An essay is not difficult for people who already have experience writing similar texts. However, those students (very rarely given such tasks to schoolchildren) who are facing this for the first time are puzzled by many questions. And this, in principle, is correct, because an essay is a special genre that is distinguished by its specificity, which should be considered.
Genre Features
Essai, translated from French, means “essay”. Simply put, this work expresses the author’s personal thoughts on a specific occasion. Students find the genre of essays comfortable in their own way, because it should be small. And you don’t need to think much about the writing style, because it is important to express your emotional feelings, feelings and emotions. The narrative should be easy and simple, without unnecessary artistic figures and “water”. An essay can be considered successful if every person who read or listened to it did not just understand what the author wrote, but felt it. It is very important to express your thoughts in such a way that it becomes clear to everyone what problem the author considers, and what is the essence, meaning, and also the message of the text.
Theme
An essay should begin first with a reflection on a given topic. Often, students are given the choice of several existing ones, and sometimes they can choose their own. However, the task does not change - you need to understand the essence, understand the problem in order to correctly convey your thoughts to the reader.
A literary essay can be written on the topic of love, friendship, relationships, hometown, war, crisis, politics, etc. It should be something about which a person experiences emotions, and he has something to say. Because if the topic is not chosen on one’s own will, nothing good will come of it. A person will write as if from under a stick, and as a result nonsense will come out.
But sometimes it is necessary to write an essay on the topic of a read work. This is easier to do. In other words, you need to state your opinion about what you read and justify it. I liked or did not like whether a person agrees with the opinion of the author or not - it does not matter, the main thing is to write your vision and argue what was said. There is only one important rule here - do not repeat the author’s arguments.
Serious topics
For example, you are writing an essay on the subject of “War.” Such a topic will not leave anyone indifferent. And this also has some difficulty. The fact is that when a person experiences strong emotions and a wide range of feelings, it becomes very difficult to express them. I can’t find words that could fully convey what I want to say. How, for example, is it best to start an essay on the theme of “War”? A good introduction would be a phrase that sounds something like this: “War is a great sorrow. Tears, tragedies, thousands of dead ... The war touched everyone - no one was left behind from this chilling disaster. Mothers lost their sons. Wives have lost husbands. And the children never saw their fathers again. ” This short paragraph contains all the stylistic features inherent in the essay. There is emotionality, feelings too, artistic surpluses are absent, as well as "water". In this spirit, it is desirable to write and everything else.
Author's style
Types of essays are different. There is no exact typology as such. But one thing can be stated with certainty: there are essays that are pleasant to read as texts of an entertaining nature, but there are also works that are very difficult to comprehend. Take, for example, an essay on military subjects. Here the topic itself is heavy. And if the author can write so that it turns out to touch readers, then this will be priceless. However, if the language of the text is very heavy, then it will be difficult for many to read it to the end. But such works are needed, they help to comprehend important things. Some authors do not like to leave a heavy feeling after reading their texts, and therefore they write in easy language. It is a great skill to write on a serious and difficult topic so that the reader has a pleasant impression. However, all these are individual features of the author's style.
Entry structure
The essay begins with a writing introduction. And although in this case there is no particularly strict composition as such, a small plan will not hurt. So, the introduction is two to three sentences that formulate the main problem. And it is not at all necessary to write a mini-annotation for further text. You can make an epigraph, quote someone or ask a rhetorical question. This will be original and also “hook” the reader.
If we talk about what rules of the essay should be observed, then one of the main ones will be the concrete formulation of the problem. Moreover, the author must abandon selfishness. What is meant? It is necessary to highlight the problem that would affect not only the author, but also his reader. And almost everyone. It is also necessary to be able to - choose words so that they touch all hearts. Sometimes you can even encourage the reader to become aware of something by writing a few suggestive phrases like: “This is actually an urgent problem, because ...”, “It’s worth thinking about it, because ...”, “This is really an eternal question, because ...” - and stuff like that. By the way, elements of logic, analytics and reflection must also be present in the text. This gives him meaning, which is very important.
Reasoning
The literary essay differs from the scientific one in its abundance of aphorisms, paths, metaphors and comparisons. However, it is not interesting to read such an essay if it makes little sense. Even in a work of art there must be reasoning built on logical arguments, arguments, and facts. It is important to provide comments on the issue at hand. It is necessary to talk about it, about its relevance, to cite as an example the situations in which it had to deal with. If you have relevant knowledge, then do not be shy to tell how you can deal with it, that is, give advice.
By the way, finishing an essay in this way is also a good technique. In conclusion, you can write something in this style: “Having examined this problem with specific examples and citing the above arguments, we can confidently say that ...” This not only serves as the completion of the text, but also concentrates the person’s attention, forcing him to subconscious level yourself to summarize everything he read.
Essay Objectives
So, doing an essay is not such a difficult task. This genre is good in that it does not require long texts, abstruse phrases, complex sentences and a certain structure. Any person is able to write a literary essay, the main thing is that the given topic excites him. After all, when there is something to say, the words themselves come out from under the pencil. And if the text is written sincerely, from the heart, then in your own words you will be able to hook the reader, make you think, reflect and, possibly, change your attitude to the problem under consideration.
When working on an essay, it is worth remembering that this is not just a few paragraphs united by meaning, but embodied thoughts, emotions and feelings. And there is nothing cleaner and more valuable than this in our lives.