Archive for October, 2008

Leadership essay

Thursday, October 16th, 2008



Inspire Your Readers With Your Leadership Essay!

The best example of leadership is leadership by example’, says Jerry McClain of Seattle, WA. Good leadership quality is something that is not common among people. All of us cannot be good leaders because we need some followers! One cannot exactly teach someone to be a good leader. Leadership is a quality that one has to develop within oneself. However, by reading a good leadership essay and listening to a discourse given by a great leader, one can have an insight as to what leadership basically is.


Though Wikipedia or The Oxford dictionary or the Webster’s dictionary may have different definitions for leadership, it is rather difficult to explain what it is all about. If one has to do that, it would take ages! Each person has his own way of executing a certain task, which will give the same result. It is not always the same. However, to make things easier to understand, it is agreed that there are basically three types of leadership based on the behaviors or the traits of leadership which are as follows.

   

  • •    Autocratic leadership
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  • •    Laissez-faire leadership
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  • •    Democratic leadership

Autocratic leadership is almost equal to dictatorship. An autocratic leader commands his followers. The leader does not desire the participation of his members in making any decision. Rather, this decision making authority lies solely in the hands of the leader, whether good or bad. This type of behavior is not always suitable for all kinds of groups as they may not always produce effective results. The best example of autocratic leadership is the military troops in which the leader just commands and the others follow without raising any question whatsoever. It requires implicit obedience from the followers’ side.

Laissez-faire leadership is another type of leadership behavior. The French term ‘laissez-faire’ means to ‘let do’. It implies just that. The leader lets the members do whatever they feel is correct. This is a situation in which the members are very experienced in what they do and all that the leader is expected to do is supervise or watch over the tasks performed. Though it may sound good, this type of leadership is not actually called leadership as the leader does not lead! He just fills the shoes of a supervisor. This may not produce effective results all the time and may also lead to confusion and mayhem as the control is not with the leader.

Democratic leadership is one which is considered more suitable for most of the tasks. Here, the leader ensures that all his members participate in the activities undertaken. Although the final decision is made by the leader, he invites the suggestions and opinions of all the persons in his team. In spite of the fact that this teamwork or co-operation delays the execution of the task at hand, it produces better and more effective results than those of the autocratic and laissez faire leadership behaviors.

Thus a leadership essay mainly deals with these types. Though it is true that leadership cannot be taught there are certain traits that qualify a person to be a leader. Some of these traits include having a clear vision, openness, conflict management, decision making, management of a crisis situation, dedication, assertiveness and so on. Leadership is not like mathematics where the solution to a problem can be found easily by using a fixed formula. For instance, a good leader has to be bold enough to make decisions during a crisis. Nobody can hand a prescribed set of formulae on how to manage a crisis. There can be guidelines but not solutions. The leader should be able to handle the situation by himself without anyone to instruct or help him.

Thus these are some elements to be mentioned in a good essay on leadership. One must be able to obtain a basic picture of what leadership is from a leadership essay. It should inspire the readers!

Essay Conclusion

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

An Effective Essay Conclusion Gives An Introduction To Your Fame!

Why does someone write something? What is the purpose behind it? The main reason is to communicate something to the readers. The way each person presents that ‘something’ varies with one another. Some may be good at conveying something through a poem or a story or an essay and so on. This essay deals mainly with how an essay conclusion must be written.

An essay is a short piece of writing. It is often written in the author’s point of view. The basic essay writing format includes an introduction, body of the essay and a conclusion. The purpose of an introduction is to convey to the readers what the essay is mainly about. The body of the essay is very important as the very life of the essay lies here. The main points are outlined in the body of the essay. It is where the readers get to know something new. It should contain at least three new solid points. They should not be vague. The writer should provide vivid details and give examples and necessary explanations to support his stand on the issue.

The last part of the essay is the conclusion. The main purpose of an essay conclusion is to restate the main argument. Through an effective conclusion, the writer reminds his readers of the strengths of his stands on the issues. The conclusion should be able to tie up all loose ends. The writer may follow his own style of writing, however, certain basic essay writing tips are definitely useful. The main types of conclusions are outlined below.

Question. - Here, the writer involves the readers’ participation. The writer puts a question to the readers and makes them think about the issue. The questions may sometimes be rhetoric, too. (E.g. how can one blame him? - There is no answer to this question. It only means that no one can blame him)

 Strong statement. - The essay may be closed with a strong statement which strongly conveys which reinforces the writer’s point.

