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The present perfect is a verb tense which is used to show that an action has taken place once or many times before now. The present perfect is most frequently used to talk about experiences or changes that have taken place, but there are other less common uses as well. Read on for detailed descriptions, examples, and present perfect exercises.

Present Perfect Forms

The present perfect is formed using has/have + past participle. Questions are indicated by inverting the subject and has/have. Negatives are made with not.

Statement: You have seen that movie many times.

Question: Have you seen that movie many times?

Negative: You have not seen that movie many times.

Complete List of Present Perfect Forms
Present Perfect Uses

USE 1 Unspecified Time Before Now

We use the present perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the present perfect with specific time expressions such as yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the present perfect with unspecific expressions such as ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.

Examples:

I have seen that movie twenty times.

I think I have met him once before.

There have been many earthquakes in California.

People have traveled to the Moon.

People have not traveled to Mars.

Have you read the book yet?

Nobody has ever climbed that mountain.

A: Has there ever been a war in the United States?
B: Yes, therehas been a war in the United States.

How Do You Actually Use the Present Perfect?

The concept of "unspecified time" can be very confusing to English learners. It is best to associate present perfect with the following topics:

TOPIC 1 Experience

You can use the present perfect to describe your experience. It is like saying, "I have the experience of...." You can also use this tense to say that you have never had a certain experience. The present perfect is NOT used to describe a specific event.

Examples:

TOPIC 2 Change Over Time

We often use the present perfect to talk about change that has happened over a period of time.

Examples:

You have grown since the last time I saw you.

The government has become more interested in arts education.

Japanese has become one of the most popular courses at the university since the Asian studies program was established.

My English has really improved since I moved to Australia.

TOPIC 3 Accomplishments

We often use the present perfect to list the accomplishments of individuals and humanity. You cannot mention a specific time.

Examples:

Man has walked on the Moon.

Our son has learned how to read.

Doctors have cured many deadly diseases.

Scientists have split the atom.

TOPIC 4 An Uncompleted Action You Are Expecting

We often use the present perfect to say that an action which we expected has not happened. Using the present perfect suggests that we are still waiting for the action to happen.

Examples:

James has not finished his homework yet.

Susan hasn't mastered Japanese, but she can communicate.

Bill has still not arrived.

The rain hasn't stopped.

TOPIC 5 Multiple Actions at Different Times

We also use the present perfect to talk about several different actions which have occurred in the past at different times. Present perfect suggests the process is not complete and more actions are possible.

Examples:

The army has attacked that city five times.

I have had four quizzes and five tests so far this semester.

We have had many major problems while working on this project.

She has talked to several specialists about her problem, but nobody knows why she is sick.

Time Expressions with Present Perfect

When we use the present perfect it means that something has happened at some point in our lives before now. Remember, the exact time the action happened is not important.

Sometimes, we want to limit the time we are looking in for an experience. We can do this with expressions such as in the last week, in the last year, this week, this month, so far, up to now, etc.

Examples:

Have you been to Mexico in the last year?

I have seen that movie six times in the last month.

They have had three tests in the last week.

She graduated from university less than three years ago. She has worked for three different companies so far.

My car has broken down three times this week.

NOTICE

Last year and in the last year are very different in meaning. Last year means the year before now, and it is considered a specific time which requires simple past. In the last year means from 365 days ago until now. It is not considered a specific time, so it requires present perfect.

Examples:

USE 2 Duration From the Past Until Now (Non-Continuous Verbs)

With non-continuous verbs and non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, we use the present perfect to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now. For five minutes, for two weeks, and since Tuesday are all durations which can be used with the present perfect.

Examples:

I have had a cold for two weeks.

She has been in England for six months.

Mary has loved chocolate since she was a little girl.

Although the above use of present perfect is normally limited to non-continuous verbs and non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, the words live, work, teach, and study are sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT non-continuous verbs.

ADVERB PLACEMENT

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

Examples:

You have only seen that movie one time.

Have you only seen that movie one time?

ACTIVE / PASSIVE

Examples:

Many tourists have visited that castle.

That castle has been visited by many tourists.

More About Active / Passive Forms
Present Perfect Exercises

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Complete description of the present perfect verb tense with present perfect exercises and examples.

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Complete description of the past perfect verb tense with past perfect exercises and examples.

