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a) The essay is about

b) The central question in this essay is "Why The Essay". Jones writes to justify

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a) The writer uses a wide variety of literary devices to convey to the reader the fundamental "Why The Essay?" explains what an essay is, as well as classifying an essay into multiple different categories, teaching the reader to find the characteristics to distinguish difference types of essays and create an essay.

b)The writer uses a wide variety of literary devices to convey to the reader the fundamental essence of essays. Examining how to efficiently create essays which engages their user.

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Srushti, Carolyn, Meaghan, Maddie, Vaibhavi

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Srushti, Carolyn, Meaghan, Maddie, Vaibhavi

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a. Identify what the essay is about (what the main topic of discussion includes).

The essay "Why the Essay?" is a course introduction that aims to explain the purpose and value of essay writing as a fundamental skill. It argues that the process of writing an essay teaches students how to think clearly, organize their thoughts, and communicate effectively, skills that extend far beyond the English classroom.

b. Describe an overall or central question that the writer is trying to answer in the essay.

The central question the author seeks to answer is "Why the essay?" The entire piece is a detailed response to this question, justifying why this specific form of writing is so central to the course curriculum and to a student's broader intellectual development.

c. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question.  How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

d. Finally, did you find the argument convincing?  Explain.  What parts of the author's argument were particularly strong?  Which were weak?  What did the author miss?  That is, identify the holes in the author's argument

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Srushti, Carolyn, Meaghan, Maddie, Vaibhavi - MODIFIED 

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Srushti, Carolyn, Meaghan, Maddie, Vaibhavi - MODIFIED 

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Identify what the essay is about (what the main topic of discussion includes).

The significance of essays and how diverse and universal they can be

I feel as if the writer is trying to explain the beauty and uniqueness of an essay.

b. Describe an overall or central question that the writer is trying to answer in the essay.

He is talking about the fact that every essay needs a topic but also structure and organization for it to work.

He talks about how our brain always has million thought 24/7 which is why we need something to be organized

He is trying to answer the question of why essays are used so frequently

c. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question.  How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

Essays reveal more than a fact or an opinion, this writing format allows for an explanation to be made regarding the fact or opinion, capturing human experiences and history

An essay presents the thoughts of its author in a way that is comprehensible, defined, and logical to be able to clearly get its point across to its readers

Essays are very diverse in its nature and are able to get across a variety of different messages to its readers, making it a comfortable way of expressing a message to readers

d. Finally, did you find the argument convincing?  Explain.  What parts of the author's argument were particularly strong?  Which were weak?  What did the author miss?  That is, identify the holes in the author's argument.

- The content of the essay was of good quality, but the organization of it made it harder to get the authors point across

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A) The essay “Why The Essay” is about how essays are important to throughout life. Writing essays improves your ability to write and problem solve and helps you understand different perspectives of life. Teachers/Professors use essays to give students the opportunity to display their knowledge and critical thinking skills that are needed in the future.

D) Soraya and I really enjoyed this essay, I personally enjoyed the way the author broke down the word “essay” and where it originated from. The author provided a lot of evidence to support their argument. Overall the author gave a good explanation of why essays are fundamental for the future

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a) The topic of this essay is the essay and why is it used as many university courses.

b) The main question is “Why the essay?”. Why the essay is such a big part of education in schools and universities, what is significance and upsides of it.

c) 1. The word essay comes from the French essai (“attempt”)

2.There are many different types and categories of essays

3.Every essay must have explanation why, not just the fact

4. How to think and use this skills to write a good essay

b) All arguments were strong and based on  historical grounding and relatable examples, so the essay was convincing.

The essay has a good conclusion that overalls all points that all show and prove the main idea author is wanted to share.

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1. The main topic discussed in this essay are essays. Jones reviews the essay and its various uses. He then continues by describing the history of essays, and about the first author who described his work as essays, who was Michel de Montaigne. The essay then revolves around the main discussion, carrying on by listing the different types of essays. Concluding the main point, Jones concludes the text exploring the fundamentals of all essays, the essay providing a fundamental organizing strategy for thinking about things in a structured manner. Also saying the main significance of essays is that they are a way of providing a fundamental organizing strategy for thinking about things in an organized, structured manner.

2. The central question in this essay is "Why The Essay". Specifically asking why they are useful and why they are useful to sharpen critical thinking skills.

3. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question.  How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

help students approach the assortment of topics or situations that will, no doubt, appear in their future.

Skills that can be used by effective thinkers in many different situations such as attracting a significant other or even solving world issues.

Helps improve our fundamental thinking skills which allows us to solve future problems that we might face post high school

a way of providing a fundamental organizing strategy for thinking about things in an organized, structured manner.

maintains its focus by having different arguments in which he describes essays should be used for different situations.

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4. We found the argument somewhat convincing. Partially, for the reason that we understand why essays are used. Therefore this essay wasn’t changing our minds as much as someone who didn’t believe in essays.

It is so convincing because, at the start of the essay, it states and explains the definition of an essay very strongly. Along with that, it is said that essays are practical. Conveying that essays can be used everyday and that they sharpen your own skills towards organizing. He used humour and also made it feel like we were friends making it easier for me to listen and relate. Using the icream flavours as a way to explain and an example makes it easier to understand.

