Typically, an essay has five paragraphs: an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs. However, there is no set rule about the number of paragraphs in an essay.
The number of paragraphs can vary depending on the type and scope of your essay. An expository or argumentative essay may require more body paragraphs to include all the necessary information, whereas a narrative essay may need fewer.
To enhance the coherence and readability of your essay, it’s important to follow certain rules regarding the structure. Take a look:
1. Arrange your information from the most simple to the most complex bits. You can start the body paragraph off with a general statement and then move on to specifics.
2. Provide the necessary background information at the beginning of your essay to give the reader the context behind your thesis statement.
3. Select topic statements that provide value, more information, or evidence for your thesis statement.
There are also various essay structures , such as the compare and contrast structure, chronological structure, problem method solution structure, and signposting structure that you can follow to create an organized and impactful essay.
An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion.
1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader’s attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.
2. The body is where you dive deeper into your topic and present your arguments and evidence. It usually consists of two paragraphs, but this can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
3. The conclusion brings your essay to a close and is typically one paragraph long. It should summarize the main points of the essay and leave the reader with something to think about.
The length of your paragraphs can vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing. So, make sure you take the time to plan out your essay structure so each section flows smoothly into the next.
When it comes to writing an essay, the introduction is a critical component that sets the tone for the entire piece. A well-crafted introduction not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides them with a clear understanding of what the essay is all about. An essay editor can help you achieve this, but it’s best to know the brief yourself!
Let’s take a look at how to write an attractive and informative introductory paragraph.
1. Construct an attractive hook
To grab the reader’s attention, an opening statement or hook is crucial. This can be achieved by incorporating a surprising statistic, a shocking fact, or an interesting anecdote into the beginning of your piece.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about water conservation you can begin your essay with, “Clean drinking water, a fundamental human need, remains out of reach for more than one billion people worldwide. It deprives them of a basic human right and jeopardizes their health and wellbeing.”
2. Provide sufficient context or background information
An effective introduction should begin with a brief description or background of your topic. This will help provide context and set the stage for your discussion.
For example, if you’re writing an essay about climate change, you start by describing the current state of the planet and the impact that human activity is having on it.
3. Construct a well-rounded and comprehensive thesis statement
A good introduction should also include the main message or thesis statement of your essay. This is the central argument that you’ll be making throughout the piece. It should be clear, concise, and ideally placed toward the end of the introduction.
By including these elements in your introduction, you’ll be setting yourself up for success in the rest of your essay.
Let’s take a look at an example.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane in 1903 revolutionized the way humans travel and explore the world. Prior to this invention, transportation relied on trains, boats, and cars, which limited the distance and speed of travel. However, the airplane made air travel a reality, allowing people to reach far-off destinations in mere hours. This breakthrough paved the way for modern-day air travel, transforming the world into a smaller, more connected place. In this essay, we will explore the impact of the Wright Brothers’ invention on modern-day travel, including the growth of the aviation industry, increased accessibility of air travel to the general public, and the economic and cultural benefits of air travel.
You can persuade your readers and make your thesis statement compelling by providing evidence, examples, and logical reasoning. To write a fool-proof and authoritative essay, you need to provide multiple well-structured, substantial arguments.
Let’s take a look at how this can be done:
1. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph
The beginning of each of your body paragraphs should contain the main arguments that you’d like to address. They should provide ground for your thesis statement and make it well-rounded. You can arrange these arguments in several formats depending on the type of essay you’re writing.
2. Provide the supporting information
The next point of your body paragraph should provide supporting information to back up your main argument. Depending on the type of essay, you can elaborate on your main argument with the help of relevant statistics, key information, examples, or even personal anecdotes.
3. Analyze the supporting information
After providing relevant details and supporting information, it is important to analyze it and link it back to your main argument.
End one body paragraph with a smooth transition to the next. There are many ways in which this can be done, but the most common way is to give a gist of your main argument along with the supporting information with transitory words such as “however” “in addition to” “therefore”.
Here’s an example of a body paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane revolutionized air travel. They achieved the first-ever successful powered flight with the Wright Flyer in 1903, after years of conducting experiments and studying flight principles. Despite their first flight lasting only 12 seconds, it was a significant milestone that paved the way for modern aviation. The Wright Brothers’ success can be attributed to their systematic approach to problem-solving, which included numerous experiments with gliders, the development of a wind tunnel to test their designs, and meticulous analysis and recording of their results. Their dedication and ingenuity forever changed the way we travel, making modern aviation possible.
A powerful concluding statement separates a good essay from a brilliant one. To create a powerful conclusion, you need to start with a strong foundation.
Let’s take a look at how to construct an impactful concluding statement.
1. Restructure your thesis statement
To conclude your essay effectively, don’t just restate your thesis statement. Instead, use what you’ve learned throughout your essay and modify your thesis statement accordingly. This will help you create a conclusion that ties together all of the arguments you’ve presented.
2. Summarize the main points of your essay
The next point of your conclusion consists of a summary of the main arguments of your essay. It is crucial to effectively summarize the gist of your essay into one, well-structured paragraph.
3. Create a lasting impression with your concluding statement
Conclude your essay by including a key takeaway, or a powerful statement that creates a lasting impression on the reader. This can include the broader implications or consequences of your essay topic.
Here’s an example of a concluding paragraph.
The Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane forever changed history by paving the way for modern aviation and countless aerospace advancements. Their persistence, innovation, and dedication to problem-solving led to the first successful powered flight in 1903, sparking a revolution in transportation that transformed the world. Today, air travel remains an integral part of our globalized society, highlighting the undeniable impact of the Wright Brothers’ contribution to human civilization.
Most essays are derived from the combination or variation of these four main types of essays . let’s take a closer look at these types.
1. Narrative essay
A narrative essay is a type of writing that involves telling a story, often based on personal experiences. It is a form of creative nonfiction that allows you to use storytelling techniques to convey a message or a theme.
2. Descriptive essay
A descriptive essay aims to provide an immersive experience for the reader by using sensory descriptors. Unlike a narrative essay, which tells a story, a descriptive essay has a narrower scope and focuses on one particular aspect of a story.
3. Argumentative essays
An argumentative essay is a type of essay that aims to persuade the reader to adopt a particular stance based on factual evidence and is one of the most common forms of college essays.
4. Expository essays
An expository essay is a common format used in school and college exams to assess your understanding of a specific topic. The purpose of an expository essay is to present and explore a topic thoroughly without taking any particular stance or expressing personal opinions.
While this article demonstrates what is an essay and describes its types, you may also have other doubts. As experts who provide essay editing and proofreading services , we’re here to help.
Our team has created a list of resources to clarify any doubts about writing essays. Keep reading to write engaging and well-organized essays!
What is the difference between an argumentative and an expository essay, what is the difference between a narrative and a descriptive essay, what is an essay format, what is the meaning of essay, what is the purpose of writing an essay.
Found this article helpful?
Leave a Comment: Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published.
Your organization needs a technical editor: here’s why, your guide to the best ebook readers in 2024, writing for the web: 7 expert tips for web content writing.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get carefully curated resources about writing, editing, and publishing in the comfort of your inbox.
How to Copyright Your Book?
If you’ve thought about copyrighting your book, you’re on the right path.
© 2024 All rights reserved
Home ➔ What's an Essay?
The are various definitions for “essay.” But here, we will focus on the meaning of this word, which has become a significant element of education in countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
If summarized in simple terms within the academic context, the essay’s definition would be the following:
An essay is a short, nonfictional piece of formal writing assigned to students to improve their writing skills or assess their knowledge of a given subject.
Here are some of the many definitions of an essay:
Essays can be broadly categorized into formal essays and informal essays. Formal essays are characterized by their structured nature, employing a more formal language, and having a clearly defined purpose, contrasting with the more free-form and personal tone of informal essays.
Note: Apart from the secondary and tertiary education purpose, essays (also called papers reports) are often required when applying to colleges and universities to help them select the best applicants during the admissions.
If you study the word’s origin and history, you might better understand its purpose. The word “essay” comes from the Middle French word essayer, which in turn comes from Latin exigere, meaning “to test,” “examine,” and “drive out.”
This “archaeological” linguistic journey reveals the idea behind essays, encouraging learners to examine their ideas concerning a particular topic in-depth and test them. By nature, essays are short and require a clearly defined purpose of writing that you must adhere to in your paper.
There’s a lot to be learned from essay writing: critical analysis, observation, interpretation, narration, persuasion, close reading, preparation, and time management. All these skills can be valuable even beyond the school walls.
Lastly, in the visual arts, creative works can also be called essays if they present a personal reflection on a particular matter. So, film essays or photo essays fall into the general category of essays.
An essay is generally composed of three parts and has the following structure :
Generally, an essay must focus on the author’s argument and supporting evidence. However, the variety of essay types involves many other forms and styles. Argumentative and expository essays are particularly common in university-level education, known for their structured approach to presenting information and making clear points.
Understanding the different types of essays is pretty important for your academic success. Each essay type serves its own purpose and requires a different approach, so here’s a brief look at some of the most common essay types you might encounter during your school times.
