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Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences

Department of Music and Performing Arts

Writing Guide

Contents

Conventions for written work..............................................................................................3

Submission and collection..................................................................................................3
Basic format....................................................................................................................... 3
Assessment Criteria........................................................................................................... 3
The essay writing process: behind the scenes...................................................................3
Planning, researching and writing your essay....................................................................3
Plagiarism.......................................................................................................................... 3
Oral presentations and exams............................................................................................3
Referencing, quotations and bibliographies........................................................................3
Format of your bibliography................................................................................................3
Using quotations and references in your essay..................................................................3
Sample essay text and bibliography...................................................................................3

This Writing Guide is largely based on the Speak-Write series of books produced by Anglia
Ruskin University. For more detailed discussion of the issues raised here, see the titles in
this series:
Stott, R. and Avery, S., 2001. Writing with Style. London: Longman
Stott, R. and Chapman, P., 2001. Grammar and Writing. London: Longman
Stott, R., Snaith, A. and Rylance, R., 2001. Making Your Case: A Practical Guide to Essay
Writing. London: Longman
Stott, R., Young, T. and Bryan, C., 2001. Speaking Your Mind: Oral Presentation and
Seminar Skills. London: Longman
For further guidance on Harvard referencing consult library web pages at:
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

Conventions for Written Work

Like all disciplines, Music, Creative Music Technology, Popular Music, Performing Arts and
Drama have conventions for the presentation of written work that we want you to follow. The
most important skill you will learn during your degree is the ability to communicate your ideas
clearly to do so, you need to understand the ground rules. This booklet sets out these
conventions for you. We urge you to read it carefully and to keep it with you when preparing
your written work.

Submission and Collection

All written work (except exams and any online assignments) is to be submitted by 5pm at the
i-Centre (MEL 002) on or before the deadline date. This deadline will vary from module to
module and it is your responsibility to ensure you know the relevant date (the module guide
for each module should clearly state the deadline date for the submission of work). You
should never attempt to hand-in work to individual lecturers, place it in staff
pigeonholes or email it directly to your tutor. Work submitted in this way will not be
accepted and will therefore fail. When handing-in work, you should obtain a receipt as
proof of submission. You are strongly advised to keep a copy of all work submitted.
Under University regulations, you are permitted to post your assignments to the i-Centre,
although this is entirely at your own risk. If you wish to submit written work by post, you
should first obtain a copy of the regulations governing the process from the i-Centre or
Faculty Office (Hel 245) and, of course, make sure you meet the detailed requirements of
these regulations
Work submitted mid-semester will be returned to you with feedback through the Faculty
Office within 20 working days of submission. End-of-semester work should be collected
from the Faculty Office after the relevant Departmental Assessment Panel has met. Please
do not ask staff for an earlier return of work as they are not permitted to do this (until the
DAP process is concluded, marks may still change). The Faculty Office will not hold work to
be returned indefinitely; uncollected work will be passed back to the i-Centre initially and, if it
remains unclaimed, will eventually be destroyed. It is essential to collect your work to see
markers comments and their advice on improvements to your work. Please also note that,
under the Data Protection Act, Anglia Ruskin, like all other universities, is not legally allowed
to give out results on the telephone.

You should ensure that you collect your end-of-semester work by week two of the
subsequent semester at the latest. Return of your work by post can only be arranged in
exceptional circumstances (for instance, in the case of chronic illness).

Basic Format
We expect you to abide by the following basic format rules when preparing all written work:
1. Specify your title: Your piece should clearly identify the essay title or set topic on which
you have chosen to write. We cannot assess the relevance of an answer if we do not know
which question you have chosen.
2. Pagination: Make sure you number your pages consecutively, including your
bibliography. Check that you submit every page and have stapled them together in the right
order (missing pages are a common cause of puzzlement for markers).
3. Assignment coversheets: All written work should be submitted with a standard Anglia
Ruskin University assignment coversheet, printable from your e-vision account for each
module on which you are enrolled. Most assignments are marked anonymously (the
exception being performance and video work), so your student number and barcode is the
only means of identifying your work. Please check this number is correct before submitting
your work and that you have the correct coversheet for the module and the assignment you
are submitting. Never borrow someone elses coversheet as this will specify their student
number, not yours.
4. Word-processing: We strongly recommend that you acquire word-processing skills
during your degree, if you dont already have them. Anyone unable to word-process is at a
severe disadvantage in applying for work, and keyboard skills are essential for making the
best use of todays information technology. Word-processing offers you obvious benefits
when writing essays: you can revise your drafts more efficiently, make use of spell-check
and word count software and keep backup copies easily. There are no penalties for
continuing to hand-write your essays, provided that they are legible and conform to the
conventions described in this booklet, and of course you will still have to hand-write
examination answers. However, you will be depriving yourself of a basic competence if you
do not learn word-processing.

5. Font size, line spacing and margins: Word-processed work should use a 12 or 14 point
font size, 1.5- or double line spacing and leave a margin of at least 3cms on either side of
your text so that there is plenty of room for the markers comments. Hand-written essays
should also have margins of this width. If you keep to the default settings of, for example,
Microsoft Word, these margins will be automatically set for you.
6. Quotation, References and Bibliographies: The correct ways of presenting quotations,
references and bibliographies are set out at the end of this booklet. If you do not follow these
instructions you will lose marks. If you make no attempt at referencing or compiling a
bibliography at all it is likely that your essay will be penalised, as it will not meet expected
learning outcomes or the appropriate assessment criteria.
7. Word-limits: All pieces of written work have a specified word limit that you must not
exceed. Getting used to writing concisely may be difficult at first, but, if done correctly, will
benefit your communication skills immensely. Do not confuse quantity with quality and
believe that the more you write the more marks you should receive. This is not the case; a
tightly edited and precisely expressed essay will always score more highly than a rambling,
repetitious and diffuse piece of work. The penalty for exceeding a word-limit is a very
damaging 10% deduction from your mark (this penalty means that an essay originally
marked at 2:1 standard, for instance, is demoted to a 2:2 classification). There is no formal
penalty for under-length work but you will lose marks if you fail to address important issues
when you have words to spare. It is usually possible to write much more on set essay topics
than the word-limit allows; under-length work therefore often fails to explore fully what the
question implies and is marked down accordingly.

Assessment Criteria
Each piece of written work will be returned to you with the Coversheet completed by the
marker. This provides an efficient way of indicating to you how you have performed in a
number of specified tasks. The Department also uses a number of general criteria to assess
the quality of your work, as follows:

is the answer written in correct English with few, if any, errors in grammar, syntax,
spelling and punctuation?

is the answer written with clarity and precision, avoiding clich and unsupported
generalisation?

does the answer respond properly, fully and directly to the question set?
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does the answer display a good, detailed knowledge of the text(s), performances(s) or
composition(s) analysed, including commentary on textual, dramatic or musical detail
where appropriate?

does the answer offer a cogent, structured and persuasive argument backed up by
relevant evidence?

is secondary or critical reading used sensibly and thoughtfully, and is it acknowledged

correctly?

is the answer correctly presented?

