Definition of an essay:

An essay is a presentation of your opinion about a specific subject expressed clearly, in which
you use academic evidence to support your opinion.

Thus:
 it contains opinions (your own and some critics’)
 it is based on academic evidence
 it does not claim to cover everything in the field (Mounsey 9)
 it may vary in length (an average of 5,000).

Types of Essay:

There are several names attached to types of essays. Some specialists, like D. C. Perkins (3) and
Roger Lewis (15-25) use the following terms:

 descriptive essays (accurately describe something: a scene, a person/character, an object,

a theory)
 narrative or creative essays (may deal with an invented story or a story from someone’s
experience). Such a type of essay belongs in the field of creative writing rather than
academic writing.
 discussion / analytical essays (deal with your own and/or some critics’ reasoned,
impersonal, detached and logical opinions on a controversial topic)
 explanatory essays (explain a function or a process with a description of the equipment,
materials / ingredients and agents used)

Most of the essays you have to write in the classroom or at home are not narrative, creative, and
perhaps neither explanatory.
Reshuffled and renamed by Dr. Derek Soles (4-5, 25), the types of essays may be more easily
remembered when divided into:

❥ INFORMATIVE ESSAYS. These give detailed specialised information about a certain

topic. For instance, they explain how a waiter in a posh restaurant is supposed to lay a table for
two people who are newly married. The purpose of an informative essay is to give the reader

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valuable information about something he/she is keen to know. In our field of study, a regular
type of informative essay is:

• THE LITERATURE REVIEW. It is often used by students of Literature in their more

advanced academic studies when, for instance, they have to write their final dissertations, in
conference papers, in their master’s degree studies, in doctoral theses, in fact, in any thorough
research work.

The literature review is a general survey (review) of other related works within a certain topic.
For example, a student is interested in writing about the effects of horror stories on readers
between 15 and 18 years old in a certain space and period of time. The student’s research work
will probably start with a review of important studies done in the past in the same field.

❥ PERSUASIVE ESSAYS try to persuade or convince the reader, in most cases, the teacher,
that the writer’s views and demonstration on a debatable issue are legitimate and substantial.
They may also be called ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS, if they debate an issue very strongly
and critically.

This again is a type of essay used in Literature studies frequently – and ideally should prove the
writer’s capacity to present in a logical manner opinions and highly reliable information, as well
as their ability to construct a coherent argumentation demonstrating the point of discussion.

❥ COMPARE/CONTRAST ESSAYS deal with the differences and/or similarities between two
related things (two authors, poems, books, topics, systems, theories, etc.). The compare/ contrast
essay could be informative or persuasive. There are two methods of organising this type of essay:

• the “common features” method explores a number of traits which belong to both
entities under disucssion (books, poets, characters, towns, etc.)
• a “differences/ similarities” method compares and contrasts two things by
establishing the superiority of one of them. (Sample)

The “common features” method goes better with informative essays, but not necessarily only
with them.

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Sample:

The “similarities/ differences” method goes better with the compare and contrast persuasive
essay, because this method gives you the possibility to convince the reader that one contrasting
unit is superior to the other.
Suppose the issue under discussion in such an essay is atmosphere in the opening pages of Great
Expectations and Bleak House, both novels by Charles Dickens.
Here is a possible version:

Title
Compare and contrast the atmosphere in the opening pages of Great
Expectations and Bleak House

Introduction: the general statement:

It may look difficult to state which atmosphere is more intense and more densely symbolic in the
opening chapters of the two novels, but it may be argued that the first pages of Bleak House are
more elaborate in conveying a powerful atmosphere of universal melancholy, decay and
pessimism.

Body
I. Similarities
A. Both books start with the description of a grim cold rainy day.
B. They both deal with death (Pip’s parents and brothers are dead; in Bleak House,
Dickens speaks about the death of the sun)

II. Differences

A. The feeling of sadness and loss in the fragment from Bleak House is given a cosmic
and biblical dimension, while in Great Expectations it remains reduced to the
perspective of Pip, a little boy.
B. The symbolism in the opening pages of Bleak House is more overpowering (the book
starts with a rewriting of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, The Lord High
Chancellor is indirectly compared with God, etc.)
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C. In Bleak House, the author describes a fashionable device of the time, a balloon, in
order to impress his readers by the presence of the latest inventions and by offering
 Conclusion
The atmosphere in the beginning chapters of both novels is quite impressive in its grimness, but
the first pages of Bleak House are more enthralling in that they convey a more powerful feeling
of universal loss, confusion, pessimism and apprehension.

