The meaning of a word essays

For a description of essays as used by Wikipedia editors, see Wikipedia:Essays.

An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author’s own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal and informal: formal essays are characterized by «serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length,» whereas the informal essay is characterized by «the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme,» etc.^[1]

Essays are commonly used as literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population are counterexamples.

In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education.^[2] Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams.

The concept of an «essay» has been extended to other media beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary filmmaking styles and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions.

Definitions

The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, «to try» or «to attempt». In English essay first meant «a trial» or «an attempt», and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as «attempts» to put his thoughts into writing.

Subsequently, essay has been defined in a variety of ways. One definition is a «prose composition with a focused subject of discussion» or a «long, systematic discourse».^[3]
It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject.^[4] He notes that «the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything», and adds that «by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece». Furthermore, Huxley argues that «essays belong to a literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference».
These three poles (or worlds in which the essay may exist) are:

• The personal and the autobiographical: The essayists that feel most comfortable in this pole «write fragments of reflective autobiography and look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description».
• The objective, the factual, and the concrete particular: The essayists that write from this pole «do not speak directly of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or scientific or political theme. Their art consists of setting forth, passing judgment upon, and drawing general conclusions from the relevant data».
• The abstract-universal: In this pole «we find those essayists who do their work in the world of high abstractions», who are never personal and who seldom mention the particular facts of experience.

Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays «…make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist.»

History

Montaigne

Montaigne’s «attempts» grew out of his commonplacing.^[5] Inspired in particular by the works of Plutarch, a translation of whose Œuvres Morales (Moral works) into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot, Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais, was published in two volumes in 1580.^[6] For the rest of his life, he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. A third volume was published posthumously; together, their over 100 examples are widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern essay.

Europe

While Montaigne’s philosophy was admired and copied in France, none of his most immediate disciples tried to write essays. But Montaigne, who liked to fancy that his family (the Eyquem line) was of English extraction, had spoken of the English people as his «cousins», and he was early read in England, notably by Francis Bacon.^[7]

Bacon’s essays, published in book form in 1597 (only five years after the death of Montaigne, containing the first ten of his essays),^[7] 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Other English essayists included Sir William Cornwallis, who published essays in 1600 and 1617 that were popular at the time,^[7] Robert Burton (1577–1641) and Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione wrote about courtly manners in his essay Il Cortigiano. In the 17th century, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián wrote about the theme of wisdom.^[8]

In England, during the Age of Enlightenment, essays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literature, as seen in the works of Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and Samuel Johnson. Addison and Steele used the journal Tatler (founded in 1709 by Steele) and its successors as storehouses of their work, and they became the most celebrated eighteenth-century essayists in England. Johnson’s essays appear during the 1750s in various similar publications.^[7] As a result of the focus on journals, the term also acquired a meaning synonymous with «article», although the content may not the strict definition. On the other hand, Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not an essay at all, or cluster of essays, in the technical sense, but still it refers to the experimental and tentative nature of the inquiry which the philosopher was undertaking.^[7]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote essays for the general public. The early 19th century, in particular, saw a proliferation of great essayists in English—William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt and Thomas De Quincey all penned numerous essays on diverse subjects, reviving the earlier graceful style. Thomas Carlyle’s essays were highly influential, and one of his readers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, became a prominent essayist himself. Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson also raised the form’s literary level.^[9] In the 20th century, a number of essayists, such as T.S. Eliot, tried to explain the new movements in art and culture by using essays. Virginia Woolf, Edmund Wilson, and Charles du Bos wrote literary criticism essays.^[8]

In France, several writers produced longer works with the title of essai that were not true examples of the form. However, by the mid-19th century, the Causeries du lundi, newspaper columns by the critic Sainte-Beuve, are literary essays in the original sense. Other French writers followed suit, including Théophile Gautier, Anatole France, Jules Lemaître and Émile Faguet.^[9]

Japan

As with the novel, essays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu—loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas. Zuihitsu have existed since almost the beginnings of Japanese literature. Many of the most noted early works of Japanese literature are in this genre. Notable examples include The Pillow Book (c. 1000), by court lady Sei Shōnagon, and Tsurezuregusa (1330), by particularly renowned Japanese Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō. Kenkō described his short writings similarly to Montaigne, referring to them as «nonsensical thoughts» written in «idle hours». Another noteworthy difference from Europe is that women have traditionally written in Japan, though the more formal, Chinese-influenced writings of male writers were more prized at the time.

China

The eight-legged essay (Chinese: 八股文; pinyin: bāgǔwén; lit. ‘eight bone text’) was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those test takers in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, often focusing on Confucian thought and knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics, in relation to governmental ideals. Test takers could not write in innovative or creative ways, but needed to conform to the standards of the eight-legged essay. Various skills were examined, including the ability to write coherently and to display basic logic. In certain times, the candidates were expected to spontaneously compose poetry upon a set theme, whose value was also sometimes questioned, or eliminated as part of the test material. This was a major argument in favor of the eight-legged essay, arguing that it were better to eliminate creative art in favor of prosaic literacy. In the history of Chinese literature, the eight-legged essay is often said to have caused China’s «cultural stagnation and economic backwardness» in the 19th century.^[10]

Forms and styles

This section describes the different forms and styles of essay writing. These are used by an array of authors, including university students and professional essayists.

Cause and effect

The defining features of a «cause and effect» essay are causal chains that connect from a cause to an effect, careful language, and chronological or emphatic order. A writer using this rhetorical method must consider the subject, determine the purpose, consider the audience, think critically about different causes or consequences, consider a thesis statement, arrange the parts, consider the language, and decide on a conclusion.^[11]

Classification and division

Classification is the categorization of objects into a larger whole while division is the breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts.^[12]

Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast essays are characterized by a basis for comparison, points of comparison, and analogies. It is grouped by the object (chunking) or by point (sequential). The comparison highlights the similarities between two or more similar objects while contrasting highlights the differences between two or more objects. When writing a compare/contrast essay, writers need to determine their purpose, consider their audience, consider the basis and points of comparison, consider their thesis statement, arrange and develop the comparison, and reach a conclusion. Compare and contrast is arranged emphatically.^[13]

Expository

An expository essay is used to inform, describe or explain a topic, using important facts to teach the reader about a topic. Mostly written in third-person, using «it», «he», «she», «they,» the expository essay uses formal language to discuss someone or something. Examples of expository essays are: a medical or biological condition, social or technological process, life or character of a famous person. The writing of an expository essay often consists of the following steps: organizing thoughts (brainstorming), researching a topic, developing a thesis statement, writing the introduction, writing the body of essay, and writing the conclusion.^[14] Expository essays are often assigned as a part of SAT and other standardized testing or as homework for high school and college students.

Descriptive

Descriptive writing is characterized by sensory details, which appeal to the physical senses, and details that appeal to a reader’s emotional, physical, or intellectual sensibilities. Determining the purpose, considering the audience, creating a dominant impression, using descriptive language, and organizing the description are the rhetorical choices to consider when using a description. A description is usually arranged spatially but can also be chronological or emphatic. The focus of a description is the scene. Description uses tools such as denotative language, connotative language, figurative language, metaphor, and simile to arrive at a dominant impression.^[15] One university essay guide states that «descriptive writing says what happened or what another author has discussed; it provides an account of the topic».^[16]
Lyric essays are an important form of descriptive essays.

