Page 73 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

72 How to write critical essays
sound like variations but actually add no clarification or
challenge (‘1914–18 War’ into ‘First World War’). There is no
attempt to probe the precise implications of the title’s own
chosen terms; to expose any hidden premises which these may
contain; or to identify problems raised, but not explicitly
stated, by the question itself.
Wasting even a portion of your opening statement on re-
statement makes a poor first impression. If asked ‘What is
William Morris’s view of the role of literature in political
reform?’, do not begin: ‘In determining William Morris’s view
of the role of literature in political reform, it is imperative that
we should remember’. Do not repeat the title’s demands. Begin
your response.
Perhaps the most popular of the exercises which may warm
up the shivering writer, but eventually chill the reader, is a
statement of intent. Here the first paragraph is devoted to
summarizing what the rest of the essay will seek to prove. Thus
views which may later be interestingly and convincingly argued
are at first just asserted. Generalizations which later paragraphs
could be going to test and qualify by analysis of specific
evidence are first offered as glib banalities. Texts which the
essay might eventually explore in detail and discriminate
thoughtfully are merely listed; this reveals little more of the
writer’s ability than a knowledge of their titles.
First impressions must influence the reader’s response in a
critical essay as in any other text. Still, you may have fond
memories of some novel even if you warn your friends that it
makes a rather slow start. So make a special effort over your
opening but do not fret about it disproportionately. Do try to
find an immediately interesting point to make at the outset and
do take extra trouble over its phrasing. Nevertheless,
concentrate most of your efforts upon most of your answer. If
that answer maintains a high enough quality of substance and
form throughout, the lack of a dazzlingly perceptive opening
will not much trouble your reader or diminish what you have
taught yourself by writing the essay.
Endings, with a few obvious adaptations, should be
constructed on the same principles as those which I have just
outlined for beginnings. Merely winding yourself down and out
of the tautest intellectual effort should be as private as the
preliminary winding yourself up and into that properly