Gordon Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic Essay”

Have you ever wondered what  professors are looking for when they read your essays? This adaptation of Gordon Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic Essay” provides a vocabulary for that will help you to identify patterns in your own writing.

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Problem

The specific issue that you believe is unresolved or has not been adequately addressed that you choose to address in your academic essay. This may appear as a gap, tension, pattern, anomaly, contradiction, ambiguity, nuance in or debate about your exhibit or topic. The problem you identify should be genuine: a misapprehension or puzzle that an intelligent reader would really have, a point that such a reader would really overlook. The problem can be transformed into a specific question that can be explored and answered in a meaningful way via analysis of expert opinion and evidence. It’s the debate you want to enter.

Thesis

Your main insight or idea about an exhibit or topic, and the main proposition that your essay demonstrates; it is your response to the problem that you have identified. It should be true but arguable (not a fact and obviously or patently true, but one alternative among several), be limited enough in scope to be argued in a short composition and with available evidence, and get to the heart of the text or topic being analyzed (not be peripheral). It should be stated early in some form and, at some point, recast sharply (not just be implied), and it should govern the whole essay (not disappear in places). It’s your contribution to the debate.

Motive

The intellectual context that you establish for your topic and thesis at the start of your essay to suggest why someone, besides your instructor, might want to read an essay on this topic or need to hear your particular thesis argued i.e. why your thesis isn’t just obvious to all, or why other people might hold other theses (that you think are wrong). Your motive should be aimed at your audience; it won’t necessarily be the reason you first got interested in the topic or the personal motivation behind your engagement with the topic. Defining motive should be the main business of your introductory paragraphs; there you should explain why the problem being addressed is significant (to the reader). It’s the specific reason why the debate matters—why readers should care about your thesis.

Evidence

The data—facts, examples, or details—that you analyze, refer to, quote, or summarize to support your thesis. There needs to be enough evidence to be persuasive; it needs to be the right kind of evidence to support the thesis (with no obvious pieces of evidence overlooked); it needs to be sufficiently concrete for the reader to trust it (e.g. in textual analysis, it often helps to find one or two key or representative passages to quote and focus on); and if summarized, it needs to be summarized accurately and fairly. It’s the sources that you’re analyzing—what you need to define the debate.

Analysis

The work of breaking down, interpreting, and commenting upon the data, of saying what can be inferred from the data such that it supports a thesis (is evidence for something). Analysis is what you do with data when you go beyond observing or summarizing it: you show how its parts contribute to a whole or how causes contribute to an effect; you draw out the significance or implication not apparent to a superficial view. Analysis is what makes the writer feel present, as a reasoning individual; therefore, your essay should do more analyzing than summarizing or quoting. It’s the how and why of your argument.

Key Terms

The recurring terms or basic oppositions that an argument rests upon, usually literal but sometimes a ruling metaphor. These terms usually imply certain assumptions—unstated beliefs about life, history, literature, reasoning, etc. that the essayist doesn’t argue for but simply assumes to be true. An essay’s key terms should be clear in their meaning and appear throughout (not be abandoned half-way); they should be appropriate for the subject at hand (not unfair or too simple—a false or constraining opposition); and they should not be inert clichés or abstractions (e.g. “the evils of society”). The attendant assumptions should bear logical inspection, and if arguable, they should be explicitly acknowledged. It’s the vocabulary your audience needs to enter this debate.

Structure

The sequence of main sections or sub-topics, and the turning points between them. The sections should follow a logical order, and the links in that order should be apparent to the reader (see “stitching”). But it should also be a progressive order—there should have a direction of development or complication, not be simply a list or a series of restatements of the thesis (“Macbeth is ambitious: he’s ambitious here; and he’s ambitious here; and he’s ambitions here, too; thus, Macbeth is ambitious”). The order should also be supple enough to allow the writer to explore the topic, not just hammer home a thesis. (If the essay is complex or long, its structure may be briefly announced or hinted at after the thesis, in a roadmap or plan sentence.) It’s the organization of your overall essay and your individual paragraphs.

