Topics to be covered

What Is an Essay?
An essay is a short nonfictional piece of formal writing assigned to students to improve their
writing skills or assess their knowledge of a given subject.. If you study the origin of the
word, you might understand its purpose better. The word “essay” derives from the Middle
French word essayer, which in its turn comes from Latin exigere meaning “to test,”
“examine,” and “drive out.” There’s a lot to be learned from essay writing: critical analysis,
observation, interpretation, narration, persuasion, close reading, preparation, and time
management. All these skills can be valuable even beyond the school walls.

Definitions:

1. According to Frederick Crews, professor of English at the University of California at

Berkeley, an essay is “a fairly brief piece of nonfiction that tries to make a point in an
interesting way.”
2. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a short piece of writing on a particular subject.”

Basic essay structure:

Almost every single essay that’s ever been written follows the same basic
structure:

• Introduction

• Body paragraphs

• Conclusion

Introduction

It all starts here. This is where you introduce the topic you’re discussing in
your essay and briefly summarize the points you’ll make in the paragraphs
that follow.
This is also where you state your thesis. Your thesis is the most important
part of your essay because it’s the point you’re making. It needs to take
a clear stance and shouldn’t include hedging language that undermines
that stance like “seems to” or “possibly could.”

An easy way to write your thesis statement is to think of it as a summary of

your essay. Your thesis makes and supports your essay’s point in one
concise sentence.

When you proofread your finished essay, make sure your thesis is clearly
stated in your introduction paragraph. If it’s not clear, go back and write a
definitive thesis statement.

Body paragraphs

Your essay’s body paragraphs are where you support your thesis
statement with facts and evidence. Each body paragraph should focus
on one supporting argument for your thesis by discussing related data,
content, or events.

If you’re not sure whether you should include a specific point or detail in
your body paragraphs, refer back to your thesis statement. If the detail
supports your thesis, it should be in your essay. If it doesn’t, leave it out.
Your thesis statement is the core of your basic essay structure, so
everything else in the essay needs to relate to it in some way.

Conclusion

In your essay’s conclusion paragraph, you summarize the points you made
and bring your argument to its logical conclusion. Because your reader is
now familiar with your thesis, the summary in your conclusion paragraph
can be more direct and conclusive than the one in your intro paragraph.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD ESSAY:

FIVE QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING

An essay should have a single clear central idea. Each paragraph should have a clear ma
FOCUS
topic sentence.

Each paragraph should support or expand the central idea of the paper. The idea of eac
DEVELOPMENT
should be explained and illustrated through examples, details, and descriptions.

Every paragraph in an essay should be related to the main idea. Each paragraph should
UNITY
main point.

An essay or paper should be organized logically, flow smoothly, and "stick" together. In
COHERENCE
everything in the writing should make sense to a reader.

A paper should be written in generally correct standard English, with complete sentence
CORRECTNESS
relatively error-free.

Steps to write an essay

These Steps should be followed to write an essay

1. Determine What Type of Essay It Is

There are many different types of essays you might be asked to write in elementary,
middle or high school. Some of the most common include narrative, expository,
argumentative, persuasive, comparative and literary. Determining the type of essay
is the first step to writing a targeted essay.

2.Create an Essay Outline

An essay outline is your road map. It will guide you through to the finished product.
When you create an outline, you organize your thoughts about your topic. First, write
your topic at the top of the page. Then list all the points or arguments you want to
make about the essay topic. Finally, list the facts, examples and statistics that
support those points or arguments.

3.Develop a Thesis Statement

Your thesis should inform the reader what point you will be making or what question
you will be answering about the topic. In other words, it is a prelude to your
conclusion. A thesis statement should be as specific as possible and address one
main idea. Strong theses also take a stand or illustrate the controversial nature of a
topic.

4.Introduce Your Topic

The first paragraph of your essay will introduce your topic and provide direction for
the entire essay. The introduction should discuss your main idea, or what the essay
is about, then state your thesis and points or arguments that support your thesis.

The introduction also sets the tone for your essay, and you want to grab the reader’s
attention with interest and clarity. To capture the reader’s attention, you can make a
challenging claim about the topic or present some surprising (but factual)
information.

5.Write the Body of the Essay

The body of the essay provide details for the points in your introductory paragraph
that support your thesis. Take the points you listed in your introduction and discuss
each in one body paragraph. First, write a topic sentence that summarizes your point
then explain why you feel the topic sentence is true. Finally, support your argument
with evidence such as facts, quotes, examples and statistics.