Dialectic

In the dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophy, the writer makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument (with a counterargument), but then counters the counterargument with a final and novel argument. This form benefits from presenting a broader perspective while countering a possible flaw that some may present. This type is sometimes called an ethics paper.^[17]

Exemplification

An exemplification essay is characterized by a generalization and relevant, representative, and believable examples including anecdotes. Writers need to consider their subject, determine their purpose, consider their audience, decide on specific examples, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification essay.^[18]

Familiar

An essayist writes a familiar essay if speaking to a single reader, writing about both themselves, and about particular subjects. Anne Fadiman notes that «the genre’s heyday was the early nineteenth century,» and that its greatest exponent was Charles Lamb.^[19] She also suggests that while critical essays have more brain than the heart, and personal essays have more heart than brain, familiar essays have equal measures of both.^[20]

History (thesis)

A history essay sometimes referred to as a thesis essay describes an argument or claim about one or more historical events and supports that claim with evidence, arguments, and references. The text makes it clear to the reader why the argument or claim is as such.^[21]

Narrative

A narrative uses tools such as flashbacks, flash-forwards, and transitions that often build to a climax. The focus of a narrative is the plot. When creating a narrative, authors must determine their purpose, consider their audience, establish their point of view, use dialogue, and organize the narrative. A narrative is usually arranged chronologically.^[22]

Argumentative

An argumentative essay is a critical piece of writing, aimed at presenting objective analysis of the subject matter, narrowed down to a single topic. The main idea of all the criticism is to provide an opinion either of positive or negative implication. As such, a critical essay requires research and analysis, strong internal logic and sharp structure. Its structure normally builds around introduction with a topic’s relevance and a thesis statement, body paragraphs with arguments linking back to the main thesis, and conclusion. In addition, an argumentative essay may include a refutation section where conflicting ideas are acknowledged, described, and criticized. Each argument of an argumentative essay should be supported with sufficient evidence, relevant to the point.

Process

A process essay is used for an explanation of making or breaking something. Often, it is written in chronological order or numerical order to show step-by-step processes. It has all the qualities of a technical document with the only difference is that it is often written in descriptive mood, while a technical document is mostly in imperative mood.^[23]

Economic

An economic essay can start with a thesis, or it can start with a theme. It can take a narrative course and a descriptive course. It can even become an argumentative essay if the author feels the need. After the introduction, the author has to do his/her best to expose the economic matter at hand, to analyze it, evaluate it, and draw a conclusion. If the essay takes more of a narrative form then the author has to expose each aspect of the economic puzzle in a way that makes it clear and understandable for the reader

Reflective

A reflective essay is an analytical piece of writing in which the writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, or form—adding a personal reflection on the meaning of the topic in the author’s life. Thus, the focus is not merely descriptive. The writer doesn’t just describe the situation, but revisits the scene with more detail and emotion to examine what went well, or reveal a need for additional learning—and may relate what transpired to the rest of the author’s life.

Other logical structures

The logical progression and organizational structure of an essay can take many forms. Understanding how the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound impact on its overall cogency and ability to impress. A number of alternative logical structures for essays have been visualized as diagrams, making them easy to implement or adapt in the construction of an argument.^[24]

Academic

In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants (see admissions essay). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses, university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,^{[citation needed]} mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours.

In these countries, so-called academic essays, also called papers, are usually more formal than literary ones.^{[citation needed]} They may still allow the presentation of the writer’s own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words)^{[citation needed]} are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review.^{[citation needed]}

Longer essays may also contain an introductory page that defines words and phrases of the essay’s topic. Most academic institutions require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other supporting material in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention helps others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of facts and quotations the author uses to support the essay’s argument. The bibliography also helps readers evaluate to what extent the argument is supported by evidence and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student’s ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities.

One of the challenges facing universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays purchased from an essay mill (or «paper mill») as their own work. An «essay mill» is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud, universities and colleges may investigate papers they suspect are from an essay mill by using plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers.^[25]

Magazine or newspaper

Essays often appear in magazines, especially magazines with an intellectual bent, such as The Atlantic and Harpers. Magazine and newspaper essays use many of the essay types described in the section on forms and styles (e.g., descriptive essays, narrative essays, etc.). Some newspapers also print essays in the op-ed section.

Employment

Employment essays detailing experience in a certain occupational field are required when applying for some jobs, especially government jobs in the United States. Essays known as Knowledge Skills and Executive Core Qualifications are required when applying to certain US federal government positions.

A KSA, or «Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities», is a series of narrative statements that are required when applying to Federal government job openings in the United States. KSAs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the successful performance of a position are contained on each job vacancy announcement. KSAs are brief and focused essays about one’s career and educational background that presumably qualify one to perform the duties of the position being applied for.

An Executive Core Qualification, or ECQ, is a narrative statement that is required when applying to Senior Executive Service positions within the US Federal government. Like the KSAs, ECQs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The Office of Personnel Management has established five executive core qualifications that all applicants seeking to enter the Senior Executive Service must demonstrate.

Non-literary types

Film

A film essay (also essay film or cinematic essay) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay.^[26] From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where the signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends documentary, fiction, and experimental film making using tones and editing styles.^[27]

The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early Soviet filmmakers like Dziga Vertov, present-day filmmakers including Chris Marker,^[28] Michael Moore (Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11), Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) and Agnès Varda. Jean-Luc Godard describes his recent work as «film-essays».^[29] Two filmmakers whose work was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include Georges Méliès and Bertolt Brecht. Méliès made a short film (The Coronation of Edward VII (1902)) about the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into some of his plays.^[27] Orson Welles made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974, called F for Fake, which dealt specifically with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with the themes of deception, «fakery», and authenticity in general. These are often published online on video hosting services.^[30][31]

David Winks Gray’s article «The essay film in action» states that the «essay film became an identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and ’60s». He states that since that time, essay films have tended to be «on the margins» of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a «peculiar searching, questioning tone … between documentary and fiction» but without «fitting comfortably» into either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films «tend to marry the personal voice of a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices».^[32] The University of Wisconsin Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray’s comments; it calls a film essay an «intimate and allusive» genre that «catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins between fiction and documentary» in a manner that is «refreshingly inventive, playful, and idiosyncratic».^[33]

Music

In the realm of music, composer Samuel Barber wrote a set of «Essays for Orchestra», relying on the form and content of the music to guide the listener’s ear, rather than any extra-musical plot or story.

Photography

A photographic essay strives to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full-text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order—or they may consist of non-ordered photographs viewed all at once or in an order that the viewer chooses. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.

Visual arts

In the visual arts, an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch that forms a basis for a final painting or sculpture, made as a test of the work’s composition (this meaning of the term, like several of those following, comes from the word essay’s meaning of «attempt» or «trial»).