Summary. – The writer may repeat his points in a nutshell and close the essay with a summery of the main ideas.

Personal Comment. - The writer closes the essay with a comment of his own. It is not similar to personal opinion. It is more like what the writer has learnt from something and thus reached a personal conclusion.

 Prediction. – The write may use a statement that will forecast the future.

Mystery. - The writer ends the essay with a statement showing that some things will never be resolved. It is left to the readers’ discretion.

Beginning of a new story. - The essayist may close the essay with a sentence that marks the beginning of a new tale. This is possible is narrative essay writing.

 Quotations from a famous personality. -  When the writer wants to convey a message, he may do so by making use of a quotation from a famous personality and thus establish the significance of his essay.

 Open conclusions. - Here, the writer gives a statement at the end of the essay that will enable the readers to draw their own conclusions. It is to be noted that sufficient details must be provided in the body of the essay so that all the readers will be able to derive at the same conclusion easily.

Thus these are the various types of conclusions. An effective essay conclusion will leave your readers pondering your points for sometime. The ultimate purpose of good essay is to make someone think- and I hope you are ‘thinking;’ right now!

Comparative essay

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008


Impress Your Readers With Good Comparative Essay!

An essay is normally a short piece of writing that is written from the author’s own point of view. It is a literary device, which conveys almost everything about anything. There are different types of essays that follow different formats and styles. One of those is the comparative essay which, as the name implies, deals with the comparison of two elements or things. It is mostly required to be done by students. When one compares two elements, the basis of comparison should be the same for both the elements. Though there are a few guidelines, this type of essay does not have a particular set of prescribed formulae.

 

There are a few tips to be followed while writing a comparative essay. They are as follows.

  • •   The topic must be catchy enough to pick up the readers’ interest and curiosity.
  • •   One must mention in the introduction what the basis of comparison exactly is.
  • •   The reader must understand what points you will be examining and what you will not.
  • •   Towards the end of the introduction, mention what your preference is or describe the significance of the comparison between the elements.
  • •   The same points or concepts should not be repeated.
  • •   The language used must be simple and easy to understand.
  • •   The concepts presented must be thoroughly researched. The writer must not present vague ideas. He should be quite sure of what he writes.
  • •   The conclusion of the essay must be definite. Avoid usage of sentences like ‘Thus, these two factors are similar, yet different’. Here, the entire purpose of the comparison is lost.
  • •   Also, avoid what is called the “Frying Pan Conclusion”, where one just repeats what was discussed in the beginning of the essay. It is true that a conclusion must be a summary of the main points, but then, it must not be a photocopy! The conclusion must reinforce the main ideas in a new and convincing way so that the readers will remember them clearly.
  • •   Finally, one should ensure that the comparison is balanced. The results should be purely based on the facts. Both the factors must be given equal importance.

     

    Thus, a writer must remember the suggestions above while writing a comparative essay. Writing an essay that is based on the comparison of two things is not actually difficult. The writer’s intelligence is revealed from the way he brings out the exact meaning of the theme of the essay. The English language used must also be given considerable importance. The reader is not just going to be looking at the content. The usage of language is as significant as the subject matter. The essay must also contribute to the improvement in the vocabulary of the reader. This kind of writing is mostly seen in college entrance essays.

    In a nutshell, the essay must be pleasant and interesting to the reader. Thus, these are some of the guidelines to be followed while writing a comparative essay. So, get your readers impressed with your good essays!


Law essays

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Law Essays Should Aim at Making Our Legal Position Better

“That’s not fair!” is a sentence that is often uttered by many people. In short law is all about that- analyzing what is fair and what is not. Law, which is mostly considered as something irksome and stereotypic by some people, can actually be found very interesting. A system cannot function without law. It is also inevitable for people of a country to know the basics rules and regulations and observe them. There are three branches of a government. They are executive, legislative and judiciary. The Judiciary branch has a big responsibility to maintain law and order in the country. Law essays basically deal with the functions of this branch.

