Government College Women University, Faisalabad

Program: BS 3rd semester

Session :

Subject : Communication Skills

Topic: Essay Writing

Lecture 1

Topics:

What is essay?

Components of essay
What is essay?

An essay is a piece of writing that is written to convince someone of something or

to simply inform the reader about a particular topic. In order for the reader to be
convinced or adequately informed, the essay must include several important
components to make it flow in a logical way. The main parts (or sections) to an
essay are the intro, body, and conclusion. In a standard short essay, five
paragraphs can provide the reader with enough information in a short amount of
space. For a research paper or dissertation, however, it is essential that more than
five paragraphs are present in order not to overwhelm the reader with too much
information in one paragraph.
The essay as literary genre

The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, ‘to try’ or ‘to
attempt’. The first author to describe his works as essays was the Frenchman
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Inspired in particular by the works of
Plutarch, a translation of whose Oeuvres morales (Moral works) into French
had just been published by Jacques Amyot, Montaigne began to compose his
essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais, was published in two
volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life he continued revising previously
published essays and composing new ones. Francis Bacon’s essays, published
in book form in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that
described themselves as essays.
Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in English in 1609, according to the
Oxford English Dictionary. Notable essayists are legion. They include Virginia
Woolf, Voltaire, Adrienne Rich, Alamgir Hashmi, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag,
Natalia Ginzburg, Sara Suleri, Annie Dillard, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele,
Charles Lamb, Leo Tolstoy, William Hazlitt, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley,
Walter Bagehot, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, John D’Agata, Gore Vidal,
Marguerite Yourcenar, J.M. Coetzee, Gaston Waringhien and E.B. White. It is
very difficult to define the genre into which essays fall.
The essay as a pedagogical tool

In recent times, essays have become a major part of a formal education.

Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their
writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in selecting
applicants (see admissions essay). In both secondary and tertiary education,
essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material.
Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the
form of an essay. Academic essays are usually more formal than literary
ones. They may still allow the presentation of the writer’s own views, but
this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person
often discouraged.
Tips for writing a good essay
It is 5 step process:

1.Develop a topic:
by understanding the assignment requirements,
exploring background information, and forming a work

1.Conduct research using scholarly sources:

taking critical notes and
reading closely
1.Create a statement :
It is an outline of arguments that will form the
essay

1.Write the essay and integrate research evidence:

with properly formatted citations and references

1.Edit, review and revise:

your outline, and writing for grammatical errors
and common structural and stylistic mistakes
 Components of essay
There are three parts of essay
• Introduction
• Middle section
• Conclusion

Intro:
• Must contain an attention grabber for the reader or at least make
the essay sound interesting, may begin with a quote about the
particular topic.
• Ensure that the intro moves from the general to the specific in
regards to the topic.
• Provides the reader with a “road map” of the essay in a logical
order
• At the end there should be what is called a thesis statement,
arguably the most important component of the intro
• The thesis statement states the aim of the paper and may give
insight into the author’s examples and evidence

Body:
• Includes the evidence and support of the paper in addition to
the author’s ideas
• Paragraphs must include a topic sentence which relates the
discussion back to the thesis statement
Logical ordering of ideas:

Three types of order

1. Chronological order---order of time, good for narratives
2. Spatial order-good for descriptions of locations; top to
bottom, e.g.
3. Emphatic order-least important to most important; most
common for college writing
• Ensure that transition sentences are present to create a good flow
to the essay
• Include substantial examples and evidence to support your
argument and remember to cite, cite, cite!
• Make sure each example is relevant to your particular topic
Conclusion:

• This section should wrap all of your arguments and points

• Should restate the main arguments in a simplified manner
• Ensure that the reader is left with something to think about,
particularly if it is an argumentative essay

Always remember to allow time to rewrite the first draft of your

essay and, then, to proofread it before turning it in. For help, visit
the Writing Center!