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The Future Perfect | Designers & Collections

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Skip to main content PAST EXHIBITIONS Design Miami/ 2019 Exhibition Design Miami/ 2019 Chen Chen & Kai Williams, John Hogan, Matthew Day Jackson, Eric Roinestad, Reinaldo Sanguino, Chris Wolston, Floris Wubben & Seungjin Yang Dec 2019 VIEW ALL THE PRESENT TENSE Sign up for our mailinglist. Sign up for our mailinglist.

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Englishpage.com's List of English Irregular Verbs contains over 370 irregular verbs used in modern English. We also offer free irregular verb flashcards and exercises, a printable PDF of the Top 100 Irregular Verbs, and an extended list including rare verb forms. Just scroll down to begin!

Irregular Verb Flashcards and Drills

Below, we have created eight sets of flashcards as well as simple irregular verb drills to help English learners learn more than 160 of the most common irregular verbs in English.

The 100 Most Common English Irregular Verbs

Download our printable PDF List of the 100 Most Common Irregular Verbs in English. English teachers and trainers, please read our terms of use.

Common Questions about English Irregular Verbs

What are irregular verbs?

Irregular verbs are verbs which do not follow normal rules for conjugation. For example, the irregular verb be has several unique forms ( I am, you are, he is) which are quite different from regular verbs such as cook ( I cook, you cook, he cooks).

How many irregular verbs are there in English?

Englishpage.com has conducted an extensive text analysis of over 2,000 novels and resources and we have found 680 irregular verbs so far including prefixed verbs ( misunderstand, reread) as well as rare and antiquated forms ( colorbreed, bethink).

What are some examples of irregular verbs?

Good examples of irregular verbs include have, understand and draw. Notice that their past forms had, understood and drew are very different from regular verbs, which end with -d or -ed. For more examples, see Englishpage.com's list of irregular verbs.

What are the most common irregular verbs in English?

According to Englishpage.com's text analysis of over 2,000 novels and resources, the most common irregular verbs in English are: be, have, say, do, know, get, see, think, go and take.

Are there big differences in the irregular verb forms used in British English and American English?

While many references show strong differences between British and American English in irregular verb use, Englishpage.com's research shows that there is far more crossover than many of these references might suggest. (Where we did find a real statistical difference, we have listed the British forms in italics.)

Which verb tenses have irregular forms in English?

In English, irregular verb forms occur in simple present and simple past as well as past participles. Remember that past participles are used in many verb forms including: present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, passive forms and past conditional forms.

More about our Irregular Verb Dictionary

Read about our irregular verb research and how these resources were created.

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List of all English irregular verbs with flashcards, drills, and printable PDF to help you learn the forms.

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Articles: A Complete Grammar Guide | Grammarly

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Articles are words that identify a as being specific or unspecific. Consider the following examples:

By using the article , we've shown that it was one specific day that was long and one specific cup of tea that tasted good.

By using the article , we've created a general statement, implying that any cup of tea would taste good after any long day.

English has two types of articles: definite and indefinite . Let's discuss them now in more detail.

The definite article

The definite article is the word . It limits the meaning of a noun to one particular thing. For example, your friend might ask, "Are you going to the party this weekend?" The definite article tells you that your friend is referring to a specific party that both of you already know about. The definite article can be used with singular, , or uncountable nouns. Below are some examples of the definite article, , used in context:

The indefinite article

The indefinite article takes two forms. It's the word when it precedes a word that begins with a consonant sound. It's the word when it precedes a word that begins with a vowel sound. The indefinite article indicates that a noun refers to a general idea or category of a thing rather than a specific thing.

For example, you might ask your friend, "Should I bring a gift to the party?" Your friend will understand that you are not asking about a specific type of gift or a specific item. "I am going to bring an apple pie," your friend tells you. Again, the indefinite article indicates that she is not talking about a particular apple pie. Your friend probably doesn't even have any pie yet. The indefinite article appears only with singular nouns. Consider the following examples of indefinite articles used in context:

As mentioned, the rule is to use before words that start with a consonant sound and before words that begin with a vowel sound. This can be tricky because some words that start with consonants don't start with a consonant sound; the same is true of some words that start with vowels. The first letter of the word , for example, is a consonant, but it's unpronounced. Despite its spelling, the word begins with a vowel sound. Therefore, we use . Consider the example sentence below for an illustration of this concept.

