How to Write Better Essays

3.3 all sentient beings – including animals – have a capacity to

suffer as a result of physical pain, and emotional and psycho-

logical distress.

 7 Know how much evidence to use

In view of what we’ve just said, the standard advice to novelists applies

equally to those of us who write essays – wherever possible show,

rather than tell. Don’t just state something is the case, demonstrate it

with evidence. It’s worth reminding yourself that you’re not just

describing an event, just explaining whathappened; you’re explaining

whyit happened – you’re giving reasons that will, hopefully, convince

the reader that you’re right.

Equally important, this has a significant bearing on the second of

our guiding principles – interest. Quotations, statistics, anecdotes, all

make your work more readable. Not only do they break it up with

changes of pace and content, but they allow the subjects to speak for

themselves. Your readers can then respond empathetically, and with

their emotions and feelings engaged in your work this can lend untold

support to your arguments.

But make sure the evidence you use has a point: that it is related to

and reinforces your arguments. Any quotations, statistics or anecdotes

you use must do real work. You may like a quotation for the impact

you know it will have on the reader, or an anecdote for its pathos or

poignancy, but if it doesn’t reinforce a point or advance your argument,

drop it. You’ll always find a use for it later.

And don’t overdo it with evidence. There’s always the danger that

you just might bury your readers under information, making it impos-

sible for them to take on board everything you want them to, thereby

wasting a lot of the good evidence you’ve dug up. If you pile one unre-

lated piece of information on another, your readers will have no means

of dealing with it successfully. They will lose themselves and, in turn,

you will lose marks. Whereas if you strip out all the unnecessary infor-

mation, what remains will stand out and will have more impact.

As we’ve seen a number of times already, the key to this is structure.

If your readers are clear what part the information plays in the overall

scheme of things, they can process it successfully and put it in its

appropriate place. But if the structure’s weak, they’ll have to re-read

it to make sure they’ve understood it, or, if they’re not so scrupulous,

they’ll just miss much of what you’re saying. The key to this, then, is

to create a clear structure within which you use only those facts, quo-

230 Writing

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