Essay

An essay is a written text. It is usually about the personal point of view of the author who wrote it. The definition of an essay is vague. Articles and short stories can be quite similar. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been called essays (e.g. Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). People that write essays are called essayists.

Most essays are short. This does not have to be the case. John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population are long essays.

Essays can have all sorts of purposes. For example, an essay can be very argumentative, it can talk about points for and against the essay question to give a balanced argument or opinion. Essay must be essential and give some new points about topics. Its must be useful to readers.

Michel de Montaigne, a 16th century philosopher invented the essay.