An argumentative essay demands you to present a viewpoint on a (usually) controversial issue. Your task would generally be to persuade the reader through some solid logical reasoning and credible evidence with relevant examples. All that will involve creating a very clear thesis statement, presenting well-researched evidence, and addressing opposing views and ideas, if there are such. Getting an argumentative essay as an assignment is common in subjects like politics, ethics, and social sciences, where there’s a lot of debate on different topics. An example of a common topic for this essay would be something like “Should the death penalty be abolished?”
An expository essay focuses more on explaining a topic in a straightforward and logical manner. In such an essay, you will be presenting facts, statistics, and examples without any kind of your personal opinion. It’s usually built around a clear thesis statement and uses logical transitions to connect ideas from one paragraph to another. In general, expository essays are often used in academic settings to test students’ understanding of a subject or to explain complex ideas in a simple way. A common topic would be “The process of photosynthesis in plants.”, for example.
Narrative essays tell a story. These are often personal and can be both factual (based on a true story) and fictional. The key elements of this essay include a plot, characters, setting, and a climax. Unlike other essays, a narrative essay is much more creative and allows you to express your experiences or a story imaginatively and without some kind of rigid structure to follow. It’s often used in high school and college writing courses to develop storytelling skills. You would write about something like “A memorable trip to the mountains.”
A descriptive essay aims to paint a picture but with words. This essay uses vivid descriptions and sensory details to engage the reader’s senses and emotions and is more focused on the details and nuances of the subject, whether it’s a person, place, object, or event. Descriptive essays are great for creative writing classes and help develop one’s ability to describe something in great detail. One of the possible topics here might be “The bustling atmosphere of a city market.”
A critical essay evaluates a text, piece of art, or performance. It involves a thorough analysis and interpretation of the work, supported by credible evidence. The goal when writing this one is to provide a critical perspective, assessing the subject’s strengths and weaknesses. This type of essay is a common assignment in literature, film studies, and art history courses, where critical thinking and analytical skills are essential for the subject. A common topic here would be ‘An analysis of the themes in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”‘
A history essay examines historical events and their impact. This type requires extensive research and a deep understanding of historical context. When writing it, you will be analyzing various historical sources, presenting a clear argument on the topic, and supporting it with historical evidence. History essays are obviously assigned in history courses and help develop research and analytical skills, as well as the ability to construct coherent historical narratives. Something like “The causes and effects of the French Revolution.” would be a common topic here.
The structure and characteristics vary, but there are criteria you can apply to almost any academic essay. Below are ten characteristics that make a good essay.
You can find many works like Victor Segalen’s “Essay on Exoticism: An Aesthetics of Diversity” spanning many pages. But, as an academic assignment, essays are usually concise and range from 200 to 500 words.
Note: To learn more about essay length, check this article — How Long Should My Paper Be?
Because of the word count limit, your topic cannot be extensive and should focus on one aspect of the subject.
A subject is a broad concept: gun control, US history, WWII, Napoleonic Wars, business ethics, academic dishonesty, school dress code, etc. Those are not topics because you can write books on them.
Choose a more specific topic to cover. Ask yourself “Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?” questions about the subject matter. That strategy will allow you to limit the number of choices and pick something you like.
For instance, let’s narrow down the gun control subject . Something like “Video games are not the problem, but poor gun control policies are” can be your topic.
In a nutshell, an essay’s body can be described as a series of paragraphs. But they all have a uniform structure you must maintain in the paper. It goes as follows:
This is the first sentence, and it expresses the paragraph’s main idea. It acts like a mini-hook that attracts the reader’s attention.
Let’s say you’re working on a descriptive essay about your brother’s room.
Bad topic sentence:
My brother’s room is a mess.
Good topic sentence:
If they gave me one dollar every time I walked into my brother’s room and thought it was clean, I would be dead broke.
Here, you develop your topic sentence further, and there are many ways to do that:
Note: Make sure to cite your sources properly. Learn more here: How to Cite Sources (MLA and APA styles) .
If you had to write only one paragraph, this is where you would end the narrative. But, in academic essays, this last sentence transitions to the next idea — the next paragraph.
A thesis is the main idea of your paper. It’s usually one sentence that shows the reader what your essay is about. The challenging part is to squeeze the purpose of your writing into one sentence and in such a way that would make the reader want to debate it.
To check if your thesis statement is correct, make sure:
This one seems quite simple, but you won’t always find the answer to the “Why do I want to write about this topic” question easily. Even if the subject feels like the last thing you’d be interested in, there’s always something that can motivate you to write.
The reader would notice if you had zero motivation while writing the essay.
There’s no trick — just start writing . Once you are working on it, brainstorm all the ideas related to the subject. If you find it challenging to organize your thoughts right away, try freewriting — start writing everything that comes to your mind. Yes, there will be a lot of ideas not connected with one another, but you can choose the ones making sense and work with them further.
Each of your topic sentences in the main paragraphs should be supported. You can:
Use the method you believe is the most appropriate in your case.
Just facts, statistics, or quotations are not enough. You must analyze the proof and show how you can compare data and establish causal links.
Note: Use cohesive devices like transition words and conjunctions to hold your essay together as one unit.
The last period is placed, and you think, “Finally, it’s done! Now, back to the fun stuff.” By doing so, you will hand in an essay riddled with mistakes.
Proofreading matters. After the first draft, double-check it for all possible mistakes: grammar, punctuation, word usage, logic flow, etc.
Ensure your paper follows the structure described before. Check if your conclusion and introduction are about the same — the same applies to the body paragraphs.
Note: This article will give you valuable insights into the structure — How to Write an Essay .
Another criterion they use to grade your essay is its coherence (unity). To check this point, ask yourself:
The last tip on essay writing: always check your assignment sheet and clarify anything you don’t understand with your tutor or professor. Your college might have some special requirements regarding the content or style. So, make sure you studied all the instructions for the task thoroughly.
Why do we have to write essays in school?
Writing essays in school is a crucial component of academic writing, serving as a foundational practice for developing skills in various types of essays, such as argumentative, descriptive, narrative, expository, and more. Through the process of essay writing, students learn to articulate their ideas and thoughts more coherently, practice forming main and alternative arguments backed up by evidence, and enhance their ability to present clear explanations, craft creative descriptions, and structure narratives effectively. This practice not only helps build strong academic writing skills but also prepares students for writing research papers, submission essays, and contributing to academic journals, thereby playing a significant role in their academic and professional growth.
How are essays evaluated?
In schools, essays are typically evaluated based on a combination of criteria such as quality of your argument, evidence you presented, structure and organization, grammar and vocabulary accuracy, adherence to formatting requirements (if any), creativity, originality, critical thinking skills displayed, etc. The evaluator (usually your teacher or professor) will look at all these aspects to assess the essay’s overall quality.
How many paragraphs should there be in an essay?
The number of paragraphs in an essay will vary depending on its length and purpose. In general, a standard essay should have at least 3-4 paragraphs: an introduction paragraph to provide background information and set out your main argument; 2-3 body paragraphs where you flesh out your argument with evidence; and a conclusion paragraph summarizing your key points or drawing conclusions from your evidence.
(Entry 1 of 2)
Definition of essay (Entry 2 of 2)
transitive verb
attempt , try , endeavor , essay , strive mean to make an effort to accomplish an end.
attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.
try is often close to attempt but may stress effort or experiment made in the hope of testing or proving something.
endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.
essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.
strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'essay.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Middle French essai , ultimately from Late Latin exagium act of weighing, from Latin ex- + agere to drive — more at agent
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2
You'll know the difference if you give it the old college essay
Cite this entry.
“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/essay. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Kids definition of essay.
Kids Definition of essay (Entry 2 of 2)
Nglish: Translation of essay for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of essay for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about essay
Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!
Word of the day.
See Definitions and Examples »
Get Word of the Day daily email!
Plural and possessive names: a guide, commonly misspelled words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), absent letters that are heard anyway, how to use accents and diacritical marks, popular in wordplay, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, it's a scorcher words for the summer heat, 7 shakespearean insults to make life more interesting, plant names that sound like insults, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), games & quizzes.
Essays are brief, non-fiction compositions that describe, clarify, argue, or analyze a subject. Students might encounter essay assignments in any school subject and at any level of school, from a personal experience "vacation" essay in middle school to a complex analysis of a scientific process in graduate school. Components of an essay include an introduction , thesis statement , body, and conclusion.
The beginning of an essay can seem daunting. Sometimes, writers can start their essay in the middle or at the end, rather than at the beginning, and work backward. The process depends on each individual and takes practice to figure out what works best for them. Regardless of where students start, it is recommended that the introduction begins with an attention grabber or an example that hooks the reader in within the very first sentence.
The introduction should accomplish a few written sentences that leads the reader into the main point or argument of the essay, also known as a thesis statement. Typically, the thesis statement is the very last sentence of an introduction, but this is not a rule set in stone, despite it wrapping things up nicely. Before moving on from the introduction, readers should have a good idea of what is to follow in the essay, and they should not be confused as to what the essay is about. Finally, the length of an introduction varies and can be anywhere from one to several paragraphs depending on the size of the essay as a whole.
A thesis statement is a sentence that states the main idea of the essay. The function of a thesis statement is to help manage the ideas within the essay. Different from a mere topic, the thesis statement is an argument, option, or judgment that the author of the essay makes about the topic of the essay.
