How to Write Better Essays

them, then we need to analyse them. In most cases this means we start

with words we use in everyday speech, in some cases sharpening and

tightening them, in others just unpacking their ambiguities. In the

process, this will more often than not give us the structure of our essay,

in terms of the arguments we need to explore and develop.

So, start by asking yourself, ‘How do I use the concept – do I use

it in more than one way?’ Take the concept of freedom. We tend to

talk about being free fromthings, like repression, constraints, and

restrictions of one form or another. I might say with some relief that I

am finally free from pain having taken tablets for pain relief, or that a

political prisoner has at last been freed from imprisonment. In both

cases we’re using the word in a negative way, in that something is being

taken away, the pain or the imprisonment.

In contrast, we also tend to use the word in what we might describe

as a positive way. In this sense the preposition changes from being free

fromsomething to being free todo something. We may say that,

because a friend has unexpectedly won a large amount of money, she

is now free to do what she has always wanted to do – to go back to

college, or to buy her own home. Governments, too, use the concept

in this way, arguing that the money they are investing in education will

free more people to get better, more satisfying jobs and to fulfil more

of their dreams.

Try it for yourself. Take the following question, which uses the

concepts of authority and power. As you tackle the exercise below, think

about how you use a concept like authority. If you find you use it in

more than one way, then you have a structure emerging: each way in

which you use it needs to be explored and its implications unwrapped.

Consider the question below and complete the exercise that follows

‘Authority amounts to no more than the possession of power.’

Discuss.

A Practical Example 17

Practice exercise 1

Interpreting the question

Underline what you consider to be the key concepts and then analyse

what you think are the main implications of the question.

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