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The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade

Ever tried. ever failed. no matter..

Friends, it’s true: the end of the decade approaches. It’s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally compromised decade, but at least it’s been populated by some damn fine literature. We’ll take our silver linings where we can.

So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website—though with full awareness of the potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task—in the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade that was. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. We began with the best debut novels , the best short story collections , the best poetry collections , and the best memoirs of the decade , and we have now reached the fifth list in our series: the best essay collections published in English between 2010 and 2019.

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. And as you’ll shortly see, we had a hard time choosing just ten—so we’ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even longer list of also-rans. As ever, free to add any of your own favorites that we’ve missed in the comments below.

The Top Ten

Oliver sacks, the mind’s eye (2010).

Toward the end of his life, maybe suspecting or sensing that it was coming to a close, Dr. Oliver Sacks tended to focus his efforts on sweeping intellectual projects like On the Move (a memoir), The River of Consciousness (a hybrid intellectual history), and Hallucinations (a book-length meditation on, what else, hallucinations). But in 2010, he gave us one more classic in the style that first made him famous, a form he revolutionized and brought into the contemporary literary canon: the medical case study as essay. In The Mind’s Eye , Sacks focuses on vision, expanding the notion to embrace not only how we see the world, but also how we map that world onto our brains when our eyes are closed and we’re communing with the deeper recesses of consciousness. Relaying histories of patients and public figures, as well as his own history of ocular cancer (the condition that would eventually spread and contribute to his death), Sacks uses vision as a lens through which to see all of what makes us human, what binds us together, and what keeps us painfully apart. The essays that make up this collection are quintessential Sacks: sensitive, searching, with an expertise that conveys scientific information and experimentation in terms we can not only comprehend, but which also expand how we see life carrying on around us. The case studies of “Stereo Sue,” of the concert pianist Lillian Kalir, and of Howard, the mystery novelist who can no longer read, are highlights of the collection, but each essay is a kind of gem, mined and polished by one of the great storytellers of our era.  –Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Managing Editor

John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead (2011)

The American essay was having a moment at the beginning of the decade, and Pulphead was smack in the middle. Without any hard data, I can tell you that this collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s magazine features—published primarily in GQ , but also in The Paris Review , and Harper’s —was the only full book of essays most of my literary friends had read since Slouching Towards Bethlehem , and probably one of the only full books of essays they had even heard of.

Well, we all picked a good one. Every essay in Pulphead is brilliant and entertaining, and illuminates some small corner of the American experience—even if it’s just one house, with Sullivan and an aging writer inside (“Mr. Lytle” is in fact a standout in a collection with no filler; fittingly, it won a National Magazine Award and a Pushcart Prize). But what are they about? Oh, Axl Rose, Christian Rock festivals, living around the filming of One Tree Hill , the Tea Party movement, Michael Jackson, Bunny Wailer, the influence of animals, and by god, the Miz (of Real World/Road Rules Challenge fame).

But as Dan Kois has pointed out , what connects these essays, apart from their general tone and excellence, is “their author’s essential curiosity about the world, his eye for the perfect detail, and his great good humor in revealing both his subjects’ and his own foibles.” They are also extremely well written, drawing much from fictional techniques and sentence craft, their literary pleasures so acute and remarkable that James Wood began his review of the collection in The New Yorker with a quiz: “Are the following sentences the beginnings of essays or of short stories?” (It was not a hard quiz, considering the context.)

It’s hard not to feel, reading this collection, like someone reached into your brain, took out the half-baked stuff you talk about with your friends, researched it, lived it, and represented it to you smarter and better and more thoroughly than you ever could. So read it in awe if you must, but read it.  –Emily Temple, Senior Editor

Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives (2013)

Such is the sentence-level virtuosity of Aleksandar Hemon—the Bosnian-American writer, essayist, and critic—that throughout his career he has frequently been compared to the granddaddy of borrowed language prose stylists: Vladimir Nabokov. While it is, of course, objectively remarkable that anyone could write so beautifully in a language they learned in their twenties, what I admire most about Hemon’s work is the way in which he infuses every essay and story and novel with both a deep humanity and a controlled (but never subdued) fury. He can also be damn funny. Hemon grew up in Sarajevo and left in 1992 to study in Chicago, where he almost immediately found himself stranded, forced to watch from afar as his beloved home city was subjected to a relentless four-year bombardment, the longest siege of a capital in the history of modern warfare. This extraordinary memoir-in-essays is many things: it’s a love letter to both the family that raised him and the family he built in exile; it’s a rich, joyous, and complex portrait of a place the 90s made synonymous with war and devastation; and it’s an elegy for the wrenching loss of precious things. There’s an essay about coming of age in Sarajevo and another about why he can’t bring himself to leave Chicago. There are stories about relationships forged and maintained on the soccer pitch or over the chessboard, and stories about neighbors and mentors turned monstrous by ethnic prejudice. As a chorus they sing with insight, wry humor, and unimaginable sorrow. I am not exaggerating when I say that the collection’s devastating final piece, “The Aquarium”—which details his infant daughter’s brain tumor and the agonizing months which led up to her death—remains the most painful essay I have ever read.  –Dan Sheehan, Book Marks Editor

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)

Of every essay in my relentlessly earmarked copy of Braiding Sweetgrass , Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s gorgeously rendered argument for why and how we should keep going, there’s one that especially hits home: her account of professor-turned-forester Franz Dolp. When Dolp, several decades ago, revisited the farm that he had once shared with his ex-wife, he found a scene of destruction: The farm’s new owners had razed the land where he had tried to build a life. “I sat among the stumps and the swirling red dust and I cried,” he wrote in his journal.

So many in my generation (and younger) feel this kind of helplessness–and considerable rage–at finding ourselves newly adult in a world where those in power seem determined to abandon or destroy everything that human bodies have always needed to survive: air, water, land. Asking any single book to speak to this helplessness feels unfair, somehow; yet, Braiding Sweetgrass does, by weaving descriptions of indigenous tradition with the environmental sciences in order to show what survival has looked like over the course of many millennia. Kimmerer’s essays describe her personal experience as a Potawotami woman, plant ecologist, and teacher alongside stories of the many ways that humans have lived in relationship to other species. Whether describing Dolp’s work–he left the stumps for a life of forest restoration on the Oregon coast–or the work of others in maple sugar harvesting, creating black ash baskets, or planting a Three Sisters garden of corn, beans, and squash, she brings hope. “In ripe ears and swelling fruit, they counsel us that all gifts are multiplied in relationship,” she writes of the Three Sisters, which all sustain one another as they grow. “This is how the world keeps going.”  –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Hilton Als, White Girls (2013)

In a world where we are so often reduced to one essential self, Hilton Als’ breathtaking book of critical essays, White Girls , which meditates on the ways he and other subjects read, project and absorb parts of white femininity, is a radically liberating book. It’s one of the only works of critical thinking that doesn’t ask the reader, its author or anyone he writes about to stoop before the doorframe of complete legibility before entering. Something he also permitted the subjects and readers of his first book, the glorious book-length essay, The Women , a series of riffs and psychological portraits of Dorothy Dean, Owen Dodson, and the author’s own mother, among others. One of the shifts of that book, uncommon at the time, was how it acknowledges the way we inhabit bodies made up of variously gendered influences. To read White Girls now is to experience the utter freedom of this gift and to marvel at Als’ tremendous versatility and intelligence.

He is easily the most diversely talented American critic alive. He can write into genres like pop music and film where being part of an audience is a fantasy happening in the dark. He’s also wired enough to know how the art world builds reputations on the nod of rich white patrons, a significant collision in a time when Jean-Michel Basquiat is America’s most expensive modern artist. Als’ swerving and always moving grip on performance means he’s especially good on describing the effect of art which is volatile and unstable and built on the mingling of made-up concepts and the hard fact of their effect on behavior, such as race. Writing on Flannery O’Connor for instance he alone puts a finger on her “uneasy and unavoidable union between black and white, the sacred and the profane, the shit and the stars.” From Eminem to Richard Pryor, André Leon Talley to Michael Jackson, Als enters the life and work of numerous artists here who turn the fascinations of race and with whiteness into fury and song and describes the complexity of their beauty like his life depended upon it. There are also brief memoirs here that will stop your heart. This is an essential work to understanding American culture.  –John Freeman, Executive Editor

Eula Biss, On Immunity (2014)

We move through the world as if we can protect ourselves from its myriad dangers, exercising what little agency we have in an effort to keep at bay those fears that gather at the edges of any given life: of loss, illness, disaster, death. It is these fears—amplified by the birth of her first child—that Eula Biss confronts in her essential 2014 essay collection, On Immunity . As any great essayist does, Biss moves outward in concentric circles from her own very private view of the world to reveal wider truths, discovering as she does a culture consumed by anxiety at the pervasive toxicity of contemporary life. As Biss interrogates this culture—of privilege, of whiteness—she interrogates herself, questioning the flimsy ways in which we arm ourselves with science or superstition against the impurities of daily existence.

Five years on from its publication, it is dismaying that On Immunity feels as urgent (and necessary) a defense of basic science as ever. Vaccination, we learn, is derived from vacca —for cow—after the 17th-century discovery that a small application of cowpox was often enough to inoculate against the scourge of smallpox, an etymological digression that belies modern conspiratorial fears of Big Pharma and its vaccination agenda. But Biss never scolds or belittles the fears of others, and in her generosity and openness pulls off a neat (and important) trick: insofar as we are of the very world we fear, she seems to be suggesting, we ourselves are impure, have always been so, permeable, vulnerable, yet so much stronger than we think.  –Jonny Diamond, Editor-in-Chief 

Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions (2016)

When Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “Men Explain Things to Me,” was published in 2008, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon unlike almost any other in recent memory, assigning language to a behavior that almost every woman has witnessed—mansplaining—and, in the course of identifying that behavior, spurring a movement, online and offline, to share the ways in which patriarchal arrogance has intersected all our lives. (It would also come to be the titular essay in her collection published in 2014.) The Mother of All Questions follows up on that work and takes it further in order to examine the nature of self-expression—who is afforded it and denied it, what institutions have been put in place to limit it, and what happens when it is employed by women. Solnit has a singular gift for describing and decoding the misogynistic dynamics that govern the world so universally that they can seem invisible and the gendered violence that is so common as to seem unremarkable; this naming is powerful, and it opens space for sharing the stories that shape our lives.

The Mother of All Questions, comprised of essays written between 2014 and 2016, in many ways armed us with some of the tools necessary to survive the gaslighting of the Trump years, in which many of us—and especially women—have continued to hear from those in power that the things we see and hear do not exist and never existed. Solnit also acknowledges that labels like “woman,” and other gendered labels, are identities that are fluid in reality; in reviewing the book for The New Yorker , Moira Donegan suggested that, “One useful working definition of a woman might be ‘someone who experiences misogyny.'” Whichever words we use, Solnit writes in the introduction to the book that “when words break through unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society sometimes becomes intolerable.” This storytelling work has always been vital; it continues to be vital, and in this book, it is brilliantly done.  –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends (2017)

The newly minted MacArthur fellow Valeria Luiselli’s four-part (but really six-part) essay  Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions  was inspired by her time spent volunteering at the federal immigration court in New York City, working as an interpreter for undocumented, unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Written concurrently with her novel  Lost Children Archive  (a fictional exploration of the same topic), Luiselli’s essay offers a fascinating conceit, the fashioning of an argument from the questions on the government intake form given to these children to process their arrivals. (Aside from the fact that this essay is a heartbreaking masterpiece, this is such a  good  conceit—transforming a cold, reproducible administrative document into highly personal literature.) Luiselli interweaves a grounded discussion of the questionnaire with a narrative of the road trip Luiselli takes with her husband and family, across America, while they (both Mexican citizens) wait for their own Green Card applications to be processed. It is on this trip when Luiselli reflects on the thousands of migrant children mysteriously traveling across the border by themselves. But the real point of the essay is to actually delve into the real stories of some of these children, which are agonizing, as well as to gravely, clearly expose what literally happens, procedural, when they do arrive—from forms to courts, as they’re swallowed by a bureaucratic vortex. Amid all of this, Luiselli also takes on more, exploring the larger contextual relationship between the United States of America and Mexico (as well as other countries in Central America, more broadly) as it has evolved to our current, adverse moment.  Tell Me How It Ends  is so small, but it is so passionate and vigorous: it desperately accomplishes in its less-than-100-pages-of-prose what centuries and miles and endless records of federal bureaucracy have never been able, and have never cared, to do: reverse the dehumanization of Latin American immigrants that occurs once they set foot in this country.  –Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads Editorial Fellow

Zadie Smith, Feel Free (2018)

In the essay “Meet Justin Bieber!” in Feel Free , Zadie Smith writes that her interest in Justin Bieber is not an interest in the interiority of the singer himself, but in “the idea of the love object”. This essay—in which Smith imagines a meeting between Bieber and the late philosopher Martin Buber (“Bieber and Buber are alternative spellings of the same German surname,” she explains in one of many winning footnotes. “Who am I to ignore these hints from the universe?”). Smith allows that this premise is a bit premise -y: “I know, I know.” Still, the resulting essay is a very funny, very smart, and un-tricky exploration of individuality and true “meeting,” with a dash of late capitalism thrown in for good measure. The melding of high and low culture is the bread and butter of pretty much every prestige publication on the internet these days (and certainly of the Twitter feeds of all “public intellectuals”), but the essays in Smith’s collection don’t feel familiar—perhaps because hers is, as we’ve long known, an uncommon skill. Though I believe Smith could probably write compellingly about anything, she chooses her subjects wisely. She writes with as much electricity about Brexit as the aforementioned Beliebers—and each essay is utterly engrossing. “She contains multitudes, but her point is we all do,” writes Hermione Hoby in her review of the collection in The New Republic . “At the same time, we are, in our endless difference, nobody but ourselves.”  –Jessie Gaynor, Social Media Editor

Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays (2019)

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an academic who has transcended the ivory tower to become the sort of public intellectual who can easily appear on radio or television talk shows to discuss race, gender, and capitalism. Her collection of essays reflects this duality, blending scholarly work with memoir to create a collection on the black female experience in postmodern America that’s “intersectional analysis with a side of pop culture.” The essays range from an analysis of sexual violence, to populist politics, to social media, but in centering her own experiences throughout, the collection becomes something unlike other pieces of criticism of contemporary culture. In explaining the title, she reflects on what an editor had said about her work: “I was too readable to be academic, too deep to be popular, too country black to be literary, and too naïve to show the rigor of my thinking in the complexity of my prose. I had wanted to create something meaningful that sounded not only like me, but like all of me. It was too thick.” One of the most powerful essays in the book is “Dying to be Competent” which begins with her unpacking the idiocy of LinkedIn (and the myth of meritocracy) and ends with a description of her miscarriage, the mishandling of black woman’s pain, and a condemnation of healthcare bureaucracy. A finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Thick confirms McMillan Cottom as one of our most fearless public intellectuals and one of the most vital.  –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Dissenting Opinions

The following books were just barely nudged out of the top ten, but we (or at least one of us) couldn’t let them pass without comment.

