LIR RESPATI BUMIDAYA
Friday, November 11, 2011
16c How to write well in an essay
I can give you tips to improve the clarity of your writing, but the best way to become a good writer is to expose yourself to good writing. Often, I have to say, theologians are terrible writers – or, their work is read by us in translation from German or Latin. You aren’t going to learn to write from them. You are, however, going to improve your ability to write by picking up a George Eliot novel, or a Jane Austen, or an Ernest Hemingway. (Find the English or History major in your class and ask them what they are reading!)
And anyhow, as a developing pastor-theologian, you should be cultivating the reading life. A young pastor I know has committed himself to reading for an hour a day – theology mostly, but certainly not only. While his example is outstanding, I am alarmed when I ask theological students in interviews whether they consider themselves a reader or not to find that most say ‘not really’. I am alarmed because these are people who are going to have words as the tools of their trade – shouldn’t they take every opportunity to sharpen them?
So what I am asking here is for a lifestyle choice. Become a reader – not because you will kick it in your theology essays, but because you will be a much better minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ if you are.
17. The art of signposting
The greatest essays come off because they are an integrated whole. They keep the reader's attention the whole way through - not because they have sparkling prose (though that's nice) but because they connect the ideas together well.
That is: they keep reminding the reader where they are in the argument, so the chances of getting lost are minimised. This is of course a very helpful discipline for the writer, because it asks her to ask herself - 'where am I up to? What does this bit contribute to the whole of the essay?'
There are a couple of ways to do this.
1) use headings. I used to be opposed to headings in essays, chiefly because I was a snob about such things. ('Surprise me', I hear you say). But I have changed. The use of a few headings can, with a minimum of words, communicate to the reader the structure of your piece quite brilliantly and elegantly. Now, I don't mean that every paragraph should have a heading. I would also counsel against points and subpoints and futher subpoints. That's just confusing. But if there are five identifiable phases of your essay, why not signpost them with a system of headings? It's economical and it keeps everyone up to speed.
2) use summative sentences. You may have just stepped your way through a very complex argument involving exegesis, historical theology and a jab an Eberhard Jungel for good measure. But when you come to a section break, don't assume that I have followed this all the way through - or that I can see what it contributes to the whole. Tell me.
They say when you begin to act that you should overact - that the stage requires you to magnify your actions so that the audience knows clearly what you are doing. Likewise, in an essay, you need to overact a bit: telling me explicitly what each bit of your essay has just done in a brief summative statement.
3) using questions that flow. A great way to ensure continuity is to introduce the next section of your piece with a question that comes out of the previous bit - which may also have been introduced by a question. Paul does this in his letters to brilliant effect - 'What shall we say then: shall we go on sinning, that grace may abound?' And you can follow his argument by stages because he signposts it with questions which he then proceeds to answer.
That is: they keep reminding the reader where they are in the argument, so the chances of getting lost are minimised. This is of course a very helpful discipline for the writer, because it asks her to ask herself - 'where am I up to? What does this bit contribute to the whole of the essay?'
There are a couple of ways to do this.
1) use headings. I used to be opposed to headings in essays, chiefly because I was a snob about such things. ('Surprise me', I hear you say). But I have changed. The use of a few headings can, with a minimum of words, communicate to the reader the structure of your piece quite brilliantly and elegantly. Now, I don't mean that every paragraph should have a heading. I would also counsel against points and subpoints and futher subpoints. That's just confusing. But if there are five identifiable phases of your essay, why not signpost them with a system of headings? It's economical and it keeps everyone up to speed.
2) use summative sentences. You may have just stepped your way through a very complex argument involving exegesis, historical theology and a jab an Eberhard Jungel for good measure. But when you come to a section break, don't assume that I have followed this all the way through - or that I can see what it contributes to the whole. Tell me.
They say when you begin to act that you should overact - that the stage requires you to magnify your actions so that the audience knows clearly what you are doing. Likewise, in an essay, you need to overact a bit: telling me explicitly what each bit of your essay has just done in a brief summative statement.
3) using questions that flow. A great way to ensure continuity is to introduce the next section of your piece with a question that comes out of the previous bit - which may also have been introduced by a question. Paul does this in his letters to brilliant effect - 'What shall we say then: shall we go on sinning, that grace may abound?' And you can follow his argument by stages because he signposts it with questions which he then proceeds to answer.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
16.b How to write well in an essay
(for regular readers, I am importing material from a previous short post just for tidiness' sake).
An essay is an attempt to find some clarity of thought on a subject. The following list of words are obstacles in the way of clarity of thought. When you find yourself using them, catch yourself and ask 'what am I really trying to say here?' - and then say that instead, without the bad word.
1. important (in what way? to whom?)
2. helpful (who is being 'helped'? helpful to do what exactly? 'helpful' is a word that preachers should stop using, too)
3. significant (to whom? so what?)
4. useful (how? who cares? useful for what purpose?)
5. interesting (how so? I am not interested at the moment just because you say this is interesting...)
Remember, these are tips rather than rules: but I notice how often these words become a shorthand for 'I don't quite know what to say here'. In particular, an essay calls you to make judgements - which many of us are afraid to do. What does 'useful' commit you to? Nothing at all! Scrub it and find something better to say.
Don't be afraid of metaphors either, or of using visual language to describe what you are doing in your argument. It is amazing to reflect on how prominent metaphors have been in advancing discoveries in the world of science. This is because metaphors have the power to yolk ideas together in new ways and thus show us something we haven't seen before. Don't be over the top with it, of course; and don't used tired metaphors that have become stock-in-trade. But a fresh image will open up all kinds of possibilities of thought.
Now I am afraid that I have to have a word with you about punctuation. I'm really not a punctuation fascist. Well, I used not to be, until I had to mark lots of theology essays. And I discovered: it just is simply the case that bad punctuation is a threat to civilisation itself. We punctuate our sentences for the same reason that we use cutlery and wear pants. Take the comma, for example: mostly, people just fill up a pepperpot with commas and then grind them over the page, so that they fall at random. Writing ought to have commas, they think. So, commas it shall have!
Now there are different schools of comma usage. I am a comma minimalist. Mostly, I think you can do without most of the ones we commonly use. I am not going to go through the uses of the comma here because you can easily find help on the web. (My favourite is http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/.) Do yourself the favour of checking those out before you go comma sprinkling.
Likewise, do check out the rules for using apostrophes (notice, not 'apostrophe's). This one is dead easy and should take you a minute to learn. It becomes confusing to read work in which plurals and possessives are all mixed up. And it look kinda highschoolish!
The best advice with punctuation is to use your ears - but not always. And when in doubt, see if a full stop will help things.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar