If the teacher asks
you to write a paper on ethical values and justice, he’s asking you to research
those subjects, because it’s very likely that you don’t have a solid grasp of
legal matters, but if he asks you to write about children who dress like clowns
and perform in the streets of many cities, in front of cars at red lights, then
it’s very likely that he’s asking you to write an essay, because unfortunately,
many Latin American people are familiar with these kinds of experiences. Essays
require that you draw from your own experience.
When writing about
these children, you might have your own opinion on their behavior. You’re free
to write whether you’re for or against it, saying they’re victims of an unfair
society, or you can say that they put themselves at risk if they don’t work.
You might want to recount an anecdote, something that happened while they were
doing their brief show; you might even want to talk about your feelings, and
write that you don’t understand why, but when you see them, you get a knot in
your throat, and you don’t know how you can help to solve the problem of the
poor human rights in the country.
The essay can include
all of these things, but above all, it demands rigor.
Rigor in essays
1. Writing well.
2. Supporting the
validity of your opinion:
– Comparing your text
to other texts about the same subject.
– Providing an
analysis that requires supporting a central hypothesis.
3. Whatever your
opinion is, for example, regarding children working in the streets, you have to
explain the objective reasons that they got to be in the streets in the first
place.
– So, you have to do
some research, data compilation and conjunction of opinions.
