Say the Word: Essay
As a writing tutor for four years and English teacher another four, I have seen the phrase “in this essay” written so many times as to lose count. And, each time, just as my English teachers and writing professors had done before me, I crossed it out as unnecessary. There’s a logic to this. I tell students that whenever they say “my topic is X” that the better phrasing is just to say “X” and remove the unneeded lead in. Same goes for phrasing like “I believe” or “my point is” as both phrases are semantically blank seeing as context (the fact that one is reading the work) presumes that these are the writer’s beliefs or points. This is the logic that has run through writing teachers for many years.
However, after a particularly well-written essay utilized the phrase in a way that completed the full picture of the essay, I have taken reflection to change my view upon this stance. The change of view, in this case, is to outline particular times where stating “in this essay” can have the exact impact that the essay needs.
Usage Before this Change
The prime observation that charged the statement in this essay as poor writing is that no famed author (dipping into ideas of Literary Canon) used the phrase. Most teachers commit a fallacy when teaching this, by allowing that even though this is not a requirement to be in the Canon, it is a requirement for entry into the Canon. (The word Canon can be replaced with good writing but they are semantically the same.)
The particular issue here is that because this logic is fallacious, finding a Canonical use of the phrase would not disprove it as poor writing, because the phrase has yet to be demonstrated to be poor writing. Instead, five examples shall be pulled directly from writing I have read in my time and discussed as sentence frames.
Example #1 - “In this essay, I will discuss X”
Unfortunately the most common and endlessly present in students writing, this, I shall say even in my reformed state, is still a poor bit of writing in need of removal. The reason: this phrasing is setting up for X to be the thesis of the essay. Because the thesis is a particularly complex and integral part of the essay, it is important that it be concise and free of extraneous information as the audience will be taking their time digesting whatever thesis X is. Any pre-understood information is not needed—the audience knows they are reading an essay (as opposed to a novel) because of other data, and of course the writing will discuss because what else is going to happen? Extra egregious, on some semantic levels “in this essay” and “I will discuss” convey the same meaning, which makes one or the other redundant. This should be removed.
Example #2 - “That’s my essay”
Of the examples, this is the most useless, but most telling in what the student needs assistance with. Students of writing, when approaching academic genres, come from an immersion within a mass of high-context, indefinite communication. This is to say that, to them, nothing needs to end. Conversation is more fluid, rising and falling like pasta in a pot. A point made here might become a prime topic some months later. So, many of them struggle with concluding formal writing assignments, because they have such little practice. This phrase, then, is helpful not in its use (it has to go) but in the conversation it can spark, when used to springboard more complex discussions on writing rather than simply crossing it out.
Example #3 - “This essay has…”
Unlike Example #2, this phrase has a use in connecting one text to the larger discourse around the topic of interest. The biggest issue is the closeness to Example #2. If this phrase is used in that context, it’s simply Example #2. For the specific context here, the phrase needs to be used to position the essay relative to other opinions or analyses of the topic at hand. This would be beneficial near the start or end of an essay, to set the essay apart from others or to bring in perspectives related to the essay. Importantly, the goal should be to do just that, and the phrasing should be used because it is the most concise way to refer to the essay. Any other way would simply be roundabout.
Example #4 - “I believe X”
While not using the word essay, this phrase operates in very similar scenarios. Surprisingly, if not used to introduce every belief (or I have seen students use it to introduce objective information) this phrase does have great impact on the clarity and openness of the writing. Many people nowadays do not make distinction between belief and fact, and phrase them as if they are one and the same. Perhaps this phenomenon took root in a soil that eschewed this phrasing. So, in cases where discussion of belief and fact are side-by-side, stating simply which is a personal belief and which is not, would help remedy this contemporary writing error. That is, of course, if used sparingly and when appropriate.
Example #5 - “X in this essay.”
This was the structure that shook my belief enough to reconsider this whole phrase. X, in this case, was a definition that the student had constructed over the course of the beginning of the essay, so that they could be clear during their analysis in the rest. A move that would be considered good writing by most. This sentence appeared about midway through the analysis section of the essay. The goal? To reestablish that X had a definition specific to this essay, and make sure the audience did not let that slip, for the section of analysis to come and the conclusion of the essay required this. And, while the phrasing could be changed to uphold the “rule,” there isn’t much gained as a result. This phrasing is concise, does the stated goal, and gets on with it. For that reason, there seems to be nothing wrong with it.