Essay Writing::Lecture:1 RIAZ LAGHARI

Essay Writing::Lecture:1

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.--Matthew Arnold



1-This lecture is purely for students who intend appearing in exams and is primarily focused on the attributes of essay writing for academic purpose or in exam situations.


2-If you are a beginner, don’t worry because essay writing is not an inborn quality but it is a skill that is developed by learning and practice.

3-A good essay is a comprehensive composition on a particular topic; beneficial, convincing and easily comprehensible for a reader/examiner. Essay writing is a skill of formulating your ideas about a topic in an adequate manner with the aid of rational arguments which convince the reader/examiner about what is discoursed in the essay.


4-QUESTION FORMAT ( Exams): Make an outline and write a COMPREHENSIVE ESSAY (600 – 1000 words) on any one on the given topics. Make sure you use different forms of discourse e.g. description, narration, illustration etc.
Essay writing can be divided into following four parts on the basis of marking in an Exam.
A. Discourse/ideas and thoughts presented in an essay
B. Structure of essay
C. Making Outline
D. Principles and Qualities of a good essay
E. Proficiency and competency in writing in English


5-Discourse/ideas and thoughts presented in an essay
The first and foremost thing that ensures your success in essay writing for academic/exam purpose is what you present in your essay, your ideas and thoughts. They expect from you :
A.a great deal of knowledge about the topic;
B. maturity in your thoughts and ideas;
C. thoughts based on facts supporting or opposing the topic;
D. widely accepted thoughts;
E- multi-dimensional approach to explain about the topic and
F-proper way of expressing your ideas and thoughts.


6-All these aspects depend upon following factors:
A.How much have you done general study about various topics like different issues, personalities, aspects of society, political issues and events, science, religion, art, literature, history, current problems and challenges, etc.
B.How do you observe, analyze and compare or contrast various things (like above topics etc) while you study, learn or hear them.
C.Your cognitive abilities.(Cognitive -cognition=perception/awareness/learning)


7-Structure of an essay::.An essay has three parts, 1. Introduction, 2. Body, 3. Conclusion


A.Introduction:
An essay always starts with an introduction to the topic or subject-matter of the essay. The first paragraph serves as an introductory paragraph, where you have to write about what the topic means or explain about the subject-matter to provide basic understanding of the topic. The old way is to start an essay with a definition, literal meaning of the topic or widely accepted interpretation of the topic. The modern essayist though starts an essay with a general explanation by writing the main attributes of the topic to introduce the topic. Choosing either ways to write the introduction to the topic depends upon the subject matter of essay. Some of the essays given in exam may not be directly introduced with the help of a definition or quotation where you can start with widely accepted interpretation of the topic or by converging its basic attributes to write its introduction. The introduction should be appealing and fascinating to the reader because it exhibits your first impression on reader and reflects overall beauty of your essay.


General structure of introduction should be:
Topic Sentence (addressing the topic directly)
Supporting Sentences (6 – 8 sentences comprising explanations, examples, statistics, quotations etc., in support of topic sentence i.e. statement of essay)
Thesis Statement (gist of essay in 1 or 2 sentences)
A sample introduction for the same topic is as under:
Good governance in Pakistan has become an unrealized dream. (Topic Sentence)
History is evident of the fact that nations did not vanish due to poverty or hunger, but because of mal-administration and bad governance. Pakistan has been home to many serious troubles including terrorism, corruption, energy crisis, water crisis, rising poverty and uncontrolled urbanization. But if causes are traced there is only one answer and that is absence of good governance. If recent events are traced back, it will be unveiled that Pakistan must have not fallen prey to such serious problems had there been better governance system. But quite unfortunately, governance kept deteriorating and so did the system. There must be realization among the giants of administration and governance that why there is always need of judiciary to correct their ills? Why at the end of every disaster foreign aid becomes the sole resort? Why after every security failure foreign hand is blamed? The answer is same that when system of governance is absent; the vacuum is filled by those who have no role to play in it. (Supporting Sentences)
The following paragraphs should highlight main ingredients of good governance followed by the evidences on absence of good governance in Pakistan. Leading to the end. there will be analysis of current situation along with solutions to ensure good governance . (Thesis Statement)


B.Body:
It is the middle part of essay which initiates after introduction. It can consist of as many paragraphs as you can write or you are required to write. It is the largest part of the essay including all the argumentation, elaboration of ideas, reasoning and all necessary explanation about the topic. All what you need for this part is to learn how to write a paragraph. Each paragraph comprises elaboration of a similar idea relating the subject matter. The first sentence of each paragraph again serves as an introductory sentence to what is discussed in the paragraph. The first line of each paragraph is indented a little to right making it distinct from the other paragraph.
Moreover, the order of paragraphs should be in a proper sequence. Which idea should be written first and which idea should be written next needs to be developed.Body paragraphs must follow the sequence given in your outline.Follow the sequence of the outline.Write a separate paragraph for each major point in the outline.

