Essay writing

A literary composition on any subject, usually in

prose and short. The essay differs from treatise in
being less elaborate and from a sermon or
pamphlet in being lighter and more pleasant in
tone. It is a brief and fragmentary attempt which
expresses problem from In terms of ones
personality. It is something personal, direct and
intimate. According to modern literary canons an
essay can be written on any subject from a piece
of Chalk till God Almighty.
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 Robert Lynd puts it anything from the Day of

Judgment to a pair of scissors According Benson
the essential point about an essay is not the
subject but the charm of the personality which
pervades the entire essay. The essay has been
defined as a lyric in prose because lyric
expresses personal feelings and sentiments. From
all this discussion three things clearly emerge.
1. the essay is a short literary composition.
2. it states the problem from individual point of
view
3. it is light and pleasant in tone.
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Historical Background
Introduced by French Philosopher Montaigne in the
end of sixteenth century when he wrote Essias.
Frances Bacon introduced essays in English
In 17th century, Cowley, Temple and Dryden
in 18th Century Richard Steele and Joseph Addison
In 19th century Hazlitt, Charles Lamb & Leigh Hunt
Washington Irving introduced essay in America by
writhing Sketch book (1820)
And then Ralph Waldo

Choice of the subject

Often you have a number of subjects given to
you, out of which you are required to choose
one on which to write. In examination room
where time is limited, choose the subject you
know the best, the subject on which you have
most information.

Information
Students often complain that they have not a
sufficient store of ideas at his disposal for writing
an essay on a particular topic. Information on
these topics can be gathered from books, by
observation and by listening and talking to men
who know. It is a good plan to keep a note-book
in which you may jot down quotations, extracts
from speeches and books, incidents you have
seen or heard of . Reading Newspaper is a
healthy activity in this regard.
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There is no direct road to which the students can

led for collection of this material for essay
writing. They only answer that teacher can
give his students is that he should

(1) Read (2) Observe (3) think and (4) Practice

 1) Reading:
Bacon says reading maketh a full man; that
is , a person who reads much and widely stores
his mind with a large variety of facts, thoughts,
illustrations and general information. If you
want to write good essay you must acquire a
love of reading not simply reading stories for
amusement, but reading books of history and
newspapers.
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 Observation
But reading is not everything. As the students
reads, he must also observe. He must not allow his
powers of observation to lie dormant. There are
some people who go through the world with their
eyes shut-shut as it were to the beauties of
nature. If one is little observant, to him.
the meanest flower that blows can give.
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears
Descriptive writing is one of the most difficult forms
of composition and a student cannot attain
mastery in this art if he has not learnt to observe
what goes on around him.
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 3) Thinking
The best method of making student think is to
arouse his curiosity and interest. He should learn
to ask questions about what he has read; disagree
with the author if his views are not convincing,
point out what can be said on the other side of a
question and Endeavour to see that what is
printed in a book/journal is necessarily the last
word. He/she should not swallow unintelligently
very foolish thing he sees in the print.
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 4) Practice:
A student should write as frequent as possible
for no one can write well who does not write
often. One must take pleasure in writing
because it is writing alone that makes an exact
man.

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 Lets see now look at the structure of the essay.

CUP
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Coherence.
The ideas expressed in the essay should be
joined together logically. In other words, you
should pay great attention to the arrangement
of your thoughts, otherwise your essay will be
confused and incoherent. See that your ideas
develop one out of the other, and see also that
the connection between these ideas, if not
always explicit, is always least implied. The
paragraphs of a good essay should succeed
one another in logical order not isolated units.
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Unity
The unity is security by limiting the essay to
one subject only. If the topic is the
Educational values of cinema one should not
write as if it were the Growth of Cinema
Industry in Pakistan, one should discuss value
of films and confine oneself only this aspect of
the cinema. One should not be tempted by
the other attractive aspects of the subject
because that will amount to digression for its
own sack.
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Proportion/balance
The design of the essay will be faulty, if proper
proportion is not observed among various parts.
If the a sub topic is given the same amount as the main
topic, the reader will not differentiate. the sub-topic
from the main topic. For instance, if you are writing an
essay on Tennis, the space given to the description of
the racket and ball used in the tennis must not be the
same as the space given to a more important topic, an
account of some great tennis players. The sense of
proportion is as necessary in writing essays as in
drawing pictures.
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 The picture of a man with his head larger than the

body and the legs shorter than the arms will look
ridiculous.
When a student is asked to describe Taj Mahal in
three pages, he goes on narrating his journey to
Agra over a page and a half and writes just half
page about the building itself and then devotes
the remaining space to his return journey, his
attempt will certainly fall short of the requisites of
a good essay.
Do not give undue importance to a triviality nor
dismiss an important idea in a casual manner.
Let your essay be properly balanced.
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The beginning of the Essay

