Courtney realises that how we have been taught to write essays, and what an essay is, in school, is not really what the essay is. This bastardised version of the essay is what happens when it is turned to an instrument to standardise and assess. Sort of kills its joy. Yes, good essays follow ideas. As far as I know the main advice is the TEEL structure, which is, well, so proscriptive as to think that something good comes from formulaic steps. It is what we call teleological, so you have to know where you’re going before you begin. This is actually the opposite of learning, discovery, invention, creativity. This subject is taught as this other sort of essay. A door is ajar, we have a look inside. Different doors different days, you open some, we open others. If you want to model and afford learning, discovery, invention and creativity it seems to me all of us have to accept the risk of not quite knowing where things might lead. Finally, Courtney wonders about facts and evidence. There are amazing essays about history that use facts and evidence (see Jeff Dyer’s work), they are not excluded.