C-Conclusion:(Reinforcement of Thesis statement,Supporting Sentences ,topic Sentence)
The last part of essay, conclusion, is to sum up all YOUR ideas (whatever you have written in THE BODY PARAGRAPHS ) to derive a conclusion. You are supposed to write a short theme to the all discourse made about the topic, considering the main ideas (remember, the theme, not the all main ideas) and write some lines as a conclusion to overall discourse. It should be a satisfactory end for the reader ON A POSITIVE . REMEMBER: PMA (Positive Mental Attitude)! Be relevant .The more prepared you are ;the better it is.Preparation,practice and follow-up work will help you gain perfection.Corrections and credibility are both in language and thought are highly beneficial.Quality of ideas/arguments matters.Be Sublime!Gain perfection.Fluency, coherence, brevity and logical reasoning will will add laurels to your crown.



D-Making an Outline:
Making an outline for an essay means to make a sketch for the entire essay by writing the basic and main ideas which are to be elaborated to write the essay. Making an outline is important for two reasons, firstly it is an essential of your answer as asked in the question and secondly it helps you to write an essay with perfection.

Before starting to write the essay, think over the topic to collect the main ideas which you will elaborate in the essay. Write down all these main ideas in the form of lines having numbers or bullets. You can give a name or a title to each main idea while making the outline or you can also write each main idea in a sentence form but all the ideas should be in proper order.




Outlining/The Outline:Outline is the skeleton of an essay. It should be very comprehensive and elaborated.
-The outline is your plan to the essay you are going to write.It should be in the form of an indented outline.It should be in the form of major divisions ,minor divisions and so on....
-Outlines are of two types:Topic Outline /Sentence Outline -The essay is built on the foundation of outline.
-Outlines should neither be too long nor too short.
-Start with simple topic outlines and later develop them into longer sentence outlines.
-Test of Outline:Each minor division should point to major division and major division to thesis and thesis to the essay topic.
-An outline, also called a hierarchical outline, is a list arranged to show hierarchical relationships and is a type of tree structure. An outline is used to present the main points or topics of a given subject. Each item in an outline may be divided into additional sub-items.


8-Principles and Qualities of a Good Essay
An essay is never written haphazardly but always written according to certain principles. Besides, a good essay has certain qualities which make the essay interesting, appealing and convincing.

A.Unity:
An essay, written on a particular topic, should have uniformity. All the ideas and thoughts expressed in the essay should be related to the topic. Similarly each paragraph should have unity. Unity means that each paragraph should be about ONLY ONE idea. Different paragraphs have different ideas relating to the topic but each paragraph is confined to one idea. Never embed a different idea in a paragraph which explains a particular idea.


B.Coherence and Order:
The ideas should be expressed in a logical continuity. Coherence means that ideas flow smoothly from one sentence to the next sentence. Order is the logical sequence of ideas presented in the essay. Order of ideas means what should be written first and what should be written next. Ideas should be expressed in a proper order of importance or events.

Avoid repetition of a same idea. Don’t reproduce the same idea again and again which you have already narrated once in your essay. Repetition leaves a very bad impression on the reader/examiner. Similarly ,it is better to use different words (noun, verbs etc) for the same meaning if it is repeated again and again.

Avoid unnecessary details and explanations. Always be focused on the subject matter and try to write to the point. Don’t try to elongate your explanation by giving unnecessary and irrelevant details. Your explanation may be neither too long nor too short but should be comprehensive and sufficient in knowledge about the topic.

The way of presenting ideas and thoughts should be appropriate. The way you describe, explain, elaborate or discuss about an idea counts a lot for writing a good essay. Always try to write in a simple, clear and easily comprehensible manner. Never write ideas in a convoluted manner. Write short and simple sentences instead of writing very long sentences containing many clauses,if don't feel at home in sentence structure /syntax/mechanics of English. Writing on different dimensions of the subject matter should be put forward in such a way that each aspect should be fully unveiled so that there may be no room for ambiguity for the reader.Give statistics with reference. Quote properly. Analyze with reason.