Elif Batuman, The Possessed (2010)

In The Possessed Elif Batuman indulges her love of Russian literature and the result is hilarious and remarkable. Each essay of the collection chronicles some adventure or other that she had while in graduate school for Comparative Literature and each is more unpredictable than the next. There’s the time a “well-known 20th-centuryist” gave a graduate student the finger; and the time when Batuman ended up living in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a summer; and the time that she convinced herself Tolstoy was murdered and spent the length of the Tolstoy Conference in Yasnaya Polyana considering clues and motives. Rich in historic detail about Russian authors and literature and thoughtfully constructed, each essay is an amalgam of critical analysis, cultural criticism, and serious contemplation of big ideas like that of identity, intellectual legacy, and authorship. With wit and a serpentine-like shape to her narratives, Batuman adopts a form reminiscent of a Socratic discourse, setting up questions at the beginning of her essays and then following digressions that more or less entreat the reader to synthesize the answer for herself. The digressions are always amusing and arguably the backbone of the collection, relaying absurd anecdotes with foreign scholars or awkward, surreal encounters with Eastern European strangers. Central also to the collection are Batuman’s intellectual asides where she entertains a theory—like the “problem of the person”: the inability to ever wholly capture one’s character—that ultimately layer the book’s themes. “You are certainly my most entertaining student,” a professor said to Batuman. But she is also curious and enthusiastic and reflective and so knowledgeable that she might even convince you (she has me!) that you too love Russian literature as much as she does. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist (2014)

Roxane Gay’s now-classic essay collection is a book that will make you laugh, think, cry, and then wonder, how can cultural criticism be this fun? My favorite essays in the book include Gay’s musings on competitive Scrabble, her stranded-in-academia dispatches, and her joyous film and television criticism, but given the breadth of topics Roxane Gay can discuss in an entertaining manner, there’s something for everyone in this one. This book is accessible because feminism itself should be accessible – Roxane Gay is as likely to draw inspiration from YA novels, or middle-brow shows about friendship, as she is to introduce concepts from the academic world, and if there’s anyone I trust to bridge the gap between high culture, low culture, and pop culture, it’s the Goddess of Twitter. I used to host a book club dedicated to radical reads, and this was one of the first picks for the club; a week after the book club met, I spied a few of the attendees meeting in the café of the bookstore, and found out that they had bonded so much over discussing  Bad Feminist  that they couldn’t wait for the next meeting of the book club to keep discussing politics and intersectionality, and that, in a nutshell, is the power of Roxane. –Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Associate Editor

Rivka Galchen, Little Labors (2016)

Generally, I find stories about the trials and tribulations of child-having to be of limited appeal—useful, maybe, insofar as they offer validation that other people have also endured the bizarre realities of living with a tiny human, but otherwise liable to drift into the musings of parents thrilled at the simple fact of their own fecundity, as if they were the first ones to figure the process out (or not). But Little Labors is not simply an essay collection about motherhood, perhaps because Galchen initially “didn’t want to write about” her new baby—mostly, she writes, “because I had never been interested in babies, or mothers; in fact, those subjects had seemed perfectly not interesting to me.” Like many new mothers, though, Galchen soon discovered her baby—which she refers to sometimes as “the puma”—to be a preoccupying thought, demanding to be written about. Galchen’s interest isn’t just in her own progeny, but in babies in literature (“Literature has more dogs than babies, and also more abortions”), The Pillow Book , the eleventh-century collection of musings by Sei Shōnagon, and writers who are mothers. There are sections that made me laugh out loud, like when Galchen continually finds herself in an elevator with a neighbor who never fails to remark on the puma’s size. There are also deeper, darker musings, like the realization that the baby means “that it’s not permissible to die. There are days when this does not feel good.” It is a slim collection that I happened to read at the perfect time, and it remains one of my favorites of the decade. –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Charlie Fox, This Young Monster (2017)

On social media as in his writing, British art critic Charlie Fox rejects lucidity for allusion and doesn’t quite answer the Twitter textbox’s persistent question: “What’s happening?” These days, it’s hard to tell.  This Young Monster  (2017), Fox’s first book,was published a few months after Donald Trump’s election, and at one point Fox takes a swipe at a man he judges “direct from a nightmare and just a repulsive fucking goon.” Fox doesn’t linger on politics, though, since most of the monsters he looks at “embody otherness and make it into art, ripping any conventional idea of beauty to shreds and replacing it with something weird and troubling of their own invention.”

If clichés are loathed because they conform to what philosopher Georges Bataille called “the common measure,” then monsters are rebellious non-sequiturs, comedic or horrific derailments from a classical ideal. Perverts in the most literal sense, monsters have gone astray from some “proper” course. The book’s nine chapters, which are about a specific monster or type of monster, are full of callbacks to familiar and lesser-known media. Fox cites visual art, film, songs, and books with the screwy buoyancy of a savant. Take one of his essays, “Spook House,” framed as a stage play with two principal characters, Klaus (“an intoxicated young skinhead vampire”) and Hermione (“a teen sorceress with green skin and jet-black hair” who looks more like The Wicked Witch than her namesake). The chorus is a troupe of trick-or-treaters. Using the filmmaker Cameron Jamie as a starting point, the rest is free association on gothic decadence and Detroit and L.A. as cities of the dead. All the while, Klaus quotes from  Artforum ,  Dazed & Confused , and  Time Out. It’s a technical feat that makes fictionalized dialogue a conveyor belt for cultural criticism.

In Fox’s imagination, David Bowie and the Hydra coexist alongside Peter Pan, Dennis Hopper, and the maenads. Fox’s book reaches for the monster’s mask, not really to peel it off but to feel and smell the rubber schnoz, to know how it’s made before making sure it’s still snugly set. With a stylistic blend of arthouse suavity and B-movie chic,  This Young Monster considers how monsters in culture are made. Aren’t the scariest things made in post-production? Isn’t the creature just duplicity, like a looping choir or a dubbed scream? –Aaron Robertson, Assistant Editor

Elena Passarello, Animals Strike Curious Poses (2017)

Elena Passarello’s collection of essays Animals Strike Curious Poses picks out infamous animals and grants them the voice, narrative, and history they deserve. Not only is a collection like this relevant during the sixth extinction but it is an ambitious historical and anthropological undertaking, which Passarello has tackled with thorough research and a playful tone that rather than compromise her subject, complicates and humanizes it. Passarello’s intention is to investigate the role of animals across the span of human civilization and in doing so, to construct a timeline of humanity as told through people’s interactions with said animals. “Of all the images that make our world, animal images are particularly buried inside us,” Passarello writes in her first essay, to introduce us to the object of the book and also to the oldest of her chosen characters: Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2010. It was an occasion so remarkable and so unfathomable given the span of human civilization that Passarello says of Yuka: “Since language is epically younger than both thought and experience, ‘woolly mammoth’ means, to a human brain, something more like time.” The essay ends with a character placing a hand on a cave drawing of a woolly mammoth, accompanied by a phrase which encapsulates the author’s vision for the book: “And he becomes the mammoth so he can envision the mammoth.” In Passarello’s hands the imagined boundaries between the animal, natural, and human world disintegrate and what emerges is a cohesive if baffling integrated history of life. With the accuracy and tenacity of a journalist and the spirit of a storyteller, Elena Passarello has assembled a modern bestiary worthy of contemplation and awe. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019)

Esmé Weijun Wang’s collection of essays is a kaleidoscopic look at mental health and the lives affected by the schizophrenias. Each essay takes on a different aspect of the topic, but you’ll want to read them together for a holistic perspective. Esmé Weijun Wang generously begins The Collected Schizophrenias by acknowledging the stereotype, “Schizophrenia terrifies. It is the archetypal disorder of lunacy.” From there, she walks us through the technical language, breaks down the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM-5 )’s clinical definition. And then she gets very personal, telling us about how she came to her own diagnosis and the way it’s touched her daily life (her relationships, her ideas about motherhood). Esmé Weijun Wang is uniquely situated to write about this topic. As a former lab researcher at Stanford, she turns a precise, analytical eye to her experience while simultaneously unfolding everything with great patience for her reader. Throughout, she brilliantly dissects the language around mental health. (On saying “a person living with bipolar disorder” instead of using “bipolar” as the sole subject: “…we are not our diseases. We are instead individuals with disorders and malfunctions. Our conditions lie over us like smallpox blankets; we are one thing and the illness is another.”) She pinpoints the ways she arms herself against anticipated reactions to the schizophrenias: high fashion, having attended an Ivy League institution. In a particularly piercing essay, she traces mental illness back through her family tree. She also places her story within more mainstream cultural contexts, calling on groundbreaking exposés about the dangerous of institutionalization and depictions of mental illness in television and film (like the infamous Slender Man case, in which two young girls stab their best friend because an invented Internet figure told them to). At once intimate and far-reaching, The Collected Schizophrenias is an informative and important (and let’s not forget artful) work. I’ve never read a collection quite so beautifully-written and laid-bare as this. –Katie Yee, Book Marks Assistant Editor

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights (2019)

When Ross Gay began writing what would become The Book of Delights, he envisioned it as a project of daily essays, each focused on a moment or point of delight in his day. This plan quickly disintegrated; on day four, he skipped his self-imposed assignment and decided to “in honor and love, delight in blowing it off.” (Clearly, “blowing it off” is a relative term here, as he still produced the book.) Ross Gay is a generous teacher of how to live, and this moment of reveling in self-compassion is one lesson among many in The Book of Delights , which wanders from moments of connection with strangers to a shade of “red I don’t think I actually have words for,” a text from a friend reading “I love you breadfruit,” and “the sun like a guiding hand on my back, saying everything is possible. Everything .”

Gay does not linger on any one subject for long, creating the sense that delight is a product not of extenuating circumstances, but of our attention; his attunement to the possibilities of a single day, and awareness of all the small moments that produce delight, are a model for life amid the warring factions of the attention economy. These small moments range from the physical–hugging a stranger, transplanting fig cuttings–to the spiritual and philosophical, giving the impression of sitting beside Gay in his garden as he thinks out loud in real time. It’s a privilege to listen. –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Honorable Mentions

A selection of other books that we seriously considered for both lists—just to be extra about it (and because decisions are hard).

Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings (2010) · Joyce Carol Oates, In Rough Country (2010) · Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (2011) · Christopher Hitchens, Arguably (2011) ·  Roberto Bolaño, tr. Natasha Wimmer, Between Parentheses (2011) · Dubravka Ugresic, tr. David Williams, Karaoke Culture (2011) · Tom Bissell, Magic Hours (2012)  · Kevin Young, The Grey Album (2012) · William H. Gass, Life Sentences: Literary Judgments and Accounts (2012) · Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey (2012) · Herta Müller, tr. Geoffrey Mulligan, Cristina and Her Double (2013) · Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams (2014)  · Meghan Daum, The Unspeakable (2014)  · Daphne Merkin, The Fame Lunches (2014)  · Charles D’Ambrosio, Loitering (2015) · Wendy Walters, Multiply/Divide (2015) · Colm Tóibín, On Elizabeth Bishop (2015) ·  Renee Gladman, Calamities (2016)  · Jesmyn Ward, ed. The Fire This Time (2016)  · Lindy West, Shrill (2016)  · Mary Oliver, Upstream (2016)  · Emily Witt, Future Sex (2016)  · Olivia Laing, The Lonely City (2016)  · Mark Greif, Against Everything (2016)  · Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood (2017)  · Sarah Gerard, Sunshine State (2017)  · Jim Harrison, A Really Big Lunch (2017)  · J.M. Coetzee, Late Essays: 2006-2017 (2017) · Melissa Febos, Abandon Me (2017)  · Louise Glück, American Originality (2017)  · Joan Didion, South and West (2017)  · Tom McCarthy, Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish (2017)  · Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can’t Kill Us Until they Kill Us (2017)  · Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power (2017)  ·  Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017)  · Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (2018)  · Alice Bolin, Dead Girls (2018)  · Marilynne Robinson, What Are We Doing Here? (2018)  · Lorrie Moore, See What Can Be Done (2018)  · Maggie O’Farrell, I Am I Am I Am (2018)  · Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race (2018)  · Rachel Cusk, Coventry (2019)  · Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror (2019)  · Emily Bernard, Black is the Body (2019)  · Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard (2019)  · Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations (2019)  ·  Rachel Munroe, Savage Appetites (2019)  · Robert A. Caro,  Working  (2019) · Arundhati Roy, My Seditious Heart (2019).

Emily Temple

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40 Best Essays of All Time (Including Links & Writing Tips)

I wanted to improve my writing skills. I thought that reading the forty best essays of all time would bring me closer to my goal.

I had little money (buying forty collections of essays was out of the question) so I’ve found them online instead. I’ve hacked through piles of them, and finally, I’ve found the great ones. Now I want to share the whole list with you (with the addition of my notes about writing). Each item on the list has a direct link to the essay, so please click away and indulge yourself. Also, next to each essay, there’s an image of the book that contains the original work.

About this essay list:

Reading essays is like indulging in candy; once you start, it’s hard to stop. I sought out essays that were not only well-crafted but also impactful. These pieces genuinely shifted my perspective. Whether you’re diving in for enjoyment or to hone your writing, these essays promise to leave an imprint. It’s fascinating how an essay can resonate with you, and even if details fade, its essence remains. I haven’t ranked them in any way; they’re all stellar. Skim through, explore the summaries, and pick up some writing tips along the way. For more essay gems, consider “Best American Essays” by Joyce Carol Oates or “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think” curated by Brianna Wiest.

40 Best Essays of All Time (With Links And Writing Tips)

1. david sedaris – laugh, kookaburra.

A great family drama takes place against the backdrop of the Australian wilderness. And the Kookaburra laughs… This is one of the top essays of the lot. It’s a great mixture of family reminiscences, travel writing, and advice on what’s most important in life. You’ll also learn an awful lot about the curious culture of the Aussies.

Writing tips from the essay:

• Use analogies (you can make it funny or dramatic to achieve a better effect): “Don’t be afraid,” the waiter said, and he talked to the kookaburra in a soothing, respectful voice, the way you might to a child with a switchblade in his hand”.
• You can touch a few cognate stories in one piece of writing . Reveal the layers gradually. Intertwine them and arrange for a grand finale where everything is finally clear.
• Be on the side of the reader. Become their friend and tell the story naturally, like around the dinner table.
• Use short, punchy sentences. Tell only as much as is required to make your point vivid.
• Conjure sentences that create actual feelings: “I had on a sweater and a jacket, but they weren’t quite enough, and I shivered as we walked toward the body, and saw that it was a . . . what, exactly?”
• You may ask a few tough questions in a row to provoke interest and let the reader think.

2. Charles D’Ambrosio – Documents

Do you think your life punches you in the face all too often? After reading this essay, you will change your mind. Reading about loss and hardships often makes us sad at first, but then enables us to feel grateful for our lives . D’Ambrosio shares his documents (poems, letters) that had a major impact on his life, and brilliantly shows how not to let go of the past.

• The most powerful stories are about your family and the childhood moments that shaped your life.
• You don’t need to build up tension and pussyfoot around the crux of the matter. Instead, surprise the reader by telling it like it is: “The poem was an allegory about his desire to leave our family.” Or: “My father had three sons. I’m the eldest; Danny, the youngest, killed himself sixteen years ago”.
• You can use real documents and quotes from your family and friends. It makes it so much more personal and relatable.
• Don’t cringe before the long sentence if you know it’s a strong one.
• At the end of the essay, you may come back to the first theme to close the circuit.
• Using slightly poetic language is acceptable, as long as it improves the story.

3. E. B. White – Once more to the lake

What does it mean to be a father? Can you see your younger self, reflected in your child? This beautiful essay tells the story of the author, his son, and their traditional stay at a placid lake hidden within the forests of Maine. This place of nature is filled with sunshine and childhood memories. It also provides for one of the greatest meditations on nature and the passing of time.

• Use sophisticated language, but not at the expense of readability.
• Use vivid language to trigger the mirror neurons in the reader’s brain: “I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows”.
• It’s important to mention universal feelings that are rarely talked about (it helps to create a bond between two minds): “You remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thing. I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings when the lake was cool and motionless”.
• Animate the inanimate: “this constant and trustworthy body of water”.
• Mentioning tales of yore is a good way to add some mystery and timelessness to your piece.
• Using double, or even triple “and” in one sentence is fine. It can make the sentence sing.

4. Zadie Smith – Fail Better

Aspiring writers feel tremendous pressure to perform. The daily quota of words often turns out to be nothing more than gibberish. What then? Also, should the writer please the reader or should she be fully independent? What does it mean to be a writer, anyway? This essay is an attempt to answer these questions, but its contents are not only meant for scribblers. Within it, you’ll find some great notes about literary criticism, how we treat art , and the responsibility of the reader.

• A perfect novel ? There’s no such thing.
• The novel always reflects the inner world of the writer. That’s why we’re fascinated with writers.
• Writing is not simply about craftsmanship, but about taking your reader to the unknown lands. In the words of Christopher Hitchens: “Your ideal authors ought to pull you from the foundering of your previous existence, not smilingly guide you into a friendly and peaceable harbor.”
• Style comes from your unique personality and the perception of the world. It takes time to develop it.
• Never try to tell it all. “All” can never be put into language. Take a part of it and tell it the best you can.
• Avoid being cliché. Try to infuse new life into your writing .
• Writing is about your way of being. It’s your game. Paradoxically, if you try to please everyone, your writing will become less appealing. You’ll lose the interest of the readers. This rule doesn’t apply in the business world where you have to write for a specific person (a target audience).
• As a reader, you have responsibilities too. According to the critics, every thirty years, there’s just a handful of great novels. Maybe it’s true. But there’s also an element of personal connection between the reader and the writer. That’s why for one person a novel is a marvel, while for the other, nothing special at all. That’s why you have to search and find the author who will touch you.

