The Dominating Persuasive Elements In An Essay - Term Paper Example

Essay Analysis Paper CONTENTS Number Topic Pages Introduction to essays 2 The Dominating Persuasive Elements In An Essay 2-3 3 A Case Study 4 4 Bibliography 5 Introduction To Essay There are different and diverse meanings of essays that are available today, however if the origin of the word “essay” is tracked out then it can be found back to 16th century when a French author Michel de Montaigne used to refer his write-ups as essays. The French word “essayer” means to strive or to endeavor, hence essay in English means an attempt or a trial. The fact about the French author was that he actually meant his writings were an attempt to describe or jot down his thoughts and ideas, the concept grew from there. Essays are more liable to be called closer to reality unlike the fiction. Even though essays are not that dry text elucidating and focusing just on reality as an arid subject, instead essays are meant more than that. One purpose is although to make the reader aware about the reality or convey a factual message; but on the other hand second core purpose is to develop interest of the readers. However, there are multiple tools which essayists use in order to titivate and adorn the subject or the idea of an essay. Among those many tools, which formulate an essay interesting and effective for reading are metaphor, deep attractive and meaningful vocabulary, rhythmic style, hyperbole or exaggeration, specific tone that can be humorous or satire, allusion, personification, vivid and stunning explanations, exposition, active sentences with precise length, combination of ethos and pathos, keeping redundancy at minimum etc. Essays can focus different and varying themes, for example an essay can discuss routine life observation, reminiscence, author’s opinion, political motivation, disagreement, and criticism etc. 1. The Dominating Persuasive Elements In An Essay As the contrast of essays with details or just information is comprehensible and it’s deviation from being merely facts is understood by the truth that essay encompasses persuasive and involving features in it rather just conveying the message or raw information. Now in order to understand the dominating persuasive elements in an essay that makes it involving for the readers, there is need to understand the concepts of tone, personification, hyperbole, allusion, and others. The tone of an essay can be apathetic, sarcastic, humorous, satire, bitter, optimistic and others. The tone of an essay is defined when the author analyze the subject matter, audience, additives and the reality of the fact he/she needs to convey. Since there are different and various types of people who can be classified with respect to region age, common attributes, emotional background, taste etc. For example youth might feel better at optimistic or motivating tone of essay, whilst on the other hand political satire can be point towards mature youth or group of people having the same taste. Similarly there are essays that can be focused on societal imbalances or satire on institutional failure. A good example of a satire on institutional failure is ‘Shorthand Grad is Shortchanged’ by Mike Royko, the writer very wittily expressed his satire on the system of teaching and the reality of quality teaching in specific schools and their reforms. Allusion is a concept of indirect linking and referencing of any thought or idea in an essay. If allusion is not used in essays, then in actuality it can appear unpleasantly bared and moreover unjustified. Therefore, allusion is an effective technique of conveying though by indirect referencing. For example Mike Royko in ‘Shorthand Grad is Shortchanged’ presented a lawyer David Schultz to present his case with a smart satire. Hyperbole is another fascinating persuasive element in an essay that actually takes help through exaggeration and focuses to instigate the feelings and emotions of the readers. These are used to create strong effects and enduring feeling on readers approach. Although hyperbole is a main element of poetry but it can be used in an essay to make it more durable in attitude and sentiments. So hyperbole can be rightfully claimed as a tool for creating more impact, and with a delivery of an idea in the essay it is more astoundingly presented. For example as in the case of Mike Royko in ‘Shorthand Grad is Shortchanged’; the text written by young lady as per dictation of David Schultz is a good example of hyperbole. It is because no matter how much the teaching mechanism is flawed but a school graduated female no matter how much worst in typing she is; she cannot type the secretaries as “secteraries” and other typo errors she made was also a bit exaggeration. Personification is about elucidating some inhuman entity as having features alike or related to that of human characteristics. S. J. Perelman in “Insert Flap A and Throw Away” personifies moths as “ghostly chuckling of the moths”. The process of personification adds more comprehensible depth to the essays; it is because the audience of the essays is exclusively humans, and thus humans value human characteristics more, so a profound impression of inhuman entity acting on some of human characteristics makes it more worthy of remembrance. This technique is also used by essayist to make their essays convincing enough to catch the audience and make them continue reading through out the essay. 2. A Case Study Tone, hyperbole, allusion, personification, metaphor, humor and profound vocabulary are some of the essay essentials that make an essay different from a dry fact or a collection of information or a stated procedure. The discussion about the examples about the different essay essentials have already been discussed a bit; here it is more ample that we make a case study of these essentials on an essay of S.J. Perelman entitled “Insert Flap A and Throw Away”. The author in “Insert Flap A and Throw Away” used a humorous and witty satire tone, describing a bad point where all projects got in vain. Frustration became more severe because of failure after failure and in the end he made a disaster by cutting himself. On the corollary he woke up and watched that her wife was communicating with a doctor that how much medication he had to take daily. So it was an essay filled with humor and follies. There were profound words used in this essay, few of them are ‘dolorous’ (means agony) and ‘trice’ means (very sudden). A good rhetoric hyperbole is also used about an attic’s temperature that as it was about three forty degrees Fahrenheit. Bibliography Bensmaïa, R. The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1987. Pasco, A. H. (2002). Allusion: A Literary Graft. Rookwood Press. DAgata, J. (2009). The Lost Origins of the Essay. St Paul: Graywolf Press. Royko, M. (n.d.). Shorthand Grad is Shorchanged. Lopate, P. (1998). In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film. Wesleyan University Press. Perelman, S. (n.d.). Insert Flap A and Throw Away. Waddell, C. Basic Prose Style and Mechanics. Warburton, N. (2006). The basics of essay writing. Routledge. Read More