C.Proficiency and competence in writing in English:
It is an open secret that writing standard English and grammatical accuracy play a vital role in success in essay writing for academic purpose or in exams. You should know the art of literary and scholarly writing. It needs a long discussion to expatiate(speak or write in detail about) about improving written English but let me give you some rudimentary(involving or limited to basic principles) tips. A basic attribute which is to learn idiomatic usage in writing an essay should be developed. For earning grammatical accuracy in your writing, study English grammar thoroughly (not cursorily) to learn the correct usage of grammatical units i.e. verbs, adverbs, adjective, coordination, subordination, subject-verb agreement, phrasal verbs etc.Avoid informal writing and contractions.





9- A:Achilles' heel / Achilles' heels::
Organisation,expression,format/clarity,correctness,credibility/completenessReasons:::
A.poor expression/weak grammar/No variety punctuation marks/spelling mistakes
B.improper usage of vocabulary/limited range of lexical resource
C.Flawed Approach the Essay topic /Essay not according to the title/Question/Digression
D.weak structure of essay/format
E.lack of continuity/no sequence/no sense of direction/no link between 2 consecutive paragraphs
F.blunders in arguments and language
G.No Transitions/weak introduction/weak conclusion(one simply repeats the other)
H.Lack of practice in essay writing
I.No/poor guidance in English
J.Word limit
K.Memorized/Crammed up material
L-Thesis Statement(too general/truism/too narrow//no statement
M.Cluttered layout/messed up


9-B:Major Obstacles ::
Weak Thesis statement
Disproportionate/irrelevant Outline
Poor start/Introduction
Flawed Conclusion
Dearth of Compelling arguments
Fear of Failure/Fear Factor
Psychological Barriers




Language Barrier
Misunderstanding the Topic
Time (MIS)Management


10-A Pragmatic Approach:Understand -Write and get your essays checked!



Let us proceed:
A.First things first:Stick to the basics; parts of speech, tenses, punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary, paragraph writing, and all other basic components of English should be learnt. This can be done by reading a simple grammar book.


B.Master the art of essay writing by learning and understanding the format /style of essay writing and then set about writing and keep on writing essays till you have succeeded in gaining a mastery over it The common rules of writing essay should be learnt rigorously.


C.First write short essays then longer ones.Practicing short essays will give you command over essay writing and putting firm foundation for full length essay.


D.Going through past papers of different exams, and by following current trends, shortlist some topics and collect relevant material. How much will be sufficient can be gauged by developing detailed outline of each topic.


E.Material can be gathered from two sources: One; books, magazines, newspapers, journals, etc. Two; from official documents like Quarterly reports of SBP, Economic Survey of Pakistan; reports of international agencies like WB, IMF, ADB, UN, USAID etc; treaties, agreements, etc. They are significant in order to strengthen your discourse skills.


F.Practice essay strictly following the format /exam pattern and get it evaluated. This should be done regularly especially in Dec and Jan. In this way, you will feel less pressure in actual examination.


G.Selection of Topic:
This is crucial. Read question paper extensively. List the topics you can write on and brainstorm. Make rough outlines of those and then finalize one topic.


H.Marks Distribution:
Outline=05

Content=50
Introduction=10
Layout=05
Handwriting=05
Language=20
Conclusion=05
Total=100
I.Essay Topics for practice:

