The essay as a distinct form of literature is an expository piece of writing that reveals the author’s thoughts, feelings and reflections on a significant human experience. The experience may be personal or it could be vicarious. Furthermore, that vicarious experience might have reached and deeply touched the author’s consciousness through his readings, observations, or his interviews and mingling with people.
As a word, “essay” is derived from the word exagium, meaning to weigh or evaluate; and from the word “essai”, an attempt. These derivatives indicate that the essay is taken to test or evaluate the suitability of a subject matter for literary interpretation. It is an essai when the essayist attempts to put order and organization to the interpretation in a way that is different from other literary devices.
Essay Types
The essay is traditionally divided into two general types: the informal and the formal. Differences may be identified between them in matters of structure, tone, subject matter, and style.
Structure
Rigid rules cannot be set down concerning the structure of the informal essay. It has no definite form, no obvious pattern. Many good personal essays in fact, seem disorganized and disjointed; there is, however, no requirement that they be coherent. It is because of this seeming disjointedness of the personal essay which makes some writers think that structure is wholly unimportant. There is greater freedom in the structure of the familiar essay, the emphasis being the writer’s unique way of seeing things, his personality and if one follows an informal essay very closely, he will realize that it may have a definite outline after all.
However, some essays cannot be logically outlined as when, for instance, an essayist speaks of a flood in the first paragraph; relates his experience of running after his hat in the next; then he flits from one topic to another, all the while revealing a personal attitude, a taste or distaste for certain things; next he praises a book or a person he has just met, or an idea which suddenly occurs to him. Always, the personal essay leaves us with a pleasure derived from its lack of structure or simply with the varied attitude of the writer.
The formal essay is more clearly organized. Having a well-defined beginning, body, and end, it develops through a logical arrangement of details supporting a central message. It definitely moves on from proposition to conclusion: in short, a structure that is both rigid and definite, thus, it can be outlined easily, its organization, its main divisions, and its supporting details being readily identifiable.
Tone
The most obvious quality of the informal essay is its intimate, conversational tone, its single dominant mood. Appealing mostly to the lighter moods, it is whimsical, contemplative, teasing, reminiscent, sad or melancholy in tone. Reading it, we feel as if we were conversing with the author. He is as if before us who is regaling with the unique personal flavor of his talk, revealing his relaxed, roundabout, superficial or playful yet always interesting, presentation of his material.
The formal essay is impersonal in tone. The writer, having great respect for his own ideas, treats them seriously. At times, when he is moved by some passionate cause, the writer may express incisively the purpose of his theme or thesis, that is to lift his generation to higher intellectual, moral, and spiritual planes. Because he is required to be objective and impartial in treatment and rigid in structure, the writer of the formal essay must have a tone that is cold and detached. But always, he stimulates the reader to some reconstruction and modification of ideas.
Subject Matter
The subject of the informal essay may be about anything. If it is an egg that catches the writer’s fancy, he does not go through the scholarly scientific dissection of an egg, but about his impressions on how several people break an egg in different ways, revealing different personalities in the process.
If one reads the familiar essay curiously and with dedication, he will perceive in it a serious, poetical, witty or humorous human being talking about himself, about the books he has read, the persons he has seen, his observations of nature and things, and the whole depth of his total experiences in life.
The subject of the formal essay is more directly concerned with significant material such as art, religion, government, philosophy, education, and such as social problems as hunger, poverty, or industrial, problems like labor and capital.
Since the formal essay is addressed primarily to the intellect, it is also normally called a “think piece.” Although based on facts, it is not documented. Because of this, many writers argue that in the formal essay, substance is more important than style. It may contain autobiographical elements, criticisms, or even the result of interviews. It possesses its own individual characteristics but bears some relationships to other expository forms.
Style
In writing the informal essay, style is a far more important consideration than structure. In fact, style is everything in this type of essay. Defined as an imprint of one’s personality on subject matter, style, unfortunately, cannot be taught. But if one possesses some slight degree of humor, or whim, or satire, painstaking effort may bring it out vividly and effectively.
The personal essay looks deceptively easy to write. It actually requires considerable effort by the writer to afford the personal essay that high degree of polish, which is its charm.
Since the formal essay represents a fusing of other expository forms of writing, it employs discursive techniques like description, narration and argumentation or persuasion. Its language is serious, sometime literary. Specifically, the diction is clear, precise, and appropriate. And to make for the rigidity of its structure, seriousness of its topic, and the coldness of its tone, the formal essay’s words should not be dull but alive and full of action.
To summarize, the informal essay is personal and often makes use of either humor or whimsy, but it is more likely to make use of irony. Furthermore, it does not dwell on serious scholarly thoughts but emphasizes the characteristics of an informal kind of expression with unique turns of thoughts, quaint or witty observation, a personal way of looking at things, a personal mood or attitude and an ambivalent style. At its best, the informal essay sounds like a polished educated talk; its flavor, personal even colloquial.
The formal essay, on the other hand, is preoccupied with ideas, its treatment, generally serious. The purpose of the formal essayist is to persuade, explain or instruct. Thus, the reader of this essay must pay close attention to the ideas, the way they are presented, the logic of their presentation, and the reflection thy reveal in their objective of commenting or teaching.
