Essay Writing

AN ESSAY is a piece of writing, usually short and in prose, on any subject. It usually assumes an individual interpretation of facts, giving the writer a chance of self-expression. According to the subject matter and the treatment it receives, essay may be divided into three main types: narrative, descriptive and reflective. The division is by no means clear-cut because most essays have features characteristic of not one particular type, but of several.

a ) A narrative essay is a description of happenings as they follow one another. It is the easiest to write because the material is arranged according to the actual course of events; one knows where to start and what to do next, each paragraph being devoted to one particular episode or group of episodes.

E.g. You have decided to write about a hitch-hiking holiday. It is advisable first to write down a plan with paragraph headings: 1. What made my friend and me decide on a hitch-hiking holiday. 2. Preparations. 3. The holidays: a) setting off, b)the most interesting, amusing or memorable event: 1), 2), 3) … 4. Home again. Some thoughts on the advantages of such a holiday.

As an essay rarely belongs to one type only, in addition to describing events in chronological order, you are expected to express your views on the subject as well. Your narrative will also include short descriptions of people and places. For example, you might want to describe an impressive view, a lively scene or a person you met during your holiday. But your descriptions and reflections should not occupy too much space in relation to the rest of the essay. Take care to preserve the necessary balance.

Narrative essays bear a close resemblance to those short stories in which the author describes events as he himself has experienced them. In fact, practically all narrative essays could be classed as short stories.

b) A descriptive essay describes people and places at rest. It is more difficult to write because the order in which your ideas follow one another is determined not by the sequence of events, but rather by certain qualities of your ideas and the logical connection between them. You must try to give your essay a clear and logical shape, whether you start from the general and work towards particular or vice versa.

c ) Reflective and argumentative essays are slightly different. The first one is primarily an exercise in contemplation upon any given subject, the second - an exercise testing your ability to discuss a problem, to argue for or against a proposition. In the first you rely more on your imagination, in the second – on general knowledge.

Compared with the descriptive and the narrative essays, these are more difficult to write, not only it is more difficult to arrange one’s ideas logically, but also because one has to devote more thought and time to the collection of ideas relevant to the subject. Here a plan is essential. The best way is probably to jot down ideas as they come into your head. Then you can try to group them together and arrange them in the order best suited to your purpose.

You can write reflective essays developing the thoughts through analysis, i.e. you start by breaking out the subject into parts, then group the various ideas together and finally arrange them in a suitable order. The greatest amount of space is generally allotted to the description of the author’s own thoughts, feelings, behaviour, etc.

Another type of organization is development by contrast. You organize your pros and cons in separate sections. The main problem in this case is that in the second part you have to remind your readers occasionally about the items contained in the first part. You may contrast pairs instead of sections throughout the essay.

Development by contrast is the most forceful means of writing an argumentative essay.

Assignment:

Read examples of the essays below, try to define which of the types each of them belongs to.

ON BEGINNING

(By J.B.Priestly)

How difficult it is to make a beginning. I speak of essay-writing, an essentially virtuous practice, and not of breaking the ten commandments. It is much easier to begin, say, a review or an article than it is to begin an essay, for with the former you attach yourself to something outside yourself, you have an excuse for writing and therefore have more courage. If it is a review that has to be written, well, there, waiting for you, inviting your comment, is the book. Similarly with an article, you have your subject, something that everybody is excited about, and thus you know what is expected of you and you can take up your pen with a light heart. But to have nothing to cling hold of, to have no excuse for writing at all, to be compelled to spin everything out of oneself, to stand naked and shivering in the very first sentence one puts down, is clearly a very different matter, and this is the melancholy situation in which the essayist always finds himself. It is true that he need not always be melancholy; if he is full of himself, brimming over with bright talk, in a mood to take the whole world into his confidence, the essayist will find his task a very pleasant one indeed, never to be exchanged for such drudge’s work as reviews and articles; and he will step briskly on to the stage and posture in the limelight without a tremor. But such moments are rare, and the essayist at ordinary times, though he would eagerly undertake to defend his craft, cannot quite rid himself of the feeling that there is something both absurd and decidedly impudent in this business of talking about oneself for money; this feeling haunts the back of his mind like some gibbering spectre, and it generally produces one of three effects. According to his temperament, it will prevent him from doing anything at all that particular day or perhaps any other day, or it will allow him to write a few brilliant opening sentences and then shut up, or it will keep him from making a start until the last possible moment.

For my own part, I am one of those who find it difficult to begin; I stand on the brink for hours, hesitating to make the plunge; I will do anything but the work in hand. This habit is certainly a nuisance, but perhaps it is not quite so intolerable as that of some other persons, men of my acquaintance, who fall into the second category mentioned above and always find themselves making dashing openings and then coming to a stop. They will stare at what they have written, well pleased with it as an opening, and then discover that the flow has ceased, and horrible hours will pass, and perhaps many more dashing openings will have been made, before any real progress will have come about and their essay taken some sort of shape. Such writers seem to me even more unfortunate than I am, for I do at least go forward once I have made a beginning; as soon as I have summoned up courage to ring the bell I am at least admitted into the house of my choice, and am not, like these others, left kicking my heels in the vestibules of half a dozen houses perhaps without ever seeing the interior of any of them.

N o t e s

the ten commandments – the ten Mosaic laws: thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, etc. (The Bible, Exodus, Ch.20).

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