TU || Important model question for Essays and short stories

The Types of Essays

The Essay as Argument: persuasion

(Argumentative/persuasive essay) 

All the essays present some ideas; but argumentative essay presents its ideas in the best way.  the essay written in the form of argument is called argumentative or persuasive essay. There is good argument and logic in this type of essay. It gives reasons for the conclusion. It provides the proof and convinces the readers in better way than the other essays. It can persuade them more effectively. That is why; this type of essay is also called the persuasive essay. Argumentative essays are open and direct to present their main ideas. These essays tell the central concept very clearly, The essay presents a main point and it is further supported by other evidences. The supporting, materials of the argumentative essays are: logic, argument, analogy, metaphor, example, data, anecdotes, reasons, etc. All these elements supporting material the central point of the essay.

For the better understanding of the essay, we should identify the main point in the first step. We should recognize the writer's idea and tell it as clearly as possible. Most of the argumentative essays present the main idea openly; but is to identify the main point. Then, our second job is to identify the supporting materials. The essayists often support their main ideas by logic, reason, data, expert's testimonies, facts metaphors and analogies. The examples, metaphors and facts are analogies because these examples present similar ideas. Thus, our second major job is to know these analogies. Finally, our third job is to understand and identify the personality of the speakers as it is presented in the essay. Here, we should be analytic to examine the style, tone or voice of the speakers. Then we should give our positive or negative responses. In the analytic level we evaluate the essayist and decide whether we are fully persuaded by his idea or not. Sometimes, the writers are very forceful while other are swift. This is the process to understand and prepare a good commentary.

A good example of the argumentative essay is D.H. Lawrence's Cocksure Women and Hensure Men. In this essay, his main point is that men and women have different and unique natural qualities. Men and women are basically different. If they pretend to play the role of the other, they will suffer. This main idea is supported by the analogy of the world of chicken farm where hen pretends to be cock and pretends to be hen. Although modern people will not agree with him but his logic and argument is surprisingly convincing. Sometimes, the disagreement is also pleasurable and joyful. If also helps us understand essay.

TU || Model question answer for Critical Thinking B.A. Third Year

Level: B.A. 3rd Year || Subject: Critical Thinking
Language, Linguistics and Literature

1. What is the basic relation between linguistics and literature?

Ans: Basic relation between linguistics, literature and language is complex. Language is the medium of communication; it is the system of human beings and their existence. Language is the medium of the text. Literature is a textual form supposed to be more expressive and referential.

          Language is the producer of literary texts, the language of our day to day communication completely different from literary language. Colloquial language is direct, precise, exact, one dimensional and denotative, and it has the same meaning for all the readers. But the language of literature is contextual, connotative, implied, ambiguous, and it always has the effects of time and space.

           Linguistics is the science of language and its uses. Linguistics as a branch of studies is used to have proper investigation of language. At the present time there is a hot debate between two groups of thinkers: linguists and literature critics. Linguists opine that linguistics is essential for the proper understanding and interpretation of linguistic text. But the supporters of literary texts assume that literary text is all above the common use of language. They argue that literature is different than ordinary language of ordinary ment; that's why there is no place and space for linguistics in literary analysis.

          It is true that literature itself is the product of common language that we practice in our day to day life. Literary text is made of and by language so that we can't neglect, deny or avoid the application of linguistics and its tools in literary commentary and interpretation.

          There is still a debate between hardliners of literary text and the supporters of linguistics. Literary texts and their analysis cannot be justified and agreed on without the application of linguistics. We know that linguistics has its own method of observation, calculation and judgment of various texts which cannot be easily applied in literary text even though we cannot put linguistics aside and far from literary text.

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Elements of the Essay (Essay and the Other Forms of Literature)

2.2. Essay and the Other Forms of Literature:

We know that essay use to words to express ideas that are directly addressed to the readers. The writer is directly present in the text and hi/she wants to persuade us on his/her ideas. We already know the there are four forms of literature. However, the for forms of literature have there different basic qualities. Essays are different form story, poem and drama. But it has also some similarities with them. So, we should compare essays and other forms of literature for their similarities and differences. We get the literary qualities in all the four types of essays such as persuasive essays, narrative essays, dramatic essays and poetic assays. Persuasive essays are the most original and typical forms of the essays. We find arguments, reasons and logic in persuasive essays. There is the central thesis (main idea) In every text which is justified by many supporting materials such as analogy, comparison, facts and details. Narrative essays are similar to the story in their structure or form.  The writers take the role of the narrator to express their idea. They make beautiful stories or narrate interesting events to support their ideas. We know that the narrative essays are only similar to stories but actually, they are not stories; they are essays. So, their main purpose is to persuade us on their ideas and concepts. Persuasive essay persuades us by argument but narrative essay persuades us by the appeal, events and consequences made in the form of the story.

