The humble essay, derived from the French verb Essayer, meaning to try. As highlighted in Paul Graham’s The Age of the Essay, the aim of any essay should be to ‘try and find the answer’.

This definition, along with many other aspects of the much loved ‘modern’ essay, has been lost in today’s schooling system. Instead of searching for answers in our essays, we are simply 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.” Graham kindly suggests that this is simply a waste of time. (MIND BLOWN)

Graham instead suggests that an essay doesn’t begin with a statement, but with a question. In the schooling system I, and many of my fellow students, were brought up in we were taught to take a position and defend it. Instead what we must be searching for is a door that’s ajar and proceed to walk inside and explore the contents.

However, it’s true that questions aren’t enough and  an essay has to try and come up with some answers. Although we must not always succeed, best to think of these as “experiments with inconclusive results”.  These ‘inconclusive’ essays will not be published but those essays that are published should ideally tell the reader something he didn’t already know.

It was heartwarming to know that Graham also shares my frustrating habit of meandering his way through essays. When he explained that this was a good thing, I practically jumped for joy. He explains that an essay is supposed to be a search for truth and any essay that didn’t twist and turn, meandering through the information, would simply be suspicious.