A good thesis statement combines several ideas into just one or two sentences. It also includes the topic of the essay and makes clear what the author's position is in regard to the topic. Typically found at the beginning of a paper, the thesis statement is often placed in the introduction, toward the end of the first paragraph or so.
Developing a thesis statement means deciding on the point of view within the topic, and stating this argument clearly becomes part of the sentence which forms it. Writing a strong thesis statement should summarize the topic and bring clarity to the reader.
For informative essays, an informative thesis should be declared. In an argumentative or narrative essay, a persuasive thesis, or opinion, should be determined. For instance, the difference looks like this:
The body paragraphs of an essay include a group of sentences that relate to a specific topic or idea around the main point of the essay. It is important to write and organize two to three full body paragraphs to properly develop it.
Before writing, authors may choose to outline the two to three main arguments that will support their thesis statement. For each of those main ideas, there will be supporting points to drive them home. Elaborating on the ideas and supporting specific points will develop a full body paragraph. A good paragraph describes the main point, is full of meaning, and has crystal clear sentences that avoid universal statements.
A conclusion is an end or finish of an essay. Often, the conclusion includes a judgment or decision that is reached through the reasoning described throughout the essay. The conclusion is an opportunity to wrap up the essay by reviewing the main points discussed that drives home the point or argument stated in the thesis statement.
The conclusion may also include a takeaway for the reader, such as a question or thought to take with them after reading. A good conclusion may also invoke a vivid image, include a quotation, or have a call to action for readers.
How to write a definition essay.
A definition essay can be deceivingly difficult to write. This type of paper requires you to write a personal yet academic definition of one specific word. The definition must be thorough and lengthy. It is essential that you choose a word that will give you plenty to write about, and there are a few standard tactics you can use to elaborate on the term. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when writing a definition essay.
1: choose an abstract word with a complex meaning. [1].
A simple word that refers to a concrete word will not give you much to write about, but a complex word that refers to an abstract concept provides more material to explore.
Aside from being complex, the word should also refer to something that can mean different things to different people.
Dictionary definitions can only tell you so much. Since you need to elaborate on the word you choose to define, you will need to have your own base of knowledge or experience with the concept you choose.
While you will not be relying completely on the dictionary definition for your essay, familiarizing yourself with the official definition will allow you to compare your own understanding of the concept with the simplest, most academic explanation of it.
Look up your chosen word in the Oxford English Dictionary or in another etymology dictionary. [3]
1: write an analysis. [4].
Separate a word into various parts. Analyze and define each part in its own paragraph.
Specify what classes and parts of speech a word belongs to according to a standard dictionary definition.
An unfamiliar or uncommon concept can be explained using concepts that are more accessible to the average person.
Explain any physical characteristics or traditional thoughts used to describe your term of choice.
People often relate to stories and vivid images, so using a fitting story or image that relates to the term can be used in clarifying an abstract, formless concept.
If a term is often misused or misunderstood, mentioning what it is not is an effective way to bring the concept into focus.
This is when your research about the etymology of a word will come in handy. Explain where the term originated and how it came to mean what it currently means.
1: introduce the standard definition..
You need to clearly state what your word is along with its traditional or dictionary definition in your introductory paragraph.
Your actual thesis statement should define the term in your own words.
Each tactic or method used to define your term should be explored in a separate paragraph.
Briefly summarize your main points around the start of your concluding paragraph.
If the term you define plays a part in your own life and experiences, your final concluding remarks are a good place to briefly mention the role it plays.
Rachel kolar, 27 jun 2018.
Do you feel passion for the words and ideas in your essays? While you may know your essay topic inside and out, your potential reader may not know all the verbiage or lingo. When writing an essay, you may need to define some of that terminology that is familiar to you. Writing a word-for-word definition from the dictionary can be awkward, and putting the definition in the wrong part of your essay can make it seem poorly organized or confusing. To use definitions effectively, you should be concise, use your own words and introduce the definitions in the body of the essay rather than in the introduction.
Determine whether the word is unusual enough to warrant a definition. Although you will need to define technical terms and jargon, do not define every advanced vocabulary word you use in an essay. For instance, if writing a sociology paper, you might need to define "Weltanschauung" or "anomie," but not non-technical terms such as "obdurate" or "didactic."
Rephrase the definition in your own words. If you use a word-for-word definition from a dictionary or textbook, you will have to include a full quotation, which will be more awkward than a paraphrase. The sentence, "The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'anomie' as 'personal unrest, alienation and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals'" is awkward; the sentence "Anomie is a feeling of unrest coming from the sense that one's life has no purpose" flows better.
Cite the dictionary or textbook from which you took the definition at the end of the sentence if you are using in-text citations. The first time you refer to this source, use the full title followed by the abbreviation. After that first reference, you can simply use the abbreviation. By taking the step of correctly referencing any definition source used, you can avoid plagiarism in your essay text.
Define the term in the body of the essay, not the introduction. The purpose of your introduction is to catch the reader's attention and establish your thesis, not to define terminology. Furthermore, the opening sentence "According to Webster's dictionary, the definition of [blank] is . . ." has become cliched. If you are worried that you cannot use the term without defining it, use synonyms in your introduction as much as possible.
Keep your definition brief. If you feel you must give a lengthy definition to elaborate on the term's various shades of meaning, break it into a few longer sentences. The lengthy dictionary definition form doesn't work as well within the essay format. If you define a word within the essay, it shouldn't be a disruptive part of the essay in length or wording. While a personal essay might seem a place for you to add your own thoughts to a definition; keeping the definition brief, concise and well-cited brings clarity to the essay, without adversely affecting your essay's tone or message.
A resident of the Baltimore area, Rachel Kolar has been writing since 2001. Her educational research was featured at the Maryland State Department of Education Professional Schools Development Conference in 2008. Kolar holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College and a Master of Arts in teaching from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Regardless of how old we are, we never stop learning. Classroom is the educational resource for people of all ages. Whether you’re studying times tables or applying to college, Classroom has the answers.
© 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Based on the Word Net lexical database for the English Language. See disclaimer .
Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Giver — Definition of Happiness
About this sample
Words: 866 |
Published: Aug 1, 2024
Words: 866 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read
The pursuit of happiness, the role of external factors, the importance of internal factors, the subjectivity of happiness, the pursuit of happiness in society.
Let us write you an essay from scratch
Get high-quality help
Verified writer
+ 120 experts online
By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email
No need to pay just yet!
1 pages / 576 words
2 pages / 827 words
1 pages / 550 words
3 pages / 1428 words
Remember! This is just a sample.
You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.
121 writers online
Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled
The Giver by Lois Lowry, a thought-provoking dystopian novel, has captivated readers for years with its intricate narrative and compelling themes. The transition from page to screen, however, introduces variations that can spark [...]
Since its publication in 1993, Lois Lowry's novel "The Giver" has become a popular choice in middle and high school classrooms across the United States. Set in a dystopian society, the book explores themes of conformity, [...]
In Lois Lowry's dystopian novel "The Giver," Jonas emerges as a significant character whose journey challenges the very foundations of his strictly controlled society. The narrative revolves around Jonas's evolution from a [...]
The concept of freedom is a fundamental aspect of human society and is often a central theme in literature and popular culture. In Lois Lowry's novel, The Giver, the issue of freedom is explored through the lens of a dystopian [...]
The book The Giver is about a supposedly ideal society, however as the book continues it seems to be more of a dystopia with a totalitarian government. Everyday life is the same and almost never changes because the consequence [...]
Imagine living in a community where everything you do is watched through the cameras of your house, school, cafeteria and everything you say is being recorded. Imagine living a life where you can’t feel any emotions, feelings, [...]
By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.
Where do you want us to send this sample?
By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.
Be careful. This essay is not unique
This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before
Download this Sample
Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts
Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.
Please check your inbox.
We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!
We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .
Essay Question:
To what extent were Black South Africans were deprived of their political, economic, and social rights in the early 1900s and how did this reality pave the way for the rise of African Nationalism? Present an argument in support of your answer using relevant historical evidence. [1]
Background and historical overview:
There was no South Africa (as we know it today) before 1910. Britain had defeated Boer Republics in the South African War which date from (1899–1903). There were four separate colonies: Cape, Natal, Orange River, Transvaal colonies and each were ruled by Britain. They needed support of white settlers in colonies to retain power. [2] In 1908, about 33 white delegates met behind closed doors to negotiate independence for Union of South Africa. The views and opinions of 85% of country’s future citizens (black people) not even considered in these discussions. British wanted investments protected, labour supplies assured, and agreed on the fundamental question to give political/economic power to white settlers. [3] This essay pushes back in time to analyse how this violent context in South African history served as an ideological backdrop for the rise of African nationalism in the country and elsewhere in the world.