See also

References

Further reading

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gosse, Edmund (1911). «Essay, Essayist». In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 776–778.
• Theodor W. Adorno, «The Essay as Form» in: Theodor W. Adorno, The Adorno Reader, Blackwell Publishers 2000.
• Beaujour, Michel. Miroirs d’encre: Rhétorique de l’autoportrait. Paris: Seuil, 1980. [Poetics of the Literary Self-Portrait. Trans. Yara Milos. New York: NYU Press, 1991].
• Bensmaïa, Reda. The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text. Trans. Pat Fedkiew. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1987.
• D’Agata, John (Editor), The Lost Origins of the Essay. St Paul: Graywolf Press, 2009.
• Giamatti, Louis. «The Cinematic Essay», in Godard and the Others: Essays in Cinematic Form. London, Tantivy Press, 1975.
• Lopate, Phillip. «In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film», in Beyond Document: Essays on Nonfiction Film. Edited by Charles Warren, Wesleyan University Press, 1998. pp. 243–270.
• Warburton, Nigel. The basics of essay writing. Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0-415-24000-X, 978-0-415-24000-0

External links

• Essay writing category on EnglishGrammar.org
• Essay eTexts at Project Gutenberg
• What is an Essay? from Wikidot
• The Age of the Essay – Criticism of the modern essay, by Paul Graham

It is commonly said that there is power in the words we speak. This can be seen as just another saying, until an individual has an experience with the power of words spoken to him or her. At times, the words can have different meanings when used in different contexts (Naylor 1). Naylor gave this experience after observing that the word ‘nigger’ had been used so often in her presence but the reality of the word only hit her when it was spoken in a different context. The same case applies to me. Though I am blind, I never used to figure this as a major problem. I could even make jokes with my friends about it. However, when it was said to me by someone outside my social circle, I realized that it could have a totally different meaning. Based on the experience of Naylor as well as my own experience, I seek to assert the fact that words hold the power to make or break, depending on the context in which they are used.

I really enjoyed reading Naylor’s story on the meaning of a word. This is because Naylor brings out the reality of life and, in a very vivid manner, tells how the versatility of a word can be applied in different situations to bring about different meanings and effects. Naylor does this by using the example of the word ‘nigger’ (2). She first explains all the different contexts in which the word can be used, both the positive and negative scenarios. She then goes on to indicate that the word had not been used in a negative sense to her and so she did not know it could be insulting “until it was said by a small pair of lips that had already learnt it could be a way to humiliate” (Naylor 3). This explanation implies that the usage of words can have an effect on the private lives of individuals as well as on the social relations. From the story, it can be seen that Naylor immediately got to know that the word “nigger” could be used against her. She felt bad about the young boy who said this to her. Definitely, the social ties between Naylor and the boy were severed. This came about just because one of them had decided to use a word that had a strong, negative meaning. The context in which the word was used makes matters even worse, and it sounds even worse than another insult. It is no wonder that Naylor quips that “Had he called me nymphomaniac or a necrophiliac, I couldn’t have been more puzzled” (1). Something in the story tells that though the word was very familiar to Naylor, it had not been used with such passion and negativity.

The reason as to why I found this story very interesting is because I can actually associate with it. It so happens that I am blind and my parents are well aware of the fact. However, when I was young, they did not mention it to me nor make me feel that I had a kind of handicap. Rather, they made me feel comfortable just like any other human being and I believed that everything was absolutely fine with me. This was just as Naylor’s parents had done. However, the reality has to strike at one time or another. For Naylor, it was the young boy who spat the word to her face which made her realize that the word she had considered to be a normal word in conversation could actually be used as an insult. The same case happened to me. I believed that nothing was wrong until one day when we were at the park with my parents and I was on the swing. Other children came by and started asking what was wrong with me, why I could not open my eyes. This made me feel weird and scared. I wanted to hide by my father. I knew that I was blind but I could even laugh about it and even joke with my friends about it. This was because they supported and associated with me. To them, I was not a handicap and so I was free with them, but the encounter at the park brought in a new realization. This made me, just like Naylor, realize that there is some power in words. I could afford to make fun and laugh at my blindness, just as Naylor could hear the word nigger in light conversations. The manner in which the reality of these words hit us is very similar. At the social setting, they made us but in the critique mode, they made us feel uneasy.

Well, just like Naylor, I had to get an explanation and so my parents had to have the hard task of explaining to me what the matter was. I accepted the situation and even joined the National Federation of the Blind in which I learnt that blindness is not the end of life or a curse to be a social misfit. It is just a matter of accepting the situation and learning to live with it. The same happened to Naylor. After asking her mother for an explanation, she observes that “Since she knew that I had to grow up in America; she took me in her lap and explained” (3).

Looking at Naylor’s story and my experience, I could confidently say that the way words are used helps in creating the relationships in the society. As Naylor observes, there are different ways through which words can be used to show respect and adoration. However, in a different context, the same words can be used to bring division and conflicts between the people. It is just a matter of how, by whom, where, and in which context the words are used. Using the words in the right manner can lead to a strong social bond. This is what was happening in Naylor’s home where they could use the word ‘nigger’ with no reservations. It was a normal way of conversation that made them feel at ease and relaxed in each other’s presence. However, the same word applied in a different context, such as what the boy did, brings out a totally different meaning.

I also experienced the same. Being blind was not a big issue to me and still is not, simply because I have supportive people who appreciate me as I am. That is why I can afford to make fun of it with my friends and family. However, when other people joke with the same in my presence or talk about it, such as the scenario at the park, it gets totally different. It is for this reason that I agree with Naylor that the meaning of words can vary depending on the manner in which the words are used, and also in different social contexts. The main determinant of the meaning, however, is in the social context in which it is used as well as the personal relation of the word to the individual on whom it is used. This could be the reason as to why Naylor says, “But I didn’t ‘hear’ it until it was mentioned by a small pair of lips” (3). This implies that though the word had been used in her presence before, it was on a different social context in which usage of the word was acceptable. It is an assertion that words can actually be versatile in their meaning and usage. Individuals have to master this if they desire becoming good at communicating with others in a diverse world.

Work Cited

Naylor, Gloria. “The Meanings of a Word.” Mpsaz.org, n.d. Web, 9th Oct. 2012, http://www.mpsaz.org/mtnview/staff/lmbormann/class1/links/files/the_meanings_of_a_word_text_version.pdf

Princeton’s WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 6 votes

1. essaynoun

   an analytic or interpretive literary composition

2. essayverb

   a tentative attempt

3. try, seek, attempt, essay, assayverb

   make an effort or attempt

   «He tried to shake off his fears»; «The infant had essayed a few wobbly steps»; «The police attempted to stop the thief»; «He sought to improve himself»; «She always seeks to do good in the world»

4. test, prove, try, try out, examine, essayverb

   put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to

   «This approach has been tried with good results»; «Test this recipe»

WiktionaryRate this definition:4.0 / 1 vote

1. essaynoun

   A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.

2. essaynoun

   A test, experiment; an assay.

3. essaynoun

   An attempt.

4. essayverb

   To try.

5. essayverb

   To move forth, as into battle.

6. Etymology: From essai.

Samuel Johnson’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Essaynoun

   Etymology: from the verb.

   1. Attempt; endeavour.

   Fruitless our hopes, though pious our essays;
   Your’s to preserve a friend, and mine to praise.
   Smith.

   2. A loose sally of the mind; an irregular indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition.

   My essays, of all my other works, have been most current.
   Francis Bacon.

   Yet modestly he does his work survey,
   And calls his finish’d poem an essay.
   Poem to Roscommon.

