What Is an Essay
Essay by people • November 15, 2010 • Essay • 945 Words (4 Pages) • 2,861 Views
Essay is a short piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g. Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population provide counterexamples.
In some countries (e.g., in the United States), essays have become a major part of formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants and, in the humanities and social sciences, as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams. The concept of an "essay" has been extended to other mediums beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary film making styles and which focuses more on the evolution of a theme or an idea. A photographic essay is an attempt to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs; it may or may not have an accompanying text or captions.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Definitions
* 2 History
* 3 As a pedagogical tool
* 4 Forms and styles
o 4.1 Descriptive
o 4.2 Narrative
o 4.3 Exemplification
o 4.4 Compare and contrast
o 4.5 Cause and effect
o 4.6 Classification and division
o 4.7 Definition
o 4.8 Dialectic
o 4.9 History (thesis)
o 4.10 Other logical structures
* 5 Magazine or newspaper
* 6 Employment
* 7 Non-literary types
o 7.1 Visual Arts
o 7.2 Music
o 7.3 Film
o 7.4 Photography
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 Further reading
* 11 External links
[edit] Definitions
An essay has been defined in a variety of ways.
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