Avinash Dharmadhikari

Let me confess. The views expounded in this chapter don't come from experience, they are my `studied' views.
All other chapters, of course, speak from experience, from self-realisation. In all those matters, it's leading by example. Not because I am much too wise but because the year I appeared for the examination, we had all these papers _ the prelim, main, written and the interview. I had to prepare mostly by the trial and error method. It was more of a trial and still more of errors. That's why I have been able to write this book. Hasn't an educationist said: You teach best what you need to learn most. I still have a lot to learn about competitive exams and career and personality development. Naturally I can manage a bit of such writing for teaching.

But the case of the essay paper is different. When I appeared for the exam, there was no such paper (That's why I got through!). That paper came to haunt the students much later, from the 1993 main exam. The main exam is held in November. The same year the Marathi version of this book was published in October. I knew at the time that there will be an essay paper. But nothing else was known. And how could it be. The subjects, what is expected, nothing was known. I had never been so senior or great an officer as to be able to write a studied, long-winded and verbose essay without doing any homework on a subject I was ignorant of. So the first edition didn't have a chapter on the essay paper. After four years, I have got some general idea about the subjects, construction and the expectations. And I have also done my homework. Reading about the subject, preparing notes, seeing the essay papers over the pasr four years, discussing the subject with the experts in the field as also the examinees, and last but not the least, exploiting the facts that I am literate (though not 'adult') and manage to write something, I have written some essays myself. Having done that exercise, I am at it again _ writing this in the name of an essay.

It's good that the UPSC went in for a separate paper on this subject. Essay writing is mainly a presentation of a set of ideas in a logical way.This is a major communication skill. It's quite helpful and necessary in civil service. So its test in the exam is a good development. Whether it will bring better officers to the civil service than during our time remains to be seen.

Whether in government service or private, or in the corporate world, if you are holding a junior or middle-level position, your job involves submission of the required data in a neat, point by point, detailed but brief manner to the senior decision-making authorities. This is nothing else than essay writing. If you are working at the middle or top decision-making level _ where everyone hopes to be one day or the other _ you have to be in a position to record your views in the minimum number of words, barely one or two words. No question of sentences here. This too is an important skill. Expressing our viewpoint pointedly and clearly in minimum possible words, both in speech and in writing. At top level, you are expected to issue directives. These have to be clear, `speaking' orders. There must be no ambiguity, skin-saving and passing-the-buck approach, yes and no, creation of doubts and confusion from the beginning, or preparation for the `I hadn't said so' excuse. The directives have to be pointed and categorical. To be able to do so, you have to be able to read, understand and assess the essays and notes presented by the subordinates. Often, as a secretary, additional secretary or joint secretary, you yourself have to submit to a minister or the cabinet, notes on a particular subject. The subject file has been pending for years. You have to bring out the essential essence in the form of a four-page summary. That again is essay writing. I had an opportunity while working in the Mantralaya, especially when working under the then chief secretary Sukathankar, to read the essays written by Sukathankar on some of the files. Later, I could learn the same art while writing essays as I worked for the chief minister. This character trait of essay writing is important and meaningful. It has to be nurtured consciously.

But that apart, essay writing is a 200-mark, three-hour compulsory paper for the UPSC exam. You have to write a 2000-word essay on any one of the five subjects given. So forget the character trait and an excellent officer. If you want to clear the exam, get set for writing a good essay after preparing and practising well.
Essay writing is a bit different from other forms of literary writings. Other forms lay more emphasis on style. In essays, the content is more important than the style. An essay is written to express and present ideas, to provoke thinking. So it comprises studied content; direct, lucid writing; simple language and a series of logically developed concepts linked by the main idea. Such is the sequential prose form of an essay. Therefore, the natural and simple process of writing an essay begins with the study of the subject. This is followed by meditation over the points. Now emerges the underlying thread of ideas. When you develop the thread, the essay is ready. Once completed, an essay emerging form this process of study and thinking itself suggests a heading. It is a summary of the essence of the main ideas of the essay in three or four words. But in the exam, however, the essay writing process is turned on the head. (The ways of a government!) Here the heading comes first. You have to catch the thread of ideas and develop the points to arrive at your essay.