An essay on law is very interesting to read. The importance of law is laid down very clearly in the constitution. Problems begin when people ignore the existence of something called law and those problems become worse when people who are responsible for maintaining law exploit it to satisfy their personal needs. An essay on law should be very thought provoking. As law is something that involves strict procedure, a law essay also has particular format. A good essay on law must be able to,
    Show that the topic has been thoroughly researched
    Provide authoritative sources and references that are accurately cited
    Establish a depth of understanding of the topic
    Communicate complex ideas and information clearly and succinctly
    Consider a range of arguments or standpoints on the issue
Good law essays have a lot of such essay writing tips. They must be able to satisfy the requirements above. In a nutshell, a paper on law must be able to state the completely researched facts without any misconception or bias. Also, it is to be noted that plagiarism should be avoided. One can always present a research material and lay out the results or quote another person, but ultimately, the author should state what he inferred from it. He must be able to lay out his own view points and make his stand on the issue very clear.
Law, as stated earlier, is inevitable for the smooth functioning of any system. Law papers must make the best use of available resources to help people understand the importance of law. There must be effective conclusions so as to make the readers think. Things could not get better if these essays were in such a way as to make the reader pause for a few moments and relate themselves to the legal situation of the country. In stead of stating the already familiar things like Articles, Acts and Decrees, it would be more effective if authors of law essays took a different dimension and break the monotony, by analyzing the legal state of affairs of the nation and provided suggestions that can be implemented for the betterment of the country’s legal position. People should be able to realize the significance of law through these essays.  Otherwise, it just will not be fair!

Psychology Essays- Read Psychology Essays to Read Minds!

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Writing Psychology essays is the exhibit of psychological skills

Reading a person’s mind is far more interesting than reading anything else! Psychology essays, as this one, give someone an idea as to what psychology basically is and how one can become a master mind-reader! They will have an introduction, the main body and conclusion. The first line will normally be abstract, to catch the reader’ attention.

Psychology is so inevitable that it has found its place in the hierarchy of man’s needs. There is a need for people to be accepted by the others in the society. They need the others to accept them psychologically. So, reading someone’s mind and understanding the psychology of a person can almost be called part of life. As we deal with people, psychology is used as the basis for all activities. For instance, most of the marketing strategies are based on the psychology of the customers as customer satisfaction is their prime goal. Thus, the skill to read a person’s mind is born with everybody to a certain extent. It cannot be exactly taught or learnt from another person. But what one can learn is the various theories, concepts, the disorders and defects, the various branches of psychology etc.

People’s mind does not remain idle. We keep thinking about something all the time and our thoughts range from peanuts to palaces! This is something very normal in a human being. When these things go to an extreme level or a breaking point, problems start. There are a lot of disorders and defects that occur to people. Most of the essays deal with some of the common disorders outlined below.

 Multiple Personality Disorder in which when people experience extreme depressions, they split themselves into different personalities which serve as an outlet for their bottled-up emotions

 An Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is one in which, as the name suggests, people keep thinking of something continuously which turns out as an obsession. They tend to have irrational thoughts. For example, a person may keep on washing his hands though he knows that it is not necessary. It becomes an obsession.
 Post traumatic stress disorder is one in which people undergo a sort of trauma after experiencing an extremely shocking or scary event. This gets to them so much that they experience severe stress after the event. For example, a person may suffer from post traumatic stress disorder after witnessing a horrible accident. He or she undergoes extreme depression after the accident.
 Alzheimer’s disease is a common disorder that is mentioned in a lot of essays. Many people experience this disease in unique ways. The precise cause of this disease is still unknown, though research shows that it may be associated with plaques and tangles in the brain
 Bipolar Disorder is also known as manic depression in which a person undergoes frequent mood swings. He gets extremely ecstatic for no reason as does he get extremely depressed. It is notable that, the very famous and many people’s favorite author, Sidney Sheldon once suffered from this disorder.
The disorders stated above are just a few of the mammoth amount of mental diseases and disorders that a person experiences. There are still many more. As stated earlier, most of the psychology essays based on such diseases and disorders. They also consist of research findings and analyzes.

Most of the good essays, of any topic carry a strong theme which is supported by research findings and reports. They also consist of effective conclusions. In short, we can also say that people refer to these essays, to understand themselves, to understand what keeps them going and what does not.

Narrative essay topics

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Capture Your Readers’ Hearts With Interesting Narrative Essay Topics

It is very easy for one to write something, but what makes a write up interesting is the presence of human interest element in it. Basically, there are four types of writing. They are descriptive, narrative, persuasive and expository writing. Out of these four, narrative writing has the best of chances to capture the readers’ interests as it reaches their hearts. It deals mostly with the happening of an event during a particular point of time. It is mostly delivered in a story-telling format and so it triggers the interest of the readers. As in any other write up, in this type of writing also, the topics chosen play a vital role as most readers choose to read a material based on its title or caption. Narrative essay topics should always be in such a way that it should give the readers, a clear picture of what the written work is about.

