Essay Essay-writng & Examiner Comments

8/10/2019 Essay Essay-writng & Examiner Comments

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Essay writing

A literary composition on any subject, usually inprose and short. The essay differs from treatise inbeing less elaborate and from a sermon or

pamphlet in being lighter and more pleasant intone. It is a brief and fragmentary attempt whichexpresses problem from In terms of ones

personality. It is something personal, direct and

intimate. According to modern literary canons anessay can be written on any subject from a pieceof Chalk till God Almighty.

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Robert Lynd puts it anything from the Day ofJudgment to a pair of scissors According Bensonthe essential point about an essay is not thesubject but the charm of the personality whichpervades the entire essay. The essay has beendefined as a lyric in prose because lyric

expresses personal feelings and sentiments. Fromall this discussion three things clearly emerge.

1. the essay is a short literary composition.

2. it states the problem from individual point of

view 3. it is light and pleasant in tone.

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Historical Background

Introduced by French Philosopher Montaigne in theend of sixteenth century when he wrote Essias.

Frances Bacon introduced essays in English

In 17th

century, Cowley, Temple and Dryden in 18thCentury Richard Steele and Joseph Addison

In 19thcentury Hazlitt, Charles Lamb & Leigh Hunt

Washington Irving introduced essay in America by

writhing Sketch book (1820) And then Ralph Waldo

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Choice of the subject

Often you have a number of subjects given to

you, out of which you are required to choose

one on which to write. In examination room

where time is limited, choose the subject you

know the best, the subject on which you have

most information.

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Information

Students often complain that they have not asufficient store of ideas at his disposal for writingan essay on a particular topic. Information on

these topics can be gathered from books, byobservation and by listening and talking to menwho know. It is a good plan to keep a note-bookin which you may jot down quotations, extracts

from speeches and books, incidents you haveseen or heard of . Reading Newspaper is ahealthy activity in this regard.

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There is no direct road to which the students can

led for collection of this material for essaywriting. They only answer that teacher can

give his students is that he should

(1) Read (2) Observe (3) think and (4) Practice

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1) Reading:

Bacon says reading maketh a full man; thatis , a person who reads much and widely stores

his mind with a large variety of facts, thoughts,illustrations and general information. If youwant to write good essay you must acquire alove of reading not simply reading stories for

amusement, but reading books of history andnewspapers.

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Observation

But reading is not everything. As the studentsreads, he must also observe. He must not allow hispowers of observation to lie dormant. There aresome people who go through the world with theireyes shut-shut as it were to the beauties of

nature. If one is little observant, to him. the meanest flower that blows can give.

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears

Descriptive writing is one of the most difficult formsof composition and a student cannot attainmastery in this art if he has not learnt to observewhat goes on around him.

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3) Thinking The best method of making student think is to

arouse his curiosity and interest. He should learn

to ask questions about what he has read; disagreewith the author if his views are not convincing,

point out what can be said on the other side of a

question and Endeavour to see that what is

printed in a book/journal is necessarily the lastword. He/she should not swallow unintelligently

very foolish thing he sees in the print.

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4) Practice:

A student should write as frequent as possible

for no one can write well who does not writeoften. One must take pleasure in writing

because it is writing alone that makes an exact

man.

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Lets see now look at the structure of the essay.

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Coherence. The ideas expressed in the essay should be

joined together logically. In other words, you

should pay great attention to the arrangement

of your thoughts, otherwise your essay will be

confused and incoherent. See that your ideasdevelop one out of the other, and see also that

the connection between these ideas, if not

always explicit, is always least implied. Theparagraphs of a good essay should succeed

one another in logical order not isolated units.

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Unity

The unity is security by limiting the essay toone subject only. If the topic is theEducational values of cinema one should not

write as if it were the Growth of CinemaIndustry in Pakistan, one should discuss valueof films and confine oneself only this aspect ofthe cinema. One should not be tempted by

the other attractive aspects of the subjectbecause that will amount to digression for itsown sack.

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Proportion/balance

The design of the essay will be faulty, if properproportion is not observed among various parts.

If the a sub topic is given the same amount as the maintopic, the reader will not differentiate. the sub-topicfrom the main topic. For instance, if you are writing anessay on Tennis, the space given to the description ofthe racket and ball used in the tennis must not be thesame as the space given to a more important topic, an

account of some great tennis players. The sense ofproportion is as necessary in writing essays as indrawing pictures.

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The picture of a man with his head larger than thebody and the legs shorter than the arms will look

ridiculous.When a student is asked to describe Taj Mahal in

three pages, he goes on narrating his journey toAgra over a page and a half and writes just half

page about the building itself and then devotesthe remaining space to his return journey, hisattempt will certainly fall short of the requisites ofa good essay.

