(Sample Material) Online Essay Course for IAS Mains: "Methods to Write an Essay??"
Methods to Write an Essay??
Laying the Foundations: What is an Essay??
An essay is a short piece of writing on a given subject. However, the Civil Services Exam expects the candidate to write an essay, in not more than 2500 works. While anyone can scribe over a couple of pages, it requires a stable mind and a proper structure to write an essay of about 2500 words.
An essay is different from a treatise or an ideological piece of writing. Thus, it is important that you balance your essay with different statements and arguments.
However, before dealing with the intricacies of an essay, it is crucial to know about the characteristics of a good essay. A good essay is one that covers the different aspects and dimensions of the topic. It is the multifariousnature of the essay that makes it comprehensive and wholesome. A one-sided piece not only becomes repetitive and one-sided, but also remains partial and incomplete.
Thus, it is always recommended that- while writing an essay,
one must try to include the different dimensions of the topic being written on.
Such an essay demonstrates the kaleidoscopic knowledge base of the individual.
One must keep in mind that you cannot score good by focusing on one thing in an
essay. Especially when the essay is for 250 marks, it is highly recommended that
one must touch the various dimensions and areas of the topic.
The Base of the Essay: The Structure/Framework
The quality of any essay is judged by its structure. Putting down a large number of lines on the paper in a haphazard manner, would never fetch you good marks. The point that gives an edge to the topper, in the exam, is the structure and framework of their writings. Only a well framed and structured essay, or for that matter, any piece of writing, can be effective in communicating the expression.
Thus, the most important point, while writing an essay, is the structure and framework, that binds it's content in a systematic and easily comprehensible way. Such an essay is a pleasure to read. But, an essay, which is unstructured, can be a painful reading experience.
What is a Structure of an Essay??
Our body is an integral whole, with a number of parts working together. While each part, in itself, is a complete biological mechanism, the working of the human body can only be understood by carefully observing the working of the different parts in a cohesive way.
Similarly, when you write an essay, the different paragraphs, sections and arguments, should constitute a unanimous flow of ideas. Such an arrangement of the ideas in the essay is called the Structure of an Essay. You must understand that it is not an easy task to evaluate an essay. Thus, an essay written in a haphazard manner, makes it a troublesome task for the evaluating person. As a result, your marks are compromised, despite of good arguments and points in the essay.
This can be easily avoided with practice and guidance. All you need to understand is- how to frame your essay.
The structure of the essay should be such that it must be engaging for the evaluating person. For this, it is important that your essay should have a uniform flow.