5. Virginia Woolf – Death of the Moth

Amid an ordinary day, sitting in a room of her own, Virginia Woolf tells about the epic struggle for survival and the evanescence of life. This short essay is truly powerful. In the beginning, the atmosphere is happy. Life is in full force. And then, suddenly, it fades away. This sense of melancholy would mark the last years of Woolf’s life.

• The melody of language… A good sentence is like music: “Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths; they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow- underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us”.
• You can show the grandest in the mundane (for example, the moth at your window and the drama of life and death).
• Using simple comparisons makes the style more lucid: “Being intent on other matters I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure”.

6. Meghan Daum – My Misspent Youth

Many of us, at some point or another, dream about living in New York. Meghan Daum’s take on the subject differs slightly from what you might expect. There’s no glamour, no Broadway shows, and no fancy restaurants. Instead, there’s the sullen reality of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. You’ll get all the juicy details about credit cards, overdue payments, and scrambling for survival. It’s a word of warning. But it’s also a great story about shattered fantasies of living in a big city. Word on the street is: “You ain’t promised mañana in the rotten manzana.”

• You can paint a picture of your former self. What did that person believe in? What kind of world did he or she live in?
• “The day that turned your life around” is a good theme you may use in a story. Memories of a special day are filled with emotions. Strong emotions often breed strong writing.
• Use cultural references and relevant slang to create a context for your story.
• You can tell all the details of the story, even if in some people’s eyes you’ll look like the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived. It adds to the originality.
• Say it in a new way: “In this mindset, the dollars spent, like the mechanics of a machine no one bothers to understand, become an abstraction, an intangible avenue toward self-expression, a mere vehicle of style”.
• You can mix your personal story with the zeitgeist or the ethos of the time.

7. Roger Ebert – Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Probably the greatest film critic of all time, Roger Ebert, tells us not to rage against the dying of the light. This essay is full of courage, erudition, and humanism. From it, we learn about what it means to be dying (Hitchens’ “Mortality” is another great work on that theme). But there’s so much more. It’s a great celebration of life too. It’s about not giving up, and sticking to your principles until the very end. It brings to mind the famous scene from Dead Poets Society where John Keating (Robin Williams) tells his students: “Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary”.

• Start with a powerful sentence: “I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.”
• Use quotes to prove your point -”‘Ask someone how they feel about death’, he said, ‘and they’ll tell you everyone’s gonna die’. Ask them, ‘In the next 30 seconds?’ No, no, no, that’s not gonna happen”.
• Admit the basic truths about reality in a childlike way (especially after pondering quantum physics) – “I believe my wristwatch exists, and even when I am unconscious, it is ticking all the same. You have to start somewhere”.
• Let other thinkers prove your point. Use quotes and ideas from your favorite authors and friends.

8. George Orwell – Shooting an Elephant

Even after one reading, you’ll remember this one for years. The story, set in British Burma, is about shooting an elephant (it’s not for the squeamish). It’s also the most powerful denunciation of colonialism ever put into writing. Orwell, apparently a free representative of British rule, feels to be nothing more than a puppet succumbing to the whim of the mob.

• The first sentence is the most important one: “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people — the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me”.
• You can use just the first paragraph to set the stage for the whole piece of prose.
• Use beautiful language that stirs the imagination: “I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” Or: “I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have.”
• If you’ve ever been to war, you will have a story to tell: “(Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)”
• Use simple words, and admit the sad truth only you can perceive: “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching”.
• Share words of wisdom to add texture to the writing: “I perceived at this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his freedom that he destroys.”
• I highly recommend reading everything written by Orwell, especially if you’re looking for the best essay collections on Amazon or Goodreads.

9. George Orwell – A Hanging

It’s just another day in Burma – time to hang a man. Without much ado, Orwell recounts the grim reality of taking another person’s life. A man is taken from his cage and in a few minutes, he’s going to be hanged. The most horrible thing is the normality of it. It’s a powerful story about human nature. Also, there’s an extraordinary incident with the dog, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

• Create brilliant, yet short descriptions of characters: “He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. He had a thick, sprouting mustache, absurdly too big for his body, rather like the mustache of a comic man on the films”.
• Understand and share the felt presence of a unique experience: “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man”.
• Make your readers hear the sound that will stay with them forever: “And then when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out on his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of “Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!”
• Make the ending original by refusing the tendency to seek closure or summing it up.

10. Christopher Hitchens – Assassins of The Mind

In one of the greatest essays written in defense of free speech, Christopher Hitchens shares many examples of how modern media kneel to the explicit threats of violence posed by Islamic extremists. He recounts the story of his friend, Salman Rushdie, author of Satanic Verses who, for many years, had to watch over his shoulder because of the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini. With his usual wit, Hitchens shares various examples of people who died because of their opinions and of editors who refuse to publish anything related to Islam because of fear (and it was written long before the Charlie Hebdo massacre). After reading the essay, you realize that freedom of expression is one of the most precious things we have and that we have to fight for it. I highly recommend all essay collections penned by Hitchens, especially the ones written for Vanity Fair.

• Assume that the readers will know the cultural references. When they do, their self-esteem goes up – they are a part of an insider group.
• When proving your point, give a variety of real-life examples from eclectic sources. Leave no room for ambiguity or vagueness. Research and overall knowledge are essential here.
• Use italics to emphasize a specific word or phrase (here I use the underlining): “We live now in a climate where every publisher and editor and politician has to weigh in advance the possibility of violent Muslim reprisal. In consequence, several things have not happened.”
• Think about how to make it sound more original: “So there is now a hidden partner in our cultural and academic and publishing and the broadcasting world: a shadowy figure that has, uninvited, drawn up a chair to the table.”

11. Christopher Hitchens – The New Commandments

It’s high time to shatter the tablets and amend the biblical rules of conduct. Watch, as Christopher Hitchens slays one commandment after the other on moral, as well as historical grounds. For example, did you know that there are many versions of the divine law dictated by God to Moses which you can find in the Bible? Aren’t we thus empowered to write our version of a proper moral code? If you approach it with an open mind, this essay may change the way you think about the Bible and religion.

• Take the iconoclastic approach. Have a party on the hallowed soil.
• Use humor to undermine orthodox ideas (it seems to be the best way to deal with an established authority).
• Use sarcasm and irony when appropriate (or not): “Nobody is opposed to a day of rest. The international Communist movement got its start by proclaiming a strike for an eight-hour day on May 1, 1886, against Christian employers who used child labor seven days a week”.
• Defeat God on legal grounds: “Wise lawmakers know that it is a mistake to promulgate legislation that is impossible to obey”.
• Be ruthless in the logic of your argument. Provide evidence.

12. Phillip Lopate – Against Joie de Vivre

While reading this fantastic essay, this quote from Slavoj Žižek kept coming back to me: “I think that the only life of deep satisfaction is a life of eternal struggle, especially struggle with oneself. If you want to remain happy, just remain stupid. Authentic masters are never happy; happiness is a category of slaves”. I can bear the onus of happiness or joie de vivre for some time. But this force enables me to get free and wallow in the sweet feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. By reading this work of Lopate, you’ll enter into the world of an intelligent man who finds most social rituals a drag. It’s worth exploring.

• Go against the grain. Be flamboyant and controversial (if you can handle it).
• Treat the paragraph like a group of thoughts on one theme. Next paragraph, next theme.
• Use references to other artists to set the context and enrich the prose: “These sunny little canvases with their talented innocence, the third-generation spirit of Montmartre, bore testimony to a love of life so unbending as to leave an impression of rigid narrow-mindedness as extreme as any Savonarola. Their rejection of sorrow was total”.
• Capture the emotions in life that are universal, yet remain unspoken.
• Don’t be afraid to share your intimate experiences.

13. Philip Larkin – The Pleasure Principle

This piece comes from the Required Writing collection of personal essays. Larkin argues that reading in verse should be a source of intimate pleasure – not a medley of unintelligible thoughts that only the author can (or can’t?) decipher. It’s a sobering take on modern poetry and a great call to action for all those involved in it. Well worth a read.

• Write about complicated ideas (such as poetry) simply. You can change how people look at things if you express yourself enough.
• Go boldly. The reader wants a bold writer: “We seem to be producing a new kind of bad poetry, not the old kind that tries to move the reader and fails, but one that does not even try”.
• Play with words and sentence length. Create music: “It is time some of you playboys realized, says the judge, that reading a poem is hard work. Fourteen days in stir. Next case”.
• Persuade the reader to take action. Here, direct language is the most effective.

14. Sigmund Freud – Thoughts for the Times on War and Death

This essay reveals Freud’s disillusionment with the whole project of Western civilization. How the peaceful European countries could engage in a war that would eventually cost over 17 million lives? What stirs people to kill each other? Is it their nature, or are they puppets of imperial forces with agendas of their own? From the perspective of time, this work by Freud doesn’t seem to be fully accurate. Even so, it’s well worth your time.

• Commence with long words derived from Latin. Get grandiloquent, make your argument incontrovertible, and leave your audience discombobulated.
• Use unending sentences, so that the reader feels confused, yet impressed.
• Say it well: “In this way, he enjoyed the blue sea and the grey; the beauty of snow-covered mountains and green meadowlands; the magic of northern forests and the splendor of southern vegetation; the mood evoked by landscapes that recall great historical events, and the silence of untouched nature”.
• Human nature is a subject that never gets dry.

15. Zadie Smith – Some Notes on Attunement

“You are privy to a great becoming, but you recognize nothing” – Francis Dolarhyde. This one is about the elusiveness of change occurring within you. For Zadie, it was hard to attune to the vibes of Joni Mitchell – especially her Blue album. But eventually, she grew up to appreciate her genius, and all the other things changed as well. This top essay is all about the relationship between humans, and art. We shouldn’t like art because we’re supposed to. We should like it because it has an instantaneous, emotional effect on us. Although, according to Stansfield (Gary Oldman) in Léon, liking Beethoven is rather mandatory.

• Build an expectation of what’s coming: “The first time I heard her I didn’t hear her at all”.
• Don’t be afraid of repetition if it feels good.
• Psychedelic drugs let you appreciate things you never appreciated.
• Intertwine a personal journey with philosophical musings.
• Show rather than tell: “My friends pitied their eyes. The same look the faithful give you as you hand them back their “literature” and close the door in their faces”.
• Let the poets speak for you: “That time is past, / And all its aching joys are now no
• more, / And all its dizzy raptures”.
• By voicing your anxieties, you can heal the anxieties of the reader. In that way, you say: “I’m just like you. I’m your friend in this struggle”.
• Admit your flaws to make your persona more relatable.

16. Annie Dillard – Total Eclipse

My imagination was always stirred by the scene of the solar eclipse in Pharaoh, by Boleslaw Prus. I wondered about the shock of the disoriented crowd when they saw how their ruler could switch off the light. Getting immersed in this essay by Annie Dillard has a similar effect. It produces amazement and some kind of primeval fear. It’s not only the environment that changes; it’s your mind and the perception of the world. After the eclipse, nothing is going to be the same again.

• Yet again, the power of the first sentence draws you in: “It had been like dying, that sliding down the mountain pass”.
• Don’t miss the extraordinary scene. Then describe it: “Up in the sky, like a crater from some distant cataclysm, was a hollow ring”.
• Use colloquial language. Write as you talk. Short sentences often win.
• Contrast the numinous with the mundane to enthrall the reader.

17. Édouard Levé – When I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue

This suicidally beautiful essay will teach you a lot about the appreciation of life and the struggle with mental illness. It’s a collection of personal, apparently unrelated thoughts that show us the rich interior of the author. You look at the real-time thoughts of another person, and then recognize the same patterns within yourself… It sounds like a confession of a person who’s about to take their life, and it’s striking in its originality.

• Use the stream-of-consciousness technique and put random thoughts on paper. Then, polish them: “I have attempted suicide once, I’ve been tempted four times to attempt it”.
• Place the treasure deep within the story: “When I look at a strawberry, I think of a tongue, when I lick one, of a kiss”.
• Don’t worry about what people might think. The more you expose, the more powerful the writing. Readers also take part in the great drama. They experience universal emotions that mostly stay inside.  You can translate them into writing.

18. Gloria E. Anzaldúa – How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Anzaldúa, who was born in south Texas, had to struggle to find her true identity. She was American, but her culture was grounded in Mexico. In this way, she and her people were not fully respected in either of the countries. This essay is an account of her journey of becoming the ambassador of the Chicano (Mexican-American) culture. It’s full of anecdotes, interesting references, and different shades of Spanish. It’s a window into a new cultural dimension that you’ve never experienced before.

• If your mother tongue is not English, but you write in English, use some of your unique homeland vocabulary.
• You come from a rich cultural heritage. You can share it with people who never heard about it, and are not even looking for it, but it is of immense value to them when they discover it.
• Never forget about your identity. It is precious. It is a part of who you are. Even if you migrate, try to preserve it. Use it to your best advantage and become the voice of other people in the same situation.
• Tell them what’s really on your mind: “So if you want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language”.

19. Kurt Vonnegut – Dispatch From A Man Without a Country

In terms of style, this essay is flawless. It’s simple, conversational, humorous, and yet, full of wisdom. And when Vonnegut becomes a teacher and draws an axis of “beginning – end”, and, “good fortune – bad fortune” to explain literature, it becomes outright hilarious. It’s hard to find an author with such a down-to-earth approach. He doesn’t need to get intellectual to prove a point. And the point could be summed up by the quote from Great Expectations – “On the Rampage, Pip, and off the Rampage, Pip – such is Life!”

• Start with a curious question: “Do you know what a twerp is?”
• Surprise your readers with uncanny analogies: “I am from a family of artists. Here I am, making a living in the arts. It has not been a rebellion. It’s as though I had taken over the family Esso station.”
• Use your natural language without too many special effects. In time, the style will crystalize.
• An amusing lesson in writing from Mr. Vonnegut: “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college”.
• You can put actual images or vignettes between the paragraphs to illustrate something.

20. Mary Ruefle – On Fear

Most psychologists and gurus agree that fear is the greatest enemy of success or any creative activity. It’s programmed into our minds to keep us away from imaginary harm. Mary Ruefle takes on this basic human emotion with flair. She explores fear from so many angles (especially in the world of poetry-writing) that at the end of this personal essay, you will look at it, dissect it, untangle it, and hopefully be able to say “f**k you” the next time your brain is trying to stop you.

• Research your subject thoroughly. Ask people, have interviews, get expert opinions, and gather as much information as possible. Then scavenge through the fields of data, and pull out the golden bits that will let your prose shine.
• Use powerful quotes to add color to your story: “The poet who embarks on the creation of the poem (as I know by experience), begins with the aimless sensation of a hunter about to embark on a night hunt through the remotest of forests. Unaccountable dread stirs in his heart”. – Lorca.
• Writing advice from the essay: “One of the fears a young writer has is not being able to write as well as he or she wants to, the fear of not being able to sound like X or Y, a favorite author. But out of fear, hopefully, is born a young writer’s voice”.

21. Susan Sontag – Against Interpretation

In this highly intellectual essay, Sontag fights for art and its interpretation. It’s a great lesson, especially for critics and interpreters who endlessly chew on works that simply defy interpretation. Why don’t we just leave the art alone? I always hated it when at school they asked me: “What did the author have in mind when he did X or Y?” Iēsous Pantocrator! Hell if I know! I will judge it through my subjective experience!

• Leave the art alone: “Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and heavy industry which befoul the urban atmosphere, the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities”.
• When you have something really important to say, style matters less.
• There’s no use in creating a second meaning or inviting interpretation of our art. Just leave it be and let it speak for itself.

22. Nora Ephron – A Few Words About Breasts

This is a heartwarming, coming-of-age story about a young girl who waits in vain for her breasts to grow. It’s simply a humorous and pleasurable read. The size of breasts is a big deal for women. If you’re a man, you may peek into the mind of a woman and learn many interesting things. If you’re a woman, maybe you’ll be able to relate and at last, be at peace with your bosom.

• Touch an interesting subject and establish a strong connection with the readers (in that case, women with small breasts). Let your personality shine through the written piece. If you are lighthearted, show it.
• Use hyphens to create an impression of real talk: “My house was full of apples and peaches and milk and homemade chocolate chip cookies – which were nice, and good for you, but-not-right-before-dinner-or-you’ll-spoil-your-appetite.”
• Use present tense when you tell a story to add more life to it.
• Share the pronounced, memorable traits of characters: “A previous girlfriend named Solange, who was famous throughout Beverly Hills High School for having no pigment in her right eyebrow, had knitted them for him (angora dice)”.

