Guidelines for Writing for the Students of English Literature

Prepared for the students of literature by Tarun Tapas Mukherjee

Writing for Exams

Writing for exams is necessitated by either the evaluation of a course in any stage of learning or measuring the credit of a course after its completion. In the case of a literary course, examiners award marks on the basis of the following criteria:

Mastery of the language
Analytical skills of the learner
Expansion of knowledge
Accuracy level of expression
Musicality
Handwriting

So what do you need to do?

Address the issues while writing answers.

How to?

Mastering the language

Mastery of any language involves using it in a naturalised manner, that is, the language is no longer foreign to you and you have lived long enough inside it to claim it your own.

How to master?

There can be no exact method. However, naturalisation depends on the psychological acceptance of the language or feeling at home with it. To do so, we need to overcome the inhibitions imposed on us by our culture and primary language, and develop a love for the foreign language. For if you do not love something, it will always remain strange to you.

Then, you can proceed with the skills necessary for speaking and writing.

First, be a good listener and then a reader. Writing comes at last.

We are all familiar with enriching our vocabulary. However, a dictionary or a thesaurus is not something to be followed or memorised in isolation from the culture of idioms of the language. As language is a product of culture, it develops idioms over time due to interesting cultural twists. English is a heavily idiomatic language and so it is essential to understand the context of the idioms, phrases and group verbs and their usage in appropriate places.

This approach can lead to mastery of the language.

Analytical skills

Analytical skills depend primarily on the logical sense of the writer. Logic is the key which unlocks new areas of interpretation. However, in the Humanities, in many cases, long-held logical fallacies influence our thinking, and we end up in a circular pattern of thought. For this, students need to understand logical fallacies (as defined by Wikipedia, etc.) and revise their old perceptions and conclusions.

An acute sense of logic makes understanding theories less difficult and sometimes fallacies are detected in theories—for instance, patriarchal insertions.

However, apart from scientific logic, there is aesthetic logic, which may not always follow the former. However, in this case, one must be aware that aesthetic logic should not go against any human interests or rights.

Contextualization: Understanding depends much on the proper Contextualization of any being, becoming, or doing. Situating in the context of time, place, and other critical cultural factors makes the perspective bigger and sharper.

Comparison: Comparing a literary piece with other art forms helps in better understanding the aesthetic properties and principles as well as the theoretical aspects. Comparing Keats’s “Ode to Autumn” with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony No. 6 can elicit aesthetic reactions more effectively before the examiner.

Scientificity: students of literature have long followed an ardour of an almost religious nature in writing. This has no place now, no place for ambiguity and prophecy. It is better to include perspectives from the social sciences, evolutionary Aesthetics, evolutionary Psychology and genetics. Data mining can be done through the Internet.

Expansion of knowledge

The examiner measures the expansion of knowledge. However, it should not be a matter of showoff or display. Knowledge needs to be presented organically. That is, including things in a naturalized manner.

Accuracy level

The quality of answers depends mainly on the accuracy level. Accuracy depends on a thorough understanding of the subject and the skill of conveying it in language. This is not an innate quality, but rather a social skill that can be honed through practice. What matters most in a well-written piece is the appropriate use of words, phrases, and idioms. This makes the piece lucid in contrast to vague or complex pieces of writing.

Musicality

English is deeply musical in nature, owing to a rich tradition of literature and its widespread global use for a long time. A writer needs to understand this quality from the practice of great writers, particularly from Keats’s letters, and apply it to writing. For this, follow the iambic and trochaic practices and try to understand how specific patterns of ups and downs create melody in a piece of writing.

Handwriting

If it is handwritten, everyone knows it is important to have good handwriting. Search the web and see YouTube videos on Handwriting.

Finally, the spirit of writing

Remember the simple formula: Explain a part or the whole in relation to the central idea or thesis, or main theme of a literary piece. It is like creating a spiral out of a point, which is the centre of the spiral. For instance, Macbeth’s character needs to be analysed in relation to the central theme of the play, which is power play. It is essential to understand the central theme of any literary piece and then apply yourself with your knowledge, analytical skills, language skills, and musicality.

In the course of practice, the skills develop to become naturalised, and expressions come along naturally.

How to Write a Term Paper

Please note that writing term papers is your first step towards higher research in future.

