How can a formative essay help you?

• Formative assessment is as essential in all aspects of Drama and Theatre Studies as it is in Creative Writing. In essence, it is one of the most useful tools that you can have. For instance, if you are rehearsing Chekov’s ‘The Three Sisters’, you may have to keep a journal of all your rehearsals. This can seem like an annoying waste of time because you want to act not write about what you did. If you feel like this, the temptation may be to not write the journal after every rehearsal but to leave it all until your journal and essay are due in. Do not do this because even if you think that you have a prefect memory, the memory plays tricks and basically you are missing a golden opportunity to learn about your acting. Furthermore, your essay will not get the best grades.
• Let’s imagine that you are playing the part of Irina, the youngest sister and at the beginning, you feel uncomfortable playing her because you feel that she is just too impressionable and not at all cool. You should write about your feelings of discomfort when trying to be Irina. For instance, if you remember that during the first rehearsal, you felt that you really did not do well because you feel too modern and world wise to play this character, you should state this. Remember, the journal is what you will use to write your essay and all of this is evidence of your acting journey and what you are learning.
• If you always wear trousers and big heavy boots, you might decide to wear a flowery dress to get into the character of Irina. In your next journal entry, you can explain how you have reflected on the fact that you are experimenting with different ways of getting into the character of Irina. If it helps, say so and explain why. However, if you still feel at odds with the part, you must write about this also.
• If you have been studying Stanislavsky and are using his theories to feel the part of Irina, you need to write about this too. Do not be afraid to critically analyse the theories of Stanislavsky. If you think they are not helping you with the part explain with. If you use Brechtian theory and find that works better, explain why.
• If you have kept your formative assessments up in your journal, you should go back and notice how your acting journey has transpired, this will ensure that your essay is the best that it can be. Formative writing is not about you being perfect at the beginning; it is about your learning process and how you can see what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you can improve.

It can seem like your university is trying to whip you if you have spent a mountain of time and effort in writing an essay and then you are told that you have to write an essay about your essay. On the surface, it is enough to make anyone want to bang their fists against their chests and hollow ‘why?’ at the top of their voices. This is understandable. However, painful though they are, writing a formative assessment of one of your own essays does help you to evolve into a better critic.

Let’s explore this further. If we imagine that you have written an essay about ‘The Duchess of Malfi.’ For instance, “The Duchess of Malfi’ explores the problems for a woman living in a world ruled by men and masculine ideals. Discuss.” At this point, you may be thinking that you written to the best of your ability so how are you supposed to criticise it. Ironically, that is the point – to teach you how to criticise your own work so that you can improve upon it. It’s not easy and it can be downright frustrating too so let’s see how it can be clarified.

Look at your introduction. Is it clear which angle you are arguing from? For instance, the essay question is wide open to interpretation so have you made it obvious what you are focussing on? For instance, you could suggest that you need to define what the problems are and then you can judge how the play treats them. Ensuring that your argument is focussed is imperative. If it is loose then you can criticise that.

Look at your essay structure. Read through your essay again and ask yourself if your argument is convincing or could it be stronger? How could you have made it stronger? Look through your points and notice if you are using the same points more than once and are simply paraphrasing them. Go through the main body again and check if you have gone off on a tangent and brought in issues that are not relevant to your point.

Consider your use of text. When writing a literary essay, your main point of evidence is the text. Check all the quotations that you have used and then go through the actual text to see if there are any stronger pieces that could have been used.

Critical theory. Read how you have used secondary sources of critical theory again. For instance, if you used ‘Tragedy and Social Evolution’ by Eva Figes for the Duchess of Malfi essay, were you merely paraphrasing Figes? If so, you could suggest how you could critically analyse her theory about the Jacobean revenge tragedy. By doing this, you are demonstrating that since you wrote your essay you have learned to distinguish between simply reiterating academics’ theories and actively critically analysing both the text and how they think about it. At this point, you should congratulate yourself because great grades should be coming your way.