When I started to read The Best American Essays I wondered how could essays be that much different from each other. As I read on I realized that essays can be so much more flexible then I ever thought the were.
The way the author describes how a personal essay will differ from the journalistic approach. I have always felt that an essay had an intro, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This reading had made myself realize that it doesn’t have to be that way. It has made me really think about the public education system. Why would schools teach something so rigidly when its just one of so many ways to develop a essay. I took AP English for two years and was never made to write anything but the “perfect” essay. I never before realized that essays aren’t very stern and they don’t need to be structured so formidably.
Students should not have to wait till they get to college in order to realize that the way they have been taught to write the “ perfect “ essay is not correct.
I also learned from this essay that a person talks about what they know the best. That best subject is usually himself or herself. That is why so many essays are like memoirs because the author is writing about the life they lived and the accomplishments and problems that accompanied that life.
This reading has opened my mind to the different kind of essays that exist and the flexibility within them.