Author's Note: So. SO. You've chosen the arduous task of undertaking the 4,000 word essay on theatre. A subject that - seemingly - has so few resources (or so you assume), but so much to talk about, and so much freedom to discuss (or so you'd expect). Well, this is hardly a qualified guide on how to write the theatre EE - I'll leave that to your supervisors - but it is what I've learnt from my one singular, and by no means definitive, experience in tackling that tricky piece of research. Have at it. 1. Choose a topic you're passionate about Bet you thought 'HA! Obviously.' But I'm here to say, no, not obviously at all. Theatre is a multidisciplinary art form that employs many different theories, techniques, styles, etc. etc. etc. and when you have such a wide array of topics to choose from, you might think, Well, let's just go with the easiest one to write. Well, oftentimes, the easiest one to write is not the one with the most readily available published research - it's the one you sustain a genuine interest in. It's not the churning out of 4,000 words that's difficult. It's the long and seemingly never-ending hours you spend outside of the actual writing, poring over page after page of literature to obtain enough understanding about your topic to even begin to write about it. And when you choose a topic that you sustain no interest in, that process is an absolute pain. Then at the end of the day, all the research you've done that you don't include directly in your essay will (probably) have been a waste of your own time, because that knowledge would hardly be value-adding to you as an individual. 2. Don't get too hung up on your research question But the research question is the starting and ending point of your whole essay! It provides direction! No. No, locking down a research question really isn't that vital. My research question was changed three times over the course of writing the EE, with the final change occurring about 1-2 weeks before the final submission deadline. What you need to have is a general idea of where your researching into and what you want to find out, and a 'draft' research question related to this area of study. And once you've got that, it's much easier to begin your research and see where it leads you, then tweak your research question to suit the data you've obtained, so it can be answered comprehensively. It's likely that somewhere along the research process (within your topic of interest), you'll realise which area of study has the most resources for you to turn to, and - voila - there you go! While it would be fantastic to be able to answer the original research question from the very beginning, sometimes it just isn't possible with limited resources and a 4,000 word constraint. 3. library@esplanade is your new best friend Really not kidding about this one. You'd think Singapore is severely lacking in terms of performing arts resources until you step into this library - it has every book on theatre you'd ever need. From practitioners to playwrights, research to repertoire, classical to contemporary. E v e r y t h i n g . I'd spend hours at a time sitting between the aisles, combing through titles and adding book after book to an ever growing pile at my feet, all while getting occasionally distracted by some random book that's completely unrelated to my topic of study at hand. This library carried me through more than just my EE - it was my favourite hideaway while researching for my HL Theatre Solo Performance and Research Presentation too! And if the sheer wealth of resources doesn't entice you, maybe the Esplanade Outdoor Terrace will. Borrow a book, head upstairs and lounge on the grass patch of the terrace, amidst the murmuring chatter of other patrons, the invigorating breeze of the Bayfront area and the glorious golden sunset :) 4. Get in touch with local theatre practitioners/teachers/people If you're lacking on data collection (which you shouldn't be after visiting the Esplanade library, but on the rare, rare occasion that you might be), people in the local theatre industry are your best bet to obtain data. Luckily enough, my EE topic was musical theatre (for obvious reasons) and I'm enrolled at Sing'theatre Academy, so I could easily approach the teaching faculty - who are all actively involved in the local theatre scene - for interviews. But even if you're not directly connected to someone in the industry, getting in touch with them via email and Instagram DMs are convenient enough, and they're often happy to help in whatever way they can. The best part about interviews? You can craft your question in a way that ensures you obtain the exact response you need to fill in any gaps in data. 5. Cite as you go along Self-explanatory - this makes citations much less of a headache. This means you include in-text citations immediately after writing the sentence that refers to the information (so that 1. You don't forget to cite, 2. You don't have to struggle to recall where you got the information from), and you make a note of all the books and websites you're using as sources. What I did was keep a bookmark folder called 'EE', and every time I cited external information from a website I added it to the folder. For reading materials, I had a list of ISBN numbers on my phone's Notes app - this way I could easily record which reference materials I'd used during my library trips (because you aren't allowed to borrow some books!). Keeping a constantly updated list of sources made writing my bibliography so easy - all I had to do was input the URL or ISBN number into a citation generator and paste it onto my document. And there you have it, 5 short tips on writing your theatre EE! While this list is by no means comprehensive, these are what helped me the most during the research and essay-writing process, so I hope they can help you in your essay too. If you'd like an example of a theatre EE, you can access mine here (A, 32/34), and drop me any questions below! I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability :) Happy productive writing!
Love, Ashley x
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