Remember, though, that most essays in the humanities combine informative and persuasive elements,
and that in most cases the student has to investigate/review past surveys on the topic they are writing
about.

The Purpose of an Essay

In general, writing a good essay helps students control their discourse by giving a precise answer
with argumentation to an (implied) question.

In particular, an essay should prove that students are able to:

• read critically and with purpose

• collect relevant information and apply it to a given topic
• analyse, argue and interpret a case
• connect theory to particular examples
• be original
• organise the material in a clear and logical structure (Hennessy 21)

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 Paper Presentation:

1. Write on A4 size paper, one side of each page.

2. Number all pages.
3. Put your name, grade, year, language, group (on right-hand side) and tutor’s title and name,
seminar (on left-hand side of front page).
4. Use double spacing and wide margin on the left-hand side of each page for the tutor’s comments.
5. Use Times New Roman font sizes:
 10 for your name, the teacher’s name, the institution you belong to, group
number…
 11 or 12 for the text itself,
 14 (bold letters) for sub-headings
 16—bold type for the title of your essay.
6. Your corrections written above the wrong words, not in the margin.
7. No irrelevant pictures.
8. Staple your essay sheets and ring bind your dissertations.
9. Write AN ABSTRACT or a résumé at the beginning of your MA or Diploma paper (150 to 200
words) in which you:
 state the main aims of your paper
 give the context
 enumerate the issues your paper deals with
 name the methods of investigation you have used
 give your conclusion and its significance
10. Always keep an extra copy of your essay.

Nevertheless, when writing an essay check always which style it has to be. Usually, English
students use MLA style, but there are others in use (the essays written in Romanian use other
styles).

Referring to Sources:

It is extremely important to indicate the sources of information and ideas in your essay, whether
these are books, articles in journals, films, videos, websites etc., or indeed your teacher’s
lectures.

In the first place this is simply a matter of honesty; using someone else’s work without
acknowledging them as your source is plagiarism, in other words cheating.

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Secondly, it enables anyone who reads what you have written to check your sources and judge
whether your use of them is convincing. It is thus an essential part of good scholarly practice.
Thirdly, it allows anyone who reads your essay to find out important referencing material for
their own research work.

And finally, recording all your sources is a way of demonstrating how much effort you have put
into preparing your essay, and so, hopefully, getting the good mark that you deserve!

When do you not need to refer to a source?

Basically there are two situations in which you do not need to give a source:

1) You are expressing your own original opinion, and not an idea that you found somewhere
else;

2) You are using information that is common knowledge: for example basic facts which you
could find in any reference book. Yet, be aware this is a tricky situation, and do not make great
use of it. (example: if you state that the world is round this is basic knowledge and do not need to
reference it, but if you state that at some point in history people thought the world was flat, you
will need to prove this belief people had by giving credible references)

In any other case, you need to say where the ideas or information came from. It may be hard
work keeping a record of all your sources, but it is the only way to do your task professionally.

WORKS CITED (BIBLIOGRAPHY):

At the end of your essay you should give a list of all the sources you have referred to. These
might be primary sources (the works that you use as subject of your essay) and secondary
sources (works that you use to build up your argumentation).

The works used may be books, articles, websites, images of any kind, audio materials and any
kind of materials that fall under laws of intellectual property. At times you will find yourself in
the position to quote from oral presentations (as professors’ words in-class) – you must cite these
accordingly. Also, at some point you might even be quoting yourself – make no mistake, there is
such a thing as self-plagiarism, therefore you must cite yourself if any material you use for your
current essay you have used previously in any written form.

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 Unacceptable and acceptable paraphrases:
For many students, the most common way of dealing with an essay is by combining their own
ideas with paraphrasing published critics’ opinions. Here is an example of unacceptable
paraphrase (plagiarism) and acceptable paraphrase (the critic’s idea put into a student’s own
words with the source mentioned at the end):

ORIGINAL TEXT: Joyce Williams et al. Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s, p.1:
“The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great
developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a
feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and
provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like ,
where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.”

