Essay sample. Essay writing and formatting. How to write a good essay on any topic Do you need to take notes on texts?

We must repeat once again what this is literary genre. Any textbook tells approximately the same thing: the essay, as a genre of literature, arose in the Renaissance. Its origins lie in Michel de Montaigne and his philosophical essays on the nature of things. It is from this time that we can count down - a new literary genre has appeared - an essay or a short work, where the author convincingly expresses his opinion on a particular subject.

If you hesitate to write about something, it means that the topic has not been studied enough by you, or is not interesting at all. The question of how to start an essay is directly related to understanding the topic, so even before starting work, you should decide what you can and want to write about. Let the initial essay be extensive and the reasoning vague, but all the thoughts that you have on this topic should be written down. Don’t be afraid of words or their quantity, because when you write a large volume, the question that is closest to you will become clear by itself.

An example of how to start an essay correctly

Let's give a simple example: reflections on the nature of love. The topic is broad, to write and write about it, in general, all literature is built on human relationships, which means, one way or another, it concerns this issue. The structure of the essay is free, arguments can be expressed even before theses, which will be formulated later, so you can write about love the way it is written. The beginning may be completely arbitrary, but the more you write, the clearer the question that is closest to you in this topic will become, and then you need to start writing everything from the beginning.

- one of the options for working on writing an essay

This is real creativity; it is impossible to write something worth reading in an hour if you are not a literary genius. Don’t be afraid to delve into the depths of your chosen topic; perhaps there, in the depths of the discussion, you will find something that no one has been able to see before. There is another way to start writing an essay - by choosing a controversial aphorism, but again, your knowledge on this topic should be deeper than what is taught at school or university. When writing an essay, you need to express your opinion on the topic of the aphorism, and the argument you use must be strong.

At the same time, we must not forget that an essay is not a story, not an essay, not a short story, but just a sketch, the volume of which is very small. This means that all the expressions that you use must be precise, figurative, and at the same time you must be able to show your unique look to the issue under discussion.

It may seem that writing an essay is incredibly difficult, and if you think so, you will be wrong, because the more you know about the topic of the essay, the more often you write in this genre, the easier it will be to highlight your idea clearly and clearly. If you can’t write an essay on your own, seek help from specialists who will not only help you write an essay, but also teach you how to do it yourself.

- all comes with experience!

Everything has a beginning and an ending, and so does your essay work. Write more often, write on topics that are close to you personally, don’t be afraid to be original in your thoughts. Cliches in literature are bad, a lot of arguments are “spreading through the woods,” let you write something completely ordinary, but understandable to you, which means it will be understood by the teacher. In addition, the essay allows you to be experimental in presenting your thoughts, your vision of the subject, and everyone can be the best at writing essays.

For a shoemaker - boots, for a pastry chef - for cakes, for a technical student - drawings and integrals, and for a humanities student - essays and seminars. And don’t rush to think that writing an essay is a completely meaningless job that will never be useful to you. Now, when applying to any humanities university, the teacher will almost immediately require you to write an essay. At the same time, without really explaining what was happening. Or you simply missed some of the explanations. This is where we will help you, since no one else could or would.

In this article we will talk about such a forcedly popular literary genre among students as the essay. After all, in the relevant specialties, students have to write essays quite often.

So here are ours practical advice about how to learn to write an essay and where to start.

What is an essay and what do you eat it with?

The purpose of an essay is to express the thoughts, ideas and considerations of the author on a specific topic. For example, you can write an essay on an article, a work, or even about yourself. The content of the essay is free and, as we have already said, does not pretend to be an exhaustive interpretation of the topic. In a way, this is both a literary essay and a philosophical treatise in one.

Let's say right away: a template approach to writing essays is rare and often unacceptable. Typically, writing an essay requires a lot of brainpower. And this is wonderful, dear friends! Agree - it’s nice to feel freshness in the brain, which begins to work with double power.

Tip one: read essays by other authors. This will help you develop your own style. After all, an essay is not a dictation, and writing it, if you really want to write well, will require you to have a sense of style. According to experts, the style of presentation good essay can be characterized as emotional, expressive, artistic.

