Essays that explain or persuade, and the sophomores who might love them.
February 26, 2023 8:36 AM Subscribe
My high school sophomores mostly only know about essays by writing them. I would like them to read fascinating and well-written essays that explain and persuade. I am looking for great essayists, great essays, and sources for current examples of both. More considerations below.
My canonical example is Stephen Jay Gould, whose essays on evolution were a bit past high school sophomore level, but had style and concision and correctness in constructing an argument. Also, because he was a columnist, his essays were compact, closer to the scale of essays that 10th graders can reasonably write.
I would like, if possible, to avoid steering into several headwinds:
-- personal essays. I love a good personal essay, but the skill in question is constructing an argument or explanation out of evidence.
-- narrative journalism. Great stuff, but again, off track.
-- pure contemporary politics. I won't shy from the political implications of what we read, but a certain window closes when it's clear we're arguing about present-day partisan issues.
I would like both to assign essays and encourage students to look among sources of contemporary essays to find essays that interest them.
And yes, I am familiar with the Best American Essays series, but they almost all come down to personal essays or longform narrative journalism or experiments with both.
My canonical example is Stephen Jay Gould, whose essays on evolution were a bit past high school sophomore level, but had style and concision and correctness in constructing an argument. Also, because he was a columnist, his essays were compact, closer to the scale of essays that 10th graders can reasonably write.
I would like, if possible, to avoid steering into several headwinds:
-- personal essays. I love a good personal essay, but the skill in question is constructing an argument or explanation out of evidence.
-- narrative journalism. Great stuff, but again, off track.
-- pure contemporary politics. I won't shy from the political implications of what we read, but a certain window closes when it's clear we're arguing about present-day partisan issues.
I would like both to assign essays and encourage students to look among sources of contemporary essays to find essays that interest them.
And yes, I am familiar with the Best American Essays series, but they almost all come down to personal essays or longform narrative journalism or experiments with both.
Atul Gawande's medical essays for The New Yorker are probably good examples, since they typically do make an argument although may draw from personal experience as well. Jerome Groopman's work as well.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:50 AM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:50 AM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
I can't find an online copy at the moment, but I loved Frederik Pohl's essay "How to Count on Your Fingers" when I was probably around that age. He's basically arguing that we should use binary for everything instead of base ten. Might be a bit dated and a bit long, though.
posted by ropeladder at 9:08 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ropeladder at 9:08 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Check out The Conversation website? Concise essays written by academics on all sorts of interesting topics.
posted by EllaEm at 9:35 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by EllaEm at 9:35 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
the bedford reader is an undergrad staple. spendy, but older editions used are a deal. i have two editions with a few differences in content.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:42 AM on February 26, 2023
posted by j_curiouser at 9:42 AM on February 26, 2023
Maybe dig through the New York Review of Books? I was reading the anti-Iraq War essays as a high school sophomore, though I was admittedly gifted. Unfortunately, I do think the most accessibly parts will be political, but perhaps politics of 20 years ago will work?
posted by hoyland at 9:48 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hoyland at 9:48 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Video essays on YouTube are actually pretty great intro teaching tools, mostly because they hew closer to the basic structural rules that beginners are taught to follow in school essays, like having paragraphs with topic sentences, having a sequence of clear points supported by concrete evidence, etc. Professional essayists often write with looser, more elliptical structures that students are not yet skilled enough to practice effectively.
Most popular yt channels will have a transcript for each video, so you can have students read and discuss the "text" the same way you would a printed essay. Watching for the breaks where the guiding voiceover gives way to visual (like charts, interviews, etc.) is a good exercise for understanding how evidence and examples work in expository writing in general.
WIthin YouTube vids, John Oliver deep-dive segments are pretty good for fun persuasive essays, and not all are political. For teaching essays, there's a vast sea of "explainer" videos out there: students are probably being made to consume these regularly as part of your own school curriculum, so you could even do a reader-response critique of how well the exposition worked in something they were assigned for another class.
posted by Bardolph at 9:49 AM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
Most popular yt channels will have a transcript for each video, so you can have students read and discuss the "text" the same way you would a printed essay. Watching for the breaks where the guiding voiceover gives way to visual (like charts, interviews, etc.) is a good exercise for understanding how evidence and examples work in expository writing in general.
WIthin YouTube vids, John Oliver deep-dive segments are pretty good for fun persuasive essays, and not all are political. For teaching essays, there's a vast sea of "explainer" videos out there: students are probably being made to consume these regularly as part of your own school curriculum, so you could even do a reader-response critique of how well the exposition worked in something they were assigned for another class.
posted by Bardolph at 9:49 AM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
EB White wrote amazing essays and they're almost certainly available at your library. Probably dated, but he had a fine wit that is timeless.