23. Carl Sagan – Does Truth Matter – Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization

Carl Sagan was one of the greatest proponents of skepticism, and an author of numerous books, including one of my all-time favorites – The Demon-Haunted World . He was also a renowned physicist and the host of the fantastic Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series, which inspired a whole generation to uncover the mysteries of the cosmos. He was also a dedicated weed smoker – clearly ahead of his time. The essay that you’re about to read is a crystallization of his views about true science, and why you should check the evidence before believing in UFOs or similar sorts of crap.

• Tell people the brutal truth they need to hear. Be the one who spells it out for them.
• Give a multitude of examples to prove your point. Giving hard facts helps to establish trust with the readers and show the veracity of your arguments.
• Recommend a good book that will change your reader’s minds – How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

24. Paul Graham – How To Do What You Love

How To Do What You Love should be read by every college student and young adult. The Internet is flooded with a large number of articles and videos that are supposed to tell you what to do with your life. Most of them are worthless, but this one is different. It’s sincere, and there’s no hidden agenda behind it. There’s so much we take for granted – what we study, where we work, what we do in our free time… Surely we have another two hundred years to figure it out, right? Life’s too short to be so naïve. Please, read the essay and let it help you gain fulfillment from your work.

• Ask simple, yet thought-provoking questions (especially at the beginning of the paragraph) to engage the reader: “How much are you supposed to like what you do?”
• Let the readers question their basic assumptions: “Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like”.
• If you’re writing for a younger audience, you can act as a mentor. It’s beneficial for younger people to read a few words of advice from a person with experience.

25. John Jeremiah Sullivan – Mister Lytle

A young, aspiring writer is about to become a nurse of a fading writer – Mister Lytle (Andrew Nelson Lytle), and there will be trouble. This essay by Sullivan is probably my favorite one from the whole list. The amount of beautiful sentences it contains is just overwhelming. But that’s just a part of its charm. It also takes you to the Old South which has an incredible atmosphere. It’s grim and tawny but you want to stay there for a while.

• Short, distinct sentences are often the most powerful ones: “He had a deathbed, in other words. He didn’t go suddenly”.
• Stay consistent with the mood of the story. When reading Mister Lytle you are immersed in that southern, forsaken, gloomy world, and it’s a pleasure.
• The spectacular language that captures it all: “His French was superb, but his accent in English was best—that extinct mid-Southern, land-grant pioneer speech, with its tinges of the abandoned Celtic urban Northeast (“boned” for burned) and its raw gentility”.
• This essay is just too good. You have to read it.

26. Joan Didion – On Self Respect

Normally, with that title, you would expect some straightforward advice about how to improve your character and get on with your goddamn life – but not from Joan Didion. From the very beginning, you can feel the depth of her thinking, and the unmistakable style of a true woman who’s been hurt. You can learn more from this essay than from whole books about self-improvement . It reminds me of the scene from True Detective, where Frank Semyon tells Ray Velcoro to “own it” after he realizes he killed the wrong man all these years ago. I guess we all have to “own it”, recognize our mistakes, and move forward sometimes.

• Share your moral advice: “Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs”.
• It’s worth exploring the subject further from a different angle. It doesn’t matter how many people have already written on self-respect or self-reliance – you can still write passionately about it.
• Whatever happens, you must take responsibility for it. Brave the storms of discontent.

27. Susan Sontag – Notes on Camp

I’ve never read anything so thorough and lucid about an artistic current. After reading this essay, you will know what camp is. But not only that – you will learn about so many artists you’ve never heard of. You will follow their traces and go to places where you’ve never been before. You will vastly increase your appreciation of art. It’s interesting how something written as a list could be so amazing. All the listicles we usually see on the web simply cannot compare with it.

• Talking about artistic sensibilities is a tough job. When you read the essay, you will see how much research, thought and raw intellect came into it. But that’s one of the reasons why people still read it today, even though it was written in 1964.
• You can choose an unorthodox way of expression in the medium for which you produce. For example, Notes on Camp is a listicle – one of the most popular content formats on the web. But in the olden days, it was uncommon to see it in print form.
• Just think about what is camp: “And third among the great creative sensibilities is Camp: the sensibility of failed seriousness, of the theatricalization of experience. Camp refuses both the harmonies of traditional seriousness and the risks of fully identifying with extreme states of feeling”.

28. Ralph Waldo Emerson – Self-Reliance

That’s the oldest one from the lot. Written in 1841, it still inspires generations of people. It will let you understand what it means to be self-made. It contains some of the most memorable quotes of all time. I don’t know why, but this one especially touched me: “Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design, and posterity seems to follow his steps as a train of clients”. Now isn’t it purely individualistic, American thought? Emerson told me (and he will tell you) to do something amazing with my life. The language it contains is a bit archaic, but that just adds to the weight of the argument. You can consider it to be a meeting with a great philosopher who shaped the ethos of the modern United States.

• You can start with a powerful poem that will set the stage for your work.
• Be free in your creative flow. Do not wait for the approval of others: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness”.
• Use rhetorical questions to strengthen your argument: “I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly say a new and spontaneous word?”

29. David Foster Wallace – Consider The Lobster

When you want simple field notes about a food festival, you needn’t send there the formidable David Foster Wallace. He sees right through the hypocrisy and cruelty behind killing hundreds of thousands of innocent lobsters – by boiling them alive. This essay uncovers some of the worst traits of modern American people. There are no apologies or hedging one’s bets. There’s just plain truth that stabs you in the eye like a lobster claw. After reading this essay, you may reconsider the whole animal-eating business.

• When it’s important, say it plainly and stagger the reader: “[Lobsters] survive right up until they’re boiled. Most of us have been in supermarkets or restaurants that feature tanks of live lobster, from which you can pick out your supper while it watches you point”.
• In your writing, put exact quotes of the people you’ve been interviewing (including slang and grammatical errors). It makes it more vivid, and interesting.
• You can use humor in serious situations to make your story grotesque.
• Use captions to expound on interesting points of your essay.

30. David Foster Wallace – The Nature of the Fun

The famous novelist and author of the most powerful commencement speech ever done is going to tell you about the joys and sorrows of writing a work of fiction. It’s like taking care of a mutant child that constantly oozes smelly liquids. But you love that child and you want others to love it too. It’s a very humorous account of what it means to be an author. If you ever plan to write a novel, you should read that one. And the story about the Chinese farmer is just priceless.

• Base your point on a chimerical analogy. Here, the writer’s unfinished work is a “hideously damaged infant”.
• Even in expository writing, you may share an interesting story to keep things lively.
• Share your true emotions (even when you think they won’t interest anyone). Often, that’s exactly what will interest the reader.
• Read the whole essay for marvelous advice on writing fiction.

31. Margaret Atwood – Attitude

This is not an essay per se, but I included it on the list for the sake of variety. It was delivered as a commencement speech at The University of Toronto, and it’s about keeping the right attitude. Soon after leaving university, most graduates have to forget about safety, parties, and travel and start a new life – one filled with a painful routine that will last until they drop. Atwood says that you don’t have to accept that. You can choose how you react to everything that happens to you (and you don’t have to stay in that dead-end job for the rest of your days).

• At times, we are all too eager to persuade, but the strongest persuasion is not forceful. It’s subtle. It speaks to the heart. It affects you gradually.
• You may be tempted to talk about a subject by first stating what it is not, rather than what it is. Try to avoid that.
• Simple advice for writers (and life in general): “When faced with the inevitable, you always have a choice. You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it”.

32. Jo Ann Beard – The Fourth State of Matter

Read that one as soon as possible. It’s one of the most masterful and impactful essays you’ll ever read. It’s like a good horror – a slow build-up, and then your jaw drops to the ground. To summarize the story would be to spoil it, so I recommend that you just dig in and devour this essay in one sitting. It’s a perfect example of “show, don’t tell” writing, where the actions of characters are enough to create the right effect. No need for flowery adjectives here.

• The best story you will tell is going to come from your personal experience.
• Use mysteries that will nag the reader. For example, at the beginning of the essay, we learn about the “vanished husband” but there’s no explanation. We have to keep reading to get the answer.
• Explain it in simple terms: “You’ve got your solid, your liquid, your gas, and then your plasma”. Why complicate?

33. Terence McKenna – Tryptamine Hallucinogens and Consciousness

To me, Terence McKenna was one of the most interesting thinkers of the twentieth century. His many lectures (now available on YouTube) attracted millions of people who suspect that consciousness holds secrets yet to be unveiled. McKenna consumed psychedelic drugs for most of his life and it shows (in a positive way). Many people consider him a looney, and a hippie, but he was so much more than that. He dared to go into the abyss of his psyche and come back to tell the tale. He also wrote many books (the most famous being Food Of The Gods ), built a huge botanical garden in Hawaii , lived with shamans, and was a connoisseur of all things enigmatic and obscure. Take a look at this essay, and learn more about the explorations of the subconscious mind.

• Become the original thinker, but remember that it may require extraordinary measures: “I call myself an explorer rather than a scientist because the area that I’m looking at contains insufficient data to support even the dream of being a science”.
• Learn new words every day to make your thoughts lucid.
• Come up with the most outlandish ideas to push the envelope of what’s possible. Don’t take things for granted or become intellectually lazy. Question everything.

34. Eudora Welty – The Little Store

By reading this little-known essay, you will be transported into the world of the old American South. It’s a remembrance of trips to the little store in a little town. It’s warm and straightforward, and when you read it, you feel like a child once more. All these beautiful memories live inside of us. They lay somewhere deep in our minds, hidden from sight. The work by Eudora Welty is an attempt to uncover some of them and let you get reacquainted with some smells and tastes of the past.

• When you’re from the South, flaunt it. It’s still good old English but sometimes it sounds so foreign. I can hear the Southern accent too: “There were almost tangible smells – licorice recently sucked in a child’s cheek, dill-pickle brine that had leaked through a paper sack in a fresh trail across the wooden floor, ammonia-loaded ice that had been hoisted from wet Croker sacks and slammed into the icebox with its sweet butter at the door, and perhaps the smell of still-untrapped mice”.
• Yet again, never forget your roots.
• Childhood stories can be the most powerful ones. You can write about how they shaped you.

35. John McPhee – The Search for Marvin Gardens

The Search for Marvin Gardens contains many layers of meaning. It’s a story about a Monopoly championship, but also, it’s the author’s search for the lost streets visible on the board of the famous board game. It also presents a historical perspective on the rise and fall of civilizations, and on Atlantic City, which once was a lively place, and then, slowly declined, the streets filled with dirt and broken windows.

• There’s nothing like irony: “A sign- ‘Slow, Children at Play’- has been bent backward by an automobile”.
• Telling the story in apparently unrelated fragments is sometimes better than telling the whole thing in a logical order.
• Creativity is everything. The best writing may come just from connecting two ideas and mixing them to achieve a great effect. Shush! The muse is whispering.

36. Maxine Hong Kingston – No Name Woman

A dead body at the bottom of the well makes for a beautiful literary device. The first line of Orhan Pamuk’s novel My Name Is Red delivers it perfectly: “I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well”. There’s something creepy about the idea of the well. Just think about the “It puts the lotion in the basket” scene from The Silence of the Lambs. In the first paragraph of Kingston’s essay, we learn about a suicide committed by uncommon means of jumping into the well. But this time it’s a real story. Who was this woman? Why did she do it? Read the essay.

• Mysterious death always gets attention. The macabre details are like daiquiris on a hot day – you savor them – you don’t let them spill.
• One sentence can speak volumes: “But the rare urge west had fixed upon our family, and so my aunt crossed boundaries not delineated in space”.
• It’s interesting to write about cultural differences – especially if you have the relevant experience. Something normal for us is unthinkable for others. Show this different world.
• The subject of sex is never boring.

37. Joan Didion – On Keeping A Notebook

Slouching Towards Bethlehem is one of the most famous collections of essays of all time. In it, you will find a curious piece called On Keeping A Notebook. It’s not only a meditation about keeping a journal. It’s also Didion’s reconciliation with her past self. After reading it, you will seriously reconsider your life’s choices and look at your life from a wider perspective.

• When you write things down in your journal, be more specific – unless you want to write a deep essay about it years later.
• Use the beauty of the language to relate to the past: “I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be; one of them, a seventeen-year-old, presents little threat, although it would be of some interest to me to know again what it feels like to sit on a river levee drinking vodka-and-orange-juice and listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford and their echoes sing ‘How High the Moon’ on the car radio”.
• Drop some brand names if you want to feel posh.

38. Joan Didion – Goodbye To All That

This one touched me because I also lived in New York City for a while. I don’t know why, but stories about life in NYC are so often full of charm and this eerie-melancholy-jazz feeling. They are powerful. They go like this: “There was a hard blizzard in NYC. As the sound of sirens faded, Tony descended into the dark world of hustlers and pimps.” That’s pulp literature but in the context of NYC, it always sounds cool. Anyway, this essay is amazing in too many ways. You just have to read it.

• Talk about New York City. They will read it.
• Talk about the human experience: “It did occur to me to call the desk and ask that the air conditioner be turned off, I never called, because I did not know how much to tip whoever might come—was anyone ever so young?”
• Look back at your life and reexamine it. Draw lessons from it.

39. George Orwell – Reflections on Gandhi

George Orwell could see things as they were. No exaggeration, no romanticism – just facts. He recognized totalitarianism and communism for what they were and shared his worries through books like 1984 and Animal Farm . He took the same sober approach when dealing with saints and sages. Today, we regard Gandhi as one of the greatest political leaders of the twentieth century – and rightfully so. But did you know that when asked about the Jews during World War II, Gandhi said that they should commit collective suicide and that it: “would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence.” He also recommended utter pacifism in 1942, during the Japanese invasion, even though he knew it would cost millions of lives. But overall he was a good guy. Read the essay and broaden your perspective on the Bapu of the Indian Nation.

• Share a philosophical thought that stops the reader for a moment: “No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid”.
• Be straightforward in your writing – no mannerisms, no attempts to create ‘style’, and no invocations of the numinous – unless you feel the mystical vibe.

40. George Orwell – Politics and the English Language

Let Mr. Orwell give you some writing tips. Written in 1946, this essay is still one of the most helpful documents on writing in English. Orwell was probably the first person who exposed the deliberate vagueness of political language. He was very serious about it and I admire his efforts to slay all unclear sentences (including ones written by distinguished professors). But it’s good to make it humorous too from time to time. My favorite examples of that would be the immortal Soft Language sketch by George Carlin or the “Romans Go Home” scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Overall, it’s a great essay filled with examples from many written materials. It’s a must-read for any writer.

• Listen to the master: “This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose.” Do something about it.
• This essay is all about writing better, so go to the source if you want the goodies.

Other Essays You May Find Interesting

The list that I’ve prepared is by no means complete. The literary world is full of exciting essays and you’ll never know which one is going to change your life. I’ve found reading essays very rewarding because sometimes, a single one means more than reading a whole book. It’s almost like wandering around and peeking into the minds of the greatest writers and thinkers that ever lived. To make this list more comprehensive, below I included more essays you may find interesting.

Oliver Sacks – On Libraries

One of the greatest contributors to the knowledge about the human mind, Oliver Sacks meditates on the value of libraries and his love of books.

Noam Chomsky – The Responsibility of Intellectuals

Chomsky did probably more than anyone else to define the role of the intelligentsia in the modern world . There is a war of ideas over there – good and bad – intellectuals are going to be those who ought to be fighting for the former.

Sam Harris – The Riddle of The Gun

Sam Harris, now a famous philosopher and neuroscientist, takes on the problem of gun control in the United States. His thoughts are clear of prejudice. After reading this, you’ll appreciate the value of logical discourse overheated, irrational debate that more often than not has real implications on policy.

Tim Ferriss – Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide

This piece was written as a blog post , but it’s worth your time. The author of the NYT bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek shares an emotional story about how he almost killed himself, and what can you do to save yourself or your friends from suicide.

Edward Said – Reflections on Exile

The life of Edward Said was a truly fascinating one. Born in Jerusalem, he lived between Palestine and Egypt and finally settled down in the United States, where he completed his most famous work – Orientalism. In this essay, he shares his thoughts about what it means to be in exile.