Tip two: prepare, study literature on a given topic, comprehend what you read. We have already said that an essay is a creative work and involves the presentation of thoughts on a specific topic. The essay is addressed not to the “dummies”, but to the reader who has at least a minimal understanding of the issue under consideration. If it were otherwise, when writing, we would simply drown in details. Therefore, in order to write about something efficiently, you should have knowledge on the relevant topic. Formulate theses and arguments.

Tip three: think about the structure and plan of the essay. The essay can have any structure. And the only formal rule when writing it is the presence of a title. However, the most popular essay structure is as follows:

• Heading
• Introduction
• Theses-Arguments
• Conclusion
• Literature

Tip four: don’t “overload” your essay. Brevity is the soul of wit. We understand perfectly well that everyone has their own style, but too long sentences may be considered bad manners, which will not work to your advantage.

Here we have provided essay writing tips from our authors. This is of course not step-by-step instruction about how to write an essay - after all, the essay is too creative work, and this approach is unlikely to be correct. However, it is safe to say that aspiring essayists should immediately wrap their heads around these tips and use them without a shadow of a doubt. After all, our authors were experts at writing essays back when today’s freshmen were playing with rattles. And if you still have questions or have additional doubts when writing an essay, remember: our specialists We are always ready to work with you individually.

Writing an essay contributes to the development of creative thinking, the ability to express one’s thoughts and the thought process in general. Practice, and this will help you learn how to correctly formulate your words, highlight cause-and-effect relationships and support your arguments with relevant arguments and examples from practice. Perhaps in the future you will write great novel. In the meantime, feel free to sit down for your first essay!

Nesterov A.K. How to write an essay // Nesterov Encyclopedia

What is an essay

Essays are required to be written by both students and schoolchildren, although the requirements and level will be different, but the genre is the same and the approach to writing is fundamentally the same, whether in school, in university, or in scientific activity.

The essay is characterized by a small volume, high level a creative approach to the disclosure of the topic, with an emphasis on expressing the author’s individual attitude to the topic of the essay, his thoughts and considerations on a specific problem or issue. In terms of content and specific presentation of the material, an essay can be compared to a short scientific article.

The essay has two character traits:

1. The essay focuses on conveying the author's attitude to the topic in a free form.
2. The essay does not pretend to be a thorough study of the topic or individual issues.

What do you need to write an essay?

1. The essay should use figurative techniques, an associative approach and a laconic presentation of the material.
2. An essay should not be approached as an essay or a literary text, and should not be delved into the nature of the object, issue or problem that the topic addresses.
3. The essay is a completely original text - the uniqueness of the text is close to or equal to 100%.
4. You should draw reasoned conclusions, analyze the problem, form and describe your own vision of the issue.
5. The logical conclusion of the essay is a comprehensive conclusion in which the author’s position is succinctly expressed.
6. Before writing an essay, you need to study the materials of textbooks, monographs, scientific research and materials from periodicals to form the author’s vision of the problem. Thanks to this, the essay will be distinguished by a high degree of elaboration and individual approach to the problem posed.

The essay typology should be followed. According to the requirements, the essay may be analytical, conceptual, practical, predictive or informational in nature.

3 basic principles on how to write an essay

Regardless of the type of essay, the basic principles of writing it are as follows:

1. If you are not sure about the topic, then you should not rush headlong into writing an essay - read more on the topic. It is logical, after all, if you are well versed in the question, then the essay will be better.
2. Don't be overconfident - you can't just throw together an essay. Everything takes time. Therefore, do not put it off for too long. Especially considering that all theses in an essay must be supported by arguments. More on this below.
3. Don't rely on chance or chance.

Step-by-step guide on how to write an essay

Step one.

You have received a topic for your essay, if so, check out the requirements for the essay. It would also be useful to seek advice on the topic from a teacher, if possible. The explanations will be general, but they will help determine the direction of the essay, and then you need to develop your idea.

Ask the teacher how to write an essay- meaningless.

