An essay is a unique literary genre. Essentially, this is any short work-essay, written privately on any issue. The key feature of the essay is its authoring - in contrast to the scientific and journalistic styles, which have a strict specification of stylistics. At the same time, the essay is ranked lower than fiction.
Terminology
Briefly, one can formulate such a definition of an essay - this is a justification of a person’s personal point of view in writing. Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that the work of this literary genre does not pretend to be the basis of the issue under consideration or its exhaustive information source. Such an essay contains the author's conclusions and conclusions. Therefore, how to write an essay, an example of its writing and requirements are only recommendations or a set of rules (applies to the latter), and the main part should be occupied by your thoughts.
History reference
The essay comes from the French “attempt”, “trial”, “essay”. And this genre was also born in this beautiful country, back in the Renaissance. The French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne first tried to write "about everything and about nothing, without a preliminary theme and plan of action." He claimed that he liked to soften the boldness of his thoughts, adding to the suggestions moderately questioning conjectures “maybe” and “probably”. So "maybe" - became the expression of the essay formula in principle. Epstein, in turn, defined this genre as a kind of meta-hypothesis, with its original reality and way of depicting this reality.
Differences from the novel
The genre of essays developed in parallel with the genre of the novel. The latter, however, is more familiar with Russian literature, especially classical. The essay, in turn, had a huge impact on Western prose.
Unlike the novel, the essay is monologous and represents the personality of the author. This narrows its scope as a genre, and the picture of the world is presented in an extremely subjective way. At the same time, the essay is inevitably interesting in that it reveals the inner world of a specific person, not fictional, but entirely real - with its advantages and disadvantages. The stylistics of such a literary work always contains an imprint of the human soul. The novel, however, reveals the characters of all the characters and heroes that came out of the pen of the author, no less interesting, but virtually, unreal.
Why write an essay?
Students and applicants in anticipation of exams often raise the question of how to write an essay. A sample of writing this type of work is also often sought, and it is worth saying that it is not difficult to find it. But why in principle write it? There is also an answer to this question.
Writing an essay develops creative thinking, writing skills of thoughts. A person learns to identify causal relationships, structure information, formulate what he would like to express, argue his point of view, illustrating it with various examples, and summarize the material presented.
Typically, essays are devoted to philosophical, intellectual and moral-ethical issues. The latter is often used to assign essays to schoolchildren - they do not have strict requirements, citing insufficient erudition and unofficial registration of the work.
Classification
Conditionally, essays are divided according to the following criteria:
- According to the content. This includes artistic and artistic-literary, historical and philosophical, spiritual and religious, etc.
- By literary form. Among them may be letters or a diary, notes or reviews, lyrical miniatures.
- In shape. Such as: descriptive, narrative, reflective, analytical, compositional and critical.
- According to the form of description, they distinguish between subjective and objective. The former reflect the personality traits of the author, the latter are aimed at describing the subject, phenomenon, process, and so on.
Distinctive features
An essay can be "identified" by the following criteria:
- Small volume. Usually up to seven pages of printed text, although different educational institutions may have their own requirements for this. In some universities, the essay is a full-fledged work of 10 pages, in others they appreciate a brief summary of all their thoughts on two sheets.
- The specifics. An essay usually answers one specific question, which is often formulated in the topic of the assignment. The interpretation of the answer is subjective and contains the author's conclusions. Again, depending on the specification of the essay, it may be necessary to consider the problem from all angles, even if half of the described opinions are in no way directly related to the author.
- Free composition. The essay is distinguished by an associative narrative. The author thinks up logical connections, following his thinking. Recall that the essay reveals his inner world.
- Paradoxes. Moreover, the phenomenon of paradoxes takes place not only in the text itself, but also in the principles of the essay itself: after all, this literary genre, although presented in a free narrative, must have semantic integrity.
- Consistency of the theses and statements of the author. Even if the author is a contradictory nature, he is obliged to explain why he cannot choose one point of view, and not lose the thread of the story, then breaking it off, then starting over. In the end, even the pages of a diary redone under an essay are framed by literary norms. Indeed, not only the author himself will read the final essay.
How to write an essay?
A sample of work can be confusing for a beginner: one or a couple of examples will do little to help an author who cannot understand what is actually required of him.