Very good examples of narrative writing are novels written by famous authors like Sidney Sheldon, Arthur Hailey etc. All these novels tend to carry the readers across the pages of the books and make them part of the fictional characters. Hence, they are found very interesting. Therefore narrative writing helps ensure the readers’ involvement while reading your material. There are a lot of ways to make the narrative writing effective. Some of them are outlined below.

 The writing should be put in simple language so as to make an average reader understand.
 The topic must be interesting enough to capture the readers’ attention.
 Complex sentences and language must be avoided.
 Redundancy must be avoided. (i.e.) the same words and sentences should not be repeated.
 There must be a flow in the writing so as to make the readers comfortable. They must be able to follow what is written with considerable ease.
 An important aspect in narrative writing is the pacing. The writer may sometimes slow down the pace or rush through the events. This irregular pacing may sometimes be interesting, but not always. It depends on how the writer carries his readers across the pages of his book.
 However, in general, it is always better if the writer follows a regular pace while writing.
 The writer must ensure that his writing is not dumped with too much of details. Explanations and descriptions should be included only wherever necessary. Otherwise, the material would turn out to be monotonous.

These are some of the ways by which narrative writing could be made more effective. One must not oversee the importance of an essay with the research topic. It is inevitable for the topics to be interesting so as to capture the interest of the target audience. There are many ways to give a write up an interesting topic. Fixing a title completely lies in the hands of the writer. However, the following suggestions could help the writer make his topic more effective.

 The topic must not have too many words. It must be as short as possible.
 It must be accurate and must be able to convey what the material is about.
 Sometimes, to trigger curiosity among the readers, abstract titles may also be given. They have a hidden meaning which will be disclosed only if the reader picks the material off the rack.
 The bottom-line is that, the title, however it is, must be good enough to attract the readers’ attention.

These are some of the ways and means to make narrative writing effective. As stated above, narration plays a vital role in the success of a good essay. They are just too important to be ignored.

Descriptive essay

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Can You Capture Your Readers’ Hearts With Your Descriptive Essay?
There are basically four types of essays namely descriptive, narrative, expository and persuasive. As the name suggests, a descriptive essay is that which describes a person, place thing, thoughts and so on. Unlike a narrative essay, an essay that is of the descriptive genre gives the reader a vivid picture of the thing that is described.

There are a lot of ways to achieve efficiency while writing an essay that is of the descriptive genre. Some of the basic points to be observed while any essay are outlined here.

 The writing should be simple and easy to understand.
 Repetition of words and concepts must be avoided.
 There must not be a statistic or facts overload, or else, it’ll turn out to be very boring.
 There must be a flow in writing.
 There must be a link between paragraphs.
 The topic of the essay should be good enough to capture the attention of the readers.

The same rules apply to descriptive essay. But, before settling down to write a descriptive passage, the following aspects must be remembered.

 One should take steps to identify the target audience of the essay. The pattern of description varies with children, men, women and the elderly. The passage should be in such a way as to satisfy its target audience.
 The writer should have a clear picture of what he is describing. He should plan what should and should not be included in the essay.
 The essay should be in such a way that the readers’ attention must be riveted to the article. They should not be easily distracted.
 The writer should remember to include words that will focus the description on the senses namely sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.
 When all the senses are involved while reading, the reader can actually feel what you are describing.
 Only necessary details should be provided.
 One should understand the difference between ‘showing’ and ‘telling’ before describing something. The words used must be able to ‘show’ what you are talking about rather than ‘tell’ it. For example consider the following sentences.
• I got scared while watching the horror movie.
• As I was watching the horror movie, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and my heart beat so fast that I was afraid it would burst out of my chest.

Both the sentences convey the same meaning. The difference is that, while the first sentence ‘tells’ the readers that you were scared, the second sentence ‘shows’ it. The purpose of ‘showing’ the readers what you are describing is to make them feel it so as to help them understand better, whatever you are trying to convey. Hence, the writer has to understand this difference before writing.

Thus, these are the basic essay writing tips that one should keep in mind before writing a descriptive essay. However, the style varies with each writer as one is not the same as the other!