Do not give undue importance to a triviality nordismiss an important idea in a casual manner.

Let your essay be properly balanced.

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The beginning of the Essay

Any introduction is good which rivets the

readers' attention and suggests him the

general aim of the essay. A suitable opening

should lead with out awkward break to themiddle or body of the essay. The introduction

should be short.

An essay on Cat for example may begin inany of the following ways:

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1. centuries ago man became the lord of creationand he has ever since been trying to maintain hissupremacy over the other animals. Some specieshe has completely destroyed, against some he is

still waging war, and some he has tamed to hisown purposes. Some animals have been tamed fortheir usefulness in one or another and some havebeen tamed merely as pets. Among the most

common pets, the cat is the most important.------here the essay begins with a general remarksgradually leading to the subject.

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2 They say dogs love persons but cats love

places. Leave a cat anywhere, it will try to runhome. The dog is faithful to a person, but the

cat loves to remain in a place to which it is

accustomed. This characteristic of the cat isone of the most remarkable qualities.

Here the essay begins with an accepted ideas.

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3. The Cat is one of the common domestic

pets of man. Cats were kept as pets even in

ancient Egypt, thousand of years ago; and the

Egyptians worshiped a goddess who had likethat of cat. Although the cat is related to such

ferocious creature as the tiger and the panther,

it has now lost most of its ancestralferociousness.. Here the essay opens

directly with general remark on the subject.

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The important point to keep in mind is that theopening should be striking and relevant to thesubject. Well begun is half done

A good conclusion, on the other handrepresents the climax of your efforts and sets aseal on the essay. An essayist closes his essay

on cruelty to Animals thus: Coleridge hasrightly said:

he prayeth best who loveth best

Both man and bird and beastThe conclusion should always be short

sometimes even sentence will do.

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The Middle of the Essay.

This is the main part of the essay and containsthe appropriate facts, illustrations andreflections bearing upon the subject.

REMEMBER if the subject is scientific orhistorical or geographical, the essay shouldnot bristle with figures and dates andformulae. You are not writing a technicaltreatise but a literary paper of generalinterest.

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The Tone of the essay

A good deal depends on the tone of the essay.

The general tendency is to make school or college

essay heavy or didactic like a sermon or a lecture.

Its altogether wrong. The essay should have Lightness

Grace

An ease of language

Approximating almost to the flow of conversation

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The essay should have

Lightness

Grace

An ease of language

Approximating almost to the flow of

conversation

Be pleasant & light hearted.

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Your essayshould not

be

Like asermon

Like apropaganda

speech

Like alecture

Being over-serious

Dull orpedantic

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Keep in mind that the essay loses much of its

charm if it is full of dull moralizing or is writtenin a sever and forbidding style. For instance, if

you are to write on Love thy neighbor as

thyself, do not treat the subject like a Friday orSunday sermon. You should find out the lighter

side of the subject and point out how

sometimes it is physically impossible to love aneighborsay ones neighbor happens to be a

confirmed bore or a superlative fool.

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The essay should be full of mild discontent.Dogmatic statements like the following should be

shunned. The cinema has ruined the moral character of the

modern generation. OR

Female education is the root cause of all evils in

Pakistan. OR The study of poetry encourages flirtation and love-

making. OR

Girls go in for higher education so that they mightget better husbands OR

Educated girls make bad wives.

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Those who do not love their country should beflogged or shot down.

Only rogues and scoundrels take wine.

Such extravagant remarks should not be made in

an essay.YOU SHOULD SAY

The cinema to some extent, effected the moral

character of the present generation adverselyFemale education, in certain instances, has provedto be curse.

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How then shall we set about an Essay

Devote few minutes to understand the

subject.

Set down the plan

Collect material to fit your ideas & fill out your

outlines.

Think out a suitably effective Introduction as

well as conclusion

Then write out your essay according to plan

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If you use a quotation, give correctly

Do not point out the faults of the essay to your

reader by including such sentences as I Know very little on this subject,

it is very difficult to write anything on so dry

a topic

It need hardly to be said that you must revise

your composition after you have written it out.

Correct all mistakes of grammar, spellings,punctuation and style.