Richard Feynman – It’s as Simple as One, Two, Three…

Richard Feynman is one of the most interesting minds of the twentieth century. He was a brilliant physicist, but also an undeniably great communicator of science, an artist, and a traveler. By reading this essay, you can observe his thought process when he tries to figure out what affects our perception of time. It’s a truly fascinating read.

Rabindranath Tagore – The Religion of The Forest

I like to think about Tagore as my spiritual Friend. His poems are just marvelous. They are like some of the Persian verses that praise love, nature, and the unity of all things. By reading this short essay, you will learn a lot about Indian philosophy and its relation to its Western counterpart.

Richard Dawkins – Letter To His 10-Year-Old Daughter

Every father should be able to articulate his philosophy of life to his children. With this letter that’s similar to what you find in the Paris Review essays , the famed atheist and defender of reason, Richard Dawkins, does exactly that. It’s beautifully written and stresses the importance of looking at evidence when we’re trying to make sense of the world.

Albert Camus – The Minotaur (or, The Stop In Oran)

Each person requires a period of solitude – a period when one’s able to gather thoughts and make sense of life. There are many places where you may attempt to find quietude. Albert Camus tells about his favorite one.

Koty Neelis – 21 Incredible Life Lessons From Anthony Bourdain

I included it as the last one because it’s not really an essay, but I just had to put it somewhere. In this listicle, you’ll find the 21 most original thoughts of the high-profile cook, writer, and TV host, Anthony Bourdain. Some of them are shocking, others are funny, but they’re all worth checking out.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca – On the Shortness of Life

It’s similar to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam because it praises life. Seneca shares some of his stoic philosophy and tells you not to waste your time on stupidities. Drink! – for once dead you shall never return.

Bertrand Russell – In Praise of Idleness

This old essay is a must-read for modern humans. We are so preoccupied with our work, our phones, and all the media input we drown in our business. Bertrand Russell tells you to chill out a bit – maybe it will do you some good.

James Baldwin – Stranger in the Village

It’s an essay on the author’s experiences as an African-American in a Swiss village, exploring race, identity, and alienation while highlighting the complexities of racial dynamics and the quest for belonging.

Bonus – More writing tips from two great books

The mission to improve my writing skills took me further than just going through the essays. I’ve come across some great books on writing too. I highly recommend you read them in their entirety. They’re written beautifully and contain lots of useful knowledge. Below you’ll find random (but useful) notes that I took from The Sense of Style and On Writing.

The Sense of Style – By Steven Pinker

• Style manuals are full of inconsistencies. Following their advice might not be the best idea. They might make your prose boring.
• Grammarians from all eras condemn students for not knowing grammar. But it just evolves. It cannot be rigid.
• “Nothing worth learning can be taught” – Oscar Wilde. It’s hard to learn to write from a manual – you have to read, write, and analyze.
• Good writing makes you imagine things and feel them for yourself – use word pictures.
• Don’t fear using voluptuous words.
• Phonesthetics – or how the words sound.
• Use parallel language (consistency of tense).
• Good writing finishes strong.
• Write to someone. Never write for no one in mind. Try to show people your view of the world.
• Don’t tell everything you are going to say in summary (signposting) – be logical, but be conversational.
• Don’t be pompous.
• Don’t use quotation marks where they don’t “belong”. Be confident about your style.
• Don’t hedge your claims (research first, and then tell it like it is).
• Avoid clichés and meta-concepts (concepts about concepts). Be more straightforward!
• Not prevention – but prevents or prevented – don’t use dead nouns.
• Be more vivid while using your mother tongue – don’t use passive where it’s not needed. Direct the reader’s gaze to something in the world.
• The curse of knowledge – the reader doesn’t know what you know – beware of that.
• Explain technical terms.
• Use examples when you explain a difficult term.
• If you ever say “I think I understand this” it probably means you don’t.
• It’s better to underestimate the lingo of your readers than to overestimate it.
• Functional fixedness – if we know some object (or idea) well, we tend to see it in terms of usage, not just as an object.
• Use concrete language instead of an abstraction.
• Show your work to people before you publish (get feedback!).
• Wait for a few days and then revise, revise, revise. Think about clarity and the sound of sentences. Then show it to someone. Then revise one more time. Then publish (if it’s to be serious work).
• Look at it from the perspective of other people.
• Omit needless words.
• Put the heaviest words at the end of the sentence.
• It’s good to use the passive, but only when appropriate.
• Check all text for cohesion. Make sure that the sentences flow gently.
• In expository work, go from general to more specific. But in journalism start from the big news and then give more details.
• Use the paragraph break to give the reader a moment to take a breath.
• Use the verb instead of a noun (make it more active) – not “cancellation”, but “canceled”. But after you introduce the action, you can refer to it with a noun.
• Avoid too many negations.
• If you write about why something is so, don’t spend too much time writing about why it is not.

On Writing Well – By William Zinsser

• Writing is a craft. You need to sit down every day and practice your craft.
• You should re-write and polish your prose a lot.
• Throw out all the clutter. Don’t keep it because you like it. Aim for readability.
• Look at the best examples of English literature . There’s hardly any needless garbage there.
• Use shorter expressions. Don’t add extra words that don’t bring any value to your work.
• Don’t use pompous language. Use simple language and say plainly what’s going on (“because” equals “because”).
• The media and politics are full of cluttered prose (because it helps them to cover up for their mistakes).
• You can’t add style to your work (and especially, don’t add fancy words to create an illusion of style). That will look fake. You need to develop a style.
• Write in the “I” mode. Write to a friend or just for yourself. Show your personality. There is a person behind the writing.
• Choose your words carefully. Use the dictionary to learn different shades of meaning.
• Remember about phonology. Make music with words .
• The lead is essential. Pull the reader in. Otherwise, your article is dead.
• You don’t have to make the final judgment on any topic. Just pick the right angle.
• Do your research. Not just obvious research, but a deep one.
• When it’s time to stop, stop. And finish strong. Think about the last sentence. Surprise them.
• Use quotations. Ask people. Get them talking.
• If you write about travel, it must be significant to the reader. Don’t bother with the obvious. Choose your words with special care. Avoid travel clichés at all costs. Don’t tell that the sand was white and there were rocks on the beach. Look for the right detail.
• If you want to learn how to write about art, travel, science, etc. – read the best examples available. Learn from the masters.
• Concentrate on one big idea (“Let’s not go peeing down both legs”).
• “The reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good.”
• One very helpful question: “What is the piece really about?” (Not just “What the piece is about?”)

Now immerse yourself in the world of essays

By reading the essays from the list above, you’ll become a better writer , a better reader, but also a better person. An essay is a special form of writing. It is the only literary form that I know of that is an absolute requirement for career or educational advancement. Nowadays, you can use an AI essay writer or an AI essay generator that will get the writing done for you, but if you have personal integrity and strong moral principles, avoid doing this at all costs. For me as a writer, the effect of these authors’ masterpieces is often deeply personal. You won’t be able to find the beautiful thoughts they contain in any other literary form. I hope you enjoy the read and that it will inspire you to do your writing. This list is only an attempt to share some of the best essays available online. Next up, you may want to check the list of magazines and websites that accept personal essays .

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Rafal Reyzer

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here , and don't miss out on my AI Marketing Mastery online course.

The 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time

Today marks the release of Aleksandar Hemon’s excellent book of personal essays, The Book of My Lives , which we loved, and which we’re convinced deserves a place in the literary canon. To that end, we were inspired to put together our list of the greatest essay collections of all time, from the classic to the contemporary, from the personal to the critical. In making our choices, we’ve steered away from posthumous omnibuses (Michel de Montaigne’s Complete Essays , the collected Orwell, etc.) and multi-author compilations, and given what might be undue weight to our favorite writers (as one does). After the jump, our picks for the 25 greatest essay collections of all time. Feel free to disagree with us, praise our intellect, or create an entirely new list in the comments.

The Book of My Lives , Aleksandar Hemon

Hemon’s memoir in essays is in turns wryly hilarious, intellectually searching, and deeply troubling. It’s the life story of a fascinating, quietly brilliant man, and it reads as such. For fans of chess and ill-advised theme parties and growing up more than once.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem , Joan Didion

Well, obviously. Didion’s extraordinary book of essays, expertly surveying both her native California in the 1960s and her own internal landscape with clear eyes and one eyebrow raised ever so slightly. This collection, her first, helped establish the idea of journalism as art, and continues to put wind in the sails of many writers after her, hoping to move in that Didion direction.

Pulphead , John Jeremiah Sullivan

This was one of those books that this writer deemed required reading for all immediate family and friends. Sullivan’s sharply observed essays take us from Christian rock festivals to underground caves to his own home, and introduce us to 19-century geniuses, imagined professors and Axl Rose. Smart, curious, and humane, this is everything an essay collection should be.

The Boys of My Youth , Jo Ann Beard

Another memoir-in-essays, or perhaps just a collection of personal narratives, Jo Ann Beard’s award-winning volume is a masterpiece. Not only does it include the luminous, emotionally destructive “The Fourth State of the Matter,” which we’ve already implored you to read , but also the incredible “Bulldozing the Baby,” which takes on a smaller tragedy: a three-year-old Beard’s separation from her doll Hal. “The gorgeous thing about Hal,” she tells us, “was that not only was he my friend, he was also my slave. I made the majority of our decisions, including the bathtub one, which in retrospect was the beginning of the end.”

Consider the Lobster , David Foster Wallace

This one’s another “duh” moment, at least if you’re a fan of the literary essay. One of the most brilliant essayists of all time, Wallace pushes the boundaries (of the form, of our patience, of his own brain) and comes back with a classic collection of writing on everything from John Updike to, well, lobsters. You’ll laugh out loud right before you rethink your whole life. And then repeat.

Notes of a Native Son , James Baldwin

Baldwin’s most influential work is a witty, passionate portrait of black life and social change in America in the 1940s and early 1950s. His essays, like so many of the greats’, are both incisive social critiques and rigorous investigations into the self, told with a perfect tension between humor and righteous fury.

Naked , David Sedaris

His essays often read more like short stories than they do social criticism (though there’s a healthy, if perhaps implied, dose of that slippery subject), but no one makes us laugh harder or longer. A genius of the form.

Against Interpretation , Susan Sontag

This collection, Sontag’s first, is a dazzling feat of intellectualism. Her essays dissect not only art but the way we think about art, imploring us to “reveal the sensuous surface of art without mucking about in it.” It also contains the brilliant “Notes on ‘Camp,'” one of our all-time favorites.

The Common Reader , Virginia Woolf

Woolf is a literary giant for a reason — she was as incisive and brilliant a critic as she was a novelist. These witty essays, written for the common reader (“He is worse educated, and nature has not gifted him so generously. He reads for his own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinions of others. Above all, he is guided by an instinct to create for himself, out of whatever odds and ends he can come by, some kind of whole- a portrait of a man, a sketch of an age, a theory of the art of writing”), are as illuminating and engrossing as they were when they were written.

Teaching a Stone to Talk , Annie Dillard

This is Dillard’s only book of essays, but boy is it a blazingly good one. The slender volume, filled with examinations of nature both human and not, is deft of thought and tongue, and well worth anyone’s time. As the Chicago Sun-Times ‘s Edward Abbey gushed, “This little book is haloed and informed throughout by Dillard’s distinctive passion and intensity, a sort of intellectual radiance that reminds me both Thoreau and Emily Dickinson.”

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man , Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In this eloquent volume of essays, all but one of which were originally published in the New Yorker , Gates argues against the notion of the singularly representable “black man,” preferring to represent him in a myriad of diverse profiles, from James Baldwin to Colin Powell. Humane, incisive, and satisfyingly journalistic, Gates cobbles together the ultimate portrait of the 20th-century African-American male by refusing to cobble it together, and raises important questions about race and identity even as he entertains.

Otherwise Known As the Human Condition , Geoff Dyer

This book of essays, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the year of its publication, covers 25 years of the uncategorizable, inimitable Geoff Dyer’s work — casually erudite and yet liable to fascinate anyone wandering in the door, witty and breathing and full of truth. As Sam Lipsyte said, “You read Dyer for his caustic wit, of course, his exquisite and perceptive crankiness, and his deep and exciting intellectual connections, but from these enthralling rants and cultural investigations there finally emerges another Dyer, a generous seeker of human feeling and experience, a man perhaps closer than he thinks to what he believes his hero Camus achieved: ‘a heart free of bitterness.'”

Art and Ardor , Cynthia Ozick

Look, Cynthia Ozick is a genius. One of David Foster Wallace’s favorite writers, and one of ours, Ozick has no less than seven essay collections to her name, and we could have chosen any one of them, each sharper and more perfectly self-conscious than the last. This one, however, includes her stunner “A Drugstore in Winter,” which was chosen by Joyce Carol Oates for The Best American Essays of the Century , so we’ll go with it.

No More Nice Girls , Ellen Willis

The venerable Ellen Willis was the first pop music critic for The New Yorker , and a rollicking anti-authoritarian, feminist, all-around bad-ass woman who had a hell of a way with words. This collection examines the women’s movement, the plight of the aging radical, race relations, cultural politics, drugs, and Picasso. Among other things.

The War Against Cliché , Martin Amis

As you know if you’ve ever heard him talk , Martin Amis is not only a notorious grouch but a sharp critical mind, particularly when it comes to literature. That quality is on full display in this collection, which spans nearly 30 years and twice as many subjects, from Vladimir Nabokov (his hero) to chess to writing about sex. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that he’s a brilliant old grump.

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories From History and the Arts , Clive James

James’s collection is a strange beast, not like any other essay collection on this list but its own breed. An encyclopedia of modern culture, the book collects 110 new biographical essays, which provide more than enough room for James to flex his formidable intellect and curiosity, as he wanders off on tangents, anecdotes, and cultural criticism. It’s not the only who’s who you need, but it’s a who’s who you need.

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman , Nora Ephron

Oh Nora, we miss you. Again, we could have picked any of her collections here — candid, hilarious, and willing to give it to you straight, she’s like a best friend and mentor in one, only much more interesting than any of either you’ve ever had.

Arguably , Christopher Hitchens

No matter what you think of his politics (or his rhetorical strategies), there’s no denying that Christopher Hitchens was one of the most brilliant minds — and one of the most brilliant debaters — of the century. In this collection, packed with cultural commentary, literary journalism, and political writing, he is at his liveliest, his funniest, his exactingly wittiest. He’s also just as caustic as ever.

The Solace of Open Spaces , Gretel Ehrlich

Gretel Ehrlich is a poet, and in this collection, you’ll know it. In 1976, she moved to Wyoming and became a cowherd, and nearly a decade later, she published this lovely, funny set of essays about rural life in the American West.”Keenly observed the world is transformed,” she writes. “The landscape is engorged with detail, every movement on it chillingly sharp. The air between people is charged. Days unfold, bathed in their own music. Nights become hallucinatory; dreams, prescient.”

The Braindead Megaphone , George Saunders

Saunders may be the man of the moment, but he’s been at work for a long while, and not only on his celebrated short stories. His single collection of essays applies the same humor and deliciously slant view to the real world — which manages to display nearly as much absurdity as one of his trademark stories.

Against Joie de Vivre , Phillip Lopate

“Over the years,” the title essay begins, “I have developed a distaste for the spectacle of joie de vivre , the knack of knowing how to live.” Lopate goes on to dissect, in pleasantly sardonic terms, the modern dinner party. Smart and thought-provoking throughout (and not as crotchety as all that), this collection is conversational but weighty, something to be discussed at length with friends at your next — oh well, you know.

Sex and the River Styx , Edward Hoagland

Edward Hoagland, who John Updike deemed “the best essayist of my generation,” has a long and storied career and a fat bibliography, so we hesitate to choose such a recent installment in the writer’s canon. Then again, Garrison Keillor thinks it’s his best yet , so perhaps we’re not far off. Hoagland is a great nature writer (name checked by many as the modern Thoreau) but in truth, he’s just as fascinated by humanity, musing that “human nature is interstitial with nature, and not to be shunned by a naturalist.” Elegant and thoughtful, Hoagland may warn us that he’s heading towards the River Styx, but we’ll hang on to him a while longer.

Changing My Mind , Zadie Smith

Smith may be best known for her novels (and she should be), but to our eyes she is also emerging as an excellent essayist in her own right, passionate and thoughtful. Plus, any essay collection that talks about Barack Obama via Pygmalion is a winner in our book.

