An example essay. How to write an essay? What is an essay in literature

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

There are more than fifty different genres in literature, the essay is one of the most interesting of them. This essay absorbed a little from fiction, a little from journalism. Pupils and students unknowingly write ordinary descriptive articles, but this is wrong. The essay is something more, the author's thought slips through it, there is truthful information, facts, reflections on the solution of the problem. To write such an article, in some cases it is necessary to conduct an investigative journalism. For this, an example of an essay is needed, so that it is clear how to draw up an essay and what kind of thoughts to express on paper. Similar works are found in many famous writers.

What is an essay

The first acquaintance with such a literary genre takes place in the Russian language lessons, but all its types and subspecies are already studied in more detail by journalists and philologists. In order to write an essay correctly, you need to understand its essence. An essay is a small literary work describing true incidents, events, a specific person. Time frameare not observed here, you can write about what happened thousands of years ago and what happened just now.

Before writing an essay, it is necessary to collect all the facts, since they are the basis of the essay. Incidents and actions narrated by an eyewitness should be important for society, raise serious sociological issues. The article is written in a descriptive style, subjective assessment and the author's own conjectures are excluded in it.

The main components of the essay

An essay of this genre should contain three main components: journalistic, sociological and figurative aspects. The author must necessarily touch on socially important issues. This may be an essay on juvenile delinquency, alcoholism and drug addiction of a particular nation, environmental pollution, AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis and other diseases dangerous to society. The writer must take facts as a basis, rely on statistics. For example, this can be data on the number of sick people in a particular region, country or around the world, on the amount of hazardous substances released into the atmosphere, etc. At the same time, the work should not be clogged only with numbers, otherwise it will turn out to be dry, too official and will not affect the feelings of readers.

Publicism in an essay is also very important, since the author acts as a journalist, conducts a personal investigation. An example of an essay can be found in many entertainment magazines, newspapers. To get reliable data, sometimes you have to devote a lot of time to collecting information. For this you need to visita library, search for facts on the official websites of enterprises or government agencies, communicate with specific people, visit the places described, because you can’t describe how beautiful Lake Baikal is by seeing it only in the picture. In other words, the essayist should be a diversified, inquisitive person, a great connoisseur of life.

To interest the reader, you need to write an essay in a beautiful literary style. Genre is an important part of a work. The essay should be written in an artistic style, a colorful description of the problem, a story about the life of a particular person will be logical here. The introduction of a bright and memorable character into the story will allow the reader to plunge into a certain environment, to understand the essence of the problem. The text has a specific structure: the designation of the problem, its analysis, the search for solutions. An essay of this kind is a collection of statistics with everyday stories.

History of the essay

A vivid example of a work can be seen in the works of some writers of the 18th century. The fact is that such meaningful, vivid and fascinating essays arise in times of crisis in social relations, changes in the usual way of life. Great Britain came to this genre at the beginning of the 18th century, because it was during that period that the moral decline of the elite of society was observed. The magazines mainly published socio-critical sketches on the theme of everyday scenes or characters of representatives of certain segments of the population.

In Russia, a similar phenomenon was observed in the second half ofthe same century. In satirical magazines, the intelligentsia ridiculed the officials and landowners of the old system in essay forms. In the first half of the 19th century, the crisis reached unprecedented heights, so essays became the main genre of writers who want to convey to society the idea of the decline of morality, the oppression of the poor, the stupidity and degradation of those in power and the rich. S altykov-Shchedrin, Belinsky, Nekrasov wrote in this style, Gorky, Korolenko and other democratic writers continued in the same spirit.

An example of an essay can be found in Soviet literature. This genre is fueled by changes in the life of society, changes in the economic, social, domestic and legal spheres of life. Soviet writers developed compositional and content forms, improved the main functions of the essay: the study of the problem, the disclosure of the complexity of life. V. Tendryakov, V. Peskov, E. Radov, F. Abramov, E. Dorosh and others resorted to this genre.

Portrait work

The portrait essay genre requires good observation and well-readness from the essayist. In the absence of these qualities, the author will not get a vivid and lively description of a person’s appearance, but some kind of identikit. Good essays are usually obtained from lovers of classical literature, because such people already know how to roughly compose a text. The classics have already left full-fledged examples of portrait sketches as a keepsake for posterity. You also need to accustom yourself to observation, carefully look at the behavior of your relatives, friends, acquaintances, ordinary passers-by, neighbors. Concentratefollows the manner of speaking, style of speech, gait, gestures, facial expressions, body features, facial features.

