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Putting the ease back into essay writing 2�

Lawrence Cleary and Íde O’Sullivan

Research Officers,

The Regional

Writing Centre

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Menu

What exactly is an essay anyway?
What are its features and
What are its component parts?

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A Working Definition

What exactly is an essay anyway?
Define “Essay”; what is it?

Definitions are made up of three parts: the thing being defined, the class to which it belongs, and a feature that distinguishes it from other things in its class:
A Bozo is the kind of person who usually behaves like a clown, or who does silly things that are often thought of as being…well, a little stupid.

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Some ways to define essay

A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative. (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) )
A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author. (American Heritage Dictionary )
To exert one's power or faculties upon; to make an effort to perform; to attempt; to endeavor; to make experiment or trial of; to try. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

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The point of this exercise is to show them that it is not always clear what an essay is.

What is meant by ‘literary’, ‘personal point of view’? ‘Analytic, speculative, or interpretive…, but argumentative?’

To try? “How can I get a bad grade? I TRIED? That’s what you asked me to do? I did what you asked, so why the bad grade?” –get them to talk about what they thing this definition is saying.

But even with all of these definitions, what distinguishes this kind of writing for all of the other kinds of writing. What other kinds of writing are there?—get them to answer this question.

Business reports, engineering reports, lab reports, research papers, dissertations, theses, books, articles, cvs, cover letters, letters to your mom, internal memos, external memos, study notes, note to your flatmate, post its, emails, blog entries, applications, purchase orders…

Are there different kinds of essays?—get them to speculate, while moving to the next slide.

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Seen one, seen’m all

Is an essay like a Ritz cracker?
Is it a case of: It’s not the Ritz; it’s what’s on the Ritz?
Are there different types of essays?

Essays in constructive mathematics
On knowing: Essays for the left hand
Essays in commutative harmonic analysis
The Essays of Francis Bacon

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It’s not a Ritz

Okay, so it’s not a Ritz—there are differences.
What determines the differences?
And what is my strategy for assessing the different expectations before submitting my essay for assessment?

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Rhetorical Situation

Occasion
Topic
Audience
Purpose
Writer

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Rhetorical Situation (or the context into which I write)

Purpose? Purposes: to inform (explain, describe, define); to expose or illuminate: compare / contrast, analyze, evaluate, interpret, etc.; to express author’s feelings or beliefs: confessionals, letters to editors, diaries, poems, etc.; and to persuade: convince the audience of the validity of a claim, a hypothesis, or the reliability of an answer to a question.

Get students to speculate on the occasion, topic, audience, purpose and writer of the two introductions.

Give handout “Sample sentences”. Ask them to do the same for the two short excerpts.

Connect the dots between an assessment of the situation and the writing process and strategy development. For instance, an initial assessment belongs to the prewriting stage of the process, but since the process is recursive, we continually reassess as we go. A change in topic requires a reassessment of the audience, etc.

If the purpose is to persuade, then one needs to find out what kinds of persuasive appeals are acceptable to that audience: reason (logos)/ emotional appeals (pathos)/ arguing the ludicrous (bathos)/ appealing for your own credibility (ethos).

An assessment of the audience, too, reveals their expectations in terms of organization of ideas, what kind of language is used, what assumptions are accepted, and what evidence is valued.

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The History of a Word

Es"say\, n.; pl. EssaysEs"say\, n.; pl. Essays. [F. essai, fr. L. exagium a weighing, weight, balance; ex out + agere to drive, do; cf. examen, exagmen, a means of weighing, a weighing, the tongue of a balance, exigere to drive out, examine, weigh, Gr. 'exa`gion a weight, 'exagia`zein to examine, 'exa`gein to drive out, export. See AgentEs"say\, n.; pl. Essays. [F. essai, fr. L. exagium a weighing, weight, balance; ex out + agere to drive, do; cf. examen, exagmen, a means of weighing, a weighing, the tongue of a balance, exigere to drive out, examine, weigh, Gr. 'exa`gion a weight, 'exagia`zein to examine, 'exa`gein to drive out, export. See Agent, and cf. ExactEs"say\, n.; pl. Essays. [F. essai, fr. L. exagium a weighing, weight, balance; ex out + agere to drive, do; cf. examen, exagmen, a means of weighing, a weighing, the tongue of a balance, exigere to drive out, examine, weigh, Gr. 'exa`gion a weight, 'exagia`zein to examine, 'exa`gein to drive out, export. See Agent, and cf. Exact, ExamineEs"say\, n.; pl. Essays. [F. essai, fr. L. exagium a weighing, weight, balance; ex out + agere to drive, do; cf. examen, exagmen, a means of weighing, a weighing, the tongue of a balance, exigere to drive out, examine, weigh, Gr. 'exa`gion a weight, 'exagia`zein to examine, 'exa`gein to drive out, export. See Agent, and cf. Exact, Examine, Assay.]

1. An effort made, or exertion of body or mind, for the performance of anything; a trial; attempt; as, to make an essay to benefit a friend. "The essay at organization." --M. Arnold.

2. (Lit.) A composition treating of any particular subject; -- usually shorter and less methodical than a formal, finished treatise; as, an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils, or on commerce.

3. An assay. See Assay, n. [Obs.]

Syn: Attempt; trial; endeavor; effort; tract; treatise; dissertation; disquisition. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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Characteristics and Components

Could you write a list of characteristics common to all academic essays?

What features or traits do most academic essays share?

Could you write a list of components common to all academic essays?

What elements or ingredients constitute their make up?

