A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. Informal Essay: Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon’s Periodical Essays…. Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. Formal Essay: Qualities include serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length. There term may include both short discussions, expository or argumentative. However, a sharp distinction between even formal and informal essays cannot be maintained at all times. (Handbook to Literature)
Submit Your Work for Individualized Feedback
Please use Universal Manuscript Guidelines when submitting: .doc or .docx, double spacing, 10-12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, first page header with contact information, section breaks “***” or “#.”
Sources
The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
A Handbook to Literature
“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.
Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
The Elements of Style.
New Oxford American Dictionary
The Norton Anthology of World Literature
The Norton Introduction to Philosophy
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Writing the Other