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An Example of these Direction

Suppose the subject selected by you is SLEEP.This is how you should proceed to make a plan:

1. Introduction

2. What is a sleep?

3. How much sleep do we require? Condition mostfavorable.

4. The benefits of sleep

5. Evils arising from (a) too little sleep, (b) toomuch.

6. Conclusion

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Illogical phraseology

The young essay-writer is apt to get into acareless way of wording his sentences, so that,while his meaning may be plain enough, his

way of expressing it is illogical or incongruous.Thus he will write:

A sea voyage is good way of spending aholiday. Now a voyage can not be a way, and

he ought to have written: to take a seavoyage is a good way of spending a holiday

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Examine the following

1. Presently I heard a strange sound. It was a

man trying to get in at the window. A sound

can not be a man; write it was made by man

trying to get in at the window

2. An another method of killing rates is that of

poison. We cannot say a method of poison

write either Another method of killing rats

is tat of using poison.

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Examine the following

1. Presently I heard a strange sound. It was a

man trying to get in at the window. A sound

can not be a man; write it was made be man

trying to get in at the window

2. An another method of killing rates is that of

poison. We cannot say a method of poison

write either Another method of killing rats

is tat of using poison.

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Use of I & YOU

Avoid using I but in narrative essays you can

use

Do not use You address the masses in

general, like

If one thinks

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True essay in writing comes from art not chance

And those move easiest who have learnt to

dance.

Practice without theory is futile

Theory with out practice is sterile

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Examiners Comments on essays.

Spring 2008

Q.10 The topic My Country-Pakistan was selected by most ofthe students. The common thread evident in the essays werereference to the Founder of the Nation, narration of the date

of independence, demographic pattern and the rich naturalresources available in the country. The points relating to theinherent strength of the country attributable to the size of itspopulation, its defiance capability, strategic geographicallocation and the predominance of Islam as a major force were

also highlighted by nearly all the students. Once again, lack ofgood writing skills, limited vocabulary and lack of coherencein the presentations were apparent in most of the answers.Only few students were able to score high marks in this

question which carried 16 valuable marks. 37


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Autumn 2007

Q.9 The question carrying 16 marks offered choice to the students

to write an essay on any one of the three topics. A considerablenumber of the students selected the topic A major cause of ourpresent problems is the increasing lack of discipline at school,home and in the community. The performance in this questionwas much below expectations. Nearly 8 % of the students did notattempt the question. Only one third of the students whoattempted it managed to obtain passing marks. The writing ofgood essays requires considerable practice of skills of writtencommunications, knowledge of basic grammar and ability toorganize and express ones thoughts in a logical and coherentmanner. These skills can be acquired only through sound reading

habits, ability to express ones thoughts in writing and knowledgeof rules of good writing skills. It is important that the studentsrealize that writing and comprehension skills are givenconsiderable weight age in this paper and concerted efforts arenecessary to acquire and upgrade these skills.

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Spring 2007

Q.8 The topics in the Question on the Essay were relevant andof general current interest. A large number of the studentsselected the topics of The Dengue Fever Scare andTechnology Makes life Simpler or Complicated. Lack ofcoherence in the construction of sentences, grammatical

errors and poor expressions were observed in a number ofthe replies.

spring 2006

Q.8

Very few students could secure 10 or more marks mainly dueto weak grammar and tenses, spelling mistakes and wrong

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2005

In Composition few candidates wrote very well and had excellent

ideas. However, many failed to score high because: They wrote either very short or very long essays ignoring the word

count.

Spelling and vocabulary was very weak.

Handwriting was illegible and untidy.

Grammar especially tenses and subject verb agreement was notcorrect.

Each paragraph should begin with a linkersuch as, however,subsequently, although and many others. Candidates beginsentences with And which is incorrect. They used So frequently.No linker should be repeated. Sentences in a paragraph should beshort. Sometimes a paragraph of four to five lines was writtenwithout a comma, full stop or a question mark.

Unnecessary use of apostrophe was noticed.

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Q.10

The essays on cable TV were well written clearlyindicating the advantages/disadvantages but at

some places candidates became emotional and

focused mainly on the negative aspects. The topic

scope of democracy in Pakistan was not attempted

well. The candidates gave details of the military

regime instead of views on the democratic situation

in Pakistan and its future. Some wrote nearly 500 words and some wrote less

than 300 words. Few students numbered some

paragraphs which is not at all required in an essay.41

1 Us election and its impact on worlds politics


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1. Us election and its impact on world s politics

2. Faraz Contribution to Urdu poetry

3. Economic crises

4. Energy crises with reference to Load-shading

5. Independence of Judiciary

6. Students Union7. UN, a silent spectator

8. Good governance

9. Corruption

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1 The Role of Mechanical Engineers in development


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1. The Role of Mechanical Engineers in development

of a country

2. Target Killing

3. Gas Shortage

4. Importance of English Language for Engineers

5. Leadership6. Good governance

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Essay Essay-writng & Examiner Comments