In fact, only contact your teacher with specific questions. The question “how to write an abstract?” it is not. Better ask what interesting articles Or you can read monographs on your topic. This way there will be more benefits.

Step two.

You need to decide on the main theses and arguments. The essay has the following structure:

• Introduction
• Thesis - arguments
• Thesis - arguments
• Thesis - arguments
• conclusions

Theses are the author's thoughts on the issue under consideration in the form of statements, and arguments are the evidence of these statements. Arguments can be facts, phenomena public life, events, experience, scientific evidence, links to the opinions of scientists, etc.

Depending on the volume of the essay, you need to determine the required number of abstracts. In this case, there should be two arguments for each thesis. The logic is simple: one argument is unconvincing, three arguments overload the text. Therefore, write an essay so that each thesis is supported by two arguments.

The following will help at this step: familiarize yourself with related questions on the topic of the essay - this will allow you to determine what needs to be written in the essay and what should not be written.

After this, we study the literature, sources, take notes on key points, outline the main issues - on their basis we formulate our own theses, thoughts, statements and support them with arguments.

Step three

This is directly writing an essay.

We creatively approach the presentation of our thoughts, write the introductory part, convincingly formulate theses, provide evidence in the form of arguments, and draw conclusions. After this, we read what has been written several times, add to it, and delete what is unnecessary.

On at this stage Be careful not to make the following mistakes.

How not to write an essay

The main thing is not to make three mistakes.

The first mistake.

Instead of writing an essay, they rewrote several textbooks, articles, or worse, essays. This is a complete fiasco.

It will be clear from the text that this is not an essay, but a compilation of other texts; there will be no author’s opinion in such an essay.

Error two.

As soon as we sat down at the computer to write an essay, we couldn’t resist the temptation: “I’ll start writing in 10 minutes, just to see what’s new in the contacts.” In the evening we came to our senses, don’t be horrified that the essay is still not ready.

Photos, classmates, friend requests will not go away... they will wait until you finish your essay. Remember: social networks suck you to death.

Error three.

We succumbed to the temptations of watching “that same movie” on TV, going to our favorite forum, calling a girlfriend... And again we lost time that can no longer be made up.

Pull yourself together, don’t get distracted, turn off extraneous stimuli - concentrate and write an essay.

I will also list in the table 7 mistakes that everyone most often makes in the content of an essay. Don't forget to check yourself.

The following will help you:

• Plan your time - don't put it off until the last minute.
• It will be easier to write an essay in the following sequence: identified main thesis, gave arguments, then formulate the remaining theses, which you also support with evidence, while justifying in the text how you came to such conclusions, and then formulate conclusions.
• Do not insert obscure text into your essay and avoid lengthy discussions. Follow the rule: thesis - arguments.
• Watch what you write: sentences should be concise and clear.
• Do not overuse quotes - the basis of the essay is your thoughts.
• Do not rewrite textbooks under any circumstances - only definitions and evidence of your theses.
• Copying a piece from a monograph does not mean writing an essay.
• A copied piece of text from an article will not become your thoughts.
• Write in literate Russian, without errors.
• Carefully format the essay text.
• When you write your essay, read it several times. You need to navigate the text very well.

The following will hurt your essay:

• Ask on social networks “”, and then wait for hours for unintelligible answers, which will make less sense than the phrase “On a computer, how else...”
• Download a pack of essays and compile an essay from them. There will be no theses or arguments.
• Wasting time looking at photos from a friend’s birthday when there are a couple of days left before the essay is due... or is it already hours?;)
• Drink a lot of coffee - from large quantity the brain is shut down rather than stimulated. Strong black tea is better.
• Regular checks of your level 88 elf.
• Going to a club - after this you will be reluctant to write an essay at all.
• Chat with your friend about her new boyfriend/cosmetics/handbags/tattoo/submit your own option... instead of writing an essay.

The essay is a unique literary genre. Essentially, this is any short work written privately on any issue. Key Feature an essay is its author's design - in contrast to scientific and journalistic styles, which have a strict specification of stylistics. At the same time, essays are ranked lower than works of art.

