Books
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
The style of the essay
The essay is relatively a
modern genre. It is the product of practicality and modern common sense. As a
consequence, its language is direct, without losing its elegance; its form
requires simplicity but with extreme sense of care and rigor. Its content needs
to be precise and reject any form of superficial details.
The essay writer will express what need to be
said, and will omit what is not needed. He/she will meticulously plan and
express everything with the minimum use of words. He/she will need to guaranty
the text is not vague, filled with repetition, inconsistent and adorned with unnecessary
rhetoric. With this in mind, he/she will need to thoroughly plan, research,
execute and revise his/her work.
Friday, July 31, 2015
The function of an essay
The
corollary function of an essay is that of persuasion. As
that of “pure science” – expressed
in some scientific articles – asserts its objectivity and disinterest in
convincing by other means that aren’t facts. Thus, the essay is used to impulse
certain ideas or to convince of certain positions regarding certain facts. In
order to accomplish this function, the essay exposes data and concepts in an
evident thesis. José L. Vega (1979) states in his essay “Stages and Processes of the Sociopolitical Evolution of Costa Rica”
the following, “ Questions arise, till
when do we wait for the historical initiative to be in favor of the development
of sectors which have not benefited from the achievements of the
agro-commercial model, nor by the new scheme of the industrial/financial/
technological integration we are so depended on?”. As you can see, this
text is emotionally charged, by using a rhetorical question and accumulation of
information, etc, these suggest a certain stance.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Important parts of an essay
Abstract.
This is a proceeding in
rhetoric and in a text that is relatively extended but that may help a great
deal. This allows listing the elements you will talk about. Below are some
examples:
This
essay contains, first, several introductory chapters. Then, there are three
“great aspects” related to poverty. They are organized as follows: the
international aspect, which describes the unequal distribution of the World
production; the social aspect, which deals with the inadequate distribution of
the National Product; and the economic aspect, which indicated the errors while
suggesting solutions in the contemporary mechanisms of production. Finally, the
conclusion, attempts to give meaning to Man’s economic efforts. (J. Figueres.
The Poverty of Nations).
This
deals with my childhood memories: the landscape, things and people of Costa
Rica and my youth in San José. This showcases a certain degree of intimacy,
which is part of remembrance. The pronoun “you” collaborates in this narration,
as well as other words and many other people. (L. Ferrero. The tree of
memories).
The abstract or the mentioning of the topics or
points that are being dealt with in the essay allows for comprehension and easy
following of the exposing text.
Development.
Each of the points mentioned
in the abstract will be developed in their own order. For example, in the essay
“The island we have become” by I. F. Azofeifa (1979) includes three main
components: the Costa Rican geography, the national character and the
historical process.
Recapitulation. In rhetoric, recapitulation is
a summary or concise statement or enumeration of the principal points or facts
in a preceding discourse, argument, or essay. It could also be done in the
conclusion, but perhaps it is most effective when done at the end of a writing
in order to highlight the points discussed. Here are some recapitulations:
May
these very boring notes be a reminder in order to remember in our way, that we
always had a carnival, even if crazy, unlike the Europeans we do not have a
mask. The real difference with the Europeans is that they would become all
pious by drawing a cross on their forehead and get ready to begin the Holy
week. (M.A. Jiménez 1979).
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Coming up with an essay scheme
Under all the main elements
(motivation, purpose, abstract, development, recapitulation) you may write down
the ideas that you are considering to talk about. On the way, you may introduce
a subdivision under each topic, and further develop these ideas. However, in
very brief texts these separations don’t truly exist.
Within the rhetoric apparatus,
you may consider a way of organizing your ideas: by presenting them chronologically,
in the order of cause and effect, or in a comparative manner, etc… These
criteria will be dealt in the section “writing technique for essays”.
The scheme is an essential
tool that helps generate a broad version of a text. The time taken to perfect
and develop a text will be regained during the writing process.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
The purpose of an essay
Purpose.
In the classic discourse, the
purpose becomes a brief mention of the general thesis the author wishes to
propel. This is usually presented in the first few paragraphs of the essay. The
following are some examples:
I will
attempt to show how the social development and current human conduct aren’t achievements
of our day and age, but rather, have issued from past events; this knowledge is
a progression of ideas and actions that have been mended and transmitted
through the years. (J. Jaramillo. The
Human Adventure).
It is
worth mentioning that this essay attempts to demonstrate the decisive role,
along with endogenous factors of change, that have played in the exogeny as a
result of the rapid insertion of this country in the global market, starting
from the 1840s. (J. L. Vega. “Stages and processes of the sociopolitical
evolution of Costa Rica”).
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Writing an essay: Bibliographic research
An important step in writing an essay is researching the contents you wish to develop.
Bibliography is the base for that labor. Its objective is to broaden the
criteria, contrast views, and acknowledge the discussion’s background or records
regarding a topic. Nevertheless, we are not looking for a founding criterion.
To this respect, José Luis Gómez indicates that (1976):
For example, the true essay writer, in some special occasions will
make use of the page footnotes, and this takes us to the core of our topic:
citations, numerous in essays, have their own value in relation to what the
essay writer is trying to communicate; it is important to highlight that
someone came up with an idea, noted in the citation, but the “who” and the
“where” lack of value. Citations are not important because an author mentioned
them, but rather because they are efficient. The fact that citations are mentioned
is with the intention to indicate that they are not on their own, but rather,
form part of a cultural background that is being reviewed.
Ideas derived from bibliographies may be
important, however, it must first be important for the essay writer. Therefore,
base plan and revision must allow the drafting of ideas to illustrate,
contrast, and compare ideas written by other authors.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER GENRES
Regarding
its extension or theme, the essay may resemble a monograph or scientific
article. However, if the latter is considered to be a report of the integrative
process of scientific research, meaning that it mentions theories, procedures
and sources in a neat and detailed way, we can then start to notice differences
between what is a scientific article and a monograph. The scope of scientific
research processes reported in these articles, can be investigated, analyzed,
contrasted, and approached in depth as an essay.
In
theoretical related works carried in the fields of philosophy and philology,
essays may lack visible methodological device (such as: formulas, frames or
methods) and may be presented in a conventional or established structure as
that of natural sciences (with an introduction, problem (question to be
answered), results/proof and ending with a discussion). Thus, these aren’t
called scientific articles, instead named as “essays”. This is a type of writing that could be called “Humanities” articles.
Another
type of writing that is similar to an essay is the newspaper article. L.
Ferrero (1979) considers it as one of its variants, yet acknowledging that the
topics are often temporary or fleeting. In contemporary newspapers, there is
coexistence between inconsequential materials and true essays, that is to say,
works that will survive in time due to their message. For instance, the main
works by the Costa Rican author Cristián Rodríguez, have been rescued from the newspapers
and published in a book (1988). As well, Tribuna
Nacional (National Tribune 1993) has gathered 25 years of outstanding
essays published on page 15 of La Nación
(The Nation newspaper) in Costa Rica.
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