What Is The Definition Of An Essay |
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By: Steven Davis Posted: 2011-01-19 01:39:03 |
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Have you ever pondered over what an essay actually is?
Probably not! Perhaps you should . . . I mean in virtually every subject you study you have to do some form of essay writing – whether it is a descriptive essay, an evaluation of your findings or something more academic these are all forms of writing that will fall within the definition of an essay.However, problems are often caused by the fact that, despite the many different types of essay, many students that I work with each and every day at a whole variety of educational institutions often ask me why they have to write essays and, as a result of this, what an essay actually is by definition. They wonder whether there is, in fact, a better way to assess students ability and knowledge within a particular subject outside of essay writing. Far too many of students do not even really understand as to why they even have to write essays in the first place.All too many turn to me and ask 'What's the point?' Therefore, in answer to this and many other questions, this article will look to provide you with a definition of what an essay actually is so that you may then better understand what an essay actually is by definition to then better understand why essay writing is such an invaluable assessment tool.With this in mind, an essay by definition is predominately recognised as a short piece of writing that is usually written from the individual student's personal point of view. At the same time, however, it is also to be appreciated that essays can provide literary criticism of a book or play, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, along with the individual recollections and reflections of the student. As a result, it is perhaps not all that surprising that the definition of an essay has occassionally been criticised as somewhat vague in that its nature and scope overlaps somewhat with what is required and expected in an article or even a short story. Moreover, whislt virtually all modern understandings of essays are written in prose, many works in verse have been dubbed essays including the great Alexander Pope's 'An Essay on Criticism' and 'An Essay on Man'. In addition to this, whilst we have also briefly alluded to the fact that brevity usually defines an essay, there are many voluminous works including John Locke's 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' that provides counterexamples in this regard.Therefore, in view of the fact that it is clearly very difficult to effectively define what an essay actually is due to the way in which it may be interpreted, it is interesting to turn to the work of others for answers to such questions.Noted writer and leading essayist, Aldous Huxley has looked to provide some siginficant guidance in this area in an effort to shed greater light upon this subject.Huxley ostensibly looked to recognise the essay's shared similarity with other forms of writing because “Like the novel, the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything, usually on a certain topic”. However, the same time, Huxley also defined the essay as “a short piece, and it is therefore impossible to give all things full play within the limits of a single essay”. Moreover, he also recognised “There is the pole of the personal and the autobiographical; there is the pole of the objective, the factual, the concrete-particular; and there is the pole of the abstract-universal” and also that “Most essayists are at home and at their best in the neighborhood of only one of the essay's three poles, or at the most only in the neighborhood of two” - although Huxley also believe that “The most richly satisfying essays are those which make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist“.In more recent times, however, essays have become a significant aspect of the assessment of students level of attainment in their formal education. By way of illustration, the majority of high school students are taught structured essay formats to improve their essay writing skills, whilst essay writing is also often used by universities for selecting applicants. At the same time, however, as has already been alluded to in both secondary and university/college education, essay writing is also used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material in any given subject. With this in mind, in so doing students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of a piece of essay writing commonly by definition. However, it is still to be appreciated academic essays are usually much more formal in their nature than those that are considered to be more literary - lthough they may still allow the presentation of the writer's own views in a logical and factual manner with the use of the 'first person' usually discouraged in this kind of essay writing.Therefore, by understanding what an essay actually is by definition through consideration of this general discussion, this article should hopefully get you thinking in the right way about this kind of academic work. |
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