This will help you with exam preparation and with the reaction papers - and it might help in the future too, since we suspect there’ll continue to be bad people out there expecting you to write essays for their classes. We have some observations of our own, but please check also the links below. Btw, come back to this page, it will be updated.
For this class, you’ll have to write two kinds of texts. Reaction papers, and short essays as answers to the exam questions.
1. Reaction papers
The name speaks for itself. You read a paper, and you react. Of course, we’re only interested in some reactions – if you e.g. react by burning the paper, it doesn’t count. So how should you do it?
The purpose of a reaction paper is not to give a full analysis of the paper you read, or of that topic, or of that author etc. Ideally, in a reaction paper you will say, in a structured way, what the text means for you: what you like and why, what you don’t like and why, what you think it’s important, what isn’t, what questions you were left with, what you couldn’t follow or understand etc.
Don’t question your competence or your background knowledge – you can’t change those in one night anyway! Don’t be scared by the author’s… authority! Try to form a thoughtful and critical opinion based on what you read.
In terms of the technical process. First, read the paper. As you read, take notes (they can be random thoughts or connections you make on the spot), write questions, underline one or two essential quotes. If you read your materials like this, the reaction papers will be 90% written by the time you finish reading.
In terms of style: be clear and always underestimate our knowledge of language: use simple, down-to-earth words and phrasing. Separate ideas into paragraphs, but remember one sentence is nota paragraph. Use connectors to make argument structure transparent: “I think that bla-bla-bla, because o-la-la. However, tra-la-la”. Separate quotes from the body of your text. Mention every source that you use (for the reaction paper, we recommend you only use the paper you react to!).
Check also this page.
2. Exam essay(s)
For the two exams, we’ll ask 1-3 questions. They will be quite general and generous. Since the exam is open book, memorization is not required. We’ll ask you to think of a problem. One careful reading of the materials will do – if you need some specific info, you can check your notes or books at anytime. Let’s be clear on one thing though: if you have no knowledge of the materials, the fact that the exam is open book will not help!
To write the essay: first, make sure you read the question carefully and you understand what is at stake – what problem it raises. Second, don’t start to write immediately: take a minute to organize your thoughts. It’s better if you do that on (scrap) paper: write an outline – a map of your essay, the plan of your answer. Here is a generic outline. Third, follow the structure, develop your ideas but be concise. Fourth, manage your time, especially if there are multiple questions in the exam. Re-read if you have time.
Unlike the reaction paper, an essay is not just a collection of marginal notes based on another text. An essay is, so to say, autonomous; it answers a problem or a number of problems. Its scope is larger and it aims at a certain generality: it covers a number of sources and authors.
In terms of structure, the essay is an argument. This should be made clear – we should see in your text how the parts hang together, how the evidence supports a certain conclusion. Start by stating what you will do. Separate logical parts into sections and paragraphs. At the end, it’s a good idea to give a map of what you’ve done: “I wanted to argue for this, I found such-and-such support, therefore, my conclusion is so-and-so .” You can find much more about structure if you check the links below.
The stylistic consideration mentioned above also apply here. We should add that the best way of learning to write is to start writing.
essay writing guide [Sussex]
guide [Monash]
