{"id":5843,"date":"2023-11-29T01:32:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T01:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningcommons.twu.ca\/?p=5843"},"modified":"2024-04-28T12:09:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T20:09:00","slug":"brian-thomson-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/2023\/11\/29\/brian-thomson-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Thomson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian’s Reflection<\/h1>\n

Brian Thomson<\/h3>\n

April 29, 2022<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n

As a Writing Coach, I am often asked <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> we write essays the way we do. Though some students may uncritically listen to my suggestions, others look at me with aggrieved faces when I tell them they wrote their essays in the wrong format, almost as if I had chosen to tell them so at my whim. Why does it matter to write an introduction this way, the conclusions that way, and the body paragraphs another way? Why write essays at all?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we are told to write essays for our classes, some of us whine, like Anakin Skywalker in <\/span>Attack of the Clones<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>I don\u2019t like essays<\/span><\/i>;<\/span> they\u2019re long and stressful and difficult and they go nowhere. <\/span><\/i>It is a tedious task that will even tempt some to the Dark Side (i.e. plagiarism). Why this system?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I learned that the most straightforward answer is that it allows for uniformity. In China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, for example, those who wanted to work for the civil service had to follow the same format: the eight-legged essay. This literary form served as a \u201csimple\u201d and \u201cimpartial\u201d way to rank quality.\u00b9<\/span>\u00a0Though some may have said this structure was unnecessarily tedious, as a teaching assistant, I can see its value. I had to mark plenty of papers this year. A teacher may have to mark over a hundred essays. If every essay was unique, it would be very difficult to mark them all fairly. What <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> fair when everybody\u2019s writing is so different?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second answer is the organization of thought. Before the essay, students recorded what they learned in \u201ccommonplace books.\u201d Victoria Burke defines the term as \u201ca collection of humanist-inspired extracts from classical writers arranged under topic headings,\u201d though she also adds they may be understood as unstructured compilations of prose and verse.<\/span>\u00b2<\/span> They may be seen as well-curated notebooks for school subjects; or information management systems, if you are techy. Zachary S. Schiffman writes that by the early sixteenth century commonplace books became a system of classification of knowledge, namely, the \u201ctraditional wisdom of society.\u201d<\/span>\u00b3<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And so it was that 500 years ago, in a continent far, far away, the French humanist Michel de Montaigne<\/span> (1533\u20131592)<\/span> created the <\/span>essay<\/span><\/i>, a genre of literature heretofore unknown in Europe. During this time, the commonplace book appears to take more of a deliberate turn towards an organized presentation of knowledge. In French as in Spanish, <\/span>essay <\/span><\/i>can mean \u201cattempt,\u201d\u2074<\/span> and in the latter, \u201crehearsal.\u201d<\/span>\u2075<\/span> A rehearsal towards what, you may ask? \u201cFor Montaigne,\u201d writes Schiffman, \u201can essay was basically an argument <\/span>in utramque partem<\/span><\/i> [i.e. in which one can take either side] undertaken for its own sake, not to establish rules of conduct but to portray the workings of a unique mind.\u201d\u2076<\/span>\u00a0Thus, one may see the essay as an attempt to present an argument in a systematic fashion as well as a method by which to gauge a student\u2019s thinking.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Benjamin A. Elman, \u201cEight-Legged Essay,\u201d in vol. 2 of Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power<\/em>, edited by Linsun Cheng (Great Barrington: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009), 697. 10.1093\/acref\/9780190622671.001.0001<\/p>\n

2. Victoria Burke, \u201cRecent Studies in Commonplace Books,\u201d English Literary Renaissance<\/em> 43, no. 1 (2013): 153. doi:10.1111\/1475-6757.12005<\/p>\n

3. Zachary S. Schiffman, Montaigne and the Rise of Skepticism in Early Modern Europe: A Reappraisal<\/em>. Journal of the History of Ideas<\/em> vol. 45, no. 4 (1984): 500.<\/p>\n

4. Collins English-French Dictionary, s.v. \u201cEssay.\u201d https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english-french\/essay<\/p>\n

5. Hablo espa\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n

6. Schiffman, Montaigne and the Rise of Skepticism in Early Modern Europe<\/em>, 513.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burke, Victoria. \u201cRecent Studies in Commonplace Books.\u201d <\/span>English Literary Renaissance<\/span><\/i> 43, no. <\/span> 1 (2013): 153\u2013177. doi:10.1111\/1475-6757.12005<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elman, Benjamin A. \u201cEight-Legged Essay.\u201d In Vol. 2 of <\/span>Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: <\/span><\/i> Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power<\/span><\/i>, edited by <\/span> Linsun Cheng, 695\u2013698. Great Barrington: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009. <\/span> 10.1093\/acref\/9780190622671.001.0001<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Schiffman, Zachary S. <\/span>Montaigne and the Rise of Skepticism in Early Modern Europe: A <\/span><\/i> Reappraisal<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Journal of the History of Ideas<\/span><\/i> vol. 45, no. 4 (1984): 499\u2013516.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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