Satire Essay Writing: Specificity of Work at Different Stages

In modern universities and colleges, essay writing is of great importance. When entering an educational institution, it is one of three criteria in determining whether an applicant will be accepted, along with the grade point average (GPA) and the results of standard tests (mainly SAT and ACT). At the same time, only an essay gives the applicant an opportunity to show his individuality, stand out from other applicants, and be enrolled.

In addition to one of the entrance exams, essays are widely used in universities throughout the course of study as a regular assignment, which is usually completed out-of-class. In this case, the following goals are pursued: to form the ability to collect the necessary information, clearly structure an essay, logically and reasonably express your thoughts, as well as develop skills to prove your point of view in a convincing way and draw up a paper in accordance with the requirements. The topic of such essays differs from the admission ones and, as a rule, is more related to the specialization chosen by the student, social problems of society, or to specific literary works.

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Regardless of the purpose of writing an essay, in any case, clear requirements are established regarding the design, content, bibliographic list (usually from three to six sources), and deadline. There also are specific criteria for evaluating the paper on numerous parameters. Therefore, it is important to take responsibility for the correct execution of this task.

As practice shows, students often have to write a satire essay. This is a type of paper that uses satire, hyperbole, irony, etc. for a humorous critique of the subject. There are certain peculiarities of creating this type of essay. In this review, we want to tell you more about them.

Preparatory Stage

The process of writing a satirical essay can be conditionally divided into several stages: thinking, planning, writing, checking, correcting.

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Quality of Satire Essay

The quality of a satire essay depends on three interrelated components, such as the source material that you are going to use (synopses of literature, lectures, notes of discussion results, your own thoughts and experience gained on the issue); quality of processing of the available source material (its organization and throughout analysis); argumentation (how closely it relates to the issues raised in your satire essay).

Drawing Up Notes

Taking notes, especially when reading, is a strategic intelligence and discipline (not a mechanical process of summarizing). Why?

When taking notes, you pay attention (after making the appropriate decision) to those points that are key (both a theoretical or general argument, and an empirical argument or case study of a particular issue).

By taking notes, you select the appropriate material and develop your understanding of theoretical positions and/or empirical arguments.

It should be noted that when reading some texts, you make more notes than others due to the fact that they will be useful to you in further work or are more relevant to the problem you are interested in, and/or are more interesting and/or more informative with theoretical or empirical points of view. Then the studied material breaks down into one that is of greater and lesser interest to you for the reasons provided above.

Here’s a note-taking method: Divide your notebook into two columns. In the left one, you make a synopsis of the material that you are reading, and in the right one (at the same time or later), you carry out a comparative analysis of the content of this synopsis with other facts that you have previously read, heard (in lectures), discussed (in the classroom or informally), as well as with your explanations and criticisms of the text. In other words, you use your notes to build a cross-reference based on your own considerations, wording, data, and including your own comments on what others say.

What to Read? How Much to Read?

There is a relative relationship between the quality and quantity of reading material: how you read and how much you read. In general, it is better to read less but better than read more and worse. The latter leads to misunderstanding and the destruction of the link between arguments and facts.

This means that the choice of reading material is very important: for each specific topic, you should first read two or three key articles or book chapters, which, for example, provide a clear conceptual framework or theoretical reasoning and/or provide comprehensive empirical evidence. This strategic reading will initiate some key landmarks on the topic (including various interpretations and discussions) that will serve as some foundation to guide and develop your further reading.

Based on the topic of your satire essay, try to include in its content, several studies that express the opposite point of view. Appropriate use of subject matter and factual data will allow avoiding the common mistake of over-generalizing the information in your satire essay.

Preparing to Write a Satire Essay

Usually, the questions and tasks posed to you in the process of writing a satire essay require analytical answers, i.e., seek an explanation: as a result of which something happens, what is the reason for this, how it happens, what is the underlying mechanism, etc. There is no need to simply describe a situation, provide facts, or generalize the experience of scientists. However, the importance of this information in your paper should not be ruled out either. It should only be part of your answer; it can be used as a basis for providing your own point of view. The answer to the question is the argumentation of your own position.

