Essay Writing Notes

 * Five Paragraph Essay

• Notes
• History
• The essay began as a humbler creation, more of a thought experiment on a given subject.  You can blame the French (Michel de Montaigne in the late 16th century) for the curse of the essay (see a list of essayists here).  Early essays tended to be brief (one to two paragraphs) meditations written by well-educated people (here are some essayists you'll read senior year).  
• For more college context, see Purdue:
• Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere, which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.
  
  Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.
  
  The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting. (Purdue)
   
• The five-paragraph essay became a standard in schools. 
• That form also has real limitations:
• It can also hinder rich thinking

• The archetypical school essay structure:

 

From the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:

• Thesis Statements 
• Argument
• Introductions
• College Writing (when to and when not to write in the five-paragraph form)
• Paragraph Development
• Transitions
• Conclusions

Peer Editing