First of all, it is worth mentioning that to write the so-called essay, you must be fluent in the topic. If, when writing, you have to turn to many sources for information, the essay ceases to be such. This rule comes from the fact that in his “sample” the author truly expresses his point of view, although, of course, he can emphasize it with quotes from great people, etc. Of course, in order for the data to be reliable, it is necessary to verify them. But the essay is not written on the basis of the material, but based on it, coming to its conclusions and results.
Why are there problems with writing?
Many students are trying to find a sample essay, due to the fact that schools do not devote enough time to write this type of work. School essays, although ranked as part of this genre, and some teachers formulate the assignment using precisely this terminology, still do not have a specific specification. As mentioned earlier, school essays are not always considered to be such. In secondary schools, children are just beginning to learn to formulate their thoughts in a literary format. That is why many people come to take the Unified State Exam with fear - they have to express their point of view in a short time, while they absolutely do not know how.
Essay structure
Topics of the essay are usually served in the form of quotations of famous people with whom the writer may agree or disagree, arguing his opinion.
That is why it is recommended to start the essay with the words "I agree (with) this opinion" or "I can’t say that I think the same way as the author", or "this statement seems to me controversial, although on some points I join this opinion" .
The second sentence should contain an explanation of how the statement was understood. You need to write on your own - what, in the opinion of the writer, the author wanted to say and why he thinks so.
The main part of the essay is a detailed presentation of the author’s point of view, on the principle of "I think so, because ...". You can seek help from other quotes and aphorisms with which the writer agrees.
Conclusion of the essay - the results of the work. This is a mandatory item that makes the work complete.
Consider the main subjects on which essays are written.
Social Studies
Social science is an educational discipline, the subject of study of which is a complex of social sciences. The close relationship of social teachings is considered, and not each of them individually.
So, the course of social science may include:
- sociology;
- political science;
- philosophy;
- psychology;
- economy.
The basics of these disciplines are being studied.
A sample essay on social studies is often necessary for graduates when writing the exam. The structure of this work is fully consistent with the structure presented above. At the test of knowledge, students can provide as a topic the statements of famous philosophers, sociologists and other social workers.
Below is an example of writing an essay on social studies (in short form).
Subject: "During the war, laws are silent. Lucan"
“After reading this statement for the first time, I decided that I completely agree with this statement. But a little later it occurred to me that this quote, like almost everything in our world, is not so simple.
With the statement of Lucan, I associate another notorious aphorism - "In love and war, all means are good." Probably, because many unconditionally follow this rule, considering it to be true, and it turns out that in wartime all laws prefer to remain silent.
But there is another side to the coin: during the war the law of war itself applies. "Kill or be killed." And glorious heroes follow the laws that their hearts tell them. In the name of loved ones, relatives and friends.
So it turns out that war creates new laws. More tough and uncompromising than peacetime.
Of course, I can understand Lucan: all his quotes suggest that this person adhered to the pacifist point of view. I consider myself peace-loving. But specifically this statement does not pass a logical check on my part, so I can’t say that I agree with him. "
At the exam put a limit on the number of words in the interval form. It is very important to adhere to them, otherwise even a clearly calibrated essay structure will not pass the examiner's verification.
History
History is ranked among the sciences of society and nature. Despite the fact that the curriculum adheres to the division of this discipline into two separate ones: the world and the country in which they are studying, the basics of writing an essay for both subjects are similar to each other.
In elections, topics for writing essays on history are more likely to depart from aphorisms and quotes. With equal success, these can be reflections on the global consequences of wars, an assessment of the actions of well-known Decembrists or dissidents, and an author's opinion on a historical person or phenomenon. To write an essay on history, a student (or an applicant, or a student) must have solid knowledge on a given topic. At the same time, an example of an essay on social science is not suitable as an example, because this discipline often considers moral and ethical issues. Although writing an essay on this subject requires sufficient erudition in many areas.
But important is the question of how to draw up an essay. The sample of historical essay in its structure, again, does not depart from the given rules. However, additional requirements may be imposed on it in the form of the used list of references and the title page.
Writing an Essay on History
Even if a sample essay on history is currently not at hand, you can write an excellent essay by following these rules:
- First, information is sought on a given topic: even if it is familiar, it does not interfere with repeating the material.
- Further, it needs to be structured, to identify cause-effect relationships, approximately to paint a plan, according to which the reasoning will advance.
- It is important to consider arguments and counterarguments.