My Misspent Youth , Meghan Daum

Like so many other writers on this list, Daum dives head first into the culture and comes up with meat in her mouth. Her voice is fresh and her narratives daring, honest and endlessly entertaining.

The White Album , Joan Didion

Yes, Joan Didion is on this list twice, because Joan Didion is the master of the modern essay, tearing at our assumptions and building our world in brisk, clever strokes. Deal.

50 Must-Read Contemporary Essay Collections

Liberty Hardy

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

View All posts by Liberty Hardy

I feel like essay collections don’t get enough credit. They’re so wonderful! They’re like short story collections, but TRUE. It’s like going to a truth buffet. You can get information about sooooo many topics, sometimes in one single book! To prove that there are a zillion amazing essay collections out there, I compiled 50 great contemporary essay collections, just from the last 18 months alone.  Ranging in topics from food, nature, politics, sex, celebrity, and more, there is something here for everyone!

I’ve included a brief description from the publisher with each title. Tell us in the comments about which of these you’ve read or other contemporary essay collections that you love. There are a LOT of them. Yay, books!

Must-Read Contemporary Essay Collections

They can’t kill us until they kill us  by hanif abdurraqib.

“In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s is a voice that matters. Whether he’s attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown’s grave, or discussing public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, he writes with a poignancy and magnetism that resonates profoundly.”

Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas  by Jenny Allen

“Jenny Allen’s musings range fluidly from the personal to the philosophical. She writes with the familiarity of someone telling a dinner party anecdote, forgoing decorum for candor and comedy. To read  Would Everybody Please Stop?  is to experience life with imaginative and incisive humor.”

Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds  by Yemisi Aribisala

“A sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian cuisine, lovingly presented by the nation’s top epicurean writer. As well as a mouth-watering appraisal of Nigerian food,  Longthroat Memoirs  is a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From the cultural history of soup, to fish as aphrodisiac and the sensual allure of snails,  Longthroat Memoirs  explores the complexities, the meticulousness, and the tactile joy of Nigerian gastronomy.”

Beyond Measure: Essays  by Rachel Z. Arndt

“ Beyond Measure  is a fascinating exploration of the rituals, routines, metrics and expectations through which we attempt to quantify and ascribe value to our lives. With mordant humor and penetrating intellect, Arndt casts her gaze beyond event-driven narratives to the machinery underlying them: judo competitions measured in weigh-ins and wait times; the significance of the elliptical’s stationary churn; the rote scripts of dating apps; the stupefying sameness of the daily commute.”

Magic Hours  by Tom Bissell

“Award-winning essayist Tom Bissell explores the highs and lows of the creative process. He takes us from the set of  The Big Bang Theory  to the first novel of Ernest Hemingway to the final work of David Foster Wallace; from the films of Werner Herzog to the film of Tommy Wiseau to the editorial meeting in which Paula Fox’s work was relaunched into the world. Originally published in magazines such as  The Believer ,  The New Yorker , and  Harper’s , these essays represent ten years of Bissell’s best writing on every aspect of creation—be it Iraq War documentaries or video-game character voices—and will provoke as much thought as they do laughter.”

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession  by Alice Bolin

“In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to  Twin Peaks , Britney Spears, and  Serial , illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator.”

Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life  by Jenny Boully

“Jenny Boully’s essays are ripe with romance and sensual pleasures, drawing connections between the digression, reflection, imagination, and experience that characterizes falling in love as well as the life of a writer. Literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics rub up against memory, dreamscapes, and fancy, making the practice of writing a metaphor for the illusory nature of experience.  Betwixt and Between  is, in many ways, simply a book about how to live.”

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give by Ada Calhoun

“In  Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give , Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which ‘the first twenty years are the hardest.'”

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays  by Alexander Chee

“ How to Write an Autobiographical Novel  is the author’s manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation’s history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing—Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley—the writing of his first novel,  Edinburgh , and the election of Donald Trump.”

Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays  by Durga Chew-Bose

“ Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today. On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words ‘too much and not the mood’ to describe her frustration with placating her readers, what she described as the ‘cramming in and the cutting out.’ She wondered if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying. The attitude of that sentiment inspired Durga Chew-Bose to gather own writing in this lyrical collection of poetic essays that examine personhood and artistic growth. Drawing inspiration from a diverse group of incisive and inquiring female authors, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.”

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy  by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“‘We were eight years in power’ was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s ‘first white president.'”

Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley

“In  Look Alive Out There,  whether it’s scaling active volcanoes, crashing shivas, playing herself on  Gossip Girl,  befriending swingers, or squinting down the barrel of the fertility gun, Crosley continues to rise to the occasion with unmatchable nerve and electric one-liners. And as her subjects become more serious, her essays deliver not just laughs but lasting emotional heft and insight. Crosley has taken up the gauntlets thrown by her predecessors—Dorothy Parker, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris—and crafted something rare, affecting, and true.”

Fl â neuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London  by Lauren Elkin

“Part cultural meander, part memoir,  Flâneuse  takes us on a distinctly cosmopolitan jaunt that begins in New York, where Elkin grew up, and transports us to Paris via Venice, Tokyo, and London, all cities in which she’s lived. We are shown the paths beaten by such  flâneuses  as the cross-dressing nineteenth-century novelist George Sand, the Parisian artist Sophie Calle, the wartime correspondent Martha Gellhorn, and the writer Jean Rhys. With tenacity and insight, Elkin creates a mosaic of what urban settings have meant to women, charting through literature, art, history, and film the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes fraught relationship that women have with the metropolis.”

Idiophone  by Amy Fusselman

“Leaping from ballet to quiltmaking, from the The Nutcracker to an Annie-B Parson interview,  Idiophone  is a strikingly original meditation on risk-taking and provocation in art and a unabashedly honest, funny, and intimate consideration of art-making in the context of motherhood, and motherhood in the context of addiction. Amy Fusselman’s compact, beautifully digressive essay feels both surprising and effortless, fueled by broad-ranging curiosity, and, fundamentally, joy.”

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture  by Roxane Gay

“In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are ‘routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied’ for speaking out.”

Sunshine State: Essays  by Sarah Gerard

“With the personal insight of  The Empathy Exams , the societal exposal of  Nickel and Dimed , and the stylistic innovation and intensity of her own break-out debut novel  Binary Star , Sarah Gerard’s  Sunshine State  uses the intimately personal to unearth the deep reservoirs of humanity buried in the corners of our world often hardest to face.”

The Art of the Wasted Day  by Patricia Hampl

“ The Art of the Wasted Day  is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude. Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. She begins with two celebrated eighteenth-century Irish ladies who ran off to live a life of ‘retirement’ in rural Wales. Her search then leads to Moravia to consider the monk-geneticist, Gregor Mendel, and finally to Bordeaux for Michel Montaigne—the hero of this book—who retreated from court life to sit in his chateau tower and write about whatever passed through his mind, thus inventing the personal essay.”

A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life  by Jim Harrison

“Jim Harrison’s legendary gourmandise is on full display in  A Really Big Lunch . From the titular  New Yorker  piece about a French lunch that went to thirty-seven courses, to pieces from  Brick ,  Playboy , Kermit Lynch Newsletter, and more on the relationship between hunter and prey, or the obscure language of wine reviews,  A Really Big Lunch  is shot through with Harrison’s pointed aperçus and keen delight in the pleasures of the senses. And between the lines the pieces give glimpses of Harrison’s life over the last three decades.  A Really Big Lunch  is a literary delight that will satisfy every appetite.”

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me  by Bill Hayes

“Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city’s incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.”

Would You Rather?: A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out  by Katie Heaney

“Here, for the first time, Katie opens up about realizing at the age of twenty-eight that she is gay. In these poignant, funny essays, she wrestles with her shifting sexuality and identity, and describes what it was like coming out to everyone she knows (and everyone she doesn’t). As she revisits her past, looking for any ‘clues’ that might have predicted this outcome, Katie reveals that life doesn’t always move directly from point A to point B—no matter how much we would like it to.”

Tonight I’m Someone Else: Essays  by Chelsea Hodson

“From graffiti gangs and  Grand Theft Auto  to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing.”

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays  by Samantha Irby

“With  We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. , ‘bitches gotta eat’ blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making ‘adult’ budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette—she’s ’35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something’—detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father’s ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms—hang in there for the Costco loot—she’s as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.”

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America  by Morgan Jerkins

“Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. In  This Will Be My Undoing , Jerkins becomes both narrator and subject to expose the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large.”

Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays  by Fenton Johnson

“Part retrospective, part memoir, Fenton Johnson’s collection  Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays  explores sexuality, religion, geography, the AIDS crisis, and more. Johnson’s wanderings take him from the hills of Kentucky to those of San Francisco, from the streets of Paris to the sidewalks of Calcutta. Along the way, he investigates questions large and small: What’s the relationship between artists and museums, illuminated in a New Guinean display of shrunken heads? What’s the difference between empiricism and intuition?”

One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays  by Scaachi Koul

“In  One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter , Scaachi Koul deploys her razor-sharp humor to share all the fears, outrages, and mortifying moments of her life. She learned from an early age what made her miserable, and for Scaachi anything can be cause for despair. Whether it’s a shopping trip gone awry; enduring awkward conversations with her bikini waxer; overcoming her fear of flying while vacationing halfway around the world; dealing with Internet trolls, or navigating the fears and anxieties of her parents. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of color: where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision, or outright scorn; where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, leaving little room for a woman not solely focused on marriage and children to have a career (and a life) for herself.”

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions  by Valeria Luiselli and jon lee anderson (translator)

“A damning confrontation between the American dream and the reality of undocumented children seeking a new life in the U.S. Structured around the 40 questions Luiselli translates and asks undocumented Latin American children facing deportation,  Tell Me How It Ends  (an expansion of her 2016 Freeman’s essay of the same name) humanizes these young migrants and highlights the contradiction between the idea of America as a fiction for immigrants and the reality of racism and fear—both here and back home.”

All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers  by Alana Massey

“Mixing Didion’s affected cool with moments of giddy celebrity worship, Massey examines the lives of the women who reflect our greatest aspirations and darkest fears back onto us. These essays are personal without being confessional and clever in a way that invites readers into the joke. A cultural critique and a finely wrought fan letter, interwoven with stories that are achingly personal, All the Lives I Want is also an exploration of mental illness, the sex industry, and the dangers of loving too hard.”

Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish: Essays  by Tom McCarthy

“Certain points of reference recur with dreamlike insistence—among them the artist Ed Ruscha’s  Royal Road Test , a photographic documentation of the roadside debris of a Royal typewriter hurled from the window of a traveling car; the great blooms of jellyfish that are filling the oceans and gumming up the machinery of commerce and military domination—and the question throughout is: How can art explode the restraining conventions of so-called realism, whether aesthetic or political, to engage in the active reinvention of the world?”

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America  by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding

“When 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, how can women unite in Trump’s America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.”

Don’t Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life  by Peggy Orenstein

“Named one of the ’40 women who changed the media business in the last 40 years’ by  Columbia Journalism Review , Peggy Orenstein is one of the most prominent, unflinching feminist voices of our time. Her writing has broken ground and broken silences on topics as wide-ranging as miscarriage, motherhood, breast cancer, princess culture and the importance of girls’ sexual pleasure. Her unique blend of investigative reporting, personal revelation and unexpected humor has made her books bestselling classics.”

When You Find Out the World Is Against You: And Other Funny Memories About Awful Moments  by Kelly Oxford

“Kelly Oxford likes to blow up the internet. Whether it is with the kind of Tweets that lead  Rolling Stone  to name her one of the Funniest People on Twitter or with pictures of her hilariously adorable family (human and animal) or with something much more serious, like creating the hashtag #NotOkay, where millions of women came together to share their stories of sexual assault, Kelly has a unique, razor-sharp perspective on modern life. As a screen writer, professional sh*t disturber, wife and mother of three, Kelly is about everything but the status quo.”

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman  by Anne Helen Petersen

“You know the type: the woman who won’t shut up, who’s too brazen, too opinionated—too much. She’s the unruly woman, and she embodies one of the most provocative and powerful forms of womanhood today. In  Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud , Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of ‘unruliness’ to explore the ascension of pop culture powerhouses like Lena Dunham, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian, exploring why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures. With its brisk, incisive analysis,  Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud  will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.”

Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist  by Franchesca Ramsey

“In her first book, Ramsey uses her own experiences as an accidental activist to explore the many ways we communicate with each other—from the highs of bridging gaps and making connections to the many pitfalls that accompany talking about race, power, sexuality, and gender in an unpredictable public space…the internet.”

Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls  by Elizabeth Renzetti

“Drawing upon Renzetti’s decades of reporting on feminist issues,  Shrewed  is a book about feminism’s crossroads. From Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign to the quest for equal pay, from the lessons we can learn from old ladies to the future of feminism in a turbulent world, Renzetti takes a pointed, witty look at how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go.”

What Are We Doing Here?: Essays  by Marilynne Robinson

“In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson’s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.”

Double Bind: Women on Ambition  by Robin Romm

“‘A work of courage and ferocious honesty’ (Diana Abu-Jaber),  Double Bind  could not come at a more urgent time. Even as major figures from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word ‘feminism,’ the word ‘ambition’ remains loaded with ambivalence. Many women see it as synonymous with strident or aggressive, yet most feel compelled to strive and achieve—the seeming contradiction leaving them in a perpetual double bind. Ayana Mathis, Molly Ringwald, Roxane Gay, and a constellation of ‘nimble thinkers . . . dismantle this maddening paradox’ ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) with candor, wit, and rage. Women who have made landmark achievements in fields as diverse as law, dog sledding, and butchery weigh in, breaking the last feminist taboo once and for all.”

The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life  by Richard Russo

“In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend, and reader. From a commencement speech he gave at Colby College, to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain’s value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery,  The Destiny Thief  reflects the broad interests and experiences of one of America’s most beloved authors. Warm, funny, wise, and poignant, the essays included here traverse Russo’s writing life, expanding our understanding of who he is and how his singular, incredibly generous mind works. An utter joy to read, they give deep insight into the creative process from the prospective of one of our greatest writers.”

Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum

“Curry is a dish that doesn’t quite exist, but, as this wildly funny and sharp essay points out, a dish that doesn’t properly exist can have infinite, equally authentic variations. By grappling with novels, recipes, travelogues, pop culture, and his own upbringing, Naben Ruthnum depicts how the distinctive taste of curry has often become maladroit shorthand for brown identity. With the sardonic wit of Gita Mehta’s  Karma Cola  and the refined, obsessive palette of Bill Buford’s  Heat , Ruthnum sinks his teeth into the story of how the beloved flavor calcified into an aesthetic genre that limits the imaginations of writers, readers, and eaters.”

The River of Consciousness  by Oliver Sacks

“Sacks, an Oxford-educated polymath, had a deep familiarity not only with literature and medicine but with botany, animal anatomy, chemistry, the history of science, philosophy, and psychology.  The River of Consciousness  is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.”

All the Women in My Family Sing: Women Write the World: Essays on Equality, Justice, and Freedom (Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God)  by Deborah Santana and America Ferrera

“ All the Women in My Family Sing  is an anthology documenting the experiences of women of color at the dawn of the twenty-first century. It is a vital collection of prose and poetry whose topics range from the pressures of being the vice-president of a Fortune 500 Company, to escaping the killing fields of Cambodia, to the struggles inside immigration, identity, romance, and self-worth. These brief, trenchant essays capture the aspirations and wisdom of women of color as they exercise autonomy, creativity, and dignity and build bridges to heal the brokenness in today’s turbulent world.”

We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America  by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page

“For some, ‘passing’ means opportunity, access, or safety. Others don’t willingly pass but are ‘passed’ in specific situations by someone else.  We Wear the Mask , edited by  Brando Skyhorse  and  Lisa Page , is an illuminating and timely anthology that examines the complex reality of passing in America. Skyhorse, a Mexican American, writes about how his mother passed him as an American Indian before he learned who he really is. Page shares how her white mother didn’t tell friends about her black ex-husband or that her children were, in fact, biracial.”

Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

“Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world’s preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to  The New Yorker  and the  New York Review of Books  on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.”

The Mother of All Questions: Further Reports from the Feminist Revolutions  by Rebecca Solnit

“In a timely follow-up to her national bestseller  Men Explain Things to Me , Rebecca Solnit offers indispensable commentary on women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the gender binary, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more. In characteristic style, Solnit mixes humor, keen analysis, and powerful insight in these essays.”