When giving preference to any issue on any topic, and before starting planning an answer to it, you need to make sure that you have carefully studied it and know how to answer it correctly. Any question can be interpreted in different ways since today, and there are a number of scientifically based approaches to disclosing their essence. Taking this into account, it is important for you to decide on the choice of approach and interpretation, to learn to follow it, and to argue your choice appropriately. At the same time, different content of the issue may include various problems, so you may need to use a variety of literature. To make the search easier, decide whether you will cover the topic in full or illustrate just some of its aspects. If you clearly disclose the theme in accordance with the stated framework, you will not have any problems in the course of work. The main thing here is to justify your choice and back it up with good arguments.

After you have made a choice about how you will answer the question posed, try to plan/structure your answer. The general structure of a satire essay usually includes the following components:

• introduction: the nature and rationale for the selection of the theme;
• development of the main idea: a consistent disclosure of the main content of the paper based on the information collected, the knowledge gained, personal experience, etc.;
• conclusion: generalizations on the topic.

A well-tried way of constructing any paper is to apply headings to allocate essential points of an argumentation: it allows you to think about what you are going to do (and to make sure if your idea is good). Using this approach will allow you to follow a clear goal of your research and not to be distracted from the theme. It is effective enough to use headings not only to highlight the main aspects of your satire essay. They should also be used to mark the presence of coherence and consistency in the text.

Satire Essay Writing

Writing a satire essay should be carried out by gradually revealing its main structural components.

Introduction

It should comprise a short summary of your reasoning and understanding of the question. It is recommended to highlight here the purpose and main tasks of writing your satire essay, describe what structural elements it includes, and briefly describe the main terms that will be used in the paper. At the same time, the number of definitions should be minimal. Put this information in one or two sentences.

If the basis of your satire essay is an assessment and detailed study of certain terms used by scientists, try to label concepts in different ways in order to give them different meanings.

Content of the Main Body of the Satire Essay

This part is the main part of your satire essay. Here you need to give weighty arguments and perform analysis, substantiating the available material and arguments of scientists on this topic. This section represents the basic content of your paper, so try to give it the main attention.

When filling the sections with your argumentation (corresponding to the subheadings), limit yourself within the paragraph to the consideration of one main idea. It is also useful to apply the method of sequential numbering of all paragraphs for writing a draft of the work – this helps you to ensure that each paragraph (and its main thought) follows the previous paragraph and precedes subsequent. In the final version, you can remove the paragraph numbers.

Final Part

The conclusion may include a summary of your main arguments, but try to keep it very brief. This section may also contain such a very important element that complements the satire essay, as an indication of the application (implication) of your research, not excluding the relationship with other problems.

Satire Essay Check

When creating a satire paper, it is very important to re-read and check its first version. In the course of writing a draft of your essay, your main task is to justify the choice of the theme, develop the argumentation, prove the main idea, as well as arrange the material in a logical sequence, correctly apply illustrations, etc. After that, work begins on correcting and improving the paper.

When checking, first of all, pay attention to the strength of your reasoning. Does the satire essay you write align with your intentions for work structure and analysis? Is it coherent and convincing? Is there enough data used?

Then check the stylistics (spelling, punctuation, etc.) and consistency (meaningfulness).

What Should Be Avoided?

When writing your satire essay, try to avoid the following:

• providing an incomplete answer to the basic issue;
• poor organization of your response;
• inability to adhere to the answer to the main question;
• using rhetoric (assertion) instead of argumentation (proof);
• over-generalization of the provided information;
• lack of analytical material, supporting the descriptive part;
• expression of other people opinions, without illustrating own position;
• using repetitions.

So, this review is a complete guide to writing a satire essay. Follow it while making your paper. This will allow you to create a memorable satire essay.

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