Dramatic and poetic essays also try to persuade the readers by the appeal, events and consequence. Dramatic essay takes the form of dialogue and interaction. The whole essay is written in dialogue form. It also use other basic elements of drama such as setting, plot, characters, development of actions, etc. The writers give their ideas by the mouthpiece character other central character. The character who gives the writer's ideas is called the mouthpiece character or the spokesperson. Usually, what the main character realizes is the central idea. Sometimes the central idea is derived from the conclusion of events. Anyway, dramatic essays are similar to short dramas in the form. Poetic essays are similar to poems in their deep feelings and thoughts. The writers take the role of the meditative speakers because they seem to be talking to themselves but not to the readers. They do not care what the readers are thinking or what their reaction would be. But they just go on telling about their ideas in an appealing (arousing) way. Ultimately, they persuade the readers by their appeal. Therefore, we boldly say that all types of essays try to persuade the readers on their ideas and concepts. So, persuasion it at the heart of all essays. The distinctions among persuasive, narrative, dramatic and poetic essays help us to categorize them. If we can recognize these four forms of essays, we can write better commentaries. We will appreciate the text very well and very easily. So, it is important to know the similarities and differences between the essays and other forms of literature.

B.A. II year Elements of the Essay (Essay as a form of literature):

Elements of the Essay

Essay as a form of literature

Essay is one of the four forms of literature. It is considered literature because it has all the elements that the literature should have. Essay is a prose composition with moderate length that expresses ideas and feelings. Essays were originally developed by a French writer Montaigne in the sixteenth century. He used to write about his vision and ideas on the paper. He wrote many prose compositions which he called 'essais' that means 'to try'. Later the term 'essais' was modified and it was called essay in English. Therefore, essay originally means to try to write something on the paper.

Generally, there are two types of essays: literary essays and practical essays. Literary, essays are not written in the form of literature but the practical or scientific essays are not written with deep feelings and sensitivity. They give both ideas as well as pleasure. Some literary essays are written like stories, some are written like poems, and some are written like dramas. All of them are in the form of literature. Some people say that essays are not literature because they do not use literary language. Of course, not literature because they do not use literary language. But literary essays are literature. So, there is great difference between literary essays and non-literary essays, literary language and non-literary language. Literary essays are like literature full of imagination and feelings but non-literary essays are practical essays like scientific researches, factual writings. They are systematically organized, factually detailed, closely reasoned and plainly written. It means that they use formal and direct language. But literary essays use literary language. Here, literary language means symbolic, metaphorical, connotative and twisted language. They make us emotional and aroused to persuade on their ideas. Although the main aim of the essay is to persuade us but they also make us excited. For example, George Orwell wrote an essay 'Shooting an Elephant'. It is about the bad effect of imperialism. It shows an important idea that imperialism is bad not only for the natives but also for the imperialists themselves. This idea is given in an exciting way. So, this essay is written in the form of literature. It not only gives idea but it also gives us pleasure like other forms of literature.

In the same way, Virginia Woolf's essay 'The Death of the Moth' gives us very important idea that life is equally important for all whether they are small insects like a moth of they are human beings. All of them struggle a lot to save their lives. The essayist gives the example of a moth how it struggles and how important its life is for it. Therefore, this essay gives these ideas very sympathetically arousing deep feelings. Both of these essays are written in the form of literature. Some essays are written in the form of a story but some in the form of poem and still others in the form of drama. So, there are four types of essays: argumentative essays, narrative essays, poetic essays and dramatic essays. Anyway, all of them are in the form of literature. The pleasure in these essays is similar to the pleasure we get in the drama or poem. So, these essays are also the forms of literature. 

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Important notes for B.A. II year | 2nd year 2073 (2016)

The forms of literature

Literature is an art that attempts to imitate human life through written discourse. The main objective of literature is to give pleasure to the readers. But it also gives some important lessons to them through its didactic purpose. Literature makes our lives better because it increases our capacities to understand the meaning of our life experiences. The more we develop that capacity, the more enlightening, insightful, enriching and enjoyable our reading becomes. Literature uses very artistic language that is different from common language. It uses literary language which is symbolic, metaphorical, twisted, suggestive, indirect and connotative.

          Literature has four forms. They are: essay, fiction, poetry and drama. These four forms are also called the four genres of literature. All these four forms use language as the bases of their expression. All of them express ideas or feelings by using language. It is impossible to create any literary texts without using language. But the way they use language is different from each other. All the four forms use unique and distinct way of expression. Some use language to create imaginary people and event but some others use language to express ideas and feelings. More particularly, story and drama use language to create imaginary people and events but essay and poetry use language to express ideas and feelings. So, there is great difference in how they use words. The four forms can be divided horizontally into two types according to how they use language. In the same way, they are again divided vertically into two types according to how they communicate to the readers. Story and essay use the words directly addressed to the readers but drama and poem use the words that ae overheard by the readers. In other words, story and essay directly address the readers but drama and poems do not directly address the readers. The ideas and feelings they express are heard by the readers. The following diagram divides into four categories according to how they use the words and how we divide them into four types.

            In the above diagram, we see story and drama on the upper level. They use words to create imaginary people and events. But we see essay and poem on the lower level. They use words to express ideas and feelings. Similarly, we see story and essay on the left hand side. They use words that are directly addressed to the readers. Bu we see drama and poem on the right hand side. They use words to speak themselves and we hear them that they say. They do not address the readers directly. Therefore, we can divide literature into four forms. All of them have different basic qualities.