Essay is an art of composing one’s thought in a very coherent, logical and lucid form of writing that create an impact in the mind of the reader or make an individual opinion worthy of due consideration in the ongoing debate. It is the medium to express a point through democratic means. Therefore, it is one of the most popular forms of literature to put one’s opinion in the public domain. It is not possible to define an essay due to its varying nature that is based on the subject matter and the writing style of an individual attempting it.
Literally, the word ‘essay’ means an ‘attempt’. It is an attempt to present one’s thoughts by writing in a logically coherent structure and sequence. A form of literary composition generally in prose, it deals with a particular subject and brings out its various aspects one by one in a very well-knit composition, with a view to portray a graphic picture of the whole subject-matter. Thus, an essay becomes a test of an individual’s knowledge, information, maturity of thoughts and rationality of imagination with the ability to present in writing.
To score high in the essay paper of the UPSC, one needs to understand the requirement and purposes of conducting this exam. UPSC looks out for candidates having mature decision-making ability, good administrative skills and an overall leadership quality. So aspiring candidates need to demonstrate all these attributes in not only the essay writing but in all of their write ups including their optional subjects and the G.S. Whatever field the candidate has come from like science commerce, art, or humanities, he needs to keep in mind that there is always a scope of showing the above-mentioned attributes. He just has to learn to produce them as and when needed. Further, a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the current essay paper and to equip oneself with the changing trends is the necessary requirement.
The ongoing trend in essay is opinion based in nature. Thus, the foremost ability one must have is to differentiate between knowledge and opinion. Knowledge is considered basically a very wide and absolute term that shows things to be in true perspective, objectively and eternally—true forever for all human beings. It cannot be falsified by anyone at any point in time. However, most of our knowledge claims would in fact not fit into these criteria of knowledge, as nothing can be so authoritatively true forever. Therefore, we should not be authoritative in our judgments regarding a particular viewpoint. As such, claims at best can only be considered as one of the sound opinions, not an absolute knowledge. Hence, one must accept this fact and keep oneself at a balanced mindset avoiding the extremes. Moreover, knowledge could also refer to the scientific knowledge that supports the claims with logic and verifiable evidences. Such knowledge that supports your claims with proper evidence and adequate logic is acceptable. Further, most of the time we possess opinions which we often get confused with knowledge. A person makes opinions based on his/ her belief system and understandings of the world. Hence, one must show maturity and objectivity considering a democratic outlook of things while expressing his/her opinions. Simultaneously, one must display scientific attitude by providing a logical justification at the time of making one’s opinion.
This is the domain where students generally lack or fail to follow and, thus, commit mistakes on a given topic by not justifying their opinions. The first thing to take note of is that the audience (the experienced diplomats checking the essay scripts) is not at all interested in one’s ‘opinion’ for that matter. This surprises the students who believe that they are just trading opinions on various topics. The confusion is created because some students attempt only the first part of a twopart process—they forget or consider the second-part of the process less significant. The experienced readers are interested in a student’s argument in explaining his/ her opinion instead of his/her opinion. The second-part of the two-part process that students encounter in their writings and discussions is giving an argument that supports and defends their opinion. In general, all opinion-statements should be treated as logical conclusions, and the deep comprehension of the premises, the assumptions and the evidence that led a person to draw that conclusion is the art of good reading and writing.
Similar to that in math classes, wherein it is unacceptable to provide only the conclusion, in essay-writing also a student must ‘show his/her work’ to support conclusion.
So, an argument comprises, three statements, also called as premises—major premises, minor premises and the conclusion.
The examples are as follows:
1. There is smoke on the hill : Major premises
2. Where there is smoke there is fire : Minor premises
3. Therefore, there is fire on the hill. : The Conclusion
The above examples show a logical connectivity between these premises and the conclusion, where the premises logically converse into the conclusion. It is coherent to conclude that when smoke is evident on the hill then there would be fire on the hill, thus establishing the logical relation between the fire and the smoke. This is called the method of drawing logical inferences. In the same way, ideas should be written with logical connectivity to the next idea, thus maintaining the coherence and the clarity of a good write up. It makes the write-up look simple and smooth. It makes the reading delightful for the reader and finally, the candidate is able to successfully impress the examiner and in turn getting good marks.
