ESSAY (ES1) – “A 2000 word extended essay”
You are required to construct a 2000 word extended essay that responds to the question.
“Select an acting pioneer, and evaluate their influence and impact on the current acting industry”.
A few things to think about when planning and constructing your Essay
• It always helps to construct a basic PLAN before you start writing your essay. – think about what you are going to say. and how you want to say it. Writing an essay is a bit like telling a story to a friend – if you want your friend to understand your story, you need to explain it clearly and in a logical way. So as you construct
LMA/UON 2023/24
BA (Hons) Acting and Porformanco- L4
and review your plan, ask the question “does the structure I am creating here clearly tell the story I want to tell”. Perhaps share your plan with friends and ask them whether they think it makes sense – can they understand the “story” that you want to tell as you answer the question?
• The essay needs to be laid out in a logical fashion that follows some of the conventions that are expected within an extended piece of academic writing –
e g. introduction, mam body of essay, conclusion, bibliography (in addition to the bibliography you have already submitted, but not annotated.
• Consider breaking it down into a series of sections, so that you can clearly show the reader how you are responding to the question. This will also help you to construct a logical narrative argument, or series of arguments through the text.
• Remember you are being asked to “evaluate how the selected style/movement/performer has influenced current practice – therefore, as you plan your essay, you need to not only provide descriptions of the topic, you also need to demonstrate how and why you think it has influenced current practice.
• This is a piece of ACADEMIC writing – therefore, avoid very informal and colloquial language. However, do not become hung up on needing to use complicated and “technical” language. Often, simple, short and direct sentences work best.
• Consider how you embed independent research, and data from your annotated bibliography within your essay to support your discussion. Paraphrasing is an effective way to restate, condense, or clarify an author’s ideas while also providing credibility to your own argument/analysis. Paraphrasing also shows you understand research well enough to write it in your own words, and is a powerful alternative to direct quotes. You should summarise the point but make sure you clearly attribute the idea: e g. “As J Fernando argues in his article “Why do people love going to the theatre” Theatre Monthly 2.2.21. p.6], “there’s something very joyous about a darkened auditorium, and the curtain rising.” While successful paraphrasing is essential for strong academic writing, inaccurate paraphrasing can result in unintentional plagiarism. For tips about how to avoid plagiarism, look here on the UON Skills Hub. Try to only use direct quotes when they’ll have a strong impact – this is a report of exact words from an author and placed inside quotation marks in the body of text. When using quotations, it is important you cite the original reference/source. as these citations provide the reader with a map of your independent research. All direct citations, paraphrased material, and research that has informed your understanding should be listed in your bibliography.