In creative universities, mainly in directing departments, students are offered to play a game - describe a stranger, try to guess his profession, where he goes, who he brings his companion or companion, etc. An essay in the genre of a portrait essay is written in the same format. Be sure to carry a pen and a notebook with you to record all the interesting moments and details you see, this will help you train and learn to separate the important from the insignificant. Experienced essayists identify at a glance the specific qualities inherent in the person being described.

Only a description of the appearance, gestures, gait of the hero should not contain a portrait sketch. An example can be found in classical literature. External appearance very often can tell a lot about, acquaint with the inner world of a person, his habits, preferences. For example, by the appearance and condition of clothing, you can find out if the hero is neat, interested in fashion, likes to be in the spotlight, or prefers to blend in with the crowd. When studying a person, one should rely not only on the visual impression, but also connect touch, hearing, and smell. How the hero's hands feel, what his voice is, maybe he smells of something special.

Portrait essay example may contain from the life of the character being described. For example, something unusual happened in the hero’s life, he happened to save people from a burning house, solve global issues that affect the economyregion, have a major operation, etc. It is necessary to trace how the character of a person is manifested through this act. It should be an unusual verbal portrait, consisting of beautiful words, the incident shows what a hero is like in life, whether you can rely on him.

Travel essay

Such an essay is often used in journalism, both beginners and professional journalists resort to it. It has some features that must be considered when writing a work. First of all, you should decide on the purpose for which the essay-essay is being written, what purpose the author pursues. Perhaps the essayist wants to share his impressions of what he saw, to talk about the political, economic, environmental or social situation in a particular region or country.

Before writing a work, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the work of other, more experienced authors. An example of an essay can be found in the works of such great writers as Pushkin, Novikov, Radishchev and others. You cannot write an essay of this type without experiencing the emotions described, without seeing the sights with your own eyes. Here one cannot rely only on fantasy, because an essay is a true work based on reliable information. When traveling to some places, be sure to make notes in a notebook about the impressive details of landscapes, interesting incidents, about what you liked and what didn’t go as planned. At the same time, it is impossible to describe a specific person, the essay should be larger.

It is human nature to forget about some momentsfrom your life, so while traveling it is useful not only to take notes, but also to keep an audio diary, take photos. Before you write an essay, you need to put together all the pictures and notes, refresh your memories, draw up a rough outline of the essay, and only then start writing it.

Problem work

Literary essay contains an analytical beginning and artistic description. In a problematic work, the author can touch on some economic, political, social, environmental situation, in which he is very well versed. The main goal of the essayist is to get to the bottom of the truth, to understand why such a problem arose, what it can lead to, what are the ways to solve it. The essay requires in-depth analysis, a superficial description will not work here. Before writing an essay, one should not only study the problem in detail, but also read the works of other authors, get acquainted with their view on this issue, study the style of writing.

Only the person who is interested in solving and analyzing the existing problem can write such texts with high quality. The topic should be close to the author himself, only then he will describe the situation in a truthful and lively language. In the travel essay, the individuality of the essayist is very clearly traced, the text is written only in the first person. The author must clearly describe the essence of the problem, acquaint readers with his vision of the situation, and the work can be supplemented with the opinions of several characters, it is very good if they are opposite.

The essay is based only on reliable information, but it should not be overloaded with graphs, numbers and statistics, so as not to turn into a dry, uninteresting article. The essay is written in an artistic style, if any data is given, then they must be accompanied by explanations and comments. This type of text is similar to a story and a story, it allows the use of artistic turns, spatial reflections, comparison with other events.

Essay on a person

Even Gorky said that the center of the work should be a man. The writer also mentioned that the essay is between the story and the study. This genre cannot be called easy, since it consists of rational facts and a vivid, emotional description of events. In an essay, journalism, documentaryism and creativity should complement each other, then it will turn out to be an interesting, truthful and lively essay about a person. Examples of such works can be seen from the classics, it is from them that you need to learn and try to reach the level of their work.

