4 Types of Material in Every Essay
The Best Essay
paulgraham.com
Originality and surprise are the most refreshing elements in nonfiction writing. There’s no “right” way to approach the subject of memoir, or the subject of man, or any other subject. A writer who comes at his discipline from an oblique angle is almost always more fun to travel with. Risk gives writing an edge.
William Zinsser • Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All
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 is good if it fits a context made up of 1) the truth, 2) the intellectual needs of the writer, and 3) the reader's mind. The better the form fits that context—the truer, more insight-generating, and resonant it is—the better the essay.