An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gi Essays

An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally 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, 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 . 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, 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 mediums 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 An 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 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." 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 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, and his essays grew out of his commonplacing. Inspired in particular by the works of Plutarch, a translation of whose uvres Morales into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot, Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais, was published in two volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life, he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in English in 1609, according to the Oxford English D ictionary. History Europe English essayists included Robert Burton and Sir Thomas Browne . In France, Michel de Montaigne's three volume Essais in the mid 1500s contain over 100 examples widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern essay. In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione

Child Labor In Victorian England Essays - Industrial Revolution

Child Labor In Victorian England Essays - Industrial Revolution Child Labor In Victorian England Child Labor in Victorian England The report described the children as Chained, belted, harnessed like dogsblack, saturated with wet, and more than half-naked, crawling upon their hands and knees, and dragging their heavy loads behind them (Yancey 34). This quote from Ivor Brown probably best describes the strenuous work preformed by a child laborer during the Victorian Era. Child laborers played an important part in developing the countrys economy. Children, one of the main sources of labor in Victorian England, endured less than adequate living and working conditions. During the Victorian Period children were good sources of labor. Beginning work as young as six or seven employers saw many benefits to hiring children (Yancey 33). Adolescents were a significant part of the labor force because they could be paid lower wages (Cody). Also their naturally small and nimble hands and bodies were easily maneuverable. Employers most often hired children over adults because kids were powerless and would not revolt (Yancey 33). Economic conditions forced poor children into working, sometimes as hard and long as their parents (Cody). Essential to the economy, Parliament supported child labor saying a child was more useful to his family working (Altick 249). Child laborers led very hard and grossly disgusting lives of filth. Generally the living quarters of laborers were poorly built, rotting, even falling down, with little ventilation. There was no indoor plumbing causing people to throw human waste on unpaved streets. Houses were often crowded and rented by the room or even by the corner. Dirty floors and leaky roofs did not stop people from living in over crowded basements and attics (McMurtry 159). The majority of the day of young workers was spent without their family. The factory system split up families for as much as fourteen hours. The time they did have together was either spent eating or sleeping. Young daughters developed no housewife skills because they were working and their working mother was not there to care for and teach them. The role or father was decreased since he was not the sole supporter of the family (Harrison 74). The life of a child laborer was much like this; thus they learned little about life (Harrison 74). Despite its major importance education played a very small role in the lives of children. In the Victorian Era there was a refined belief that education was not needed (Altick 249). Few working kids had more then two or three years of schooling (Altick 250). In 1840 only twenty percent of the youth population had any schooling at all (Cody). Then in 1870 the Education Act was passed stating that all children, ages five through ten, must attend school. Yet, it was not until 1881before the act became nation wide (Child Labor). Many children tried to avoid school mainly because of the hot, noisy, odorous, and unsanitary classroom environment. School buildings were inadequate along with schoolteachers. Most of the teachers were not properly trained and were usually failures in life. Children often picked work over school due to the fact that working earned them money while school earned them nothing (Altick 250). There were many different indoor jobs a child laborer could have during the Victorian Period. Two of the most commonly heard of jobs included servants and sweatshop workers. Boys and girls became household servants around ten or twelve. They would help around the house doing all sorts of different activities and odd jobs. Children were required to follow many rules around the family since they were of the lower class. Younger servants could not even be seen, heard, or around the family or their friends (McMurtry 169). Sweatshops were very small makeshift factories, usually ran by poor immigrants. The daily conditions of the shops were dirty, cramped, and unventilated. Fire was a serious threat because escape routes were usually narrow stairs that were hard to climb. Though most shops were illegal, Parliament did not stop them since the economys stability relied on their operation (Yancey 28). Two of the most popular jobs during the era involved outdoor work; they were chimney sweeping and mining. One of the most brutal forms of child labor was chimney sweeping. Many young boys would apprentice with masters to be

Written Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Written Assignment - Essay Example The implication of this is that the principles of war are not universal as every general can choose to develop their own depending how best their strategies work for them. Based on this, this essay will delve in to Sun Tzu statement that an army man tends to be the man in charge during a war and the fate of the people meaning that they fall under the mercy of the general in charge. In any war, consequences or effects are inevitable and the people tend to suffer more because things can never be normal again depending on the general that is commanding the war. In the case of the leadership of a country, the country may have a good performing economy or one that is unstable depending on the leadership styles and characteristics of the ruler (Roe 5). By applying and understanding this principle, this can be an effective way of exercising power by being familiar with the consequences of their decisions. The implication of this is that a nation may either have a failed democracy, unstable economy and vice versa depending on the type of leader that is in power. A nation’s prosperity may be uncertain as this tends to be the breaking or success moment for such a nation meaning that the type of leadership qualities that an individual may have can have a direct influence subjects. Peace in such a nation can prevail if the man in charge of a country has a clear plan of his intention to maximize on the nation’s resource by not creating enmity, as they carry out this activity. However, the leader chooses to be selfish and inconsiderate to the subjects in a country then this is likely to experience hostility, which can influence the war. Therefore, a leader can use this principle to their advantage, but also making sure their interests prevail with the least amount of force and no enemies created in the process. Nevertheless, the army men can never be in charge in a country because they also take orders