Similarly, when the first letter of a word is a vowel but is pronounced with a consonant sound, use , as in the sample sentence below:

An article before an adjective

Sometimes an article modifies a noun that is also modified by an . The usual word order is article + adjective + noun. If the article is indefinite, use or based on the word that immediately follows it. Consider the following examples for reference:

Indefinite articles with uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns are nouns that are impossible to count, whether because they name intangible concepts (e.g., information , animal husbandry, wealth ), collections of things that are considered as wholes (e.g., , equipment, the working class ), or homogeneous physical substances(e.g., , , ). Although most of these nouns are singular in form, because they refer to things that can't be isolated and counted, they never take a or an. Uncountable nouns can be modified by indefinite adjectives like , however. Consider the examples below for reference:

is an uncountable noun and should not be used with the indefinite article.

If you describe the water in terms of a countable unit (like a bottle), you can use the indefinite article to modify the unit.

Note that depending on the context, some nouns can be countable or uncountable (e.g., hair, noise, time ):

Using articles with pronouns

Possessive - words like , , , , , and -can help identify whether you're talking about specific or nonspecific items. As we've seen, articles also indicate specificity. But if you use both a possessive pronoun and an article together, readers will become confused. Articles should not be used with pronouns. Consider the examples below:

and should not be used together, as they are both identifying the same noun. Instead, choose one or the other depending on the intended meaning:

Omission of articles

Occasionally, articles are omitted altogether before certain nouns. In these cases, the article is implied but not actually present. This implied article is sometimes called a "zero article." Often, the article is omitted before a noun that refers to an abstract idea. Look at the following examples:

Incorrect: The creativity is a valuable quality in children.

Tip: The words for many languages and nationalities are not preceded by an article.

Tip: Sports and academic subjects do not require articles.

Article FAQs

What is an article?

An article is a word that comes before a noun to show whether it's specific or general. Specific nouns use the article and general nouns use the article (or if the next word starts with a vowel sound).

What are definite and indefinite articles?

The definite article refers to something specific, and the indefinite article refers to something general. is the definite article and / is the indefinite article.

What is an example of an article in grammar?

" The hammer" refers to only one hammer, but " a hammer" refers to any hammer.

When should we not use articles?

We don't use the indefinite article with uncountable nouns, or any article with a possessive pronoun. Certain nouns such as nationalities, school subjects, and sports often don't take articles, especially when they refer to general or abstract ideas.

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What Are Articles in Grammar? Definition and Examples

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Articles are used to indicate whether a noun in a sentence is specific or general. This guide will help you learn more about the articles in English.

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A coordinating conjunction is a conjunction or connecting word that joins two similarly constructed and/or syntactically equal words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. Conjunctions are also called coordinators. The coordinating conjunctions in English are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so -many remember these with the mnemonic "F.A.N.B.O.Y.S."

Coordinating conjunctions are similar to ​ subordinating conjunctions, but subordinating conjunctions are used to join an independent and dependent (subordinate) clause while coordinators join two independent clauses.

When linking two independent clauses to create a compound sentence, place a comma before the coordinating conjunction. When linking two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs-for example in the case of a compound predicate -a comma is not needed.

Two common coordinating conjunction usages are to join independent clauses to form a sentence or two verbs to form a compound predicate. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these scenarios.

Independent clauses contain both a subject and a verb, so they can stand on their own. Look at these examples.

She wondered when he would get home. She decided not to call.

To combine the above complete sentences, you would either need to join them with a semicolon or comma and a coordinating conjunction, like this:

She wondered when he would get home, but she decided not to call.

Even when linked, each independent clause keeps its own subject and verb. If they were to be joined without a comma and conjunction, this would result in a common writing error called a comma splice.

The sentence below contains a compound predicate, two verbs that share the same subject.

She wondered when he would get home but decided not to call.

Though this doesn't appear to be much different from two independent clauses, notice that She is being shared by the verbs wondered and decided because she did both. There's no comma before but and there are no independent clauses because there is only one subject for the whole sentence.

Many people, at some point in their life, have wondered: can you start a sentence with but or and? For all intents and purposes, yes, a coordinating conjunction may technically be used at the beginning of a sentence. This is just one way that many writers choose to transition. Conjunctions can break up the tedium of sentences too similar in structure and add emphasis.

