Essay Tips

Below is the invaluable advice from the lecturers and professors of the English Department at UCC. We would like to thank all the staff for their contributions as well as their work day to day in the English Department. It is our hope that you learn as much from this page as we did!

Anne Etienne

* Work on your title; be it catchy in a humorous or poetic or referential way, it needs to grab the attention of the reader.

* Do not be afraid to cut; your reader will not know what has been edited out

*Do not give the answer of your research question in the introduction- it defeats the purpose of your argumentation.

*Proofreading is not optional

Clíona Ó Gallchoir

* Writing is mainly rewriting. This never changes, no matter what stage you are in. In fact, it may become more true the more you progress in academia!

Miranda Corcoran

*Using quotes in academic writing is like a conversation. Don't just throw in a couple and leave it. You need to engage with a quote, "talk" to it.

Lee Jenkins

* The first sentence of an essay is important so be focused and to the point -take Hemingway's advice and omit the unnecessary words.

Alan Gibbs

* Don't base your answer too heavily on lectures. Essays should go beyond the lectures and demonstrate your own reading and research.

Edel Semple

* Play the "So What?" game when writing and reviewing work, I go through each paragraph and ask myself, "So What?"

Mary O'Connell

* Read. Read. Read. And then read some more. Read everything. Read fiction, read essays, read great critics.

*Get all the technical things right, reference properly, format properly- all these things matter. * But to really improve the standard of your writing, it is a case of reading writers who are better than you are. The highest marks I give, the articulate, smart essays-the students are always very well read

Adam Hanna

*Time management; begin an essay by breaking down the entire project into about half a dozen different tasks (including making notes from primary texts, from critical works and making an essay plan, writing , and revising what you have written). Then assigning a set amount of time to each.

*Each paragraph of your essay has a specific task to perform, and this task should be evident from the opening sentence. Readers use the opening sentences of paragraphs as guides to what comes next.

*Avoid praising the writer's work. I think this is encouraged at Leaving Cert level; it isn't here.

* Read your work aloud! Or get your computer to read it for you.

Anonymous Staff Member

* Hold your work to the same standards of what you would tolerate when you read.

* Respect your reader. Try to see through their eyes. Your ideas only emerge through what you write- you can't ask your reader to join the dots for you.

* Keep it simple; avoid verbosity.

*Keep critical writing clinical; avoid slang or the idioms and catchphrases of everyday speech.

* Avoid the overuse of the "I" voice.

*Always use double space!