What are the requirements we need in order to write an essay?

First of all, dare to think. When we write an essay, we need to get rid of the mental laziness that prevents us from reaching our own conclusions. In contrast to the comfortable attitude of those who just repeat what it has been written before, in a true essay we take the risk of exposing our own opinion with out own words.

A thorough revision of the bibliographical sources, a good amount of imagination when creating the hypothesis and discursive rigor when developing the argumentation are the basic conditions to bring an essay to a good end.

Example of an essay

In order to illustrate our proposal we include the following example:

1-Plan of the essay:

1.      Short enunciation of the problem: Is it valid to simplify the orthography of the Spanish language?

2.      Short enunciation of the hypothesis: the distinctive features of the Spanish language should be maintained.

3.      Short enunciation of the arguments:

3.1.  The supporters of simplifying the language ignore the historical character of it.

3.2.  The orthographical features are an element of identification of the Spanish language.

3.3.  Neither the evolution nor the conservation of orthography can be decided by a decree.

The opportunity of the beginning of a text

There are many first words that work as beginnings of text: the name of a work, the title of a section, the first paragraph, the first page, the first phrase of a paragraph... These are usually the places where a reader begins his journey through the text, and if – and only if – they’re attractive enough, will he give the following section or the following work a chance.

This is textual area of opportunity – maybe the last chance we have – to capture the reader’s interest so he’ll be compelled to keep reading, to not let go of the text, and to force himself to make time to read us.

How to correct your text

In order to make the decision on whether to keep or to take out some content, both the author and the text should be kept in mind. The text should be kept in mind to see if it can be supported by itself. We ask the question, “What’s the text mentioned above?” If we can find an answer (in other words, if we don’t get lost when we’re trying to find the answer, and the answer is there, clear and obvious), then we only need to see that it’s not discordant, and that it’s in the right place, with proper spelling and syntax. 

But, if we can’t answer the question based on the text, we need to ask the author. Look the author in the eye and ask him or her to answer, with a sentence or a word, what the above text actually is. If he can’t answer, or if he does with something similar to “What was just said, can’t you see it?” then we’ll both (author and corrector) have strong evidence that the problem is not the redaction, but rather a blurred construction, without clarity, that can’t be communicated because the reasoning that should be supporting it needs to be refined. This is equivalent to the test of knowledge: if I can explain something, it’s because I know it; if I get lost in the explanation, I don’t know it yet. So, before rewriting, we have to send the author back home with the homework of redesigning with more precision, not just his words, but rather his whole work.

Avoid a vague start

Starting a paragraph by repeating what was previously said is one of redaction’s capital sins. It should be instantly condemned, with no right to appeal. It’s a vague, ambiguous idea with no support, especially when we take pleasure in the false certainty that the reader agrees with the interpretation of an object, conclusion or reasoning that, in the peak of our inspiration, we’ve given to the previous text.

And what’s the previous text? What’s that everything? You ask yourself these questions when you read the text... You have to go back, reread (sometimes rereading several paragraphs of pages), only to discover that we can’t really find that powerful, clear and wonderfully evident part, and I, as the reader, shouldn’t have overlooked it if I was actually paying attention (according to the author, of course).

Why do we do it? When we use the “From the above”, we’re also creating a logical relationship between two components: an event happens and has consequences, they’re intimately linked by a cause and effect relationship, or rather, an antecedent relationship. It’s vital for this relationship to exist before inserting a “from the above”, that in another way, wouldn’t be more than just an unfortunate filler.

Without a doubt, where we find this expression the most is in technical writing, essays, narratives... It’s rare to find it in literature, fiction and poetry, and if it is used, then it had better be used with such mastery that it brings out something unexpected.

In academic-didactic works, this is a really common bad habit, because of the nature of the texts: they’re expository works, many of them self-explanatory, whose main purpose is to teach whoever is there to learn. This is why redaction should be really important. The student needs clear, well-constructed texts, where there’s no place for ambiguity or doubt as a result of bad redaction. Expressions like “from the above” only contribute to create vague ideas, without the necessary definition that helps the reader recreate a clear, vivid and precise image of what he’s trying to learn.

Can we have too many references?

Excessive references can also become a strategy to hide a lack of the author’s own arguments and the lack of a real connective thread in his own proposal.

This can all be read between the lines when a paragraph starts by using another person’s name, with a foreign voice, a voice that belongs to someone who has nothing to do with who we are, or with what our writing can be like.

From a reading point of view, a reference placed in the most prominent part of the paragraph is a constant nuisance when it’s reiterated, paragraph after paragraph, through the pages and full works. Our mind, instead of reconstructing special content that require conscious attention, gets distracted with an onomastic geography that assumes more importance than ideas or crucial images.