   3. A trial; an experiment.

   He wrote this but as an essay, or taste of my virtue.
   William Shakespeare.

   Repetitions wear us into a liking of what possibly, in the first essay, displeased us.
   John Locke.

   4. First taste of any thing; first experiment.

   Translating the first of ’s Iliads, I intended as an essay to the whole work.
   John Dryden, Fables, Preface.

2. To ESSAYverb

   Etymology: essayer, French.

   1. To attempt; to try; to endeavour.

   While I this unexampled task essay,
   Pass awful gulphs, and beat my painful way,
   Celestial dove, divine assistance bring.
   Richard Blackmore, Creation.

   No conquest she, but o’er herself desir’d;
   No arts essay’d, but not to be admir’d.
   Alexander Pope, Epistle 5.

   2. To make experiment of.3. To try the value and purity of metals.

   The standard in our mint being now settled, the rules and methods of essaying suited to it should remain unvariable.
   John Locke.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Essay

   An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author’s own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as formal and informal. Formal essays are characterized by «serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length,» whereas the informal essay is characterized by «the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme,» etc.Essays are commonly used as literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population are counterexamples.
   In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams.
   The concept of an «essay» has been extended to other media beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary filmmaking styles and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Essaynoun

   an effort made, or exertion of body or mind, for the performance of anything; a trial; attempt; as, to make an essay to benefit a friend

2. Essaynoun

   a composition treating of any particular subject; — usually shorter and less methodical than a formal, finished treatise; as, an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils, or on commerce

3. Essaynoun

   an assay. See Assay, n

4. Essaynoun

   to exert one’s power or faculties upon; to make an effort to perform; to attempt; to endeavor; to make experiment or trial of; to try

5. Essaynoun

   to test the value and purity of (metals); to assay. See Assay

6. Etymology: [F. essayer. See Essay, n.]

FreebaseRate this definition:2.5 / 2 votes

1. Essay

   An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author’s personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays. While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population are counterexamples. In some countries, essays have become a major part of formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants and, in the humanities and social sciences, as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams. The concept of an «essay» has been extended to other mediums beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary film making styles and which focuses more on the evolution of a theme or an idea. A photographic essay is an attempt to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs; it may or may not have an accompanying text or captions.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Essay

   es′ā, n. a trial: an experiment: a written composition less elaborate than a treatise.—v.t. Essay′, to try: to attempt: to make experiment of:—pr.p. essay′ing; pa.p. essayed′.—ns. Essay′er, Es′sayist, one who essays: a writer of essays; Essayette′, Es′saykin, a little essay.—adjs. Es′sayish; Essayis′tic. [O. Fr. essai—L. exagium, weighing—exagĕre, to try, examine.]

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Essay

   Service is intended for students to hire a freelancer to write an essay for them. The student may provide the classroom material for the freelancer. Other times, the student may submit a draft of the essay that the freelancer perfects for grammar, style, and coherence.

   In order to pass the entry exams to university I have to write a personal ESSAY online.

   Etymology: «to put to proof, test the mettle of,» late 15c., from French essaier, from essai «trial, attempt» (see essay (n.)). This sense has mostly gone with the divergent spelling assay. Meaning «to attempt» is from 1640s. Related: Essayed; essaying.

   Submitted by ross_j on May 25, 2021  

2. ---

   Essay

   Text that describes the selected topic. For example, writing an essay on philosophy

   If you feel unable to articulate a good essay, buy college essay done by our qualified experts.

   Submitted by emilievilla on January 30, 2019  

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. ESSAY

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Essay is ranked #128249 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

   The Essay surname appeared 133 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Essay.

   92.4% or 123 total occurrences were White.
   3.7% or 5 total occurrences were Asian.

British National Corpus

1. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘essay’ in Written Corpus Frequency: #3685

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘essay’ in Nouns Frequency: #1621

How to pronounce essay?

How to say essay in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of essay in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of essay in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of essay in a Sentence

1. Laura Bush:

   I was shocked, george had never even looked at art…he read Churchill’s little essay ‘Painting as a Pastime,’ and at the same time he got an app on his iPad where he could draw stick figures; when he was on the road he’d draw himself at a podium giving a speech, sending it to me, and somehow he started thinking about becoming a painter.

2. Neama Rahmani:

   Bail reform and COVID delays claim another innocent victim, george Gascon has been largely criticized for the increase in violent crime in Los Angeles. Los Angeles’s time George Gascon stops acting like a defense attorney and allows prosecutors to charge violent felons with sentencing enhancements. George Gascon, the progressive Los Angeles district attorney, has raised the ire of law enforcement and George Gascon own assistant DAs for George Gascon allegedly soft-on-crime policies. Los Angeles POLICE ID Shawn Laval Smith AS SUSPECTED KILLER OF Brianna Kupfer Homicides are up more than 60 % in the City of Los Angeles and over 90 % in Los Angeles, according to records from the LAPD and sheriff’s office. Eric Siddall, the vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, excoriated Gascon in an essay published to the union’s website this week.

3. Roger McNamee:

   By draping his essay in the guise of cooperation, Zuckerberg hopes to distract policy makers from the real threat, their code and algorithms influence our daily lives in ways far more intrusive than democratic governments or the law. No one elected these companies and they refuse to be held accountable.

4. Education Services Ondrea Reed:

   The opinion essay … was used an in-class assignment where the article was read together as a class, the teacher’s purpose for introducing this essay was to introduce students to opinion writing while drawing correlations with ‘The Watsons Go to Birmingham’ as a secondary source to help support the context and events in the book.

5. Noreen Farrell:

   It’s weird being a public figure talking about all of this stuff because you put a target on your nose, when I wrote that essay I got a lot of support but I also have a Republican family in Kentucky who told me my career was effectively over.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for essay

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

• مقالة, بحث, محاولةArabic
• иншаBashkir
• проба, опит, есе, опитвам се, съчинениеBulgarian
• esej, pokus, zkouškaCzech
• traethawdWelsh
• prøve, forsøgeDanish
• Aufsatz, Versuch, EssayGerman
• απόπειρα, δοκιμή, δοκίμιο, δοκιμάζω, πραγματεία, αποπειρώμαι, έκθεσηGreek
• eseoEsperanto
• ensayoSpanish
• essee, kirjoitelmaFinnish
• essai, dissertation, rédactionFrench
• aisteIrish
• निबंधHindi
• esaiIndonesian
• tentativo, saggio, prova, studio, ricercaItalian
• エッセイ, 随筆Japanese
• 隨筆, 수필Korean
• temptantLatin
• poging, opstel, essayDutch
• esejPolish
• ensaiar, tentar, ensaio, tentativaPortuguese
• эссе, сочинениеRussian
• ogledSerbo-Croatian
• poskus, esejSlovene
• essä, uppsatsSwedish
• వ్యాసముTelugu
• denemeTurkish
• 文章Chinese

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«One damned thing after another» is how Aldous Huxley described the essay: «a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.»

As definitions go, Huxley’s is no more or less exact than Francis Bacon’s «dispersed meditations,» Samuel Johnson’s «loose sally of the mind» or Edward Hoagland’s «greased pig.»

Since Montaigne adopted the term «essay» in the 16th century to describe his «attempts» at self-portrayal in prose, this slippery form has resisted any sort of precise, universal definition. But that won’t an attempt to define the term in this brief article.