UNACCEPRABLE PARAPHRASE/PLAGIARISM
The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the
explosion of the population were three large factors of
nineteenth century . As steam-driven companies became
more visible in the eastern part of the country, they
changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs
for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the
growth of large cities like where the Bordens lived which
turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as
production.
ACCEPTABLE PARAPHRASE
Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was
typical of northeastern industrial cities of the
nineteenth century. Steam-powered
production had shifted labor from agriculture
to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived
in the , they found work in these new
factories. As a result, populations grew, and
large urban areas arose. was one of these
manufacturing and commercial centers
(Williams 1).

PLAGIARISM because: ACCEPTABLE because:

Only a few words are changed The student uses his/her own
from the original (see them in red) words to transmit the information
The source is not mentioned in the original text
The source is mentioned

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The Structure of an Essay:

In big lines, here is what an essay should contain:

 Title (which is an implied question), plus information on the author of the essay
 Introduction
 Body
 Conclusion
 In-text citations/footnotes/endnotes (these appear all over the text, but generally not in the
title)
 Bibliography/Works Cited

1. Title

This challenges you with an implied question.

It has key words: - instructional words (analyse, relevance, compare)

- content words (about any topic: injustice, femininity, E.U. politics etc.)

2. Introduction

The length of your introduction depends very much on the complexity of your essay, but no
matter what you write about, you have to deal with the following issues:

a. Announcing the subject forced onto you by the key words in the title. There should be
always a close connection between your stated subject and the key words in the title.

You should make clear what exactly you understand the key words to mean. Your interpretation
may be:

• your own definition, based on your knowledge of the subject

• a standard dictionary definition, or a definition you have found in one of your sources
(with a mention of the source)
• (in a literature essay) the way you think the author his/her characters understand the
subject introduced by the key words, or the way you think the words would have been
understood at the time when the text you are studying was written (with your
evidence for this)

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 b. Briefly giving your answer to the question (implied) in the title within the subject
introduced by the key words. This short answer is called a “general statement”.

c. Giving a methodological statement about what you are going to do in order to give a full
answer
• things you are going to look at (characters, plot, tensions, dilemmas, comparisons
etc.)
• critical approaches (Structuralism, New Criticism, New Historicism etc.)

d. Indicating the main ideas that will be dealt with in the body. Giving a short account of
your plan makes it easier for the reader to follow your sequential logic. The longer and
more complex your essay, the greater the need to indicate its organisation distinctly.

3. Body

This contains as many main ideas as necessary to demonstrate your general statement in the
introduction, which, in its turn, must be connected to the question in the title. At times, a main
idea needs a backing idea to prove its point. The sequence of your main ideas depends on the
logic of your own demonstration and argumentation, which have to be clearly singled out by
means of signposts and inter-paragraph transitions (see 7.a/).

The instructional word in the essay title (compare, discuss, analyse etc.) is sometimes an
important factor in the thinking of your essay structure. For example:

• the word discuss organises your essay on a for and against basis
• the word compare takes you into weighing two or more units (plots, characters,
spaces, notions, domains, times etc.) in terms of differences and/or similar qualities or
you are invited to compare a single characteristic in two or more units (novels,
poems, domains, themes etc.)

The content words in your essay title may also have something to do with your decision to adopt
a certain structure, sometimes on a:

• thesis – antithesis – synthesis basis

• cause and effect basis

A third possible factor to influence the sequential logic of the main ideas in your essay is the
nature of your information and argumentation gathered by question categories: who, what, when,
where, how, how intense and why.

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 4. Conclusion

The conclusion must leave the reader with a very clear idea of what you think the essay has
achieved. Therefore, it should contain:

• what the consequences of what you have written are

• how the main ideas in the body contribute to the demonstration of your general
statement, which is your personal answer to the (implied) question in the title

Try to avoid additional ideas, philosophical generalisations or any type of afterthoughts, because
the conclusion ends your paper, it is not meant to introduce a new thought (Lester 144).

5. In-text citations/footnotes/endnotes

These are an important part of your essay.

They should always be there, and should be honest and complete. Once you decide on the style
of source referencing, you have to stick to it all through your essay.

6. Bibliography/Works Cited

The titles in your bibliography should be the same as in your in-text citations/footnotes/endnotes
and should match the latter in the choice of source reference style.

Final Note: this presentation is largely based on the one given by Prof. Dana Brown as material
for course (2012)

There have been changes and elements added by me.

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