Topic: Essay and its features (development of essays)

Connect:
1. Why do think is the importance of essay?
2. How can you say if the say is good
3. For you, do you think it is necessary for every people to learn how to write
an essay?
Discussion:
 an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its
subject from a limited or personal point of view – Merriam Webster
 a short piece of writing by a student as part of a course of study - Oxford
Dictionary
 A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in
prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative. –
Dictionary.com
An essay is an academic text that deals with a certain topic wherein you can
give your ideas and points of view on a given subject.
THREE PARTS
Introduction- describe the topic in general
Body- argument of your point. This is where you lead the reader through your
ideas, elaborating arguments and evidence for your thesis.
Conclusion- thoughts about the topic
HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY
 Read and understand the prompt: Know exactly what is being asked of
you.
 Plan: Brainstorming and organizing your ideas will make your life much
easier when you go to write your essay
 Use and cite sources: Do your research. Use quotes and paraphrase
from your sources, but NEVER plagiarize.
 Write a Draft: Drafting allows you to put your ideas on paper so you can
rethink and rewrite them.
  Make a strong thesis: The thesis of the essay is the most important
thing you’ll write. Make it a strong point.
 Respond to the prompt:  Start writing the final draft of your essay.
 Proofread: Read your response carefully to make sure that there are no
mistakes and that you didn’t miss anything.

FEATURES OF ESSAY
1. Unity - each paragraph has only one main idea (expressed in the topic
sentences) and that all other sentences and details in that paragraph
revolve around that main idea
2. Order- Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become
confused and lose interest.
3. Brevity- An essay has to be as brief as possible. With brevity you will avoids
static: unnecessary information.
4. Style- The main reason that style matters is for consistency.
5. Addresses a topic - An essay’s topic is the position it takes on the subject. It
expresses your view on the subject.
6. Answer a question - You must answer the question. But you’ll need to do
more: you have to support that answer with an argument.

DEVELOPMENT OF ESSAY

When: 1571
Who: French philosopher, Montaigne.
How: He called his short, philosophical writings which were the products of
moments by the French word assai, which means 'attempt'. Since then the
word 'essay' has been applied to compositions of the kind that Montaigne
attempted.

 Short in compass, light in tone and treatment, personal and discursive.

 Appeared in France about 1580 and in English in 1603.
 Published in John Florio's English translation in 1603.
 The essays of Montaigne were short in compass, light in tone and
treatment, personal and discursive. They appeared in France about 1580
and in English in 1603. Dr. Samuel Johnson has defined the essay "as a
loose sally of the mind, an irregular undigested piece; not a regular or
orderly composition." The definition, though not complete, is quite happy
for it covers the miscellaneous prose that goes by the name 'essay' "An
essay, therefore, must in other words be short, unmethodical, personal and
written in a style that is literary, easy and elegant." An essay is molded by a
central mood and resembles as 'lyric'.

The essay has its roots in the prose-writings of the Elizabethan period,
particularly in the works of Lodge, Lyly, Greene, Sir Philip Sidney etc. But
the first real essayist in English is Francis Bacon, "the wisest, brightest and
meanest of mankind" in the - words of the English poet, Alexander Pope.
His essays are modelled on Montaigne's and appeared first in 1597. They
have a wide variety of themes; they are brief and lacking in intimacy of
personal note. They are rather the grave musings of a philosopher than the
whim-whams of the intimate literary essayist, like Charles Lamb. He drafted
his first ten essays published in 1597, but increased the number to 58 in
1625. Bacon calls his essays, 'detached meditations'. Bacon's essays are
meant for some moral observations. They are short and pithy. His essays
are counsels of a shrewd man of the world based on his personal
experiences and observations of men and manners. Bacon wanted to write
for the young men of ambition who wanted complete self-realisation. His
essays include of Truth, of Studies, of Travel, of Adversity, of Envy, of Love
etc. His crisp and epigrammatic sentences read like aphorisms. He writes
clear and self-conscious prose. Bacon's essays had neither the
discursiveness nor the grace of Montaigne's essays. According to him, his
essays are "brief notes set down rather significantly than anxiously."

Addison was the greater master of English prose. His inimitable humor,
suavity, imagination added considerably to the charm and grace of his essay. His
style is a model one-simple direct and graceful and sometimes even rhythmical.
Steele's essays are full o human sympathy; his pathos is soft and attractive. His
style in rather slip-shod, lacking the finish of Addison's prose.
The defects of Bacon were remedied by Abraham Cowley (1618-1867) who
is the first conscious essayist in English literature and has been called, indeed "the
father of the English essay". His essays like On Myself, The Garden are the
examples of the intimate familiar essay. His style is somewhat heavy but his tone
is intimate. He is a link between Bacon and Addison. Other writers of the first half
of the seventeenth century, like Burton, Fuller, Joseph Hall, John Earle, Sir Thomas
Overbury carried the development of the essay one step farther. The last three
wrote short character-sketches, full of humor and showing deep insight into
human characters. They are called 'Characters'.
During the Restoration period Dryden and Temple cast their criticisms of
poetry and observations of life in the form of delightful essays. Dryden's Essays on
Dramatic Poesie (1668), Temple's Essays on Poetry (1685) are too long to be
strictly called 'essays'. They are essays only in name. Locke's famous philosophical
treatise is called An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), but it has
little of the essay in it. These show how the 'essay' had cast its spell on the writers
who chose to call their critical or philosophical writings by the name 'essay'.

In the Eighteenth century, with the rise of the periodicals, the essay fully
established itself as a popular literary form. Defoe, the immediate precursor of
the golden age of prose, gave the essay a strain of irony and a simple, clear and
realistic style. Addison and Steele, in their periodicals The Tatler and The
Spectator wrote essays with a frankly didactic purpose, namely to reform
contemporary manners and morals. They brought philosophy to the coffee-table,
as they happily said. Addison contributed 274 and Steele 236 essays to The
Spectator. The essays were on an infinite variety of subjects. Their manners were
also varied. Sometimes they used allegory as a device to make their themes
attractive. The Vision of Mirza from the pen of Addison is a beautiful allegorical
essay.
Addison was the greater master of English prose. His inimitable humour,
suavity, imagination added considerably to the charm and grace of his essay. His
style is a model one-simple direct amd graceful and sometimes even rhythmical.
Steele's essays are full o human sympathy; his pathos is soft and attractive. His
style in rather slip-shod, lacking the finish of Addison's prose.