TEXT FOR THE DAY (see below)

• from Lucile Vaughan Payne, The Lively Art Of Writing, Mentor, 1965

Ever since the first caveman discovered that he could draw arrows on the ground with a pointed stick, or scratch designs on the walls of his cave with a piece of flint, man has been trying to communicate with other men by means of written symbols. The caveman's arrows may have served only to show other cavemen the location of a river or the direction taken by an unfriendly animal. The designs he etched on the stone walls of his parlor may have represented no more than an instinctive effort at self-expression. But whatever his motives, that distant ancestor of ours was responding to a basic human urge--the urge to communicate. And although writing today is far more complicated, more stubtle, more conscious in its purpose than were those first crude symbols of early man, the basic urge behind every piece of writing remains the same: to communicate, to share knowledge and ideas and feelings, to say to the world, "This is the way things are."

That is the purpose of all writing. It is the purpose of a newspaper report, of a magazine article, of a short story, of a novel, of a poem. And it is the purpose of the essay.

An essay, however, is neither a mere record of fact nor a pure work of the imagination. The paper that you write for a history class, crowded with facts you have gathered from reference works, may look like an essay. But it probably isn't, no matter how carefully you have rewritten all the facts in your own words. Neither is the autobiographical incident that you "write up" for your English class likely to be an essay, no matter how truthful or clever; nor the painstaking, step-by-step "How to..." paper, no matter how clear and precise; nor the description of a particular scene, no matter how accurate the details or how lyrical the language.

You have probably written hundreds of such compositions during your life, lumping them all together under that much-abused heading, "themes." You may even have called them essays. But they are seldom essays.

What, then, is an essay?

An essay is the written expression of its author's opinion.

At its best an essay blends fact with imagination, knowledge with feeling, never giving itself over wholly to one or the other. But its purpose is always the same: to express an opinion. Essays will differ in quality and in kind, in length, in style, in subject. They will range from the very simple to the exceedingly complex. But in the final analysis every essay expresses a personal opinion. This is the critical difference between the essay and the expository theme or the mere report. An essay does not merely record facts or recount experiences; it registers the author's opinion of these facts and experiences.

That is why its study is so rewarding. Too often students let themselves become machines, ingesting the information their teachers offer them and then feeding it back, like ticker tape, in the form of rote recitations and answers to examination questions. But a student is no machine when he writes an essay; he is a human being--judging, evaluating, interpreting, expressing not only what he knows but what he is. Thus every attempted essay is a kind of voyage toward self-discovery.

The methods an essayist may use to express his opinion vary enormously, depending to some extent upon subject matter but to an even greater extent upon the author's particular view of life, his way of looking at things. He may put his opinion forward seriously or humorously, scientifically or imaginatively, formally or informally. He may state it explicitly, or he may imply it subtly. But opinion is always present. It is at the heart of every essay.

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Post your responses, comments and/or questions regarding the paper #3 assignment and the excerpt by Lucille Vaughan Payne dealing with "the essay." 
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