english grammar

ESSAY-WRITING The word Essay is defined in "The Concise Oxford Dictionary" as "a literary composition (usually prose and short) on any subject." Properly speaking, it is a written composition giving expression to one's own personal ideas or opinions on some topic; but the term usually covers also any written composition, whether it expresses personal opinions, or gives information on any given subject, or details of a narrative or description. In fact the word "Essay" is somewhat loosely applied to a variety of compositions, from Bacon's compressed "Essays" on the one hand, to those so called "Essays" of Macaulay, some of which are lengthy articles, almost as big as small books, on the other. [Addison's Essays are good models for Indian students, because of their brevity and simple directness of style.] So far as we are concerned here, an essay is an exercise in composition; and it is well to remember tha...