Essay writing is a skill that can be developed over time, leading to the ability to consistently produce quality essays. The key to achieving this skill lies in following a methodical approach, which I have successfully implemented and now teach to my students. An essay, fundamentally, is a summary of a topic or issue, typically used in academic settings. Its value lies in its succinctness, as it effectively communicates complex ideas in a clear and efficient manner.
The most crucial skill for writing a good essay is the ability to communicate efficiently on a subject. This involves undertaking the necessary work to answer a question, solve a problem, or explain an unclear concept. However, this process can be challenging, as it requires thorough research and analysis. Many students and aspiring writers struggle with this aspect of essay writing, preferring to avoid the hard work involved.
In my own practice, I often engage in long-form discussions, such as my walk talks, which some may criticize as being overly lengthy. However, these talks serve as a means to develop and refine ideas. Similarly, when writing an essay, I start by exploring every aspect of the topic, considering various angles and consulting sources to ensure a comprehensive understanding. This initial exploration results in a lengthy composition, which is then condensed, clarified, and organized into the final essay.
The reason many people struggle with essay writing is that they focus on meeting a word count rather than solving the underlying problem or addressing the essay question. Instead of aiming to complete the essay quickly, writers should focus on thoroughly understanding the topic and developing a well-thought-out response.
In conclusion, writing a good essay requires a methodical approach that involves thorough research, analysis, and refinement of ideas. By following this approach, writers can produce clear, concise, and well-organized essays that effectively communicate their message.
Transcript
Today is Thursday, February 29. And this is William Michael, of the classical liberal arts academy. one skill that I have succeeded in developing through the years is the ability to write essays. I can consistently write quality essays. And I really believe that it’s because I have figured out a method for doing so. And it’s, it’s a method that I like to teach my older students. And I’d like to share for anyone who’s interested in a quick talk. An essay is really a summary of something. It’s a relatively short writing exercise. And normally, they’re used in academic contexts. They’re normally expository or informative. And the real value of an essay is its succinctness. What really makes for a great essay is that it’s concise. It gets to the point. It communicates clearly and efficiently. And so the most important skill that’s needed for one to write essays well, is the ability to communicate on a subject in as efficient a manner as possible. That’s really what good essay writing comes down to. The challenge, however, for the the writer of the essay is that this is a difficult process. There writer has to undertake the work that’s needed to answer the question or solve the problem or explain whatever it is that is unclear. The writer has to work out that solution. That’s the challenging part. That’s the part that most students most would be writers don’t want to do. And because they don’t do that, it’s almost impossible for them. To write anything helpful. It’s impossible for them to write anything clear. It’s impossible for them to write anything that’s reasonable or persuasive or helpful. And therefore they struggle to write essays. Now, one thing you’ll notice, is that I post walk talks, day by day. And I often get criticized for my walk talks, because people will come in and say, Why would you take an hour and 15 minutes to say something you could have said in 10 minutes? But the question is, what is it that I could have said, in 10 minutes? And the person will say something like, oh, well, you know, you make a really great point about this, or you explained this really well. But I don’t understand why you need to make an hour and 10 minute long talk. For this, you know, this nugget that’s buried in the Talk or this final result of this talk, when you could have said that in 10 minutes. And what they don’t understand is that this talk is the means by which that nugget is produced. This is the method that quality result, that valuable message, which may only take five minutes to communicate by itself is developed through the long form. Meditation. That’s the whole purpose of these walk talks. These are not scripted these are not planned. I simply take up a topic and talk my way through it. By the time I’m done, if I have an hour long talk, I can take the text, the transcription of that talk. And it usually turns out to be 10,000 words, or more a huge, a huge document. And this is really the key to essay writing. Now, it doesn’t need to be done in the form of a talk. And most of the time when I have an actual essay to write, I don’t do it in the form of a talk. But what I’ll do is I’ll simply take up the question or the problem, or the the text that needs to be expounded. And I will simply start writing about it. I’ll simply start writing. And I’ll write and I’ll write and all right, and I’ll explore every different option. And I’ll look things up. And I’ll consult sources, and I’ll pull quotes and all bring all of these things together and make sure that I feel like I’ve looked at the issue or addressed the question or explained every aspect of the text from every possible angle. And by the time I’m done, I’ll have a document that’s three or four times the length that the essay is supposed to be. But over the course of that long composition, I’ll have solved the problem, I’ll have answered the question, I’ll have explained what was unclear, I’ll have accomplished the ultimate goal. I’ll have the treasure as it were. And once I reach that point, I then go about condensing and clarifying and organizing, and polishing the final essay, which is simply a condensation of everything that was worked out through that long composition. And so I’ll take a composition that may be nine or 10, or 15 pages long. And I’ll begin asking myself, what’s essential here. What what really is essential to this essay, and what is either repetitive or unnecessary or a corollary that I can remove. And I’ll just begin pruning and pruning and pruning and cleaning and polishing until I have that long form composition, compressed into the essay within whatever the suggested word limit, or length was. And by the time I get to that point, I’ve got a very clear, very concise, very efficient, well ordered essay. It’s very rich, it’s very helpful, it’s very easy to read, very well organized, because the whole entire discussion was worked out first, and then brought into the most concise possible form. Now, the reason why most people are not good at writing essays is because they don’t want to do the work of actually solving the problems. As I said before, they don’t want to do the long composition. If they’re told they have to write a 500 word short theme. They start writing and they’re looking at the word count as they write, they’re trying to they’re trying to complete an essay with a certain word count, rather than actually solve the problem posed by the essay topic. And so what they end up with is a 500 word. disorganized, unhelpful, useless paper. Maybe they stick some quotations in to try to make it look substantial, or to try to make it look like they gave it some thought. but they don’t actually answer the question or solve the problem because it takes much more to do so. But that’s the real challenge of writing a great essay, it’s actually fulfilling the objective of the writing assignment. And the first step of that process is working out the solution, which requires a long investigation or long meditation or long composition, or long discussion that continues and continues and continues until the problem is actually solved. Once the problem is solved, the goal is fulfilled. And then the challenge is simply to condense and present that answer in the most concise or the most efficient. form possible, or whatever the actual assignment, if this is a school essay, whatever the assignment requires. But that’s the that’s the way to write excellent essays. I do these walk talks, as part of my study, thinking writing process, this is going to be a short talk. But normally, I’ll set out on my scheduled walk, usually around three or four o’clock. And I’ll have a topic in mind that I’d like to work through. And I’ll simply start talking about it. And I’ll think about the question or the problem. As I get started, and I’ll just sort of go where the meditation requires me to go talk through all the different points that come up along the way. And eventually, at some point, I’ll begin to get to the what I can feel is the crux of the issue. And by the time I’m done, I’ll have found it. And that long form that long discussion is the means by which the solution is obtained. And then if I want to, if I want to, I can take that long composition. I don’t even need to write it. Because now what I can do is I can take the transcript and just run it through chat GPT and say, Hey, chat, GPT take this talk of mine. And summarize it with a 500 word article, and I’ll take that and post it on the website. It’s the product of that long talk. I wouldn’t recommend using chat GBT for a school essay or anything like that, but the process is the same. First. The long composition is required, through which we work out the solution. And then once that solution is obtained, the student uses all of his knowledge of grammar and reasoning and rhetoric, style and usage to work that long composition down into the clearest, most concise, most efficient essay possible, and when someone reads that essay, and finds so much helpful information. So well organized, so concisely stated and presented in such a simple essay to read. The reaction will be Wow, that’s actually really helpful. And that’s how you write a good essay. I hope that’s helpful.
