The Essay


Just like short stories, essays can be quite varied and entertaining. Whether essays are personal essays or anecdotes with a point or strongly argumentative and opinionated, they are text forms that allow the author to express his or her opinions.

In the previous units, we examined a process for writing essays, which is different from reading essays. You will now have a chance to read an essay or two and be able to discuss some of their elements.


Time to Read


Consider the different essential aspects of essays as puzzle pieces. Although the elements are distinct from each other, there is also a unified aspect to them. They are different, have different shapes and functions within the puzzle, but when they are all complete, they come together to form the whole picture that the author is trying to achieve.

  1. Review the tutorial on Reading Non-Fiction.
  1. Read the following essays just to read them; do not make notes or ask questions, just read.
  • "A New Perspective" (Janice E. Fein) pp. 45–47 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  • "Only Daughter" (Sandra Cisneros) pp. 48–51 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  • "Living Like Weasels" (Annie Dillard) pp. 106–109 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  • "Blue Gold" (Jim Hightower) pp. 86–89 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  • "Rink Rage" (James Deacon) pp. 76–81 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  • "We Must Have Dreams" (John Amagoalik)

  • "Stone Faces" (Sharon Butala) pp. 37–39 Imprints 12 Vol. II

  1. Reread each essay as an active reader and focus your reading on the techniques the author uses. Your annotations should focus on how techniques are being used to convey the author's message. The purpose of this process is to develop a greater understanding of the structure the text creator uses to support the topic.