Essay writing for verbal people

A good essay is like a great conversation. In writing it you have to have a great conversation with your audience. This involves imagining the questions your listener will ask and answering them quickly, clearly and in ways that keep your listener captivated.

Stop for a second and think about what stops you from listening to someone.

Ø    Is the person’s tone and information boring or dry?

Ø    Has he left out all the interesting examples and failed to convey the drama or emotion of the situation?

Ø    Has he been vague or bland or unnecessarily general? Has he used words like “sort of” or “kind of” which show he doesn’t really know or hasn’t done his research? (Was it 5pm or not?)

Ø    Has he mumbled or rambled?

Ø    Has he failed to convince you he knows what he is talking about? (Has he used words like “stuff” or “things” to cover up a lack of knowledge: “Stuff happened…” “Things went wrong…” What happened!? What went wrong!?)

Ø    Has he failed to convince you that this topic is interesting?

Ø    Is he unclear? Is this because the sentences are convoluted or confusing or because the story or argument is poorly structured? Has he put things in a confusing or illogical order?

Ø    Does it feel like he’s talking to the wrong person – like his story is actually aimed at someone else?

Ø    Do you feel as if you’ve read a lot of words and none of it has stuck, but you can’t be bothered reading it all again?

Now stop for a second and think about what keeps you involved in a great conversation with someone.

Ø    Is she such an expert on her topic (whether it’s nuclear physics or TV shows) that instantly you trust what she’s saying?

Ø    Is she so passionate about her topic that you are quickly involved and interested in her topic and what she’s saying?

Ø    Does she tell fascinating anecdotes that are dramatic and interesting and illuminate something bigger that she’s trying to say?

Ø    Does she remember and describe the precise detail of people and events so the story feels alive and immediate – you can see smell, taste, hear and touch it? Do you feel all the emotions and know exactly what’s going on? (eg. “The train brakes failed for the first time at 5:02. At that moment, the train was doing 206 miles per hour and heading straight for Nagasaki Station.”)

Ø    Is she clear and concise – i.e. is she easy to understand and precise in her words and examples so that her story keeps moving forward and revealing new and interesting pieces of the puzzle?

Ø    Does she make you feel that she is speaking directly to you and no one else?

Ø    Does it feel as if she is carefully structuring their information – choosing the words, sentences and their order very carefully – so that they make perfect sense specifically to you?

Ø    Do you finish listening with a clear and memorable picture of what you’ve just heard, and feeling as if you could listen for much longer than you have time for?

The challenge here is to avoid all the mistakes that stop you from listening to someone and use all the skills that keep people engaged and involved in great conversations, but in an essay. The above lists can be used as checklists for when looking for ways to improve your essay from one draft to the next.

Verbal people are often social people. They thrive on interactivity – getting feedback from the person they are talking with. Nods, encouraging noises and statements like “Uh-huh”, “Mmm” and “Yeah – exactly!” are the kind of feedback they look for to make sure they’re on the right track. They also tend to give chunks of information and then give the listener a turn: a chance to ask questions – to ask for clarification or more explanation. In writing, these cues are not visible, but they’re still there. Bad essay writing forgets that all writing is basically one half of a great conversation. The other half is made up of all the questions the audience asks, silently, of every writer, every time they read an essay.

So, if we could hear this silent audience, how would this conversation sound? What are his or her questions?

Obviously, the answer depends a little bit on the audience and the topic, but below are some general ideas. You should develop and expand this list. Be critical of it. But you should also learn it, so that every time you sit down to write, you have a framework to use to build a great essay: by imagining yourself answering your audience’s questions and using every word, every sentence, every piece of punctuation – every tool in your toolbox: metaphor or poetry or exaggeration or humour or rhetoric or referencing – to make your essay as captivating as possible.

The listener’s (the reader’s) questions and the great writer’s answers:

The Beginning

(The introduction)

Ø             “What do you want to talk about?” (And sometimes: what don’t you want to talk about?)	Ø             Introducing a topic involves outlining what is and sometimes what isn’t going to be a part of the conversation.
Ø             What terms do I need to understand?	Ø             Tricky terms may need to be clarified. Sometimes ordinary terms are “tricky” in this sense. The words “fashion” or “friendship”, while common, may have different meanings in a conversation about Jane Eyre than it does in a conversation about contemporary teenage magazines.
Ø             What topics are you going to cover?	Ø             You may need to give the reader a sense of where they’re heading. Like the contents page in a bigger book, you might need to outline the path you’re going to take. This can make a reader feel comfortable and trust that you know what you’re talking about.
Ø             Is it going to be interesting?	Ø             I think this is the most important function of an introduction. You have to capture the reader’s interest and say that she should have this conversation with you and not with anyone else or about anything else. This is the essay she should read, right now! You must say: “Yes! This is going to be interesting. Read on! Listen to me and let me show you what happened next.”