Terminology

We can briefly formulate the following definition of an essay: it is a substantiation of a person’s personal point of view in writing. Nevertheless, it is worth considering that a work of this literary genre does not pretend to be the basis of the issue under consideration or its exhaustive information source. Such an essay contains the author's conclusions and conclusions. Therefore, the sample of its writing and requirements are only recommendations or a set of rules (applies to the latter), and the main part should be occupied by your thoughts.

Historical reference

Essay comes from the French "attempt", "trial", "essay". And this genre also originated in this beautiful country, back in the Renaissance. French writer and the philosopher for the first time tried to write “about everything and nothing, without having a preliminary topic or plan of action.” He claimed that he liked to temper the boldness of his thoughts by adding mildly questioning "maybes" and "probably" to his sentences. So “possibly” became an expression of the formula of essay writing in principle. Epstein, in turn, defined this genre as a kind of meta-hypothesis, with its own original reality and way of depicting this reality.

Differences from the novel

The essay genre developed in parallel with the novel genre. The latter, however, is more familiar to Russian literature, especially classical literature. The essay, in turn, had a huge influence on Western prose.

Unlike a novel, an essay is monologue and represents the individuality of the author. This narrows its scope as a genre, and the picture of the world is presented in an extremely subjective way. At the same time, the essay is inevitably interesting because it reveals inner world a specific person, not fictitious, but completely real - with his advantages and disadvantages. The style of this literary work always contains the imprint of a person’s soul. The novel reveals the characters of all the characters and heroes who came from the pen of the author, no less interesting, but virtual, unreal.

Why write essays?

On the eve of exams, students and applicants often have questions about how to write an essay. A sample of writing this type of work is also often searched for, and it is worth saying that finding it is not difficult. But why write it in principle? There is also an answer to this question.

Essay writing develops creative thinking and written expression skills. A person learns to identify cause-and-effect relationships, structure information, formulate what he would like to express, argue his point of view, illustrating it with various examples, and summarize the material presented.

Typically, essays are devoted to philosophical, intellectual, moral and ethical issues. The latter is often used to assign essays to schoolchildren - they are not subject to strict requirements, citing insufficient erudition and unofficial presentation of the work.

Classification

Conventionally, essays are divided according to the following criteria:

• By content. This includes artistic and artistic-publicistic, historical and philosophical, spiritual and religious, etc.
• According to literary form. Among them may be letters or a diary, notes or reviews, lyrical miniatures.
• According to the form. Such as: descriptive, narrative, reflective, analytical, compositional and critical.
• According to the form of description, they distinguish between subjective and objective. The first reflect the personality characteristics of the author, the second are aimed at describing an object, phenomenon, process, and so on.

Distinctive features

An essay can be “identified” by the following characteristics:

• Small volume. Typically up to seven pages of printed text, although in different educational institutions may have their own requirements regarding this. In some universities, an essay is a full-fledged work of 10 pages, in others they value summary all your thoughts on two sheets.
• Specifics. An essay usually answers one specific question, which is often formulated in the topic of the assignment. The interpretation of the answer is subjective and contains the author’s conclusions. Again, depending on the specification of the essay, it may be necessary to consider the issue from all angles, even if half of the opinions described are in no way directly related to the author.
• Free composition. The essay is distinguished by its associative narrative. Logical connections the author thinks through, following his own thinking. Let us remember that the essay reveals his inner world.
• Paradoxes. Moreover, the phenomenon of paradoxes takes place not only in the text itself, but also in the principles of the essay itself: after all, this literary genre, although presented in a free narrative, must have semantic integrity.
• The consistency of the author's theses and statements. Even if the author is a contradictory person, he is obliged to explain why he cannot choose one point of view, and not lose the thread of the narrative, either breaking it off or starting again. Ultimately, even diary pages converted into essays are framed by literary norms. After all, the final essay will be read not only by the author himself.

How to write an essay?

A sample of work can be confusing to a beginner: one or a couple of examples will be of little help to the author who cannot understand what is actually required of him.