Any introduction is good which rivets the
readers' attention and suggests him the
general aim of the essay. A suitable opening
should lead with out awkward break to the
middle or body of the essay. The introduction
should be short.
An essay on Cat for example may begin in
any of the following ways:
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 1. centuries ago man became the lord of creation

and he has ever since been trying to maintain his
supremacy over the other animals. Some species
he has completely destroyed, against some he is
still waging war, and some he has tamed to his
own purposes. Some animals have been tamed for
their usefulness in one or another and some have
been tamed merely as pets. Among the most
common pets, the cat is the most important.-----here the essay begins with a general remarks
gradually leading to the subject.
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 2 They say dogs love persons but cats love

places. Leave a cat anywhere, it will try to run
home. The dog is faithful to a person, but the
cat loves to remain in a place to which it is
accustomed. This characteristic of the cat is
one of the most remarkable qualities.
Here the essay begins with an accepted ideas.

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 3. The Cat is one of the common domestic

pets of man. Cats were kept as pets even in
ancient Egypt, thousand of years ago; and the
Egyptians worshiped a goddess who had like
that of cat. Although the cat is related to such
ferocious creature as the tiger and the panther,
it has now lost most of its ancestral
ferociousness.. Here the essay opens
directly with general remark on the subject.
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 The important point to keep in mind is that the

opening should be striking and relevant to the
subject. Well begun is half done
A good conclusion, on the other hand
represents the climax of your efforts and sets a
seal on the essay. An essayist closes his essay
on cruelty to Animals thus: Coleridge has
rightly said:
he prayeth best who loveth best
Both man and bird and beast
The conclusion should always be short
sometimes even sentence will do.
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The Middle of the Essay.

This is the main part of the essay and contains
the appropriate facts, illustrations and
reflections bearing upon the subject.
REMEMBER if the subject is scientific or
historical or geographical, the essay should
not bristle with figures and dates and
formulae. You are not writing a technical
treatise but a literary paper of general
interest.
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The Tone of the essay

A good deal depends on the tone of the essay.
The general tendency is to make school or college
essay heavy or didactic like a sermon or a lecture.
Its altogether wrong. The essay should have
Lightness
Grace
An ease of language
Approximating almost to the flow of conversation
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The essay should have

Lightness

Grace
An ease of language
Approximating almost to the flow of
conversation

Be pleasant & light hearted.

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Your essay
should not
be

Dull or
pedantic

Like a
sermon

Being overserious

Like a
propaganda
speech

Like a
lecture

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 Keep in mind that the essay loses much of its

charm if it is full of dull moralizing or is written
in a sever and forbidding style. For instance, if
you are to write on Love thy neighbor as
thyself, do not treat the subject like a Friday or
Sunday sermon. You should find out the lighter
side of the subject and point out how
sometimes it is physically impossible to love a
neighbor say ones neighbor happens to be a
confirmed bore or a superlative fool.
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 If the subject is : Is Cinema a curse or a

blessing and the student thinks it is a
blessing, he should first show in what respect
it can be a curse and then should point out its
blessings.
The students should not indulge in loose
thinking nor should be give vent to violent
views. Vague generalization, dogmatic
statements, violent accusations should be
avoided.
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 The essay should be full of mild discontent.

Dogmatic statements like the following should be
shunned.
The cinema has ruined the moral character of the
modern generation. OR
Female education is the root cause of all evils in
Pakistan. OR
The study of poetry encourages flirtation and lovemaking. OR
Girls go in for higher education so that they might
get better husbands OR
Educated girls make bad wives.
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 Those who do not love their country should be

flogged or shot down.
Only rogues and scoundrels take wine.
Such extravagant remarks should not be made in
an essay.
YOU SHOULD SAY
The cinema to some extent, effected the moral
character of the present generation adversely
Female education, in certain instances, has proved
to be curse.
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How then shall we set about an Essay

Devote few minutes to understand the
subject.
Set down the plan
Collect material to fit your ideas & fill out your
outlines.
Think out a suitably effective Introduction as
well as conclusion
Then write out your essay according to plan
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 If you use a quotation, give correctly

Do not point out the faults of the essay to your
reader by including such sentences as
I Know very little on this subject,
it is very difficult to write anything on so dry
a topic
It need hardly to be said that you must revise
your composition after you have written it out.
Correct all mistakes of grammar, spellings,
punctuation and style.
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An Example of these Direction

