What is an Essay? By Mureed Hussain Jasra (CSP) | CSS Essays Tips

Mureed Hussain Jasra (CSP)

5 years ago

What is an Essay By Mureed Hussain Jasra (CSP)

An essay is a piece of academic writing that generally consists of 1500 and 5000 words.

This is an intellectual exploration of a topic to find different arguments and evidences to develop the writer’s perspective, opinion or stance. The word essay originally means an attempt or a try at some topic, but technically it usually means a comprehensive piece of writing on a specific topic.

The purpose and given time of an essay determines its length and for students of CSS and PMS its length is 2500-3000 words or 20-25 paragraphs or 250-300 sentences. Every essay has four major portions which include outline, introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion.

Your examiner marks your essay, making comments not only about what you have said (content and arguments) but also the way you have written or organized all this in your essay (grammar, expression, structure). Your examiner will grade your essay too, so that you can see where you stand in relation to whatever standards apply to your examination.

However, one should not see essay writing is simply compilation of some information on some given topics without any coherence and logic but there should be logical connection among ideas, sentences and paragraphs. In addition to the above, an essay consists of three major parts:

A.	An outline	5%
B.	The introduction	10%
C.	The main body	75%
D.	The conclusion	10%

The introduction and the conclusion (unusual paragraphs), although very important and key parts of the essay, often provide a complete summary of the essay relatively in short and brief writing.

The bulk of an essay, both in form and substance, is contained in the main body which usually consists of 18-20 usual paragraphs. The introduction is intended to lead the reader into the topic and clarify what the essay will specifically deal with.

It usually consists of one paragraph, but this depends on the length of the essay and the amount of background information the context requires. The introduction will contain a key sentence at the end in form of thesis statement – if necessary more than one sentence – which ideally appears at the end of the introduction. Then start the usual/body paragraphs which deal with the major ideas that support the thesis statement and this is always in form of description or stance.

Each main idea/argument is presented in a separate paragraph and developed with supporting ideas in the form of definitions, explanations and connection with the topic of the essay. This is always illustrated with examples, quotations, facts and data where appropriate or necessary.

The conclusion brings the reader back to the purpose of the essay and draws all the points together before making a final comment on the basis of previous discussion/argument. Ultimate purpose of an essay is to show a progression from a general level -in the introduction- down to the specific -the statement and body- and back up to the general level again: conclusion.

The purpose of a CSS/PMS essay is to provide written evidence of your ability to give your opinion on a topic, weigh arguments, organize your thoughts, express these thoughts in a logical, coherent, critical and correct grammatical manner and finally reach at the conclusion. In short an essay is an opinion of the writer in 20-22 paragraphs. Furthermore a good and an attractive essay must have following five components which the examiner of the essay always examines while assessing the essay.

However; it is a fact that even many talented students could not pass essay due to faulty structure. All the five components have equal weight and hence include;

A.	Structure
B.	Content
C.	Expression
D.	Grammar
E.	Arguments

Before you leave check other TIPS for CSS Exams by CSPs

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