GENERAL GUIDELINES

What should my essay look like?

Your essay will have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Beginning:

Your opening, even for the shortest paper, will contain a thesis statement outlining the point of

your paper. This is where a paper like this differs from close reading exercises. You need to

develop an idea that connects your analysis of the texts you choose. This could be thematic, it

could be about form, or it might be about style. Your thesis statement will identify this cohering

idea. This is a statement that outlines what is at stake in this essay: the what; the how; and the

why of your paper. In short – tell me what it is that the essay is trying to do, how it will go about

this, and why I might wish to read any further! So – a thesis statement does three things:

1) WHAT? We observe something in the text that warrants further investigation.

2) HOW? How is it made apparent through the text itself that there is something here

of interest?

3) WHY? Why might this reveal more about the text to us – why is it worth making

this observation?

See the example below for how one might begin an essay of this length.

Example Opening:

Can Androids Even Dream? Sensory Nightmares of the Posthuman.

Title: A good way to think about your essay and its subject, is to think of a title. Titles should

sound like other titles of published books or articles, not like exam questions. So – for instance –

try and come up with a title that is open to debate, a debate which your essay will examine. The

first paragraph of your essay will develop the debate of the title, lay out the grounds, or the

reason why this might be an interesting way of looking at a particular text or texts. In short, it

will suggest a hypothesis, which the essay will then scrutinize.

Introduction paragraph: should be precise, outlining exactly what is at stake in the essay, how

the work will progress, and incorporate a thesis* that seems plausible while also being arguable.

*A thesis statement describes the what, how, and why of the paper. What is happening

here? How is it happening? Why is it important – or – what is at stake here?

Early in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), the protagonist Rick

Deckard reflects on his connection to

his artificial sheep:

He couldn’t live without it, his life would slowly drift away, he knew that

in the absence of the sheep he would miss its bleating and the sound of its

fake munching of the grass, even the smell of its wool in the rain. The

sheep, he knew, kept him alive just as surely as his wife did, it kept the

silence at bay (12).

Deckard’s reliance on and attachment to his sheep suggests that this novel is invested in determining

whether the human can coexist with the non-human animal and/or android [the what?]. The text

reveals in moments such as these, an anxiety regarding the human desire for and insistence on a sensory

experience when imagining their relation to the non-human [the how?]. This essay will consider

moments such as this in the novel to interrogate a seeming paradox in the treatment of the non-human

here as offering a more real experience than human – human relations. What is at stake here is a

reconfiguration of human relationships and our emergence into a post-human existence, leading to the

broader question of what it means to be human at all [the why?].

NOTE:

1. This example starts with a lengthy quote. You may imitate the format and bring in an

exemplary moment from the text to launch your argument. But it’s not required. Feel free to start

in other ways that fit your purpose.

2. While the phrase “this essay will consider” is a little obvious, it is better than having nothing at

all to let your reader know what you are trying to do. So, while there are certainly more

sophisticated ways of making this claim, and with practice you will find them, if you are lost for

how to begin, then begin with this. Even if you must use phrases such as “This paper examines…”

or “What is at stake here…”at least you are providing a signpost for your reader to follow. Assert

these principles throughout your paper and make the thesis statement the scaffold on which you

construct your argument. When you draft the paper it is good practice to use statements such as

this to make sure you are fulfilling the expectations of the essay. You can always edit these out

later and replace them with more sophisticated thesis statements.

MAIN BODY OF ESSAY: 3-5 PARAGRAPHS.

You should plan your essay as below so that each paragraph is built around a dominant

idea that comes from your thesis. You need to include two secondary sources to support that

idea, and examples from the text to illustrate it. Build your sentences around these pieces of

documentary evidence. Make sure that YOUR words dominate over any critics that you might

use, and make sure each sentence is complete, that it progresses from the previous sentence and

leads onto the following one. Each paragraph is like a mini-essay in itself, with an opening

declaration, a middle exploration, and a conclusion. Each should also offer a connection from

the preceding paragraph and on to the following paragraph. When you quote from the text (or a

critical article) make sure you analyze the quote, don’t just stick it on the page and leave it there.

There has to be a reason you draw attention to that particular piece of writing, and you must

demonstrate what that reason is. Analyze – don’t describe, so don’t rewrite the text – tell me

how the text achieves something significant that contributes to your argument.

QUOTE THE PRIMARY TEXT THROUGHOUT – this is the best and perhaps only way

to demonstrate to your reader that you are fully engaged with the material.

Conclusion and End:

This final paragraph should revisit the main points of the essay, but not necessarily repeat them.

