Understanding Definition, Structure, How to Write, and Examples of Essays

Example of an Essay – Writing an essay, in a scientific setting, is often used as an Indonesian language assignment (for schools) or a routine assignment from a lecturer (for students). Meanwhile, in a broader scope, writing an essay is a way to communicate and exchange ideas about a topic.

Essays can also be used as an effective medium to spread knowledge to many people. Meanwhile, essay writers have a designation, namely essays. An essayist can get many benefits during the essay writing process. Especially in writing and reading skills.

Therefore, an essay is not just a task that must be completed in order to get a grade from the teacher or lecturer. Why is that? To find the answer, see the explanation of the essay below.

Definition of Essays

There are many experts who write down the definition of an essay, such as Wijayanti who said that an essay is an essay or writing that contains the author’s arguments and views regarding an event in society.

Meanwhile, according to Widyamarta, an essay is an effort to generate views on a topic in a short form and the best way of telling. From these two meanings it can be concluded that the essay is closely related to the author’s personal experience in living everyday life.

But what is even more interesting, Emha Ainun Nadjib or Cak Nun, in the book This Is an Essay by Muhidin M. Dahlan (Gus Muh) refers to an essay as “Essays are not poetry. However, essays are not allowed to appear without a sense of proteika. Essays are not short stories, not novels, not theater repertoires, but essays are required to tell a story, are required to express an atmosphere, and even then the story and atmosphere must contain implicit, implied, or vague content. Because if not, he is accused of being a poem or a short story or a novel or a theatrical repertoire.” Gus Muh himself considered essays to be a “nonsense” style of writing, meaning neither poetry nor scientific work.

Regardless of its meaning, essays are considered to have an important role in encouraging the self-development of a student, both students and students, because by writing essays the writer must express his thoughts and reasons by following an appropriate framework.

And to do this, of course, writing techniques, high willpower, and good quality thinking are needed. In other words, an essay is an attempt to gather pieces of knowledge that the writer has acquired while studying so that they become a complete form. As explained by Agus Widayoko M.Pd.,Gr. in the book Writing Scientific Articles and Essays which he wrote in 2020.

So, it’s clear, the notion of an essay as a task that must be completed in order to get grades at school or campus is wrong and everyone who is in the learning process should at least try to write an essay.

The reason is, essays can help you learn to explore a topic or issue and convey a personal assessment of that topic. Apart from that, you also learn to build arguments with support based on reason and evidence. Finally, you will find out how to produce an interesting essay.

Essay structure

No matter how long or short an essay is, its structure only consists of three parts, namely the opening/introduction; Content/core; and finally Conclusion. The following is a complete explanation of the three sections:

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Opener/Introduction

The opening section can be written in two short paragraphs or one long paragraph. In this section you provide a little background, a description of the latest situation regarding the topic to be discussed, or interesting information related to the topic.

Yup , essays should be made as interesting as possible to make readers curious and want to continue reading until they’re finished. Because of this, some people think that the opening section is the most difficult part of an essay.

To make an interesting opener, you can tell the reader what argument you have and why you believe that the argument is true or correct. Also, try to start with a general explanation and then move on to a narrower one.

Essay Core/Content

The main part of the essay contains the development of the main ideas mentioned in the opening section by adding a few supporting sentences. Of course, this supporting sentence must contain information that is in accordance with the main topic. In addition, try to write the main part in a structured and logical manner.

Sinaumed’s can develop body paragraphs in a number of ways, such as:

  • Give examples of the topics covered
  • Describe events or events related to the main topic chronologically
  • Add anecdotes related to the topic
  • Describes certain terms that are important for readers to know and are still relevant
  • Analyze the causes or origins of the topic being discussed
  • Add some effects or consequences related to the topic
  • Describe the physical or character of the person, item, place, or utterance being discussed
  • Use a combination of the above techniques.

In short, write down as much knowledge or information as you have about the topic being discussed.

