Short History of Nearly Everything

[dermite]

Hi There,

I'm doing Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything, and I need some pointers as to how I approach answering questions in an essay scenario. I don't particularly like the text, and find it hard to write about well.

Any tips would be great, thanks.

[jamonwindeyer]

Howdy! I wrote this guide on essays generally, if you are uncomfortable with essays as a whole then this could be useful? It covers where the question should be incorporated and those sorts of things, important to nail this stuff before you try and assemble something with quotes/techniques (getting a list of those for your text is also a great way to start)

[angewina_naguen]

Hi There,

I'm doing Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything, and I need some pointers as to how I approach answering questions in an essay scenario. I don't particularly like the text, and find it hard to write about well.

Any tips would be great, thanks.

Hey, there!

Funny story I have with this book is that I read it in year 10 and only midway through this term did I realise it was a prescribed text for AOS! It's one of Bryson's most interesting works and despite it not being as popular as some other Discovery texts, I can offer some pointers for how you could approach it, or at the very least bring yourself to enjoy it a bit more!

Find key quotes or lines you particularly like- Although it may not seem like it, there's always something for everyone in literature. Even if you have to force yourself to read it, go through the book with an open mind and highlight or sticky note any quotes that spark something in you. You can translate these to techniques, whether they be obviously ones like your simile, metaphor and so forth, or they are more challenging with consideration for how you choose to interpret it such as first person narration, tone and font (not sure if Bryson does it but in my related text, there's italics used to emphasise certain words). This can show how YOU as a reader respond to the discoveries made within the text in a way that is authentic and personal. It also makes the essay writing process more centralised around your own interpretations of discoveries, as opposed to relying on other resources.

Befriend a science person or do some extra reading- Make your dictionary your new best friend. Bryson loves his scientific jargon and with such a dense text as this that covers so much history in one go, he uses jargon frequently just to avoid him having to explain every single word. If there's words that confuse you or you get stuck at, look them up and hopefully that makes it easier to read, and hence enjoy. In saying this, jargon is another technique you could consider!

Find the most obvious links to the rubric before tackling the more difficult ones- As a work of scientific non-fiction, Bryson engages us as an audience and prompts us to discover about our own universe, as he has experienced. Elements of the rubric such as "curiosity, necessity or wonder" (how he prompts us to engage in scientific exploration), "rediscovering" (tracing back in history to understand our present), "confronting" (especially when we have these existential crises when we realise how small we really are), "intellectual" (the marvels we can achieve when we engaged in scholarly works) or "transformative" (how the universe has transformed) are some examples that can be instantly associated with 'A Short History of Nearly Everything.' Once you have these and a few others, your understanding of the rubric will be sufficient enough to adapt your techniques to all aspects of it so long as you refer back to these key ideas.

I hope this helps! Good luck with the text!

Toodles,

Angelina