The hero must be in the center of the work, he must be described from two sides. First, you should find out the social relationship of the character with society, and then study his inner world, find out how he behaves at home, relates to close people, acquaintances. It is necessary to collect as much information about a person as possible before writing an essay. An example of a phased composition of a work: conducting an interview, selecting key points, listing positive and negative character traits, mentioning extraordinary situations in the life of a character.

In an essay usuallyit is necessary to draw up a short biography of a person, but it should not look like personal data. It is important to focus on the character of the hero, and you can’t just say that he is hardworking, persistent, smart, etc., you need to provide evidence, cite difficult moments from his life as an example, tell how he behaved, what led him. Describing a certain act, one should analyze the psychological characteristics of a person, typical and individual character traits. You can also talk about the thoughts of the hero in a given situation.

Absolutely isolated people do not exist, each person to some extent interacts with society, he has and is influenced by economic, political, moral processes. Therefore, in the essay it is necessary to be able to link together the individuality of the hero with social phenomena, to show the attitude of the character towards them. Professional essay writers often manage to reconstruct an important historical event through a certain fact from the biography of a particular person.

If the central figure is a well-known public figure with numerous merits, then it is worth emphasizing them. The essay-essay should also contain the theme of creativity, spiritual quest. A good work not only tells the reader in detail about someone else's life, accomplishments and falls, but also makes you think about understanding your mistakes, learn to dream, set goals and achieve them.

Essay-investigation

Very often journalists spendresearch to tell the reader about unknown or little-known information. It may be some unusual area of human activity or the study of certain phenomena. A historical essay is also allowed here, the author can collect important data about a particular region or country, study buildings erected several centuries ago, or reveal an organization that has kept important information secret for many years.

To begin with, the journalist must start collecting facts, if necessary, go to the place of investigation. Then you need to decide on the task and goals of the study, based on the information received, you can proceed to put forward various versions and hypotheses. In America, an investigative essay is the material collected and analyzed by a journalist on a serious topic that some people would prefer to keep secret. Not everyone can write such an article, since even at the stage of collecting information, certain qualifications are required, the author must understand the topic of the study. At the same time, the essayist must not only competently operate with data, but also describe situations in a beautiful, lively form, create an image of the central character.

Judicial essay

Unfortunately, essays are written not only about good events and kind, sympathetic people. Stories are different, there are bad endings. Works on the judicial theme are mainly written by journalists in order to give a moral assessment of the crime, to make readers think about where this world is heading, to find ways to preventrepetition of such situations. The author of the essay must analyze in detail the corpus delicti committed by a group of persons or by one person. The journalist does not give a legal assessment of the situation, he must come from afar, talk about what influenced the criminal's act, what factors pushed him to a terrible step, which forced him to break the law.

For example, a young man is accused of stealing. The essayist must understand the motive for the crime. This is a guy from a dysfunctional family, since childhood, his parents taught him to steal, deceive in order to get his own food. So he got used to such a life, the man does not want to get a job, start a family, he likes to mess around and live at someone else's expense. Of course, not only the young man is to blame for this, but also his parents, society, which did not stop at the right moment, did not direct him on the right path.

A journalist in his essay should describe in colors the childhood of a homeless child, how he begged on the streets, looking for at least some food along with stray dogs in landfills. It is also worth mentioning the parents suffering from alcoholism, who do not care about the child, a society that turns a blind eye to such children. The main task of the author is to show the conditions and circumstances that led a person to commit a crime, to analyze the motive.

Evidence of eyewitnesses, details and elements of the crime can be given as facts. A journalist should not only acquaint the reader with a negative assessment of the actions of the criminal, but also make him think about his ownbehavior. Perhaps there are people who need help very close by, if they do not lend a helping hand today, then tomorrow they will become potential thieves and murderers.

The place of the essay in literature

Each genre has a certain impact on the minds of mankind. What is an essay in literature, what place does it occupy in the cultural development of people, how important is it for society? The main goal of this genre is to tell the reader the truth about current events, innovations, and the life of a particular person. Thanks to a lively, understandable language, information is easier to digest. A colorful description takes the reader to those places or draws the image of the person the author is talking about. Although the essay reads like a literary text, it contains reliable dates and facts.

Most people learn about the events taking place in the world from newspaper articles written in essay form. There are no such areas of human activity in which this one of the most important and useful literary genres would not be used. Thanks to the essay, people learn a lot of reliable information from different parts of the world. In literature, there are a huge number of varieties of this genre, the most common of which are portrait, travel and problem.