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.