Modern language essay questions for uni?

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some of the titles they've been given for uni essays so far. I'll be doing modern languages in the summer so it'd be nice to see what kind of things get asked :smile:

I'm not tto bothered about whether they're literature related, or economical etc. but I suppose if you say the question, it's word count and what course you're doing that would be mighty useful.
Thanks!

Reply 1

Quick-use

Original post by ElectronicPanda

Sure! Once I've finished my current essay, I'll send you a few titles of some of my essays of both the literature and the language side of things! :smile:

Reply 2

qwertyuiop1993

Original post by ElectronicPanda

One of my first year questions:
‘Un roman affreusement immoral’. How appropriate is this description of Les Liaisons dangereuses?'
(3134 words)

Example finals essay titles:
In point of fact, medieval courtly songs neither describe nor relate. They are essentially messages of themselves, the signs of love’s intensity. Discuss (2992 words)

Les tragédies de Racine: textes ou spectacles? (3367 words)

Comedy that does not offend cannot amend. Discuss in relation to Molière's theatrical works. (3227 words)

(Literature essays are supposed to be at least 2000 words, though there's variation both ways (I tend to go over as I feel to properly answer the question 2000 often isn't enough). I've found first year questions differ from later years, in that they tend to focus more on single books, whereas later questions will be more general (e.g. focusing on a specific theme over several works)
Commentaries tend to be shorter than essays, seeing as you're only focusing on a short passage.)

Essays in the foreign language are around 1200 words.

Here are some example of foreign language essay titles:
La langue sert à unir, elle peut tout aussi bien diviser. Discuss
L’art est toujours politique, surtout l’art qui croit échapper à la politique. Discuss

(I'm doing French at Oxford, so essays have a different status compared to at other universities: at Oxford the essay isn't used as a form of assessment for a topic, but rather as a springboard for discussion in the tutorial. This means that there's a lot less riding on each essay at Oxford as they 'don't count' in the long run).

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

ladymarshmallow

As a current sixth year (Year 13) pupil heading off to uni to study a language degree, it's really useful and interesting to see the types of essay questions you've been set. :smile:

Reply 4

ElectronicPanda

Original post by Quick-use

Sure! Once I've finished my current essay, I'll send you a few titles of some of my essays of both the literature and the language side of things! :smile:

Ooh eclectic! :3 thank you very much, and hope your current one goes well!

Reply 5

ElectronicPanda

Original post by qwertyuiop1993

Haha wow, that's stuffs pretty deep..mind me asking how you go about answering them/ making them easier to answer?

Reply 6

qwertyuiop1993

Original post by ElectronicPanda

Haha wow, that's stuffs pretty deep..mind me asking how you go about answering them/ making them easier to answer?

The first thing to remember is that you often get a choice of question, so even if to an outsider they seem pretty hard, they're the ones I chose to play to my strengths. Most essays follow the same pattern:

1. Decide which title looks most interesting/which title I am best suited to tackle given what I know from lectures (If I've had lectures on the texts) and from my own holiday prep when I tackled the reading list.

2. Once I've chosen a question I'll then use the reading list provided to find as many useful books as possible on the topic (sometimes I'll stumble upon useful things that aren't mentioned on the reading list). I'll make notes as a read the relevant chapters.

3. Have a very long think about the terms of the question, focussing on the key terms and the assumptions (e.g."Comedy that does not offend, cannot amend" -> Does comedy offend? How? What is the purpose of offending people, is it to 'amend' or is there another purpose? Is the notion of 'amend' even valid for Molière's works: is he trying to be didactic or is he more observational rather than critical?

4. Start writing random ideas down for the bulk of the essay - the ideas will be a combination of my own thoughts and ideas suggested by the reading - don't worry - often I don't have much of an idea of where to start before doing the reading!

5. Once I have enough content I'll check the structure is logical and use this as a detailed essay plan. The actual writing of the essay is actually mostly adding connectives to my plan, which is normally very detailed (others do it totally different and jot down a rough plan before launching straight into the essay).

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

ElectronicPanda

That's brilliant! Thank you :biggrin:

Reply 8

Quick-use

This is the one for Spanish that I just did (second year):

En Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1913) Unamuno escribió: “¡O todo o nada! … ¡Eternidad!, ¡eternidad! Este es el anhelo; la sed de eternidad es lo que se llama amor entre los hombres”. Explique de qué modo y en qué medida esta idea contenida en Del sentimiento trágico de la vida se contiene en Niebla y en Camino de perfección.

Here are the French options for the essay that I'll be doing in a few weeks:

Compare and contrast the ways in which characters pursue or value money with
reference to at least three of the set texts.

To what extent is the female perspective explored in the works you have
studied? Discuss with reference to at least three of the set texts.

Analyse the relationship between love and death with reference to at least
three of the set texts.

Analyse the relationship between morality and literature with reference to at
least three of the set texts.

My course at Edinburgh is 50% literature and 50% language. I did a few language essays in first year but this year for French, it's mainly précis (summaring texts) or translations. The language essays I did for last year varied from same-sex marriage to analysing a play we had watched. This year, we had to write a CV for Spanish.