The basics of the essay are the same as the basics of fiction writing: | |
The sharper the point of an essay, the further it will penetrate. I don't mean you all have to dip your pens in acid. I mean it is easier to write an effective essay on one central idea you want to communicate to a specific audience than on everything you want to tell everybody. If you choose to write about encyclopedias, set a theme like "what an encyclopedia is meant to do" or "what an encyclopedia can't do" or "my first experience with an encyclopedia" -- don't describe everything contained in the Britannica and how each presentation has affected Western culture and history since its publication. | |
The traditional structure of an essay or a speech (which is so similar I am lumping my speeches in here with my essays) has been described as: |
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Another traditional structure has been described as: |
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Or, in other words: |
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Another structural method is Threes: |
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I like to write essays working backward and forward: |
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My Essays |
Your Essays |
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