Thoughts on Essay Writing

Reading those articles gave me some good insights on essay writing. All throughout high school I was constantly writing essays, but I never stopped to think about what exactly an essay was and how it differed from other types of writing. It was interesting to see how an essay is compared to an article. The main thing that sets an essay apart is the personal voice of the writer that comes out. I don't usually have a problem letting my personal voice get incorporated into my writing-- usually, I have the reverse problem. If I am assigned to write an article or more factual report, I have to control my own opinions from leaking into the piece. That's why it was so fun to write the rough draft for this essay-- I was able to let loose and let many of the things the article was talking about, like using personal voice, telling and showing instead of trying too hard to prove yourself, etc., incorporate themselves into my essay. I know I still need to tweak the rough draft a lot, but reading these articles encouraged me that it's ok for my personal tone to be prevalent in this type of writing!