Essay Essentials

Dictionaries define Essay as a short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author, dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively. Essay has always been a bit tricky paper in CSE Mains. UPSC has increased the weightage of this paper and is now asking two 125 marks Essays, making it trickier. Nevertheless Essay remains a good scoring opportunity which can give you that crucial 10-15 marks margin over the others. Here are some tips which might be helpful in Essay paper.

Selection of Topic

• Pick only those topics which you have understood absolutely clearly. Don’t attempt an Essay where you have not fully understood the topic.
• Read and understand the topic carefully. Sometimes even simple topics can be very deceptive. E.g. In 2009 many aspirants got confused Globalism with Globalisation in the topic “Globalism vs Nationalism” and ended up writing an entirely different essay.
• Select a topic from your comfort zone. I personally preferred social issues and topics related to my optionals. Do not shy away from from choosing a topic from your optional subject. You can do well in that. But don’t overload the essay with jargons.
• For selecting one topic out of 3 or 4, you can try elimination method. First cancel out 1 or 2 topics you are not comfortable with and then decide amongst the rest. But take care you don’t end up eliminating all the options!

Mindmap

• Never never never start writing the essay immediately. Think for some time and come up with a structure or mindmap for the essay on a paper.
• The structure should broadly cover what you are going to write and how you will sequence it. Also mention what way you will start and end the essay.
• Write down what case studies you want to quote or what map/flowchart you plan to include, and where you intend to do that. This will make your essay more coherent and fluent.
• Since you have 90 minutes or one essay I would suggest to give first 15 minutes for sketching the mindmap. If some point strikes in course of writing essay, come back to this structure and fit it there.

Content of Essay

• The basic sequence of the essay should ideally be Introduction- Context/background of the issue- Concept- Analysis/evaluation- Future outlook- Conclusion. How much weightage to give to each of these components depends on the type of essay depends entirely on the particular topic. Also all the topics may not have scope to include all the above mentioned components.
• Introduction should be solid and catchy. You can start with some relevant quote, statistics, case study or even better a recent happening. This start should be to the point. Don’t go overboard while starting an essay. More importantly don’t start with generic statements like ‘India is world’s largest democracy’ or ‘Climate change is one of the most critical issues in front of global community.’ Intro is very important because hitting the right note from line one makes your essay much much better.
• Context or background part can talk about the historical perspective of the topic. You can also talk of evolution of a particular issue or problems about it, basic theories involved etc. Don’t make this part very long.
• In the Concept part, elaborate the basic concepts in the topics. Also discuss the related policies in this part. Most importantly, in an opinion based essay, clear your stance here Use examples, statistics, case studies to elucidate the conceptual part. The focus should be to develop, explore or support the central idea. Don’t go into the jargons here. Use of relevant maps, diagrams, flowcharts can make this part better. Sometimes this concept part may be well suited before the context- background part, depending on the topic.
• The analysis/evaluation part should discuss the pros and cons of the topic in discussion. There should be a 360 degree view of the topic looking from socio-political, economic, historical, geographical and ethical angles of the issue.
• In the future outlook part, you can discuss how the issue will evolve in coming times. You can give suggestions of the problem area. Also you can talk about the upcoming challenges in that issue.
• Conclusion is perhaps the most important part of your essay. In conclusion, you should re-state the stance firmly. Give a synopsis of all the discussion and also summarize the suggestions. Give a short critical appraisal of the issue. Conclusion should be precise, reformist and non-repetitive. It is good to finish with a quote or case study.
• All these are the ideal components of an essay. Many times you might not have scope to include all of them. That’s fine. But three components viz. Introduction- Concept- Conclusion must be there.

Points to Remember

• An essay is a piece of art. It should be a complete structure. It cannot be like an answer which can be made of several separate parts. Most important thing in an essay is the flow, the connectedness. Each new paragraph should be linked to the preceding paragraph. Ensure that the essay seems coherent.
• Never digress from the basic theme. Do not bring in irrelevant details into it just for the sake of it.
• Quotes, maps, diagrams should be just like songs in a movie- few, short, relevant to the theme and quality. Don’t overload the essay with these value additions.
• There is absolutely no need of flowery language. In fact the best essays are always written in simple language, focusing more on content rather than language.
• Handwriting should not be an issue- in fact this holds true for all the papers of CSE Mains. Handwriting should be readable and neat; and should not irritate the person reading. The words and lines should have proper spacing. Overall your paper needs to be presentable; no matter if it’s not beautiful.

Preparing for Essay

• For writing a good essay you need to be strong with GS. Next you need a practice of quickly framing structure/mindmap, around which the essay can be woven.
• For this, keep habit of writing at least one full essay every 15 days- much better if you can make it one per week. First few essays you might find unsatisfactory (or even embarrassing) but don’t fear to let your shortcomings be exposed.
• Additionally, prepare at least two mindmaps per week. Keep on improving them as you study further.
• Keep looking for quotes/ case studies you can use. Add them to the mindmaps you have prepared. They will also come handy for Interview.
• Don’t rely on readymade essay books. Yes they may be useful to understand the core of the topic. But best thing will be to develop essays yourself.
• Yojana can be an excellent resource for essay preparation. It will give good inputs. Further the titles of the articles in Yojana themselves are excellent topics for essays.

     Moral of the story is that Essay can be a scoring paper if handled properly. Essay writing is a skill that can be earned by good practice. GS and Essay preparation can go together hand in hand. Integrating the study for these papers will definitely improve the quality of study for CSE Mains. And quality study along with hard practice is a recipe for scripting a success story (or should I say essay?)