Recently I set a goal of learning how to write an essay.
A 5 paragraph essay with an Introduction, a topic sentence and a thesis. Five paragraphs with 3 for the body and a 5th for the conclusion.
I collect video with a google search, and written instructions on how to write an essay. A recipe for the craft of essay writing. The available information about the 4 types of essays, identifying a topic, the thesis statement, the introduction, the outline, the body, and the conclusion is unrelenting. One difficulty has been the blur between an essay and a research paper. Some of the essays on how to write an essay seem to blend the two. So my goal of writing is leading me to a lot of reading.
I purchase 2 books located in the Essay classification at Barnes and Nobles. I’m not certain the books qualify as essay instruction. I peruse the section of books for a collection of essays that I can use as a guide. Something to show me what a good thesis statement is. Something to give me an idea of the form for a an essay. I’m not familiar with either of the authors or the books. I scanned the book stack, looked at the covers and picked 2 books.
The first is The Trip to Echo Spring on Writers and Drinking by Olivia Lang and the second is metaphor by Denis Donoghue. I read the opening page from the first book which begins with the sentence “Here’s a thing” (1). I always heard the phrase to be here’s the thing or so, here’s the thing. Here’s a thing bothered me because I never heard anyone say “here’s a thing.” Bothered me so much I chose heresathing.com as my domain when I created my WordPress account.
My interest include reading, photography, videography, drone flying, computers, programming, classical music, and more. Seems I should be able to identify a topic and write 5 paragraphs a week with about 500 words? So far with this post, I have 330 words.
I’m also interested in politics, but I hope not to involve my “essay” with political partisanship. But, I do hope to be able to create perhaps metaphorical comments when the need might arise.
I had a thought and from the time I had the thought and logged into my account, I lost the thought….
… but I think the thought had something to do with my post over the week end coming up… December 5 – 7…. I need a topic, a thesis and 500 words.