The Union Constitution of 1910 placed political power in hands of white citizens. However, a small number of educated black, coloured citizens allowed to elect few representatives to Union parliament. [4] More generally, it was only whites who were granted the right to vote. They imagined a ‘settler nation’ where was no room for blacks with rights. In this regard, white citizens called selves ‘Europeans’. Furthermore, all symbols of new nation, European language (mainly English and Dutch), religion, school history. In this view, African languages, histories, culture were portrayed as inferior. [5]
Therefore, racism was an integral feature in colonial societies, and this essentially meant that Africans were seen as members of inferior ‘tribes’ and thus should practise traditions in ‘native’ reserves. Whilst, on the other hand, in the settler (white) nation, black people were recognized only as workers in farms, mines, factories owned by whites. Thus, black people were denied of their political rights, cultural recognition, economic opportunities, because of these entrenched processes and politics of exclusion. In 1910 large numbers of black South African men were forced to become migrant workers on mines, factories, expanding commercial farms. In 1913, the infamous Natives Land Act, worsened the situation for black people as land allocated to black people by the Act was largely infertile and unsuitable for agriculture. [6]
Rise of African Nationalism:
In the 19th century, the Western-educated African, coloured, Indian middle class who grew up mainly in the Cape and Natal, mostly professional men (doctors, lawyers, teachers, newspaper editors) and were proud of their African, Muslim, Indian heritage embraced idea of progressive ‘colour-blind’ western civilisation that could benefit all people. This was a more worldly outlook or form of nationalism which recognized all non-white groupings across the colonial world as victims of colonial racism and violence. [7] However, another form of nationalism recognized the differences within the colonized groups and argued for a stricter and more specific definition of what it means to be African in a colonial world. These were some differences within the umbrella body of African nationalism and were firmly anchored during the course of the 20th century.
African Peoples’ Organization:
One of the African organisations that led to the rise of African nationalism was the African People’s Organisation (APO). At first the APO did not concern itself with rights of black South Africans. They committed themselves to the vision that all oppressed racial groups must work together to achieve anything. Therefore, a delegation was sent to London in 1909 to fight for rights for coloured (‘coloured’. In this context, ‘everyone who was a British subject in South Africa and who was not a European’). [8]
Natal Indian Congress:
Natal Indian Congress Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was an important influence in the development of non-racial African nationalism in South Africa. Arguably, it was one of the first organisations in South Africa to use word ‘congress’. It was formed in 1894 to mobilise the Indian opposition to racial discrimination in Colony. [9] The founder of this movement was MK Gandhi who later spearheaded a massive peaceful resistance (Satyagraha) to colonial rule. This protest forced Britain to grant independence to India, 1947. The NIC organised many protests and more generally campaigned for Indian rights. In 1908, hundreds of Indians gathered outside Johannesburg Mosque in protest against law that forced Indians to carry passes, passive resistance campaigns of Gandhi and NIC succeeded in Indians not having to carry passes. But, however, they failed to win full citizenship rights as the NIC did not join united national movement for rights of all citizens until 1930s, 1940s
South African Native National Congress (now known as African National Congress):
In response to Union in 1910, young African leaders (Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Richard Msimang, George Montsioa, Alfred Mangena) worked with established leaders of South African Native Convention to promote formation of a national organization. The larger aim was to form a national organisation that would unify various African groups. [10] On 8 January 1912, first African nationalist movement formed at a meeting in Bloemfontein. South African National Natives Congress (SANNC) were mainly attended by traditional chiefs, teachers, writers, intellectuals, businessmen. Most delegates had received missionary education. They strongly believed in 19th century values of ‘improvement’ and ‘progress’ of Africans into a global European ‘civilisation’ and culture. In 1924, the SANNC changed name to African National Congress (ANC), in order to assert an African identity within the movement. [11]
Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU):
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union African protest movements that helped foster growing African nationalism in early 1920s . Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) was formed in 1919 was led by Clements Kadalie, Malawian worker. This figure had led successful strike of dockworkers in Cape Town. Mostly active among farmers and migrant workers. But, only temporarily away from their farms and was very difficult to organise. The central question to pose is to examine the ways in which the World War II influence the rise of African nationalism? Essentially, there were various ways that WW II influenced the rise of African nationalism. [12] Firstly, through the Atlantic Charter, AB Xuma’s, African claims in relation to this Charter. In addition, the influence of politicized soldiers returning from War had a significant impact.
The Atlantic Charter and AB Xuma’s African claims Churchill and Roosevelt issued the Atlantic Charter in 1941, describing the world they would like to see after WWII. To the ANC and African nationalists generally, the Atlantic Charter amounted to promise for freedom in Africa once war was over. Britain recruited thousands of African soldiers to fight in its armies (nearly two million Africans recruited as soldiers, porters, scouts for Allies during war). This persuaded Africans to sign up and Britain called it ‘a war for freedom’. [13] The soldiers returning home expected Britain to honour their sacrifice, however, the recognition they expected did not arrive and thus became bitter, discontented, and only had fought to protect interests of colonial powers only to return to exploitation and indignities of colonial rule.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this essay has attempted to examine the historical circumstances in which black people were denied of their political, economic, and social rights in the early 1990s. There are various that must be acknowledged in order to have a granular understanding of the larger and longer history of African nationalism, and this examination may exceed the scope of this essay. However, the central argument made here is that the rise of African nationalism in all its different ethos and manifestations was premised on humanizing black people in various parts of the colonial world. To stress this point, African nationalism emerged as a vehicle of resistance and humanization. Finally, African nationalism cannot be read outside the international context (as shown throughout the paper), as we have to take into account various factor which effectively influenced the spurge of this ideological outlook in society.
This content was originally produced for the SAHO classroom by Ayabulela Ntwakumba & Thandile Xesi.
[1] National Senior Certificate.: “Grade 11 November 2019 History Paper 2 Exam,” National Senior Certificate, November 2019. Eastern Cape Province Education.
[2] Williams, Donovan. "African nationalism in South Africa: origins and problems." The Journal of African History 11, no. 3 (1970): 371-383.
[3] Feit, Edward. "Generational Conflict and African Nationalism in South Africa: The African National Congress, 1949-1959." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 5, no. 2 (1972): 181-202.
[4] Chipkin, Ivor. "The decline of African nationalism and the state of South Africa." Journal of Southern African Studies 42, no. 2 (2016): 215-227.
[5] Prinsloo, Mastin. "‘Behind the back of a declarative history’: Acts of erasure in Leon de Kock's Civilizing Barbarians: Missionary narrative and African response in nineteenth century South Africa." The English Academy Review 15, no. 1 (1998): 32-41.
[6] Gilmour, Rachael. "Missionaries, colonialism and language in nineteenth‐century South Africa." History Compass 5, no. 6 (2007): 1761-1777.
[7] Lester, Alan. Imperial networks: Creating identities in nineteenth-century South Africa and Britain. Routledge, 2005.
[8] Van der Ross, Richard E. "The founding of the African Peoples Organization in Cape Town in 1903 and the role of Dr. Abdurahman." (1975).
[9] Vahed, Goolam, and Ashwin Desai. "A case of ‘strategic ethnicity’? The Natal Indian Congress in the 1970s." African Historical Review 46, no. 1 (2014): 22-47.
[10] Suttner, Raymond. "The African National Congress centenary: a long and difficult journey." International Affairs 88, no. 4 (2012): 719-738.
[11] Houston, G. "Pixley ka Isaka Seme: African unity against racism." (2020).
[12] Xuma, A. B. "African National Congress invitation to emergency conference of all Africans."
[13] Kumalo, Simangaliso. "AB Xuma and the politics of racial accommodation versus equal citizenship and its implication for nation-building and power-sharing in South Africa."
Return to topic: Nationalism - South Africa, the Middle East, and Africa
Return to SAHO Home
Return to History Classroom
Know something about this topic.
Towards a people's history
Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.
A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.
The main goals of an introduction are to:
This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.
The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.
Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes
Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.
Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.
Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.
The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.
Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.
The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly why the topic is important.
Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.
Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.
Discover proofreading & editing
Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:
The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.
How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:
Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.
This is the most important part of your introduction. A good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.
The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.
Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.
As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.
For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.
When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.
It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.
To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .
You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.
My first sentence is engaging and relevant.
I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.
I have defined any important terms.
My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.
Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.
You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.
This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.
The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.
This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).
In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.
This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.
If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
College essays
(AI) Tools
Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:
The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .
The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.
To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.
A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.
The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:
Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.
The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.
The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/introduction/
Other students also liked, how to write a thesis statement | 4 steps & examples, academic paragraph structure | step-by-step guide & examples, how to conclude an essay | interactive example, get unlimited documents corrected.
✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts
Else lasker-schüler, a darling of berlin’s avant-garde, fought to define herself—even through tragedy and exile..
BY Robert Rubsam
Else Lasker-Schüler, 1919. National Library of Israel, Schwadron Collection. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
In my favorite photo of her, she stands on a muddy forest road on the outskirts of Berlin. A large group has gathered to celebrate spring: bearded bourgeois, wild men, women holding the hems of their pale dresses up from the muck. Her robe is dark and lace-lined, mud-splattered to the hip. Posed on the far edge of the semicircle, she alone refuses to face the camera.
All of her life, Else Lasker-Schüler fought to define and depict herself, and to set the terms by which she would be understood. She took and gave out new names, married and divorced two men, and drew herself as a dancer, a prince astride an elephant, and an Arab queen in trousers, her cheek adorned with crescent and star. By the time she was 27 she was already subtracting years from her age. When asked where she was born, she answered “ Thebes. ” Over the course of nearly 76 years, she produced poetry, prose, plays, feuilletons, illustrations, cartoons, letters, cracks, and public invective, the record of a difficult and frequently disappointed life, tending toward a caged sort of freedom.
