ESSAY

Objective:
1. Note the following:
Philippine essay
Kinds of essays
• Essays were first used by the ancient Greek
Philosophers:
• - Plato
• - Aristotle
• ( recorded their philosophical and scientific
ideas.)
• -Roman writers used essays to express their
views on social, political and philosophical
issues during the reign of the Roman empire.
• - Cicero
• - Seneca
• -Lucan
• A Frenchman named Michael de Montaigne
wrote his thoughts, feelings and ideas and
compiled them in his publication called
“essais”. (Father of Modern Essay)
• In England, a man named Francis Bacon also
wrote his views and opinions through essays
which made him to be the “Father of English
Essay”.
• Soon the essay began to flourish in other parts
of the world like Asia, particularly in the
Philippines.
• Dr. Jose Rizal, during the Spanish regime,
wrote political essays to express his sentiment
and anger towards abuses and cruelty of
Spaniards to Filipinos.
• He wrote “The Indolence of the Filipinos,”
“The Philippines a Century Hence” and “Letter
to the Women of Malolos.”
• Graciano Lopez Jaena, Jose Burgos and
Apolinario Mabini joined Rizal in his crusade
against the Spaniards and these writers
succeeded in their fights with the help of the
American Government.
 Definition of Essay
• An essay is a form of prose which is a written
account of the writer’s feelings, thoughts,
ideas, opinions, experience and views.
• Essay is different from other literary genres for
it does not follow any norms or standards.
• It is also different from a short story, novel and
drama for it does not need to have characters,
plot and setting.
• The writer is free to write anything he wishes
to write.
• However, they do not write merely for self-
expression; they want to impart knowledge,
lessons or values about life.
 Types of Essay
• 1. Familiar essays – are very informal,
amusing, entertaining, light, funny but
informative; somehow, they teach us to
understand life. The writer may use either
informal or colloquial words to get very close
to his readers.
• 2. Formal essays – is exactly the opposite of
the familiar essay. It is impersonal, intelligent,
serious and informative. The writer is
detached from the readers and it does not
intend to entertain them. He discusses his
topics based on facts which he analyzes,
explains, defines and proves.
 Classification of Essay
• Moreover, essay is classified according to the
writer’s intention or purpose, such as:
• Narrative (Narration) – is a type of essay used
when the writer’s intention is to simply tell a
story. He presents the chronological sequence
of events, the time and place of incident
happened and the characters of the story.
They are told from the writers point of view,
thus, he uses first person “I” in the essay.
• Descriptive (Description) – is simply what it
says, it is used when the writer wishes to
describe a place, a person, an object or even
his feelings towards a situation.
• Argumentative (Argumentation) – is also
known as persuasive essay. Writer uses it
when he wants to convince his readers that
his stand about a topic is valid, acceptable and
true.
• Expository (Exposition) – is an essay that
explains something.