Try and reword those ideas so that they seem fresh, and perhaps even reflect that they are open

to opinion – in other words – acknowledge alternatives while not relinquishing your own stance.

And finish strongly, build momentum rather than letting it diminish. This is the moment to let

your reader know how you see the relationship between your specific reading of a component

part and the text as a whole. Be positive, and let the text speak for you. This paragraph does not

exist to restate that thesis, but to evaluate it in light of the material discussed during the essay. A

good question to ask here is: What has changed from beginning to end? OR what have we

learned from beginning to end?

SEE LAYOUT GUIDE BELOW:

NOTE – below is a layout guide and not a writing guide. For example, don’t begin your

paper “Today I am writing” as it is below.

Layout Guide, or, How to format my paper:

Can Androids Even Dream? Sensory nightmares of the posthuman.

Today I am writing my paper about Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Android’s Dream of Electric

Sheep? and Alex Garland’s film Ex Machina (2015). I will put my name in the header, I will

type in 12 point font double spaced, I will number the pages, I will provide a word count at the

end, and a list of works cited (In short, I will follow MLA or Chicago formatting style and be

consistent – use Purdue OWL if in doubt: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). Titles are always

indicated in italics for paintings, movies, and books, and “inverted commas or quotation marks”

for poems and articles. I put the year the work was made in parentheses after the title,

particularly if I want to write about the context in which it was created. I could footnote it also.1

This reference would then lead to a recognizable entry in the “List of Works Cited” at the end of

my paper.

During the body of my paper I will of course quote from Dick’s novel. Perhaps I would write:

Deckard really likes his artificial sheep, he “felt that he couldn’t live without it” (12). Or, I could

quote more and indent the quote to separate it from the body of my essay. I do this with any

quote that is over 3 lines long – like this. Early in the novel Deckard reflects on his connection to

his artificial sheep:

He couldn’t live without it…he knew that in the absence of the sheep he

would miss its bleating and the sound of its fake munching of the grass.

The sheep, he knew, kept him alive just as surely as his wife did, it kept

the silence at bay (12).

I will always quote accurately from the source text (please be aware the quotes above are

invented!). If I indent the quote because it is quite long, I single space it. If my quote is too long

and I can’t fit it all in, I will use ellipsis…to show where I have left material out.

I should, throughout my paper, be thinking about the relationship between the novel and the film,

rather than writing a series of short unconnected analyses. In order to connect the works I have

chosen I might quote from critical sources about either text, perhaps from articles in JSTOR, or

1 Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (New York: Random House Del Ray, 1968 [1996]).

perhaps from the internet, maybe even from a book☺, but never from Wikipedia and blog pages

that only offer vague opinions about works. Interviews with authors could be useful, but always

with accurate referencing.

If I quote from a critical article, I will do so like this: As Megan Foley suggests, “Androids are

about to rule the world.”2 Again – I could footnote this article as I have (although the quote is

fake!), or I could put the reference in parentheses, and refer to the Works Cited again, like this:

As Megan Foley suggests, “Androids are about to rule the world” (Foley, 22). If it is obvious that

I am referring to Foley (as it is here) I could leave her name out and just give the page number. I

will not, and should not under any circumstances, do it like this: Megan Foley in her article,

“Prove You’re Human”: Fetishizing Material Embodiment and Immaterial Labor in Information

Networks, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 31:5, 2014: p, 22, suggests that “Androids

are about to rule the world.” I must provide a reference for something EVERY time I quote.

During the writing of my paper I will be building paragraphs around primary reading of words

and images, backed up by critical reading in secondary materials (not necessary for the first

paper). If I want to stress a particular word that is not a quote, I will italicize it – I will not use

“scare quotes.” I will not overly describe something – meaning I won’t narrate the story of the

novel or the film. I can take for granted certain things that are common knowledge – that the

instructor has read the novel, for instance, and watched the movie. I might still point out details

that are relevant to my analysis when appropriate, but I don’t need to point out the obvious.

While talking about something as subjective as fiction or film can be tricky, I will not resort to

vague abstractions, I will maintain specificity, I will be concise, I will locate/ground my thinking

2 Megan Foley, “Prove You’re Human”: Fetishizing Material Embodiment and Immaterial Labor in Information

Networks, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 31:5, 2014: p, 22.

in analysis of the text, and I will revise, revise, revise. I will model my paper on the outline

above.

Works Cited:

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Random House Del Ray, 1968

[1996].

Foley, Megan. “Prove You’re Human”: Fetishizing Material Embodiment and Immaterial Labor in

Information Networks, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 31:5, 365-379, DOI:

10.1080/15295036.2014.939682.