What is a Short Essay (What is a Short Essay and How to Write One)

Publishing short essays serves as a graduation requirement in some schools, making it essential to master their writing techniques. Additionally, short essays can be a bonus for scholarship evaluations, helping one secure scholarships or benefiting job applications and ratings.

A short essay generally refers to a paper published in academic journals. These papers are less demanding compared to graduation theses and are relatively simpler, focusing on academic research or event reviews, making them entry-level papers.

The main characteristics of a short essay: The term “short” requires the paper to be concise, succinct, and to the point. It should avoid lengthy discussions and covering all aspects. For beginners, the requirements are lower, typically ranging from 1500 to 3000 words. Such essays usually consist of three elements: argument, evidence, and reasoning. Specifically, they may involve explaining a concept, clarifying an issue, arguing a viewpoint, designing and conducting an experiment, interpreting the essence of an experimental phenomenon, writing a survey report, introducing a learning method, or sharing insights on a specific chapter of a subject. As a genre of popular science articles, short essays must possess科学性 (scientificity), creativity, and practicality.

Writing技巧 (techniques) are a crucial factor in the success of a short essay. Beginners should pay attention to the following points: Clearly define the topic and grasp the theme—the basic viewpoint or problem to be addressed through the essay. Therefore, select materials围绕 (around) the theme. The content of the short essay should strive to be clear, accurate, and vivid. Clarity means the viewpoint must be unambiguous, without vagueness or ambiguity; clearly state what is supported or opposed. Without a clear viewpoint, there is no unique insight, rendering the essay ineffective. Accuracy means the evidence must be reliable. If evidence is inaccurate, even the clearest viewpoint won’t be convincing. Evidence comes from materials, which must be authentic and典型 (typical). Avoid using descriptions from novels or films as materials, and never treat hearsay as data; when quoting materials, do not take them out of context or cherry-pick, nor draw conclusions based on isolated evidence. The writing of a short essay should aim for completeness, harmony, and unity. Completeness means the content is rigorous, thorough, and紧凑 (compact). Harmony involves围绕 (revolving around) the central idea, with coherent coordination and clear priorities. Unity refers to the integration of观点 (viewpoints) and materials, as well as the unification of narration and argumentation.

A scientific short essay is not just written; it is done. We need to personally engage in activities such as observation, experimentation, or investigation, then record the phenomena, ideas, and results during the process in the form of images, text, or tables. There should be a complete narrative of the research process, preferably accompanied by flowcharts. For engineering disciplines, experimental data is essential. This approach can form a scientific short essay.