22 – Reflection: asking questions and proposing answers
1
Speculative thinking and writing
This is a chapter about thinking and reflection. It comes first in our
consideration of writing because it is the first of the many activities
in writing an essay that you should engage in. Many, if not most,
students leave the really hard thinking until after they have done the
reading or research. They do this in the belief that one can’t think
constructively until all the information is gathered and the writing of
the final draft is due to begin. This is not so, as the quotation above
from the philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget suggests.
One of the most important abilities needed to master essaywriting in the humanities and social sciences is the ability to ask
questions of the essay topic itself as well as of the books you will
read. If you can develop a facility in asking questions and in reflecting
on likely answers to those questions, it is possible for a general shape
for your essay (though not its precise content) to become evident
to you even before you have begun on any detailed reading. The
procedure is something like this:
1 Choose an essay topic because it interests you. Such a topic
is more likely to be one about which you might already have
a few questions or ideas.
2 Ask questions of the topic: try to work out what it is driving
at, what is meant by various words or phrases in it, and
what kinds of connection there may be between the various
issues it raises. Do no more reading (or better, ‘consulting’ of
a few very basic source books) than is necessary to suggest
possible answers to your questions.
3 Propose to yourself a few likely answers to the question
raised by the topic and write them down in no more than a
sentence or two. Then choose which seems to be the best.
Discussing the topic with friends is very useful at this stage.
4 Develop this answer into a paragraph which, so far as you
can, lists the reasons for choosing the answer you did or
some of the facts and ideas that you think might support it.
1
Speculative thinking and writing
This is a chapter about thinking and reflection. It comes first in our
consideration of writing because it is the first of the many activities
in writing an essay that you should engage in. Many, if not most,
students leave the really hard thinking until after they have done the
reading or research. They do this in the belief that one can’t think
constructively until all the information is gathered and the writing of
the final draft is due to begin. This is not so, as the quotation above
from the philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget suggests.
One of the most important abilities needed to master essaywriting in the humanities and social sciences is the ability to ask
questions of the essay topic itself as well as of the books you will
read. If you can develop a facility in asking questions and in reflecting
on likely answers to those questions, it is possible for a general shape
for your essay (though not its precise content) to become evident
to you even before you have begun on any detailed reading. The
procedure is something like this:
1 Choose an essay topic because it interests you. Such a topic
is more likely to be one about which you might already have
a few questions or ideas.
2 Ask questions of the topic: try to work out what it is driving
at, what is meant by various words or phrases in it, and
what kinds of connection there may be between the various
issues it raises. Do no more reading (or better, ‘consulting’ of
a few very basic source books) than is necessary to suggest
possible answers to your questions.
3 Propose to yourself a few likely answers to the question
raised by the topic and write them down in no more than a
sentence or two. Then choose which seems to be the best.
Discussing the topic with friends is very useful at this stage.
4 Develop this answer into a paragraph which, so far as you
can, lists the reasons for choosing the answer you did or
some of the facts and ideas that you think might support it.