An essay can be defined as a short literary composition which expresses the author's personal opinion on a topic. Neat definitions like this are tempting, but it's difficult to make modern essay fit into such a structured little box. Let's look a little closer at the two majors forms of essay.

Informal essay contains language which is more poetic and less rigid than that found in the formal essay style. Because an informal essay is usually more thought provoking than it is argumentative, authors may purposely allow ambiguity in their choice of language. As in poetry, ambiguity allows for reader participation and interpretation of the text. For instance, when Adrienne Rich refers to "the masculine privilege of naming" in her essay "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision," we are forced to interpret the meaning of naming and in so doing, are allowed to draw our own conclusions and significance from the language. Many authors use the informal style to explore universal issues, as Joan Didion did in "On Going Home" or as Ralph Ellison did in "An Extravagance of Laughter." However, informal essay is also the vehicle of choice for science writer Steven Jay Gould as well as for Richard Selzer's essays on medical ethics and the practice of medicine. It can be used effectively for almost any topic and audience.

Formal, argumentative essay expresses an opinion and blatantly tries to persuade the reader to the author's point of view. While not necessarily poetic, the language is selected with the specific goal of persuading the reader and may have a highly-charged emotional quality. Formal essay usually has a predictable structure of introduction (or thesis), support and conclusion, and is commonly used as a hard hitting vehicle for political or social messages. Thomas Paine's rousing essay "Common Sense" is said to have been the spark which ignited the American revolution, and certainly no essay is more widely read in the United States than Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence." Both written in the classical format, they represent the essence of formal essay. You will find formal argumentative essays in places like the opinion section of newspapers and other periodicals. Atlantic, New Republic and Vanity Fair are excellent places to look at whole magazines devoted almost exclusively to essay.

As a writer, you set out to communicate something important to a specific audience for a specific purpose.

Your writing should be:

Appropriate for your audience
Substantive
Clear
Unified
Economical
Grammatically acceptable

Your writing should also have:

Vigor
An authentic voice

Before writing, decide where the essay will be published, who will read it and what you are trying to accomplish by engaging your reader. Your topic should be of interest to the audience you are writing for. Keep them in mind throughout your writing and editing process. In so doing, you will assure that language and style is appropriate for your audience.

Your message should be significant, perhaps even contain a universal truth. As lofty as that sounds, you will find that you probably share a number of universal truths with your audience already. If you can find one and help your audience to better understand the topic or see the topic in a new way, then your writing is substantive. Virtually any topic can be written about as long as it succeeds in persuading or enlightening your reader.

Your reader should be able to grasp your meaning with a reasonable amount of effort. Keeping your reader in mind, making sure that your grammar is correct, controlling the use of technical details and jargon and keeping your writing as visual as possible are all ways to make sure your writing is clear. Having someone read your work and attempt to paraphrase it is an excellent way of assuring that your writing is hitting its target.

Your writing should have a common theme which runs throughout and supports the essay. Even in essays which have an experimental structure, like Susan Griffin's "Our Secret," there is a common thread of purpose and meaning which can be traced throughout and helps guide the reader to the conclusion like a roadmap. Formal essay generally sets this thematic thread out in the thesis statement at the beginning of the essay, but an informal essay's thread may be subtler. Have a friend read your essay and try to paraphrase the meaning. If they are having trouble, your reader will, too. Without thematic unity, your reader will get lost, give up, and read something else instead.

Language should be economical. Readers appreciate a writer who can get to the point without taking too much of their valuable time. When looking over your sentences, try to decide if there is some other way you could have phrased them to make them more compact and efficient. Don't be afraid to cut extraneous words, sentences and even whole paragraphs. If it doesn't clarify your meaning, it doesn't belong in your essay.

Spelling, sentence structure and punctuation should all be grammatically acceptable according to the rules of "Standard English." Standard English is really just one of hundreds of dialects of the English language. Since it is associated with educated people who will have the final say over whether or not your essay will be published, you should make very effort to use it too! Avoid relying exclusively on the grammar check in your word processing software. Instead, keep a reference book handy in your work area where you can look up the rules. There are several excellent resources you can use without having to memorize the entire Oxford English Grammar, and any bookstore with a reference section will have at least a couple of choices.