The Middle

(The Body Paragraphs)

Ø             “Tell me more about that!” (an idea you announce in the introduction)	Ø             Somewhere in the paragraph – usually at the beginning – the writer states what the paragraph is about. The best topic sentences are intriguing or a little bit contentious and need to be explored in more detail.
Ø             “Really!?” (Can you give me an example of what you mean? Or maybe even more than one example…)	Ø             The best writers give examples that are detailed, engaging and relevant, and not too long.
Ø             “Really!?” (Can you give me evidence – statistics, surveys, opinions form others experts, for example – that support what you’re saying?)	Ø             Good writers use evidence that shows that their idea or examples reflect a position which is widely applicable or believed.
Ø             “So?” (Can you explain the significance of what you’re saying?)	Ø             The writer has to make the link back to the overall argument. Each paragraph is one part of the puzzle and in some way the writer has to at least suggest how this piece fits into the larger puzzle. This relates back to the introduction, sets up the conclusion, and also (in good essays) prepares the reader for the next paragraph or idea. This means your essay has a clear and logical structure. A leads to B which leads to C, which all add up to a clear and persuasive argument.
Ø             “And then what?” Ø             “What happened next?”	Ø             If you create these questions in your reader’s mind, you’ve won the battle for their interest! Keep going! Show them what happened next. There are no fixed rules for how many body paragraphs your essay should have, but each should build on the next until you feel the puzzle is completed or the story fully told. Use just enough paragraphs to do this. Use too many and it’s boring; use too few and bits are left out and for the reader it’s confusing.

The End

(The Conclusion)

Ø             “Hang on. Can you just briefly explain how everything fits together? (Summarise it for me in a few short, sharp memorable sentences.)	Ø             Wrap it up. Good writers can bring the threads of their arguments together quickly and memorably. If the middle paragraphs are clear and well ordered, making a conclusion is easy.
Ø             “So what? Why is it interesting or important?” (Persuade me that what you’re saying is both true and meaningful or important.)	Ø             Good essays finish with passion as well as clarity. Good writers have a way of making the idea seem worthy as well as clear. They don’t always state this overtly – it can be something kept in the language. Using strong, clear sentences and bold, compelling images will sometimes do the job.

A summary of the questions:

BEGINNING

Ø    “What do you want to talk about?” (And sometimes: what don’t you want to talk about?)

Ø    What terms do I need to understand?

Ø    What topics are you going to cover?

Ø    Is it going to be interesting?

MIDDLE

Ø    “Tell me more about that!” (“that” is an idea you announce in the introduction)

Ø    “Really!?” (Can you give me an example of what you mean? Or maybe even more than one example…)

Ø    “Really!?” (Can you give me evidence – statistics, surveys, opinions form others experts, for example – that support what you’re saying?)

Ø    “So?” (Can you explain the significance of what you’re saying?)

Ø    “And then what?”

Ø    “What happened next?”

Ø    Repeat this conversation for each paragraph in the body of the essay, as many times as necessary.

END

Ø    “Hang on. Can you just briefly explain how everything fits together? (Summarise it for me in a few short, sharp memorable sentences.)

Ø    “So what? Why is it interesting or important?” (Persuade me that what you’re saying is not just accurate but is also something I should remember.)

The two key mistakes verbal writer’s make

This goes back to the lists of good and bad conversations, but verbal people often structure their work like a conversation. A conversation free to loop back on itself and go in circles depending on what questions the listener asks or what else is going on. In an essay, this isn’t appropriate. It should be clearly ordered and move smoothly from one idea to the next only when each idea has been fully explored and explained. This involves planning. And planning allows you to be patient. With a plan, you design the overall structure of your essay, meaning it will flow logically and smoothly. With a plan that’s written down – even just a few key words with scribbled arrows showing their order - you know where you a re going. This mans you don’t have to worry about forgetting what you wanted to say or rushing to get there, so you can take your time and properly explain what you mean at each step of the way. You can, and should, include all the examples, evidence and explanation that each point deserves, and move on only when you feel that you’ve done your job: that part of the story has been fully told and your reader is ready to ask “And then what?” “What happened next?” In short: write a plan.

Verbal language is different from written language in that people in a conversation can check with each other so are able to use words like “stuff” and “things” and “sort of” or “like” in quite precise ways. If I know that the person I’m taking to knows everything that John is going through, then saying “John has a lot of stuff going on” is a precise and economical statement. I can check this by saying: “you know…?” and watching to see how the listener reacts. If she nods in a particular way I will know that she has understood what I’m saying; if she looks confused I will know I need to explain more about what is going on with John. In an essay, the information has to be in the essay. Understanding exactly what I can safely assume my reader knows – such as who the characters in the story are, for example – allows me to keep moving without always explaining myself. But I need to be precise about things which the reader may not know or agree with, such as my interpretation a certain character’s motivations at a particular point in the book. I can assume they know who John is, for example, but I have to be clear about exactly what I mean by John’s “stuff”. In short: any words that are vague or imprecise should stand out like a beacon and remind you to edit, re-edit, do more research and clarify exactly what you are trying to say. Vague words should not be used in essays. Aim to be detailed and accurate. This means more work, but sometimes you know the answer already but just have a bad habit of assuming that the reader will know (or already knows) what you mean instead of actually saying it.