Meaning

In the broadest sense, the term «essay» can refer to just about any short piece of nonfiction — an editorial, feature story, critical study, even an excerpt from a book. However, literary definitions of a genre are usually a bit fussier.

One way to start is to draw a distinction between articles, which are read primarily for the information they contain, and essays, in which the pleasure of reading takes precedence over the information in the text. Although handy, this loose division points chiefly to kinds of reading rather than to kinds of texts. So here are some other ways that the essay might be defined.

Structure

Standard definitions often stress the loose structure or apparent shapelessness of the essay. Johnson, for example, called the essay «an irregular, indigested piece, not a regular and orderly performance.»

True, the writings of several well-known essayists (William Hazlitt and Ralph Waldo Emerson, for instance, after the fashion of Montaigne) can be recognized by the casual nature of their explorations — or «ramblings.» But that’s not to say that anything goes. Each of these essayists follows certain organizing principles of his own.

Oddly enough, critics haven’t paid much attention to the principles of design actually employed by successful essayists. These principles are rarely formal patterns of organization, that is, the «modes of exposition» found in many composition textbooks. Instead, they might be described as patterns of thought — progressions of a mind working out an idea.

Types

Unfortunately, the customary divisions of the essay into opposing types — formal and informal, impersonal and familiar — are also troublesome. Consider this suspiciously neat dividing line drawn by Michele Richman:

Post-Montaigne, the essay split into two distinct modalities: One remained informal, personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational and often humorous; the other, dogmatic, impersonal, systematic and expository.

The terms used here to qualify the term «essay» are convenient as a kind of critical shorthand, but they’re imprecise at best and potentially contradictory. Informal can describe either the shape or the tone of the work — or both. Personal refers to the stance of the essayist, conversational to the language of the piece, and expository to its content and aim. When the writings of particular essayists are studied carefully, Richman’s «distinct modalities» grow increasingly vague.

But as fuzzy as these terms might be, the qualities of shape and personality, form and voice, are clearly integral to an understanding of the essay as an artful literary kind. 

Voice

Many of the terms used to characterize the essay — personal, familiar, intimate, subjective, friendly, conversational — represent efforts to identify the genre’s most powerful organizing force: the rhetorical voice or projected character (or persona) of the essayist.

In his study of Charles Lamb, Fred Randel observes that the «principal declared allegiance» of the essay is to «the experience of the essayistic voice.» Similarly, British author Virginia Woolf has described this textual quality of personality or voice as «the essayist’s most proper but most dangerous and delicate tool.»

Similarly, at the beginning of «Walden, » Henry David Thoreau reminds the reader that «it is … always the first person that is speaking.» Whether expressed directly or not, there’s always an «I» in the essay — a voice shaping the text and fashioning a role for the reader.

Fictional Qualities

The terms «voice» and «persona» are often used interchangeably to suggest the rhetorical nature of the essayist himself on the page. At times an author may consciously strike a pose or play a role. He can, as E.B. White confirms in his preface to «The Essays,» «be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter.» 

In «What I Think, What I Am,» essayist Edward Hoagland points out that «the artful ‘I’ of an essay can be as chameleon as any narrator in fiction.» Similar considerations of voice and persona lead Carl H. Klaus to conclude that the essay is «profoundly fictive»:

It seems to convey the sense of human presence that is indisputably related to its author’s deepest sense of self, but that is also a complex illusion of that self — an enactment of it as if it were both in the process of thought and in the process of sharing the outcome of that thought with others.

But to acknowledge the fictional qualities of the essay isn’t to deny its special status as nonfiction.

Reader’s Role

A basic aspect of the relationship between a writer (or a writer’s persona) and a reader (the implied audience) is the presumption that what the essayist says is literally true. The difference between a short story, say, and an autobiographical essay lies less in the narrative structure or the nature of the material than in the narrator’s implied contract with the reader about the kind of truth being offered.

Under the terms of this contract, the essayist presents experience as it actually occurred — as it occurred, that is, in the version by the essayist. The narrator of an essay, the editor George Dillon says, «attempts to convince the reader that its model of experience of the world is valid.» 

In other words, the reader of an essay is called on to join in the making of meaning. And it’s up to the reader to decide whether to play along. Viewed in this way, the drama of an essay might lie in the conflict between the conceptions of self and world that the reader brings to a text and the conceptions that the essayist tries to arouse.

At Last, a Definition—of Sorts

With these thoughts in mind, the essay might be defined as a short work of nonfiction, often artfully disordered and highly polished, in which an authorial voice invites an implied reader to accept as authentic a certain textual mode of experience.

Sure. But it’s still a greased pig.

Sometimes the best way to learn exactly what an essay is — is to read some great ones. You’ll find more than 300 of them in this collection of Classic British and American Essays and Speeches.

What is an essay?

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According to Essay Basics, an essay is something which is normally defined as a piece of work written in prose (though there are some exceptions), with a dedicated structure, including an introduction, a conclusion, and (at their most basic) three to five body paragraphs. Essays themselves can be divided into three subcategories – personal, objective, and abstract – though there are many different subcategories. Because the structure of an essay is useful in laying out clearly what any particular individual has learned, educational systems have taken essays on as a major part of their system. An essay can show off good writing skills, because of its fairly strict structure, and it can also be used to show the research which a student has done.

Content of this article

• Formal and informal essay
• Where essays are used?
• Essay definitions
• Huxley’s definition
• Derivation and etymology of the ‘Essay’
• Forms and styles of essay
• Other forms of essay
• Structure of an essay
• Schaffer paragraph
• Five paragraph essay
• Problem of plagiarism during essay writing

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Formal vs. Informal

Essays can be divided into two main categories, formal and informal. Formal essays are longer in length, have a stricter organisational structure which leads the reader through a series of arguments, and generally have a more serious purpose in being written. These essays are normally argumentative or compare and contrast essays, and can sometimes also be descriptive. Informal essays, on the other hand, are distinguished by being shorter in length, and adhering less strictly to the overall structure of an essay (although they do have to make some logical sense). Informal essays are also more personal in nature, to the point of being able to contain humour. These types of essays are primarily narrative in nature, though they can also be cause and effect. The rise of non-literary essays are normally seen as being informal in nature.

Where are Essays Used?

Essays are primarily found in educational institutions, as has been discussed above. The strict adherence to structure helps students to learn how to write properly, while the subject of the essays allows them to show their research, and also show their understanding of the material. Essays turn up in scientific subjects, but they are primarily used in social studies and humanities, particularly in exams and tests, to show what has been learned.

Outside of educational settings, essays are most often found in publishing. Many people over the years have used the essay format as a way of conveying their ideas, from philosophers (the essay is a particularly good medium for philosophy) to people writing about gender identity in the modern age. Essays are used by people writing in prose because they are usually quite short (though there are sometimes exceptions), and there is a clearly defined format to work with.

Three Definitions of an Essay

There are three particular definitions of an essay within the ‘formal vs. informal’ paradigm.

• Personalautobiographical – these essays are ones which focus on personal memories and stories. The essays written in this style see the world purely through that lens.
• Objectivefactual – Essays written from this perspective are not personal, but instead have an outside theme. These essays usually tackle subjects which are scientific or political in nature, and are used to clearly lay out and judge the arguments.
• Abstract – these essays are never personal, but instead work from a place of complete possibility. Potential experiences are never used as evidence.