Vigor and authentic voice are really variations on the same concept. While business and technical writing usually do not allow for the presence of the author's personality, essay should clearly reflect your presence and personality, whether using a formal or informal approach. Sensing the author figuratively "standing behind" their work makes it more compelling for the reader. Active sentences, unusual use of metaphor and clear visual images all add to the vitality of your work. The voice behind the words, like the theme, should be consistent throughout your essay.

If you are afraid to pick up the pen or sit down in front of your computer, you're not alone. Here are some surprising factoids about successful writers:

Successful writers don't wait for inspiration. They write on a regular schedule, even if it means forcing themselves to write occasionally.
Successful writers work in the same place with the same tools day after day in what many refer to as their "ideal" writing environment.
Successful writers are excellent observers. They keep journals, collect words, clippings, phrases and bits of conversation and have some sort of system for storing and retrieving it all.
Even successful writers need deadlines.
Successful writers have an audience in mind and keep them in mind as they write, revise and edit.
Most successful writers consider four to six typed pages per day a good days work.
Even successful writers have trouble getting started sometimes; they expect it and don't panic.
Successful writers rarely know what they're going to write before they write it and plan on discovering at least part of their material as they work.
Successful writers stop to reread as they write.
Successful writers revise as they write.
Successful writers expect to make at least two drafts of everything they write.
Just like you and I, successful writers procrastinate and feel guilty about it. Unlike you and I, they know how long they can procrastinate and still avoid disaster!

Planning your writing and breaking it down into manageable tasks will keep your confidence high.

Set a deadline for finished essay
Day One: select the topic using a brainstorming technique, then identify your audience and purpose
Day Two: expand the topic by free writing
Day Three: Like bread dough, thoughts need time to rise, so don't work on your essay today. Just let them incubate.
Day Four: Write your essay
Day Five: Edit your essay
Day Six: Deadline

Every writer is different, but one of the best ways I've found to come up with a topic is to use a brainstorming technique. Jotting down a potential topic and then writing every word you can think of which relates to the topic is very helpful. For instance, you might start with the phrase "World Wide Web" and then make a list of everything you can think of which relates to it, such as "security," "privacy," "censorship," "economic implications" or whatever else you might think of. By starting with a very wide topic, you can list many aspects of it which interest you, narrow them down and write from the one that interests you the most.

At this point, it is important that you begin to think of your audience: who are they? and what am I trying to tell them? Even though your topic is still quite flexible in this early stage, knowing your audience and your purpose will dictate how you will write. An essay for publication in the opinion section, for instance, will require a more formal structure, while one for a specialty magazine may be less formal.

Writing of any type is a creative process, and I have found that it is important to build in some time for reflection. Just think about your essay and allow it to develop on its own. I have found that reflection is the one of the essential tools for writing.

Now that you have done some free writing and had time to reflect on the ideas you recorded, it's time to start writing the essay.

Formal essay has a standard format:

1. an introductory paragraph which contains the thesis statement and an itemization of three or four key points;
2. three to four body paragraphs in which the key points are defended;
3. a conclusion in which the thesis and it's supporting points is summarized.

A typical formal essay has what's called a "thesis statement." The thesis statement is found in the first paragraph, and it clearly states your intention. The reader should know exactly where you stand on the topic from reading you thesis statement. Informal essay uses the concept of a thesis statement, too, but it is usually not as explicit or argumentative as in formal essay. In fact, it may not even appear until the last few paragraphs.

A great way to write effective body paragraphs is to find out what your opponents think and introduce their arguments into your essay. By introducing and refuting their arguments, you not only make sure you've covered most of the relevant aspects of the issue, but you've disarmed the other side of the argument at the same time. A careful look at several informal essays will probably reveal a structure similar to this, also, although it will be much subtler than the point-refutation technique I've recommended here. Body paragraphs may simply consist of anecdotal examples which support the thesis.

