Hello everyone, I found this forum while searching the web for tips about my essay on Heraclitus and I'd be grateful if one of you could help me.
I'm currently struggling with my first essay ever and I don't know how to put my topic down.
The course I have to write for is on the whole history of philosophy from Thales to Augustine, but my professor turned it into a monographic course on Heraclitus.
For the essay, I am supposed to support a thesis based on my knowledge of the said matter, but there are thousands of good topics worth writing about and really a few sites/books about the matter (as far as I know).
Main writing ideas are: the concept of fame/glory (κλέος) as said in the fragment 22 B 29 or the importance of Diels-Kranz's The Presocratics in the historical studies about philosphy.
My main concerns are: as for the first topic, there is not too much of informations while, as for the second, it seems a little off topic, to me at least.
I'd be glad if you could suggest me sites/books for my researches and give me some writing tips (how to structure the essay, things to avoid, opinions about the topics)!
Thank you!
PS. Excuse my mistakes, I wrote the best that I could, but english is not my first language, I'm Italian.
Alessia, welcome to EssayForum :) I notice that you've got useful link from one of EF members. You can consider it as a valuable source of information since that was a valid link for a source. I am no expert in History of Ancient Philosophy, but I know how to write an essay, and therefore I would like to share to you some do(s) and don't(s) in composing an essay.
Do(s)
- Make sure that you have reached the minimum words limit,
- Prompt or question(s) in an essay is essential, make sure you straight to the topic,
- Create an outline by brainstorming the ideas or arranging the source of information that you've got,
- Plan your essay in a good structure,
- Compose some variety of sentences that you are sure 100% correct.
Don't(s)
- Exceed the words limit (usually there is a penalty for that),
- Go off-topic, an off-topic discussion makes the reader confused,
- Write anything before making a well-structured plan,
- Force yourself to compose complex sentences if you haven't mastered it yet,
- Write a word that you don't know 100% about the meaning properly, it often leads to mistakes.
There you are Alessia, I hope you can follow through. That was my tips in writing an essay, which most of them based on my own experience in writing. However, I am waiting for the draft of the essay topic that you're going to write.
Cheers :)
