Thursday 18th September - Thinking about essays

We started the class with by reading George Orwell's "Why I write" (see link: http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw).

There were a couple of reasons for this: it is an example of some very good essay writing; it also touches upon education in general and, in particular, the importance of writing.

I asked students to come today with some kind of plan for their education essay. I highlighted the importance of knowing what the purpose or point of your essay is. So, I asked students to explain the purpose of their essays to the person sitting next to them. Then that person told the whole class what their partner's essay is going to try to achieve (ie. the purpose).

The aim of this exercise was to get students really thinking about the overall aim and structure of their essays. Sometimes we feel we have a secure sense of our essays but then seem to struggle when we try to communicate those thoughts to others. Of course, you will have to communicate those thoughts eventually in a piece of writing.

Obviously, you will not go through this activity with every essay you write but you will (or should) discuss assignments with your fellow students: it is one of the best ways to start making sense of your seemingly random thoughts on a subject. You’ll often find that other students have anxieties about their chaotic thoughts on an assignment or topic. This process of dialogue should put some shape and structure to your ideas.

We also looked at a representation of my (seemingly) chaotic thoughts on essay writing on the board. It was a messy diagram of everything that you need to think about when writing an essay. This, if you like, is what a plan for a book on essay writing might look like. The point is that a plan does not have to be a neat list of topics.

I then gave everyone their very own copy of a booklet on essay writing. I asked everyone to read it and think about three useful points that they encountered in their reading of the booklet (we'll take it up there from next week). If you weren't in today, I'll be in on Friday this week and Wednesday next week - you can swing by my office (115) and I'll give you a copy.

I set Thursday 02 October as the deadline for the education essay. My original question was "What is the purpose of education?" However, as I hoped, most people have adopted their own approach to that question. As such every essay will be different. You should re-title your essay to reflect the specific focus of your essay.

Expanding on the subject of education, we talked about a new German film that is being released on Friday ("Die Welle"). I'm hoping to bring some Higher English students to it at some stage. If anyone is interested, let me know by next week or post a comment here. See below for a link to an article in The Guardian about the film:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/16/schoolsworldwide.film