Suppose the subject selected by you is SLEEP.
This is how you should proceed to make a plan:
1. Introduction
2. What is a sleep?
3. How much sleep do we require? Condition most
favorable.
4. The benefits of sleep
5. Evils arising from (a) too little sleep, (b) too
much.
6. Conclusion
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Illogical phraseology
The young essay-writer is apt to get into a
careless way of wording his sentences, so that,
while his meaning may be plain enough, his
way of expressing it is illogical or incongruous.
Thus he will write:
A sea voyage is good way of spending a
holiday. Now a voyage can not be a way, and
he ought to have written: to take a sea
voyage is a good way of spending a holiday
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 Examine the following

1. Presently I heard a strange sound. It was a
man trying to get in at the window. A sound
can not be a man; write it was made by man
trying to get in at the window
2. An another method of killing rates is that of
poison. We cannot say a method of poison
write either Another method of killing rats
is tat of using poison.
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 Examine the following

1. Presently I heard a strange sound. It was a
man trying to get in at the window. A sound
can not be a man; write it was made be man
trying to get in at the window
2. An another method of killing rates is that of
poison. We cannot say a method of poison
write either Another method of killing rats
is tat of using poison.
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Use of I & YOU

Avoid using I but in narrative essays you can
use
Do not use You address the masses in
general, like
If one thinks

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 True essay in writing comes from art not chance

And those move easiest who have learnt to
dance.
Practice without theory is futile
Theory with out practice is sterile

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Examiners Comments on essays.

Spring 2008
Q.10 The topic My Country-Pakistan was selected by most of
the students. The common thread evident in the essays were
reference to the Founder of the Nation, narration of the date
of independence, demographic pattern and the rich natural
resources available in the country. The points relating to the
inherent strength of the country attributable to the size of its
population, its defiance capability, strategic geographical
location and the predominance of Islam as a major force were
also highlighted by nearly all the students. Once again, lack of
good writing skills, limited vocabulary and lack of coherence
in the presentations were apparent in most of the answers.
Only few students were able to score high marks in this
question which carried 16 valuable marks.
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 Autumn 2007
Q.9 The question carrying 16 marks offered choice to the students
to write an essay on any one of the three topics. A considerable
number of the students selected the topic A major cause of our
present problems is the increasing lack of discipline at school,
home and in the community. The performance in this question
was much below expectations. Nearly 8 % of the students did not
attempt the question. Only one third of the students who
attempted it managed to obtain passing marks. The writing of
good essays requires considerable practice of skills of written
communications, knowledge of basic grammar and ability to
organize and express ones thoughts in a logical and coherent
manner. These skills can be acquired only through sound reading
habits, ability to express ones thoughts in writing and knowledge
of rules of good writing skills. It is important that the students
realize that writing and comprehension skills are given
considerable weight age in this paper and concerted efforts are
necessary to acquire and upgrade these skills.
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 Spring 2007

Q.8 The topics in the Question on the Essay were relevant and
of general current interest. A large number of the students
selected the topics of The Dengue Fever Scare and
Technology Makes life Simpler or Complicated. Lack of
coherence in the construction of sentences, grammatical
errors and poor expressions were observed in a number of
the replies.

spring 2006

Q.8
Very few students could secure 10 or more marks mainly due
to weak grammar and tenses, spelling mistakes and wrong
sentence structuring & layout.
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 2005
In Composition few candidates wrote very well and had excellent
ideas. However, many failed to score high because:
They wrote either very short or very long essays ignoring the word
count.
Spelling and vocabulary was very weak.
Handwriting was illegible and untidy.
Grammar especially tenses and subject verb agreement was not
correct.
Each paragraph should begin with a linker such as, however,
subsequently, although and many others. Candidates begin
sentences with And which is incorrect. They used So frequently.
No linker should be repeated. Sentences in a paragraph should be
short. Sometimes a paragraph of four to five lines was written
without a comma, full stop or a question mark.
Unnecessary use of apostrophe was noticed.
Numbering of sentences or paragraphs is not acceptable.
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 Q.10
The essays on cable TV were well written clearly
indicating the advantages/disadvantages but at
some places candidates became emotional and
focused mainly on the negative aspects. The topic
scope of democracy in Pakistan was not attempted
well. The candidates gave details of the military
regime instead of views on the democratic situation
in Pakistan and its future.
Some wrote nearly 500 words and some wrote less
than 300 words. Few students numbered some
paragraphs which is not at all required in an essay.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Us election and its impact on worlds politics

Faraz Contribution to Urdu poetry
Economic crises
Energy crises with reference to Load-shading
Independence of Judiciary
Students Union
UN, a silent spectator
Good governance
Corruption

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1. The Role of Mechanical Engineers in development

of a country
2. Target Killing
3. Gas Shortage
4. Importance of English Language for Engineers
5. Leadership
6. Good governance

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