A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author 20/7/ · Essays are brief, non-fiction compositions that describe, clarify, argue, or analyze a subject. Students might encounter essay assignments in any school subject and at any level of school, from a personal experience "vacation" essay in middle school to a complex analysis of a scientific process in graduate school An essay is a short nonfictional piece of formal writing assigned to students to improve their writing skills or assess their knowledge of a given subject
The Definition of an Essay Including Writing Resources
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argumentbut the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a lettera paperan articlea pamphletand 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 mannerhumor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc.
Essays are commonly used as literary criticismpolitical manifestoslearned argumentsobservations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prosebut works in verse have been dubbed essays e. 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. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays the definition of an essay 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 definition of an essay. 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. The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer"to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant the definition of an essay trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne — 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". Aldous Huxleya leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject. 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:. Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays " make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which the definition of an essay is possible for the essay to exist. Montaigne's "attempts" grew out of his commonplacing.
A third volume was published posthumously; together, their over examples are widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern essay. 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.
Bacon's essayspublished in book form in only five years after the death of Montaigne, containing the first ten of his essays[6]andwere the first works in English that described themselves as essays, the definition of an essay. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist inaccording to the Oxford English Dictionary. Other English essayists included Sir William Cornwalliswho published essays in and that were popular at the time, [6] Robert Burton — and Sir Thomas Browne — 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. In England, during the Age of Enlightenmentessays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literaturethe definition of an essay, as seen in the works of Joseph AddisonRichard Steele and Samuel Johnson.
Addison and Steele used the journal Tatler founded in 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 s in various similar publications. 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.
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 HazlittCharles Lambthe definition of an essay, Leigh Hunt and Thomas de Quincey all penned numerous essays on diverse subjects, reviving the earlier graceful style.
Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson also raised the form's literary level. Eliottried to explain the new movements in art and culture by using essays.
Virginia WoolfEdmund Wilsonand Charles du Bos wrote literary criticism essays. In France, several writers produced longer works with the title of essai that were not true examples of the form.
However, by the midth century, the Causeries du lundinewspaper columns by the critic Sainte-Beuveare literary essays in the original sense. Other French writers followed suit, including Théophile GautierAnatole FranceJules Lemaître and Émile Faguet. As with the novelessays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu —loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas, the definition of an essay.
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. Kenkō described his short writings similarly to Montaigne, referring to them as "nonsensical thoughts" the definition of an essay 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.
The eight-legged essay Chinese : 八股文; pinyin : bāgǔwén ; lit. 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 Classicsin 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. 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.
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 subjectdetermine the purposeconsider the audiencethink critically about different causes or consequences, consider a thesis statement, arrange the parts, consider the languageand decide on a conclusion.
Classification is the categorization of objects into a larger whole while division is the breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts. 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. Compare and contrast is arranged emphatically. 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-personusing "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, the definition of an essay, life or the definition of an essay of a famous person. The writing of an expository essay often consists of the following steps: organizing thoughts brainstormingresearching a topic, developing a the definition of an essay statementwriting the introduction, writing the body of essay, and writing the conclusion.
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 languagemetaphorthe definition of an essay, and simile to arrive at a dominant impression.
In the dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophythe writer makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument with a counterargumentbut 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, the definition of an essay.
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, the definition of an essay, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification essay.
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. 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 definition of an essay.
The text makes it clear to the reader why the argument or claim is as such. A narrative uses tools such as flashbacksflash-forwardsand transitions that often build to a climax. The focus the definition of an essay 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. 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 statementbody 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, the definition of an essay, described, and criticized. Each argument of an argumentative essay should be supported with sufficient evidence, relevant to the point. 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 moodwhile a technical document is mostly in imperative mood. 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. 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.
How to Write a Definition Essay ✨ Best Custom Writing Tips
, time: 1:52Definition Essay - Excelsior College OWL
An essay is a short nonfictional piece of formal writing assigned to students to improve their writing skills or assess their knowledge of a given subject a short piece of writing on a particular subject, often expressing personal views In a school test, an essay is a written answer that includes information and discussion, usually to test how well the student understands the subject. 20/7/ · Essays are brief, non-fiction compositions that describe, clarify, argue, or analyze a subject. Students might encounter essay assignments in any school subject and at any level of school, from a personal experience "vacation" essay in middle school to a complex analysis of a scientific process in graduate school
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