First of all, it is worth mentioning that to write a so-called essay, you must be fluent in the topic. If, when writing, you have to turn to many sources for information, the essay ceases to be such. This rule comes from the fact that in his “test” the author expresses his true point of view, although, of course, he can emphasize it with quotes from great people, etc. Of course, for the data to be reliable, it is necessary to check it. But the essay is written not on the basis of the material, but starting from it, arriving at its own conclusions and results.

Why do you have problems with writing?

Many students struggle to find a sample essay due to the fact that schools do not devote enough time to writing this type of work. School essays, although they are classified as this genre, and some teachers formulate the task using this particular terminology, they still do not have a specific specification. As mentioned earlier, school essays are not even always labeled as such. In secondary schools, children are just beginning to learn to formulate their thoughts in a literary format. This is why many people come to take the test with fear - they have to express their point of view in a short time, while they are completely unable to do so.

Essay structure

Essay topics are usually presented in the form of quotes famous people, with which the writer can agree or disagree, arguing his opinion.

That is why it is recommended to start an essay with the words “I agree with this opinion” or “I cannot say that I think the same as the author”, or “this statement seems controversial to me, although on some points I join this opinion” .

The second sentence should contain an explanation of how the statement was understood. You need to write from yourself - what, in the opinion of the writer, the author wanted to say and why he thinks so.

The main part of the essay is a detailed presentation of the author’s point of view, according to the principle “I think so because...”. You can seek help from other quotes and aphorisms with which the writer agrees.

Conclusion of the essay - results of the work. This is a mandatory item that makes the work complete.

Let's look at the main subjects on which essays are written.

Social science

Social science - the subject of study of which is the complex social sciences. The close relationship of social teachings is considered, and not each of them separately.

So, a social studies course may include:

• sociology;
• political science;
• philosophy;
• psychology;
• economy.

The basics of these disciplines are studied.

A sample social studies essay is often necessary for graduates to writing the Unified State Exam. The structure of this essay fully corresponds to the structure given above. When testing their knowledge, students can be given as a topic statements by famous philosophers, sociologists and other figures in the social sciences.

Below is a sample essay on social studies (in brief).

Topic: "Laws are silent during war. Lucan"

“After reading this statement for the first time, I decided that I absolutely agreed with this statement. But a little later it occurred to me that this quote, like almost everything in our world, is not so simple.

I associate with Lucan’s statement another well-known aphorism - “In love and in war, all means are fair.” Probably because many unconditionally follow this rule, considering it true, and it turns out that in war time all laws prefer to remain silent.

But there is another side to the coin: during war, the very law of war applies. "Kill or be killed." And glorious heroes follow the laws that their hearts tell them. In the name of loved ones, relatives and friends.

So it turns out that war creates new laws. Tougher and more uncompromising than peacetime.

Of course, I can understand Lucan: all his quotes suggest that this man had a pacifist point of view. I also consider myself peace-loving. But this particular statement does not pass logical verification on my part, so I cannot say that I agree with it."

On the Unified State Examination itself there is a limit on the number of words in interval form. It is very important to adhere to them, otherwise even a clearly verified essay structure will not pass the examiner’s verification.

Story

History is considered one of the sciences about society and nature. Despite the fact that they adhere to the division of this discipline into two separate ones: the world one and the country in which they are studying, the basics of writing essays for both subjects are similar to each other.

When choosing topics for writing an essay on history, they can often deviate from aphorisms and quotes. These could equally well be reflections on global consequences wars, assessment of the actions of the notorious Decembrists or dissidents, the author’s opinion on any historical figure or phenomena. To write an essay on history, a student (or applicant, or student) must have solid knowledge on a given topic. At the same time, a sample essay on social studies is not suitable as an example, because this discipline often examines moral and ethical issues. Although writing an essay on this subject requires sufficient erudition in many areas.

But an important question is how to format the essay. Sample historical essay in its structure, again, it does not deviate from the given rules. However, additional requirements may be imposed on it in the form of a list of references and a title page.

