Conquering Essays in UPSC

"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

― Sylvia Plath

The essay paper of CSE is unequivocally the most yielding part of Mains examination. With minimal efforts, one can secure the most marks, if he/she knows the right way. This blog is an attempt to comprehensively discuss  the Essay preparation of Mains examination.

Why is essay writing in UPSC tough?

This is the first question one should ask to themselves once they dive into Essay preparations. We all have written essays in our school days. But when it comes to UPSC, there are few constraints:

• Length: Essay paper consists of 2 essays each of 1000-1200 words. This word limit allows you to cover variety of dimensions, but restricts indefinite flow of thoughts.
• Themes: Usually there are 2 types of essays asked: GS based and Abstract philosophical essays. Both require a little different set of approach.
• Time: You are provided with 3 hours time to structure, write and revise the 2 essays.
• The UPSC factor: Despite all this, writing 2000 words in 3 hours seems easy, right? It would have been, had it not been a UPSC essay. What you write and how you write your essay speaks a lot to the examiner. Essay is just not a creative expression here, it is a reflection of your personality.

My story: 

    I started writing essays once I was finished with my GS syllabus after Prelims. In my initial essays, I struggled with the structuring parts and sometimes left various dimensions in GS based essays. Also, philosophical essays were a struggle too. But after writing 8 essays (4 of each kind), I was able to structure my essays in the right manner and increase my marks in tests by upto 50 marks. I am attaching my essay copies here for reference.

What I learnt: Recipe of a Good essay:

1. Introduction: Make it as catchy as it can possibly be. You can start with:
• an Anecdote(your own or some famous personality)
• a Fictional story (for eg. A kid washing dishes in an essay on child labor)
• a Definition
• Disintegration of key terms of the topic
• a Quote
• a Statistic or Fact 
2. Body: Dissect the topic into as many dimensions as you can. For eg., it can be a Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ethical, Environmental (PESTLEE) analysis, or you can include an Individual-Family-Society-Nation-World impact of a situation.
3. Conclusion: The conclusion should be futuristic, positive and optimistic in its outlook. It must be solution oriented and must provide a finality to the reader. Ending the essay with a quote can also be a good practice.
4. Connectivity: Each part of the essay must be well connected to maintain a flow for reader. Avoid abrupt transitions. Use words like Firstly, secondly etc. to establish connection between arguments. 

But then, how could anybody do all this? Easy. Adopt these tricks:

1. Pick the right essay: Sounds absurd, right? NO! A lot of times our mind gets into this dilemma of picking a topic which is Different. Howsoever appealing the idea looks, choose an essay topic about which you know the most and not the one which you like the most. Let's take the example of previous year's paper:
   
   
   If we look at the 2nd choice of Section A, the topic is beautifully constructed with ornated words. But writing about it could be an immense challenge. For a novice in essays, such topics should be avoided. Invest good 5 mins in the exam to decide on this choice.
2. Structure: Once you know the topic, it is better to invest at least 10 mins on brainstorming over an essay. Make use of the rough work area and decide what you are going to write before beginning the essay.
3. Make short paragraphs: Each opinion in your essay should be a new paragraph of 3-4 lines. The change of paragraph must be easily distinguishable to the examiner.
4. Don't beat around the bush: Even if it is an essay, it is supposed to make a point. Digressing from the agenda is not a good strategy.
5. Highlight: Remember that your answer copy is just one of many. You NEED to make your points accessible to the reader. Underline, use double quotes or even use simpler subheadings (for eg- 'Globalisation: boon or bane?' for an essay on effects of globalisation)

Best Practices:

1. Reading your own essays: He is his own greatest critic, they say. One must read their own essays during practice to avoid redundancy and to improve flow of thoughts.
2. Going with a structure for common essays: Topics such as vulnerable sections, agriculture, education, health etc could be prepared before the exam.
3. Maintaining a diary for quotes and anecdotes: Arrange them topic wise and revise them just before going inside the exam hall.
4. Applying GS knowledge in essays: The content of GS is the source for essays. Flaunt your knowledge bank a little :)
5. Practice: Going with a practice of 6-8 essays is necessary to score well. One should practice more if they feel less confident about essay writing.
6. Feedback: Even if you are studying on your own, essays could be feedbacked by family and peers. Ponder over their reviews. Sometimes, minimalism and simplicity is the one thing which is lacking.
7. Learning from the learned: Topper's copies and news editorials are the best sources to understand the use of quotes, anecdotes and statistics in your essays. Read more to write better!

Common Questions- the FAQs:

1. Dealing with philosophical essays: I have a 2 point strategy for them:
1. Don't get intimidated by the Quotes, they are written in the way to overwhelm you. It doesn't matter who said it or what it means, the reader wants your creative interpretation.
2. Pick the one topic which you think you can break down in most number of ways. For eg. in Section A, I picked the topic, 'Life is long journey between human being and being humane'. I gave a PESTLEE analysis of being humane, and the repercussions of such actions.
2. Time Management: I had a division of 5 mins for choice of essays and about 20 mins for rough work. I saved the last 5 mins for revision. Rest was devoted to writing.
3. Struggling with vocabulary: 'सादगी' or simplicity is the key. Form small sentences. Avoid complicated words. Also, read newspapers to build vocabulary. Keep a Hindi-to-English dictionary if you feel like. Practice is essential.

In the end, as is the ritual of this blog, Don Vito in Godfather says, "I have learned more in the streets than in any classroom." The purpose of an essay is to express your understanding of the society you live in. Every single experience of yours holds credibility. You just need to fit the right ones in the right places and rest would follow. Cheers!