The literary narrative genre is perhaps one of the most common today. We all wrote essays and expositions at school. Today
schoolchildren and students are often offered to write an essay. What is this genre in literature when it first appeared, what are its
distinctive features? Finally, how to write an essay? This is what will be discussed in this article.
In order to better understand the topic, it is necessary to trace the development of the genre. Before you write an essay, you need not only to master the rules of his composition, but also to know what distinguishes him from other works. And also understand how and when it appeared in the literature.
Characteristic
The word “essay” itself is translated as “experience” or “sketch”. Such literary works differ, as a rule, in a small volume (from 10 to 20 pages), although there are examples when the size of an essay reached 50 pages. In the content, the author reveals his own, purely individual attitude to the topic raised in the story.
An essay is a literary genre of prose composition. It is characterized by maximum proximity to
colloquial speech, emphasizing the position of the author, his own experience and reasoning, which can radically differ from the generally accepted understanding of the problem. Perhaps in no other work the narrative is not so paradoxical. However, it is the essay that distinguishes the amazing integrity of the author’s thought, which is difficult to preserve in more voluminous texts.
Appearance story
The “father” of this trend is the Frenchman M. Montaigne. In Russian literature, works corresponding to the definition of "essay" can be found among the works of Dostoevsky. Some experts argue that the first works of this type can also be found in the biblical works and moralistic considerations of Marcus Aurelius, however, the genre was fully formed and flourished in the 16th century. Montaigne's work can be called a vivid example or even an instruction on how to write an essay correctly. In his works, the talented Frenchman masterly conducted his own “experiments”, thanks to which he tried to understand himself in this world and this world as a whole through the prism of his own attitude and knowledge. Montaigne demonstrates how vivid the narrative can be. He easily deviates from the main line of the narrative, makes ample use of metaphors and associations, which turns his works into magnificent and comprehensible compositions for most ordinary people.
At the end of the 16th century, the Englishman F. Bacon became interested in composing an essay . His works were somewhat different from the works of Montaigne. The narration was less extensive, distinguished by clarity, clarity and focused on one main idea. At the beginning of the XVII century, Milton preferred passionate appeals in his works, which were supposed to arouse in the reader a desire to change the existing system, to begin a violent reform activity. His essays were more likely to be carriers of an idea than an emotional narrative on a specific topic. Very deep in content were the works of Dalton. He dedicated them to specific ideas, which he set out in serious language. It is Dalton who is considered the "parent" of a critical essay.
At the dawn of the XVII century, the idea of how to write an essay, has changed somewhat. These works
become less serious and shorter. It is then that such a variety as a periodically appearing essay arises. The author is considered the Englishman Addison, who regularly posted small works in the newspaper. In fact, they were the prototype of a newspaper column. The development of the printing industry and the increase in the number of periodicals has turned essays into one of the most popular genres.
Modern works of this literary direction differ in mood and manner of narration, can be philosophical, thoughtful or easy and humorous, naive, as if written by "scribble-dumb".
Composition structure
Today, there are a number of requirements for how to write an essay. One of the main ones is the structure of the work. It should contain parts such as title page, introduction, main body and conclusion. As you can see, the content is subject to the rules that can be presented to any narrative text. At the same time, the use of various arguments, value judgments, and the widespread use of metaphors and allegories are welcome. The task of the essay is to help the reader learn about the author’s own attitude, understand the logic of his judgments, and evaluate the richness of the writer’s personal experience.