Journal Prompt 1: Expectations of Essays

Essays are dreaded by most but embraced by a few; I am one of the few. I never moan or groan when assigned an essay; I take it as an opportunity to get my thoughts across in a way that is sometimes easier to explain written on paper. My writing is not perfect by any means, my grammar is horrendous and usually “run-on sentences” are my friends. All of the negatives put aside I can honestly say that I’ve never “hated” writing an essay. In high school, we would always have to write essays along with the multiple choice part of the test. I would love writing the essays because that was where I got all my points. I have always been better at getting my point across when having to write something down rather than, looking at a list of answers and choosing which one fit the best.


“Writing to Change the World” by Mary Pipher was my favorite out of the two essays. I found it more personal and more appealing than the more factual essay “On Good Writing” by John Leo. When people sit down to read an essay I’m sure they are expecting to be bored to death by facts but it doesn’t have to be that way. Putting personal touches that can relate to people makes the paper more interesting. I can relate the essays that I’ve read and written in the past to Pipher’s essay opposed to Leo’s. I am ashamed to say that one of the best essays that I have ever written was one that I wrote three periods before it was due.


I attended a Catholic High School and we had to write an essay explaining why Catholic education was important to us. This was a contest, and the winner had to read their essay in front of our school and four others who were attending a mass for Catholic Schools Week. In my senior class there was a girl who was at the top of our class and was picked to do everything, and because of this no one took the essay seriously because everyone assumed that she would win the contest. It was still a grade and I still had to do it but I completely forgot about it the night before it was due. In fifth period that day I sat down and I just started to write. Because this was a very personal topic for me I was able to write three pages quite quickly. When we turned in the essays I knew mine wasn’t as good as everyone else’s and the thought that my essay would win never came across my mind.


The next day my English teacher pulled me aside and told me that he loved my essay and I was in shock. He said that he loved how it was to the point, personal, and not another “cookie-cutter” essay; he asked if I would read my essay at mass the next day. A wave of emotions came over me; I was nervous because I’m not a very good public speaker, I was excited that someone finally beat the girl at the top of our class who won everything, and I was scared to see everyone’s reaction to my essay. I saw reactions to my essay that I defiantly wasn’t expecting to get from the people listening; I was so surprised that my essay that took me twenty minutes to write actually brought people to tears. This was a humbling experience that I will never forget. This is why I can relate more to Mary Pipher’s essay, “Writing to Change the World.” I’m more drawn to writings that have a personal message with facts rather than just reading about facts.


I think that good writing is very subjective. Everyone has their own opinions; I consider good writing to be something that is more personal while others like the more informative. I like how Pipher used instances from her childhood like reading The Diary of Anne Frank and things her father told her. She made the essay personal to her but still got her message across. I think my writing style is more personal like Pipher, because every time I start to write something pops into my head that has happened in my life that I can relate to the topic. I also think that a writing strength of mine is being more unique and thinking outside of the box. I think that anyone could be more unique in writing if they added their own personal experiences in the piece. Like Pipher said in her essay, “all writing to effect change need not be great literature.” No matter who you are, where you are, your age, gender, or race it doesn’t matter; as long as you appeal to the common people your writing will be great and it really could change someone’s world.