Essay Writing and Comprehension

In one line

An essay is a piece of continuous prose developing one idea to a conclusion, and a comprehension is a test of whether you can find, understand and restate what a passage actually says.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: an essay is a composition in continuous prose which examines a single subject in an ordered way, consisting of an introduction which states the subject, a body which develops it in paragraphs each carrying one idea, and a conclusion which draws the argument together; a comprehension exercise is an unseen passage followed by questions testing the reader's grasp of its content, structure, vocabulary and inferences, which are to be answered from the passage itself and in the candidate's own words unless a quotation is asked for.

Essay writing

What the examiner is marking

Not your opinions. Four things: whether you answered the question set, whether the essay has a shape, whether the English is correct, and whether the argument is supported rather than asserted.

A student who writes elegantly about a subject next to the one asked scores badly. A student who writes plainly and answers the exact question scores well.

The five steps, before you write a word

One, read the topic twice and underline the key words. "Should the death penalty be abolished in India?" asks for an argued answer, yes or no with reasons. "The changing role of women in Indian society" asks for description and analysis, not a verdict. "Judicial activism: a boon or a bane" asks for both sides and a conclusion. The form of the topic dictates the form of the essay.

Two, spend five minutes on a plan. Write down every point that occurs to you, in note form, in the margin. Then strike out the weak ones and number the rest in the order you will take them. Five minutes spent here saves fifteen later and is the single largest difference between a good essay and a rambling one.

Three, decide the line you are taking, and make sure every paragraph serves it.

Four, allot the space. In a forty-minute essay: five minutes planning, thirty writing, five reading through. Roughly a tenth of the words for the introduction, four fifths for the body, a tenth for the conclusion.

Five, then write, and do not change your line halfway.

The shape

The introduction states the subject, says why it matters and indicates the line the essay will take. Three to five sentences. It should not begin with a dictionary definition, and it should not begin "In today's world", which says nothing.

The body is a series of paragraphs, each carrying one idea. The classic paragraph has four parts: a topic sentence stating the idea; two or three sentences developing it; an example or an authority supporting it; and a sentence linking to the next paragraph. Where the topic has two sides, deal with one side fully and then the other, or take the issues one at a time and give both views on each. Do not mix the two methods.