Becoming a Great Essayist

The practice of writing essays has evolved over centuries, yet remains versatile; many uses of essays across the ages; Cognard-Black uses examples from Aristotle to Michel de Montaigne to Edgar Allan Poe; building the story one wants to tell.

Discovering how to convey memories one has kept as an experience rather than just a recounting of facts; traveling with Virginia Woolf to explore her home as a stranger; learning how taking on a new perspective can translate into compelling essays.

A remarkable consequence of essay writing is the insights one discovers about themselves; not allowing plot building; the story takes its own direction; Cognard-Black shares stories of how some of her essays turn into a different piece in the end.

Essays that present conflicting views are common; Socrates commonly switches sides in order to test all parts of an argument; writing essays that provide both sides of an argument; developing elasticity of mind; expanding one's range of ideas.

A key artistic proof in any essay is the writer's ethical appeal or credibility; using ethos along with logos or rationality to bring reasonableness into essays; the work of Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, who master the reasonable essay.

Cognard-Black explores unreasonable essays, often written for humor or irony; an example of an essay that showcases conflicting views yet remains reasonable; examples where unreasonable writers use demagoguery to play on readers' emotions.