Coherence

Words that tie together the parts of an argument, most commonly (a) by using transition (linking or turning) words as signposts to indicate how a new section, paragraph, or sentence follows from the one immediately previous; but also (b) by recollection of an earlier idea or part of the essay, referring back to it either by explicit statement or by echoing key words or resonant phrases quoted or stated earlier. The repeating of key or thesis concepts is especially helpful at points of transition from one section to another, to show how the new section fits in. It’s how you tie together the pieces and show the relevance of all of them.

Sources

Persons or documents, referred to, summarized, or quoted, that help a writer demonstrate the truth of his or her argument. They are typically sources of (a) factual information or data, (b) opinions or interpretation on your topic, (c) comparable versions of the thing you are discussing, or (d) applicable general concepts. Your sources need to be efficiently integrated and fairly acknowledged by citation. Secondary sources are texts that are most central to the debate you’re entering (not evidence to “back you up”).

Reflecting and Synthesis

When you pause in your demonstration to reflect on it, to raise or respond to a complication about it—as when you (1) consider a counter-argument—a possible objection, alternative, or problem that a skeptical or resistant reader might raise; (2) define your terms or assumptions (what do I mean by this term? or, what am I assuming here?); (3) handle a newly emergent concern (but if this is so, then how can X be?); (4) draw out an implication (so what? what might be the wider significance of the argument I have made? what might it lead to if I’m right? or, what does my argument about a single aspect of this suggest about the whole thing? or about the way people live and think?), and (5) consider a possible explanation for the phenomenon that has been demonstrated (why might this be so? what might cause or have caused it?); (6) offer a qualification or limitation to the case you have made (what you’re not saying). The first of these reflections can come anywhere in an essay; the second usually comes early; the last four often come late (they’re common moves of conclusion). It’s you reviewing points you’ve covered to help your reader make connections.

Orienting/Contextualization

Bits of information, explanation, and summary that orient the reader who isn’t expert in the subject, enabling such a reader to follow the argument. The orienting question is, what does my reader need here? The answer can take many forms: necessary information about the text, author, or event (e.g. given in your introduction); a summary of a text or passage about to be analyzed; pieces of information given along the way about passages, people, or events mentioned (including announcing or “set-up” phrases for quotations and sources). The trick is to orient briefly and gracefully. It’s you providing your reader with directions or points on a map introducing any terms or sources that a reader may not know.

Stance

The implied relationship of you, the writer, to your readers and subject: how and where you implicitly position yourself as an analyst. Stance is defined by such features as style and tone (e.g. familiar or formal); the presence or absence of specialized language and knowledge; the amount of time spent orienting a general, non-expert reader; the use of scholarly conventions of form and style. Your stance should be established within the first few paragraphs of your essay, and it should remain consistent. It’s where you stand on the intellectual problem (like a thesis but requires your reader to read your entire essay).

Style

The choices you make of words and sentence structure. Your style should be exact and clear (should bring out main idea and action of each sentence, not bury it) and plain without being flat (should be graceful and a little interesting, not stuffy). It’s your unique way of writing for the specific audience.

Title

It should both interest and inform. To inform your title should give the subject and focus of the essay. To interest, your title might include a linguistic twist, paradox, sound pattern, or striking phrase taken from one of your sources (the aptness of which phrase the reader comes gradually to see). You can combine the interesting and informing functions in a single title or split them into title and subtitle. The interesting element shouldn’t be too cute; the informing element shouldn’t go so far as to state a thesis. Effective titles often hint at the problem or thesis of the essay. Don’t underline your own title, except where it contains the title of another text. It tells your reader why they should read your essay and what you’re arguing about in it.

Harvey, G. (2009). “Elements of the Academic Essay.” Harvard College Writing Program. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/hwp_brief_guides_elements.pdf