1.Pakistan's Response to Terrorism and its outcome/consequence./War on Terror:Measure its success/Take a Stand Against the Armies Of Ignorance/Pakistan's War on Terror and its Impact on our Psyche and Politic, Socio, Economic Fronts./Dialogue or coercion - is the Best Course to Combat Terroris 2.Solution to Power Crisis-Kalabagh Dam or Alternative Sources of Energy?
3.Democracy has failed to deliver in Pakistan!Discuss./The Future of Democracy in Pakistan/What are the hurdles in our way to becoming a truly independent state?/Democracy is a culture rather than a process
4.Media-a Mirror to the Society or a Frankensteinian Monster/Power of Media in the Modern World/Globalization and electronic media/The present system of education must assume some of the responsibilities of our failures of media/Truth is a rare commodity despite the freedom enjoys by the print media and electronic media.
5.Palestine is missing from the agenda of the United Nations ;nor is The United States ready to press on nor Israel ready to accommodate Palestinians.Elaborate.
6.Impact of Immigration on the politics of the developed world/The world politics stands more derisive than it was ever before due to the specific imperialist designs/The Politics of Empowerment in Pakistan.Elucidate/Political is the art of possible. Discuss.
7.Pakistan and War on Terror: Gains and Losses
8.Status of Women in Islam./The state of women Rights in Pakistan/Can women be equal to men in Pakistan?/Why is there no status of the third gender in Pakistan?/Does Pakistani society regard women as the angel in the house of the source of all evils?SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL CONSTRAINTS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN/A country is backward because its people are backward.
9.Provincial Autonomy.
10.Climate Change:A Myth or Reality!/Global Warming/Climate Change/Greenhouse Effect
11.Is Foreign Aid the SOLUTION TO POVERTY in Pakistan or Self-reliance might be our saviour ?/Foreign Aid and Pakistan's Economic Condition
12.Brain Drain-causes and consequences
13.State is for The People Or People Are For The State.
14.Materialism in the Death of Spirituality.Moral depravity is the root cause of poverty./Modern Nations :Are Atomic Giants but Ethically Dwarfs
15.Time management is the key note of success.
16.Lack of discipline - a National Disaster./In this Country Reason does not Apply to Anything./Disaster management and government preparedness.
18.Equality,Justice/All Humans are Born Equal in Dignity and Rights but They are in Shackles Everywhere.
19. The future of UNO, Hopes and Hurdles/The U.N.O has failed to measure up to the demands of its charter.
20.Pakistan's Response to Terrorism and its outcome/consequence./War on Terror:Measure its success/Take a Stand Against the Armies Of Ignorance/Pakistan's War on Terror and its Impact on our Psyche and Politic, Socio, Economic Fronts./Dialogue or coercion - is the Best Course to Combat Terrorism
21.Higher education as an agent of change./Co-education , Merits and Demerits/Education System in Pakistan has Collapsed!Discuss/English as the Medium of Education in Pakistan
22. Disaster management and government preparedness.
23. ' If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?'/The time we live in is the winter of the world.
24. Prevention is Better Than Cure./Health is not a Condition of Matter, but of Mind.
25.The more Developed a Country, the More Lethally it is Armed.
26.The food crisis: problems, challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan.
27.There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
28.Literature is the Best Criticism of Life./Art critics and reviewers
29.Pakistan is Rich in Natural Resources but very Poor in their Management.
30.Without Independent Truth-finding Commission, Accountability is Unachievable.
32. Without good communication skills, life becomes impossible in the Modern World.There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.









11.Here is a list of important data sources for updated and authentic information/data that might be helpful for students/CSS/PMS Aspirants,especially for Essay,Current Affairs and Pakistan Affairs.

FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION:




Islamabad (Headquarter):





Federal Public Service Commission,
Agha Khan Road, Sector F 5/1,
Islamabad.
Ph: 051-9205075 (25 lines)
Ph: 051-111-000-248
Ph: 051-9212427
Ph: 051-9212423
Ph: 051-9212425
Fax: 051-9213386
Email: fpsc@fpsc.gov.pk
LINKS TO FEDERAL & PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONS WEBSITES:
http://www.fpsc.gov.pk/ http://www.ppsc.gop.pk/

https://www.spsc.gov.pk/

https://www.kppsc.gov.pk/

http://bpsc.gob.pk/

http://www.ajkpsc.gov.pk/

IMPORTANT LINKS TO GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN'S WEBSITES:

http://establishment.gov.pk/

http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/

https://pmo.gov.pk/

http://www.pbs.gov.pk/

http://www.sbp.org.pk/

http://establishment.gov.pk/

http://www.senate.gov.pk/

http://www.na.gov.pk/

LINKS TO PAKISTAN'S LEADING NEWSPAPERS WEBSITES:

https://www.dawn.com/

https://citynews.com.pk/

https://www.thenews.com.pk/

https://dailytimes.com.pk/

https://jang.com.pk/


LINKS TO MAGAZINES:

https://herald.dawn.com/

https://www.rd.com/


LINKS TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS WEBSITES:
https://www.un.org/en/

https://www.un.org/en/about-un/

https://www.worldbank.org/

https://www.imf.org/

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/


https://www.weforum.org/

https://www.britannica.com/

https://www.ted.com/talks

Links for quotations:

https://www.goodreads.com/

https://www.brainyquote.com/

https://www.quora.com/


Links to some of the websites that you may find helpful to build your lexical resource/vocabulary:

https://www.vocabulary.com/

https://visuwords.com/recording_system

https://www.etymonline.com/

https://freerice.com/categories/english-vocabulary

https://wordsift.org/

https://www.lexico.com/

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

https://learningenglishwithoxford.com/



SOME USEFUL WEBSITES ONLINE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT:

www.khanacademy.org
www.academicearths.org
www.coursera.com
www.edx.org
www.open2study.com
www.academicjournals.org
codeacademy.org
youtube.com/education


