It is useful to prepare outlines of an essay. Introduction should be impressive and striking. The student should be able to demonstrate his understanding of the essence or keynote of the topic of the essay in the first paragraph of the essay.
If he is asked to write on a subject like “Successful people are seldom nice”, he should be able to seize immediately upon a historical personality like Hitler and Stalin who were suc¬cessful but were abhorred by millions who underwent immense torture at their hands. Moreover, the psychological or scientific justification of a concept or quotation should be furnished in the opening paragraphs of the essay. The main part of the essay should elaborate the various aspects of an issue or the amplication of a concept by facts and figures or easily comprehensible references from mythology or history.
Each Para should normally contain one idea and a new paragraph should be written when a new idea is taken up. Length of the paragraph or the number of ideas can be varied to suit the time and length prescribed in the examination.
Concluding paragraph of an essay should indicate the considered opinion of the writer about the way a burning issue should be tackled and the safeguards one must observe in preventing the issue from becoming intractable.
Communalism, for ex¬ample, requires progressive abolition of ethnic prejudices by awareness-building programmes in various communities. Nothing should be done to encourage vested interest in ethnic distinctions. Ideas that have worked in different parts of the world in containing population explosion or improving environmental protection can be reit¬erated for adoption by authorities. Essay should not be allowed to keep dangling; it must be concluded by giving a finishing touch by way of some eminently practicable suggestion.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
An essayist should know the facts, but he must remember that an essay is not merely listing or enumeration of facts. It is an interpretation of and a comment on facts. Interpretation should be in line with the principles of science or with the ob¬served characteristic of human psychology.
A good essay is as much a revelation as a good poem. The reader has to be stirred out of his complacency by bringing to his notice a new or relatively unknown aspect of a problem or an issue.
While it will be difficult to say new and original things about many topics it will always be possible to put forth familiar things in a new and interest¬ing manner. The present writer is of the opinion that socialism of Soviet Russia met a sad fate not on account of any weaknesses of the political ideology, but because of the irresistible impact of growing consumerism among the Russians who were no longer content with the austerities with which they had to live.
A candidate for competitive examinations should do well to develop a friendly relationship with the dictionary which he should frequently consult whenever he has the slightest doubt about the exact meaning or various connotations of a word or a phrase.
A compact essay written in accurate and correct language will impress the examiner much more than unwieldy essay full of mistakes and written in slovenly language. Improvement in essay writing goes hand in hand with a mastery over lan¬guage in general. One should therefore develop a regular habit of reading a few pages penned by great minds on a daily basis.