2. Essay Writing

3. Outline
• Origin of the word essay
• What is an essay?
• What can an essay say?
• 3 basic types of essays
• 6 parts of an essay
• Where should you start?
• Whom should you read?
• What is the most important thing?

4. • From ‘essai’ from French to ‘test’ or ‘attempt’
• First known use 14th century
• First appearance, Zuihitsu: a genre of prose
writing in Japanese literature. It means “to
follow” and “brush”. Originally from Chinese
meaning “to follow brush”

5. Why This Mentioning of Origin?
• Will it make you any smarter?
• Will it make you write a better essay?
• Will it make you form your opinion about an
essay?
• Will it make you remember what an essay is?

6. Enough!

7. What Is an Essay?
• “a short piece of writing that tells a person's
thoughts or opinions about a subject”
m-w.com
• It is a form of prose writing that aims to say
something

8. What can an essay say?

9. What Can an Essay Say?
• Controversial stuff with proof
• It can say and portray stories
unknown to us
• That you think out of the box
• Be a little personal

10. 3 Basic Types of Essays
1) Descriptive essay
2) Opinionated essay / Argumentative essay
3) Narrative essay / Personal essay

11. What is the mnemonic for learning the
name of 3 basic types of essays?

12. • Yes, you guessed it right…

13. DON

14. 3 Basic Types of Essays
1) Descriptive essay
– Describes a situation / event / place
– Pros and cons / Likes or dislikes
2) Opinionated essay / Argumentative essay
– Propose a debatable topic
– Using cause and effect / using logic, come to a
conclusion
3) Narrative essay / Personal essay
– Using personal pronouns ‘I’, personal opinions are
given

15. Which Essay Type Is the Most Popular?
• What is your guess?

16. Yes, you are correct or incorrect?
• Debatable essay / opinion generating essay /
argumentative essay / analytical essay
• These are all the names for almost the same
type of essay with slight variations

18. 6 Parts of an Essay
1) First statement is an ‘I’
2) Introductory paragraph / Thesis
3) Topic statement / thesis statement
4) Body paragraphs
5) Concluding paragraph / Restatement of the
thesis statement
6) Last statement is an ‘I’

19. 6 Parts of an Essay…
1) First statement is an ‘I’
– Quote / Simple introduction / A general but
nicely crafted statement
2) Introductory paragraph / Thesis
– A little taste of what you want to carry forward
3) Topic statement / thesis statement
– Last sentence of the first paragraph
– A statement you will restate later in the
conclusion

20. 6 Parts of an Essay…
4) Body paragraphs
– Body is the space where you experiment by giving your
opinions, ideas or justifications
• “… Pro idea 1
Pro idea 2
Con(s) + Refutation(s): these are the opinions of
others that you disagree with. You must clearly specify
these opinions if you are to refute them convincingly.
Conclusion” Cappelen Damm
• I recommend you see the link given in the reference for
possible approaches

21. Body
• Opinion + justification
• Opinion + logic + justification
• Opinion + logic + justification + examples

22. How many paragraphs in the body?
• 300 words essay can have 2 to 3 paragraphs
• Likewise for a 600 to 700 word essay 6
paragraphs will do

23. 6 Parts of an Essay…
5) Concluding paragraph / Restatement of the
thesis statement
– You are saying goodbye. Conclude by summarizing
and;
– restating your thesis statement
6) Last statement is an ‘I’
– Claim your victory by coming to a thoughtful
conclusion
– You took your precious time to write an essay so
personalize it by letting us, the readers, know what
you’ve gained

24. Mnemonic to Learn 6 Parts of an Essay
• FIT BCL
• Remember it like this:
– A red snap fit buckle (FIT BCL) is 5 times tighter
than a quick fit buckle

25. Where should you start?

26. Whom should you read?

27. 4 Popular Essay Writers
1. Francis bacon, The Essays (1597)
2. Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950)
3. Michel de Montaigne, Essais (1580, 1588)
4. Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book (1002)

28. No, they are boring
• They must be…

29. Read
• Forbes
• Reader’s Digest
• National Geographic
• Inc.
• The Verge
• BBC
• CNN
• Reuters
• DW
• Engadget
• Science Daily
• Popular Science
• And the list goes on…

30. What is the most important thing to
remember from all this?

31. Quality

32. Outline for Revision
• Origin of the word essay
• What is an essay?
• What can an essay say?
• 3 basic types of essays
• 6 parts of an essay
• Where should you start?
• Whom should you read?
• What is the most important thing to remember
from all this?

33. References
• access-socialstudies.cappelendamm.no
• aucegypt.edu
• grammar.about.com
• publishersweekly.com
• The Essays by Francis Bacon
• Sei Shōnagon The Pillow Book
• Image source slide 1 - proficientwriters
• Image source slide 17 - customessayorder
• Image source slide 34 - mcqpaper