Paul Graham’s “The Age of the Essay” resonated strongly with me.
Not only that, it actually made me quite angry at my high school for forcing me to write all of those pointless essays. It wasn’t even like you had to think with them; they were so formulaic and contrived. You basically had to memorise a bunch of quotes and insert them in – “around one per paragraph” – and you would get an A. Follow the simple formula of introduction, body, and conclusion, and everything was fine.
“It’s no wonder if this seems to the student a pointless exercise, because we’re now three steps removed from real work: the students are imitating English professors, who are imitating classical scholars, who are merely the inheritors of a tradition growing out of what was, 700 years ago, fascinating and urgently needed work.” (Paragraph 11)
I was never taught how to write outside the scope of literature, which is why I struggled in my first year of Uni attempting to write academic essays. I agree that secondary education needs to be re-evaluated.
I also found this particular quote interesting:
“Essayer is the French verb meaning “to try” and an essai is an attempt. An essay is something you write to try to figure something out.”
I had actually never thought of the words origin. But now it makes a lot more sense to me. This is what I love about university; not being forced to argue but rather to evaluate. Logical conclusions are not the result of a one-sided argument that omits opposing information, but rather a well-structured and well-researched examination into a particular topic.