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays  by Megan Stielstra

“Whether she’s imagining the implications of open-carry laws on college campuses, recounting the story of going underwater on the mortgage of her first home, or revealing the unexpected pains and joys of marriage and motherhood, Stielstra’s work informs, impels, enlightens, and embraces us all. The result is something beautiful—this story, her courage, and, potentially, our own.”

Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms  by Michelle Tea

“Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, this is Tea’s first-ever collection of journalistic writing. As she blurs the line between telling other people’s stories and her own, she turns an investigative eye to the genre that’s nurtured her entire career—memoir—and considers the price that art demands be paid from life.”

A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause  by Shawn Wen

“In precise, jewel-like scenes and vignettes,  A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause  pays homage to the singular genius of a mostly-forgotten art form. Drawing on interviews, archival research, and meticulously observed performances, Wen translates the gestural language of mime into a lyric written portrait by turns whimsical, melancholic, and haunting.”

Acid West: Essays  by Joshua Wheeler

“The radical evolution of American identity, from cowboys to drone warriors to space explorers, is a story rooted in southern New Mexico.  Acid West  illuminates this history, clawing at the bounds of genre to reveal a place that is, for better or worse, home. By turns intimate, absurd, and frightening,  Acid West  is an enlightening deep-dive into a prophetic desert at the bottom of America.”

Sexographies  by Gabriela Wiener and Lucy Greaves And jennifer adcock (Translators)

“In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, renowned Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in the company of transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle—all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed voyeur emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives.  Sexographies  is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey across the contours of the human body and mind.”

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative  by Florence Williams

“From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas—and the answers they yield—are more urgent than ever.”

Can You Tolerate This?: Essays  by Ashleigh Young

“ Can You Tolerate This?  presents a vivid self-portrait of an introspective yet widely curious young woman, the colorful, isolated community in which she comes of age, and the uneasy tensions—between safety and risk, love and solitude, the catharsis of grief and the ecstasy of creation—that define our lives.”

What are your favorite contemporary essay collections?

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Nonfiction Books » Essays

The best essays: the 2021 pen/diamonstein-spielvogel award, recommended by adam gopnik.

WINNER OF the 2021 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich

Every year, the judges of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay search out the best book of essays written in the past year and draw attention to the author's entire body of work. Here, Adam Gopnik , writer, journalist and PEN essay prize judge, emphasizes the role of the essay in bearing witness and explains why the five collections that reached the 2021 shortlist are, in their different ways, so important.

Interview by Benedict King

Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader by Vivian Gornick

Nature Matrix: New and Selected Essays by Robert Michael Pyle

Terroir: Love, Out of Place by Natasha Sajé

Maybe the People Would be the Times by Luc Sante

1 Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich

2 unfinished business: notes of a chronic re-reader by vivian gornick, 3 nature matrix: new and selected essays by robert michael pyle, 4 terroir: love, out of place by natasha sajé, 5 maybe the people would be the times by luc sante.

W e’re talking about the books shortlisted for the 2021 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay . As an essayist yourself, or as a reader of essays, what are you looking for? What’s the key to a good essay ?

Let’s turn to the books that made the shortlist of the 2021 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay. The winning book was Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich , whose books have been recommended a number of times on Five Books. Tell me more. 

One of the criteria for this particular prize is that it should be not just for a single book, but for a body of work. One of the things we wanted to honour about Barbara Ehrenreich is that she has produced a remarkable body of work. Although it’s offered in a more specifically political register than some essayists, or that a great many past prize winners have practised, the quiddity of her work is that it remains rooted in personal experience, in the act of bearing witness. She has a passionate political point to make, certainly, a series of them, many seeming all the more relevant now than when she began writing. Nonetheless, her writing still always depends on the intimacy of first-hand knowledge, what people in post-incarceration work call ‘lived experience’ (a term with a distinguished philosophical history). Her book Nickel and Dimed is the classic example of that. She never writes from a distance about working-class life in America. She bears witness to the nature and real texture of working-class life in America.

“One point of giving awards…is to keep passing the small torches of literary tradition”

Next up of the books on the 2021 PEN essay prize shortlist is Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader by Vivian Gornick.

Vivian Gornick is a writer who’s been around for a very long time. Although longevity is not in itself a criterion for excellence—or for this prize, or in the writing life generally—persistence and perseverance are. Writers who keep coming back at us, again and again, with a consistent vision, are surely to be saluted. For her admirers, her appetite to re-read things already read is one of the most attractive parts of her oeuvre , if I can call it that; her appetite not just to read but to read deeply and personally. One of the things that people who love her work love about it is that her readings are never academic, or touched by scholarly hobbyhorsing. They’re readings that involve the fullness of her experience, then applied to literature. Although she reads as a critic, she reads as an essayist reads, rather than as a reviewer reads. And I think that was one of the things that was there to honour in her body of work, as well.

Is she a novelist or journalist, as well?

Let’s move on to the next book which made the 2021 PEN essay shortlist. This is Nature Matrix: New and Selected Essays by Robert Michael Pyle.

I have a special reason for liking this book in particular, and that is that it corresponds to one of the richest and oldest of American genres, now often overlooked, and that’s the naturalist essay. You can track it back to Henry David Thoreau , if not to Ralph Waldo Emerson , this American engagement with nature , the wilderness, not from a narrowly scientific point of view, nor from a purely ecological or environmental point of view—though those things are part of it—but again, from the point of view of lived experience, of personal testimony.

Let’s look at the next book on the shortlist of the 2021 PEN Awards, which is Terroir: Love, Out of Place by Natasha Sajé. Why did these essays appeal?

One of the things that was appealing about this book is that’s it very much about, in every sense, the issues of the day: the idea of place, of where we are, how we are located on any map as individuals by ethnic identity, class, gender—all of those things. But rather than being carried forward in a narrowly argumentative way, again, in the classic manner of the essay, Sajé’s work is ruminative. It walks around these issues from the point of view of someone who’s an expatriate, someone who’s an émigré, someone who’s a world citizen, but who’s also concerned with the idea of ‘terroir’, the one place in the world where we belong. And I think the dialogue in her work between a kind of cosmopolitanism that she has along with her self-critical examination of the problem of localism and where we sit on the world, was inspiring to us.

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Last of the books on the shortlist for the 2021 Pen essay award is Maybe the People Would Be the Times by Luc Sante.

Again, here’s a writer who’s had a distinguished generalised career, writing about lots of places and about lots of subjects. In the past, he’s made his special preoccupation what he calls ‘low life’, but I think more broadly can be called the marginalized or the repressed and abject. He’s also written acute introductions to the literature of ‘low life’, the works of Asbury and David Maurer, for instance.

But I think one of the things that was appealing about what he’s done is the sheer range of his enterprise. He writes about countless subjects. He can write about A-sides and B-sides of popular records—singles—then go on to write about Jacques Rivette’s cinema. He writes from a kind of private inspection of public experience. He has a lovely piece about tabloid headlines and their evolution. And I think that omnivorous range of enthusiasms and passions is a stirring reminder in a time of specialization and compartmentalization of the essayist’s freedom to roam. If Pyle is in the tradition of Thoreau, I suspect Luc Sante would be proud to be put in the tradition of Baudelaire—the flaneur who walks the streets, sees everything, broods on it all and writes about it well.

One point of giving awards, with all their built-in absurdity and inevitable injustice, is to keep alive, or at least to keep passing, the small torches of literary tradition. And just as much as we’re honoring the great tradition of the naturalist essay in the one case, I think we’re honoring the tradition of the Baudelairean flaneur in this one.

April 18, 2021

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Adam Gopnik

Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1986. His many books include A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism . He is a three time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays & Criticism, and in 2021 was made a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Republic.

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Writers on Writing: 20 Best Essays on Writing from Famous Authors

By Jason Boyd

Updated August 7, 2021

What better way to learn about writing novels, short stories, or any creative work than from essays on writing from legendary writers.

Whether you’re gearing up for your first run at a novel ( NaNoWriMo approaches) or looking for a tune-up before embarking on your umpteenth creative writing project, you need inspiration.

May as well be inspired by the best. And maybe be taught a thing or two along the way!

Books vs Essays on Writing Fiction

Why did we choose essays?

Firstly, we certainly may write an article in the future on books from writers on writing. So, there’s no harm in leaving that topic to the side.

But chiefly, our concern is wanting to lend a hand that can be used right now. Right away. With speed.

An essay can be read in a sitting or on the way from one thing to the next, but a book is a time investment. We wanted the delivery to be quick.

Not only do we live in a fast paced world, it can be a bit of a waste to read an entire book about writing a book. Most writers would likely say you’re better off reading a great novel. Or writing one.

Not that we discourage books or any written work on the subject of writing. We don’t . But we wanted a solution for the busy working class person looking to learn the craft.

Someone with limited time but boundless spirit.

This is for you.

20 Essays from Famous Writers on Writing Fiction

We chose to not repeat authors, although quite a few writers that made this list penned multiple essays worth reading.

We picked our favorite and tried to mention the other noteworthy reads somewhere in their entry.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at our selection of essays from writers on writing.

20) Quick Cuts: The Novel Follows Film Into a World of Fewer Words by E.L. Doctorow

E.L. Doctorow , noted essayist and author of Ragtime , is no stranger to Hollywood.

With many adaptations under his belt, including Ragtime and Billy Bathgate , Doctorow is well suited to discuss the differences between film and literature.

This essay, published in The New York Times , opines on the changes in literature since the advent of the motion picture.

Notable differences include quickening of pace, shortening of exposition, and more personal narratives.

It’s an especially fine read for anyone looking to find distinction between the disciplines of screenwriting and prose.

Brief Excerpt, “Quick Cuts: The Novel Follows Film Into a World of Fewer Words”

“Beyond that, the rise of film art is coincident with the tendency of novelists to conceive of compositions less symphonic and more solo voiced, intimate personalist work expressive of the operating consciousness. A case could be made that the novel’s steady retreat from realism is as much a result of film’s expansive record of the way the world looks as it is of the increasing sophistications of literature itself.” E.L. Doctorow

19) The Ecstasy of Influence by Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem , author of Motherless Brooklyn , is known for his blending of multiple genres.

It only makes sense that he should write so eloquently on the power and responsibility of using influences in original work.

This essay, published originally in Harper’s Magazine , explores the challenges artists face when composing something that pays homage or outright borrows from older works. 

Where does one draw the line between plagiarism and inspiration?

Brief Excerpt, “The Ecstasy of Influence”

“Blues and jazz musicians have long been enabled by a kind of ‘open source’ culture, in which pre-existing melodic fragments and larger musical frameworks are freely reworked. Technology has only multiplied the possibilities; musicians have gained the power to duplicate sounds literally rather than simply approximate them through allusion. In Seventies Jamaica, King Tubby and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry deconstructed recorded music, using astonishingly primitive pre-digital hardware, creating what they called ‘versions.’ The recombinant nature of their means of production quickly spread to DJs in New York and London. Today an endless, gloriously impure, and fundamentally social process generates countless hours of music.” Jonathan Lethem

18) Tradition and the Individual Talent by T.S. Eliot

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot , writer of The Waste Land and Four Quartets , is as known for his literary criticism and influence as an editor than for his original work.

Thus, it makes sense to include his essay on writing in a vacuum, or rather, the impossibility of such a feat. The literary equivalent of Sir Isaac Newton ‘s phrase “ standing upon the shoulders of giants ,” Eliot’s essay actually caused quite a stir at the time. 

Much like everything in the life of T.S. Eliot.

This essay, hosted now by the Poetry Foundation and originally collected in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism , nearly creates an ouroboros effect. 

A “writers on writing” essay from a writer talking about writers writing on the heels of other writers.

Sorry, we couldn’t resist.

Brief Excerpt, “Tradition and the Individual Talent”

“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of aesthetic, not merely historical, criticism. The necessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not onesided; what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them.” T.S. Eliot

17) On Style by Susan Sontag

Legendary essayist and activist Susan Sontag , author of In America , exudes a confident personal style.

Sontag is a bit of a Renaissance woman: professor of philosophy, journalist, novelist, playwright, photographer, and much more. To boot, she did this during divisive times, starting in the early 1960s.

It makes sense that we should pay attention to her thoughts on style, especially as she argues for its close juxtaposition to artistic norms. 

In “ On Style ,” published in Against Interpretation and Other Essays , Sontag attempts to differentiate style from content.

Perhaps too academic for some beginners, this essay nonetheless helps to shake up preconceptions on the purpose of style in modern writing.

Brief Excerpt, “On Style”

“This means that the notion of style, generically considered, has a specific, historical meaning. It is not only that styles belong to a time and a place; and that our perception of the style of a given work of art is always charged with an awareness of the work’s historicity, its place in a chronology. Further: the visibility of styles is itself a product of historical consciousness. Were it not for departures from, or experimentation with, previous artistic norms which are known to us, we could never recognize the profile of a new style.” Susan Sontag

16) Reflections on Writing by Henry Miller

Author of the infamously banned Tropic of Cancer , Henry Miller blurs the line between autobiography and fiction.

“Miller’s revolution, though, was not a political one,” writes Ralph B. Sipper in the Los Angeles Times’ Miller’s Tale: Henry Hits 100 . “It was the wedding of his life and his art. Actual and imagined experiences became indistinguishable from each other.”

This aspect of the legend’s style lends itself well to Henry Miller’s overarching essay, a true reflection , about a life spent writing.

Brief Excerpt, “Reflections on Writing”

“I believe that one has to pass beyond the sphere and influence of art. Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself. Most artists are defeating life by their very attempt to grapple with it. They have split the egg in two. All art, I firmly believe, will one day disappear. But the artist will remain, and life itself will become not ‘an art,’ but art, i.e., will definitely and for all time usurp the field. In any true sense we are certainly not yet alive.” Henry Miller

15) Fairy Tale Is Form, Form Is Fairy Tale by Kate Bernheimer

Writer, editor, and critic Kate Bernheimer knows a thing or two about fairy tales.

She’s the founder and editor of the journal Fairy Tale Review , editor of numerous collections on the subject, and an author of fairy tales herself.

So, when Kate Bernheimer talks about fairy tales, you listen. Her essay “ Fairy Tale is Form, Form is Fairy Tale ” explores the underlying structure of fairy tales and its prevalence in much more than old Brothers Grimm stories. 

Brief Excerpt, “Fairy Tale Is Form, Form Is Fairy Tale”

“Perhaps if we recognize the pleasure in form that can be derived from fairy tales, we might be able to move beyond a discussion of who has more of a claim to the ‘realistic’ or the classical in contemporary letters. An increased appreciation of the techniques in fairy tales not only forges a mutual appreciation between writers from so-called mainstream and avant-garde traditions but also, I would argue, connects all of us in the act of living.” Kate Bernheimer

14) Uncanny the Singing That Comes from Certain Husks by Joy Williams

Author of State of Grace and Pulitzer-prize finalist The Quick and the Dead , novelist, essayist, and short story writer Joy Williams could certainly be considered a writer’s writer.

It makes her especially suited to answer the age old question: why do writers write?

In her essay meditating upon the impetus to write, “ Uncanny the Singing That Comes from Certain Husks ,” collected first in the anthology Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction , Williams offers several perspectives.

While there are no clear, definitive answers, burgeoning writers may find solace in the seemingly ubiquitous search for meaning.

Brief Excerpt, “Uncanny the Singing That Comes from Certain Husks” by Joy Williams

“The writer doesn’t trust his enemies, of course, who are wrong about his writing, but he doesn’t trust his friends, either, who he hopes are right. The writer trusts nothing he writes—it should be too reckless and alive for that, it should be beautiful and menacing and slightly out of his control. It should want to live itself somehow. The writer dies—he can die before he dies, it happens all the time, he dies as a writer—but the work wants to live.” Joy Williams

13) The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling

You might say J.K. Rowling knows a thing or two about imagination.

What some casual readers–or even fans–of the Harry Potter author might not know is that Rowling faced poverty and abject failure before finding publishing success.

This combination made for the perfect 2008 commencement speech at Harvard University . Although not an essay at first, the speech became a smash hit, garnering the most views of all Harvard commencement addresses . 

And, appropriately so, it was later printed as an essay/e-book titled Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination .

Sure to inspire, and possibly soothe or reassure, the speech and resulting transcription should be read by any aspiring writer.