- Regarding the style: it is better to ask the teacher which is recommended to be used. In rare but present cases, it is necessary to write in a scientific style.
- Do not forget about the conclusion (the importance of the results of the work is described in the description of the structure of the essay).
Russian language
An essay on the Russian language is somewhat similar to a school essay, reasoning, but on knowledge tests such as the exam, it includes more writing rules. This is its complexity.
The essay must be written according to the text proposed by the examiners, therefore it is necessary:
- Identify the problems of this text.
- Describe aspects of this problem.
- Argument your point of view about what the author wanted to say.
- To conclude.
As you can see, a clarification is added to the usual structure of the essay: the topic (in this case, the issue) is identified by the writer and formulated by him. In addition, when checking essays on the Russian language, more attention is paid to speech, grammar and punctuation errors. Additional points in favor of the author in the eyes of the inspector are added when using literary arguments, well-known examples, and so on. Consistency in this case also plays an important role. A sample essay on the Russian language should clearly follow all the above requirements.
English language
In an essay on English in post-Soviet countries, where it is not native, they completely deviate from the rule of giving an utterance or a quote as a topic. Translated into Russian, they are often very simple, and the essay itself is aimed at verifying the use of a foreign language in expressing one’s thoughts.
Much attention should be paid to grammar, different times, complex constructions, synonymization of simple words.
Essays in English: Classification
Compositions in English are usually divided into three types:
- the pros and cons of a phenomenon that is an essay topic;
- an essay opinion in which it is very important to look at the topic from different angles;
- proposing a solution to a problem (they often give something global).
Essay Writing in English
And here is a specific task: to write an essay in English. A sample of how this can be done is presented below.
- Use the opening words: moreover, indeed, generally, mostly, usually, recently, besides.
- Insert template phrases where you can start a paragraph: to begin with, doubtless, one argument is support of.
- Use English cliches, persistent phrases, idioms, idioms and sayings: long story short, one cannot deny, one does not simply, nail drives out nail.
- Do not forget how you can formulate a conclusion in English: in conclusion, I can say that although, so it's up to everybody to decide whether ... or not.
Decor
Above was described in detail how to write an essay. The sample, formally, although only one was provided, reflects the essence of what is happening and what the inspector wants to see in the opus handed to him.
But after the composition was written, there is a problem with its design.
Usually, such a specification is specified by the teacher. And the obstacle lies precisely in how to arrange a cover page in an essay.
A sample is provided below.
At the top of the page, in the middle, line by line:
Ministry of Education and Science (country name),
full name of higher education institution,
faculty
the department.
In the center of the sheet:
discipline,
topic of an essay.
On the right side of the page:
student (s) of the group (group name),
Full Name.
At the bottom of the page, in the middle:
city, year of writing the work.
From which it follows that filling out the title page in an essay (the sample shows this very well) is not difficult. The requirements are close to a similar specification of the abstract.
For example, if you examine a sample essay from a story, you can make sure that in this case the work is written based on the sources used. So sometimes a bibliography is required. But even this does not bring much difficulty in how the essay is drawn up. A sample of writing a list of used literature is the same as that of reports, abstracts and other similar works.
For instance:
Ratus L. G. "Philosophy in the New Age." - 1980, No. 3. - S. 19-26.
Mishevsky M. O. "The historical influence of psychology." - P .: Thought, 1965 .-- 776 p.
Kegor S. M. "Horror and awe." - K .: Republic, 1983 - 183 p.
Yarosh D. "Personality in the concept of society." - M .: Roslit, 1983.- 343 p. (All provided sources are fictitious and reflect only an example of their design).
Conclusion
At the beginning of the article, a detailed classification of essay types was provided. Summing up, we can identify its simplified section, taking into account all those mentioned here. So, we conditionally select:
- The essays that are written when passing the exam (have clear boundaries of the volume, up to the number of words, are written in exactly the agreed time, measured in hours or even minutes, do not have specifications in the form of a title page and a bibliography, in turn, are divided objectively, depending from academic discipline).
- Essays written by students of various universities (the volume is determined in pages, from two to seven, the periods are allocated based on the frequency of classes, seminars, lectures, are drawn up according to the above information along with a title page and a list of sources used).
The article contains: terminology, history, essay design, sample work, structure and requirements. All this will help to successfully write and arrange this work.