When we make a correction, we need to ask ourselves: Is this what I was looking for? Is this the most appropriate style to help the public benefit from the text? Do we really want to value more what someone else says, instead of valuing our own ideas more? Does using too many references make it seem like the text is empty, disordered and without an original idea? The answers to these questions determine the way in which the text has to be rewritten, corrected, edited and published. If ethics ruled the selection of work published in college, not a single sheet of paper would be miserably wasted in texts written just to earn points towards an academic grade, getting job positions and enlarging pseudo-academic egos.

Jumping in feet first: starting a paragraph with a reference

In academic writing, it’s common to witness a really unpleasant habit: starting paragraphs with the name of the author that’s being cited, or the source that’s being used as reference.

The first word or phrase in a paragraph is much more than just the beginning: it is a marker, a hook, a signal that lets us know what we’ll read within. It’s a starting point, and also a toehold for when we’re making our way back, when we’re not reading but rather rereading, because there’s something that interests us about it: we’re researching, reviewing, studying, reliving a passage with a special impact, or maybe we’re just sharing with a dear friend a scene that really stimulated our imagination.
A reference is, by nature, secondary. It doesn’t correspond to the meat of the text, rather to its origin. At least, that’s what happens most of the time (there are numerous exceptions). So, when we’re using the narrative technique of starting with “According to Fernández...” or “Rojas says...” we’re jumping in feet first.

Why is this stylistic technique used? (Yes, there are some who like this style and defend its use). Citing another person is one of the most evident uses of the appeal to authority fallacy: this is true, not because I say it, but because so-and-so says it. With its use, the author shows his peers (the real targets of his discourse) how much he knows and how much he’s read: the amount and quality of his references validates his work, but only if the readers recognize them. This leads us to understand the style: using only the last name (going beyond what bibliographical manuals advise), without bothering to explain who it is or to contextualize his or her work. It’s linked to an implicit tone, a pose, a way of saying he knows what he’s talking about, and if you don’t know it, then it’s your problem. The other reader, the common reader, the student, the researcher who’s worried about its depth and not its form, is not kept in mind by these kinds of authors. Academic status is worth more than the act of communication.

Don't waste the first words of your text

There are many ways to miserably spoil the first words: an ambiguous and imprecise title, a filler word, a foreign voice, a badly-chosen and misplaced word, empty and insubstantial words, a circumstantial complement without sense, endless bibliographic references (which should go at the end, not the beginning)...

Here, we’re playing with first impressions. Unlike us, the readers still don’t know anything about our work of literature. They can only work with what we’ve given them in those first words. So, we should ask ourselves: Is this the first thing the reader should see? Why do I want him to know this and not something else? What impression do these first words give the reader about the rest of the book (about its tone, direction, purpose)? What do I need to emphasize, and what do I need to place in a privileged spot? What do I want to make the reader feel so I can get him hooked enough to keep reading?

If you thought this kind of thought is only applicable to the first page of a book or a chapter, here’s a reason to constantly do this exercise all over the text: When a reader comes back to what he has already read, maybe to read back a key idea or to study (something typical of didactic academic works or those works that have to be read in an academic context), then he uses the first phrases in each paragraph as guides. If he can’t remember, with the help of those first five or six words, what the paragraph is about, the text becomes a dark jungle, with characters that are too similar to one another and are overused.

The usefulness of this method is not confined solely to creative or fiction writing. Non-fiction in particular, with the density of its contents and with how they can already be painfully tailored, should also try to make life easy for its readers, with a fluent, well-written text that makes the reader want to keep reading. I’m not saying it should be superficial, but it should be well-written. There’s a big difference.

Example of the writing of an essay

The following is an example of how to write a good essay:

A GOODBYE TO ORTHOGRAPHY?

(Introduction)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has surprised the international public with his proposal to retire the orthography from the Spanish language. Many writers and grammarians expressed immediately their rejection to such initiative, because, according to them it threatens to destroy the purity of Spanish. However, we can imagine that the students and all that have suffered the harshness of orthography have welcomed this declaration of the Colombian Nobel.

(Exposing the issue)

On this essay, we will reflect on the possible validity of simplifying Spanish orthography. Should the language adopt an alphabet written in strict correspondence with the phonetic alphabet? For example to eliminate the letter to write all the words with the same sound, be “burro” or “baca” and eliminating the unnecessary “v”? Should the “H” be eliminated for not having a sound and the graphical accents for being too complicated? Shouldn’t we achieve this way less traumatic and more functional writing?

(Presenting the hypothesis)

Even though this proposal seems appealing, in this essay we will maintain our fundamental disagreement with eliminating by a decree the orthography. For us, the distinctive orthographical features of Spanish writing are not useless and prescindible, but they are constitutive elements of our language which we should not give up abruptly.

