Capturing an Essay
As students at EPCC, you will soon be asked to write essays. Since most classes
require some kind of writing, the sooner you get good at it, the better. If you are curious
and willing to apply serious effort, writing an essay can be as easy for you as spinning a
spider web is for a spider. Writing essays is in your nature.
Reading some good essays will soon dispel the mystery of writing one. Nine
times out of ten, an essay is just a personal story. In “A Latina in Kentucky,” Pat Mora
tells about visiting a school, reflecting on her expectations and the pleasant outcome of
her visit, which reinforced her commitment to write for children. In “Once More to the
Lake,” E. B. White tells about a fishing trip he took with his son to a lake in Maine, where
his father used to take him when he was a boy. Besides telling about the fish they
caught, White reflects on time, nature, and the bond between generations. These
essay-stories are interwoven with more reflection than a typical story told to the family
over the evening meal. Still, they are basically stories about something that happened to
the writers.
To write an essay, you must be a living, breathing human being who takes an
interest in the things that you experience. By now, your life is rich with experiences. A
slice of your life will usually be the best subject. You may write about your neighborhood,
your parents, your siblings, your job, your grandparents, or your dreams. In an essay,
you explain something you have experienced, clarifying what it taught you. You may
give praise or assign blame. You may give advice on how to do something as this essay
does. In any case, the act of writing will help you clarify your realization, what you think
about the subject.
You capture your thoughts in writing much as a snapshot captures a scene. If you
try to capture that scene on another day, the result will be different, depending on the
light, the time of year, and other variables. Likewise, if you write the essay on another
day, it will be different from the one you can write today. Writers make a lifestyle out of
capturing their thoughts every day. Writing an essay is an art. As in any other art, you
need a vision, creativity, commitment, resourcefulness, and energy. How will you
combine the ingredients this time? Writers surprise themselves each time, coming up
with interesting things that they didn’t realize they had in them.
On the practical side, you can begin an essay by making notes. Brainstorming is
essential before trying to write that first sentence. Don’t waste time staring at a blank
piece of paper. My favorite method of brainstorming is clustering, which I learned from
Gabriele Rico at San Jose State College. Instead of struggling to write the first sentence,
jot down the topic in a circle in the middle of your page. Then go shopping in your mind
for ideas, images, and connections, anything that occurs to you until you have plenty of
material to work with. Think of a sequence for your ideas. Some numbers on the
clustering page will help you get all your ducks in a row.
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Writing the notes will get the wheels of your mind turning. When you start to write,
just do it. Get in the zone. Express yourself however you can. Don’t stop to worry
about spelling or exact facts. Keeping a calm confidence, write deliberately, glancing at
your clustering now and then for fresh ideas. Exert your personality. Tell your story the
way you want to tell it. Adopt the tough guy’s attitude: “That’s my story, and I’m sticking
with it.” If you have a sense of humor, harness it and crack the whip. Whatever you do,
don’t stop writing until you have several pages filled with your handwriting. Once your
story is out on paper, you can start to make it better. When you tell your story to your
family over the supper table, you have only one chance to get it right. When you write it
down, you can go back and change it as many times as you wish.
Once the sentences are all on paper, you can go back and read them, pen in hand,
working in improvements. You can add more sensory details, more examples, more
figurative comparisons. You can develop a series. You can switch compound
sentences into complex sentences or some other alternative. You can tighten up the
sentences by cutting unnecessary words and phrases. You can cut out complete
sentences that repeat something already stated better elsewhere. Think critically.
Next, word process your essay. The computer makes your story into a malleable
mass of words, fluid and forgiving. Its blinking cursor invites you to add the special facts
and delete the clutter. It points out misspelled words and ungrammatical phrases.
Some of what the word processor tells you may not apply. You are the captain of your
essay. You must make judgment calls. Seeing your essay neatly printed out will give
you a fresh look at your ideas. Don’t be satisfied too quickly. Double check the spelling,
punctuation, and mechanics, taking care of each letter, mark, and space.
Finally, look through your essay for a clever phrase to use as a title. Don’t use the
topic for a title. “How to Write an Essay” is a sorry title. The title shouldn’t be too long,
just enough to grab the reader’s attention and provide a clue as to where the essay is
going. A good title may contain sensory detail or a clever play on words. For this essay,
I might consider “Like a Spider” or “A Slice of Your Life” or “Capturing an Essay.”
If you write some essays and follow up on suggestions given, you will soon
become more comfortable sharing your ideas in this format. Soon writing an essay will
be as easy for you as spinning a web is for a spider.
1016 words, James Gonzales
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