Huxley’s Definition of an Essay

Aldous Huxley was the person who came up with the above three essay categories, and their definitions. He also went on to say that:

“the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.”

To Huxley, an essay was a short work, and it was this brevity which allowed the information they contained to be appreciated more easily. The very best essays were the ones which managed to catch a perfect balance between all three essay categories.

First Use of the Word ‘Essay’

The word essay was first used (or was first recorded as being used) by the writer Montaigne in the sixteenth century, as he claimed that his work was an attempt or a ‘try’ at putting his thoughts into words. He claimed to have been inspired by Plutarch, to model his works in that fashion.

Montaigne, in keeping with his status as possibly the first person to use the word essay to describe his method of writing, wrote short works of prose on various topics. These works of prose used highly stylised wording and rhetoric in order to try and persuade the people reading them to his point of view. Rather true to Huxley’s view of what an essay should be, Montaigne was someone who switched between a personal versus an impersonal style in his essays, depending on how he wanted to approach the topic.

Derivation and etymology of the Word ‘Essay’

The word essay comes from the French verb essayer, which means to try, and this fits the concept of an essay being written to try and persuade people to a particular point of viewan essay being written to try and show what people have learned.

essay (v.)

“to put to proof, test the mettle of,” late 15c., from Middle French essaier, from essai “trial, attempt” (see essay (n.)). This sense has mostly gone with the divergent spelling assay. Meaning “to attempt” is from 1640s. Related: Essayed; essaying.

essay (n.)

1590s, “trial, attempt, endeavor,” also “short, discursive literary composition” (first attested in writings of Francis Bacon, probably in imitation of Montaigne), from Middle French essai “trial, attempt, essay” (in Old French from 12c.), from Late Latin exagium “a weighing, a weight,” from Latin exigere “drive out; require, exact; examine, try, test,” from ex “out” (see ex-) + agere “to set in motion, drive” (from PIE root *ag- “to drive, draw out or forth, move”) apparently meaning here “to weigh.” The suggestion is of unpolished writing. Compare assay, also examine.

Famous Essayists:

• Montaigne
• Bacon
• Chesterton
• Belloc
• Beerbohm
• Priestley
• Huxley
• Orwell
• Thurber
• Cooke
• Forster

Forms and Styles of Essay

Argumentative essay

Argumentative essays are a piece of writing made to argue a specific point or point of view. The aim is to have an objective analysis of the subject matter, and by so doing, provide the stated opinion of the writer on whichever side of the argument they happen to be on. The structure of an argumentative essay normally includes two to four paragraphs of strongly research and argued information for the opinion of the writer, and one paragraph (called a refutation) of the opposing argument to show the strength of the argument against it.

Structure

Introduction  – Should creationism be taught in schools? Thesis statement, basic description of arguments, small amount of pertinent history

Body paragraph one – first argument against – it has no scientific basis

Body paragraph two – second argument against – it is an explicitly Christian explanation for the world

Body paragraph three – it can be discussed in an RE class, with the other creation mythologies which exist

Body paragraph three – refutation – there is no proof of creationism outside of the Bible, and much more proof for evolution.

Conclusion – summation of thesis statement, arguments, and final arguments.

Topics for an Argumentative Essay

• Creationism should be taught in biology
• Drugs should be legal
• Corporal punishment should be used
• Cigarettes should be banned
• WMDs are a threat to security
• Is technology making us isolated?
• Has internet shame culture gone too far?
• Can phones be educational tools?
• Are robots really threatening our jobs?
• Is the education system failing?
• Should we continue co-ed education?
• Should toys be gendered?
• Is technology going too far?
• Is feminism going too far?
• Is dating a thing of the past?
• Should we ban pornography?
• Should we ban vaping?
• Should public transport be privatised?
• Should banks be held accountable for the crash?
• Should capital punishment be legal?

Descriptive essay

Descriptive writing is something which focuses more on the details and physicality of whatever is under discussion. Because of this, the structure of the essay is generally seen as being less rigid than other essays, although it does still follow the basic structure of introduction, three to five body paragraphs, and conclusion. Descriptive essays need to consider their audience very carefully, as this will determine the type of language that is used, as well as how the essay itself is written. Descriptive essays can be written in chronological order, but the type of essay means that they are usually arranged spatially, with lyric essays being a very good example of the format.

Structure

Introduction – topic of the essay, discussion of what will appear in the essay. My life as a top hat. This is where the readers get the first glimpse of the language of the essay.

Body paragraph one – the making of the top hat

Body paragraph two – the owning of the top hat

Body paragraph three – the retirement of the top hat

Conclusion – final thoughts of the essay, reiteration of the three paragraphs.

Topics for a Descriptive Essay

• My childhood in the country
• A traumatic experience
• My first love
• The first city I saw
• My birthday
• A day in the life of a top hat
• The life of a mouse
• A holiday in Spain
• If walls could talk
• The leaves falling in Autumn
• A dream
• A nightmare
• Your favourite place
• A pet
• A train ride
• A garden
• Best friends
• Worst enemies
• A wish
• A trip

Cause and Effect essay

Cause and effect essays must adhere very strictly to the structure of an essay, because otherwise the format will not work. The proper way to write a cause and effect essay is to create a chain of events which link together in a logical fashion to create the essay.

Structure

Introduction – The cause and effect of the popularity of fast food restaurants. Discussion of the points which will be in the essay. Some necessary history

Causal point one – fast food is easy and cheap

Causal point two – people have less time for cooking as their lives get busier

Causal point three – if people haven’t been brought up in a home where cooking is a tradition, then they will be less likely to take it up themselves

Conclusion – reiteration of causal points, and discussion of how this contributes to the effect of fast food restaurants being popular

Topics for a Cause and Effect Essay

• What causes divorce
• How does abortion affect relationships
• How does divorce affect children
• What causes sibling rivalry
• What is the effect of being a twin
• How does fame affect children
• What causes poverty
• Why are children poor
• What causes the wage gap
• What causes homelessness
• What causes terrorism
• Why do terrorists strike where they do
• Why can people with disabilities not get jobs
• What causes job discrimination
• What is causing climate change
• What has led to the current state of politics
• Why is there political polarisation
• What effect will obesity have
• Why do people not go to the doctor
• What effect does stress have on health

Compare and Contrast essay

This type of essay is based purely on the contrast between the two opinionssubjectsideas. Following the basic essay structure, compare and contrast essays can be arranged either sequentially (point by point), or chunking (by the object). These essays work by highlighting the similarities and differences between the various points they are bringing up for their readers. This type of essay is most often arranged for the greatest amount of emphasis possible.

Structure

Introduction – comparing WWI and WWII in terms of build-up and execution, necessary pieces of history for understanding the essay

Body paragraph one – a way in which both wars are similar – the sides were more or less the same, with Germany on one side, and Britain on the other being the main contenders

Body paragraph two – a way in which both wars are similar – while the events themselves differed, there were a number of incidents which everyone decided to let go, until the one inciting event where they could no longer do so.

Body paragraph three – a way in which both wars are different – they were fought for entirely different reasons

Conclusion – Reiteration of the subject material, summation of the paragraphs, final conclusion.

