Hello and welcome to my channel where I talk a little bit about theatre, a little
bit about being a PhD student and a little bit about those two things put
together. Since I started this channel I've done a couple of videos where I've
shared some tips or advice on writing essays or doing research from some of
the things that I've learned over the last couple of years. And, from the
comments, it sounds like they've been quite useful to a lot of people. And so I
thought I'd turn it into a proper little series where I do some essay tips.
Obviously, if that sounds good and you're not already subscribed, then please do
consider doing so. But, without further ado, here is the first proper, official
episode of Essay Tips.
It's often said that first impressions count and that's as true for an essay or
a paper as it is for a human. Whether you're writing a paper for it to be marked
or for publication either in an academic journal for an online blog or
something, you want your first line to really make a great impression. You want
those first few sentences to really grab your readers attention, to let them know
that, however many other things they've read today, whether they're marking
things or just browsing through the Internet, that this is going to be the
killer one. At the same time, you also want to give them some kind of
indication of what the essay is going to be about, as well as providing some
rationale for you writing about that thing. In this video I wanted to collect
together a few ideas for how you can best grab your reader's attention when
they start to read your essay. So, here are my five top tips for starting an
essay. Number one: start by telling us what it's about. Now, granted, starting an
essay with the sentence "In this essay I will" is not the most thrilling use of
the English language. But I wanted to point out from the start
that it is a perfectly valid way to start an essay. You've probably spent a
lot of time and effort choosing the subject matter of your essay and so it's
possible just to let it speak for itself. Some topics are just naturally really
interesting. If you're writing an essay about why humans should have hands for
feet and feet for hands then as soon as you start that sentence I'm going to
want to read the rest of your essay. And not all subject will be as exciting as
that one that I just made up but it's worth saying that, after you've done a
lot of reading about a certain subject, you can forget how exciting that topic
that you've chosen is. So, sometimes, it's okay just to let your subject matter
speak for itself. Number two: start with a quote. So,
assuming this is an essay for undergraduate level or above, you're
going to be citing a lot of other people's research during your essay; so
why not start with one a quote? If you're writing the humanities particularly, your
essay is essentially going to be a kind of debate between lots of different
ideas, so why not pick one of the more contentious ones and you can start your
essay with that and follow up by either agreeing or
disagreeing with it. That way this debate runs all the way through your essay and
we get a sense of what it's going to be from the very, very start.
Number three: tell us about a recent event. So, part of your job as a
researcher or academic or essayist is to explain to us why the subject matter
that you've chosen is important to us now, today and here. One great way of
communicating this is to start off by letting us know about a recent event
that your subject matter or topic can let us know a little bit more about or
can explain a little bit better to us. Perhaps sightings of stingrays have shot
up recently or perhaps they've dwindled massively; if your essay is about
stingray psychology then perhaps you can tell us a little bit about why that is.
Also, if you're writing a history essay, even if you're writing about like Roman
politics, you might be able to tell us how that relates to contemporary
politics. You should always be able to find a way that links the subject matter
of your essay from whenever it was about to now or from wherever it's about to
here, and if you can start off with that then we'll instantly know why we should
pay attention to what you've got to say within your essay. Number four: start with
a personal story. So, presuming you had some kind of choice in what your essay
was going to be about, there's probably quite a personal reason why you thought
that would be interesting. Perhaps you've loved the Star Wars films ever since
your mum or dad took you to see them when you were younger. Perhaps you were
staring out the window when you saw a cyclist and you wondered how the bicycle
was invented. It's perfectly valid to start your essay by telling us this
story. Many proper, bona fide academic books do this. Essentially, what you're
doing is you are telling us why the subject matter matters to you and,
therefore, allowing us to identify through that. Often, if you can
explain to us why this subject matter matters to you, we will identify that
through you and then will care about it as well. Number five: is just start. Now,
this may seem obvious but sometimes there is nothing more terrifying than a
blank white page in front of you. It often feels like, as
soon as you start putting words down, that's the point at which you might put
the wrong words down and I often find it very easy to creep back to reading
because, although even the most difficult books can be quite a difficult time
trying to read them, it's definitely nowhere near as exposing as actually
doing writing. In creative writing there's this phrase don't get it right
get it written and that's certainly something I'd apply here. In this age of
computers it's so easy to go back and edit stuff and I think what you'll find is,
once you start writing, it will eventually become difficult to stop. And
you can always go back and edit that first line or that second line or any of
it again later. Never be afraid to start writing because if you don't start then
you'll never finish. This has been the first video of Essay Tips, let me know if
you've enjoyed it down below. Perhaps you've got some tips how you like to
start an essay, I certainly don't pretend to be a massive expert, it'd be great to have a little
conversation. Obviously, if you like the video, give it a thumbs up and it would be great
to see you again with another one these videos soon.
Have a great week!