You may start to feel confident about some of these factors only after more experience of
writing university essays (which is one reason why the first year is a foundation year), but
each of them is important and gives you an indication of what your tutors are looking for
when they read your work.

The essay writing process: behind the scenes

The production of a good piece of academic work is a creative process that requires the
development of some specialised writing skills, as well as a sound knowledge of your
subject. Good essays are always carefully researched, planned and edited.
Students do not usually see each others essays and may never read a first-class essay
unless they are able to produce one themselves. The following section is an interview with a
tutor who sees hundreds of essays a year and who has become skilled in making minute
decisions about the quality of essays and adjudicating between borderline marks.
How would you define the essential features of an academic essay?
What I have to keep reminding my students, particularly in the first year when they have
been used to writing 'A' level essays, is that an academic essay is essentially an argument.
The problem with so many essays is that there is little or no argument. Essays generally
require you to demonstrate two things: (1) that you are familiar with the relevant raw material
and (2) that you can manipulate that basic, raw material in order to make a convincing
argument. Very often I find myself reading essays that demonstrate that the student knows
the material, even that they've undertaken days of research, but these essays do not
demonstrate an ability to mount and sustain an argument. The student instead regurgitates
either lecture materials or critical interpretations gleaned from secondary texts. The essay is
therefore descriptive but not analytical. It is more like a summary or paraphrase.

What are you looking for as you begin reading?

The first thing I look for is evidence that the student has engaged with the question right from
the start and is beginning to formulate an argument. The introduction is very important here;
I'm looking to see that a dialogue with the question has begun. I'm also looking for a context.
I want the student to tell me why his or her approach to the question is interesting and
important. Sometimes the context will be analytical, historical, sociological or philosophical or
sometimes the student will need to tell me that there's been a lot of debate in this area and
explain why. I'm looking for focus, for a voice that I feel confident with. Im looking for
someone who knows the area and is going to take me round the issues in an objective,
informed and interesting way.
What are the things that make you critical in reading essays?
I have a great aversion to unsubstantiated generalisations. When someone opens a
paragraph with a sentence like 'In the nineteenth century composers thought ..., I always
want to write in the margin Which composers? all of them? It is simply inaccurate and
uninformed to imply that they all thought the same thing. We are trying to encourage
students to be precise, subtle and careful in their thinking, but generalisations of this kind
betray exactly the opposite faults.
I also find that in some essays the student is offering up lots of good, technically accurate
material but without an argument and without answering the question. These are descriptive
essays and I want to say 'don't just tell me what happens, analyse it, give me an argument, a
point of view'.
Punctuation and spelling errors also preoccupy me as I read. When there are many errors I
feel the student has not checked their work through and then you know they don't really care
about it or they've rushed through it. I want to see evidence that the student has given the
essay as much care and attention as I am giving it. I want to see that they have taken the
business seriously.
How would you describe the best essays you see?
A First Class essay will surprise me or make me think differently about the subject or present
the material in a new way. First Class work is always well written and has an originality that
makes it a pleasure to mark. There will always be an argument that is carefully controlled
and that answers the question, with good or even compelling evidence to back up all the
main points. There are many ways of getting a First. There isn't a formula to follow because
everyone has different strengths and ways of writing.
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How would you describe the essays that you fail or which get very low pass marks?
The essays I fail have usually gone very wrong, often in more than one way. They will
usually make very little sense, be poorly expressed, lack coherence, and will be full of errors
in grammar, punctuation and spelling. They are unlikely to engage with the question in any
way and will probably be made up of superficial and general descriptions with undirected
waffle as padding. The essays that pass, but only just, will probably consider the question in
some way but lack much argument and make little detailed or telling reference to the actual
topic. They are also likely to contain unsubstantiated generalisations and will be
inadequately edited and proof-read.
How important is presentation?
It is occasionally possible to get high marks with a poorly presented essay, although to do so
the content must be of an exceptionally high quality. I've given First Class marks once or
twice to essays which have been well written, original, carefully structured and argued, but
which have been badly presented because of almost illegible handwriting. The carefully
word-processed essay with wide margins, clear paragraphs, indented quotes and full
references makes such a good impression right from the start and shows that the student
has taken the work seriously.

Can you judge an essay just by looking at it?

In many ways, yes. Some problems with essays are very visible. When students have a
problem with structuring you can usually see it before you read it. Paragraphs will be very
short, sometimes only one sentence, and the look on the page is one of fragmentation, a
series of little pieces. These essays are usually rushed, with ideas expressed randomly and
disconnected from each other. In essays with less acute structuring problems, you can still
find that paragraphs start in peculiar places because the writer doesn't really what know the
main point of this particular paragraph should be. This is usually because the student is
finding their way as they go rather than starting with a plan. It's a fault in the planning stage.

Where do you feel students throw most marks away?

Proof-reading and editing. Most students dont spend enough time on this. Sometimes when
there are a lot of mistakes, you suspect that the student has not bothered to read the essay
through at all. Submitting a piece of work straight from the printer without reading it back
carefully will guarantee that it is marred by silly errors. When I correct mistakes in
punctuation and spelling or suggest paragraph breaks here and the deletion of a repetitive
sentence or two there, I feel that the student should have done this at the final draft stage,
not me. If only the student had taken an hour or two to read the essay aloud to him or herself
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they would be able to find more direct and fluent ways of saying what they mean. Editing and
proof-reading is vital.

Planning, researching and writing your essay

The creative processes behind essay writing are complex and often invisible. The following
sections offer a way of thinking about these processes, but are not a set of rules or a
guaranteed route to gaining high marks. Each of the stages listed below may be done well or
badly, so it is not sufficient merely to complete each to produce a high quality essay. Some
stages may also be more important for one piece of work than for another. However, for the
majority of essays, the crucial stages of the writing process are as follows:
1. Give yourself enough time: At the beginning of each semester, look up the submission
dates for all of your assignments on the modules you are taking.

You will find this

information is each module guide in section 5, on Assessment. You will often have more
than one assignment to complete for each module and you are likely to find that
assessments deadlines are clustered together in weeks 11 and 12. You will need to decide
how to stagger this work in advance. It is difficult to write two or more substantial essays in
a week to a high standard, so plan your time to allow you to complete each of the steps
below for all your written work.
2. Think about the question carefully: What does the question ask you to do? Think over
its wording, pull it apart, analyse it, use a dictionary or specialist glossary to check the
precise meaning of any terms you are not completely confident about. Identify the key
words these help you focus on exactly what the requirements are. The time you spend
clarifying the meaning of the question is time well spent, as it will stop you researching the
wrong information and help you to focus on the main topic areas that the marker will expect
to be covered.
Also consider the type of essay you are being asked to write. Many essay titles will contain
one or more of the words in the table below and you should ensure that you are clear about
their meaning so that you provide the required response to the question.

