Essay

FRAMEWORK

1. Quote/Conversation/Anecdote 10%

2.Current Events (Examples)– What is happening? 20%

• International
• National
• Societal
• Individual

3. How – whether the claims of the thesis are true in all cases? 10%

• How does the thesis stand up to the challenge of a counter-argument?

4. Reasons – Why is it happening? 15%

• Historical/Cultural Reasons
• Geographical Reasons
• Economical Reasons
• Political Reasons
• Ethical Reasons

5. Impacts – Why does it matter? 15%

• On society
• On polity
• On economy
• On environment
• On individual

6.Solutions – What should/can be done? 15%

• International
• National
• Regional
• Individual

7. Challenges – Any challenges to overcome? 5%

8. Way Forward 5%

9. Hopeful/Positive Conclusion –  Why does your interpretation of a phenomenon matter to anyone beside you? 5%

Note:

1. Counter-argument may appear within a paragraph
2. Justify arguments with Data/Citation/Report etc.
3. Be wary of paragraph openers that lead off with “time” words (“first,” “next,” “after,” “then”) or “listing” words (“also,” “another,” “in addition”).
4. Poor essays generally have a descriptive thesis rather than an argumentative one.

QUOTES EXAMPLES

FOREST:   “The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness. It affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axe-man who destroys it.

FOR WAY  FORWARD:   “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward”.

INTENTIONS:

Intentions can be a fickle business. In the ’30s, refrigeration required the use of highly combustible chemicals: ammonia, propane. They were incredibly dangerous. Then a chemist named Thomas Midgley devised a replacement compound that we know as Freon. He saved lives, advanced science, changed the world.

But that’s not the end of the story, as we well know. 50 years after his death, the scientific community was appalled to discover that Freon had been ripping holes in our ozone layer, causing irreparable harm. Midgley turns out to be one of the most destructive figures in history.

Midgley was just a man, a man who wanted to improve the world around him through science.

PLASTIC POLLUTION IN NEWS

• PLASTIC BAN: The tiny landlocked African country Rwanda has banned plastic bags since a few years. The ban has made this war-torn nation much cleaner.
• Kenya has just announced a ban on plastic bags, and a fine of 4 years in prison and/or $40,000. The Kenyan seacoast has mountains of plastic waste, making life on land, and in the sea, difficult.
• It is time that India, with its 7,500-km coastline, learns from these Africans and bans plastic bags and related stuff before we too choke our seacoasts— and land, too—into a man-made disaster.
• The Task Force on plastic pollution, set up by the Planning Commission in 2014, estimated that 60 cities across the country generate over 15,000 tons of plastic waste every day—almost 6 million tons per year.

POEM: Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free,

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls,

Where words come out from the depth of truth,

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection, Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit,

Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action,

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

As Tagore said, when the nation becomes powerful at the cost of the harmony of social life, that day is an evil day for humanity. Enforced nationalism cannot promote true culture. People and cultures, regardless of belonging to a particular class or geography, can truly grow and evolve only if they can transcend all social and territorial limitations.

QUOTES FROM THE HINDU

Model Essays

Model Essay_1 by Ravi Anand, IAS

Model Essay_2 by Ravi Anand, IAS