Guidelines
A. Select your topic
B. Abstract: Include a thesis statement in the abstract, the central point of what you intend to discuss, argue, discover, establish, etc. Briefly introduce the theme and inform readers of your intended approach. The thesis statement or research question must be original, novel, and not outdated or clichéd. Avoid making the article a commentary, critical appreciation, or review.
C. Introduction: Introduce the scholarly problem/discovery/points of analysis.
D. Developing argument: Develop your arguments or establish your points with a detailed analysis supported by textual references and established critical opinions. Use inside-the-body citations. Verify the citations of authorities as well, as things may change over time and discoveries/insights may emerge.
Break your discussion into paragraphs based on reasoning to make the article thematically coherent and critically sound. All the paragraphs need to be thematically linked.
E. Conclusion: The conclusion should not be a summary of what you have already said before. You need to provide new insights/arguments/discoveries, etc, based on your arguments supported by the text and the critical opinions. So be confidently critical and definitive. Vagueness is to be avoided.
F. References: You need to prove that you have consulted enough critical opinions to make your points. Use at least ten references [not just names]

Full length: A full-length article needs to be 2000 words, ideally for the M.A. standard.
Avoid first-person view and pronouns, activistic utterances, gender/language/culture bias, and overstatement.

Please note that writing term papers is your first step towards higher research in the future
You can also follow
https://m.wikihow.com/Write-a-Term-Paper
https://www.aresearchguide.com/write-a-term-paper.html

Writing for Magazines

Magazines evolved as a platform for reflecting the hopes and aspirations of the middle class. For this, writers need to address the issues involved in such fulfilment. This led the writers to develop a style of presenting the content that would facilitate class communication stereotypically. The class alignment also made it possible for the classes in power to become an ideological site and tool. Of course, some exceptions made magazines a site for exchanging ideas that would change society with ‘ideas’.

After several centuries of development, magazines have evolved into a platform for popular content, featuring topics that the literate masses can understand and relate to in their own lives.

Due to this nature, magazines require popular writing. Now, if you want to write for a magazine, you will have to obey the popular rules set by its editors.

Selection of content: in a magazine, generally, content areas are decided by the editorial board, and authors need to respond to the call by keeping in mind the specific instructions. A magazine writer needs to make preparations accordingly.
Time-bound nature: writing for a magazine is mainly a time-bound task.
Word limit: Print magazines have limitations of page run. So the length of any piece is vital for the editor.
Language and style: A magazine author needs to adopt a style suitable for the general audience, and the language should be free from jargon.
Contemporaneity: Magazines publish more writings on contemporary subjects. Rarely do magazines publish things of the past, except in the form of in-memoriam tributes.
Flexibility: Magazines, however, possess greater flexibility than scholarly journals in that magazines can publish scholarly and creative writing as well.

Writing for an Academic Journal

An academic journal is primarily a venue for publishing original research works, new insights, or brief surveys and reviews, adhering to established international standards that stem from the tradition of scientific treatises, reflecting the spirit and guidelines of the Enlightenment. It has never been a place of repetition and in-memoriums. Academic journals never cater to popular taste nor endorse current ideologies. Its free nature encourages free thinking and fresh insights based on scientific temperament.

Why and when write for journals?

As already stated, academic journals are for the publication of original research for the existing scholarly readership, which is comprised of experts in the field and new researchers. So before writing for a journal, one must be thoroughly acquainted with the established research in the field through books and journals. After spending sufficient time, a researcher in the Humanities can proceed to present individual original insights, discoveries, and research, preferably in consultation with a supervisor or expert. Several publications does not matter much. What matters most is the originality of the research, the depth of insight, and the rigorous scholarly discipline.

Peer review

The concept of peer review emerged within the scientific community to verify the validity of research and its findings. When the humanities started following it, it came to refer to a group of experts in the field who can judge the importance and validity of research. They are referred to as reviewers in a journal. In peer review, reviewers are expected to show their scholarly integrity and professional ethics. It is more a matter of guiding budding scholars than a matter of exercising power from a high altar.

Guidelines

Include a thesis statement in the abstract: the central point of what you intend to discuss, argue, discover, establish etc. Briefly introduce the theme and inform readers of your intended approach. The thesis statement or research question must be original and novel and not outdated or clichéd. Avoid making the article a commentary, critical appreciation or review.
Introduction: Introduce the scholarly problem/discovery/points of analysis.
Developing argument: Develop your arguments or establish your points with a detailed analysis supported by the textual references and the established critical opinions. Use inside-the-body citations. Verify the citations of authorities as well, as things may change over time and discoveries/insights may emerge.
Break your discussion into some parts based on reasoning in order to make the article thematically coherent and critically sound. All the parts need to be thematically linked.
Conclusion: The conclusion in a journal article should not be a summary of what you have said before. You need to provide new insights/arguments/discoveries, etc, on the basis of your arguments supported by the text and the critical opinions. So be confidently critical and definitive. Vagueness is to be avoided.
References: You need to prove that you have consulted enough critical opinions in order to make your points. Use at least 20 references [not just names]
Full length: A full-length article should ideally be 5,000 words.
Avoid first-person view and pronouns, activistic utterances, gender/language/culture bias, and overstatement.
The language should be of an international standard.