Critiquing a Familiar Genre: Essays

Krista PopkinScott LunnWill Bente

What defines an “Essay”Broad and ambiguous genre

A short piece of writing that tells a person’s thoughts or opinions about a subject (Webster)

Doesn’t always refer to a specific structure.

Can be fiction or nonfiction

Could be formal or informal

Personal or impersonal

We can all be considered “essayists”

What does this genre allow its users to do and what do it not allow them to do?

Allows users to…

Literary criticism

Creating an argument

Comparing and contrasting

Personal narratives

Useful for reflection

Observation

Doesn’t allow users to…

Limited in certain instances

Facebook

Twitter

Dialogue

Essays: Where do we see this genre?Secondary school or college

5 paragraph essaysBook reportsFCAT/Standardized testsCollegiate papers Journals

Outside of schoolBlogs Articles in newspapers or online

Appropriate in many cases, but certainly not all

Whose needs are most served by the genre? Whose needs are least served?

Secondary and collegiate level studentsDescribe experiences, draw conclusions from

literature, and make arguments

Scholars and authorsUse essays most often to discuss issues that they

see a problem with

Younger kidsHave trouble organizing their thoughts into an

essay.

Essays: Who is the audience?

The audience of an essay could be anyone

Chances are we’ve all read several different types of essays several different times ClassmatesTeachers/ professorsPeople who grade essays on standardized testsFollowers of a blogYourselfThe general public

When to use essaysAPPROPRIATE

Situations when a long explanation is needed

When you need to present several different facts

Expressing your personal feelings

Examples: Papers Social Media (Tumblr,

Blogger, etc.) Journal (public or private)

INAPPROPRIATE

When only basic communication is needed

In time restricted situations

Examples: Texting Social media (i.e. Facebook,

Twitter) Email Basic short response

assignments

**AUDIENCE DETERMINES APPROPRIATENESS

Does the genre enable its users to represent themselves fully?

YESYour creation, your ideas.Creative writing Building arguments

NOWord limitsUnfamiliar promptsResearch papers

Does the genre create inequalities among its users that lead to imbalances of power?

Essays create inequalities between different age groups and skill setsMay be too dense for some audiences/ writersCertain topics may be out of the field of experience

of some audiences/ writers

Do the assumptions that the genre reflects privilege certain ways of doing things?

You have the opportunity to develop an argument, a view point, story, etc. Length of the essayTime allotted to writing the essayPlanning out the essay

Does the genre allow its users to do certain things at the expense of others?

Persuasive and Argumentative essaysAllows the writers to state an opinion or argument

but doesn’t allow the reader to respond directly to the writer

The audience doesn’t have a voice in the essayTakes time to write

Example: 5 Paragraph Essay

Source: FLDOE.org

Example: Collegiate Essay (Excerpt)

Example: Blog

Source: http://dewdoes.tumblr.com