What was somewhat weak was how he assumed most students are the same. How he thinks all students don’t know how to organize and thinks that we aren’t on that level. Me being a person in the group he talks about makes me look down on him because it is only his opinion, from his perspective, and the way he talks about us, makes me feel kinda targeted. Therefore making it kind of weak for students. Lastly, he doesn’t have too many cites or sources, yes he is a teacher and has the experience, but there is always so much more.

What was missing was student feedback or the perspective of the students. If there were student’s opinions on essays (that were positive), it would’ve made this essay so much more convincing for students (which I felt was lacking). Another thing I felt was missing was on how there are other essays. There are many other forms of essays that are used for different reasons.

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a. Identify what the essay is about (what the main topic of discussion includes).

The essay "Why the Essay?" is a course introduction that aims to explain the purpose and value of essay writing as a fundamental skill. It argues that the process of writing an essay teaches students how to think clearly, organize their thoughts, and communicate effectively, skills that extend far beyond the English classroom.

b. Describe an overall or central question that the writer is trying to answer in the essay.

The central question the author seeks to answer is "Why the essay?" The entire piece is a detailed response to this question, justifying why this specific form of writing is so central to the course curriculum and to a student's broader intellectual development.

c. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question. How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

The essay asks: why do we write essays?

it explains the word essay comes from a French word esasi, meaning “to try” or “to attempt”

Michel de Montaige was the first to use the term for personal writing of ideas.

Essays help students think clearly and express their thoughts in writing

d. Finally, did you find the argument convincing? Explain. What parts of the author's argument were particularly strong? Which were weak? What did the author miss? That is, identify the holes in the author's argument

I found the argument convincing. I liked how the essay explained the history behind the word and connected it to learning how to think better. That made the purpose essays more meaningful. A strong part of the connection to Montaigne's idea of studying yourself and your thoughts. One weak part is that it didn't give any modern examples of how essays are used today. That would've helped make it more relatable

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B) A general/central question the author is trying to portray is What is The Essay?

It makes the reader think what are the qualities of an essay? What makes an essay? What are the different types of essays? The whole passage just makes the reader think about those very questions and all of those questions are answered within the essay that explains everything about an essay.

C) Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question.  How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

In a brief summary

The word essay was originated from the French it comes from the French verb essayer as it shows in the text. “The first author to describe his works as essays was the French writer and thinker Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).” (Jones, 1)

In the text it explains how there are many types of essays and each essay falls into a different category depending on the person categorizing the essay for example (“comparison and contrast,” “cause and effect,” and “argumentative”).

No matter the topic of any type of essay all essays have one thing in common it all is talking about something, a topic, an idea, and opinion they all are different things always have a common ground no matter what it is.

An essay always needs the writer to reflect on a specific body of image. “The essay writer always needs to consider a body of knowledge; select facts, ideas and other forms of data that will help that writer make sense of that body of knowledge; organize his or her understanding of this body of information into a coherent discussion and then present this discussion in the most simple, direct, clear manner possible.” (Jones, 4)

Now the whole essay itself maintains its focus by stating facts, proof and general information to keep the reader intact and also answers the question of What is The Essay? All in all this essay teaches you how to build an essay. What to do, where it originated from and if you’re ever lost about how to at least start one this is a good guide of helping the reader create one.

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a. Identify what the essay is about (what the main topic of discussion includes).

1. The main question addressed by the writer of this essay is, “what makes a good essay writer?”. The author attempts to connect with the audience through a simple, yet detailed writing. Moreover, the author also uses examples to ensure that the audience can clearly see the full picture he is trying to illustrate.

b. Describe an overall or central question that the writer is trying to answer in the essay.

1. The central question that the author answers through this essay is, “what makes a good essay writer?” Jones repeats this question several times in order to make it easier and simpler for the reader to understand.

c. Provide a bulleted synopsis of the major points and proofs/examples made in this essay, and what the author concludes in terms of an answer to the central question.  How does the essay maintain its focus, and present its argument?

1. Essay history, meaning(founder: Montaigne) , and why it was made.

2. Types of essays - The author lists the types of essays to show that different types topics need to be organized in a different manner.

3. The paper experts example - This example given bye the author is focused on people who think they might be overwhelmed by the complexity of essays. To address that issue, the author lists the common trait in every essay.

4. Essay topics - This point is made to show the similarities between all the types of essays simplifying the picture someone would have about essays.

5. Essay organization - Lastly, this point is repeated numerous times by Jones, emphasizing the importance of writing in an organized manner. Jones also adds that an essay loses its clarity and has no point without being organized.

d. Finally, did you find the argument convincing?  Explain.  What parts of the author's argument were particularly strong?  Which were weak?  What did the author miss?  That is, identify the holes in the author's argument

1. The points made by Jones were very convincing as they were relevant to the entire essay and supported by targeted examples. Firstly, because the author explained the values of essays from the pinnacle of its origin, I was able to better understand what essays consisted of and the wide variety of ways they can be used towards. Secondly, the examples that Jones used also made his points more convincing, as they made it seem like the author was confident in his arguments.