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/lit/ - Literature

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9747475 No.9747475 [Reply] [Original]

How do I write better essays? Is there any advice you've come across that has really helped you?

>> No.9747828

Study essays you admire. I recommend David Hume, Adam Smith, and Charles Darwin. But in general be clear and concise. That's it. It's your ideas that make the work compelling and beautiful. A good prose style generally does not draw attention to itself. Though there might be exceptions.

>> No.9747834

>>9747475
Read Montaigne bruh, all of him.

>> No.9747837

Write more.

>> No.9747870

>>9747475
Backstory?

>> No.9747874

>>9747870
how new are you?

>> No.9747878

>>9747870
WTF

>> No.9747892

Some of my favorite authors are essayists, and I've been thinking of designing an undergrad course centered around the essay wherein we could read Montaigne, Plutarch's Moralia, some of Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Emerson, Kenko, maybe some Orwell, Pound, Mou Zongsan.

Problem is I never really write essays. I just read them. So I feel like I lack some sort of synthetic sensibility where I could tie all my favorite essayists together. Anyone know of a work that is more explicitly didactic with respect to the essay? It's kind of a contradiction in terms, I suppose. What makes the essay such a compelling medium is its freedom from form.

>> No.9747907
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9747907

read articles in contemporary journals in your field of study.
You will absorb acceptable writing styles, dominant themes etc almost without trying.

most importantly.....don't write in the first person and nobody gives a fuck about your personal opinion.

>> No.9747914

>>9747870
?

>> No.9747970

>>9747475
Unless you have something to say, you have no reason to write an essay. Writing an essay because you want to write an essay is pointless.

>> No.9748111

>>9747970

This is exactly the opposite of what Montaigne says

>> No.9748262
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9748262

It's seriously as easy as pic related.

Introduction paragraph - speaks for itself.

Topic sentence - sentence which outlines the information in the paragraph and how it works into your thesis

2-3 sentences explaining idea

linking sentence which links the idea of the current paragraph into the next one, nice clean segways.

Rince and repeat until you reach your conclusion which just joins everything together and presents your thesis.

With everything, practice makes perfect.

>> No.9748329

>>9748262
anon you forgot to include /s at the end of your post

>> No.9748527

>>9747870
Commie chink assassinated by proud Jap samurai

>> No.9748548

>>9747475
The standard essay is composed of one introductory paragraph outlining what you'll be discussing, three body paragraphs (this is the meat of the paper), and a final paragraph that repeats in different words what was said in the introductory paragraph. The skilled essayist will conclude his essay with a flashy, memorable closing sentence.

>> No.9748563

>>9748111
so?

>> No.9748575
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9748575

>>9748329
>/s

>> No.9749366

>>9748329
Why would he put /s at the end?

>> No.9750219

bump

>> No.9750260

>>9747475
Schools teach us how to write standardized, robotic, plain, cancerous essays. They look like total phony bullshit compared to Orwell's.

>> No.9750274

>>9747870
guy saving japan

>> No.9750281

>>9747475
Read Essaysim by Brian Dillon
It's not so much a guide but a long essay on essays themselves, it certainly made me see them in a different light.

>> No.9750285

>>9747870
Commie fuck getting put down like the dog he was by a national hero

>> No.9750339

I benefited from reading this. Perhaps you will.

http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html

>> No.9751621

>>9750339
Oh look a shill. Go to bed Mr. Paul Graham.

>> No.9751628

>>9751453

>> No.9751772

http://jordanbpeterson.com/docs/430_docs/Template.docx

>> No.9751785

>>9750260
school teaches the basics, which it should, by giving you an template in which you can structure an essay so you can more easily present your ideas. Each essay you write is a learning opportunity on how to present your ideas. The more you write the better you will get and be able to move away from the structures you so hate. Orwell was a master of the craft and I am certain his school day essays followed a general formula.

>> No.9752916

Here's some great guides for you:
The New Oxford Guide on Writing - Thomas Kane
Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student - Edward P.J. Corbett
The Imaginative Argument - Frank Ciotti

All of those texts include multitudes of examples of great writing to serve as inspiration and references.

Explicitly for argumentation and style, this is what I like, but I think this stuff is personal preference to some extent:
Grammar and Style - Michael Dummett
Rulebook for Arguments - Anthony Weston

Also, check out the Benjamin Franklin method to learning to write better. IIRC, it involved attempting to absorb other people's styles by memorizing, and then rewriting through recall and eventually intuition.

-- --

Let me know if this does anything for you.