Writing an essay on history

Even if sample history essay in this moment not at hand, you can write an excellent essay by following these rules:

• To begin with, information is sought on a given topic: even if it is familiar, it does not hurt to repeat the material.
• Next, you need to structure it, identify cause-and-effect relationships, and roughly outline a plan according to which the reasoning will move forward.
• It is important to think through arguments and counterarguments.
• Regarding the style: it is better to ask the teacher which one is recommended to use. In rare but possible cases, it is necessary to write in a scientific style.
• Do not forget about the conclusion (the importance of the results of the work is described in the description of the essay structure).

Russian language

An essay in the Russian language is somewhat similar to a school argumentative essay, but on knowledge tests such as the Unified State Exam, it includes large quantity writing rules. This is where its complexity lies.

The essay must be written according to the text proposed by the examiners, therefore it is necessary:

• Identify the problems of this text.
• Describe aspects of this problem.
• Argue your point of view about what the author wanted to say.
• Draw conclusions.

As you can see, a clarification is added to the usual structure of the essay: the topic (in this case, the problematic) is identified by the writer and formulated by him. In addition, when checking an essay in the Russian language, more attention is paid to speech, grammatical and punctuation errors. Additional points in favor of the author in the eyes of the reviewer are added when using literary arguments, famous examples and so on. The sequence also plays a role in this case important role. The Russian language essay sample must strictly follow all the above requirements.

English language

In the language in post-Soviet countries where it is not native, they completely deviate from the rule of giving a statement or quotation as a topic. When translated into Russian, they are often very simple, and the writing of the essay itself is aimed at checking the use foreign language when expressing your thoughts.

Much attention should be paid to grammar, different times, complex constructions, synonymization of simple words.

Essay in English: classification

Essays in English are usually divided into three types:

• “for” and “against” any phenomenon that represents the topic of the essay;
• an opinion essay, in which it is very important to look at the topic from different angles;
• proposal for a solution to a problem (often they give something global).

Writing an essay in English

And so I was given a specific task: to write an essay in English. An example of how this can be done is provided below.

• Use introductory words: moreover, indeed, generally, mostly, usually, recently, besides.
• Insert template phrases with which you can start a paragraph: to begin with, doubtless, one argument is support of.
• Use it English clichés, stable phrases, idioms, phraseological units and sayings: long story short, one cannot deny, one does not simply, nail drives out nail.
• Don’t forget how you can formulate a conclusion in English: in conclusion, I can say that although , so it’s up to everyone to decide whether … or not.

Decor

Above we outlined in detail how to write an essay correctly. The sample, although formally only one was provided, reflects the essence of what is happening and what the inspector wants to see in the opus handed over to him.

But after the essay has been written, a problem arises with its design.

Typically, this specification is clarified by the teacher. And the obstacle lies specifically in how to design the title page of the essay.

A sample is presented below.

At the top of the page, in the middle, line by line:

Ministry of Education and Science (country name),

full name of the higher educational institution,

faculty,

In the center of the sheet:

discipline,

essay topic.

On the right side of the page:

student(s) of the group (group name),

Full Name.

Bottom of the page, middle:

city, year the work was written.

From which it follows that it is not difficult to design a title page in an essay (the sample shows this very well). The requirements are close to the same abstract specification.

For example, if you look at a sample history essay, you can make sure that in this case the work is written on the basis of the sources used. So sometimes a bibliography is required. But even this does not bring particularly difficulties in the way the essay is formatted. The sample for writing a list of used literature is the same as for reports, abstracts and other similar works.

For example:

Ratus L. G. "Philosophy in the New Age." - 1980, No. 3. - P. 19-26.

Mishevsky M. O. "Historical influence of psychology." - P.: Mysl, 1965. - 776 p.

Kegor S. M. "Horror and Awe." - K.: Republic, 1983 - 183 p.

Yarosh D. "Personality in the concept of society." - M.: Roslit, 1983. - 343 p. (All sources provided are fictitious and represent only an example of their design.)