However, the use of conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence is a controversial topic, though more a matter of whether you should than whether you can. Overall, there are plenty of people in favor and plenty against. Many English teachers, for instance, forbid this in their students' writing, yet some professional writers do it freely. Author David Crystal offers his take on this topic below.

" And at the beginning of a sentence? During the 19th century, some schoolteachers took against the practice of beginning a sentence with a word like but or and, presumably because they noticed the way young children often overused them in their writing. But instead of gently weaning the children away from overuse, they banned the usage altogether! Generations of children were taught they should 'never' begin a sentence with a conjunction. Some still are.

There was never any authority behind this condemnation. It isn't one of the rules laid down by the first prescriptive grammarians. Indeed, one of those grammarians, Bishop Lowth, uses dozens of examples of sentences beginning with and. And in the 20th century, Henry Fowler, in his famous Dictionary of Modern English Usage, went so far as to call it a 'superstition.' He was right. There are sentences starting with And that date back to Anglo-Saxon times," (Crystal 2011).

As Crystal pointed out, you shouldn't overdo it with conjunction introductions. This practice can greatly influence your writing and, when overused, muddle the flow and clarity of your piece. Take this example: "She wondered when he would get home. But she decided not to call."

In this case, splitting up the two sentences changes their rhythm and pacing, placing emphasis on the second clause. Joining them with a conjunction would not have the same effect. Before you start a sentence with a conjunction, think about how you want it to affect your piece. This convention isn't something you want to use sentence after sentence, but it can serve as a useful tool from time to time.

Crystal, David. The Story of English in 100 Words. St. Martin's Press, 2011.

Fowler, Henry. Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press, 1926.

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What Are Coordinating Conjunctions in English?

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A coordinating conjunction is a conjunction or connecting word that joins two similarly constructed and/or syntactically equal words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. Conjunctions are also called coordinators. The coordinating conjunctions in English are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so -many remember these with the mnemonic "F.A.N.B.O.Y.S."

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Monologues from Published Plays - Monologue Blogger

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Monologue Blogger offers thousands of free original monologues from published plays. Find monologues for auditions, training, and performance.

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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue or singing between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from London's West End and Broadway in New York - which are the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world - to regional theatre, to community theatre, as well as university or school productions. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term "play" can refer to both the written texts of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.

There are various types of Drama, many of which will be discussed in this article.

Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous. Comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups. Comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, or for a more modern example the skits from Saturday Night Live.

A generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often acted and often involve humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors, or Mark Twain's play .

A satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector and Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely.

Restoration comedy

Restoration comedy is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time. Characters featured in restoration comedy included stereotypes of all kinds, and these same stereotypes were found in most plays of this genre, so much so that most plays were very similar in message and content. However, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private.

It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière 's theories of comedy, but differs in intention and tone. The inconsistency between restoration comedy's morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, restoration comedy did not last long in the seventeenth century. However, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance.

These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster. Often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have very dramatic conflicts. Tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeare's , and also John Webster's play The Duchess of Malfi.

These plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are often neither of these. History as a separate genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schiller's and Shakespeare's .

Ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called "The Disappointment", however, this play never made it to production.

Modern Western musical theatre emerged in the Victorian era, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. Around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly. For musical theatre, this meant that composers gained the right to create every song in the play, and these new plays were held to more specific conventions, such as thirty-two-bar songs. When the Great Depression came, many people left Broadway for Hollywood, and the atmosphere of Broadway musicals changed significantly. A similar situation occurred during the 1960s, when composers were scarce and musicals lacked vibrancy and entertainment value.

By the 1990s, there were very few original Broadway musicals, as many were recreations of movies or novels.

Musical productions have songs to help explain the story and move the ideas of the play along. They are usually accompanied by dancing. Musicals can be very elaborate in settings and actor performances. Examples of musical productions include Wicked and Fiddler on the Roof.

This theatre style originated in the 1940s when Antonin Artaud hypothesized about the effects of expressing through the body as opposed to "by socially conditioned thought." In 1946, he wrote a preface to his works in which he explained how he came to write what and the way he did.

Above all, Artaud did not trust language as a means of communication. Plays within the genre of theatre of cruelty are abstract in convention and content. Artaud wanted his plays to have an effect and accomplish something. His intention was to symbolise the subconscious through bodily performances, as he did not believe language could be effective. Artaud considered his plays to be an enactment rather than a re-enactment, which meant he believed his actors were in reality, rather than re-enacting reality.