When a student makes statements based on his belief, as in the following way— ‘God makes our destiny’, or ‘abortion is immoral’, or ‘animals should not be tortured’, or ‘racism is bad’, or ‘science is too masculine’, etc.—Though he/she has begun with a proper response, it is yet to be justified. The next step is to provide the specific reasons and evidences that led him/her to hold to that belief. This next step is the only genuinely significant part of a good paper, which some students never even begin to provide it in their essays.
Everybody has some or other opinions and nobody really cares about them. A class in which every student expressed his/her opinion in favour of or against the death penalty, for example, would be as fascinating and informative as a class in which every student just stated their favourite ice-cream flavour. The smart reader would be interested in knowing what made a person hold to a particular opinion, but some students are under the false belief of simply stating the opinion, which is not enough. However, writing ‘I am against the death-penalty’ and then moving on to some additional opinions is not enough in the essay on death penalty. The reasons, experiences and factual evidence leading a person’s view against the death penalty must also be explained in detail. One must base his/her arguments against the death penalty on ethical, social, religious, epistemic and economic grounds and so on.
Students must formulate the most compelling grounds for their opinion and express them in the most persuasive and logical terms possible. They need to take notice also that each and every ‘controversial’ claim made in the sequence of their argument will likely require additional argumentation and justification. For example, it will be disastrous for students to claim that capital punishment is wrong because the Bible says so. They will be required to instantly provide the necessary arguments that their interpretation of the Bible is the only correct one, and then they also will have to give supporting argument for the existence of God, and quickly follow this with a strong argument in support of the reason for God to communicate through this scripture and not, say, the Bhagavad Gita, and so on. All this is a formidable task, especially when the topic at hand is only the death penalty and one should stay focused on that.
The strong attachment of a person towards some issue (say the death penalty, animal rights, the existence of fate, etc.), makes him/her so close to their belief—so familiar and comfortable with it—that they will consider this belief utterly natural and uncontroversial. It will appear to them as evident as to be unworthy of any further explanation and justification. This forms the most common reason because of which students neglect giving arguments for their opinions/beliefs. They believe many of their claims to be so obvious that they do not consider worthy to ‘spell it out’ which is wrong!
PRECAUTIONS
• Logical argumentation cannot be substituted with adamant conviction (e.g., the cogency of someone’s position cannot be improved by yelling or weeping). Appealing to fear is also a misconception. For example, a lawyer might say, ‘If you do not convict this criminal, one of you may be his next victim’. This is false belief because the deeds of a defendant in the future has no bearing on determining his responsibility for a crime committed in the past. At the time of sentencing, it may be relevant, but not during the deliberation of guilt or innocence.
• A person’s passionate believe about x to be true produces nothing, except that he/ she passionately believe x to be true. In other words, his/her subjective internal states are of no relevance to the external world to imitate. (e.g., Jim’s current status has nothing whatever to do with his/her belief about Jim Morrison still being alive.).
• Correlation between incidents may not necessarily be the cause. (e.g., it was argued in a recent prime time T.V. programme that since a number of wealthy men had consulted about their investments with psychics, psychic insight induced their investment).
Thus, the subject matter is the most important aspect of your essay. A significant amount of time should be devoted in simply brainstorming ideas for the subject matter before one actually starts writing the essay.
Brainstorming a subject requires deep introspection of one’s background, interests, information and aptitudes. Yes friends! The previously learned skills of a person would be a good asset as they reflect his/her individuality and originality. Students need to learn to access them and use them in right perspectives. The following points should be considered for brainstorming one’s past and should be incorporated in not only deciding the topic of the essay but also in keeping those skills and experiences intact to write the entire essay.