*ONLINE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT*
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses/ocwsites
http://ocw.tufts.edu -Tuft University
http://ocw.upm.es -Univesidad Politechnica, Madrid
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/
http://ocw.usu.edu/ -Utah State University
http://open.umich.edu/ -University of Michigan
http://ocw.nd.edu/ -Nore Dame University


*BOOK SITES*
www.bookboon.com
http://ebookee.org
http://sharebookfree.com
http://m.freebooks.com
www.obooko.com
www.manybooks.net
www.epubbud.com
www.bookyards.com
www.getfreeebooks.com
http://freecomputerbooks.com
www.essays.se
www.sparknotes.com
www.pink.monkey.com


*ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS*
www.ehow.com
www.whatis.com
www.howstuffwork.com
www.webopedia.com
www.plagtracker.com
www.answers.com
*SEARCH SITES*
■ About.com (www.about.com)
■ AllTheWeb (www.alltheweb.com)
■ AltaVista (www.altavista.com)
■ Ask Jeeves! (www.askjeeves.com)
■ Excite (www.excite.com)
■ HotBot (www.hotbot.com)
■ LookSmart (www.looksmart.com)
■ Lycos (www.lycos.com)
■ Open Directory (www.dmoz.org)
■ Google (www.google.com)
■ Mamma (www.mamma.com)
■ Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com)
■ Aol (www.aol.com)
■ Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)
■ 10pht (www.10pht.com)
*SEARCHING FOR PEOPLE*
■ AnyWho (www.anywho.com)
■ InfoSpace (www.infospace.com)
■ Switchboard (www.switchboard.com)
■ WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com)
■ WhoWhere (www.whowhere.lycos.com)
*SEARCHING FOR THE LATEST NEWS*
■ ABC News (www.abcnews.com)
■ CBS News (www.cbsnews.com)
■ CNN (www.cnn.com)
■ Fox News (www.foxnews.com)
■ MSNBC (www.msnbc.com)
■ New York Times (www.nytimes.com)
■ USA Today (www.usatoday.com)
*SEARCHING FOR SPORTS HEADLINES AND SCORES*
■ CBS SportsLine (www.sportsline.com)
■ CNN/Sports Illustrated (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
■ ESPN.com (espn.go.com)
■ FOXSports (foxsports.lycos.com)
■ NBC Sports (www.nbcsports.com)
■ The Sporting News (www.sportingnews.com)
*SEARCHING FOR MEDICAL INFORMATION*
■ healthAtoZ.com (www.healthatoz.com)
■ kidsDoctor (www.kidsdoctor.com)
■ MedExplorer (www.medexplorer.com)
■ MedicineNet (www.medicinenet.com)
■ National Library of Medicine
(www.nlm.nih.gov)
■ Planet Wellness (www.planetwellness.com)
■ WebMD Health (my.webmd.com)
*JOURNALS*
http://www.indexcopernicus.com Multidisciplinary
http://www.ajol.info/ - African Journal Online
www.africanjournalseries.com -
www.devconsortservices.com.ng
www.doaj.org - directory of open access journal
www.sabinet.co.za - South African Journals.
www.oajse.com - Open Access Journal Search Engine
http://www.lub.lu.se/en.html - Lund University
http://www.dovepress.com/ - Free Scientific & Medical Materials
http://www.copernicus.org/ - Access & Publication
ACADEMIC SEARCH/WEB RESEARCH TOOLS/REFERENCE MANAGERS
http://academic.research.microsoft.com - Multidisciplinary
http://www.scirus.com
www.scholar.google.com
http://dbis.uni-trier.de/DBL-Browser/ - Digital Bibliography Library Browser
http://academic.live.com - Live Search Academic
http://www.science.gov/ - USA government for Science
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/index - Computing & Information Sciences
http://www.mendeley.com/ - academic social network/collaboration
http://www.worldcat.org/ - Multidisciplinary
http://libserver.cedefop.europa.eu - Voc & Tech Education
http://inspirehep.net/ - Stanford physics information retrieval system
hsystemv www.ssrn.com/ - Social Science Research Network. M.Ravichandran.VKR PHARMA KRISHNAGIRI


Dr Furrukh Saleem Link to articles in The News:
https://www.thenews.com.pk/writer/dr-farrukh-saleem


Dr Atta ur Rahman
https://atta-ur-rahman.com/Eng_articles_list.php


For more information/guidance:

WhatsApp/Call/Text @ 03335704766(Riaz Laghari)
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EPILOGUE::THE MAN IN THE ARENA
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”―Theodore Roosevelt (26TH US PRESIDENT from 1901- 1909)