His plays dealt with heavy issues such as patients in psych wards, and Nazi Germany. Through these performances, he wanted to "make the causes of suffering audible", however, audiences originally reacted poorly, as they were so taken aback by what they saw. Much of his work was banned in France at the time.

Artaud did not believe that conventional theatre of the time would allow the audience to have a cathartic experience and help heal the wounds of World War II. For this reason, he moved towards radio-based theatre, in which the audience could use their imagination to connect the words they were hearing to their body. This made his work much more personal and individualized, which he believed would increase the effectiveness of portraying suffering.

Theatre of the Absurd: This genre generally includes metaphysical representations of existential qualms and questions. Theatre of the absurd denies rationality, and embraces the inevitability of falling into the abyss of the human condition. Instead of discussing these issues, however, theatre of the absurd is a demonstration of them. This leaves the audience to discuss and question the content of the play for themselves.

One of the main aspects of theatre of the absurd is the physical contradiction to language. Oftentimes, the dialogue between characters will directly oppose their actions.

Famous playwrights within this genre include Beckett, Sartre, Ionesco, Adamov, and Genet.

The term "play" can be either a general term, or more specifically refer to a non-musical play. Sometimes the term "straight play" is used in contrast to " musical", which refers to a play based on music, dance, and songs sung by the play's characters. For a short play, the term "playlet" is sometimes used.

The term "script" refers to the written text of the play. After the front matter, such as title and author, it conventionally begins with a dramatis personae: a list presenting each of the main characters of the play by name, followed by a brief characterization (e.g., "Stephano, a drunken Butler".)

For a musical play ( opera, light opera, or musical) the term " libretto" is commonly used, instead of "script".

A play is usually divided into acts, similar to what chapters are in a novel. A short play may consist of only a single act, and then is called a "one-acter". Acts are subdivided into scenes. Acts are numbered, and so are scenes; the scene numbering starts again at 1 for each next act, so Act 4, Scene 3 may be followed by Act 5, Scene 1. Each scene is set at one specified location, indicated in the script at the start of the scene (e.g., "Scene 1. Before the cell of Prospero."). Changing locations usually requires changing the scenery, which takes time - even if merely a painted backdrop - and can only be done between scenes.

Next to the text to be spoken by the actors, a script contains "stage directions" (not to be confused with the use of that term in blocking, the staging of actors with specified movements across the stage). The most common type is for the entering and exiting of actors, e.g. "[ Exeunt Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo.]" ( is the Latin plural of exit, meaning "[they] leave".) Other stage directions may indicate the manner of delivery of the text, like "[Aside]" or "[Sings]", or indicate sounds to be produced off-stage, like "[Thunder]".

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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue or singing between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from London's West End and Broadway in New York - which are the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world - to regional theatre, to community theatre, as well as university or school productions.

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An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal and informal: formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas the informal essay is characterized by "the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc.

Essays are commonly used as literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population are counterexamples.

In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams.

The concept of an "essay" has been extended to other media beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary filmmaking styles and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions.

Definitions

The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing.

Subsequently, essay has been defined in a variety of ways. One definition is a "prose composition with a focused subject of discussion" or a "long, systematic discourse". It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject. He notes that "the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything", and adds that "by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece". Furthermore, Huxley argues that "essays belong to a literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference". These three poles (or worlds in which the essay may exist) are:

The personal and the autobiographical: The essayists that feel most comfortable in this pole "write fragments of reflective autobiography and look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description".

The objective, the factual, and the concrete particular: The essayists that write from this pole "do not speak directly of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or scientific or political theme. Their art consists of setting forth, passing judgment upon, and drawing general conclusions from the relevant data".

The abstract-universal: In this pole "we find those essayists who do their work in the world of high abstractions", who are never personal and who seldom mention the particular facts of experience.

Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays "...make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist."

Montaigne's "attempts" grew out of his commonplacing. Inspired in particular by the works of Plutarch, a translation of whose Œuvres Morales ( Moral works) into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot, Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled , was published in two volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life, he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. A third volume was published posthumously; together, their over 100 examples are widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern essay.