Topics for a Compare and Contrast Essay

• Technology vs. textbooks in the classroom
• Compare the Android and the Ios
• Compare modern standards of beauty with those of two hundred years ago
• Compare Twelfth Night with As You Like It
• Hunger Games and Divergent: compare and contrast
• Compare private with public universities
• Compare the political system of America with that of France
• Compare Snowden with Assange
• Compare the Victorian era with the Regency
• Compare the cold war with the Vietnam war
• Compare Star Wars with Star Trek
• Compare the Roman empire with the British empire
• Compare Queen Victoria with Queen Elizabeth I
• Are cats better pets than dogs?
• Are fish better pets than snakes?
• Compare the philosophy of Nietzsche to that of Camus
• Nihilism vs absurdism: which is better
• Prose vs. poetry
• Compare Burns with Shakespeare
• Compare non-fiction to fiction works.

Narrative essay

A narrative essay is something which can be quite lax with the general essay structure, though it is normally arranged in a chronological format. Rather than focusing on research and information, a narrative is more focused on a story, and how to tell it.

Structure

Introduction – my best friend. Short description of best friend as they are, background for understanding the essay.

Body paragraph one – the first meeting between my best friend and me

Body paragraph two – the phase where we became best friends

Body paragraph three – where we are now, why she is my best friend

Conclusion – summation of everything in the story.

Topics for a Narrative Essay

• My best friend
• A day in my life
• An embarrassing moment
• My first coin
• My favourite day of the year
• My biggest mistake
• My dream job
• My day at the beach
• My first day of school
• My last day of school
• The first day of summer
• New Year’s Eve
• Christmas day
• The first time I saw snow
• The first snowdrop
• My favourite summer holiday
• My favourite country to visit
• My favourite birthday party
• A scary experience
• When the power went out

Non-Literary essay

A non-literary essay is a fairly recent phenomenon; as the name suggests, it is an essay which does not use words to convey its meaning. It is normally used in informal situations, though the increased use of it in education may change this in the future. The most common form of a non-literary essay is a photo essay.

Other froms of essay

Academic Essays

Academic essays – also known as papers – are generally a Western phenomenon. They are essays which are written by students in various levels of their education as a means to show their teachers that they have: learned how to write, learned how to properly formulate an argument, and where paying attention.

Academic essays can vary in length, from quite short to extremely long. The longer ones can have additional pages such as a cover page and a contents page. The longest academic essays, of course, are the dissertations and theses written in senior years.

Essays for Media

Also called long-form journalism, some forms of media print essays as either the main point of their journalism, or as a side-event. This type of essay is normally confined to media which is more intellectual in nature, such as academic journals.

Employment Essays

Certain fields of employment ask for their employees to write essays if they want to attain a certain level of employment or salary. This is to show that they have the necessary skills for working at that level, and also have the necessary information, and can show that they have said information. This is found particularly in governmental jobs.

Common Structure of an Essay

As has been mentioned above, essays are normally of a fairly short length, unless they are a particular type of essay. Even if they are longer, they all normally follow the same basic structure, seen below:

Introduction – introduces the issue, discusses some basic research, and talks about the format of the essay. Also includes the Thesis Statement, which is the basic point which the essay revolves around.

Body Paragraphs – normally there are between three and five of these. Each paragraph is for one particular argumentsection of the essay.

Conclusion – this reiterates some of the information from the introduction, sums up the arguments made, and gives a final verdict.

What is a Schaffer Paragraph?

The Schaffer paragraph is a particular five sentence long paragraph which was invented by Jane Schaffer. The structure is taught because it is thought to be helpful when teaching children about essay structure.

Requirements for a Schaffer paragraph

There are only a few requirements for a Schaffer paragraph, but they should be followed: The paragraphs (and the essay) cannot be written in first person – it needs to be either second or third. Every Schaffer paragraph needs to be at least five sentences long; it can be longer, but only so long as the ratio of two pieces of commentary for every concrete detail (see the section below) is kept intact. Every section (see below) should be only one sentence in length), and they should only be written in the present tense.

Structure of a Schaffer Paragraph

The most basic paragraph has five elements to it, which correspond to the five sentences which each paragraph has as a minimum.

Topic sentence – declaring what the paragraph is about

Concrete detail – the facts concerning the paragraph topic

Commentary – discussion on the fact – there should be two of these for every concrete detail which is included

Closing sentence – this brings the topic together, and establishes the next paragraph briefly.

Five Paragraph Essay

The five paragraph essay (also called a three-tier essay) is one of the most basic essay structures in existence. It includes an introduction to introduce the topic and give preliminary information, three body paragraphs which include the actual discussion for the essay and accompanying evidence, and the conclusion to bring everything together.

Structure

Introduction – school doesn’t prepare people for the real world. Discuss. Preliminary history, discussion of what will be in the essay.

Body paragraph one – it doesn’t teach needed skills – evidence, discussion.

Body paragraph two – it is entirely too focused on tests, rather than knowledge – evidence, discussion.

Body paragraph three – according to literacy levels, it isn’t even doing the job it’s supposed to be doing – evidence, discussion.

Conclusion – drawing everything together, final conclusion.

Topics for a five paragraph essay

• School doesn’t teach people about the real world
• What value do you place on your friends?
• Why is North Korea allowed to remain?
• How did Trump get elected?
• How do you define success?
• How do you define failure?
• Why are dystopian stories so popular?
• Is violence in the movies getting worse?
• What is the best teaching style?
• Should we start school when children are older?
• Is technology an asset to schools?
• Are iPhones leading to greater social isolation?
• What would be a good career path?
• Are we sexualising children?
• Is our access to entertainment leading to us having a need for instant gratification?
• Is access to constant entertainment a good thing or a bad thing for society?
• What would school before current technology have been like?
• What would work before current technology have been like?
• Should housekeeping be the preserve of women?
• Write an essay convincing someone to stay in your geographical area

Plagiarism During Essay Writing

What may be Called Plagiarism?

Plagiarised text is text which has been lifted wholesale from other sources without any links or discussions of the text, or any acknowledgement that it came from another source.

What are the Purposes of a Plagiarism Check?

Plagiarism checks exist for two reasons: one, to check for cheating; and two, to check that there has been no accident in writing, for example there are no quotes which have accidentally ben left uncredited, and so on.

How to Check for Plagiarism

There are a variety of online sites now which check for plagiarism, including:

• Unplag;
• Turnitin;
• PlagTracker;
• PlagScan;
• IThenticate.

Current Essay Situation (Student Perspective)

The current situation shows that more and more students are paying to have people write their essays, rather than doing the work themselves. Students cite a lack of time and ability in the current educational climate, and also state that the comments they receive from their teachers are not encouraging.

Current Essay Situation (Teacher Perspective)

Teachers dislike essays almost as much as students. Because so many students get their work done for them by a service, there is little point to them. Add to that the marking which needs to be done constantly, and the fact that constructive criticism is increasingly difficult to give to students who do not want to see it as helpful, and teachers are growing to hate assigning essays.

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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10 May, 2020

11 minutes read

Well, beyond a jumble of words usually around 2,000 words or so — what is an essay, exactly? Whether you’re taking English, sociology, history, biology, art, or a speech class, it’s likely you’ll have to write an essay or two. So how is an essay different than a research paper or a review? Let’s find out!

