HOW TO READ A SCHOLARLY ESSAY

 

A scholarly essay is a long, sustained discussion of an academic topic written for a professional academic audience.

 

It may be published in a variety of venues, usually in an academic journal or as a chapter in an edited volume (single- or multi-author).

 

A scholarly essay assumes some basic knowledge of the subject matter; depending on the publication venue, it may presume a highly detailed and sophisticated knowledge of the subject matter, including:

The more general the audience, the more care the author will take to explain each of these specialized categories of knowledge. For instance, a literature professor writing an essay on the novel Daniel Deronda for a general audience will take more care to explain the contents and context of the novel, the different forms of literary analysis that may be brought to bear on it, how previously scholars have read the novel, and finally offer her own new argument. The same essay written for a highly specialized audience may dispense with all of this explanation, and just dive right in to the new argument.

 

A scholarly essay's main goal is to advance an argument on the topic at hand.

 

Sometimes the topic will be very arcane and specific: for instance, a historian may publish an essay arguing that an event occurred earlier, or later, than previous scholarship assumed.

 

Sometimes the topic may be more sweeping: for instance, a literary critic may argue for a new way of understanding and reading certain types of texts (although this type of article may be more properly considered a theoretical essay).

 

Some essays may focus on one particular area of specialized knowledge: for instance, an essay may introduce new, unknown (or previously understudied) sources ("A Previously Unknown Poem of Emily Dickinson"), or analyze or argue for or against particular methods ("Why Reader-Response Criticism Leads us Astray"), or focus energies defending or refuting an argument offered by another scholar ("A Response to Why Reader-Response Criticism Leads us Astray").

 

Even though scholarly essays are directed primarily at specialized audiences, they can also be accessed by knowledgeable, critically minded general readers, such as college students. The best context for a college student to engage with a scholarly essay is in the course of a class in which the essay will be discussed and analyzed. Therefore, the goal of such reading is not perfect comprehension; the goal is getting a toe-hold, grasping the following elements:

The general reader will doubtless encounter obstacles at all three of these levels of comprehension, and should keep track of these difficulties to ask a more knowledgeable reader (such as a course professor) about them, such as:

Finally, a few tips:

 

 

This page has been written for Core II, section 9, taught at Scripps College in Spring 2010, by Andrew Jacobs. Feel free to link to this page, but please to not reproduce it without permission.