Analyse

Discover the meaning or essential features of something. Break down

into its essential component parts. Take apart an idea, concept or
statement in order to consider all the factors involved.

Compare

Look for similarities and differences. It may be possible to make a

reasoned decision about which element you prefer, although balanced
argument is expected.

Criticise

Requires an examination of mistakes or weaknesses and an indication

of strengths.

Contrast

Make a distinction by comparing opposite or dissimilar things or

qualities.

Define

Explain the precise meaning of something taking into consideration its

context.

Discuss

Examine or consider a matter. Debate it; provide argument for and

against. Try to reach conclusions.

Evaluate

Judge or assess the worth of something. Make sure that you justify,
through reasoned and supported argument, your conclusions as to its
value. Similar to discuss although firmer conclusions are expected
here.

Examine

Inspect or scrutinise carefully and in detail.

Explain

Make comprehensible / give a clear and detailed account of.

Justify

Show to be reasonable. Justifications will invariably need discussion,

argument and means of support usually in the form of references.

Reflection

Careful thought, especially the process of reconsidering previous

actions, events, or decisions.

Summarise

Express concisely, giving the main points.

Synthesise

Combine ideas, from a variety of sources, into a complex whole. Draw

upon the generalisable and make particular to the area under
discussion.

3. Marshalling ideas: Jot down all the ideas you can think of in relation to the question
topic. Some people like to use a spider diagram with lines joining up ideas to help them
map out connections at this stage. Try to consider counter-arguments too, showing that you
are able to think around a subject and see it from as many different sides as possible. This
exercise should enable you to identify the areas that you will need to research. List what you
need to know or find out before you can provide evidence to back up your ideas.
4. Gathering material: Your material is likely to be drawn from a number of different
sources: lecture notes, seminar notes, primary texts or scores, secondary critical texts and
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information from articles in journals and other textbooks. You should certainly re-read the
primary text or re-consider the score with the terms of the question at the front of your mind,
underlining or highlighting crucial passages or sequences. You are likely to find many
important details directly relevant to the question now that did not strike you when reading
more disinterestedly.
Secondary reading comprises critical, historical, biographical or other studies that establish
the interpretative context for Music, CMT, Popular Music, Performing Arts or Drama. Select
your secondary materials carefully, as you are unlikely to have time to read everything
available on a particular playwright, technique, movement or composer. Use contents and
index pages to find relevant material in secondary texts, reading whole chapters if they seem
likely to be directly relevant to the question you are tackling. Be sure to keep full
bibliographical details (always at least name of author, title, sub-title, date and place of
publication and publisher) of all the secondary texts you consult. Note the page numbers of
any sections that you mean to refer to or quotations that you might use (you will not want to
waste time tracing the sources of quotations again later in the writing process).
It is impossible to give a definitive indication as to how much secondary reading you need to
undertake. A critical commentary on a set passage, for example, may require no background
reading at all. Other modules may ask for knowledge of historical context, for example, and
you will need to undertake research for this. Each module guide will provide you with
bibliographies relevant to the material studied, and you can also consult your lecturers or
seminar leaders about your choice of reading. No module will require you to plough along
the library shelves to gain an exhaustive knowledge of a particular topic. But secondary
reading is often useful as a stimulus to your own ideas or to provide background knowledge.
Nevertheless, your main attention should always be directed to the primary compositions or
texts that you are asked to study in your modules. It is your detailed knowledge of, and
thinking about, these works that will form the core of your written work and provide your best
opportunity of gaining good marks. No secondary reading can replace this detailed first-hand
analysis.

5. Organising, selecting and planning: When you are satisfied that your research from
primary and secondary sources has given you adequate material to deal with the essay
question, it is time to construct a plan for how you will order this material. You need to
organise your ideas and evidence into a sequential argument, where one idea or piece of
evidence leads on to the next. The essay plan will be your map you are going to take your
reader on a journey and you need to have a route and to be able to rationalise why you have
11

taken this route rather than another. This is where counter-arguments come in; these are
very useful as a way of showing the other routes that might have been taken and will help to
define your particular point of view against alternatives.

An essay plan might simply consist of a sequence of your main ideas written in logical order
on a side of A4 paper. Another planning method is to write your main ideas on a series of
cards and shuffle their order until you find the best sequence in which to present your points.
In either case, you must ensure that your points follow one another smoothly and that you
avoid abrupt and confusing transitions in the essay itself.
6. Writing an abstract or thesis statement: At this stage, you should have a clear idea
about the main argument that you intend to put forward in the essay. To test how clear your
argument is, try to write a thesis statement that sets out what the essay will be about, and
what case you, the author, will be making. Sometimes you might choose to incorporate this
thesis statement into the introduction; sometimes you will incorporate it into the conclusion,
depending on when you want the reader to know your argument fully. (Note that when
writing a substantial piece of work, like a dissertation, the thesis statement becomes an
Abstract, a separate item on its own page.) Writing a thesis statement at an early stage will
help you stay focused on the question and your answer to it.
7. Clarity grammar and punctuation: It is essential that you express yourself clearly
when you write. It might be obvious to you what you are saying, but is it obvious to everyone
else? You need to be able to express exactly what you mean and not leave it up to the
marker to work this out. Poor grammar will often make what you are saying confusing or
even incomprehensible. Consider, for example, the length of your sentences and their
construction. Short sentences requiring little punctuation work better than long, badly
punctuated ones.

A sentence that you cannot say aloud, without drawing a breath, is almost certainly too long.
Split it into two or even three shorter sentences. Not only will your style be less clumsy, this
change should also convey the points you want to make more effectively. However, it may
be that a long sentence is not making too many points, but is taking too long to make one
point, perhaps with irrelevant diversions. If so, be ruthless and remove the excess. Note,
however, that a sequence of very short sentences is not stylistically effective either this
often implies simplistic thought processes. Use semi-colons and commas to vary sentence
length.
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Punctuation: the semi-colon

Look at these two sentences from a passage about football:
a) The rich young men at these schools (which were in fact private rather
than public) had nowhere to hunt, fish, ride or otherwise use up their
energies; all they could do outside school hours was kick a ball in the
schools open spaces.
b) Whole teams would rush back and forward on the field with the ball kept
close at their feet; there were no passes or long kicks, and some of the
rules used in those days were nearer to rugby than soccer.

The semi-colon (;) serves as a kind of halfway mark between a period (.) and a comma (,).
Each of the long sentences shown above could be written as two sentences, with a period
instead of a semi-colon, but writers sometimes prefer semi-colons in order to show a
particularly close connection.
Sometimes several options are possible, as shown in the following table:
Examples
1 The ship sank. Eighteen lives were lost. It

Usage
clear, separate, short sentences, but

was a great tragedy.

reads rather simplistically.

2 The ship sank; eighteen lives were lost. It was

the first two sentences are closely

a great tragedy.

related as cause and effect, while the

third sentence is a separate comment.