6.Present Your Conclusion

• The conclusion summarizes the essay and gives the reader closure. In three
or four concise sentences, you should reiterate your thesis and review the
main points of the body of the essay.Just remember to tackle each step one
at a time.

Classification and division

Or

TYPES OF ESSAYS

1. Expository
An expository essay is used to inform, describe or explain a topic, using important
facts to teach the reader about a topic. Mostly written in third-person, using "it", "he",
"she", "they," the expository essay uses formal language to discuss someone or
something. Examples of expository essays are: a medical or biological condition,
social or technological process, life or character of a famous person.

2. Descriptive
Descriptive writing is characterized by sensory details, which appeal to the physical
senses, and details that appeal to a reader's emotional, physical, or intellectual
sensibilities. The main focus of these essays are on scene. One university essay
guide states that "descriptive writing says what happened or what another author
has discussed; it provides an account of the topic. Lyric essays are an important
form of descriptive essays.
 3. Dialectic
In the dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophy, the writer
makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument (with a
counterargument), but then counters the counterargument with a final and novel
argument. This form benefits from presenting a broader perspective while
countering a possible flaw that some may present. This type is sometimes called an
ethics paper.

4. Exemplification
An exemplification essay is characterized by a generalization and relevant,
representative, and believable examples including anecdotes. Writers need to
consider their subject, determine their purpose, consider their audience, decide on
specific examples, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification
essay.

5. Familiar
An essayist writes a familiar essay if speaking to a single reader, writing about both
themselves, and about particular subjects. Anne Fadiman notes that "the genre's
heyday was the early nineteenth century," and that its greatest exponent was Charles
Lamb. She also suggests that while critical essays have more brain than the heart,
and personal essays have more heart than brain, familiar essays have equal
measures of both.

6. History (thesis)
A history essay sometimes referred to as a thesis essay describes an argument or
claim about one or more historical events and supports that claim with evidence,
arguments, and references. The text makes it clear to the reader why the argument
or claim is as such.

7. Narrative
A narrative uses tools such as flashbacks, flash-forwards, and transitions that often
build to a climax. The focus of a narrative is the plot. When creating a narrative,
authors must determine their purpose, consider their audience, establish their point
of view, use dialogue, and organize the narrative. A narrative is usually arranged
chronologically.
 8. Argumentative
An argumentative essay is a critical piece of writing, aimed at presenting
objective analysis of the subject matter, narrowed down to a single topic. The main
idea of all the criticism is to provide an opinion either of positive or negative
implication. As, a critical essay requires research and analysis, strong internal logic
and sharp structure.

9. Economic
An economic essay can start with a thesis, or it can start with a theme. It can take a
narrative course and a descriptive course. It can even become
an argumentative essay if the author feels the need. After the introduction, the author
has to do his/her best to expose the economic matter at hand, to analyse it, evaluate
it, and draw a conclusion. If the essay takes more of a narrative form then the author
has to expose each aspect of the economic puzzle in a way that makes it clear and
understandable for the reader

Importance of essays in Academic

In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, essays have become a
major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary
students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their
writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in
selecting applicants . In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to
judge the mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain,
comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses,
university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or
months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,] mid-term
and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or
three hours. These arts can be learnt from essay writing:

critical analysis,

observation,

interpretation.

narration,

persuasion,

close reading,

preparation,
and time management.

All these skills can be valuable even beyond the school wall.

IMPORTANCE OF ESSAY WRITING FOR LEGAL PROFESSION

law, that means ensuring your writing skills and technique are tip-top. Law is a
subject where essays are very important.Law is a subject where words matter. As
the Italians say, lawyers “play with words”. Layers spend a lot of time twisting the
words used by their opponents in court. Through the art of essay writing this skill
of twisting words can be acquired. Following are the arts we can learn from essay
writing. These are considered the most important. Slillsskills of a legal profession.
These are:

1. Critical analysis
2. Observation
3. Interpretation
 4. Narration
5. Persuasion
6. Close reading
7. Preparation
8. Time management

In addition to this there are some more arts that can be learnt from essay writing and that can help in legal
profession:

1 WRITING SKILLS ARW IMPROVED

2 PERSUASION POWER IS MORE ENHANCED
3 ART OF TWISTING TO WORDS IS MORE STRENGTHENED
4 ARTS OF INTERPRETATION AND EXPRESSION COME FROM ESSAY WRITING