She was born in February 1869, into a Jewish family in the Prussian Rhineland town of Elberfeld. On her father’s side, she was related to the famous Prague Rabbi Judah Loew, creator of the Golem legend; on her mother’s side, the founder of the liberal Frankf u rter Zeitung . Looking back from the 1920s, she recalled a home both mythic and bourgeois, her descriptions sounding like Bruno Schulz in a subdued register. “When the sunset is mirrored in its windows, like the rubies of heaven, it seems to me that Angel Gabriel stands sentinel over it alone,” she writes in Concert (1932).
Her father was a banker, prankster, and homebody, a man who “was simply worried about his dahlias and pansies in the flowerbed of our garden.” Her mother, meanwhile, was “my friend, my idol, my strength, my absolution, my emperor,” whose death in 1890 seems to have shifted something in the 21-year-old Lasker-Schüler. “When my mother died,” she later wrote, “the moon broke apart.” In a 1911 poem titled “My Mother,” she calls her “the great angel / who walked beside me,” a being who lies “buried / under this sky of smoke” which has ceased to “bloom blue” since her death. “Now,” she concludes, “I will be always alone.” Her mother appears in 10 poems; her father in none.
In 1894 she entered into an unhappy marriage with the doctor and chess enthusiast Berthold Lasker. The couple left for Berlin, where Lasker-Schüler took art lessons, rented an atelier around the corner from their Tiergarten home, and transformed from bourgeois to bohemian. She refused to fulfill domestic expectations, which she compared to a tomb. In a photo from the mid-1890s, she appears in profile, her blouse wrinkled, her collar disheveled, her hair wild and glossy.Even from the side, her gaze is wide, bright, and intimidating, as if staring down her own diminishment.
She addresses her husband in the 1899 poem “Wilted Myrtle”: “You trampled my young spirit dead / And then drew back inside your own cold shell.” But Lasker-Schüler was about to affect a resurrection. That poem and several others were published in the August issue of Die Gesellschaft , just before she gave birth to her son Paul. Around this time, Lasker-Sch üler met the writer, radical, and occasional vagabond Peter Hille, who helped bring her into Berlin’ s bourgeoning avant-garde.
Before his early death in 1904, Hille was associated with the artist groups Die Kommenden and Die Neue Gemeinschaft, as well as with the city’s fledgling cabaret scene. These groups published their own journals and put on performances, read their poems in the woods or on the lakeshores of Berlin (which they trekked through the mud to reach), and performed in costume at clubs and restaurants. The groups could be hedonistic and erotic, and they flouted rigid sexual norms. Yet they were largely bourgeois endeavors, run by middle-class men whose flirtation with radical ideas such as communal living gave way to professional jealousy and domestic conservatism. Lasker-Schüler was frequently one of the few female participants, and her yearnings—for love, God, and a deeper mode of experience—transgressed the moral limits of other members. “My motherland is soulless,” she writes in “ Chaos ” (1902). “No rose blooms / In the tepid air.” As in the aforementioned group photograph, Lasker-Schüler refused to allow others to direct her gaze.
These groups helped transition Lasker-Schüler from housewife to poet. She published her debut collection, Styx , in 1902, followed three years later by The Seventh Day . Both books are full of love poems, the fruit of Lasker-Schüler’s time in Berlin’s coffeehouses. Functionally separated from her first husband for several years, she divorced Lasker in 1903 and married the composer and writer Georg Lewin, who went on to found Der Sturm . In a poem dedicated to him, she describes their love affair as violent and shattering, “a weeping in the world, / As if dear God Himself had died.” Yet this is not quite the apocalypse promised by the title (“ Weltende ”), but, rather, the end of an old, desiccated world, in which “Life’s locked up in every heart / As in a coffin.” The poem ends with Lasker-Schüler’s command that they “hold each other tight and kiss . . . / A terrible yearning pounds at the gate, / And we must surely die.”
These early poems waltz back-and-forth between desire and its anticipated disappointment. In one poem her love causes her to go “wild and screaming like gazelles”; in another, she longs to tell her lover “how I sink / to find your kiss / gone empty.” In a typical Lasker-Schüler narrative, the flush of love when “your kisses darken on my mouth” gives way to distance, and what was once experienced can now only be recalled. Even the natural world—the moon and the sky—turns away. At times, the poems tip into despair: “I adapted to you, / because I longed for what is human. // I have become poor / from your begging charity.” But there is always another infatuation. Rather than the proper poems of a woman in love, Lasker-Schüler’s read like the confessions of a desire so capacious it approaches holiness. “I am not accustomed to living on a small scale,” she would later write.
Such transfigurations marked her personal and artistic lives. Hille called her “Tino of Baghdad,” a name that can use feminine, masculine, and neuter pronouns, and which offered an additional Orientalized identity through which Lasker-Schüler enacted fantasies of liberation on the page, and thus in her own life. A “name is no accident,” she writes. Lasker-Schüler frequently assumed new identities, often in response to tumult and privation. When her divorce from Lewin in 1912 plunged her into poverty, she began to sign her requests for charity the “Prince of Thebes,” defying her reduced status. “Neither as a woman nor as a Jew would she ever accept an assigned role,” writes her biographer, Betty Falkenberg.
Lasker-Sch üler extended the favor to others. Before their marriage, she rechristened Lewin as Herwarth Walden (possibly a reference to Thoreau ). Name-giving allowed her to create a mythic Berlin, and to assert her prominence in a flourishing artistic milieu. Many of the great artists of pre- and interwar Germany met Lasker-Schüler at the Café des Westens and featured in Walden’ s epochal journal Der Sturm , including the painter Franz Marc, anarchist Johannes Holzmann, novelist Alfred Dö blin, cabaretist Erich M ühsam, theorist Walter Benjamin, philosopher Martin Buber, and poets Georg Trakl and Gottfried Benn . Like the alternative groups of Lasker-Schüler’s early career, the Berlin avant-garde blended political and aesthetic radicalism, and provided a home for Jews and women excluded from Germany’s official artistic societies.
Her novel My Heart (1912) describes this society in an alternately ironic and tragic mode. Lasker-Schüler spent the better part of her days in cafés, writing letters and poems, and holding court with contemporaries and younger poets. My Heart celebrates and mocks this milieu. It is the center of the world, a bazaar, yet even there “not everything is the real thing: imitation poets, false verbal embellishments, simulated thinking, [and] cigarettes smoked” as an affectation.
Published in Der Sturm in 20 installments, My Heart is full of love affairs whose paramours are all referred to by their codenames: Johannes Holzmann is Senna Hoy, the German poet and lawyer Kurt Hiller is The Bishop, the Austrian writer Karl Kraus is the Dalai Lama, and Gottfried Benn is Giselher the Barbarian. Infatuations give way to disappointment. “I am a transparent, bottomless ocean,” Lasker-Schüler declares near the novel’s conclusion. “I feel that there is no solid ground beneath me any longer.” Written at the end of her second marriage , My Heart reads as both a confession and a cry of despair.
Like much of her early prose, the book exhibits the Orientalizing tropes that excited German readers around the turn of the 20th century. Mosques, pyramids, temples, caliphs , Fakirs, and dervishes all make appearances. Lasker-Sch üler went about Berlin in imported wide-legged trousers, and posed for pictures in “Arab” dress. She even once made a round of the clubs speaking a gobbledygook “Arabic” she improvised on the spot. While some of her writings focus on an ancient, eastern Judaism, the concept is fluid; The Nights of Tino of Baghdad (1907) is a series of prose poems narrated by a Muslim princess who falls for a Greek boy.
As with many of Lasker-Schüler’s contemporaries, the East provided a zone of fantasy, a place where she could transcend social roles, playact as both a woman and a man, and be the “Wild Jew” who not only rejected assimilated, bourgeois German Judaism, but also the Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews whom she scorned, as did most German Jews. Yet this cultural appropriation was also a reflexive response to the many antisemites who regarded Jews as an alien, “ Oriental ” presence in German society. Lasker-Schüler recalls that, as a child, she would open her eyes so wide that it shocked her Pietist neighbors, making her “look so inspired and strange, so exotic.” Echoing her father’s prankish spirit, she writes, “One must be a clown to be understood by the public.” The translator James J. Conway sees in this notion “a highly modern idea of hybrid identity,” a rejection of being reduced to a single thing.