The semi-colon is often used to show causes and effects, as well as a variety of other logical
relationships:
a) The work was inadequate; the project failed.
b) The work was inadequate; consequently, the project failed.
c) The work was inadequate; however, the project could still be saved.

Punctuation: Using Commas

The table below shows some common sentences structures where commas should be
used:
Examples

Usage
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There was a bus twice a week, but it was

The comma separates parts of

necessary to walk three kilometres to where the

compound sentences.

bus waited. It was never a big place, but to me it

had more houses than there were stars in the
sky.
down the steep, rocky path

The comma separates items in a list.

I saw wide, flat fields

In those days, the journey . . .

The comma separates a special word or

Nowadays, the villagers . . .

phrase from the rest of a sentence.

These are three typical uses of commas. Absolute recommendations about comma use are
difficult to give, but the following points are important:

periods (or full-stops) are essential, but commas are often optional.

commas are used to separate pieces of information inside a sentence. If, however,
one piece of information is intended to flow smoothly into another, then it may not be
a good idea to put a comma between them.

the separation of one piece of information inside a sentence from another is often (in
English at least) a matter of personal choice. The separation may depend on what a
writer wants to emphasise.

when shorter sentences are combined into longer ones (usually, simple into
compound and complex), periods tend to be replaced by commas.

Too many commas on a page are no better than too few.

At this stage of planning your essay, it is more important that you get your ideas written
down in a rough draft than to produce a beautifully polished piece of prose. Once you have
made a start, you can begin the process of polishing and improving your work stylistically,
ensuring that it is grammatically correct, deciding on sentence length and punctuating
effectively. Aim to improve the clarity and fluency of your essay as you work through the
stages below.
8. Writing the main body of your essay: Begin writing according to your essay plan,
revising it if new evidence and ideas arise, but restricting yourself at this stage to evidence
gathered from primary and secondary sources that substantiate your main argument. As you
go on, note down any new angles that are tempting to follow; these may come in useful
14

when you are reviewing the essay later. Keep the argument close to the surface, concisely
summarise one point before you move on to the next (but avoid unnecessary repetition) and
pay careful attention to transitions from one part of your argument to the next. Make sure
that you start a new paragraph for each distinct idea. The main body of your essay will be a
series of related paragraphs, as examined in the section below.
9. Paragraphs The Building Blocks of Essays: Essays are made from groups of
statements placed in a logical order. These are grouped in paragraphs to form coherent,
relatively self-contained units. A sequence of these units makes up an essay, but it also
composes an argument that responds to a question or develops a topic. Before we start
thinking about how ideas are organised into an argument in an essay, we need to look at the
composition of paragraphs. How many elements are there in a paragraph? How flexible or
rigid should a paragraph be? Should the one-sentence paragraph, regularly used in tabloid
newspaper comment sections, be avoided, and if so, why?
In academic essays, there is a distinction between the parts and the paragraphs of an essay.
By parts we mean the main divisions of the structure of an essay: the introduction, the main
body and the conclusion. The main body of the essay will be divided into a number of
paragraphs. The introduction and conclusion of the essay may also comprise more than one
paragraph as well. Each point in the essay may be discussed in one paragraph, or you may
need two, or even three, linked paragraphs to discuss it fully.
Paragraphs are not all the same length in academic essays; instead, the length of a
paragraph is determined by how much there is to say about a particular point. However,
paragraphs that are very short or very long should, usually, be avoided. If you find yourself
writing many very short or very long paragraphs then there may be something wrong with
your arrangement of points in your essay plan. Also remember that paragraphs need to be
related to each other using linking devices and that, within paragraphs, you need to sustain a
logical progression of thought.

Consider the following points when structuring your paragraphs:

Is there one main idea in the paragraph?

That main idea should be set out in a topic sentence (or sentences if further
elucidation is needed) either near the beginning of the paragraph or as its concluding
sentence.
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The topic sentence(s) must contribute to your argument; it should make a claim or
offer a particular interpretation of aspects of the work. If you find yourself simply
paraphrasing a primary text or describing a musical score, you are not offering an
argument about it or an interpretation of it. Rethink the topic of the paragraph if this
happens.

The evidence which will support your topic sentence(s) comes next. Evidence can take the
form of specific details in the score or text and quotations from relevant critical works.
Remember that examples or quotations may need further comment or interpretation from
you too. Do not just string quotations together; if you include them, you need to show which
points they are supporting and why they are relevant. Often you will receive most credit for
detailed, close reading and interpretation of scores or texts that you undertake yourself,
rather than for readings borrowed (even when properly acknowledged) from secondary
sources. Giving concise quotations from primary sources to back up your interpretation is
one of the most effective ways to substantiate your own arguments about the work.
Finally, the paragraph needs to conclude. This may be through a summary sentence or a
sentence that prepares the reader for the next paragraph.
So, to summarise, in a paragraph we are looking for:

a topic sentence,

evidence to support the topic sentence,

further comment on that evidence,

a concluding sentence that prepares the reader for the next paragraph.

10. Writing the introduction: The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's
attention and give him or her an idea of the essay's main argument. There is no fixed
formula for introductions but you are likely to do some or all of the following:

Focus on the objective of the essay. What is your 'driving' or dominant argument,
what do you intend to show? Tell the reader about your argument before you begin it.

Establish the question you are addressing. This might be analytical, historical, or
theoretical depending upon the question being asked.

Engage with working definitions of any key terms in the question (for example, how
do we define Modernism? Are there conflicting definitions? What problems do such
definitions throw up?).
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Engage with the terms of the question and relate these to the line of argument you
are going to offer in your essay.

It is often sensible to write your introductory paragraphs last, when you know precisely what
you are introducing. When the main body of your essay is drafted, you will have a much
clearer idea of where your argument has taken you and how to summarise it in an
introduction.
11. Writing the conclusion: The conclusion brings closure to the reader, sums up your
points or provides a final perspective on your topic. You have been making a case, so use
your final words to make sure you have made it. Be careful not to weakly fizzle out, end
abruptly or merely repeat points already made. Make the conclusion strong and
authoritative. Perhaps keep a telling point in favour of your argument up your sleeve to
deploy in the conclusion. You might want to refocus the reader's attention on where they
started and the point they have reached through your guidance. Some conclusions will
summarise the argument, others will look forward to anticipate further questions or issues
that arise from the material in the essay. An essay must end in a controlled way, rather than
simply stop.
12. Editing: You should now have drafted all of the paragraphs of your essay. Before you
can consider this a finished product, however, you must give more thought to order, format
and presentation:

Check the unfolding of your argument and order of your paragraphs: Does
each paragraph lead on logically from the previous one or does the argument get lost
in places? Where is the argument strongest, where is it weaker? Can you find
additional evidence to improve weak sections? Should you re-order some
paragraphs to improve the clarity of the argument? Have you provided evidence for
each point as you progress in adequate detail?

