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of uncertainty if these resources are close to hand.
Ï% Mark each page with an error on it If you are checking a long document
like a dissertation, tick the top of each page that has mistakes on it so that
you don t miss them or have to spend ages looking for them when you come
to make the corrections.
Things to look out for
Ï% Reference system Are you following the recommended (or compulsory)
referencing system? Have you done so consistently throughout the essay and
bibliography? Have all the texts that you ve cited been included in your bib-
liography? And, conversely, are there still texts in the bibliography that
you ve cut from the main body of your essay during revisions? Are the page
numbers in your references correct?
Ï% Word limit Are you safely within it? In most universities you will be harshly
punished for exceeding the word limit (losing 10 per cent of possible
marks) although some allow a 10 per cent margin of error, which means
that if you write 2,199 words for a 2,000-word essay you ll escape without
penalty, but not if you write 2,201. Tutors read hundreds of essays in their
career and get quite good at knowing what a 3,000-word essay looks like
in terms of its size, so don t chance a rough estimate that may catch you out.
In chapter 6: References we ll consider which quotations can be included in
your word count and which can t.
Ï% Presentation Is your essay double-spaced in an approved font and size?
Does it have clear margins for your tutor to provide commentary in?
Ï% Spelling mistakes and typos As mentioned above, you must not rely solely
on a computer to check your spelling because it won t be able to identify
homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like there
and their, allowed and aloud).
Essays 117
Ï% Punctuation The success of Lynne Truss s bestseller Eats, Shoots and
Leaves is one demonstration of the zero tolerance of punctuation errors
that many people have. To these readers, the meaning of any text that
includes the grocer s apostrophe (the adding of an apostrophe to any
plural) or confuses it s for its etc., will be utterly lost. Your tutor may
become so preoccupied with correcting errors of the apostrophe, or other
punctuation mark, that the rest of your essay, its argument, may be com-
pletely lost. Don t let this happen! Learn how to punctuate and let your
reader concentrate on your readings, not the mechanical side of your
writing.
4.12 Finally, a frequently asked question: Is it OK to
use I ?
This must be one of the questions that I am asked most frequently by students.
On the one hand, the focus on one small word compared to the enormous
process involved in essay writing seems surprising but, on the other hand, it is
clear that within this question are bound up all the contentious issues of iden-
tity, individuality and authorship that we have seen at the heart of the English
degree. Unfortunately, this also means that if you ask two different tutors you
may get two different answers, so here I will outline a strategy that incoporates
the best policy from each perspective.
Students often get upset at the idea that they cannot use I because they
assume that this means they are being told not to express their own opinions.
This is not the case. You are being asked to analyse and present critical views
and this clearly involves a representation of your own perspective. However,
constantly introducing these opinions with phrases like In my opinion , I
think , I believe is rather a waste of words since it is, firstly, rather a statement
of the obvious and, secondly, it suggests a lack of confidence. If it wasn t your
opinion or you didn t think it, you d have introduced the argument with
words like Woolf s essay suggests , and to flag up a statement with the dis-
claimer that it is what you think indicates a tentativeness, ironically a lack of
belief. There are many occasions when it may be appropriate to write explic-
itly from a first-person perspective, however, particularly when you wish to
differentiate your view from a critic s, with a phrase like Against Booth, I
argue .
118 Studying English Literature
Works cited
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots and Leaves. London: Profile Books, 2003.
Womack, Peter. What Are Essays For? English in Education 27.2 (Summer 1993):
42 9.
Jekyll and Hyde essay extracts
The actual marks awarded were 35 for the first one and 85 for the second.
Chapter 5
Sentences
If you pick up a selection of this week s newspapers, it won t take long before
you come across an article decrying the standard of young people s written
communication skills. Here s a startling, and yet typical, example from the
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