Page 31 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

30 How to write critical essays
No points, of course, can be scored for having read works
which are unrelated to the set topic. You may indeed lose
marks because irrelevant knowledge wastes time and muffles
clarity. Nevertheless, tutors are bound to favour a student who
is sufficiently enthusiastic and interested to have read widely.
So where you cannot decide whether a text is sufficiently
relevant, come down on the side of discussing it. On balance it
is better to be suspected of gratuitous showing off than of
laziness.
The one suspicion which you must never arouse is, of course,
that of lying. If you have not read a book it is silly to imply that
you have. The childish dishonesty which is sometimes inflicted
on schoolteachers will be strongly resented by any tutor who
means to treat you as an adult.
Remember, anyway, that breadth of reading is only one of
the many qualities that your essay may need to demonstrate.
Some, misleadingly phrased, questions may sound interested
only in what you know. All answers will still need to show how
much you have thought.