Fountain pens extended the scope of the writer. No longer did (s)he have to pause in the composition of the sentence, reach over to the inkwell and use those few seconds to determine what to write next. Sentences could flow for ever, like those of Henry James. But even with a fountain pen, revisions don’t come easily.

In Lamb House, Rye, where James lived for many years, some galley proofs of his works are on display, covered with major handwritten amendments. Whole paragraphs deleted and added, sentences turned on their heads, etc. No publisher today, even with modern technology, would accept such major revisions to a book at galley stage. It would appear, though, that typesetting really does crystallize a writer’s thoughts, and give a firm foundation for the next stage in the writing process.

Of course, many authors used typewriters when they became available. Mark Twain, a neophile and early adopter, wrote:

The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don’t muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.

And as someone who grew up doing a lot of writing (books, articles, etc.) on a typewriter (manual Olivetti portable, and later an electric Facit golfball), I have to agree with Samuel Clemens. Mind you, corrections were tricky. I used a lot of correction fluid and paper, and rewriting a whole sentence often meant starting again from scratch on a new page.

The sheer drudgery and physical labor involved in hitting typewriter keys (less with electric than a manual, of course) meant you had to think carefully about what you wrote. Planning a whole page in advance (or at least a paragraph) wasn’t uncommon. Certainly you tended to write a sentence before putting it down on paper, because it was too much trouble to recast it once it had been typed.

Of course, all this refers to the first draft. Creating a second draft was often a question of starting again from scratch, or a literal “cut and paste” job.

Another way of writing books was (still is for some) dictation to a shorthand secretary or a dictation machine. Dictation can produce long flowing streams of consciousness, poor style, and very clumsy or sloppy plotting in the worst cases, not to mention novels that are parodies of the author’s own style.

But then came word-processors. But that’s for another week. In the meantime, your exercise for the week is to look at some older pieces of writing, and see if you can reconstruct how the authors got the words out of their heads onto paper.

What many people mean by “essay” these days, however, is quite different from what it means as a literary genre.

The Literary Essay
The word essay comes from the French word essayer “to try, to attempt” and still has this meaning in English, both as a noun and as a verb:

That’s his first essay into the cattle business.
We shall essay to remedy the situation.

The first writer to apply the term to the type of reflective and entertaining pieces he liked to write was the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The writer who popularized the essay form in English was Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

For the professional writer, the essay is the ideal genre with which to practice the writing craft. It offers the opportunity to focus on a topic and discover what one thinks about it.

In a much quoted passage from his Collected Essays, Aldous Huxley describes the essay as

a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.”

Huxley says that essays can be studied “most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference” and goes on to identify the “three poles” as:

• the pole of the personal and the autobiographical
• the pole of the objective, the factual, the concrete-particular
• the pole of the abstract-universal

Huxley’s opinion is that most essayists are at home in one, or at most, two, of the three types of essay. The writer comfortable with all three writes “the most richly satisfying essays.”

Montaigne remains a model for modern essayists because he was able to combine the three poles. George Orwell is another useful model. For more recent examples of the literary essay, browse the pages of such publications as The Village Voice and Slate.

How Long is an Essay?
Although an essay is defined as “a short non-fiction composition,” in the hands of a professional writer with plenty to say, it can be pretty long.

The essays of Montaigne and Bacon, for example, can run to 4,000 words. The famous essay “Self-Reliance” by American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) exceeds 10,000 words.

For the non-professional writer, the high school student applying for college, for example, the “essay” is quite short.

College entrance essays fall in the 500-700 word range. It’s rare that a high school student or college freshman is asked to write an essay any longer than 1.000 words.

The greatest difference between the literary essay and the school essay is that the literary essay springs from the interests of the writer and can be a joy to write.

The essay written as a school assignment is often regarded by the writer as drudgery.

The Essay as Chore
Two main reasons that essay writing is perceived as a chore by students are

1) they don’t want to do it
2) they’ve had insufficient reading experience.

We learn our first language by hearing it spoken. We absorb the forms of written language by reading it.

Students with limited reading experience will find essay writing more difficult than those who are avid readers. They have not internalized the patterns of written English.

As a result, sentences written by ill-read students seldom vary from simple or compound. The most common coordinating conjunction found in this type of essay is and. The most common subordinating conjunctions are because, then, and before.

