Essay writing

This post is on writing essay for the CSE mains exam. First, my credentials. I scored in 90s in essay paper in 2014 mains and 138 in 2015 mains. I have heard that essay is very unpredictable and one cannot tell if they will score poorly or not. I won't make generalizations by saying that one can make predictions, but will speak on my experience.
Last year(2014), I wrote an essay on competition and the other on Olympics/sports topic. In the first one I started off poorly. My introduction was based on natural selection trying to show that competition seems to be law of nature, but it was a lopsided intro. I went on to discuss positives and negatives of competition. Points were quite generic. By end of the essay, I realized that I had already performed way below my potential. Next I took up on sports essay and went for all angles that are relevant and added latest points with examples. So, I knew that overall my marks would not be outstanding. Marks were as expected. So, what went wrong in first essay?
1. I had joined a certain essay test series where the instructor was stubborn about people following his method of rough work and would not even go thru the points. So, I ended up getting confused in the hall, doubting the efficacy of his method and ended up with a big mess of rough work, with haphazard layout. So, lesson learnt-- preserve your own genius and dont let methods of anyone take over your original style. If something helps you then take it up, but if you feel it doesnt suit you, immediately drop it and move on.
2. I had completely missed the angle of cooperation. Opposite of competition is cooperation. It is also seen in nature, most among insects and sometimes even among humans :) bringing great results. Missing this angle, I feel made my essay bit mediocre. So, lesson learnt-- think deep, read more. Reading more of various ideas, cultivating them, thinking on them helps generate that salad material in one's mind. This can then be used to decorate the essay and make it palatable.
3. There was no flow in my essay. I made an intro without thinking how I would transition into the essay from there. So, it seemed like break dance. Some intro, then jump to some random idea and then into a mediocre framework of +/- of competition. Frankly, when I finished my paper and re read my essay, I was disappointed in myself. Lesson learnt, plan well on the mega framework you are going to work on and the flow you are going to create in the essay.

With these lessons learnt and some more planning, I was ready to take on essay paper in 2015. No essay test series. All I did was go thru previous year generic topics and essay test papers of various classes in market. I used to think on the mega framework and the flow of the essay and leave it.
Finally, I wrote only 2 essays that too 2 weeks before exam, just to test my writing speed, paragraph planning and ability to use examples in points.