(Argumentation)

In essence, this questioning to the orthography comes from a deep misunderstanding about the nature of human language. Those who think about reducing it, accept it as a simple tool for an efficient communication. To leave behind the orthographical features would be equal to file the knife so it cuts well.

In effect, a language expresses first of all the essence of an historical community. In contrast to artificial languages such as the one of mathematical logics, a natural language such as Spanish has been shaped throughout many generations of speakers and writers. The distinctive features of the spoken or written language form an element of identification within all the “Hispanic-writers-speakers”, on top of the idiosyncratic variations. Certainly, due to its own historical nature the language evolves and new conventions on how to speak or write arise, but the same way no Academy can prevent the changes, no famous person can force them.

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

Due to its own genre, an essay has many forms and it can be written in different ways. Each of us should find our own style, knowing that there aren’t fixed guidelines. The following guide we offer only pretends to contribute so each one would follow his or her own self-discovery process.

1. What is an essay?

In general terms, an essay is a literary piece in which a thesis or a group of thesis on a specific issue from a study field is (are) backed up.

The word “essay” refers to the personal, tentative, and provisional, one could say, character of the development of the text. It is different in this way from a treatise and a monograph in the sense that these require a more profound and knowledgeably study of the topic.

However, this doesn’t mean that an essay is only about exposing the personal opinions on the issue. No, because our opinions should be supported by arguments and explanations to justify them. Therefore, a treatise is often the result of the extension of the arguments previously used on an essay.

On the other hand, an essay is not the same as a summary, specially a summary made just by adding citations without quotation marks, taken from the academic texts (skim). A well made summary can be used as information within the essay, but they shouldn’t be mistaken.

What is the structure of an essay?

In general terms, an essay is composed of the following parts:

1-Introduction: On this section, the topic is introduced, giving the reader the necessary information to localize the issue. At the end of the introduction is recommended to add the plan of the essay.

2- Exposing the issue: The aspect that will be investigated is presented in a precise way. In order to make it more clear it is recommended to present it in the form of a question. The same way, it should be explained what is the significance of the issue, how it is related to similar problems and why it is actually an issue.

3- Presenting the hypothesis:  A solution to the problem is proposed. In some cases it can be a specific response, in other cases it can be range of possible answers or also forms of looking at the issue. There are also essays where a hypothesis is defended in a negative way. For example where the position of some author on the topic is criticized.

4- Argumentation: It is the central part of the essay. On this section, the reasons that justify our proposed hypothesis are exposed. In a simple model, one can develop a single argument. At other times, various arguments can be added to show the validity of our hypothesis. On more complex essays a discursive connection can be established between the different arguments, so the last argument is related to the previous ones. In any case, it is important that the argumentation is enough to support the hypothesis, connect the different points without mixing them and provide within the argumentative development the objections that can oppose it.

5- Conclusions:  Strictly speaking, an essay doesn’t require conclusions, understood these as definitive answers. On the contrary, due to its own nature, the essay generally implies the emergence of new questions, new versions of the hypothesis, alternative argumentation. Often, the end of an essay inspires new questions from where other essays are created. Therefore, for conclusions, we refer to the concise explanation of the ideas that emerged throughout the course of the essay and the suggestion of new problems or hypothesis.

What are the steps to follow to create an essay?

The process of writing an essay depends on many variables, such as the previous knowledge on the topic, the access to specific information, the time available, etc. Therefore, we will only state the basic steps that can be followed:

1)    Revising the information: On the typical essay of an academic course we generally have some texts as sources. It is recommended first to do a general reading of the material. Afterwards, we should complete at least one method for processing the information: summary, synopsis, comparative chart, cards, etc.
2)    Ideas for the essay: As we review the information we should note down the ideas we get in relation to writing the essay. Attention! It is not necessary to worry about the syntax at this point; it is enough to write the necessary words to identify the idea. Once the reading is done, we go through the ideas we wrote down, choose those we want to develop and try to give them a discursive order.
3)    Creating a plan for the essay: Using our previous list, we write the plan of the essay, this way:
1.    Short enunciation of the problem
2.    Short enunciation of our hypothesis
3.    Short enunciation of the arguments

4)    Writing the essay: From the plan, we start writing the essay according to the structure indicated. To the extent possible, we should try to follow the plan firmly, to make the explanation ordered. However, we should keep in mind that during the writing some unexpected variations could emerge. Anyway, it is recommended not to loose the discursive thread.
The same way, we recommend not to consult the bibliographical sources during the first draft of the essay, because this often prevents the emergence of our own ideas. Afterwards, when revising the written essay we can have a look on the texts and even turn to new literature, in order to confirm the data, add citations without exaggerating, and consider other arguments.