While Montaigne's philosophy was admired and copied in France, none of his most immediate disciples tried to write essays. But Montaigne, who liked to fancy that his family (the Eyquem line) was of English extraction, had spoken of the English people as his "cousins", and he was early read in England, notably by Francis Bacon.

Bacon's essays, published in book form in 1597 (only five years after the death of Montaigne, containing the first ten of his essays), 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Other English essayists included Sir William Cornwallis, who published essays in 1600 and 1617 that were popular at the time, Robert Burton (1577-1641) and Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione wrote about courtly manners in his essay Il Cortigiano. In the 17th century, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián wrote about the theme of wisdom.

In England, during the Age of Enlightenment, essays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literature, as seen in the works of Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and Samuel Johnson. Addison and Steele used the journal (founded in 1709 by Steele) and its successors as storehouses of their work, and they became the most celebrated eighteenth-century essayists in England. Johnson's essays appear during the 1750s in various similar publications. As a result of the focus on journals, the term also acquired a meaning synonymous with " article", although the content may not the strict definition. On the other hand, Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not an essay at all, or cluster of essays, in the technical sense, but still it refers to the experimental and tentative nature of the inquiry which the philosopher was undertaking.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote essays for the general public. The early 19th century, in particular, saw a proliferation of great essayists in English- William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt and Thomas De Quincey all penned numerous essays on diverse subjects, reviving the earlier graceful style. Thomas Carlyle's essays were highly influential, and one of his readers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, became a prominent essayist himself. Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson also raised the form's literary level. In the 20th century, a number of essayists, such as T.S. Eliot, tried to explain the new movements in art and culture by using essays. Virginia Woolf, Edmund Wilson, and Charles du Bos wrote literary criticism essays.

In France, several writers produced longer works with the title of essai that were not true examples of the form. However, by the mid-19th century, the Causeries du lundi, newspaper columns by the critic Sainte-Beuve, are literary essays in the original sense. Other French writers followed suit, including Théophile Gautier, Anatole France, Jules Lemaître and Émile Faguet.

As with the novel, essays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu-loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas. Zuihitsu have existed since almost the beginnings of Japanese literature. Many of the most noted early works of Japanese literature are in this genre. Notable examples include The Pillow Book (c. 1000), by court lady Sei Shōnagon, and Tsurezuregusa (1330), by particularly renowned Japanese Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō. Kenkō described his short writings similarly to Montaigne, referring to them as "nonsensical thoughts" written in "idle hours". Another noteworthy difference from Europe is that women have traditionally written in Japan, though the more formal, Chinese-influenced writings of male writers were more prized at the time.

The eight-legged essay ( Chinese: 八股文; pinyin: bāgǔwén; 'eight bone text') was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those test takers in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, often focusing on Confucian thought and knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics, in relation to governmental ideals. Test takers could not write in innovative or creative ways, but needed to conform to the standards of the eight-legged essay. Various skills were examined, including the ability to write coherently and to display basic logic. In certain times, the candidates were expected to spontaneously compose poetry upon a set theme, whose value was also sometimes questioned, or eliminated as part of the test material. This was a major argument in favor of the eight-legged essay, arguing that it were better to eliminate creative art in favor of prosaic literacy. In the history of Chinese literature, the eight-legged essay is often said to have caused China's "cultural stagnation and economic backwardness" in the 19th century.

Forms and styles

This section describes the different forms and styles of essay writing. These are used by an array of authors, including university students and professional essayists.

Cause and effect

The defining features of a "cause and effect" essay are causal chains that connect from a cause to an effect, careful language, and chronological or emphatic order. A writer using this rhetorical method must consider the subject, determine the purpose, consider the audience, think critically about different causes or consequences, consider a thesis statement, arrange the parts, consider the language, and decide on a conclusion.

Classification and division

Classification is the categorization of objects into a larger whole while division is the breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts.

Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast essays are characterized by a basis for comparison, points of comparison, and analogies. It is grouped by the object (chunking) or by point (sequential). The comparison highlights the similarities between two or more similar objects while contrasting highlights the differences between two or more objects. When writing a compare/contrast essay, writers need to determine their purpose, consider their audience, consider the basis and points of comparison, consider their thesis statement, arrange and develop the comparison, and reach a conclusion. Compare and contrast is arranged emphatically.

