I am fascinated by this
essay by Paul Graham, prolific essayist. In this essay he smashes the
age-old principles,
taught to our children even today by our English teachers. What
is
Paul Graham’s advice to essayists.it is very simple;
’’don't
do as you're told. Don't believe what you're supposed to. Don't write the essay
readers expect; one learns nothing from what one expects. And don't write the
way they taught you to in school.’’
Is it necessary to maintain the rigid discipline of writing
first introduction and then middle paragraphs and lastly conclusion? Or is it not unavoidable to have a thesis as a
firm foundation to start writing the essay. Never, according to Paul Graham.
Please relish his lines; and enjoy the rest of his article in his website;
‘’The
most important sort of disobedience is to write essays at all. Fortunately,
this sort of disobedience shows signs of becoming rampant. It used to be
that only a tiny number of officially approved writers were allowed to write
essays. Magazines published few of them, and judged them less by what they said
than who wrote them; a magazine might publish a story by an unknown writer if
it was good enough, but if they published an essay on x it had to be by someone
who was at least forty and whose job title had x in it. Which is a problem,
because there are a lot of things insiders can't say precisely because they're
insiders.’’’