The reading level of this type of “assignment essay” rarely rises above sixth grade. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing within the framework of communication. Much popular material is written at this level.

The vocabulary in student essays tends to fluctuate between the elementary and the exotic. Many, if not most, high school students acquire advanced vocabulary by studying word lists, not by encountering them in the context of books. As a result they often misuse words because of insufficient understanding of their meanings.

Nevertheless, even without a strong reading background students can master the skill of producing a five-paragraph essay that is acceptable for most school assignments.

The Five-Paragraph Essay
The five-paragraph essay is often criticized for being too restricted; too cut-and-dried. It is said to inhibit creativity.

Perhaps.

But not all the young people being asked to write essays are gifted with creativity. And even the creative ones need to learn the basics of composition before soaring off to their creative heights. The five-paragraph essay remains a useful workhorse.

Parts of the Essay
Every essay has three main parts. In the five-paragraph essay they are arranged this way:

• Introduction (first paragraph): states the topic and theme; Briefly states three points to be made about the theme.

• Body (paragraphs 2-4): each paragraph expands and supports one of the points mentioned in the introduction.

• Conclusion (paragraph 5): restates the theme and sums up the argument in a satisfying way.

The Hardest Part of Writing an Essay
Essay writing guides can help, but the most important aspect of any writing assignment lies with the writer. Only the writer can answer this most important question: What do you want to say?

Time spent in pinning down the topic and theme of your essay is never wasted. Don’t begin writing before you know

1. what you are writing about
2. what you want to say about it
3. to whom you are saying it

With school assignments, the essay topic is often part of the assignment, but the student is usually given a choice of more than one. If at all possible, choose a topic in which you feel some interest.

Have a destination. It’s not enough to say you’re writing about “war” or “civic responsibility” or “gun control.” What do you want to say about the topic? What do you want your reader to feel about it after having read your essay? One of the most frequent faults of freshman essays is that they leave the reader wondering “so what?”

Who’s your reader? Picturing your reader in your mind as you write will influence your writing style. If a teacher is your target audience, nonstandard vocabulary and grammar are not an option.

Supporting Statements
A common fault among student writers is the failure to distinguish between a general statement and a supporting statement. Inexperienced writers often attempt to support one general statement with another general statement: My sister is annoying. She really bothers me. I can’t stand some of the things she does. All three of these statements are generalizations.

Specific, concrete examples are needed to support general statements.

General statement: My sister is annoying.
Supporting statement: She eats my favorite cereal on the sly and then puts the empty box back into the cabinet.

Some helpful links
A good starting place for the insecure writer is Ali Hale’s article on the writing process.

A good guide to and discussion of the five-paragraph essay can be found here.

A detailed step-by-step guide to writing the student essay can be found here. The steps include pre-writing, outlining, drafting and revising,

Finally, here’s an example of a five-paragraph essay

Tiger Woods made a hole in one.

The subject of this sentence, Tiger Woods, is the agent who is performing the action: making a hole in one. In passive voice, the subject isn’t performing the action; it’s being acted upon by the agent:

A hole in one was made by Tiger Woods.

Most experts agree that active voice is preferable over passive voice wherever possible, and most writers know this. However, did you know that there’s another form of passive voice? This one is called divine passive voice. In a sentence using divine passive voice, no agent of action is ever identified:

A hole in one was made.

Since there’s no agent, the action in the sentence is considered an act of God—thus, divine passive voice. Granted, this is a tongue-in-cheek assessment because it’s pretty unlikely that the hole in one happened all by itself even though Tiger Woods is sometimes attributed with divinely inspired talent.

Divine passive voice is most useful for obscuring information. Perhaps Tiger didn’t want to buy the customary round of drinks in the clubhouse to celebrate his hole in one, so he insisted that club officials keep his identity secret.

Politicians and other bureaucrats are fond of divine passive voice. It appears to give complete information, and it sounds official, thereby duping readers:

Mistakes were made. (Who, exactly, made the mistakes?)

Gas prices were raised. (By whom?)

Unless you’re deliberately trying to avoid assigning blame or you’re intentionally trying to be vague, steer clear of divine passive voice.

