How to Write Better Essays

Reading an author’s structure

In most passages it’s quite easy to see the author ’s plan, the structure

he or she has created, but not in all. In the most difficult cases you will

need to interpret and translate what the author says into terms and

structures that make sense for you. In effect, youwill need to give the

passage the sort of structure that will help you recall the points. Here

we’re reminded of the familiar advice from all our tutors, ‘Put it into

your own words.’ And, of course, this is exactly what you need to do

with this sort of text.

But more important is to go a little further and graft it onto your

own thinking: make the ideas your own. At this point the ideas become

universal; they are yours as well as the author ’s, leaving you in

no danger of plagiarism. Just take the essence of the idea, stripped

of all the phrases and sentences that are distinctive of the author.

Put it into your own words; but don’t worry if the author has found

a crisp, memorable word that you know you’ll never forget. Use it.

Remember, ideas are universal, they’re the currency of learning; it’s

the way we explain and develop those ideas in the passages we write

that isn’t.

However, even the most difficult and poorly organised author is likely

to leave you a trail of literal symbols that indicate the structure he or

she is following. We’re all familiar with these, although we don’t always

pay as much heed to them as we should. The introductory and con-

cluding sentences often indicate the main points of the passage. Here

you’re likely to find the memorable keyword that will trigger off in your

mind a whole cluster of ideas.

Once you get into the body of the text, words like ‘first’ and ‘finally’

act as pointers to the structure, indicating the number of points that

are to be, or have been, made. Others, that introduce illustrative

Remembering your Notes 105

be entirely convinced when you try to tell yourself that you cannot trust

your memory. You’ll find that what your mind has given you is a clear,

uncluttered structure around which you can build a fuller set of notes, if

you need to.

But if you do decide to fill this out with more detail, always remind

yourself not to clutter and obstruct your view of the structure with

unnecessary detail. Remember, notes are of little use if they’re not a

record of yourunderstanding of the subject.

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