This hybridity lends much of Lasker-Schüler’s work an in-betweenness spanning eras and movements without being wholly one or another. She is too flowery for the expressionists and too formal for the modernists. She’s interested in love and the past and the moon rather than the city or modern society. Although her poems are highly structured, they lean on neologisms that take advantage of German’s agglutinative qualities—allowing sound to embody the image. Take one of her most famous poems, “ Ein Alter Tibetteppich ” (1910). That long string of t ’ s and p ’ s collapses when translated as “ An Old Tibetan Rug, ” per Brooks Haxton, as does any attempt to rhyme “love” and “Tibetan rug,” as Lasker-Sch üler does with “ liebet ” and “ Teppichtibet. ” Her original skips off the tongue, with its repetitions that follow the eponymous tapestry’s warp and weft. This is to say nothing of the single word comprising the second line of the third stanza: “Maschentausendabertausendweit.” I like Janine Canan’s translation of “thousands upon thousands of meshes wide” more than Haxton’s “with its weft of a thousand colors,” yet neither phrase fully encompasses the scope of the original, nor conveys the compactness of that compound, in which thousands give on to thousands without a gap. Lasker-Schüler and her expressionist contemporaries celebrated the potential of German as a creative language, much more so than the antisemites who decried this inventiveness as Jewish “ linguistic syphilis. ”
If this seems a kind of idyll, it’s only because it could not last. After her divorce from Lewin , she sent her sickly son Paul to a school in the Odenwald, whose 600 marks-per-quarter tuition swallowed almost all of her minimal earnings. Friends, including Karl Kraus, raised funds for her, which rarely lasted. She grew irritated and erratic, harassing Walden and his new wife. When she didn’t win the 1913 Kleist Prize, she wrote furious letters to her friends on the committee: “I have no money—am alone.”
Lasker-Sch üler lost many who were dear to her during those years. Marc died on the Western Front during World War I. Trakl died of a cocaine overdose while recuperating in a military hospital in Krakow. Holzmann died in a Russian psychiatric prison. Like the woodcuts of Kä the Kollwitz , Lasker-Sch üler’s postwar work takes on a directness born of mourning. “I am fathomless to our friends / and am become a stranger,” she writes in “Senna Hoy.” Trakl’s shadow haunts her room at dusk, the bare residue of a man whose “eyes forever held the distance.”
Even in love poems such as “Farewell,” anticipation only precipitates disappointment: “When I heard someone knocking, / it was my own heart.” Her young exultation has burned out, leaving her exhausted. She compares herself with “the lees in the goblet,” praying that when the final man empties her out, God will not let her slip through his grasp. But her faith is not strong: “ O God, O God, ” she wails, “I am so far from you!”
Lasker-Sch üler was finally awarded the Kleist Prize in November 1932. She had spent the prior decade touring Europe, giving paid readings, and writing the feuilletons that make up Concert. She lived meagerly in furnished rooms. Her right arm was frequently in a splint, as she developed what was likely carpal tunnel. She composed very little poetry between 1917 and the 1930s, and seemed to have become increasingly isolated: when her son Paul died of tuberculosis in 1927, few besides Gottfried Benn attended the funeral.
The Nationalist press denounced her Kleist win. Her “hebraic poetry . . . has nothing to say to us Germans,” spat the Vö lkische Beobac hter . Only two months after she celebrated the Prize with a reading at the Schubert-Saal concert hall, Hitler was named chancellor. In April 1933, Lasker-Schüler was attacked by a Nazi stormtrooper outside of her hotel. She fled Germany and did not return. In May, students burned her books outside of the Berlin State Opera. Then that fall, Benn and 87 other artists signed a pledge of allegiance to the Nazi government—a personal betrayal—and many of her radical associates were murdered at the Oranienburg concentration camp.
“ My Blue Piano, ” Lasker-Sch üler’s most famous poem, describes a large, beautiful instrument which the poet cannot play. “Ever since the world went savage,” it has been banished to the cellar, its keyboard smashed, a “dead blue thing” which only sings for the rats who scuttle across it. Expressing the futility of poetry in an age of extremes, the poem is also a plea to the Angel who might open wide the door to heaven to one “who has eaten such bitter bread,” even though this is a forbidden act. However futile it might have seemed, Lasker-Schüler continued to write, producing a final slate of alternately stark and ecstatic poems.
Collected in My Blue Piano (1943) , these late poems follow the course of her exile. “[I] wake at dawn by a strange wall,” she writes. “I placed my fate in hard hands.” She fled first to Zu rich , and made two trips to Palestine, aided by benefactors like Sylvain Guggenheim and Carola Kaufmann. As a refugee, she was forbidden to work in Switzerland but could not afford to stay without giving readings. She constantly struggled with the Swiss government over visa extensions, and relied on the Jewish community of Zurich to pay her rent. The process wore her down: when Gershom Scholem came across her in Jerusalem, she seemed “right on the brink of madness.” Eleven days later he downgraded her to “ a ruin more haunted than inhabited by madness.” She picked fights, even with her benefactors and artistic supporters, who included Klaus Mann. “No one who has ever had anything to do with me has not suffered for it,” she later wrote.
In March 1939 she left Switzerland on a third trip to Palestine, intending to sort out her paperwork and return. She never did. Supported by a monthly stipend from the publisher Salman Schocken, she eventually settled in Jerusalem. She enjoyed the company of fellow Jewish exiles like Scholem and Martin Buber, but after her years of fantasizing, the East was a qualified disappointment. She resented the development of buildings, such as the King David Hotel , disdained the large number of Yiddish speakers, and thought the ancient city had become entirely too modern. During her 1937 trip, the main Zionist and cultural organizations refused to allow her to read in their rooms. “ Erez Israel, ” she puns, had become “ Erez Misrael. ” “Even David,” she writes, “would have packed up and left.” (Presumably she appreciated the safety.)
She settled into life in Jerusalem, even if her old life would not leave her. “But now cannot remember where I was, before this world,” she writes, “And my nostalgia will not end!” Lasker-Sch ü ler dedicates My Blue Piano to “my never-to-be-forgotten friends in the cities of Germany—and to those who like myself were driven out, and are now scattered throughout the world.” She fell deeply in love with the (married) scholar Ernst Simon, marking a late turn toward ecstatic love poetry. In “To the Beloved,” she compares his body to a golden meadow, and describes a path made of turquoise that leads to her lap. She sends her beloved fresh kisses and “greetings wrapped in blue clouds” from deep within a dream. Yet this love cannot be consummated: “Forever I sought you—my feet still bleed . . . And still I fear that the dream / will close its gate.” Elsewhere she commands, “Do not extinguish my heart.” Though he appreciated Lasker-Schüler’s poetry, Simon did not reciprocate her feelings.
Still, Lasker-Sch üler never turned away from the fate of her country, or the Jews in Europe. In an unfinished poem titled “ A Single Human Being, ” she declares that “A single human being is often a whole people.” She continues: “God does not want to be watered / with blood. / He who kills his neighbor, / kills God budding in his heart. ” And in the strangest of her posthumous works, the play I and I , she stages the downfall of the Third Reich as the result of a conversation between Faust and Mephistopheles—the triumph of an older German tradition against upstart Nazi fascism. It is a thoroughly metatextual work, which Lasker-Schüler herself introduces and closes out, and occasionally interrupts to give the actors notes. A Jewish scarecrow, King Solomon, and the theater director Max Reinhardt all make appearances. Deep in the midnight of the Shoah, Lasker-Schüler was still attempting to reconcile Christian and Jewish Germans—having the Nazis reject Goethe as too Christian, and Jesus Christ as a “Jewish priest” of no use, now that “ our F ü hrer, Germania ’s god,” has ascended to the throne.
There are no photographs from these final years. Lasker-Schüler turned completely away. In Miron Sima’s 1944 sketches, the poet appears haggard and thin, bent forward under the weight of her hat, her clothes hanging off of her. She muttered to herself on the street, and neighborhood boys threw stones at her. Her heart began to fail, and on January 22, 1945, she died in the Hadassah Hospital. “No one shall rob me / of my freedom,” she writes in one of her final poems. “If I die somewhere along the way, / you will come, dear Mother, // and lift me on your wing / to heaven.”
Robert Rubsam is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Baffler, The Nation , and more.
Choropleth maps are essential for visualizing data across geographic regions, using shading or coloring to represent different values. Commonly used in demographics, economics, and public health, these maps make complex data easily understandable. Understanding what a choropleth map is and how it works is crucial for anyone involved in data visualization.
In this article, we will explore what a choropleth map is, providing a clear definition and examples. We will guide you on creating choropleth maps using the Datawrapper user-friendly tool for quick and easy map creation. For those seeking more customization, we'll demonstrate how to create a custom choropleth map using JavaScript, leveraging Geoapify's Boundary API and Geocoding API to fetch geographic boundary data and convert addresses into coordinates.
By the end of this article, you will have a comprehensive understanding of choropleth maps and the skills to create your own custom maps tailored to your specific needs.
On this page
Choropleth maps definition.
A choropleth map (from Ancient Greek χῶρος (khôros) meaning 'area, region' and πλῆθος (plêthos) meaning 'multitude') is a type of thematic map used to represent data through shading or coloring of predefined geographic areas. Each area is shaded or colored in proportion to the value of the variable being represented, making it easy to visualize spatial distributions and patterns.
Choropleth maps are powerful tools for data visualization because they allow viewers to quickly grasp patterns and trends within a dataset. By using different shades or colors to represent varying data values, these maps can effectively highlight differences and similarities across regions. This makes it easier to compare data geographically and identify areas of interest or concern.
Choropleth maps can be used to visualize a wide variety of data types, including:
Choropleth maps effectively visualize demographic data such as population density , age distribution , and ethnic composition .
