The Essay paper is one of the more neglected papers by the Civil Services Examination aspirants. It is a glaring hole in their preparation and planning. Do not forget that the essay carries 250 marks. It has the same allotment of marks as that of any of the GS papers. Make an honest assessment of how much effort you have put in to hone your essay writing skills as compared to learning Polity or Economics or History or Geography or any of the core subjects.
Of course, it would be foolish to look at essay writing as a subject and you can only write a good essay if you have good knowledge in each of the subjects we have listed above. The reason we made such a comparison was to help put in perspective the importance of the essay paper and the importance of practicing writing essays.
Good essays are stimulating to read. Most of you, we are sure, know the basics of writing a good essay.
We are not going to give you the ivy-league school lectures here about writing essays. We are going to be as pragmatic as we possibly can. We will tell you what a reader expects from an essay.
In the simplest form, an essay is a pitch – much like a sales pitch. You are trying to put your point across. An essay is all about conveying your ideas to the other person; how well you do it will determine how many marks you get. Yes, it does depend to a good extent whether a person is going to like the essay or not depending on his (or her) personal preferences and biases. But as it is with all great things, you simply cannot but appreciate a good essay. Do not worry. If you practice writing essays honestly and do your best, you will be rewarded.
We would like to just run through the structure, format and content once.
There are three major parts to an essay:
1. The Introduction
2. The Body
3. The Conclusion
The Introduction is absolutely critical. Take your time and think your strategy out for tackling the topic before you even begin to write. You do not make up an essay on the go. You have to plan it out and it all begins with the introduction. The introduction sets the tempo for the entire essay. It tells the reader what you are going to talk about in the rest of your essay and what the reader can expect. So, obviously your introduction has to promise a lot and it has to be like a good salesman pitching you his good. We have all heard the cliché, “First impression is the best impression”. As much as it is a cliché, make no doubt that it is a truth over which time has no effect. Make sure you put your best foot forward while introducing the content of the essay to the reader. Build it up. Build up the anticipation. Get the reader interested; that is your job.
The next section is the body. The body is where you present your ideas or maybe your arguments depending upon how the essay question is framed. For example, if you are asked to critically comment on a subject, you will have to argue the pros and cons of that subject and if you are asked as to how you will improve the living conditions of slum dwellers, you can pitch in your ideas here. We will discuss the various forms of essay questions and how we could go about tackling it in another post.
Back to the body of the essay – The body of the essay is pretty straightforward. You say all that you want to in this section – Statistics, Quotes, Ideas, Arguments, Pleas, Emotions and what not. You have to develop your own style of writing. However, you should use some general conventions and rules to help you structure the body of the essay.
Writing in paragraphs is of great importance. Paragraphs can be used as an effective style of communicating. In the midst of an essay, an idea might spring upon irrespective of all the planning at the beginning. Most people will tell you to stick with the plan and we would suggest the same. But let us suppose that it is a key point very relevant to the subject. This is where you can use paragraphs to great effect. You can lead up to a certain event, digress from there to put in a small point and then continue again with the main storyline. Using paragraphs effectively offers you the freedom to be more dynamic. It is a skill and you will develop it only as you practice writing more essays.
The body will consume the bulk of the word limit of the essay. However, be careful. Be stingy with your words so you can articulate all you want to within the word limit. Please do understand the context in which we are asking you to be stingy. Being stingy does not mean you eat up certain articles or words in your essay; it neither means short sentences nor presentation of fewer ideas. By being stingy with words, we are asking you to develop your vocabulary to articulate your ideas in fewer words. You can use a single phrase in place of a string of words and this serves two purposes – it helps you with the word limit and it sends out the message that you are well read, literate and in command of the language in which you are writing the essay. This may sound elitist but that is how it works. Your presentation is as important as your content. Make no doubt about it. You cannot walk into the Civil services interview in pyjamas or shorts (In case you are toying with the idea, No, you cannot. The security will not allow you to pass through!). Similarly, it is necessary to dress your essay up as well in addition to good sensible content.
Group your ideas and make sure you have a linear structure to your essay. As far as possible, do not talk about the same point in different paragraphs unless and until the structure so demands. A small example might help. If you are writing an essay about ‘Crimes against women in India’, one of the points you will definitely be addressing is the issue of rape. You have to understand why these rapes are happening, identifying the deeper causation factors, where they are happening, identifying patterns, suggesting remedial measures and preventive measures and talk about punishment. Decide on all that you want to address about rape and then move on to the next crime that is perpetrated against women, say, domestic violence or eve-teasing. You can address the issue in your conclusion again but it would be improper to address rape again while discuss eve-teasing unless you want to draw a relationship between the two and explain further. It is much like an auction – items are presented one by one and once they are auctioned, they are done.
The final part of an essay is the conclusion. Think of conclusion as the Ice cream you are having after a dinner. If the ice cream is great, everything feels great at the end even if the food was average. If the food was great and the ice cream was bad, you would walk away with a bad taste. Ideally, you want your food and ice-cream to be great (By this measure, the Introduction of the essay is akin to an appetizer. You would not want a bad appetizer now, would you?). It is the same with an essay. All the three parts have to come together to make a fantastic read much like the three courses come together to make a fantastic dinner.
The importance of a great conclusion cannot be overstressed. The conclusion has to sum up the entire content of the essay in a few words, a few lines. Writing a compelling conclusion is challenging and you have to plan it very carefully. Pick the main points from the body of the essay and analyze the tone of the essay you have written. Your conclusion should re-iterate or strengthen the stand or the ideas that you have presented. You can use certain clichés, quotes and idioms in the conclusion to make it sound larger than life if you wish to end with a flourish. Figure out your way to do it. Get your mentors and friends to read it and incorporate their feedback to hone your writing skills. Make sure the people you are taking the feedback from know what they are saying. Everybody loves dishing out advice. It is upto you to figure out the right ones. Good luck!