Posted in Tuition News on 5th September 2014
The Lost Art of Essay Writing
‘A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not out.’
Virginia Woolf
‘Could you please tell me how to write an essay?’
This is a question I am asked all too often – not only by school students, but by first-year university freshmen and women. There they are at college studying Science, English or History and unable to compose a credible, structured essay. Their tutor calls them in and asks, ‘Did nobody ever tell you how to write an essay? What the hell did your school teach you, then?’
I have asked myself again and again how this can be.
At my school I was taught how to write an essay at the age of twelve, and it has remained with me ever since. From what I can deduce, teachers no longer teach children how to compose an essay; is it because they were never taught themselves? I suspect this is the case – just as they fail to teach proper grammar and punctuation because their teachers thought it obsolete and did not pass it on to their pupils.
Surely if school is about preparing children for higher education, they need to know the skill of essay writing? How on earth are they expected to get through university without it?
And even if students decide not to go down the further education route, essay writing is invaluable in many careers, from making presentations and pitches to clients to convincing management of a candidate’s suitability for promotion. Essay writing helps to clarify thoughts and present them in a logical, well-argued structure.
So, in a nutshell, what are the components of a well-written, essay? Here’s a brief overview.
First, a plan is non-negotiable. If an essay requires an introduction in which the writer sets out his stall, summing up the arguments he is going to present, it cannot be written without a carefully thought-out plan to determine what to put in the introduction. The plan needs to bullet-point each argument with examples to back up each point.
Once a plan has been formulated, the introduction acts like a signpost for the whole essay. It sets out succinctly the main thesis (ideas) of the essay and the arguments to be addressed in the body of the essay. This signposting method enables the writer to maintain relevance.
The body of the essay consists of a series of paragraphs, each one dealing with one of the main points included in the plan. Each paragraph is like a mini-essay, the first sentence acting as a signpost for the rest of the paragraph (just as the paragraph does for the essay as a whole). Everything that follows the first sentence should not only be relevant to the introductory sentence; it should also constitute an elaboration of the introductory sentence. Ideally, each subsequent paragraph should develop from the last.
The conclusion is in many ways a reiteration of what was stated in the introduction. It is as if the writer is saying, ‘I told you I was going to say x, y and z and that is what I have done’. Finally, nothing new should ever be included in the final wrapping-up, although it is impressive to close with a sentence that causes the reader to ponder how the argument tackled in the essay might be developed.
Essay writing was once an esteemed skill. Among the giants of English literature is a dazzling array of top-notch essayists – Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Francis Bacon, Thomas Carlyle, to name but a few. It would be tragic if this skill was lost. So, helping children to rediscover the art can only be a good thing.
Tags: ESSAY WRITING, GEORGE ORWELL, SCIENCE, VIRGINIA WOOLF