Conclusion

At the beginning of the article, a detailed classification of essay types was provided. To summarize, we can identify its simplified section, taking into account all those mentioned here. So, let’s conditionally highlight:

• Essays that are written when passing the Unified State Exam(they have clear boundaries of volume, up to the number of words, are written within a strictly specified time frame, measured in hours or even minutes, do not have a specification in the form of a title page and bibliography, in turn, are divided by subject, depending on the academic discipline).
• Essays written by students of various universities (the volume is determined in pages, from two to seven, the deadlines are allocated based on the frequency of classes, seminars, lectures, and are drawn up in accordance with the above information along with a title page and a list of sources used).

The article contains: terminology, history, essay design, sample work, structure and requirements. All this will help you successfully write and format this work.

(estimates: 4 , average: 4,75 out of 5)

There is an opinion in the world that an essay is literally something you write in school on a topic that interests no one except your teacher. At first glance, there is nothing in the dictionary that could soften this meaning. The very first definition is “a short literary essay on a given topic, usually in prose form and, as a rule, of an analytical, evaluative and explanatory nature.”

In fact, an essay can be much more than that. You can write about anything in it. And in this case, the dictionary comes to our aid. The second definition of an essay is “anything that resembles a composition.” So essays are written compositions about everything.

Unfortunately, they can also be annoying, boring, tedious and downright disgusting. Whether it's an essay in high school, Research Article in college or even important memo on your new job– at any time there is a high probability that you would probably prefer not to write anything. And the fact that you HAVE to do this only makes things worse.

There are twenty different thoughts in your head at the same time: How to write an essay correctly? What am I writing about? How to maintain momentum? How to start writing an essay? I need a good grade or a raise WITH AN INCREASE, a lot depends on it!

Calm down. Creating a brilliant piece of writing, a killer report, an outstanding essay - on any topic - is not only possible, it's easy. So get ready to learn how to write a literature essay correctly.

What is my secret to writing essays?

The essay is a lot like military operation. It requires discipline, foresight, research work, strategy and, if done well, ends in final victory. That's why I stole my formula from the Spartans (the ones from the movie "300"). This tactic was a favorite of the great generals Brasidas and Xenophon (a student of Socrates) and was successfully deployed in battle countless times. I figure that if one trick can protect a ten-thousand-strong march through hostile territory, country after country, it will probably work with something as weak and temporary as a written paper or essay.

We'll use this tactic as a metaphor - also a great term to use in your essays - for structural elements our essay. This will allow us to forget boring teacher tips and learn how to write a good essay. Forget “Comment/Specific Details/Comment/Specific Details” and all that nonsense.

Here is what Xenophon says about his tactics in Anabasis:

It would be safer for us to move the troops with the hoplites, forming a square, so that the luggage and the main group of people inside would be more protected. Thus, we have now said who should be on the front line, who should organize the forward detachments, who should be on both flanks, and who should be responsible for the rear.

Their tactics were as follows: for a successful campaign or retreat, the general unites his troops in the outer part of the square, with provisions and wounded in the middle and strong troops in front and behind. If they were to retreat, the rank and file would defend their side, stepping out of the square's outline just a little to engage the attackers, and then immediately returning to the safety of the square. And thus, they were completely impenetrable, able to travel smoothly, and also slowly demoralize the attacking army. As Xenophon wrote, the idea was that the square should be prepared in advance, "we should not plan [everything related to defense] when the enemy approaches, we should immediately take advantage of those who have been specially informed about the scheme of work."

You may ask, how to write an essay correctly and what does all this have to do with it?

My method works the same way. Think of your introduction as creating a form, and then the subsequent paragraphs that make up each side. They can step outside when needed, but never completely abandon the safety of the formation. It is a process of constant restructuring that maintains the square shape at all costs. From a “writing” perspective, all you need to do is create a few original sentences for the entire essay: a thesis statement, a topic, a mini-thesis statement that starts each paragraph, and a concluding phrase that states what it all means. Everything else is some variation of these four sentences. Together they create a square and this serves as the point of return... The idea is to protect the reader like an army moving in and out of the square to keep the middle and the entire square safe. Next I will tell you in more detail, how to start writing an essay and I will give some examples for the structure of the essay.

