essay writers

essay writers

The Art and Ethics of Essay Writing

1. Introduction to Essay Writing

What is “the essay” by Mr. Emerson, and how is it used? “The essay”, in its original Latin and medieval form, is something attempted but not final. Mr. Emerson defines an essay as “a brief attempt on one’s powers of expression or explanation”. The tried-refinement distinction is important. An essay is a sketch not only for a long theoretical discussion or exegesis, but also for a practical artistic creation. A writer’s analogous effort in his painting with words, called the short-story, also known as the novelette or novella, involves less than 20,000 words; so, too, does the poet’s effort in painting with rhymes, metaphors, or word sounds. To be applicable, the subject of such sketches is one which the writer to some extent understands and which interests with unusual intensity, one which he may not discuss with implied intent of bringing mind to mind through deliberate subterfuge findings or of public works, and one which is interpretive.

One of the most comprehensive yet concise discourses on essay writing, one of the most enduring types of creative prose, is what is known as “the essay” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Michigan philosopher of transcendentalism. In his essay, “History”, Mr. Emerson defines literature as “an infinite concatenation of symbols”, the function of which is to organize “a record of the best thoughts”. Mr. Emerson believes that each individual should aspire to “the highest head”, which he defines as, among other things, “merely finding his curiosity and his inborn faculties developed”. One way of developing and finding these is to articulate thoughts through “conversations, actions, studies”, the most articulate being the discourse called the essay.

2. The Structure and Components of a Well-Crafted Essay

The Main Body is the heart of the essay and should be clearly written, well organized, and newly developed. The Main Body is space to air the thoughts on the subject. If the Introduction encourages the question or formulation of the problem, then the Main Body offers the thoughtful response. Points are presented in a logical and systematic fashion. The essay must have the propriety of purpose. Each paragraph must develop a specific idea and be logically connected with the paragraph which follows. Carefully selected and formulated materials should back up each generalization. This also is where you, the writer, explore the nuance and complexity of the subject, creating the appearance of an original work. The Conclusion is the capstone of the essay. It should signal a close, and act as a wrap-up, emphasizing the solution of the problem or difficulty facing the subject or at any rate summarizing the key elements of the work.

In discussing what the well-crafted written essay looks like, we will first glance at the structural design of the work. The normal description of the good essay is that it should follow the classical three-part format consisting, very simply put, of Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion. Each category has not only a role to play, but certain components which must be included to help in accomplishing that role. The Introduction is in fact the most important part of the essay; it informs the reader about the subject of the work, providing a perspective on your understanding of the subject. The clear indication of a major theme or idea that will be discussed in the work forms what we call the thesis statement. The Introduction is the reader’s chance to get a grip on the subject, for the reader to understand why you are writing and why the subject is important.

3. The Importance of Research and Citations in Academic Writing

Practical and ethical problems arise from a false style of citation: at one extreme, it outrageously permits an item to enter modern scholarship without support, as when a reader finds unsupported assertions with reference in a footnote to a source no longer in reach. At the other extreme, it equally outrageously burdens, often through the reference, a short passage with a necessity for sustained skepticism and voluminous reading. In scholarly work, such an inappropriate use of reference merely builds a wall to protect the practitioner from substantive criticism and, with his citation thus serving as no more than the title of the research area, casts him as a mere technocrat. It involves the reader in an attachment test situation few excepting historians of libraries would accept for the quality of their prose. Since referencing is often used as an identity test for the work of others, relying for attribution and to an incorrect degree on citation number and journal reputation, the factual extraction of awkward abominations, invisible to referees, if unchallenged, re-enters history to be converted by time to facts for Joshua.

4. Ethical Considerations in Essay Writing

The professional writer, specialized in philosophy and other technical subjects, writes only for those who think—people with a real need to establish their ends for themselves, not for discussion only and not to impress others with the depth of imagination and vividness of expression. The professional intellectual writer avoids the pitfall of substituting inventiveness for sincerity, originality of style for originality of thought. It is sincerity, not cleverness or the power of convincing by preying upon the known weaknesses of his readers, which makes his writing ethically significant. In ordinary essay writing, skill, art, virtuosity, and emotional overtones play a prominent role. To attract attention, to indicate an absurdity, futility, degradation, impossibility, contradiction, an impossibility of goals, the ideal of correctness must sometimes be abandoned.

Fourthly, the essayist has to keep in mind the basic principle that the right to free opinion means the right to free discussion of opinion. The sole justification for freedom of discussion is the right of the people to better understand and discuss any question; out of such discussion, good results may come. The only justification for withholding any opinion is the danger that it invokes—danger, not to the speaker, not to the immediate hearers, but danger to, or unfair damage to, the right of discussion of other questions. The essayist must not seek to persuade by appealing to popular prejudices, general ignorance, or fear causing harm to the people. The appropriate relation between the essayist and his readers is truth and its possible consequences.

5. Conclusion: Fostering Integrity and Excellence in Academic Writing

In conclusion, this review has emphasized that the ethical dimensions of coursework need to be given the proper place when it comes to helping students achieve lives of both meaningful and productive work. As Veblen notes, “This is the business of leadership. And a university is organized for the purpose of teaching leaders.” Content, completion, credibility, arrive not necessarily correlated. It is this exciting and demanding challenge of teaching ethics within the context of the writer’s professional discipline in the university classroom that represents not only the relevant keystones in the foundation of those who one day will inhabit the upper thousand of the economic firmament, but also those who should be most unlikely to moralize their violation of providentiary rules.

A review of these areas associated with the integration of ethical decision making and reasoning into student learning experiences in advanced coursework at the university level has provided a foundational basis for understanding this multifaceted issue. It has noted the importance of cultivating ethical decision-making processes and behaviors within students as a means to achieving solid academic and career preparation. The author would argue that the inculcation aspect indeed appears to be as important as the identified values of academic integrity they ultimately espouse.