4 Types of Material in Every Essay

To put this simply, there are 4 types of material that an essay wants to assemble: personal Experiences, cultural References, things that prove you right, and things that prove you wrong. Without experience, it’s an article. Without references, it’s a journal. Without counterpoints, it’s propaganda. Through the intersection of these tensions, your ... See more

This has fractured the essay into competing mediums. “Articles” use factoids to make mechanical arguments, while “opinion pieces” weave feelings in an organic stream. In articles, the author has no presence. In personal essays, the author’s presence is all there is. One optimizes for objective truth, the other for subjective honesty, and both camps... See more