For population density, they highlight areas with high and low concentrations of people, aiding in urban planning and resource allocation. Age distribution maps show the proportion of various age groups within regions, useful for planning services like schools and healthcare. Maps depicting ethnic composition illustrate the distribution of different ethnic groups, helping to understand and cater to the needs of diverse communities.
Choropleth maps are also used to visualize economic data, such as income levels , unemployment rates , and economic output .
Maps showing income levels use color gradients to indicate areas with high and low average incomes, helping to identify economic disparities within regions. Unemployment rate maps highlight regions with varying employment challenges, aiding policymakers in targeting interventions. Maps depicting economic output illustrate the productivity of different areas, providing insights into economic strengths and weaknesses across regions.
Choropleth maps are invaluable for visualizing public health data, such as the spread of diseases , vaccination rates , and access to healthcare .
Maps showing disease spread can highlight regions with high infection rates, helping health authorities allocate resources and implement targeted interventions. Vaccination rate maps illustrate areas with varying levels of immunization, identifying regions at risk for outbreaks. Maps depicting access to healthcare reveal disparities in healthcare availability, guiding efforts to improve services in underserved areas.
Choropleth maps are powerful tools for visualizing environmental data, such as pollution levels , climate data , and the distribution of natural resources .
Maps showing pollution levels can highlight areas with high air or water pollution, aiding in environmental regulation and public health initiatives. Climate data maps illustrate variations in temperature, precipitation, and other climate factors across regions, helping in climate research and policy-making. Maps depicting the distribution of natural resources reveal where resources like minerals, forests, and water are located, guiding sustainable management and conservation efforts.
Choropleth maps are often used to visualize political data, such as election results and voting patterns .
Maps showing election results can illustrate which regions supported different candidates or parties, providing insights into political trends and divisions. Voting pattern maps highlight areas with varying voter turnout and preferences, aiding in understanding the political landscape and planning future campaigns.
Creating choropleth maps involves several essential steps to visualize data effectively across geographic regions. Here's a general overview of the process:
Define Regions : Identify the geographic regions you want to represent on your map, such as countries, states, counties, or districts. These regions will form the basis of your choropleth map.
Collect Data : Gather the data you want to visualize. This data should correspond to the regions you’ve defined and can include variables such as population density, income levels, unemployment rates, or any other measurable attribute.
Map Data to Regions : Ensure your data is accurately matched to the corresponding geographic regions. This step often involves formatting your data so that each region's name or identifier in your dataset matches the names or identifiers used in the map.
Define Legend and Palette Colors : Choose a color palette that will represent the data values on your map. The legend should clearly indicate what each color represents, with a gradient or distinct colors showing different ranges or categories of your data.
By following these steps, you can create a choropleth map that effectively communicates the spatial distribution of your data, making it easier to identify patterns and trends across different regions.
Creating simple choropleth maps has become more accessible thanks to various online map generators that require no coding skills. These tools make it easy to visualize geographic data with just a few clicks. One popular tool for this purpose is Datawrapper .
Datawrapper offers a straightforward process to create choropleth maps. Here’s how you can do it:
Choose Regions : After signing up or logging into Datawrapper, select the "Choropleth Map" option from the available map types. You’ll need to choose the geographic regions you want to map, such as countries, states, or districts.
Upload Data : Prepare your dataset, ensuring it includes the regions and the data values you want to visualize. The dataset should be in a format where each row corresponds to a region, and columns include the region identifiers and data values. Upload this data to Datawrapper.
Map Data to Regions : Datawrapper will guide you through the process of matching your data to the map’s regions. Ensure that the region identifiers in your dataset correspond correctly to those on the map.
Define Visualization : Customize how your data will be visualized. Choose a color palette and set up the legend to represent different data ranges or categories. You can adjust the colors to make your map more intuitive and visually appealing.
Publish or Download : Once you’re satisfied with your map, you can publish it directly through Datawrapper, share it via a link, or embed it on your website. You can also download the map for offline use or further customization.
By using tools like Datawrapper, creating choropleth maps becomes a quick and hassle-free process, enabling anyone to visualize geographic data effectively without needing advanced technical skills.
For more complex and customizable choropleth maps, you can develop one using JavaScript. This approach offers greater flexibility and allows you to tailor the map to your specific needs. Below, we provide a JSFiddle code sample demonstrating how to create a choropleth map.
In this example, we use boundary data from Geoapify's Boundary and Geocoding API in GeoJSON format. We utilize the Leaflet library to visualize the GeoJSON data and create an HTML palette element for the color legend.
Here's the JSFiddle code sample that shows how to create a choropleth map:
You can find this example live on JSFiddle to see how it works in practice. By using JavaScript and Geoapify's APIs, you can create highly customizable and interactive choropleth maps tailored to your specific requirements.
Choropleth maps are essential for visualizing data across geographic regions, offering clear and intuitive insights into complex datasets. For quick and easy map creation, platforms like Datawrapper provide user-friendly interfaces that require no coding skills.
For more complex and customizable maps, using JavaScript along with Geoapify Maps API offers greater flexibility. By mastering these tools and techniques, you can create effective choropleth maps to reveal patterns and aid in decision-making.
A choropleth map is a type of thematic map where areas are shaded or colored in proportion to the value of a specific variable, such as population density, income levels, or election results. These maps help visualize data distribution across geographic regions.
The definition of a choropleth map involves using different shades or colors to represent data values across geographic areas. Each region on the map is colored based on the data it represents, making it easy to identify patterns and trends.
A choropleth map helps in visualizing data by providing a clear and intuitive way to compare values across different geographic regions. By using color gradients, these maps highlight variations and make it easier to see where values are higher or lower.
Examples of choropleth maps include maps showing population density, income levels, election results, unemployment rates, and disease spread. These maps can be used in various fields such as demographics, economics, public health, and environmental studies.
You can create a simple choropleth map using tools like Datawrapper . These tools allow you to select regions, upload your data, map the data to the regions, define visualization options, and publish or download your map with ease.
The meaning of a choropleth map lies in its ability to visually represent data variations across different geographic regions using color gradients. This method helps convey complex data in an easily understandable format.
Yes, you can create custom choropleth maps with JavaScript. By leveraging Geoapify's Boundary API and Geocoding API, along with the Leaflet library, you can develop highly customizable and interactive maps tailored to your specific needs. For an example of how to create a choropleth map using JavaScript, check out this JSFiddle example .
Choropleth maps can represent various data types, including demographic data (population density, age distribution, ethnic composition), economic data (income levels, unemployment rates, economic output), public health data (disease spread, vaccination rates, access to healthcare), and environmental data (pollution levels, climate data, distribution of natural resources).
To ensure accurate data representation on a choropleth map, it is crucial to correctly match your data to the geographic regions and choose an appropriate color palette. Verifying your data and using reliable sources for geographic boundaries, such as Geoapify's APIs, can also enhance accuracy.
How the sahm rule works, types of sahm rule indicators, history of the sahm rule, limitations of the sahm rule, the bottom line, the sahm rule recession indicator definition and how it's calculated.
Erika Rasure is globally-recognized as a leading consumer economics subject matter expert, researcher, and educator. She is a financial therapist and transformational coach, with a special interest in helping women learn how to invest.
pixelfit / Getty Images
The "Sahm Rule" is a recession indicator created and named after Claudia Sahm, a macroeconomist who worked at the Federal Reserve and the White House Council of Economic Advisers. According to the Sahm Rule, the early stages of a recession is signaled when the three-month moving average of the U.S. unemployment rate is half a percentage point or more above the lowest three-month moving average unemployment rate over the previous 12 months.
The Sahm Rule has been widely recognized for its accuracy, simplicity, and ability to quickly reflect the onset of a recession.
The unemployment rate represents the percentage of the overall labor force that is unemployed. The rate tends to rise when the economy is struggling and workers are having difficulty finding jobs, and fall when the economy is strong and workers can more easily find jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) typically releases the unemployment rate for the previous month on the first Friday of every month. The unemployment rate is one of the main economic indicators used to measure the health of the economy, and the Sahm Rule inputs the rate into a simple formula to determine whether the U.S. is headed into a recession.
The rule compares the value of the current three-month moving average unemployment rate to the value of the lowest three-month moving average unemployment rate over the last 12 months. If the former is half a percentage point or more above the latter, the Sahm Rule indicates that U.S. is in the early stages of a recession. The Sahm Rule uses the three-month moving average unemployment rate—rather than the current unemployment rate—to prevent overreacting to a single month of data, Sahm said as a guest on The Investopedia Express podcast released in April 2024.
The Sahm Rule simply indicates that the economy is in the early stages of a recession. Since the early 1970s, the indicator has never been triggered outside of a recession, according to Sahm. Historically, when the unemployment rate passes the threshold outlined by the Sahm rule, it continues to increase.
The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database includes current and real-time Sahm Rule recession indicators.
The BLS regularly revises the unemployment rate of previous months based on additional information from its survey that was not initially available. The current Sahm Rule recession indicator is calculated using the unemployment rate's revised values.
Unlike the current Sahm Rule recession indicator, the real-time Sahm Rule recession indicator uses "real-time" data. It is calculated using just the unemployment rate and recent history of unemployment rates that were available in a given month.