So you think you have something to say? How do you get past the stymieing effect of self-analysis? Is this good enough? Will your target audience be provoked to the point of discomfort? Are you “okay with that?”

American literature today is in danger of being hampered by the three-minute attention span. Educators are being taught that that there is a “generational culture” (isn’t that an oxymoron? I’ll save that for a later article) wherein our audience no longer has the abstract-thinking ability to solve a complex problem. Our literary contributions are bound to suffer. How can we sidestep this problem and improve our critical thinking skills for writing?

Here is I challenge I have for you: attempt to read the passage below and answer the following questions in four minutes. Are the characters consistent with their time and place? Is the dialogue appropriate to both the audience of the writer and the character? Is the writing original and thought-provoking?

Some might call Big J a megalomaniac. Although a tradesman by day, he threw lavish outdoor parties on weekends in his fishing village of Golly Me for anyone who would listen to his bombastic diatribes against the status quo. He was known for preparing local cuisine with few calories but full satiety, for this strategy ever-expanded his circle of close friends.

Tonight, with a full belly and the feeling of being in an exclusive club, I felt a sense of purpose and renewed energy in my middle age. I was ready to hear Big J’s pronouncements for the week. “I am the alpha and the omega,” he broadcast to 5,000 of us with only a megaphone to help his voice carry. Heads in the crowd restlessly turned right-to-left and left-to-right. Confused faces repeated the words in their native English. Sure, Big J is the smartest guy in the room. Few of us had been to college and studied foreign languages. What was he talking about? It was Greek to me.

1. “Why here, why now?” This is the simplest tool of critical thinking. Why did I have the character suddenly speak in a language foreign to his fictional audience? No one in my story was well-travelled, or had been to college yet. They might not even read well or at all. Perhaps it was to establish J as “the smartest guy in the room,” well-travelled and culturally astute. I have to determine if this anachronism detracts from the scene, or if it is worth it so I can later sell simple fish trinkets that are coincidentally shaped like the Greek letter alpha.

2. What about the first paragraph? Is it realistic to say low-calorie, highly satisfying food is a crowd pleaser? We are in a fishing village, so the local cuisine is fish. We know most fish contains protein and healthy fats which do produce a full feeling for fewer calories than meals heavy in carbohydrates.

3. What about the megaphone? Have I ever been at an outdoor event at the back of a crowd of 5,000 and heard the entertainment clearly over a megaphone? Personally, I am not a fan of the outdoor concerts with sophisticated electronic s and speakers. Just a few hundred people or so between myself and the stage will greatly reduce my acoustical enjoyment.

Although we all look for time-savers throughout our day, practice is truly the best way to improve skills. This exercise probably took you between four and five minutes to complete. Keep applying this tool to everything you read and write, and you will be rewarded with expert skills, and maybe a little discomfort.

Alice Peterson serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing.

Every time I write, I discover something more about myself. I don’t always see it immediately; but I begin to notice a pattern developing. Recently, I wrote a feature article and realized that I overuse the word “that”. Grammatically, it was not wrong; it was just too much. It visually detracted from the overall appearance of the piece. Maybe no one else would have noticed, but it bothered me. Every “that” was like an unsightly wad of gum stuck under a desk. I couldn’t wait to pry them out. The next thing I became aware of was a tendency to edit my work as I write. This should be a separate process, and I really have to fight against doing it. It’s almost like a default mode that subconsciously takes over as I write. As you can see, we all struggle with the writing process. It reveals more than we realize. To strengthen the weak spots, here are some things that may be of help to you.

• Avoid editing as you write-it slows down the writing process
• Read your piece out loud-you will hear your mistakes before you will see them
• Have someone read it back to you – you will better determine if you clearly communicated your thought
• Vary your sentence structure-avoid starting every sentence with a subject, turn some sentences into questions, use introductory clauses
• Simplify-delete unnecessary words and phrases, avoid repetition

I’ve always told my students that writing is like an art form. It is the true you being unveiled. It cannot be completed in one sitting. You build it, tear it down, add more, take away, and rebuild. One day you may like it, the next you may not. Remember, “Rome was not built in a day.” Take your time, be thorough, have someone help you, and don’t be afraid to throw your words away. Those that matter will stand.

You can read more from Shelley on WriteSideUp.org.