fact, was everything. More
particularly, though, nature denoted the laws that generated nature, laws
designed by an omnipotent and all-good Creator. This belief was powerfully
expressed in the literature of the period that addressed the "nature"
of society, of man, and of the physical landscape.
Nature was often viewed in the 18th century as a model for
society. The same laws that governed the harmonious working of creation should
be discovered and imitated to ensure a prosperous and well-ordered state.
Pope's advice to poets is equally applicable to statesmen: "First follow
Nature and your judgment frame / By
her just standard . . . One clear, unchanged, and universal light" (Essay
on Criticism 68-71) [NOTICE THAT I CITE THE POEM BY LINE NUMBER AND NOT
PAGE NUMBER]. Conversely, a repeated theme of Augustan literature is that
ignorance or perversion of nature's laws produces disaster. For example, the
"anarchic sprawl" of Pope's Dunciad
is the direct result of "the inverted norms expressive of the dunce
world" (Mack 461) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING INDEX: "DUNCIAD":
THERE WERE SEVERAL PAGES LISTED. I WENT TO SINGLE LARGEST CLUSTER OF PAGES:
457-82]. Similarly, Swift in Gulliver's Travels satirizes those who
refuse to conform to nature's laws. Such individuals are characterized as
unnatural yahoos, depraved humans who are contrasted with rational, civilized,
and "natural" horses.
The 18th century believed that people were linked to nature by
the intellect, rather than with the emotions. Consequently, as Donald Greene
points out about Dr. Johnson, neo-classicists thought that "poetry should
not surprise but . . . `should strike the reader as a wording of his own
highest thoughts' " (164) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING INDEX: "COLLINS,
WILLIAM"]. Such a "nature" often was compared to an
intricate, flawless, and perpetual watch. If man could, through use of his
intellect, conform to the pattern evident in this intricate device, he would
enjoy the greatest happiness, success, and prosperity. Consequently, in Windsor
Forest, "Pope's object was not to depict his individual response to
Nature, or, as the Romantic poets would do, record his own perplexed emotions,
but to portray a universe that enclosed and completed both the aspiring
thoughts and the triumphant works of Man" (Quennell 51) [QUOTE FOUND BY USING INDEX:
"POPE, ALEXANDER: WORKS: WINDSOR FOREST:" THERE WERE SEVERAL PAGES
LISTED. I WENT TO SINGLE LARGEST CLUSTER OF PAGES: 48-52 ]. Pope would later explicitly
formulate this view in Essay on Criticism, arguing that Nature is
"at once the source, and end, and test of art" (Essay on Criticism
73). Other poets such as James Thomson in The Seasons went a step
further, insisting on nature as "culminating in man" (Tillotson 218) [QUOTE FOUND BY
USING INDEX: "NATURE:" THERE WERE SEVERAL PAGES LISTED. I WENT TO
SINGLE LARGEST CLUSTER OF PAGES: 217ff].
The 18th century also had an intense interest in the beauties of
nature. In some ways these views were unique to the age, and in other ways they
anticipate the Romantic era. Pope describes
Clearly, the 18th century view of nature tells us
much about this age and its insistence on order, clarity, and reason. However,
this essay has explored only the surface of a very complex topic. In order to
obtain a more comprehensive view of this vast and difficult topic, a much more
extensive analysis would be required.
WORKS CITED
Greene, Donald. The Age of Exuberance: Backgrounds to
Eighteenth-Century Literature.
Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life.
Quennell,
Peter. Alexander Pope: The Education of Genius 1688-1728.
Tillotson,
Geoffrey. "Eighteenth-Century Poetic
Diction." In Eighteenth-Century Literature: Modern Essays
in Criticism. Ed. James Clifford.
NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
1. TILLOTSON'S ORIGINALLY
APPEARED IN 1939. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO INCLUDE THE ORIGINAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
INFORMATION OF REPRINTED MATERIAL FOR THESE ESSAYS (ALTHOUGH YOU DO FOR SOME
PAPERS).
2. I DID NOT INCLUDE THE
SOURCE FOR POPE'S POETRY AND NEITHER DO YOU. THE SOURCE IS A PRIMARY SOURCE
THAT I DO NOT QUOTE BECAUSE THE TEXT WOULD APPEAR THE SAME IN ALMOST ANY
EDITION OF POPE'S POETRY.
3. USE A WORKS CITED (NOT A
BIBLIOGRAPHY): A BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS ANY WORK THAT YOU EXTENSIVELY CONSULTED
WHILE WRITING YOUR ESSAY. A WORKS CITED LISTS ONLY THOSE WORKS CITED IN YOUR
ESSAY.