Does the very word 'Essay ' make you yawn.  Does it bring 
to your minds the picture of a steep hill which your class 
teacher has asked you to climb???  
When it is given as home work or class work  do you pull a 
long face and wonder how to go about it !  If you read on 
maybe your yawns will turn into smiles and maybe the steep 
hill gets converted into a mole hill!  Yes, essays can be 
fun and easy to write.  All you need to know is how to go 
about it with a clear mind and simple style.

Let us first understand what is meant by the word 'Essay'.  
It means an attempt to write or express your thoughts on 
any given subject. When you are given a subject to write 
about many thoughts, facts, ideas will pass through your 
mind.  It is not possible to remember all of them.  You may 
forget them just when you want them.  Moreover they will 
not be in a logical order.  So you should put these 
thoughts down as they come into your head. You can then 
number them according to their importance and sequence.  
Now we are ready to write the essay.

To begin with you must know that essays can be divided into 
three parts:


1.      The beginning or the 'head'
2.      The middle or the 'body'
3.      The ending or the 'tail'

1.      Let us take the 'head' first.  This is the 
beginning of the essay. A very easy and simple way to begin 
an essay can be by explaining the topic itself. You can 
begin by writing about the meaning of the topic literally. 
For this , the help of a dictionary can be taken ( this 
will increase your vocabulary as well as give you correct 
pronunciations too!).  In a short paragraph you can talk 
about the literal meaning of the topic and what you are 
going to say about it. You could also begin with a 
quotation related to the topic. We all know that the head 
is always smaller than the body.  In the same way the head 
or the beginning of an essay should be small. It should be 
one short paragraph only and should connect with the body. 
Now let us make this clear with the help of an example. 
Suppose your essay topic is 'Your Hobby'. Let us find out 
what the word "hobby" really means. The dictionary says 
that a hobby is a favourite occupation done as a pastime. 
Now let us begin writing our essay. We must always write 
the heading first:


MY HOBBY

'Hobby' literally means a favourite occupation done as a 
pastime. Most people, in their spare time, indulge in 
something they enjoy doing.  This something is not a part 
of their daily routine or work. But it is something that 
gives joy, pleasure and relaxation. It can be anything from 
gardening, singing, dancing, reading to stamp collecting, 
painting, writing..... Swimming is an activity which has 
always interested me and gives me great pleasure. Whenever 
I am asked  'what is your hobby', my prompt reply 
is 'Swimming'!

So this is our beginning. We talk about the topic itself - 
explain the meaning and lastly by writing 'my hobby is 
swimming' we connect it to the middle, which is going to be 
the next paragraph.  

The middle of the essay is the longest part just like the 
middle of our body
is the longest part of our structure. Here in  four five  
paragraphs we write in detail all that we wish to write 
about the topic.  How you got interested, where you learnt 
it, how much time you spend on it, the prizes won, the fun, 
any incidents related to it and so on. You could begin the 
second paragraph of your essay by writing about how you 
developed an interest, at what age, how scared you were the 
first time you went into the pool. Who taught you, the fun 
you began having the strokes you learnt, the competitions 
you participated in.  You could mention any memorable 
incident - maybe you saved a life. All this goes into the 
body but in different paragraphs.  The points you had noted 
down earlier on a rough sheet will come to use now. Now you 
can write about them one by one in different paragraphs. 
You can use quotations and proverbs wherever they fit. 
We now come to the last part of the essay.  We have to end 
it now. This is the tail of the body, and should not be 
long.  It should be written in one paragraph. Everything in 
life has a positive and negative side to it. There are 
always merits and demerits to everything.  In short there 
is always a good and a bad side to everything.  We can sum 
up an essay by discussing these.  You could write about 
what you like and what you do not like about the subject. 
What you learnt from it and what you would want others to 
learn. How it has helped you in life and so on. Here we 
could say that what I like most about swimming is that it 
not only gives pleasure but is also a life saviour.  
Besides it is a very good form of exercise. It is a pity 
though it cannot be pursued in winter, the climate of our 
country being so cold. The one risk associated with 
swimming is that if the water in the pools is dirty and 
unhygienic one can contact diseases. But on the whole 
swimming is fun and makes me feel energetic like a fish.  
Now that I am a good swimmer I am always prepared to dive 
into water and fish out anything maybe fish out a treasure 
or someone in trouble. I would like to repeat again that 
swimming is not merely a joyful hobby but it is life 
saving. 
  
The last paragraph can also be ended by a good quotation.