The Essay

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• The Essay

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• The essay is most often associated with and
  thought of as that mandatory-to-master
  five-paragraph written composition that contains
  an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs,
  and a concluding paragraph.
• However, the essay is a far more versatile
  composition.
• It varies in length five paragraphs or thirty
  or more.
• It varies in subject matter personal to
  impersonal.
• It varies in writing style academic or
  scholarly to casual.

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The Essay

• Originated in the sixteenth century in the
  hands of Michel de Montaigne, who, experimenting
  with prose forms distinct from the formal,
  philosophical or academic writing, developed the
  essay as an informal genre of personal reflection
  and meditation. It is derived from the French
  word essais or attempts, as in trying something
  out.

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The Essay contd

• Montaigne had in mind the personal, informal
  essay as compared to the formal essay such as
• Philosophical and ethical arguments
• Historical and scientific papers
• Dissertations
• Critical articles

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The Article vs. the Essay

• Today, the personal essay is representative of
  informal essay, and the article is representative
  of the more formal essay.
• The main differences between an article and an
  essay
• Article reportage, interviews, feature stories
• Essay personal memoir or reflection

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The Article vs. the Essay contd

• The subject of articles is specific and current
  and the content is largely factual, staying away
  from the personal reflections and thoughts of the
  writer.
• Many writers of articles seek the hook or
  angle that will lure the reader in, attracting
  attention by tying the subject to a current
  issue, trend, or public concern.
• The article reader looks for news, advice, or
  interviews/profiles of up-to-the-minute
  personalities and public figures.
• Once the article is read, the reader is not
  likely to re-visit the article at a later date as
  one would to a literary work.

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The Article vs. the Essay, contd

• The subject of essays can be anything since
  current news or timeliness is not as much a
  concern as is the human or universal in what it
  is to be human.
• Essays tend to reflect on abstract ideas such as
  love, friendship, nature, and other matters of
  daily life experiences and emotions.
• Contrary to the brisk pace of the article, the
  essay tends to be reflective and leisurely,
  meandering over personal experience and thoughts.

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The Article vs. the Essay, contd

• Sometimes the distinction between the
  essay and the article is not easily made. Some
  personal essays rely upon research and reporting,
  while some articles tap into the personal voice
  to report an incident or issue.

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Fact or Fiction

• The wisdom of my lesson is wholly in truth, in
  freedom, in reality (Atwan 4) Montaigne.
• The essay is used to explore and discover the
  writer and the self cultural identity and
  heritage, personal relationships and familial
  ties.
• It is usually a first person account, written in
  the I perspective.
• Does that mean that the essay is always a
  truthful, sincere telling of someones thoughts
  and ideas?

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The Craft of the Essay

• To make a point, the essayist must be
  credible, the story believable. However, to keep
  reader interest, the essayist must also be a
  crafter of aesthetically pleasing writing and
  narrative or story. Since much in life does not
  have a neat ending, the essayist must craft that
  satisfying or poignant conclusion to his/her
  writing.

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Writing as Discovery

• The traditional five paragraph essay--introduction
  , three body paragraphs that support and
  elaborate upon a thesis, and conclusionpresuppose
  s that writing contains thought, does not produce
  it.
• Making a point is the entire aim with this type
  of essay, not displaying the thought process that
  comes into play when arriving at the opinion.

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Writing as Discovery

• However, writing is a process of thinking,
  writing, drafting, revising, and editing that is
  not only recursive, but productive of more
  thinking and writing.
• Writing begets more writing because thoughts are
  born as one writes, thoughts never suspected or
  planned.
• Sometimes a writer does not know what she will
  write until she begins writing.

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Writing as Discovery

• It helps to think of the essay in
  Montaignes terms as an attempt, a ruminating and
  turning things over in the mind, not a dull trail
  to making a point that is set out in the
  beginning.

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Risking the Personal

• Since the essay is a personal writing and a
  creative endeavor, it often delves into the
  territory of the risky and challenging. To
  reveal and communicate effectively what is
  personal takes skillful attention to writing
  style, techniques, and toolsthe craft of writing.

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The Essay Today

• The contemporary essay has many of the same
  flourishes and techniques of fiction and
  poetrystorytelling and figurative
  language--though the form is none of those
  recognized in either of those categories of
  writing.
• Though historically the essay has been viewed as
  a limited vehicle of the memoir or personal
  reflection and/or account, it is today recognized
  as an imaginative display of the most varied
  mixtures of journalism, short story, poetry,
  non-fiction, polemic, autobiography, literary
  criticism, and all shades and degrees in between.

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Essayists on Essays

• Take a look at the Prologue to Best American
  Essays to see what essayists have written about
  the essay.