Writing Good Essays

Assembling the right material, clarifying our thoughts, and expressing in a systematic manner, is what makes a good essay. Though we all get trained to write essays in our schools, but getting good stuff out may not be as simple as it sounds. Expressing your thoughts require a certain amount of skill which many lack. A good essay will need a critical mindset and an absolute hold over the language. Your language should be correct, logical, and precise. Don't worry if you can't write a good essay yourself. With many online services available you always have the option to outsource this work.

Definition
An essay, according to Wikipedia, is a short piece of writing written from the writer's perspective. Essays could be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author.

While most essays are concise and to the point, there are also examples of voluminous works in the category of essays. An essay is a tool for expressing one's views on just about any topic. Since essays are normally short pieces, they normally limit their scope. A collection of essays however serves the purpose of a more extensive coverage.

Essayists write on primarily three levels. The essays could either be autobiographical, factual or abstract/universal. While most essayists use a single frame of reference, others may use a combination of two or all three frames of reference.

Origins
The word essay can be traced back to the French word essayer meaning "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt". French author Michel de Montaigne was the first writer to describe his work as essays. He used this word to describe his works as attempts to put his thoughts into writing.

Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form were the first works in English that described themselves as essays.

Essays as educational tools
These days, essays are increasingly becoming an essential part of the education system. Essay writing is taught in schools in an attempt to improve writing skills of students. Essays are also used to judge the comprehension powers of students. They are asked to present their understanding of any topic in the form of an essay. Essays are used by universities for screening applicants.

Structure
Traditionally, essays have been set in five paragraphs. The first paragraph is the introductory one generally containing the topic summary, the supporting ideas and the main viewpoint. The next three paragraphs deal in depth with the three supporting ideas each. The last paragraph is the conclusion which re-emphasizes the supporting ideas and the viewpoint. This structure is pretty popular and much in use as it teaches students how to clearly organize and present their thoughts in writing.

Essay vs. other writing forms
Are essays not just a collection of a number of paragraphs as other writings? So, what is it that differentiates an essay from other forms of writing? The most important thing that makes essays different from other creative pieces of writing is that it is absolutely non-fictional. There is no story-telling, no plot and no fabrication whatsoever. Essays are totally factual.

Secondly, unlike news stories, essays build around a central idea and have a definite beginning, middle part and ending.

Hiring Essay Writers?
Sounds crazy? No, but this is a hugely common practice today. Essays are needed by all sorts of people and for all sorts of purposes. They could be for academic reasons. They could be for commercial purposes. Students need to submit their assignments on subjects ranging from philosophy and history to complex technical subjects. The essays they need could range from a one page write-up to a fifty page lengthy document. Professionals and companies need to keep writing samples on their websites. So where do these people go? They hire professional writers to do their essays for them. And the essays these writers provide are customized to the needs of the project. So for a fee, one can get customized essays for which they might possibly have had to spend days and possibly weeks together.

Such writers for hire are now even available online. With the boon of Internet and sophisticated search engines like Google and Yahoo, you can find out any writer of your choice, to suit your needs and budget on the net. Sounds unbelievable? Try it out right now. Just go to Google and type “buy an essay” or “hire an essay writer” and see the results for yourself.

How Ethical?
Colleges and academic institutions are up in arms against this wanton commercialization of education. They feel it is criminal and just not right for students to submit assignments not done by them. Not that there is much they can do about it though. Some teachers do take the trouble to question the students on the assignments they have submitted and the blank stares will be a definite giveaway on the originality of the essay. But this is a difficult task and the practice of hiring essay writers still prevails.

These writers on hire are not just from the US. Believe me; they could be sitting in far away Romania, Philippines or Delhi. This is a huge business for writers in these countries.