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TTC – Becoming a Great Essayist

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You can write an essay if you have a smart tale, an intriguing reminiscence, a novel explanation of how something works, or a perspective on a social or political topic. In contrast to a novel, history book, or scientific publication, essays provide you the freedom to express all the many aspects of who you are. Because essays are brief and to the point, you may use them in as many different ways as you choose to express your humor, express your unique viewpoint, persuade readers to agree with you, and save a portion of your memories for future generations.
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With Becoming a Great Essayist, learn the secrets to realizing your potential as a writer of essays. These 24 thought-provoking lectures cover a wide range of essay genres and styles, present you with thought-provoking writing challenges, and offer insights on how to come to know yourself like never before in order to produce great, authentic essays. Additionally, as essays may be written in a variety of styles and for a variety of purposes, the skills you develop while writing them can be used in practically all other types of writing.

Your knowledgeable leader is Dr. Jennifer Cognard-Black, an English professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. A 2012 Fulbright Scholar, award-winning novelist, and former pupil of the well-known author Jane Smiley, Professor Cognard-Black has a personal, open, and straightforward style. She tells you that the essay’s adaptability and expressiveness make it the perfect medium for creating tales and inspiring even the most reluctant writers to share their thoughts. The essay has no set guidelines other than having a first-person narrator who is determined to speak the truth, according to Professor Cognard-Black. Your objective and your audience will have a significant impact on the format and style of your essay. With each essay you write, you get to establish a new format and adopt a new style. Essays delve into. Essays conjure. Essays stray. There is no requirement for rigid regulations in their organizations. A superb essay should relate a personal experience, a concept, or a memory to the outside world. The first step is to search deeply inside your memories, knowledge, and opinions for that experience. Once mastered, the capacity to produce excellent essays offers a strong foundation that enables you to transition into other genres of writing with both assurance and competence.

Defining the essay’s meaning is the first step in your journey with Professor Cognard-Black. The term “essay” often triggers memories of the classroom for many people. This course will alter the way you think about and approach the essay, whether you were the type of student who eagerly anticipated each writing assignment or one who dreaded it. You’ll notice right away that the five-paragraph essay you may recall is considerably different from the master’s level writings you’ll read, examine, and learn to write. You’ll gain crucial knowledge about what makes a great essay, discover how to incorporate your personal experiences, viewpoints, and recollections into an engaging article, and look into what to do once you’ve written an essay that you want to share.

Essay Formatting: Private to Public

Essays have been used as a communication tool since the 16th century. They can be used to convince people to adopt a certain viewpoint, tell a tale, or provide a written account of personal and societal history. The name “essay” is derived from the French word “essai,” which means “an effort or a trial,” demonstrating the form’s adaptability in terms of both content and format. The essay is a thought experiment that may take many different forms, including those that are political, personal, comedic, and historical. A strong essay may also elicit a range of feelings or responses. These pieces, which are sometimes brief but profoundly moving, have the ability to make readers smile, cry, reflect, or alter their behavior. Essays can be published in a variety of formats, including journals, newspapers, anthologies, collections, blogs, websites, and more.

Aristotle believed that writers are most persuasive when they establish a strong ethos (or credibility), support this ethos with appeals to reason (logos), and then support this ethos with appeals to emotion (ethos). Professor Cognard-Black starts with well-established principles derived from Aristotle when creating a great piece of writing (pathos). Today, appealing tales and arguments are still constructed using similar rhetorical techniques. The writer of an essay has a strong connection to the subject matter because they have lived it, seen it, or care deeply about it, which is why essays utilize a believable and honest first-person voice. Your essay will seem credible to even skeptic readers if you combine what Aristotle refers to as the artistic proofs (the pathos of the essay, or the personal experience and thoughts, and the logos of the essay, or the rationality) with the inartistic proofs (or research and data).

You will learn about the many types of essay genres throughout the course of these 24 insightful courses.

Epistolary essays have their roots in Greco-Roman rhetoricians’ politics, philosophy, and theology. The uniqueness of letters, or “epistles,” as a form of communication is precisely what attracts essay authors to them. Epistolary essays incorporate characteristics of the letter genre, such as its intimacy, immediateness, and materiality.
Essays that vehemently promote one side of a debate are known as polemical essays.
Historical essays incorporate the author’s thoughts from their own historical moment as well as those of historians and objects from the past.
The majority of the time, humorous essays concentrate on a dilemma or an instance where something goes wrong. Aristotle observed that laughter during tragedy may be therapeutic for both the author and the audience.
Memoirs focus on the writer’s history and recollect it, allowing for self-reflection. A memoir essay must develop from the author’s own memories of the past combined with careful consideration of those experiences.

And because reading great essays will help you understand what makes a great essay, this course also includes a wealth of readings from both well-known and obscure authors. You will be exposed to some of the finest essayists who have pushed the boundaries of what constitutes an essay, such as:

The essay became a literary genre thanks to Michel de Montaigne’s Les Essais collection, which was published in 1580.
Montaigne’s proteges and British wits Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele published essays on manners and society in widely read and occasionally scandalous periodicals in the 18th century.
Some of the earliest essays on nature and the environment were written by American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke often wrote personal letters that were intimate essays on what it means to be an artist.
Virginia Woolf, a writer whose episodic works have a dreamlike quality, is regarded as one of the best essayists of the 20th century.
American author, critic, and political activist Mary McCarthy made pointed observations in her essays that were frequently self-reflexive.

Self Help – Self Help online course

More information about Self Help:

Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis.
Many different self-help group programs exist, each with its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders.
Concepts and terms originating in self-help culture and Twelve-Step culture, such as recovery, dysfunctional families, and codependency have become firmly integrated in mainstream language.

Self-help often utilizes publicly available information or support groups, on the Internet as well as in person, where people in similar situations join together.
From early examples in self-driven legal practice and home-spun advice, the connotations of the word have spread and often apply particularly to education, business,
psychology and psychotherapy, commonly distributed through the popular genre of self-help books.
According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, potential benefits of self-help groups that professionals may not be able to provide include friendship,
emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging.

Salepage : TTC – Becoming a Great Essayist