Conclusion

Conclusion is a section that contains a summary of the discussion or reinforcement of the topics that have been mentioned in the opening and main sections. The goal is to let the reader know that they are at the end of the essay. Therefore, some writers often use transitional words such as “in short”, “finally”, and so on in this section.

Also, make sure you don’t add new information in the conclusion because it will make the essay incomplete or floating. If indeed you have new information that is considered important, it is better to write it in the opening or content section.

How to Write an Essay

To write good and interesting essays, Sinaumed’s needs to practice continuously until they become used to it. However, for starters, you can learn to write an essay that is finished and contains all the sections that must be included. You can see the method below:

1. Choose a Topic

Just like writing a paper, diary, or other writing, the first step in writing an essay is to choose a topic first. You can choose a topic that is specific, close to everyday life, or according to your own experience to make it look interesting.

After getting the topic, spend a few days reading articles, books, blogs, or other references that can add to your knowledge about the topic. Make sure you read as needed. This means that the sources read must be useful for your topic or argument and can support the answers you prepare.

You can learn how to choose interesting topics from Kang Maman through his book entitled I Write So I Exist. In this book, Kang Maman explains his experience as a writer who has produced 24 books in 8 years. He also revealed a simple secret “ fishing 100 ideas a day ”.

 

 

2. Gathering Material

When reading references you might get some material that is relevant to the topic to be discussed. Gather all of the material as completely and clearly as possible, don’t do it in half. If necessary, look for factual data about the topic as this will be useful in supporting your argument.

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You can collect material by paraphrasing from other people’s opinions or using a summary containing the main points that you will later develop yourself.

3. Make an Outline or Draft

After determining the topic and gathering material, you can proceed to the outline or draft stage. This stage helps you to provide an overview of the essay that will be made and the points that will be written.

Sinaumed’s can write a description of the arguments or points that you prepared in the previous section. The goal is that you can sort out information that is truly useful and usable.

If necessary, add examples related to the main topic then choose which points will be discussed first, second, third, and so on. In this way, you will get a rough draft of the essay you will make.

4. Start Writing Essays

After making an outline or draft, the next step is to start writing an essay. In this section you will “knit” all the pieces of information, evidence, data, or examples that have been collected when making an outline.

How to write it can be started from the opening / introduction or starting from the content first. If you already have a clear picture of the topic to be discussed, it’s best to start with the introduction first.

Conversely, if you don’t have a clear picture and still don’t fully understand the topic, you should start from the content section. That way, you can write the right introduction and support the body part, so that readers will more easily understand the arguments you write.

Don’t forget, write a good conclusion without adding new information. This means, conclusions must be written in a concise, concise, clear, and not long-winded manner.

5. Re-Edit the Essay That Has Already Been Written

If you have written all of the essay sections, leave the writing for a few hours or a few days. Forget all the arguments, points, and information you’ve written down. After completely forgetting, carefully re-read the essay from beginning to end.

In this way, you will be able to assess the quality of the essay objectively and thoroughly. You might find some sentences that don’t fit, aren’t interesting, or aren’t complete. Fix any flaws you find when rereading so you get good quality results.

To help you read your essay carefully, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

  • Is the essay that I wrote complete in all its parts?
  • Is each paragraph and argument related to each other and relevant?
  • Are my arguments balanced?
  • Are the examples and data relevant to the topic and main idea?

Example Essays

In order for Sinaumed’s to understand essays better, here are some examples of essays taken from essay anthology books that you can use as references:

 

Here are some examples of essays that you can use as references. With the discussion of the essay examples, the essay discussion in this article ends. Hopefully the discussion in this article can be useful for Sinaumed’s.

If you want to find books about essays, you can find them at sinaumedia.com . As #FriendsWithoutLimits we always try to give the best! sinaumedia always provides the best products, so you have #MoreWithReading information . Hope it’s useful!