Writing your essay

You need to work out a plan for your essay in the first 15-20 minutes of the 3 hours that you have at the concorso. Do NOT read the title and start writing immediately. That way you will probably produce an essay that has no real structure and reads like a series of disconnected ideas about the subject in the title.

1)   The title/question – first you need to interpret the title. Is it fairly clear? Is it very specific? Is it very open? What are the key words in the title that will help you to interpret it?

a)    Brainstorming – quickly write down all the ideas that the title suggests to you.

b)   Line of argument – can you see an idea or question that links most of your ideas? Will this work as your line of argument for the essay? It should probably not be too radical or too far from the Italian government’s position. Go back to the title before you commit to this. Is this how you want to focus the essay? Is there another possible line of argument?

c)    Selection – once you have your line of argument, go back to the ideas you brainstormed and eliminate anything that doesn’t fit. Is there any aspect/point that you now need to add, bearing in mind the line of argument that you have chosen?

d)   Structure – Given your line of argument, can you now put your ideas in a logical order so that the first will lead naturally to the second and so on? You can number them on your plan (not in your essay) to help you remember. In choosing a logical structure you may want to frame your essay in terms of: cause(s) and effect(s), advantages and disadvantages, theory and practice, past and present, aspects in terms of importance or sequentially, choices involved etc… Choose the structure that best interprets and opens up the title /question. Organize your ideas to reflect the structure that you have chosen.

 

2)   The introduction – you may want to start by referring to a recent event or statement made by an Italian, European or non-European leader, institutional figure or minister in order to introduce the topic and show your knowledge of international affairs and the work of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then interpret the title/question and say why it is important. Where various interpretations are possible, briefly mention them and then focus on the one you have decided to write about. Briefly state your line of argument, ‘This essay will argue that ………’ (if you want, you can add ‘In order to do this, it will examine the following points, A, B, C and D’ but keep this short). What you are arguing and where you are going should be clear to the reader from the introduction, and the following paragraphs should flow from the line of argument briefly outlined in the introduction.

3)   a) The body of your essay – remember to write in paragraphs, indicated by jumping a line or indenting. You may write 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 paragraphs, depending on how much you write, but not just one and not 25! One sentence is almost never a paragraph. The first sentence of the paragraph is usually the topic sentence. See the notes on the Paragraph in the Dropbox. In the essay plan, for each paragraph, just write the main idea and a short note to remind yourself how you want to treat it.

b) What linking words will help you to link the paragraphs (and when you start writing the essay, ask yourself what linking words will help you to link the sentences or parts of a sentence)? You may want to use a device like a rhetorical question to link one paragraph to the next.

c) What specific vocabulary terms will you need for each part of this essay? Nouns and verbs, for example. Remember the tone of the essay should be serious but diplomatic, so your words should be carefully chosen to be clear but balanced and not too definitive (so don’t say ‘this policy will never work’ but ‘this policy seems unlikely to be effective’).

d)What grammar forms will you need?

e) What data and specific examples can you offer to illustrate your ideas and argue your case, to make it more convincing and less abstract, and to demonstrate your knowledge not just of the law, or of history or economics but of current international relations, world affairs and the position of the Italian government and the European institutions? Have you got any real information on the topic?!? Are you sure of your facts?!? Have you got a source or authority you can cite?

f) What opening expressions and reporting verbs do you need to make it clear how you are treating this information, e.g. ‘Most/many/some/a few experts/political commentators argue/claim/suggest that…’  

4)   The Conclusion – your conclusion should follow from your introduction and the body of your essay. It may restate your initial line of argument, adding something or asking a question. You don’t need to provide a solution to the question or idea in the title – like the migration challenge. If the EU can’t do it, you certainly don’t need to, but you do need to outline any particular initiatives that are being discussed and get to the heart of the challenge (and why, for example, it isn’t easy to deal with). Again, in concluding you may want to refer to another recent event, or upcoming event or give the last word to a statement made by an Italian, European or non-European leader or minister in order to show your knowledge of international affairs and the work of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

5)   Check your essay plan – does it make sense? Does it respond to the title /question or does it go ‘fuori tema’? Do you need to change, add or eliminate anything? Is the tone right? Is it ‘informato, aggiornato e equilibrato’?

6)   Are you going to write just once or do a draft and a final version of the essay? I would suggest just once, but you can only do this by first working out a good essay plan to follow. I don’t think you have time to write it twice but you can experiment with both methods at the ‘simulazioni’.

  

OK, START WRITING AND GOOD LUCK

Remember your handwriting counts, in the sense that the examiner has to be able to read it. Corrections, however, are fine but try to be like Mozart and do them in your head before you write, not like Beethoven who composed fantastic music but wrote very messy scores!

 

7)   Checking, improving as you go, or rewriting? (Leave yourself at least an hour if you are going to re-write). Look at what you have written and think about what you are about to write. Does it have a logical structure that flows? Does it make sense? Does it respond to the title /question or does it go ‘fuori tema’? Do you need to change, add or eliminate anything? Is the tone right? Is it ‘informato, aggiornato e equilibrato’? Do you need to change or add any specific vocabulary and/or grammar or change the spelling? Are your sentences really sentences? How are they linked? If you are thinking in Italian and need to translate, are you sure of the word in English? If not, rather than risk guessing, can you think of a synonym, another way to say it in Italian, one that you do know how to translate?

You need to leave yourself enough time to do all this. (20 minutes to half an hour if you are only writing once.) You need to eliminate all the errors from the first page at least because the examiner will think you have had time to check and revise at least that part of your work. So if you don’t do that, they will think you aren’t able to see and correct the errors.