Essay Techniques

 
Essay techniquesThis is a good essay, with a lot of work in it. It argues about the issues, and it uses material from outside the module. Why isn't it excellent, then, instead of just good? Basically because there's too much in it, and the writer hasn't organised all her material enough - as a result, the essay doesn't get full value from all the excellent work in it, and often it mentions ideas in passing, without taking the time to discuss them fully. This is a common weakness, especially in good students. |
 
Discuss the 'Fallen Woman' as a Familiar Feature of Victorian Writing 'Discuss'. This is one of the most common instruction-words in essay titles. |
The introduction is strongly stated. It is framed by two general statements, one at the beginning and one at the end. In between, there's a lot of reference to a famous Victorian text, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. Calling this 'Ruskin's lecture' is not wrong, but the writer should take the time to be specific - Ruskin gave a lot of lectures, not just this one. |
  Victorian social conventions placed the female inside the male domain, a domestically cultivated flower rather than a wild one, uncontrollable and free to roam. Woman was idealised: the angel in the house, the wife complementing her husband, the helpmate of man. Social conditions offered the Victorian woman little in occupation so her aim in life was to secure a husband, succumbing to the political propaganda. As Foster states:Because so much importance was attached to the roles of wifehood and motherhood, marriage was deemed the apotheosis of womanly fulfilment, alternatives to which were regarded as pitiable or unnatural.( Foster 1985: 6)In this role of wife, woman's great function is to praise her husband and, in return, she shall be praised for ruling inside the home where she can be 'incapable of error' (Ruskin 1865: 149) In Ruskin's lecture his view is that a husband is a chivalric knight guarding his wife from the 'peril and trial' he...