So, having gone through bit of what not to do, lets see what can be done in essay paper.
1.Choice of topics: always choose homeground. Dont become generic. I never thought I would write an essay on philosophical topic, but I did this year. I wrote on Lending hands better than giving dole.
I could connect with topic instantly and had flood of ideas that I could rope in. Other topics were also great, but trusting gut is important. Other topic I chose was technology, with a degree in tech, natural inclination. But other topics seemed challenging/open ended, so tech seemed safer all the more.
2.Time division: Now with 5-10 mins gone in deciding topic, we are left with roughly 1.5 hours for each topic. Standard rule, do not begin writing essay till end of half an hour of planning. It is better you exhaust time to think and then write than come up with an idea later with no space to insert.
3.Megaframework: This is the larger angle you are going to use to approach the essay topic. Usually it involves breaking essay topic line into 2-3 parts and then these become major blocks in the essay. Under these you create a tree of different points, subpoints and then attach leaves of examples to substantiate.
Ex. In "lending hands..." there was no way of breaking topic in 2-3 parts, so I had to go for megaframework with multiple angles. So, first historical angle.. Indian history is a history of resilience and self reliance. During struggle for independence, we fought for freedom from British and social evils. In society, Gandhiji did not give out doles, but gave helping hand, made people self reliant. After independence also, India charted a path where we never put out our hand for doles from other countries and remained non-aligned. For our farmers, we did not handout freebies and make them state-dependent, we went for land reforms and gave them way towards self dependent life.
[So, historical angle is the big branch and the above are points and examples are leaves. Each of these points make a healthy paragraph.]
Political angle: Went for Panchayati raj which is again story of helping people and not handing out doles. Federal structure and local governance system shows how helping people is better than mere handing out funds. So, need to devolve functions and functionaries too, making system truly democratic.
Development angle: Cooperative movement in different sectors like milk and green revolution are stories of people prospering with a little help given to them. Hand they been given doles, they would not have realized their potential. SHGs are growing steadily across India, showing how with some help from state, people on their own are building livelihoods without the need to look to state for alms.
Economic angle: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has already pointed out capabilities approach. With programs like Make in India, Skill India, MUDRA, PMJDY India is charting a path towards making people self dependent. The economic survey too speaks of rationalizing subsidies and investing in people, by helping them become capable and not mere beneficiaries of the state.
International angle: India also believes in helping out other developing countries by making them more capable. Programs like ITEC have been helping many developing countries in our neighbourhood and Africa achieve technical and educational progress through training of personnel and investment in infra in these areas. Collaborations like IOR-ARC, FIPIC, 3rd IAFS have led to India helping countries with tangible resource development on the ground, without the side effects like those from investments from China in mining. Furthermore, even in COP21 and SDGs the concept of building capabilities is clear, as just handing out doles under Kyoto protocol has not helped the situation at all.
Philosophical angle: Reserved for conclusion.
4.Intro, conclusion:I have seen in many Yojana articles by editors that they use an incident based intro and have a conclusion that comes full circle to connect with the intro.
This is an awesome technique as it gives that "ting" effect when you connect intro and conclusion.
Also, this way one does not have to go for quotes. Quotes are big responsibility. Quote has to be relevant, one who said should preferably be a decent guy and an Indian. Also, mistake in quotes dont look good, as you are then putting wrong words in mouth of some great person. So, better go for interesting incidents or ideas that raise questions which become the thread you will run through your essay and tie off in conclusion.
Ex. In "lending hands..." in my intro I started off with this... Gautam Buddha, a rich prince, came across endless misery on his contact with world outside his palace. He thought over it and decided to look for the truth that would set people free from misery, instead of emptying his treasury. Inherently, it is wiser to help people instead of merely handing out doles. Even in Mahabharata, Kunti does not ask for doles of easy life from gods, but asks for strength to endure a difficult life. Such are the Indian values that spread light of resilience and self reliance across centuries and across the world.
With this intro, I then transition into historical angle. So, you see there is a flow(clarification: mythology is not history :), but Buddha is a historical figure, a great one)
Now, in conclusion I use the philosophical angle and as Buddha is a great philosopher too, I get to complete my circle :) Here's how I conclude..
Handing out doles cuts at human dignity. It diminishes a person's esteem. Instead, by helping a person grows and character is built which helps the person persevere and even help others. This brings a virtuous cycle that pushes society forward on path of development, both individual and collective. Furthermore, it is said god helps those who help themselves. So, till the poor and weary man seeks and finds god, lets give help or should we say a helping hand.
5.Paragraph planning: 1000-1250 words in an essay...Say 50 words in a paragraph. For my handwriting, it took 10 words per line, so I had 5 lines in a para. 20-25 paras in an essay.
2-4 paras for intro, conclusion and transition from one block to another, so remaining 18-20 paras.
So, now depending on number of blocks in the mega framework, one can plan number of paras.
Also, this way essay will be balanced, wont be too many points on one aspect, starving the other.
So, in ex. "lending hands..." I had 5 blocks in my body leaving intro and conclusion. In each block I needed 4 points at least, which I came up with. Then within these you rearrange them by numbering to create a flow. Then you enrich by putting examples/events from current affairs like some scheme or statement of PM/VP/Pres/former Pres/CJI and others. This is a chance to highlight your awareness and to make your essay interesting. Only points makes essay bland and monotonous.
As you can see, with this para planning, essay does not seem like a big thing but a string of small topics connected together. That is how it must be, is what I feel.

6.Last but not the least. Practice.
Try this technique on many essay topics. Think of an interesting intro, transition, mega framework...block 1,2,3 and then points under them.. repeat.. Later try to think of current example on each point... That's it... this is the rough work you need to write an essay.

7.Next step is to write in full sentences. This is often under estimated but Ive seen that most of us think in some other language and write in English or think faster than writing speed. So, we tend to make lot of weird grammar mistakes. So, once in a month try to write down an essay or even a page, to see how you do in writing full sentences with appropriate wording. Ive seen so many of my friends getting stuck up on choosing the right word in middle of a sentence. It breaks flow of thought and also stops your pen, creates inertia. So, reading Yojana is important to build healthy vocab. Further, Ive seen that as soon as I try to go for flowery language, my meaning gets obscured and then Im busy looking for better words. Better to keep language simple and focus on proper passage of meaning to reader.

That's all folks!

I'll try to write some essays, not to instruct people, but just to share my ideas, at random. Please feel free to "critically analyze", "discuss", "comment" :)