ESSAY

Introduction

An essay is, generally, a scholarly piece of writing that gives the author's own argument—but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article, a pamphlet, and ashort story.

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. 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 mediums beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary film making 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.

An 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".[1] It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject.[2] 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 on setting forth, passing judgement 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 richly satisfying essays are those which 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."

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, and his essays grew out of his commonplacing.[3] 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. For the rest of his life he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in English in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Task

Your task is to make your own Essay.

 Analysing/Understanding the question: underline key words and break the question into parts. Rewrite the question as an answer to help you to break it down.

 Generating ideas: Make a mind-map using your question breakdown. Brainstorm and talk with friends. Find out what you already know and what you need to know.  Researching, Reading & References: Research all the material you will need to complete the assignment. Take notes in your own words. Keep careful records of your sources. Start your APA reference list now! Add information to your mind map or take notes as you go.

 Impose logical structure: Start to develop a sequential order. Use your mindmap to make a paragraph plan. List your information and ideas under different headings. Concentrate on making the order of your paragraphs clear. They should follow a logical order which will help your reader to understand the ideas.

 Write first draft: Many good writers wait until they have drafted the body before drafting their introduction. Use a separate page for each paragraph to help you begin. To develop good paragraph structure, start with the key statement or topic sentence. This can be a definition, or a quote from an academic source or a key idea from the question itself. Then support or qualify this topic sentence with evidence from your research or reading, which may agree or disagree with it. Illustrate your point with examples.

 Editing and Proofreading: Ensure the assignment answers all parts of the question and explains the argument so that it will be clear for your reader (who you must imagine to be a person without specialist knowledge on the topic). Check grammar, spelling and correct referencing. These are included in the learning outcomes for Academic Presentation, and they are the easiest marks to gain and the easiest to lose.

 Final draft. Find your correct cover sheet. Double check APA referencing

 Submit: Check that you know how to use the Turn it in software if you have to hand the essay in this way.

Process

Evaluation

Create your own Essay.

This are the criteria:

Neatness = 30%

Margin = 20%

Content = 50%

Criteria Score
Neatness
Margin
Content
Total:

Conclusion

At first you really think that making an Essay is difficult, But because you follow the instruction in making your own Essay you made a great work. Good Job!

Credits

Teacher Page

 If you want to learn some about writing essay this webpage may help you to  make best work of essay,.

This will give you some information and tips on how you make a creative work of an essay..

         Thank You!!!