So you have before you the essay paper. It offers you five subjects. For example: See these two subjects in the 1993 exam paper. 1. Men have failed; let women take over, and 2. India in the 21st century. Oh! The two subjects are two sides of the same coin. I have a playful `thinker' always alive in me. Indeed, I myself do everything I can to keep him alive. Playfulness is life. Otherwise the refrain of this sorrowful world is ``we regret to inform you that.'' So when I read the two subjects, I said it is just one subject. Men have failed; let women take over India in 21st century (Indiraji zindabad. She was the only `man' in her cabinet). I would have written an essay on this subject. And failed. Don't do that. Select from the five given subjects, the one you agree with, are familiar with, connected with the branch of your study, or thereabout. A glance at the subjects given in the first four years of the essay paper exam shows that, whatever your faculty _ science, arts, commerce, medicine or engineering _ there is at least one subject always close to your subjects.

Calmly select one from them and start thinking on your essay. Generally, the essay has three components in this order of merit. 1. Content 2. Composition 3. Style.

Content: Quickly jot down the content point by point on a rough paper as the points occur to you. For that you have to think about the heading of the essay. Its exact meaning, the concepts or points suggested by it and their explanation, all have to be jotted down briefly. We have to ask questions and answer them and record them. Simultaneously, jot down the points about the relevant data and the related information.

For example: Take the subject, Men have failed; let women take over. Does it cover the entire world, India or Maharashtra? Or, our home. Then men have failed forms a big chunk of the essay. Let the women take over is another part. Find out their meaning independently. How are the two related? Men have failed. Is it true? In what sense? Let women take over suggests the modern concept of feminism. Is that so in our opinion? If it is, what does it mean? Keep asking such questions and form the thread of the essay. For example: Equality, man-woman equality, male chauvinism, feminism, or going beyond these, humanism. This can be the underlying thread of the essay. The thread can be different. You can choose whatever appeals to you. But what you have to do is to finalise the thread and then build around it the data, history and the present.

Composition : The consideration of composition comes after you are ready with the content. Composition means presentation. It comprises the points linking the thread, their sequence, and related topics like examples, references and statistics. We begin by arranging the right sequence of the points and thus preparing a skeletal outline of the essay. While the outline is being readied on a rough paper, you must ensure that the essay develops logically. The main idea should be unfolded gradually and the essay should be moving by stages to the point of climax. Only then will the reader and the assessor be impressed as they finish reading it. You will be able to come up with an organically integrated essay only if you can compose well-argued points coming in the right sequence, their justification, examples given to reinforce them, statistics, references and anecdotes in a well-designed whole. Some essays can use the format of yes and no, or a debate for and against an idea. For example, you may or may not agree with the statement in the subject, Men have failed. Whatever the case, you may or may not agree with the next statement, Let women take over. The presentation of both the sides and the arguments for and against them must be forceful. We have every right to have an independent opinion on every subject under the sky. But if we want to clear the UPSC exam, we should be able to argue it in a balanced way. Once you pass the IAS exam, you may get rid of balance, as reason is helpless against power.

Style : We consider style after content and composition. Really speaking, we must practise essay-writing before the exam. You will realise while practising that once you finalise your content and the composition, the style is automatically selected. The content and the composition determine the style. But some people approach the subject exactly in the opposite way. They decide upon the style first. Humorous, serious, replete with anecdotes, full of examples, decorated with quotations or lines from poems. Some people first settle upon a meditative, serious and sombre, aggressive or sarcastic approach. If you first choose the style and then think about the content and the composition, the essay may seem bright but will not be impressive. If you see, hear, read and think carefully, you will realise that you enjoy the stylish writing or oratory of some people as you read or listen to it. It has an impact. But once the impact recedes, you realise that the person has hardly communicated anything. In contrast, some people write or speak straight, simple words. There are no bright sparks. But it moves you - have you read Lakshmibai Tilak's `Smrutichitre?' The failure to impress is the result of relying on the style without due weightage for the content and the composition (Save this skill too for use in the profession after you join the civil service, not before).

