Word: essayed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...genesis of a perfect essay lies in a particular, rational observation of the workaday world. For example, on my daily outing to work I notice that all the subway riders, while somewhat sleepy, are sprightly in their attitude toward the day. When I return from work on the same train line, I see similar faces, also somewhat sleepy, but distinctly dispirited in their appearance. My conclusion is that the work these riders, whom we may surmise are representative of workers the country over, perform drains rather than fulfills them...
...concluding sentence of the previous paragraph would serve well as the thesis for a perfect essay--which should always be the first sentence of the essay--since it is a logical deduction that can be proved by evidence. The reader will appreciate clarity and simplicity in both the thought and the vocabulary of the author of the essay. It is not that the reader is a stupid person but that he or she ought not to have to give extra thought to a statement if it might be put before him or her in a transparent fashion. Acuity of purpose...
Following the beginning of the essay is the middle of the essay, by which I refer to all of those (evenly worded) graphs which are necessary to lead the reader from one's introduction--itself requiring only a paragraph or, at most, two--to one's conclusion, which ought to be of similar length and breadth to one's introduction and ought to appear as a mirror image of its earlier self in determining exactly what was set out to prove. These middle paragraphs can be many or few, but they must be evenly numbered, and they must not confuse...
Inasmuch as that is noted, the objective for the writer of the perfect essay is the exact argument. The exact argument proceeds from a previously elaborated thesis. It is ordinarily divided into two, three or four points. All complex arguments are also required to be reduced to two, three or four points so that the reader can comprehend the nature of the argument. Within each point, the author is required to marshal evidence to convince the reader that the thesis of the essay is perfect. In the case of the weary workers, for example, the author might cite personal discussions...
...essay arrives, of course, only after the author has proved the thesis. The purpose of the end in a perfect essay is not to continue the argument of the essay--in that case, the essay would not have ended. Nor is the purpose of the end to simply stop--a red light is not the equivalent of an ending. Rather, a conclusion is a sort of contented wrapping of the package, a happy ending, a period. A conclusion works backward, restating the points of the argument in reverse. Then the conclusion, not smugly but always with confidence, states--not suggests...