The last paragraph should be your conclusion where you will restate your thesis and supporting arguments. This is the place to summarize your reasoning and offer any last thoughts about the topic.

Editing has always been the most difficult part of my writing process and I suspect it is for most other writers as well. For instance, I find that I've crafted a beautiful phrase which clearly does not belong in this essay, yet I am reluctant to remove it. It's a beautiful phrase, after all! When editing, be willing to cut anything that doesn't contribute something to your essay.

When editing, have someone who has not been too involved with your project critique it for you. Have them answer questions like: Can you paraphrase my main point? Do you think I supported it adequately? Did I use anything that looked like a cliché? Double and triple check for spelling and grammatical errors. Take a look at the length of sentences: do they have variety? Very long sentences tend to slow readers down and frustrate them, while a vast horizon of consistent sentences tends to bore the reader. Variety in length will make your work more readable. Use your thesaurus and get rid of overused word

When using statistics to make a point about a highly charged emotional issue, stay away from data which are gathered by organizations which represent either side of the issue no matter how tempting their numbers are. If you're writing about abortion, for instance, stay away from statistical data provided by either The National Right to Life Committee or Planned Parenthood. Obviously, these are two sources which have big axes to grind, and associating with either one could damage the credibility of your statistics and your writing. There is usually more than once source for data--be sure the one you choose is as free of bias as possible. Try this:

Keep a journal.
Read voraciously.
When your spelling/grammar check makes a suggestion, look up the rule before accepting it. They're limited and get confused by poetic language and structure.

Here are some practical guides which will help with the technical aspects of writing. I've also listed a couple of anthologies and collections which I particularly like. Reading lots of essays and noticing the differences in their techniques and goals are one of the best ways to learn how to write them. You may purchase the books below through Empire:ZINE, in association with Amazon Books.

The Practice of Writing
A collection of essays by David Lodge. 1996, Allen Lane: The Penguin Press, New York. ISBN: 0-7139-9173-9. A series of essays on writers, critics and the process of writing, I found this book to be inspiring when I was suffering from the dreaded writers block.

Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women
A collection of essays by women edited by Wendy Martin.1996, Beacon Press, Boston. ISBN: 0-8070-6347-9. This collection ranges far and wide in topic, viewpoint and style. Martin has done a great job in selecting and organizing the powerful work that makes up this anthology.

Successful Writing
An essay writing handbook by Maxine C. Hairston. 1992, W. W. Norton & Co., New York. ISBN: 0-393-96204-0. A textbook, this is a very useful, well-written, nuts and bolts approach to essay writing. A "must have" for your work area.

The Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage
An authoritative guide edited by Muriel Harris. 1997, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. ISBN: 0-13-234642-7. My copy is full of paper clipped pages, highlighter, penciled notes and all sorts of stuff which reminds me ever time I look at it what an excellent investment it was. It's easy to use and contains a lot of valuable information about research and writing techniques for more formal essays and research papers, as well as every grammar and citation rule you will ever need.

Ways of Reading
An anthology of essays by contemporary writers edited by David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 1996, St. Martins Press, Boston. ISBN: 0-312-11564-4. Ways of reading is actually a textbook being used in my writing class at Cal Poly and I highly recommend it. It is an eclectic collection of provocative essays and includes writing exercises which are useful in helping you not only in learning how to write, but also how to read essays.

Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery
A collection of essays by Richard Selzer. 1996. Harcourt Brace & Co. New York. ISBN: 0-15-600400-3. Selzer is one of the most poetic essayists I have ever read, and superimposed upon the medical profession, his work becomes even more magical.

Dinosaur in a Haystack
A collection of essays by Steven Jay Gould. 1995, Harmony Books, New York. ISBN: 0-517-70393-9. Gould is a biologist by profession, but you will not find a better essayist anywhere. He has an incredible range of interests and observations on more than just science, and he writes with great style and wit.

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