How to write an essay?

You are not a known humanist or a great philosopher, and you are to write an essay this weekend. Do you feel terrified? Unnecessarily! Read our article and create an intriguing text. First, familiarize yourself with the features of the essay, and then go to the section on "7 steps to create a good essay".

An essay is a literary or literary-scientific form with which the author presents his point of view. Otherwise it is a philosophical, critical, scientific, journalistic sketch, most often written in prose, freely developing an explanation of a problem or fact, emphasizing a subjective approach and attaching great importance to a beautiful and original form of communication.

Before you start working on an essay, familiarize yourself with its essence and characteristics.

FEATURES:

Subjectivity - an essay is a statement in which you present your individual point of view, but you do not moralize, you only make the recipient think.

Diverse themes - you can take up issues related to culture, art, science and philosophy.

Poetry - the essay is characterized by a literary way of shaping the language in which aesthetics plays an important role. It's about artistic, elaborate expression creation.

Loose, fragmentary composition - but you have to make sure it is not chaotic.

Genre and genre syncretism - the essay combines the features of many literary genres, which makes it difficult to classify it as one of the literary genres. It is worth emphasizing that you do not introduce literary fiction.

Intertextuality - you can use surprising comparisons, paradoxical associations, quotes, references to other literary and cultural works, philosophical or historical allusions. You are also allowed to introduce free digressions, not necessarily closely related to the main topic.

In addition, it is worth knowing that the essay is based on the principle of loose associations, so there is no chronological or thematic order or hierarchy of arguments presented. Is a series of mental shortcuts.

You try to get to the bottom of things and discover the truth. The essay is open, it does not have to end with a conclusion, but it is worth including. You make a subjective selection of arguments, thus signaling the existence of a problem and forcing the reader to think about it.

HOW TO WRITE A GOOD ESSAY - 7 STEPS:

1. THEME AND THESIS

Start by analyzing the topic. Interpret it in possible ways and put all identifiable theses. If your task is to invent an issue yourself, try to make it original, surprising.

2. ASSOCIATIONS

Write down the questions that come to your mind after analyzing the topic. They can be loose associations, arguments. It is important that you be open here and allow many possibilities for solutions and answers. It is best to write your thoughts on a separate sheet of paper in order to describe all options in the form of quotations, digressions, references to other works. Also indicate philosophical, mental, artistic, literary trends, historical or biographical context. Prepare all materials that you will use when writing the essay. Also think about the motto for your work. Under no circumstances should you introduce literary fiction or calculations.

3. PLAN

Prepare a plan that will constitute the compositional axis of your work. Select previously saved thoughts and choose those that are the most interesting, the most relevant. Sort them so that analogies can be found between associations, thanks to which they will form a fairly coherent and logical whole.

4. STUDIES

Start developing applications focusing on the main topic. Complete them with your own thoughts. Be concise and clear in thinking. Talk to other people and learn their opinion on the topic you are talking about. If you have obtained interesting information in this way, include them when confronting with your own reflections. Attach appropriate references to other source texts, quotes, find philosophical or historical allusions with each application. Remember that you present your subjective approach, so you must indicate your presence in the text. Try to interest the recipient and make him reflect on the subject in question.

5. EDITING [note: I'm just starting to write now]

You must gather all thoughts into independent semantic parts. Edit them in terms of language, create properly built paragraphs, give them titles and subheadings, and then arrange them in the appropriate hierarchy, according to a previously developed plan. Enjoy the wealth of stylistic clues and rhetorical figures. Avoid autothematic phrases, e.g. at the beginning and in the end.

6. INTRODUCTION

Write an introduction to your work, thanks to which you will familiarize the reader with the topic and broaden the approach to the issue in general. You can use a properly selected motto. Then, rewrite the previously arranged associations and conclusions in a logical whole.

7. ENDING

It is advisable that you read all your text again, think through its concept and introduce any alterations. The essayist is not obliged to create a clearly defined ending, but you can summarize your thoughts and create a short final reflection, sensitizing the recipient to the problem you are raising.

Good luck!