Sahm first introduced the indicator that would later be named after her as part of a policy proposal called "Direct Stimulus Payments to Individuals" published by The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative that is part of the Brookings Institution. The proposal was also included in The Hamilton Project's book "Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy" published in 2019.
In the proposal, Sahm explained that consumer spending tends to slow significantly during recession growth, which can make job losses (and a recession overall) worse. She proposed that to combat that unemployment, the government distribute stimulus payments automatically to families in the face of a recessions—specifically, when the three-month average national employment rate jumps at least half a percentage point relative to its low over the last 12 months.
"Recent research finds that broadly distributed, lump-sum payments to individuals directly boost spending and help stabilize demand, making these types of payments effective responses to recessions," Sahm explained. "The total amount of stimulus would offset about half of the slowdown in consumer spending, totaling about 0.7 percent of GDP." Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to a country's total market value of goods and services within a certain time frame. Fiscal policies like the one Sahm proposed are known as automatic stabilizers .
The indicator became widely recognized, with the Federal Reserve adding it to the FRED database in October 2019.
As Sahm has pointed out in her newsletter, the rule is "empirical regularity," not a proposition. She emphasized that this means that the rule can also be broken.
For example, Sahm wrote in an April 2022 newsletter, imagine a scenario in which the unemployment rate increased hovered around 3.5%, up from a low of 3.0%, meeting the criteria for signaling the early stages of a recession based on the Sahm Rule. However, if around that same time, GDP growth held around 2.5%, down from a high of 5.5%, and inflation gradually slid down to 2%, such a combination of circumstances probably wouldn't constitute a recession, she explained.
First introduced in 2019, the Sahm Rule is a recession indicator based on conditions of the labor market. When the three-month average unemployment rate rises above its 12-month low by at least half a percentage point, we are in the early stages of a recession, according to the rule.
Claudia Sahm, a macroeconomist who worked at the Federal Reserve and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, introduced the indicator as part of a policy proposal. The rule was then named after her.
The rule has proved to be very accurate with the indicator always triggering in the early stages of a recession and never outside of one since the 1970s.
The Sahm Rule refers to an indicator that signals the early stages of a recession. According to the rule, the beginning of a recession is signaled when the three-month moving average unemployment rate is half a percentage point or more higher than the lowest three-month moving average unemployment rate over the last 12 months. Historically, when the unemployment rate has passed this threshold, it has continued to rise.
Sahm Consulting. " About ."
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Release Calendar: List View ."
Sahm, Claudia. " Direct Stimulus Payments to Individuals ." The Hamilton Project, The Brookings Institute , May 2019, pp. 77.
Sahm, Claudia. " Direct Stimulus Payments to Individuals ." The Hamilton Project, The Brookings Institute , May 2019, pp. 77-79.
Economic Research, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. " FRED Adds Sahm Rule Recession Indicators ."
The Hamilton Project. " Direct Stimulus Payments to Individuals ."
The Hamilton Project. " Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy ."
Stay-At-Home-Macro. " Rules Are Made to Be Broken ."
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Come up with a thesis. Create an essay outline. Write the introduction. Write the main body, organized into paragraphs. Write the conclusion. Evaluate the overall organization. Revise the content of each paragraph. Proofread your essay or use a Grammar Checker for language errors. Use a plagiarism checker.
5. Create your own definition of the word. Use your research and your own experiences to write the definition. You may focus on how the word works in society or the world at large. You can also compare it to other similar terms. Format the definition by stating the word, followed by a one-sentence definition. [8]
Body Paragraphs. Aspect 1: Start with the broader or general outlook. Definition: Provide a detailed explanation of the first aspect. Examples: Offer relevant examples, anecdotes, or scenarios to illustrate the concept. Aspect 2: Move on to a specific dimension. Definition: Delve into the details of the second aspect.
Keep the definition in your thesis brief and basic. You will elaborate on it more in the body of your paper. Avoid using passive phrases involving the word "is" when defining your term. The phrases "is where" and "is when" are especially clunky. [6] Do not repeat part of the defined term in your definition.
An explanatory definition essay is a type of expository essay. It aims to explain a complex term or concept in a way that is easy to understand for the reader. The writer breaks down the term or concept into simpler parts and provides examples and analogies to help readers understand it better.
Definitions establish the way in which people communicate ideas. They set parameters for a given discourse. Context affects the meaning and usage of words. The thesis of a definition essay should clearly state the writer's definition of the term in the specific context. Body paragraphs should explain the various facets of the definition ...
Definition essays define an idea or concept. Compare/Contrast essays will look at two items and show how they are similar (compare) and different (contrast). b. Persuasive. An argumentative paper presents an idea or concept with the intention of attempting to change a reader's mind or actions. These may be written in second person, using ...
A definition essay has a basic structure: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. What makes it engaging is how you explore the term in the body paragraphs. Introduction. The introduction serves to introduce the term you are defining and set the stage for the discussion that follows. Here's what each part typically involves:
Keep the definition in your thesis brief and basic. You will elaborate on it more in the body of your paper. Avoid using passive phrases involving the word "is" when defining your term. The phrases "is where" and "is when" are especially clunky. [6] Do not repeat part of the defined term in your definition.
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body. This article provides useful templates and tips to help you outline your essay, make decisions about your structure, and ...
Narrate a brief situation or conversation relevant to the topic. Give a significant quotation related to the topic. In general, a thesis presents your topic and the claim you are making about the topic. The denotation might be your starting point, and your thesis explains how your essay will go beyond the denotation.
Tips on How to Define a Word in a Text or Paragraph. 1. Select a Word. The main point of view when writing an essay is selecting an idea or concept. Select a word that will describe an idea like hate, love, etc., and ensure that you understand the term you are choosing completely.
The term (word or phrase) to be defined. The class of object or concept to which the term belongs. The differentiating characteristics that distinguish it from all others of its class. For example: Water ( term) is a liquid ( class) made up of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen in the ratio of 2 to 1 ( differentiating characteristics ). Comic ...
Parts of an essay. An impactful, well-structured essay comes down to three important parts: the introduction, body, and conclusion. 1. The introduction sets the stage for your essay and is typically a paragraph long. It should grab the reader's attention and give them a clear idea of what your essay will be about.
1. Prepare for your essay by analyzing your data. Begin by reading the first interview and writing a number for each meaning the person gives. Then read the second interview and if they repeat a meaning, give it the same number you gave it in the first interview.
Here are some of the many definitions of an essay: According to Frederick Crews, professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley, an essay is "a fairly brief piece of nonfiction that tries to make a point in an interesting way.". A famous essayist, Aldous Huxley, notes that "the essay is a literary device for saying ...
The meaning of ESSAY is an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view. How to use essay in a sentence. ... Share the Definition of essay on Twitter Twitter. Kids Definition. essay. 1 of 2 verb. es· say e-ˈsā ˈes-ˌā : attempt entry 1 sense 1, try. again essayed ...
A conclusion is an end or finish of an essay. Often, the conclusion includes a judgment or decision that is reached through the reasoning described throughout the essay. The conclusion is an opportunity to wrap up the essay by reviewing the main points discussed that drives home the point or argument stated in the thesis statement.
Part 2 of 3: Potential Elements of an Effective Definition. 1: Write an analysis.[4] Separate a word into various parts. Analyze and define each part in its own paragraph. You can separate "return" into "re-" and "turn.". The word "friendship" can be separated into "friend" and "ship.".
Example: Define "success" based on your personal experiences, values, and goals, highlighting how it can vary from person to person. Using these techniques, you can create a meaningful definition essay that goes beyond a simple dictionary explanation and provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the term.
An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates. In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills. Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative: you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence ...
Adding definitions to an essay effectively can be a five-step process: determining words to define, rephrasing definitions, citing the definition's source, defining the term in the essay body and keeping the definition brief. By defining specific words, the essay meaning can be strengthened.
However, the definition of happiness varies from person to person, as it is influenced by personal values, cultural backgrounds, and individual experiences. According to positive psychology, happiness can be defined as the experience of positive emotions, the absence of negative emotions, and a sense of overall well-being.
This essay pushes back in time to analyse how this violent context in South African history served as an ideological backdrop for the rise of African nationalism in the country and elsewhere in the world. ... form of nationalism recognized the differences within the colonized groups and argued for a stricter and more specific definition of what ...
Table of contents. Step 1: Hook your reader. Step 2: Give background information. Step 3: Present your thesis statement. Step 4: Map your essay's structure. Step 5: Check and revise. More examples of essay introductions. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.
Essay I Placed My Fate in Hard Hands. Else Lasker-Schüler, a darling of Berlin's avant-garde, fought to define herself—even through tragedy and exile. ... All of her life, Else Lasker-Schüler fought to define and depict herself, and to set the terms by which she would be understood. She took and gave out new names, married and divorced ...
Define Regions: Identify the geographic regions you want to represent on your map, such as countries, states, counties, or districts. These regions will form the basis of your choropleth map. Collect Data: Gather the data you want to visualize. This data should correspond to the regions you've defined and can include variables such as ...
The Sahm Rule is a recession indicator based on labor market conditions. Read more about how it's calculated, how it signals that the economy is in a recession, its origin and more.