Essay writing                                                  
Follow your heart while writing essays

As a student, I found the essay to be the most interesting piece of creative writing. Not only did it give room for free expression, it also introduced us to new subject areas.

Our first exposure to writing essays comes from our primary class where we are taught to write a few lines on things we are most familiar with like our parents, our siblings, our own self or may be even our pets. So, basically, an essay is written from a person’s exclusive point of view and could be on any topic of interest.

Interestingly, the first author to describe his works as essays was Frenchman Michel de Montaigne who used the term to characterise the ‘essays’ as “attempts” to put his thoughts adequately into writing. The literal meaning of essay is “a trial” or “an attempt”. Montaigne spent most of his life revising previously published essays and composing new ones. Another famous essayist was Francis Bacon, who became the first English author to describe his work as an essay.

Essays are normally short pieces when compared to other literary pieces, however, as a student it is the longest piece of writing that one encounters. In school we follow a very structured kind of essay, fortunately it is very basic and one can follow it very comfortably, starting with an introduction, the body and lastly the conclusion.

Essays help you in many ways. They help you to think out-of-the-box, you can write almost anything as long as you can justify the topic. They help you think in a structured manner, a sense of reasoning is employed as you justify why you are following a certain way of thinking and the justification in the end makes it a well reasoned out piece of work.

Language plays an important part in essay writing. “ English has its bases broad and low, close to the ground,” as Walt Whitman once said, “into it are woven the sorrows, joys, loves, needs and heartbreaks of the common people.” Nothing could be clearer about writing. If we keep this close to our hearts, our writings will be an outpouring of our feelings which are close to us and according to me this is the best approach while attempting to write an essay. As we write, with reasonable practice, our language improves as we tackle diverse topics, improving the vocabulary and the nuances of the language.

There are various types of essays, differentiated on the basis of the perspective they employ. We have the narrative essay where we can use flashbacks and have some dialogues and establish a connection with the audience. Another type is the purely descriptive one wherein the use of descriptive language is extensive. The description could vary according to the subject, it could be chronological or rhetoric based. Exemplification is also used by writers in their essays. These essays are characterised by a generalisation and supported by credible examples and anecdotes.

Techniques like compare and contrast can also be used. This could help in developing your analogies. One can compare and contrast the points of view one is trying to uphold or strike off. Cause and effect can also be used fruitfully to build up on one’s viewpoint.

One has to carefully build up the cause and effect relationship as one reaches a suitable conclusion. Another type is the definition essay where you explain a topic at length. As you grow older you may come across employment essays.These essays may help you get through an admissions test or may land you a job.

What sets a good essay apart, is the way the one expresses one’s ideas. My strong advise is never to mug up essays. Originality should set you apart. Now that you know that an essay is the expression of your personal view point, you should have no hesitation in following your heart and putting your ideas through.