Check your writing: Read and reread your essay annotate it with a red pen. Try to
anticipate the marker's comments. Does it make logical sense? Leave it for a few
hours and then read it again. Does it still make logical sense? Do the sentences flow
smoothly from one another? If not, try to add some words and phrases to help
connect them (transition words, such as therefore or however, sometimes help,
although use these sparingly). Also, you might refer in one sentence to a thought in
the previous sentence. This is especially useful when you move from one paragraph
17

to another. Have you run a spell checker or a grammar checker? These aids cannot
catch every error, but they might highlight some slips that you have missed. Get your
dictionary and check any words of which you are unsure.

Check your style: Pay attention to the style of your essay by reading it aloud to
yourself slowly. Is every sentence clear, elegant, interesting and fluent? Use a
thesaurus to extend your vocabulary; avoid jargon if you can. Unpack sentences that
have become too long or convoluted. Is there a single word that will say what you
mean more exactly and economically than any rather verbose phrases? Try to
develop a direct, clear style. Vary sentence length and format so that the writing does
not become monotonous in its rhythms. Alter every word, phrase or sentence that
jars on your ear when you read it aloud. This kind of redrafting is at the heart of all
effective writing.

Check your tone and register: You should cut out any colloquialisms or slang terms
from an academic essay. Consider instead how to cultivate the following qualities:
seriousness of approach: markers will expect seriousness in the way the
writer addresses the issue and seriousness in the voice. Flippancy will be out
of place; wit, if it makes a good point, will not.
formal register: this should reflect the considered and measured thought
processes that will be going on. It treats the reader as if they were an
interested and informed acquaintance, but not a best-mate.
consistency of register: register slippage can be very effective in comic
writing (for instance, the writer suddenly becomes intimate or very pompous)
but is inappropriate in academic writing.
objectivity of tone: as you will be engaged in persuasion, argument and
assessment, you should also try to be objective and neutral. We would be
surprised, for instance, to read: Raymond Monelle reveals his own stupidity
in his tendency to apply the principles of semiology to the analysis of music.
The register here is formal enough, but the gibe of stupidity does not sound
neutral and objective. Academic essays should argue, not abuse or accuse.
cautiousness about the way claims are made: objectivity will be conveyed
in this cautiousness; its flavour can be caught in phrases such as 'it could be
said that' or critics have claimed that' or 'this might lead us to the
interpretation that .

18

 reasoned, analytical and logical thought processes: if we are going to be

persuaded by the writer and accept the case that is being made, we will
expect the writer to be analytical and to take us through the issues in a
sequential and logical way, explaining the decisions they are making as they
go. Make sure that the body of your essay does this to the best of your ability.

Check the instructions for the assignment: When you prepare a final draft, you
must be sure to follow all of the instructions you have been given. Have you
answered every part of the question set? Are there any implications that you might
have missed? Is your essay in the proper format? Is it well presented? Are your
margins correct? Have you titled it as directed? What other information (student
number, page numbers, date, word count, name of marker) must you include?

13. Proof-Reading: Read your essay again. Check that:

there are no errors of punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

you have included a properly formatted bibliography.

you have given appropriate references for all the quotations and sources you have
used.

Print out your copy for submission when you have checked and corrected all these points.
Read your essay one last time to check that all necessary corrections have been made and
that the essay is finally completed.

14. Coversheet and submission: Print out the coversheet for the assignment from your evision account.

Do not be tempted to borrow a coversheet from someone else; their

coversheet will specify their student identity number, not yours. If you hand-in an essay
without your own coversheet, it will appear that you have not submitted an essay at all and
therefore could be given a mark of zero. On your coversheet, you must also provide an
accurate word count and give the name of your module tutor in the To be marked by box.
Simply staple the essay and coversheet together; unless you are also submitting a CD, DVD
or other extra material, there is no need to put the essay in file or plastic wallet (these are
typically a nuisance for markers). Be aware that your work will be refused by i-Centre staff
after 5pm even if you are in a queue to submit it. Make sure that you allow plenty of time to
reach the head of the queue in the i-Centre remember, many students share the same
deadline and the i-Centre will be especially busy.

19

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the use of others work so as to pass it off as your own and perhaps the worst
sin in the academic book. Fundamentally, it combines theft (taking others intellectual
property) and fraud (claiming it as your own). Plagiarism should be avoided at all costs.
Penalties for plagiarism range from failure in the module in which the plagiarism is
committed to (in extreme or repeated cases) expulsion from your course of study. These
penalties indicate the seriousness of the offence; Music, Popular Music, CMT, Performing
Arts and Drama, like all other subjects, take the issue of plagiarism very seriously indeed.
1. How to avoid it. The first rule is always to give clear, accurate and thorough references to
all the materials that you have used in the preparation of your work. This includes both
primary and secondary sources. This is one reason why we insist that the guidelines on
quotations, references and bibliographies are followed so scrupulously. If you clearly indicate
that you are quoting, citing or otherwise acknowledging that an idea, a phrase or piece of
information (or most likely all three) comes from elsewhere then you cannot be accused of
plagiarism. On the other hand, of course, you will not receive high marks for an essay that is
merely a patchwork of citations from other people.
Secondly, you should always ensure that the notes that you make in preparation for your
essays are clear about which ideas are your own and which come from other sources. This
should prevent you from claiming something as your own inadvertently. Get quickly into the
habit of using quotation marks and clear references when you are taking notes from
secondary sources. Use additional methods (such as using differently coloured pens or
keeping different notebooks, for example) to make clear the boundaries between your
thinking and that of somebody else.
Remember, too, that plagiarism is more likely to happen when you are rushed or under
stress, so you need to be just as careful during the busy times when you have more than
one piece of work to complete. Although stress may be a mitigating factor, it will not excuse
plagiarism.
2. What will happen if you plagiarise? It is very likely that you will be caught if you
plagiarise. Experienced markers are familiar with the telltale characteristics of plagiarised
work (we will not spell out here what these are) and need only run a sample of suspect work
through Turn It In software to find any unacknowledged sources used.

20

In the Anglia Ruskin Undergraduate Student Handbook, you will find the academic
regulations concerning plagiarism under the heading Conduct in Assessment. Here, youll
find a detailed account of the formal procedures conducted at institutional level when a
programme decides to pursue an allegation of plagiarism. We dislike invoking these
procedures; because of the seriousness of the penalties involved, plagiarism cases are
always upsetting. However, in fairness to all the students who have produced honest work,
these procedures will be followed whenever we are convinced that plagiarism has occurred.
All this may sound intimidating, especially as we are dealing with a very small number of
cases relative to the total number of assessments undertaken each term. You should not
become over-alarmed by this issue, but you do need to take the matter seriously and be
aware of the dismal consequences that may follow from the unacknowledged use of other
peoples work.

