An English essay is an essay whose subject is a work or works of literature in English. There are many approaches to the formal study and analysis of literary texts that can be used in writing about them, but most English essays start with the essay writer closely and actively reading, responding to and thinking about the text(s) being written about.
The English essay grows out of this encounter between you and the text(s), and is dependent as much or more on this encounter than it is on research. You, the reader and essay writer, must ask and try to answer questions about what the work means, how it makes meaning, and how the author’s choices affect meaning etc. An English essay is built around what the essay writer thinks about the text(s), and the most important evidence and support in the essay will come from the texts themselves.
Many English essays, then, are not research essays and require no use of secondary sources. This is the challenge of writing an English essay and also the reward. There is satisfaction in discovering new layers of meaning, in uncovering and expressing to others how a work is constructed and how its elements make and affect meaning, and in realizing the complexity and richness of the great works of literature.
There is also great satisfaction in discovering meaning for yourself and expressing what you have found in your own way. That is why teachers ask you not to use secondary sources in your essay or do not require them: to help you develop the skills of critically reading a text, discovering and uncovering how it works and describing what you have found out about it in your essay.
The English Essay as Research Essay
There is certainly a place for research and the use of secondary sources in an English essay. Information on
- word meanings
- literary allusions
- cultural, political, religious and historical background
- authors’ biographies
can all be helpful in relating a literary work to broader contexts, in explaining who mythical characters are, in understanding the influence and effect of a work on readers and other writers, and so on.
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