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Jigsaw this. 2 groups. Have one set of students work in groups on a list of characteristics and another on components. Ask students from one group to come together with students from the other group to compare lists. As a class, come up with a comprehensive list.

Have students keep in mind that these characteristics and components often, though not necessarily, morph to generic conventions.

Characteristics: attributes that they all share, features, traits or characteristics that helps to distinguish them from other kinds of writing. My friend’s characteristic laugh. What is it that characterizes a zebra?

Characteristics: is there anything that characterises the type of language used?

Components: a constituent part; element; ingredient; In chemistry: any of the minimum number of substances required to specify completely the composition of all phases of a chemical system.

Components: what are the parts of the definition we wrote? What parts to all essays have?

Handout Check List: Process similar to some extent.

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What makes an essay academic?

What are some of the characteristics of academic writing?

Complexity
Formality
Objectivity
Explicitness
Hedging
Responsibility

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Academic-speak

Me Da’s old car’s a ball-o-shite!
My father’s car is in rather poor condition.
I got laid last night.
Yesterday evening, I satisfied my primal urge to procreate.
Feck ye!
Be fruitful and multiply.

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Some Other Characteristics?

Academic Essays tend to be argumentative.
Arguments are explicitly stated and unfold logically.
Arguments tend to be balanced.
Arguments rely on evidence that is valued by the community addressed.
Arguments have to be evaluated in accordance with criteria that meets with rigorous academic standards.

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Components

Introduction

Who is talking about your topic?
In general, what are they saying?
Why is it important?
What do you believe? (Your thesis or organizing principle)

Main Body

Argument in support of your position
Argument against your position

Conclusion

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the two positions
An evaluation of the results of the analysis (argument A is stronger than argument B because…) and your conclusion based on that evaluation.

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Additional Components

In addition to the previously stated components, academic essays typically include:

Preliminaries: cover/title page, possibly an abstract
End Matter: reference pages, endnotes, errata and, possibly, appendices.

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Order and type

Discussion essays
Comparison/Contrast essays
Cause/Effect essays
Explain essays

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Sample Questions

Assess the contribution of Asoka to the spread of Buddhism in India.
Explain the concept of 'role'. Of what use is the concept to a practising manager?
Compare and contrast cellulose and lignin decomposition in soil.
List the criteria you would apply to the presentation of government expenditure policy.
Critically discuss economies and diseconomies of scale.
What deductions can be made after studying the cell exhibited at C?
Evaluate the contribution of political parties to the development of public policy in the United States and Canada.
To what extent does the British public participate in the political process?

[From UEfAP.com. (2009) Understanding the Question: Examples of Questions [online], available at: http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm [accessed 12 May 2009].

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Important Influences

Your Mom
Prescribed (and non-prescribed) “medication”
The Rhetorical Situation

Occasion, Topic, Audience, Purpose, and Writer

Your Writing Process and the kinds of strategies you use to achieve writing goals
The Question
Disciplinary Conventions

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The Regional Writing Centre at UL

What can we do?

We offer friendly one-on-one support on all matters related to writing.
We run workshops, seminars and clinics on writing for all levels (first years through post-doctoral researchers).
We are developing a culture of support for writers at UL and at the member institutions.

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References

Cathal McCarthy. 2008. 'God help Ireland' if we have to rely on Liveline pulpit to banish gang warfare. Independent.ie http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/god-help-ireland-if-we-have-to-rely-on-liveline-pulpit-to-banish-gang-warfare-1346137.html?service=Print (accessed: May 21, 2008).
essay. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/essay (accessed: May 21, 2008).
essay. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/essay (accessed: May 21, 2008).

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References

essay. Dictionary.com. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/essay (accessed: May 21, 2008).
Heaney, S. (1981) “Current Unstated Assumptions about Poetry”, Critical Inquiry 7(4): pp. 645-651.
Hogan, J. 2008. Limerick priest hits out at magic show, Limerick Leader, 04 March 2008, Online Edition http://www.limerickleader.ie/3419/Limerick-priest-hits-out-at.3840537.jp (accessed May 21, 2008).
Monaghan, P. 2008. Brotherhood should clarify what they mean by magic. Limerick Leader, May 22, 2008, Letter to the Editor, online edition http://www.limerickleader.ie/business/Letters-to-the-Editor.3898671.jp (accessed May 21, 2008).
Morris, L., Delassus, P., Grace, P., Wallis, F., Walsh, M., and McGloughlin, T. (2006) “Effects of flat, parabolic and realistic steady flow inlet profiles on idealised and realistic stent graft fits through Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA)”, Medical Engineering & Physics 28: pp. 19–26.
Simmel, G. 1950 ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ in K.H. Wolff, K.H. ed., The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, pp. 409-424.

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References

Rodney Stark. 2001. ‘Reconceptualizing Religion, Magic, and Science.’ Review of Religious Research 43, no. 2, http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.ul.ie/stable/pdfplus/3512057.pdf (accessed May 22, 2008).
UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Check List [online], http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm (accessed May 21, 2008).
UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Features of Academic Writing [online], http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm (accessed May 21, 2008).
UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Rhetorical Functions in Academic Writing: Comparison and contrast, Example 2 [online], http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm (accessed May 21, 2008).
Walsh, J. 2008. Priests attitude is a ‘thundering disgrace’. �Limerick Leader, May 22, 2008, Letter to the Editor, Online Edition http://www.limerickleader.ie/business/Letters-to-the-Editor.3898671.jp (accessed May 21, 2008).

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