In the minds of ESL exam candidates, e ssay writing is one of the most daunting tasks they are required to complete, regardless of the level of the exam, the administering body or the ease with which they themselves use the language. The same applies to students who are asked to write an essay by their teachers at school. In the previous sample essays posted on the blog, the main point I stress is the need to become acquainted with this form of writing (as opposed to writing a letter, review or report, for instance), to get a feel of what authorial voice is and how to organize and progressively express the arguments you wish to make in a coherent manner. Unfortunately, the best way to prepare for exam writing or learn how to write good essays for school is to read as many essays from as many sources as possible, then write as
Shirley Jackson is a genius. She had many problems to deal with throughout her life and it is possibly these very same problems that made her the writer of great stories, memorable stories. Snubbed by her mother who wanted a slender, socialite, comme il faut daughter, she struggled with her own demons as well as those her community nourished in her. Instead of your average American of the day, Jackson married Stanley Edgar Hyman in 1940, an American Jew whom the FBI had been investigating in the late 1940s -1950s, suspecting him of being a Communist. In an era of antisemitism and fear of the Reds (cf. House Un-American Activities Committee and McCarthyism), Jackson managed to push all the wrong buttons in her New England community . S he sm o ked and drank heavily, was interested in witchcraft and voodoo, and a ccording to accounts , yelled at her children 's teachers . Such a n unconventional woman was unwelcome in a small provincial town with everything that this mi...