Step-By-Step Essay Writing


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Teacher's Notes: This is a guide for students. It scaffolds an essay on Post Colonial African Poetry. The essay questions was: How effectively does the poem, "The Vultures", depict oppressed voices?
Guide	What it looks like
Step 1: You need to work out your 'thesis'. This is your overall theme. The one you are going to support by discussing the text. Start by looking at the key words and work out what you think they mean. These are in bold in the question. Then write down three sentences about the text related to the question. One of these sentences or a combination of them will probably make a good first sentence for your essay.	1. "The Vultures" is a poem about the savage treatment of African people by the colonisers. 2. In this poem the teachers and missionaries are singled out as responsible for destroying the identity and heritage of the African people. 3. The bitterness and defiance of the African people is expressed in this poem.
Step 2: Make some notes explaining how the particular features of this text communicates the ideas in these sentences. (remember -Why does the poet use 'vultures' to describe the colonisers? and other questions like this) These points will from the 'guts' of your paragraphs.	there are several techniques used to depict the colonisers as inhuman, brutal and violent: they are compared to vultures, birds that feed on the dead and dying; civilisation is personified and given the qualities of violence and brutality; images of violence and savagery, suffering and oppression. the tone of the poem is very angry and bitter with words like 'kicked us in the face' and 'slapped our cringing brows'; effective use of repetition to develop the tone of bitterness an anger, 'in those days' and 'in spite of'; lots of harsh sounds in the words chosen. The tone shifts at the end; colonisers are contrasted to the African people. insistent voice of the narrator; narrator address the reader, who is identified with the colonisers; there is a clear division between 'us' and 'you' in the poem; it is very accusatory
Step 3: Now write your introduction. Use the sentences you wrote earlier and expand them, explaining what you mean and referring to the question. Note that the title of the poem and the poet's name are both used and several words from the question	David Diop's "The Vultures" is a poem about the savage treatment of African people by the colonisers. The poem effectively expresses the bitterness and defiance of the African people. In particular, the teachers and missionaries are singled out as responsible for destroying the identity and heritage of the African people. These ideas are developed through images of violence and brutality and the bitter tone of the narrator effectively depicting the oppressed voices of the colonised.
Step 4: The key to the 'body' of your essay is to keep coming back to the 'thesis' you have introduced at the beginning of each paragraph. In this way you will develop your theme. In the rest of the paragraph you will show how the special features of the text have conveyed the ideas of the poem, using examples to support your analysis. I have given you one paragraph to show how it is done. Words from the question are in bold and technical words used to talk about poetry are underlined. Notice that the whole paragraph is about the way imagery is used to convey the brutality and violence of the colonisers. The paragraph begins and ends with references to images and imagery. Use the notes to write your own paragraphs. You may need to try out different sentences until your paragraph flows smoothly. This is a necessary and important step. My example doesn't show the several revisions I made before I was satisfied with what I had written.	The brutality and savagery of colonisation is effectively developed through a series of images that suggest the inhuman treatment of the African people. The poem begins with a violent image personifying civilisation and identifying the missionaries as part of this violence. In the line "When holy water slapped our cringing brows", the missionaries are suggested by the words 'holy water' and the oppression of the people is depicted by the word 'cringing' suggesting cowering in fear. The narrator's contempt for the colonisers is emphasised by the metaphor comparing the colonisers to 'vultures', birds who feed on the dying and the dead. The sense of violence and brutality is carried into the next group of images with descriptions of suffering, oppression and enslavement. The oxymoron, 'painful laughter' is especially effective in suggesting the brutality of slavery and the cumulative effect of 'hell', 'howling', 'bitter' and 'broken' develop this feeling in the next few lines. David Diop uses this imagery to represent the colonisers as inhuman, emphasising the oppression of the African people. (This could be two paragraphs - as long as you make it clear you are still explaining how imagery is used by the poet to convey the brutality and violence of the colonisers)
Step 5: Time to write the conclusion. The end of your essay needs to return to your 'thesis'. It is sometimes hard to avoid restating the introduction. One method that works, if you have consistently ended each paragraph by reflecting on how each feature of the poem supports your 'thesis', is to remodel the concluding sentences. I always ask myself, 'what have I said here?' Try it.	David Diop depicts the oppressed voices of the African people in 'The Vultures' by effectively using images of violence and brutality to describe the colonisers. The bitter tone of the poem gives way to hope and belief in the ability of the people to overcome the loss of their identity and heritage. "The Vultures' condemns the Europeans who, under the guise of 'teaching' and 'Christianity', denied the African people basic human rights. The poem explores the domination and enslavement of Africans and contrasts the behaviour of the colonisers with the strength of the Africans who have survived colonisation.