So the inherent qualities of the content and the composition will themselves choose the style. As you jot down notes on a rough paper on your chosen subject, let the subject choose the style. don't impose a style on a subject, on a line of thought. Often, your nature _ serious, humorous, thinking, sarcastic or straightforward _ will decide the style. If you have an idea about your style, try to choose a subject that will match the style. If you practise essay-writing hard, you will know or find your style. In fact, there is no such thing as a rigid and permanent writing style. It matches, and should match the subject, time and the situation. It's like batting. The bat is same, and so is the batsman. But batting of a good cricketer changes in view of the pitch, atmospheric conditions, bowler and the need of the team. It's the same with essay-writing.

While discussing the style, we have to take note of the points being made in the essay, the sequence of the arguments, examples cited, references and statistics provided. In the interest of liveliness, we have to maintain the right proportion of quotes, lines of poems, anecdotes and jokes. The flow of the essay must be smooth. It is the soul of an essay. The essay will blossom if the quotes, lines of poems, jokes and anecdotes flow naturally. Deliberate, elaborate and artificial attempt to cram in the essay at least one story, joke, anecdote and quote will distort the essay. The result will either be a jerky narration or a patch-work. The essay itself will become a joke. Long, multi-phrase sentences, difficult language could be used in an essay. But in general, the essay in the UPSC exam should have small and simple sentences. A smooth flow of words shows your command over the language better than a pre-determined use of big and difficult words. Give meaningful headings and sub-headings to paragraphs bringing out the point in them. The theme of the essay will be embroidered if you come out with word pictures of relevant incidents.

While doing all this or after doing it, we have to think specially about the beginning and the end of the essay. The beginning should be gripping. And the end should be an impressive development of the theme into the climax.
The essay will be impressive if the content, composition and the style achieve the right balance. If the balance is lost, the lop-sided essay will suffer.

Actual writing : The first thing to do as soon as you get the essay paper is to jot down detailed notes on a rough paper. Then right the first draft or an outline. The first draft is not a complete essay. It's the outline of the essay with the points, the composition and the line of development. If you prepare the skeleton, you will soon see and visualise its complete body. Then you can write the final, complete essay.

Personally, I am all praise for the patience of all those people who can manage the first draft, then the final one. But if you want to be IAS, try at least once to display qualities you don't have. Only a few will be able to directly write the final essay without bothering about rough notes and the first draft. As soon as they get the question paper, they sit there with their cheek on palm thinking about it all. Whatever they want to write, they write in the brain. They write down the notes, content, composition, style, everything in their brain. This is brain writing. While at it, a moment comes when they feel that they are now ready to wield the pen. They set out to write and finish the final essay in one go. Brain writing too is a skill. It can be mastered through practice. Whether you write the essay in stages _ notes, rough outline, final draft _ or do it by brain writing process, depends on the type of person you are. You have to find it out yourself. I call this self-awareness. Knowing oneself is a huge gain.
Time division : The essay paper is a three-hour or 180-minute paper. Use the time fully. Reserve the first five minutes for reading the five subjects and the last ten minutes for reading and giving final touches to the essay. The balance is 165 minutes. This is more than enough for writing a 2000-word essay. Unless you write at the snail's pace. Divide the available time along the following lines.

Conclusion : As I said at the beginning of this chapter, essay-writing is a special skill. Like many other skills, it too is a joyous experience that broadens your mind and makes you more confident. And like other skills, essay-writing skill too can be acquired by concerted efforts. Of course, you have to be prepared for hard work and using your head (My God!). Good essay-writing needs extensive reading. Make it a point to write essays on different subjects and get them assessed by experts. Do read newspapers, articles in periodicals, editorials and essays of good writers. Then evolve your own style without copying any of them. Stamp your signature. This is as true in life as about essay-writing.