Expository

An expository essay is used to inform, describe or explain a topic, using important facts to teach the reader about a topic. Mostly written in third-person, using "it", "he", "she", "they," the expository essay uses formal language to discuss someone or something. Examples of expository essays are: a medical or biological condition, social or technological process, life or character of a famous person. The writing of an expository essay often consists of the following steps: organizing thoughts ( brainstorming), researching a topic, developing a thesis statement, writing the introduction, writing the body of essay, and writing the conclusion. Expository essays are often assigned as a part of SAT and other standardized testing or as homework for high school and college students.

Descriptive

Descriptive writing is characterized by sensory details, which appeal to the physical senses, and details that appeal to a reader's emotional, physical, or intellectual sensibilities. Determining the purpose, considering the audience, creating a dominant impression, using descriptive language, and organizing the description are the rhetorical choices to consider when using a description. A description is usually arranged spatially but can also be chronological or emphatic. The focus of a description is the scene. Description uses tools such as denotative language, connotative language, figurative language, metaphor, and simile to arrive at a dominant impression. One university essay guide states that "descriptive writing says what happened or what another author has discussed; it provides an account of the topic". Lyric essays are an important form of descriptive essays.

In the dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophy, the writer makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument (with a counterargument), but then counters the counterargument with a final and novel argument. This form benefits from presenting a broader perspective while countering a possible flaw that some may present. This type is sometimes called an ethics paper.

Exemplification

An exemplification essay is characterized by a generalization and relevant, representative, and believable examples including anecdotes. Writers need to consider their subject, determine their purpose, consider their audience, decide on specific examples, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification essay.

An essayist writes a familiar essay if speaking to a single reader, writing about both themselves, and about particular subjects. Anne Fadiman notes that "the genre's heyday was the early nineteenth century," and that its greatest exponent was Charles Lamb. She also suggests that while critical essays have more brain than the heart, and personal essays have more heart than brain, familiar essays have equal measures of both.

History (thesis)

A history essay sometimes referred to as a thesis essay describes an argument or claim about one or more historical events and supports that claim with evidence, arguments, and references. The text makes it clear to the reader why the argument or claim is as such.

A narrative uses tools such as flashbacks, flash-forwards, and transitions that often build to a climax. The focus of a narrative is the plot. When creating a narrative, authors must determine their purpose, consider their audience, establish their point of view, use dialogue, and organize the narrative. A narrative is usually arranged chronologically.

Argumentative

An argumentative essay is a critical piece of writing, aimed at presenting objective analysis of the subject matter, narrowed down to a single topic. The main idea of all the criticism is to provide an opinion either of positive or negative implication. As such, a critical essay requires research and analysis, strong internal logic and sharp structure. Its structure normally builds around introduction with a topic's relevance and a thesis statement, body paragraphs with arguments linking back to the main thesis, and conclusion. In addition, an argumentative essay may include a refutation section where conflicting ideas are acknowledged, described, and criticized. Each argument of an argumentative essay should be supported with sufficient evidence, relevant to the point.

A process essay is used for an explanation of making or breaking something. Often, it is written in chronological order or numerical order to show step-by-step processes. It has all the qualities of a technical document with the only difference is that it is often written in descriptive mood, while a technical document is mostly in imperative mood.

An economic essay can start with a thesis, or it can start with a theme. It can take a narrative course and a descriptive course. It can even become an argumentative essay if the author feels the need. After the introduction, the author has to do his/her best to expose the economic matter at hand, to analyze it, evaluate it, and draw a conclusion. If the essay takes more of a narrative form then the author has to expose each aspect of the economic puzzle in a way that makes it clear and understandable for the reader

Reflective

A reflective essay is an analytical piece of writing in which the writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, or form-adding a personal reflection on the meaning of the topic in the author's life. Thus, the focus is not merely descriptive. The writer doesn't just describe the situation, but revisits the scene with more detail and emotion to examine what went well, or reveal a need for additional learning-and may relate what transpired to the rest of the author's life.

Other logical structures

The logical progression and organizational structure of an essay can take many forms. Understanding how the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound impact on its overall cogency and ability to impress. A number of alternative logical structures for essays have been visualized as diagrams, making them easy to implement or adapt in the construction of an argument.

In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants ( see admissions essay). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses, university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,[citation needed ] mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours.

