Essay
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For other uses, see
An essay is a short work of
The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an
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[edit] The essay as literary genre
The word essay derives from the French essay ('attempt'), from the verb essayer, 'to try' or 'to attempt'. The first author to describe his works as essays was the Frenchman
Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays.
Notable essayists are legion. They include
It is very difficult to define the genre of essay, but the following remarks by
- "Like the novel, the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything. By tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece, and it is therefore impossible to give all things full play within the limits of a single essay. But a collection of essays can cover almost as much ground, and cover it almost as thoroughly, as can a long novel. Montaigne's Third Book is the equivalent, very nearly, of a good slice of the Comédie Humaine. Essays belong to a literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference. There is the pole of the personal and the autobiographical; there is the pole of the objective, the factual, the concrete-particular; and there is the pole of the abstract-universal. Most essayists are at home and at their best in the neighborhood of only one of the essay's three poles, or at the most only in the neighborhood of two of them. There are the predominantly personal essayists, who write fragments of reflective autobiography and who look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description. There are the predominantly objective essayists who do not speak directly of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or scientific or political theme. … And how splendid, how truly oracular are the utterances of the great generalizers! … 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" (Collected Essays, "Preface").
[edit] The essay as a pedagogical tool
In recent times, essays have become a major part of a formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by
Academic essays are usually more formal than literary ones. 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
[edit] The five-paragraph essay
Many students' first exposure to the genre is the Five-paragraph essay, a highly structured form requiring an introduction presenting the
[edit] Academic essays
Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 to 4,000 words) 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
[edit] Imitation
Imitation essays are essays in which the writer pulls out the main thesis and outline of a particular paper, and then writes an essay in his or her own style. Here is an example of one, written by Edward G. Schwitzer of New York, New York on April 22nd, 2003. This particular imitation derives from an essay titled, "Storm Country."
Long long ago, when I was small enough to need a stool to reach the sink, "Cowboys and Indians" was my favorite game. I would run around the house chasing my brother with my wooden gun, until my mother yelled for us to find something better to do. I always insisted that I had to be the cowboy. The cowboys had the guns, and that gave me a sense of power. ‘Firing shots’ at my enemy gave me a rush I can’t explain. We would play for hours and hours, and we saw no harm in chasing each other with weapons. We always saw people get shot on T.V, for no good reason. My father assured me it wasn’t real, which made it even more exciting to reenact scenes with my brother. As I grew older (about 10 years old), that childish game grew more and more ridiculous, to me. Wrestling my friends seemed more cool. Getting in juvenile fights, for no reason, was now my Cowboys and Indians. We would wail away at each other until we were bloody, and laugh about it afterwards. I would come home with black and blue eyes, which worried my mother more than anything. My father would just say, "Get him some ice, let boys be boys". This of course, only urged me on more. I assured myself that fighting was okay, it wasn’t like people actually fought that way in real life, violence was just a game. After I went through that phase , video games became number one on my list of activities. Not just any video games, though. Bloody, gory, video games, where I could kill, and be killed, yet be left without a scar. Basically, it was a combination of two things I used to love most, minus the fake guns, and black eyes. I would play these games for hours on end. It wasn’t real, scenarios in the game didn’t happen in real life. Once again, I found no harm in my obsession with violence. One day, on the way home from a friends house, I made a pit stop at a small convenient store, to pick up a few things my mom had asked me to get before I left. I was in there only a few seconds, when a man in all black, with piercing eyes, stormed into the store. I hid behind an isle, while the man screamed orders to her. I saw her run into the back, but I couldn’t figure out why. The criminal the shot at her, barely missing her head, and my heart sank. Then the world I knew turned around and then upside down, and then spit in my face, and crumbled at my feet. I dropped my jar of pickles, which must of startled the man in black, and just as fast as he came in, he stormed out. Like a tornado, he crushed my brain and swirled it around faster than I could count to ten. The police came, talked to the frightened -beyond -belief lady, and took me home. Sometimes I have dreams about that night, and it’s me with the gun , and the black clothes, and the piercing eyes. I wake up in a cold sweat.
[edit] Non-literary essays
[edit] Art
In the visual arts, an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch upon which a final painting or sculpture is based, 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").
[edit] Music
In the realm of music, composer
[edit] Film
The essay as a genre in film, is used to describe a short manifesto representing the thoughts of the director.
[edit] Photography
A photographic essay is an attempt to cover a topic by a series of photographs.
[edit] See also
- Conclusion
- Plagiarism
[edit] References
- 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.
[edit] External links
- How to write an essay - A short guide for university students by
- The Age of the Essay by
- Guidance on Essay Writing
- Essay eTexts at
- Reference Generator - generates references in the correct form
- English Tutoring and Writing Center - guide to different kinds of essays
- How to Say Nothing in 500 Words - Tips for writing good essays
- InÉdit: For young writers with online collections of essays by young people