Payne states, "An essay does not merely record facts or recount experiences; it registers the author's opinion of these facts and experiences."

I find this interesting because often times many of my essays use these "facts" whenever I am lacking an opinion, or am unsure what to say. I remember Mr. Lovas saying that the amateur writers are the ones who write down or copy the facts that are already stated in front of them. It takes practice to step out of this kind of writing style and put forth your feelings and expression, and it is then that the writer can truly call it an "essay."

I have never really looked at an essay this way before. I always thought of an essay as a factual and analytical paper. In high school, I was taught not to put feeling or your own expression into a paper, and it wasn't until college that I have experimented by putting feeling and opinion into a formal structure.
Posted by Kimiko Yama on 2/4/04; 2:47:34 PM from the dept.