Oral presentations and exams

Some modules have an oral component in place of a written assessment. The most common
form of this is the seminar presentation, usually 15-20 minutes long, on a topic agreed with
the seminar leader. Some Drama modules include 5-10 minute oral exams where students
explain the aims and objectives of their practical work.
In oral exams, students are usually questioned by their module tutors and so are not
expected to give a pre-prepared structured presentation. Instead, you should reflect on the
success, or otherwise, of your practical work and review your original aims and objectives for
that project. You should be ready to defend the decisions you made in performance whether
as an actor, director or in technical production.
In assessing more formal oral presentations, we look for a number of qualities:
1. Preparation:

is there evidence of careful reading and analysis of the primary material?

has relevant contextual or background reading been done?

is the topic addressed in a well-focused and detailed way?

has thought been given to the way the talk has been shaped in relation to the time
available?

21

2. Context and Organisation:

is the presentation effectively structured so that it is clear to listeners?

is the context and range of material properly defined?

is the material organised in such a way as to enable listeners to have a clear sense
of both detail and general issues?

what is the analytical quality of the material presented? Is it, for example, relevant,
informed, well developed, fresh in approach and specific in terms of evidence?

3. Delivery:

is the presentation delivered with a good sense of pace, articulation and structure?

to what degree does it engage listeners and offer them opportunities for questions
and discussion?

how successful is the speaker in encouraging and responding to questions?

what is the quality of any aids used? for example, handouts, music or video clips,
projections, use of the white board or OHP. This does not mean that these aids must
be used; the success of a presentation does not depend on them, but they can be
used helpfully and imaginatively.

These are the general criteria we use, but this is not necessarily a checklist of things you
must do. For example, detailed background reading is sometimes not appropriate and
handouts are by no means always necessary (unless you are specifically asked to produce
one). In addition, staff are very conscious that the quality of questions and discussion is
sometimes out of your control. Due allowance will be made for a poor response from your
audience.
Seminar Presentations: Seminars are an opportunity for informed discussion and debate;
they are not intended to be further lectures. When preparing a presentation for a seminar, do
not prepare your thoughts in the form of an essay that you read out; this will inevitably result
in little or no discussion and is likely to be uninteresting. There is no substitute for knowing
what you are talking about, so prepare your chosen topic well and give yourself prompts in
the form of short notes to remind you of the point which you wish to make next. Remember,
at any point another member of the group is likely to interrupt and ask for clarification of a
point you have made or, more interestingly, to contest it. You will need to be able to think on
your feet.

22

Throughout your presentation you will need to refer to specific examples to support your
observations. Do not photocopy large passages from a score or play-text; it is much better
to prepare a more focused handout that contains the information you require. If you quote
directly from a score or play-text, it may be necessary to annotate the passage; do not
assume that the features you want to highlight will be immediately apparent to anyone who
sees the quotation.
In Music, Popular Music or CMT, you may also need to prepare recordings that contain
relevant extracts that you will use as examples. Organise these carefully to avoid wasting
time searching CDs or MP3 players trying to find the eight bars of music which corresponds
to the information on your handout!
As well as recorded examples and handouts, you may use the white board, OHP or Power
Point to illustrate how you have reached your conclusions. Video and slide projection
facilities could also be made available provided that advanced notice is given. Try to be
imaginative in your presentation and make it both interesting and informative. Practice
presenting beforehand so that you can time your delivery and be sure that you can make all
your essential points in the time allowed. As a rough guide, 400 words will take about 5
minutes to say. A visual aid can say more quickly, so use one where appropriate.
Avoid bland generalisation and needless biographical details. The rest of the group should
already have good general background knowledge of the topic by the time you come to
present your seminar. Depth is always better than breadth on these occasions, so try not to
tackle whole works but instead select sequences to examine in detail. The group can apply
the insights you have provided to the rest of the work in their own time.
At the beginning of your presentation, say what you are going to say, say it, and then say what
you have said in your conclusion. Most people can only remember three or four main points
from a talk, so emphasise key points and repeat them in summary.
Wait until you have the attention of the audience before starting to talk. Be confident and
enthusiastic, never apologetic. Be sure everyone can hear you. Try to sound confident, even if
you actually feel very nervous. Speak slowly, but vary the tone, and the pitch, of your voice.
Presentations can be daunting, and staff recognise that students have often not been trained
in doing them. However, they do develop useful communication skills that are increasingly

23

sought-after by employers. A successful presentation should give you extra confidence to

contribute your opinions to future seminar discussions too.

Referencing, quotations and bibliographies

Accurate quotation (making reference to, or citing) is a very important part of essay writing.
So is making a list of works cited at the end of your essay the bibliography. When you cite
sources, you need to provide enough information for your reader to be able to trace the
originals and thus see that you are making responsible and accurate use of them. If you are
summarising or paraphrasing someone elses ideas in your own words, you must attribute
them properly, otherwise you run the risk of plagiarism. You will also lose marks if references
and bibliographies are not presented correctly. This does not mean that the odd slip-up on a
fine point carries an automatic penalty, but it does mean that you must observe the main
rules consistently.
You must provide references and a bibliography for most types of coursework (essays,
critical reflections, reports or reviews), but you are not required to provide either in any
examinations.
Music, Popular Music, CMT, Performing Arts and Drama all require you to use the Harvard,
or author-date, referencing system. Look at the following examples closely, noting the
punctuation used for each type of entry. Note particularly that bibliography entries in
Harvard format do not end with a full stop.
If you encounter a case not covered here, further advice is available from the ARU Librarys
guide to Harvard referencing at:
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/files/Harvard_referencing.pdf
Ask your module leader for further advice if anything remains unclear to you.

24

Format of your bibliography

The bibliography is a list at the end of your essay of all the sources from which you have
quoted or to which you have referred. You will find all the information you need to compile a
bibliography on the title, edition and contents pages of the books and journals that you use.

For a book:

Last name of author, initial(s)., date of publication. The Title of the Book: With Any Subtitle.
Edition (if not the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher
The elements in the bibliography entry are usually separated by full stops. There are two
exceptions to this, the comma after the authors initials, which separates these from the
date of the edition used, and the colon between place of publication (always a city, not a
country) and publisher. Note that the principal words in the title and subtitle take capital
letters, as do place of publication and publisher. As shown above, each entry in the
bibliography should have a hanging indent, that is, the first line is not indented, but the
second and any subsequent lines are. The title and subtitle of the book should be typed in
italics or underlined if handwritten. Your entry in the bibliography for a single-authored book
will look like this:

Phelan, P., 1993. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. London: Routledge

A book that contains chapters by a number of different authors can be cited in a similar
format. For example:
Counsell, C. and Wolf, L. eds., 2001. Performance Analysis: An Introductory Coursebook.
London: Routledge

The abbreviation ed. is used if there is one editor; more than one editor is denoted by eds.
This comes before you give the date of the edition and is again separated from it by a
comma. As an abbreviation ed. or eds. also always takes a full stop.

For chapters in books:

Last name of author, initials., date of publication of chapter. Title of Chapter between Single
Quotation Marks. In: initial(s). last name of editor(s), ed(s)., date of book. Title of Book:
Subtitle.

