A few years ago, the Ministry of Education decided to introduce admission to the main exams. To be among those who pass the exam, you need to get credit for the December essay. Its structure is quite simple. It differs from task number 25 in the exam in the Russian language, where you need to write an essay of 8 paragraphs. If the exam has already been given a text on which to rely, that is, find the problem of the text , express your attitude to the problem and argue with examples from literary works, then the structure of the December essay on literature is more like an essay.
What are directions
Every year in August, the Ministry of Education publishes five directions on the website of the Federal Institute of Pedagogical Measurements in order to give an approximate idea of topics for future essays. Very often, directions are abstract concepts such as friendship, love, enmity, path, time, and so on. Subjects provide a wide field for discussion, but no specifics. For example, the direction of the "path". What does the path mean? A path is a road that a person travels from one point to another. And this is not necessarily a geographical concept. This word has many meanings. We will talk about the road that the heroes of the work of art are destined to follow, as the peasants from Nekrasov’s poem "Who is to live well in Russia". And we will definitely raise the topic of the life path of a person who makes mistakes, does good, brings evil to this world, lives imperceptibly, like Akaki in Gogol’s “Overcoat,” or brightly like Pechorin Lermontova. The same can be said for any direction. For example, love is not limited to the relationship of man and woman. There is love for the Motherland, which Yesenin’s poems are filled with, for animals, as in the stories of Bianchi or Ushinsky, for people like Danko in Gorky’s story “The Old Woman Isergil”, for life, as in the stories of Jack London.
Introduction
Like any creative writing, the structure of writing the December essay on literature consists of an introduction, a main part and a conclusion. Before you start writing the text, read all the topics and think carefully over each. Choose the one to which you can pick up the best examples from fiction. Only then start thinking about the introduction. Students most often experience difficulties at the very beginning of work. They do not know what to write about the very first sentences. Begin the introduction of the final December essay on the structure in one of the ways below.
The first way to start composing
Topics are often in the form of moral and philosophical concepts. This enables the student to begin the introduction with reflection on the meaning of the word. Let's say the theme of your essay is “Friendship in a person’s life”. You can start composing with questions about friendship: "What is friendship? Is there a false friendship? Can you consider a person you don’t trust as friend?" Such a series of questions will give you the opportunity to express your attitude to this concept. That is, you will get a completely full introduction.
Second way
You can write one question, which you take directly from the topic of the essay. The answer to it will be the introduction. Let’s give an example: “What does friendship mean? I think that it’s such a relationship in which a person has the confidence that they will always come to help, will not be left in trouble, supported in grief and rejoice with his victories along with him. If you feel that you can’t absolutely trust a person, so you can’t consider him a true friend. This is an example of the beginning of the introduction. Then you can continue your thoughts on friendship, leading them to the first example from the literature.
Third way
Excluding questions, you can immediately start writing a definition of friendship: "Friendship is the relationship of two or more people based on trust and mutual assistance." You give your concept of friendship. Do not rewrite from the dictionary, because the December essay, the plan and structure of which you must think through well, are the individual thoughts of the student. If you use statements and aphorisms, be sure to indicate the author, otherwise it will be plagiarism.
We pass to the main part
Do not forget the main principle of work. First, choose a topic to which you can easily pick up arguments. Sketch the arguments and only then start working with the introduction. So, the introduction has already been written and we need to move on to the main part, that is, examples from the literature. The transition should be smooth. Before the example itself, write a couple of sentences that will lead to the argument: “The theme of friendship is most often found in the works of both Russian and foreign writers. Mark Twain, Jack London, Boris Kataev, Kir Bulychev, Charles Dickens and many other great authors wrote about friendship "But I want to give an example from a book that touched me more than others." Further, you continue to expand on the theme of the example of the work that you have chosen as an argument.
How to choose examples
When you talk about moral concepts, you can give an example not only positive, but also negative as a counterweight. For example, in the first part, you give an example of the friendship between Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." You will talk about how the boys helped each other out in difficult situations and trials, how you survived many adventures together, but remained friends. This will be your positive example.
Second argument
As a counterweight, you can recall Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov and his story "Hero of our time." In this case, we will talk about Pechorin, who did not value the friendship of Maxim Maximovich, although they also experienced a lot together, for a long time they lived side by side. Mention the story of Bel when Maxim Maximovich saw Pechorin treating a poor girl, but did not reproach him. When after a few years they accidentally met at one of the stations, Pechorin did not want to talk to him. It must be said that the main character is not at all capable of friendship. Here are your two arguments for the main part.
Transition from one part to another
Since you bring the second story in the form of an antipode, you need to make the transition from the first example to the second. A couple of sentences will be enough. "If we talk about friendship, then this is a relationship between people. Friendship is not one-sided, but there are people who are absolutely not capable of this feeling." And here we give a second example about Pechorin. You don’t have to write much. The main thing is to logically combine the two parts of the structure of the work of December, an example of which we are analyzing.
Conclusion
Do not forget that the main part should be the largest in volume. The introduction and conclusion of the December essay on the structure should make up about 40% of the entire text, otherwise the main part will be too short and may not be counted. In conclusion, you need to take stock of what you wrote before. That is, at the beginning of the essay, you thought about friendship, talked about what it means to you, how you imagine it. Then confirm this with examples from fiction, and in conclusion, talk about how you have proved that friendship means a lot to a person, as the examples you cited indicate. In the end, you might wish to find a good friend for life who you can trust.
Where to find examples for the main part
To write an essay on literature, it is not necessary to have a large number of read works in your luggage. The list of works that is part of the school curriculum and which you read from grades 5 to 11 is quite enough. Do not ignore the short stories of Chekhov, Shukshin, Tolstoy, Bunin and other authors. These works are easy to remember and are great as arguments. So you will not get confused in a large number of heroes and will not make a mistake for which you can lose a point. Pay attention to the stories of not only the authors of the last century, but also modern ones. Do not give fictional works and authors as an example. The deception will be revealed, and your work will not be counted.
Tips
To prepare for the essay, take a small notebook where you write down the names and authors of works from the school curriculum. Write down the names of the main characters, keywords, and two or three sentences in which reveal the main theme of the work and briefly outline the plot. With larger works, such as “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy, “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov, “Quiet Flows the Don” by Sholokhov will have to work more carefully. But in terms of preparation, they are more convenient. It’s easier to read a few major novels than a hundred stories. In Tolstoy's War and Peace, there are all the topics that can be revealed in the essay. Here friendship and the problem of choosing a life path, and love, and betrayal, and death, and the problems of the family, and the problems of education. Before proceeding to the December essay, scroll through the writing plan and structure in your head, imagine about what you want to tell the reader. So it will be easier to determine the text.