Thursday, February 4, 2010
What is an Essay?
As a noun the word Essay is defined as, 'a short literary composition on a single subject usually presenting personal view of the author'. As a verb the word Essay is defined as, 'to make an attempt at; try or to subject to a test'. Some synonyms for the word Essay are; 'composition, paper, theme, proof, test, trial, attempt, and effort'. The term Essay comes from the French word essayer meaning, "to try or to attempt". What I think an Essay is, is a written piece that has some kind of subject or argument that you are trying to express through words. Essays can be written in different formats and styles. For example: Descriptive writting, Narrative, Compare and Contrast, Persuasive and so on.
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Good point about argument -- I think even personal essays have a sort of argument at their core.
ReplyDeleteOhboy, I was in French for 3 years in high school and I never knew. ;P
ReplyDeleteSheesh! I forgot there were many kinds of essays out there. I wonder what types I have written..
I was aware that there were different types of essays, but the only one I could think of was persuasive while I was writing my blog. I think that the ones you have listed were very common essays for the english classes i've taken.
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