Place of publication: Publisher, Chapter number or pp. first to last page

numbers

25

Note that the chapter title is between quotation marks while the book title and any subtitle
are typed in italics (or underlined if handwritten). For example:
Tuan, Y-F., 1990. Space and Context. In: C. Counsell and L. Wolf, eds., 2001.
Performance Analysis: An Introductory Coursebook. London: Routledge, pp.94-108

For articles in journals:

Last name of author, initials., date of publication. Title of Article between Single Quotation
Marks. Journal Name in Italics or Underlined, Volume number (Issue or part number),
pp. first to last page numbers
Note that the article title is between quotation marks while the journal title is typed in italics
(or underlined if handwritten). For example:
Buckland, F., 2001. Towards a Language of the Stage: The Work of DV8
Physical Theatre. New Theatre Quarterly, 11 (44), pp. 371-380

For two or more publications by the same author in the same year:

Works by the same author are usually listed in the bibliography in chronological order
according to date, with the earliest first. When an author has brought out two or more
publications in the same year, whether books, chapters in books or journal articles, you
should add a lower case letter to distinguish between the same year dates. Sort titles with
the same date into alphabetical order; the first will have the letter a added to the date, the
second b, and so on. Without this addition, it would not be clear to which text your reference
by author and date refers. Order works with the same publication date according to this a or
b addition in your bibliography. When you are citing more than one work by the same author,
you need not repeat the authors name for subsequent entries; use dashes instead, as
below:
Beckett, S.,1970a. Le Dpeupleur. Paris: Les ditions de Minuit
1970b. More Pricks Than Kicks. 1934. London: Calder and Boyars

In the example, the date that the second work was first published is included after the title.
When this information is significant, you should include it in Music, Popular Music, CMT,
Performing Arts and Drama the original date of a work is often important. Nevertheless, the
26

date used as the second element in your reference should be the date that the edition you
are using was published. Page numbers often vary between editions, so the publication
date will identify the edition to which you refer. If Second or Third edition is stated in a
textbook, then include that information rather than giving the original date of the First Edition.

For a web page:

Be aware that while some electronic journals and websites developed by institutions or
associations are extremely valuable, other information posted on the web comes with has no
quality assurance. Unlike traditionally published material, essays or articles on the web are
often not subjected to any peer review or editorial control. Your research for essays therefore
should not be over-dependent on Internet sources. Format for web entries is as follows:
Authorship or institutional source, Year date of web page. Title of Web Page Between Single
Quotation Marks [online]. (date of any update).

Available at: <website address>

[Accessed dd/mm/yy]
List any web pages you use in a separate section in your bibliography headed Online
Resources. The bibliographical information given on web pages is also very various; supply
information for the elements required as far as it is available. For example:
Dagless, J., 2004. Dead Body Wanted to Star in Show [online]. Available at:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/3557121.stm> [Accessed
25.02.04]

For a music score:

Last name of originator, Initial(s)., year. The Title of the Score: With Any Subtitle. If editor(s)
then ed(s). Initial(s) and last name of editor(s). Place of publication: Publisher
As for a book, the title and subtitle of the score should be typed in italics or underlined if
handwritten. For example:
Britten, B., 1980. Eight Folk Songs Arrangements for High Voice and Harp. ed. O. Ellis.
London: Faber Music

For a sound recording:

Name of originator, Initial(s)., year. The Title of the Recording: With Any Subtitle. [Sound type
medium] Place: Name of Record Label. Ref Number. length.
27

For example:
The Coasters, 1958. Sorry But I'm Gonna Have to Pass. [Stereo Audiocassette] New York:
WEA International Inc. A4591C. 3 mins.

For a DVD or video:

Full title of DVD or video in Italics. (Year of release). [type of medium] Directed by Initial(s).,
Last Name of Director (if relevant). Country or origin: Film studio or maker
Note that this is the first instance where reference is principally by title, rather than author,
editor or originator. For example:
Great films from the 80s: A Selection of Clips from Warner Brothers Top Films from the
1980s. 2005. [DVD] New York: Warner Brothers

For a film:

The required elements are:

Title of Film in Italics. Year of release. [type of medium] Directed by Initial(s). Last Name of
Director (if relevant). Country of origin: Film studio or maker
For example:
Macbeth. 1948. [Film] Directed by O. Wells. USA: Republic Pictures
You should list DVD, video or films in a separate section in your bibliography headed
Filmography with titles listed in alphabetical order.

Example of a Bibliography: Note that entries are listed in alphabetical order

according to author or editors surname. The list below shows where you should
include details of any translator too. If the title or edition page lists multiple places of
publication, you should use the first place name given for your entry. For example,
Routledge publish most of their titles in both London and New York, but British
editions will list London first and you should follow this usage.

Adams, P., 1996. The Emptiness of the Image: Psychoanalysis and Sexual Difference.
London: Routledge
Agamben, G., 1994. The Cabinet of Wonder. In: The Man Without Content. Translated by
G. Albert. California: Stanford University Press
Alberti, L. B., 1956. On Painting. Translated by J. R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University
Press
28

Alexander, P., ed., 1951. Introduction. In: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. London:
Collins
Anzieu, D., 1989. The Skin Ego: A Psychoanalytical Approach to Self. Translated by C.
Turner. New Haven: Yale University Press

Using quotations and references in your essay

You will frequently need concise quotations to back up your arguments or to illustrate your
points in an essay. Lengthy quotation should be used more sparingly as a particular point is
unlikely to be clearly and crisply illustrated by quoting long passages. Badly chosen
quotations, sometimes inaccurately copied, drawn from unreliable web pages or randomly
inserted into a text, is a common fault in student essays. Remember that you will lose marks
if quotations are presented incorrectly and will not gain marks if you use quotations
ineffectively. Always introduce quotations in your own words (use a formula such as As
Jones argues, or According to Smiths analysis,) and make sure that your punctuation and
syntax around quotations is correct.
Consider the following points:
Can I change the original quotation?
Generally speaking, no you should make your own text fit the quotation rather than the
other way round. There are some exceptions to this rule:

You may change double inverted commas to single and vice-versa if otherwise they
would be inconsistent with the rest of your essay.

You may use an ellipsis (written as three dots ) to leave out irrelevant parts of a
continuous quotation to shorten it, provided that this does not distort the meaning of
the original.

You may insert a brief explanation in square brackets (square brackets [ ] signal an
addition to the original text) where your reader might otherwise be puzzled. If there is
an error or oddity in the original quotation, you can insert [sic] to show that the
mistake is not yours. But be sparing with [sic] as readers can quickly get tired of it
and it is unlikely that you find many mistakes or oddities in published texts. If you
need to insert [sic] when quoting from a website, you should consider whether the
site is reliable on other matters if its language is odd or incorrect.

You may make minor alterations to quotations in the interests of grammatical

coherence and brevity (for example, changing the tense of a verb). Enclose any

29

editorial intervention in square brackets. Be sure not to distort the sense of the
original.

You may underline or italicise a word or phrase to draw attention to it, but you must
add a formula like my italics or emphasis added in brackets. Again, use this device
sparingly.

