4 Types of Material in Every Essay
I believe an essay is the most flexible written medium, and it calls for a fusion of genres: the soul of a memoirist, the pen of a poet, and the rigor of an academic. By learning to shape a thesis, your essays will become more than gripping stories with beautiful sentences, they will help you and your reader make sense of the world.
Michael Dean • THESIS
rob hardy and added
Some points to defend the POV that “essay quality is objective.”
Specific scope: You have to set the scope small enough to “essays.” Books, memoirs, newsletter and other written mediums have their own criteria. Songs and films are even more different. I think it’s important not to get bogged down in genre, and instead to see genre as a culturally a
An essay lets the soul of a memoirist, the rigor of a scholar, and the pen of a poet all co-exist on the same page. Out of all the mediums, it's most able to fuse the best parts of every other genre. It's literature's sponge, the frontier of the written word. https://t.co/Olikaqb5pV
Ajinkya Wadhwa and added
The Best Essay
paulgraham.com
Packy McCormick and added
Amidst the tone of graven importance the writers of these essays, maybe there’s not much to say that feels new—or if there is, we are often side-stepping it. In her book Hole Studies , Hilary Plum points out how contemporary essayists, she says, write “I’ve been thinking a lot about . . .” and “then just virtuously mention a subject, not saying one... See more
Lucy Schiller • I Cannot - The Paris Review
Brian added
Editing is easier when you know the patterns_
When it comes to essay writing, the idea of “patterns over process,” is just as relevant.
Tootzi instilled a philosophy of “all that exists is the artifact that’s on the table.” It doesn’t matter if your ideas come from your mind, your heart, your soul, your belly button, the tops of mountains, a bottle ... See more
When it comes to essay writing, the idea of “patterns over process,” is just as relevant.
Tootzi instilled a philosophy of “all that exists is the artifact that’s on the table.” It doesn’t matter if your ideas come from your mind, your heart, your soul, your belly button, the tops of mountains, a bottle ... See more
Michael Dean • The Secret Architecture of Great Essays
Amie Pollack and added
Text allows for the ultimate kind of selectivity: your constraint is not the sounds and sights of your actual life, but the depth of your imagination. When you share about your life over personal essays, you can hide your facial expressions and body language, your tone of voice. You can project decisiveness, self-assurance, and whatever else you wo... See more