"If kids still write essays in school the way people my age used to, they meet the essay first as pure object. In school, it [an essay] is (or was) a written paper of a certain length, on an assigned subject, with specified margins and neatness, due on the teacher's desk at a certain date. From about fourth grade on, I wrote many essays. "An essay a week" was a philosophy lots of grammar school teachers subscribed to students back them." (Atwan 22-23)I completely agree with this quote. Kids, not even just elementary or middle school kids, but all kids still think that an essay is just an assignment. Homework their teacher gives them just to make them do something. It always had to have a certain length and cover certain concepts or topics with the correct margins. The paper must stick to the main topic and not stray from the main point. Some teachers even said that neatness counted just to be extra mean. All students believe that is what makes an essay. If their essay meets that criteria and is in the teachers hand on the due date then it's a great essay. Some people may disagree because they actually put a strong effort into writing essays such as these. Others may say that there needs to be no structure or order to an essay because that's the original definition of an essay. Michel de Montaigne wrote the first essay, which he called essais (french for attempts, trials, or experiments). These first essays as Montaigne said, "Were personal, tentative, highly digressive, and wholly unsystematic in their approach to a topic." There are others that would say that all an essay is a paper thrown together the night before it's due. You know, the typical "all nighter." An essay doesn't require much effort if it's done like this. Still others choose to not write papers at all because they think that they are stupid or boring. It's a total lack of effort or drive that causes a person to just skip writing an essay for a class. Whichever view you choose to believe in is fine by me but remember that what you write is a reflection of who you are. Whether you write from the heart, write because you have to, or you just don't do it at all. It comes back to show the reader who you are as a person.
~T.I.~