In these countries, so-called academic essays, also called papers, are usually more formal than literary ones.[citation needed ] They may still allow the presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words)[citation needed ] are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review.[citation needed ]

Longer essays may also contain an introductory page that defines words and phrases of the essay's topic. Most academic institutions require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other supporting material in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention helps others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of facts and quotations the author uses to support the essay's argument. The bibliography also helps readers evaluate to what extent the argument is supported by evidence and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities.

One of the challenges facing universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays purchased from an essay mill (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill" is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud, universities and colleges may investigate papers they suspect are from an essay mill by using plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers.

Magazine or newspaper

Essays often appear in magazines, especially magazines with an intellectual bent, such as The Atlantic and . Magazine and newspaper essays use many of the essay types described in the section on forms and styles (e.g., descriptive essays, narrative essays, etc.). Some newspapers also print essays in the op-ed section.

Employment

Employment essays detailing experience in a certain occupational field are required when applying for some jobs, especially government jobs in the United States. Essays known as Knowledge Skills and Executive Core Qualifications are required when applying to certain US federal government positions.

A KSA, or "Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities", is a series of narrative statements that are required when applying to Federal government job openings in the United States. KSAs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the successful performance of a position are contained on each job vacancy announcement. KSAs are brief and focused essays about one's career and educational background that presumably qualify one to perform the duties of the position being applied for.

An Executive Core Qualification, or ECQ, is a narrative statement that is required when applying to Senior Executive Service positions within the US Federal government. Like the KSAs, ECQs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The Office of Personnel Management has established five executive core qualifications that all applicants seeking to enter the Senior Executive Service must demonstrate.

Non-literary types

A film essay (also essay film or cinematic essay) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay. From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where the signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends documentary, fiction, and experimental film making using tones and editing styles.

The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early Soviet filmmakers like Dziga Vertov, present-day filmmakers including Chris Marker, Michael Moore (, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11), Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) and Agnès Varda. Jean-Luc Godard describes his recent work as "film-essays". Two filmmakers whose work was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include Georges Méliès and Bertolt Brecht. Méliès made a short film (The Coronation of Edward VII (1902)) about the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into some of his plays. Orson Welles made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974, called , which dealt specifically with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with the themes of deception, "fakery", and authenticity in general. These are often published online on video hosting services.

David Winks Gray's article "The essay film in action" states that the "essay film became an identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s". He states that since that time, essay films have tended to be "on the margins" of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a "peculiar searching, questioning tone ... between documentary and fiction" but without "fitting comfortably" into either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films "tend to marry the personal voice of a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices". The University of Wisconsin Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray's comments; it calls a film essay an "intimate and allusive" genre that "catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins between fiction and documentary" in a manner that is "refreshingly inventive, playful, and idiosyncratic".

In the realm of music, composer Samuel Barber wrote a set of "Essays for Orchestra", relying on the form and content of the music to guide the listener's ear, rather than any extra-musical plot or story.

Photography

A photographic essay strives to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full-text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order-or they may consist of non-ordered photographs viewed all at once or in an order that the viewer chooses. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.

Visual arts

In the visual arts, an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch that forms a basis for a final painting or sculpture, made as a test of the work's composition (this meaning of the term, like several of those following, comes from the word essay' s meaning of "attempt" or "trial").

References

Further reading

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gosse, Edmund (1911). "Essay, Essayist". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 776-778.

Theodor W. Adorno, "The Essay as Form" in: Theodor W. Adorno, The Adorno Reader, Blackwell Publishers 2000.

Beaujour, Michel. Miroirs d'encre: Rhétorique de l'autoportrait. Paris: Seuil, 1980. [Poetics of the Literary Self-Portrait. Trans. Yara Milos. New York: NYU Press, 1991].

Bensmaïa, Reda. The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text. Trans. Pat Fedkiew. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1987.

D'Agata, John (Editor), The Lost Origins of the Essay. St Paul: Graywolf Press, 2009.

Giamatti, Louis. "The Cinematic Essay", in Godard and the Others: Essays in Cinematic Form. London, Tantivy Press, 1975.

Lopate, Phillip. "In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film", in Beyond Document: Essays on Nonfiction Film. Edited by Charles Warren, Wesleyan University Press, 1998. pp. 243-270.

Warburton, Nigel. The basics of essay writing. Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0-415-24000-X, 978-0-415-24000-0

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