Short Quotations:

Quotations of one sentence or less should be incorporated into your text, as follows:

Phelan describes perspective as a theatrical technology and a technology of theatre

because it supports the economy of substitution that drives Western theatre itself (1997:
27).
As the author is named in the text, you need not also name the author in the reference.
However, always take care that it is clear who you are quoting when omitting the authors
name in the reference. While it is often best practice to place your reference at the end of a
sentence, it is also correct to insert the reference immediately after the authors name. In
the example above, this would give Phelan (1997: 27) describes . Changing the position
of the reference in this way can help to clarify who you are quoting if you are dealing with
more than one author in the same group of sentences. Note also that short quotations take
quotation marks; use single quotation marks () except for a quotation within quotation,
where double quotation marks should be used ().
Punctuation immediately before a quotation depends on its syntactical relationship to what
precedes it. No punctuation, or at most a comma, is required if the quotation makes your
own sentence grammatically complete. For example:

apprehension of form does not seem to be a cognitive process, since it neither

formulates nor connects concepts but seems to be merely contemplative ... and a
disinterested and free satisfaction (Kant, 1914, pp.53-54).
Note also that as the author is not named in the text here, their name is included within the
reference. Note also that a quotation that crosses two pages is expressed as pp.53-54.
In the example below, the punctuation required to introduce the quote is a colon; this is the
case if your introductory statement is grammatically complete in itself (as this sentence is
also):
30

Susanne Langer was aware of the difficulties which faced the analyst in specifying
the nature of form: 'the meaning of form needs to be understood, since it involves
the very nature of art' (1962, p.85).

In all cases, you should be clear about who you are quoting, give the date of the publication
from which you are quoting and provide the page number where the quotation can be found.
These three pieces of information constitute your reference.

Every reference in your

essay must then be matched by entries in your bibliography where full details of each
publication can be found. For the three examples used above, the bibliography must
contain entries for Phelan and a work she published in 1997, Kant in 1914 and Langer
in 1962. The format of the reference can vary; (Kant, 1914: 27), (Kant 1914, 27), (Kant,
1914, p.27) or, if a quotation is across two pages, (Kant, 1914, pp.27-28) and (Kant 1914:
27-8) are all acceptable forms. Note, however, that references must given in the same
format in the same essay; if you follow the date with a colon, for example, then keep to that
form in all subsequent references. The exception to this rule is whether to include the
authors name within the reference; here, the form may vary. If the sentence which includes
the reference already clearly specifies the name of the author, you need not include it again.
If you have any doubt about whether the author of a quote is clear, then include the authors
name as the first element in your reference.

Quotations longer than one sentence:

Prose quotation of more than a single sentence should be separated from your commentary,
set off by a colon, indented and set on single-spaced lines. Verse quotation of more than one
line should also be indented, following the format of the original work exactly. When longer
quotations are indented, there is no need for quotation marks around the extract. If you use
long quotations, you must make sure that commentary you provide on the quotation justifies
the length. The layout of a long quotation will look like this:
Merleau-Ponty is concerned with the phenomenological experience of being a living
and perceiving being-in-the-world:
In so far as it sees or touches the world, my body can ... be neither seen
nor touched. What prevents its ever being an object, ever being
completely constituted, is that it is that by which there are objects. It is
neither tangible nor visible in so far as it is that which sees and touches.
(2002: 105)

31

The quotation is again followed by referencing details that should match up with an entry in
your bibliography, this time for Merleau-Ponty in 2002. The quote-within-a-quote here does
not take double quotation marks, as the indentation has removed the need to add single
quotation marks around the main quote. Note that extended, indented quotations are
excluded when calculating the word length of your essay.

Summary and paraphrase:

If you are using someone else's ideas, descriptions or interpretations, but summarising or
paraphrasing them in your own words rather than quoting directing, you must acknowledge
your debt to the source used. Unacknowledged use of someone elses material,
remember, is plagiarism (see previous section). Like other references, the details should be
given between brackets in your text, for example, (Phelan, 1997, pp.10-16) to cover all
borrowings over the pages listed.

Sample essay text and bibliography

Below you will find a sample of what your final essay text should look like, including 1.5 or
double line spacing, an indented quotation, Harvard referencing and the use of footnotes, as
well as the likely format of the bibliography which must be at the end of the essay.
If you have additional information which is interesting and relevant but which would break up
the flow of your argument, you could number the place in the text (with a superscript
number) and put this information into a footnote. However, it is not necessary to have any
notes of this kind in any case, they should be used sparingly.
Note that the date for the Internet reference refers to the date that the work cited was first
published. This is correct practice when a website provides access to, for example, a
facsimile of the original work (this does not imply the existence of the Internet in 1605).
Sample text
In The Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom outlines an analytical technique that attempts
to account for the nature of influence in poetry. Bloom notes that, whilst influence in any
artistic endeavour is inevitable, rather than merely imitating the work of a master, strong
poets achieve a kind of antithetical completion of a precursor. In so doing, an author retains
the terms of a parent poem, but means them in another sense. According to Bloom:
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Insofar as a poet authentically is and remains a poet, he must exclude and

negate other poets. Yet he must begin by including and affirming a precursor
poet or poets, for there is no other way to become a poet. We can say then
that a poet is known as a poet only by a wholly contradictory
including/excluding, negating/affirming. (1975: 121).
In keeping with Blooms assertion, it is possible to discern in Benjamin Brittens early
compositional style a reflection of the limitations and conservatism apparent in the
environment and times in which he worked.
A student at the Royal College of Music under the instruction of John Ireland and
Vaughan Williams, Britten was inevitably a product of the English Musical Renaissance,
including others such as Parry, Holst and Elgar. That said, apart from the occasional Lydiandominant inflections to be found in the premeditated, pseudo-exoticism of Holst, 1 there is
little in Brittens early music which overtly echoes the oppressive stylistic conservatism of the
English Musical Renaissance. Rather, Britten allowed the modal ambiguity prevalent in the
music of Faur and Mahler to permeate his early work. Nevertheless, despite this tendency
towards Europe, Britten could never fully circumnavigate the rather congenial tone of his
contemporaries, and the diatonic dissonance at the heart of the musical style of, for
example, Vaughan Williams and Finzi.

See, for example, Holsts Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda (1911).
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Sample bibliography
Bacon, F., 1605. The Advancement of Learning [online]. Available at:
<http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/advl.htm> [Accessed 04.01.05]
Bloom, H., 1975. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Second Edition. Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Holst, G.T. von, 1911. Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda. Op.26. London: Staines and Bull
Schmalfeldt, J., 1983. Berg's Wozzeck: Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design.
New Haven: Yale University Press
Schnadelbach, H., 1984. Philosophy in Germany 1831-1933. Translated by E. Mathews.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Snyder, J.L., 1990. Entropy as a Measure of Musical Style: The Influences of A Priori
Assumptions. In: Music Theory Spectrum 12(1), 121-160

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