Well, beyond a jumble of words usually around 2,000 words or so — what is an essay, exactly? Whether you’re taking English, sociology, history, biology, art, or a speech class, it’s likely you’ll have to write an essay or two. So how is an essay different than a research paper or a review? Let’s find out!

Handmadewriting.com

What is an Essay?

Defining the Term – What is an Essay?

The essay is a written piece that is designed to present an idea, propose an argument, express the emotion or initiate debate. It is a tool that is used to present writer’s ideas in a non-fictional way. Multiple applications of this type of writing go way beyond, providing political manifestos and art criticism as well as personal observations and reflections of the author.

An essay can be as short as 500 words, it can also be 5000 words or more.  However, most essays fall somewhere around 1000 to 3000 words; this word range provides the writer enough space to thoroughly develop an argument and work to convince the reader of the author’s perspective regarding a particular issue.  The topics of essays are boundless: they can range from the best form of government to the benefits of eating peppermint leaves daily. As a professional provider of custom writing, our service has helped thousands of customers to turn in essays in various forms and disciplines.

Origins of the Essay

Over the course of more than six centuries essays were used to question assumptions, argue trivial opinions and to initiate global discussions. Let’s have a closer look into historical progress and various applications of this literary phenomenon to find out exactly what it is.

Today’s modern word “essay” can trace its roots back to the French “essayer” which translates closely to mean “to attempt”.  This is an apt name for this writing form because the essay’s ultimate purpose is to attempt to convince the audience of something.  An essay’s topic can range broadly and include everything from the best of Shakespeare’s plays to the joys of April.

The essay comes in many shapes and sizes; it can focus on a personal experience or a purely academic exploration of a topic.  Essays are classified as a subjective writing form because while they include expository elements, they can rely on personal narratives to support the writer’s viewpoint.  The essay genre includes a diverse array of academic writings ranging from literary criticism to meditations on the natural world.  Most typically, the essay exists as a shorter writing form; essays are rarely the length of a novel.  However, several historic examples, such as John Locke’s seminal work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” just shows that a well-organized essay can be as long as a novel.

The Essay in Literature

The essay enjoys a long and renowned history in literature.  They first began gaining in popularity in the early 16^th century, and their popularity has continued today both with original writers and ghost writers.  Many readers prefer this short form in which the writer seems to speak directly to the reader, presenting a particular claim and working to defend it through a variety of means.  Not sure if you’ve ever read a great essay? You wouldn’t believe how many pieces of literature are actually nothing less than essays, or evolved into more complex structures from the essay. Check out this list of literary favorites:

• The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon
• Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
• Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag
• High-Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now and Never by Barbara Kingsolver
• Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
• Naked by David Sedaris
• Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

Pretty much as long as writers have had something to say, they’ve created essays to communicate their viewpoint on pretty much any topic you can think of!

The Essay in Academics

Not only are students required to read a variety of essays during their academic education, but they will likely be required to write several different kinds of essays throughout their scholastic career.  Don’t love to write?  Then consider working with a ghost essay writer!  While all essays require an introduction, body paragraphs in support of the argumentative thesis statement, and a conclusion, academic essays can take several different formats in the way they approach a topic.  Common essays required in high school, college, and post-graduate classes include:

Five paragraph essay

This is the most common type of a formal essay. The type of paper that students are usually exposed to when they first hear about the concept of the essay itself. It follows easy outline structure – an opening introduction paragraph; three body paragraphs to expand the thesis; and conclusion to sum it up.

Argumentative essay

These essays are commonly assigned to explore a controversial issue.  The goal is to identify the major positions on either side and work to support the side the writer agrees with while refuting the opposing side’s potential arguments.

Compare and Contrast essay

This essay compares two items, such as two poems, and works to identify similarities and differences, discussing the strength and weaknesses of each.  This essay can focus on more than just two items, however.  The point of this essay is to reveal new connections the reader may not have considered previously.

Definition essay

This essay has a sole purpose – defining a term or a concept in as much detail as possible. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, not quite. The most important part of the process is picking up the word. Before zooming it up under the microscope, make sure to choose something roomy so you can define it under multiple angles. The definition essay outline will reflect those angles and scopes.

Descriptive essay

Perhaps the most fun to write, this essay focuses on describing its subject using all five of the senses.  The writer aims to fully describe the topic; for example, a descriptive essay could aim to describe the ocean to someone who’s never seen it or the job of a teacher.  Descriptive essays rely heavily on detail and the paragraphs can be organized by sense.

Illustration essay

The purpose of this essay is to describe an idea, occasion or a concept with the help of clear and vocal examples. “Illustration” itself is handled in the body paragraphs section. Each of the statements, presented in the essay needs to be supported with several examples. Illustration essay helps the author to connect with his audience by breaking the barriers with real-life examples – clear and indisputable.

Informative Essay

Being one the basic essay types, the informative essay is as easy as it sounds from a technical standpoint. High school is where students usually encounter with informative essay first time. The purpose of this paper is to describe an idea, concept or any other abstract subject with the help of proper research and a generous amount of storytelling.

Narrative essay

This type of essay focuses on describing a certain event or experience, most often chronologically.  It could be a historic event or an ordinary day or month in a regular person’s life. Narrative essay proclaims a free approach to writing it, therefore it does not always require conventional attributes, like the outline. The narrative itself typically unfolds through a personal lens, and is thus considered to be a subjective form of writing.

Persuasive essay

The purpose of the persuasive essay is to provide the audience with a 360-view on the concept idea or certain topic – to persuade the reader to adopt a certain viewpoint. The viewpoints can range widely from why visiting the dentist is important to why dogs make the best pets to why blue is the best color.  Strong, persuasive language is a defining characteristic of this essay type.

The Essay in Art

Several other artistic mediums have adopted the essay as a means of communicating with their audience.  In the visual arts, such as painting or sculpting, the rough sketches of the final product are sometimes deemed essays.  Likewise, directors may opt to create a film essay which is similar to a documentary in that it offers a personal reflection on a relevant issue.  Finally, photographers often create photographic essays in which they use a series of photographs to tell a story, similar to a narrative or a descriptive essay.

Drawing the line – question answered

“What is an Essay?” is quite a polarizing question. On one hand, it can easily be answered in a couple of words. On the other, it is surely the most profound and self-established type of content there ever was. Going back through the history of the last five-six centuries helps us understand where did it come from and how it is being applied ever since.

If you must write an essay, follow these five important steps to works towards earning the “A” you want:

• Understand and review the kind of essay you must write
• Brainstorm your argument
• Find research from reliable sources to support your perspective
• Cite all sources parenthetically within the paper and on the Works Cited page
• Follow all grammatical rules

Generally speaking, when you must write any type of essay, start sooner rather than later!  Don’t procrastinate – give yourself time to develop your perspective and work on crafting a unique and original approach to the topic. Remember: it’s always a good idea to have another set of eyes (or three) look over your essay before handing in the final draft to your teacher or professor.  Don’t trust your fellow classmates?  Consider hiring an editor or a ghostwriter to help out!

If you are still unsure on whether you can cope with your task – you are in the right place to get help. HandMadeWriting is the perfect answer to the question “Who can write my essay?”

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