Writing an Essay: How the Library Can Get you Started

Research Tip!

Don't forget while working on your essay to keep yourself inspired by images or other material relating to your research! You will see in our example for starting off your research we are using images from ArtStor. Check out our guide on using Artstor here.

Books about Essay writing and Research

Greetham, B. (2023) How to write better essays. Fifth edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Thomas, G. (2023) How to do your research project : a guide for students. 4th edition. London: SAGE.

McMillan, K. and Weyers, J.D.B. (2014) How to write for university : academic writing for success. Edenbrugh Gate, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Random-Love, K. (2022) An affect of an experience : and how I learnt to write about it in the context of fine art. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Williams, G. (2014) How to write about contemporary art. London: Thames & Hudson.

Where to Start?

Medallion. Painting. Naples: Mus. Nazionale.; From Lärbro, Gotland, Sweden., JSTOR,  Accessed 11 Oct. 2024, Available at: https://jstor.org/stable/community.11658484.

The answer is: wherever you want! The hardest part can often be deciding where you would like to invest your time and interests. In this instance you have a list of keywords to choose from to start your research. Identifying your area of interest must then be followed by a structured methodology that will help you get the best sources on your topic. So we will begin this by going through it step by step with an example.

When starting an essay its important to keep in mind what is essentially being asked of you to demonstrate to your tutor:

• that you understand a particular subject
• that you have undertaken some kind of research
• that you can produce a clear and coherent argument
• That you can apply critical theory to an arts practice and deduce your own conclusions

In order to achieve these things you must have a solid foundation of research. The best kind of research is varied and most importantlu not reliant on internet searches. Here are some tips on how to create leads and questions for your essay topic.

Keywords, Subject Headings and using the Library

Here is an example of how to develop keywords through the library catalogue to begin effective research:

The area of interest I am going to look at is ‘the occult’. Now for the purposes of searching the phrase ‘the occult’ isn’t ideal because for something to be a keyword it obviously must be one word. So make sure to avoid phrases when searching. It will only severely limit results. To develop keywords there are a few tasks you can do to make sure you have a repository of words to develop search strategies.

Subject Headings

Through the library catalogue you can find an items Subject Headings. These are standardized keywords that are specifically legible in library catalogues. When you click on the books record and scroll down you can find many subject headings. You can click into them to find more results relevant to your research. On the back of the title page. Within that area is the author, title, publication data (ISBN, place, publisher and date), as well as a list of Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Correlate What You Have

Frixos Aristeus (1879-1951), Ode to the Sun, pastel, tempera and pencil on paper, AGLG 114 © A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia.

So far we have already built up related terms to ‘the occult’. Developing a list of words that are suitable for search engines. Now we must take it a step further and correlate this gathering of keywords that aligns with what we are curious about exploring. For example:

“Was occultism a method for subverting gender norms in the early twentieth century?”

From the question above isolate certain keywords to think about how you can be specific about your question. 

Search the Library Catalogue!

Books, Journals & DVDs are available for students to borrow. Browse our online catalogue here to see our full collection or use the search bar below!