Tons of people love Anne Lamott.
Essayists
Your librarian should be a great resource here.
Your local newspaper may have essays.
Metafilter is a great source of long-form articles that can be considered essays.
posted by theora55 at 10:14 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Tons of people love Anne Lamott.
Essayists
Your librarian should be a great resource here.
Your local newspaper may have essays.
Metafilter is a great source of long-form articles that can be considered essays.
posted by theora55 at 10:14 AM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is a somewhat daring choice (and would require a very brief explanation of who the Vicar of Bray is), but when I was a sophomore I think I would've loved George Orwell's A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray. Depends on whether your students can handle the modestly risque (in an old-fashioned way) bit on Mrs. Overall.
posted by praemunire at 12:08 PM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 12:08 PM on February 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
I imagine some of these may be inappropriate, but I figure you are the best judge:
The Reverse Rapture
The Futile Pursuit of Happiness (PDF Warning)
William Hazlitt "On the Love of the Country"
David Foster Wallace "This is Water"
Putting Ideas Into Words by Paul Graham
posted by forthright at 12:21 PM on February 26, 2023
The Reverse Rapture
The Futile Pursuit of Happiness (PDF Warning)
William Hazlitt "On the Love of the Country"
David Foster Wallace "This is Water"
Putting Ideas Into Words by Paul Graham
posted by forthright at 12:21 PM on February 26, 2023
Like Stephen J Gould, but born 50 years earlier, JBS Haldane was a Marxist who turned out popular science essays on the regular. He had a column in The [UK] Daily Worker in WWII until it was suppressed in 1941. e.g. On Being the Right Size [PDF] here reflecting on the differential effects of gravity:
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. That essay and others were published as Possible Worlds (1927).
Elizabeth David's cook books are interspersed with reflective essays on produce, culture, and the value of a sharp knife. An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a place to start.
Lewis Thomas was a US physician and poet who wrote several collections of thoughtful essays about the human condition in the 1970s. The Medusa and the Snail or The Lives of a Cell should still be obtainable 2nd hand. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery [2014] by Henry Marsh, UK neurosurgeon, is more recent on similar themes.
Tim Harford, the British Economist and crap-detector currently fronts a number crunching program on the BBC called More or Less. He has spun off several books of explanatory essays Including How To Make The World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:05 PM on February 26, 2023
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. That essay and others were published as Possible Worlds (1927).
Elizabeth David's cook books are interspersed with reflective essays on produce, culture, and the value of a sharp knife. An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a place to start.
Lewis Thomas was a US physician and poet who wrote several collections of thoughtful essays about the human condition in the 1970s. The Medusa and the Snail or The Lives of a Cell should still be obtainable 2nd hand. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery [2014] by Henry Marsh, UK neurosurgeon, is more recent on similar themes.
Tim Harford, the British Economist and crap-detector currently fronts a number crunching program on the BBC called More or Less. He has spun off several books of explanatory essays Including How To Make The World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:05 PM on February 26, 2023
Alain de Botton is a good essayist. Books such as "Religion for atheists" and "The architecture of happiness" are essentially collections of essays. De Botton is very good at making substantive arguments about things that most people would consider matters of opinion, or aesthetic experiences. What does religion have to offer non-believers? Why do certain styles of architecture make you happy?
Do letters count? The Letters of Note compilation have some wonderful ones. Why explore space? is one of the best essays I've ever read.
posted by snarfois at 3:47 AM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
Do letters count? The Letters of Note compilation have some wonderful ones. Why explore space? is one of the best essays I've ever read.
posted by snarfois at 3:47 AM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don’t know if this is too political for your students, but this essay from today’s FPP about Scott Adams and free speech might work.
posted by bendy at 1:07 PM on February 27, 2023
posted by bendy at 1:07 PM on February 27, 2023
I'm thinking that a lot of these essays — even the ones whose primary purpose is to argue for a conclusion — also make space for digressions, puzzles, jokes, irony, memories, and other things that you'd get dinged for on the AP exam. In some of them, if you went looking for a thesis statement or a single clear conclusion, you'd come up empty-handed.
Does that feel like a problem/do you want to be illustrating a cleaner and more utilitarian style? No judgment, just wondering what your scope is.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:05 AM on February 28, 2023
Does that feel like a problem/do you want to be illustrating a cleaner and more utilitarian style? No judgment, just wondering what your scope is.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:05 AM on February 28, 2023
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Have you ever seen the Utne Reader magazine? It used to have a lot of good essays.
I have read a ton of long form pieces from Outside magazine in the past that were absorbing and well written.
(I am afraid to mention particular pieces because I guess you want more current work, and I don't know enough about your students to imagine what might interest them.)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:50 AM on February 26, 2023 [2 favorites]