Starting to work on your essay

For example, you are a student high school at the lesson in English, or a college student and you need to write an essay. It's just a fact of life, and instead of fighting it, let's make it as simple as possible.

The outline I'm going to give you is simple and it will help you know how to write beautiful essay. Essentially, the format only requires six original sentences, and the rest is nothing more than repetition and reinforcement of the ideas in those original sentences. Just like in Brasidas' tactics, you come up with an elementary form with an introduction and then all that remains is defense: everyone (every word) knows their job.

By being determined to form your own rules and paths, you can achieve excellence simply by following them. You place the reader in the center of a square, protected on all sides, and systematically move him forward, protecting him from doubts and objections as they arise.

Here is a sample outline of a five-page written work:

Introduction

1. Start with a broad, compelling lead. This will be the meta topic of the article. Here's an example from a written work on The Great Gatsby: "When citizens show flagrant disregard for morality and the law, society quickly collapses."
2. Thesis. He must identify and organize the "hook" regarding the instruction/subject. Example: “The atmosphere depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - with blatant decadence and illegal activities- in the end, it seems to replace everything, but it is incompatible with the meaning of the embodiment of the American dream."
3. One sentence that serves as the basis for the first body paragraph. (This is a mini thesis for each point you will argue.) Example: “Although Gatsby was a smuggler, he was motivated by hope and love rather than the greed that motivated his status-obsessed guests.”
4. One sentence for the second body paragraph. (Just like that offer you just made)
5. One sentence for the third body paragraph.
6. Reframe your “hook” and thesis statement into one transition sentence in the first paragraph. “The 1920s, a time of excess and reactionary incarnation, symbolized a break in the American tradition; one that no one seemed to pay attention to.”

Notes/Tips: Some people say that the thesis statement should come at the bottom of the introduction rather than at the top, but I think that's a huge mistake. The point of an essay or essay is to make a statement and then back it up. You can't support a thought until you express it.

Main part #1

1. Rephrase your thesis statement for the first body paragraph.
2. Support your mini-thesis with facts and analysis.

Notes/Tips:

• Start with the most compelling arguments.
• Enter quotes/thoughts this way: General->Specific->Analysis/Conclusion
• Always use a quotation when attempting to include an element of analysis in the same sentence. It is better not to use more than 5-7 words of the author. Maybe even less: “This was Jay who, despite the general decline around him, looked forward to what can be described as an “unbridled future.”

Main part #2

1. Rewrite the thesis of the second paragraph of the main part.
2. Give reasons for your mini-thesis.
3. Restate the thesis of the body paragraph in the context of the overall topic.

Main part #3

1. Rewrite the thesis statement for the third body paragraph.
2. Give reasons for your mini-thesis.
3. Restate the thesis of the body paragraph in the context of the overall topic.

Conclusion

1. Rephrase the hook/meta theme.
2. Clarify it by rephrasing the thesis again.
3. Write one sentence for each body paragraph suggesting its meaning.
4. Rewrite the “hook” and thesis statement in the concluding sentences.
5. The last sentence should move on to general phrases about human nature: “ American dream– and all higher aspirations – require a society that looks to the future and beyond, and adheres to standards of behavior.”

That's all. Seriously. This works just as well in a 300-word essay as it does in a 300-page study. The composition is created, strengthened in itself, and serves as a path for your self-realization. Can you imagine anything better?

Just like the great generals, by forming a square in advance of clear, orderly lines, you can insulate yourself from the chaos of improvisation. You draw boundaries now so you don't have to later, and perfection is achieved simply by filling them with your suggestions. Each paragraph has a specific purpose and is required to accomplish only one task. As I said earlier, with this structure you place the reader in the center of a square, protected on all sides, and systematically move him forward, protecting him from doubts and objections as they arise. Now you know how to write good essay.

Ryan Holiday, excerpts from How to Write a Great Essay (Bookhacker, 2013)