Brief Excerpt, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”

“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” J.K. Rowling

12) Write Till You Drop by Annie Dillard

Poet, essayist, memoirist, novelist, and critic Annie Dillard has a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction to her name as well as finalist honors for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction .

Add to this a bevy of published work, “ Write Till You Drop ” is certainly a motto Annie Dillard lives by. 

In her essay, the author of Pilgim at Tinker Creek offers up directives of great relevance for every writer. That’s because the essay’s crux, made plain in the title, is an urging to write. 

Yet, the nuance of the advice is what makes this essay especially motivating and highly recommended for any writing aspirant.

Brief Excerpt, “Write Till You Drop”

“Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?” Annie Dillard

11) Why I Write by Joan Didion

National Book Award for Nonfiction winner and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography Joan Didion is a legend.

The author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Slouching Towards Bethlehem , Didion has been described as belonging to the school of New Journalism, which places an emphasis on narrative storytelling and literary techniques in order to communicate its facts.

As such an accomplished and versatile writer, Didion makes a singular subject for the age-old question of why do writers write . 

Just like any essay on the subject, Joan Didion’s take is irreplaceably useful for writers. If for no other reason than it frames the writing pursuit as a shared experience resplendent in multiple shades and colors. 

The effect being that of a warm and communal embrace.  

Brief Excerpt, “Why I Write”

“When I talk about pictures in my mind I am talking, quite specifically, about images that shimmer around the edges. There used to be an illustration in every elementary psychology book showing a cat drawn by a patient in varying stages of schizophrenia. This cat had a shimmer around it. You could see the molecular structure breaking down at the very edges of the cat: the cat became the background and the background the cat, everything interacting, exchanging ions. People on hallucinogens describe the same perception of objects. I’m not a schizophrenic, nor do I take hallucinogens, but certain images do shimmer for me.” Joan Didion

10) That Crafty Feeling by Zadie Smith

Author Zadie Smith bears nearly too many awards to count.

Beginning with White Teeth , her debut novel that took the critical world by storm, Zadie Smith established herself as one of the most noteworthy writers of the modern generation.

How appropriate then, that she spoke to the craft of writing in “ That Crafty Feeling ,” her lecture for students of the Columbia University writing program in March 2008. Smith later collected the speech in essay form in her book Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays .

In her essay, Smith explores many aspects of the writing process, making it a must-read for the sheer fact of learning the variances writers take to arrive at the written word.

Brief Excerpt, “That Crafty Feeling”

“Some writers won’t read a word of any novel while they’re writing their own. Not one word. They don’t even want to see the cover of a novel. As they write, the world of fiction dies: no one has ever written, no one is writing, no one will ever write again. Try to recommend a good novel to a writer of this type while he’s writing and he’ll give you a look like you just stabbed him in the heart with a kitchen knife. It’s a matter of temperament. Some writers are the kind of solo violinists who need complete silence to tune their instruments. Others want to hear every member of the orchestra—they’ll take a cue from a clarinet, from an oboe, even. I am one of those. My writing desk is covered in open novels.” Zadie Smith

9) The Poetic Principle by Edgar Allan Poe

Legendary American poet, critic, editor, and author Edgar Allan Poe knows how to move you.

In “ The Poetic Principle ,” the author of The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher breaks down exactly how he achieves this feat.

The essay is a must-read for writers not because one should necessarily follow Edgar Allan Poe’s prescription as a kind of formula. 

Instead, it should serve as an example that artistic work doesn’t have to be of a purely ecstatic origin. 

Writing can be a calculated affair, in part, aimed toward achieving a desired effect.

Brief Excerpt, “The Poetic Principle”

“Thus, although in a very cursory and imperfect manner, I have endeavored to convey to you my conception of the Poetic Principle. It has been my purpose to suggest that, while this Principle itself is , strictly and simply, the Human Aspiration for Supernal Beauty , the manifestation of the Principle is always found in an elevating excitement of the Soul — quite independent of that passion which is the intoxication of the Heart — or of that Truth which is the satisfaction of the Reason.” Edgar Allan Poe

8) Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses by Mark Twain

One might call Mark Twain something of an authority on the craft of writing.

American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name of Mark Twain , earned the honorific of “father of American literature” by William Faulkner himself.

This all contributes to the fact that no one has ever been as thoroughly dragged through the mud and put on a mocking display as Fenimore Cooper.  

The deed was done by Mark Twain’s own hand in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn author’s critical essay “ Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses .”

In what amounts to a public tar and feathering, Twain deconstructs Cooper’s writing down to the level of individual word choice.

The essay illustrates many do’s via its adamant don’ts. Not to mention the tiny bit of schadenfreude contained in Cooper’s literary trial. 

Brief Excerpt, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”

“Cooper’s word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending to say, but you also perceive that he does not say it. This is Cooper. He was not a word-musician. His ear was satisfied with the approximate words. I will furnish some circumstantial evidence in support of this charge.” Mark Twain

7) Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully – in Ten Minutes by Stephen King

Whether you’re a fan or not, there are two undeniable facts about Stephen King . He can write like a whirlwind, and he’s successful at it.

Stephen King has penned more than 60 books, including The Stand and The Dark Tower series, and created his very own multiverse . Among other accolades, he’s received the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. 

Oh, and his net worth is estimated to reside somewhere around $400 million . Plus, he’s sold more than 350 million copies of his books worldwide. A success, we’d say, even if some critics dislike him .

In addition to writing one of the most-sought books on the writing life and process, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft , he’s written numerous essays. In the field of writers on writing, he’s nearly overqualified.

Seems he’s well qualified for the essay “ Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully – in Ten Minutes ,” which out of all the essays on our list wins the prize for most enticing title.

As fans of Stephen King, we recommend you gobble up anything he has to say on the profession. But regardless, like the title says, it’s only 10 minutes long.

Brief Excerpt, “Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully – in Ten Minutes”

“You want to write a story? Fine. Put away your dictionary, your encyclopedias, your World Almanac, and your thesaurus. Better yet, throw your thesaurus into the wastebasket. The only things creepier than a thesaurus are those little paperbacks college students too lazy to read the assigned novels buy around exam time. Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.” Stephen King

6) Why I Write by George Orwell

Legendary author Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell , stands firmly in the great pantheon of 20th century writers.

Author of 1984 and Animal Farm , one might think Orwell’s reason for writing is solely to correct societal wrongs or fight injustices.

First printed in Gangrel (Summer 1946) and later collected in Such, Such Were the Joys , Orwell’s essay “ Why I Write ” details his motivations to write. 

Written at first as a response to an editor’s query, the essay serves as both a personal one and an objective observation of the impetus to create.

“I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts, and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure in everyday life. Nevertheless the volume of serious — i.e. seriously intended — writing which I produced all through my childhood and boyhood would not amount to half a dozen pages.” George Orwell

5) Where Do You Get Your Ideas? by Neil Gaiman

When one of today’s greatest originators of fresh concepts tells you that ideas are just one “small component” of writing, you listen.

Neil Gaiman , author of American Gods , The Sandman , Stardust , Coraline , and more, holds a mountain of awards. Among them, the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards. Not to mention a Newbery and Carnegie medal. 

And Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards for The Ocean at the End of the Lane .

Written on his own blog, Neil Gaiman’s essay on where he gets his ideas answers the age-old, and somewhat frustrating, question that every writer inevitably gets.

There are no glib answers (okay, maybe a few). He shares his process with sincerity, and packages it partly in a little story, because that’s just what good writers do.

Brief Excerpt, “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”

“The Ideas aren’t the hard bit. They’re a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you’re trying to build: making it interesting, making it new.” Neil Gaiman

4) Despite Tough Guys, Life Is Not the Only School for Real Novelists by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

If ever there was a writer’s writer, it’s Kurt Vonnegut Jr. When he gives advice, you listen.

The legendary literary and science fiction author, writer of Slaughterhouse-Five , Vonnegut taught at the esteemed University of Iowa’s writer’s workshop in addition to The City College of New York and Harvard University. 

It was in defense of creative writing programs and teachers everywhere that he wrote his essay, “ Despite Tough Guys, Life Is Not the Only School for Real Novelists .”

Not to disparage the school of hard knocks. Quite the opposite. 

Kurt Vonnegut instead shows another way of looking at creative writing instructors. 

As an extension of a writer’s best friend–a good editor.

Brief Excerpt, “Despite Tough Guys, Life Is Not the Only School for Real Novelists”

“Much is known about how to tell a story, rules for sociability, for how to be a friend to a reader so the reader won’t stop reading, how to be a good date on a blind date with a total stranger.” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

3) Thoughts on Writing by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert knows writing.

Author of numerous works and amazing TED Talks presenter, Gilbert is everything a writer could want to be. 

She writes fiction, non-fiction, books about writing, globe trots while freelancing for magazines, and is a journalist. As of late, she’s transformed into a teacher of sorts, sharing her knowledge far and wide, and one of the leaders in the topic of writers on writing.

Her published material includes Pilgrims (Pushcart Prize winner and finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award), Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (199 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts ), and Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (where she shares the wealth).

To say her essay, “ Thoughts on Writing ,” published on her own blog, is worth the time of any aspiring writer–of any form, medium, or genre–is a drastic understatement.

Brief Excerpt, “Thoughts on Writing”

“As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you.” Elizabeth Gilbert

2) The Nature of the Fun by David Foster Wallace

A literary giant in the making cut short by suicidal depression, David Foster Wallace is counted among many of today’s brilliant creative minds.

Author of Infinite Jest , a novel that every intelligentsia claims to have read, although few have managed to conquer its substantial length, Wallace talked extensively about the subject of craft. As a teacher and pundit, he’s let his thoughts be known. 

And for writers on writing, he’s often considered a preeminent expert on the topic.

However, “ The Nature of the Fun ” answers that basic question posed to nearly every writer throughout history–why do you write? 

For Wallace, the answer is in surprisingly stark contrast to everything else in the tragic writer’s life.

Brief Excerpt, “The Nature of the Fun”

“In the beginning, when you first start out trying to write fiction, the whole endeavor’s about fun. You don’t expect anybody else to read it. You’re writing almost wholly to get yourself off. To enable your own fantasies and deviant logics and to escape or transform parts of yourself you don’t like. And it works – and it’s terrific fun. Then, if you have good luck and people seem to like what you do, and you actually start to get paid for it, and get to see your stuff professionally typeset and bound and blurbed and reviewed and even (once) being read on the a.m. subway by a pretty girl you don’t even know it seems to make it even more fun.” David Foster Wallace

1) Not Knowing by Donald Barthelme

Donald Barthelme is almost certainly not a name you know.

Although there are exceptions, even the most devout of readers overlook the absurdist and surrealist stylings of the postmodern short story writer and teacher. 

Funny, considering such eye catching titles as Sixty Stories and Forty Stories .

However, Barthelme was a regular on the pages of The New Yorker , as well as other literary magazines of his time. He even founded one– Fiction .

But don’t fret that you don’t know him. As Barthelme indicates in “ Not Knowing ,” his essay on the creative process, lack of knowledge can lead to invention. 

That’s just one reason we recommend this for your reading list, which includes our sincere hope that you also pick up some of Barthelme’s fiction.

Brief Excerpt, “Not Knowing”

“The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.” Donald Barthelme

Writers on writing and essays on writing are almost a sub-genre in itself.

For writers out there, be careful that you don’t get sucked into the habit of consuming one diatribe after another, hoping to find eternal wisdom, without actually writing yourself. 

It can be alluring, to soak in the soup of published authors, to feel like you’re holding conversations with the greatest minds. Afterall, for some aspiring writers, it’s the end goal of getting published. However, one must start with the actual writing itself, so don’t dawdle too long.

Of course, we hope that these relatively short essays won’t keep you for long. And they’re just meaty enough to be satiating.

Now, get to writing! (including dropping into the comments to share your own writing advice)

Jason Boyd is a science fiction author, geek enthusiast, and former cubicle owner. When not working on his MA in Creative Writing, he's trying to figure out how magnets work.

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Best Essay Writers: 55 Tips from the Pros

Did you know that your tutors hate grading essays even more than you may dislike writing them? Why? Let’s be honest: in most cases, your goal is to write that essay quickly and then forget about it. As a rule, you won’t work hard to make it interesting and creative. Of course, you have your reasons for this “get rid of” attitude regarding your homework. You may have too many tasks to handle the same day, or the topic may seem boring to you. Even worse you may be afraid that certain judgments can be viewed as wrong or right.

Get Inspired

Be (reasonably) creative, do effective research, spice up your writing, use rhetorical devices, polish your format, put everything you can on autopilot, improve the quality of your writing, use your time wisely, avoid the worst mistakes, take advantage of advice from the best essay writers.

As a result, there’s usually no student’s voice behind an essay. Just imagine what it feels like to reread the numerous variations of the same text again and again. Grading boring essays is like Chinese water torture, in which water slowly drips on a person’s forehead.

Save your teacher from suffering. If you want to know one secret to make all your essays a success with tutors, make them original. Here are 55 tips from the best essay writers:

• Choose the right topic. Whenever possible, try to choose a question that interests you, or choose an unusual approach to a topic you are given. For example, if your topic is penguins, you may decide to write about their mating rituals. Make sure, however, that this topic is researchable and that you will be able to find the materials you need.
• Brainstorm your topic. A timer and a goal to generate as many ideas as possible within a set amount of time can boost your productivity.
• Create an outline or a mind map. Even before you do any research, you can decide which possible arguments to include in your essay.
• Browse quotes (if applicable). Statements of famous thinkers or experts about your question can help you begin.
• Create conditions. If you have some rituals for getting in the “writing mood,” apply them. If you don’t, create them.
• Make associations. Comparing your topic with something else is usually the easiest and most appropriate way to be creative in writing academic papers. For example, you can compare old-school technologies with an extinct species, such as dinosaurs. Check twice to determine if using figures of speech makes sense in this case.
• Discuss unusual approaches. It’s important to discuss different points of view. Discuss counterarguments and search for little-known facts to make your essay more interesting.
• Look for new perspectives. Try to see the potential advantages of something that is usually considered negative or vice versa. For example, you may want to discuss the negative effects of bilingual education, which is usually considered beneficial.
• Create vivid descriptions. Try to appeal to your readers’ senses whenever possible.
• Try to bust the myths. Never take anything for granted. Make it a habit to question and doubt everything.
• Use academic search engines. To avoid wasting time reviewing unreliable resources, stick to a student-friendly environment. Such search engines as Google Scholar , INFOMINE, and VIRTUAL LRC can save you a lot of time.
• Choose the right search queries. Use short and distinct keyword phrases. Consider using synonyms.
• Check sample databases. Essays database grants access to thousands of academic papers shared by other students.
• See bibliographies of other works. Exploit the results of other researchers’ work.
• Check stats and trends. Google Correlate is an easy way to access stats and trends.
• Add numbers, percentages, and striking stats.
• Mention breakthrough discoveries.
• Discuss the most up-to-date questions.
• Appeal to readers’ personal interests. Play with their fears and self-motivation.
• Add appropriate humor.
• Anaphora. Start several sentences with the same phrase, e.g., “If only I could change the past, if only I could know my future.”
• Epithet. e.g., a many-minded character, a wine-dark sunset.
• Oxymoron. Combine the incompatible: seriously funny, hot snow.
• Simile. Comparing two things using a comparison word (like). Her mood was like spring weather.
• Metaphor. Comparing two things without comparison words, e.g., The eyes are the windows of the soul.
• Grab attention in the introduction. The best essay writers recommend using attention hooks in the opening paragraph.
• Polish a thesis statement. Include a thesis statement—a brief one-sentence summary of your entire paper at the end of the introductory paragraph.
• Use transition sentences. Feel free to write “bridge” sentences to connect paragraphs.
• Start a new paragraph for every new topic.
• Write a logical conclusion. Avoid introducing any new information in the final section of your paper.
• Manage your research findings with Mendeley or Zotero .
• Create citations with generators, such as EasyBib or CiteFast.
• Proofread your essay with Ginger .
• Improve the style of your paper with Autocrit or WordRake .
• Check punctuation with SpellCheckPlus .
• Avoid using slang and any informal language (including phrasal verbs, such as go back and stand up, and contractions, such as can’t and won’t ).
• Use college-level syntax. Be sure to include complex and compound sentences, but avoid making them too long and vague.
• Always support your claims by citing your resources. Avoid expressing your opinion on issues you’re not authorized to discuss. For instance, you may have an opinion regarding whether or not smoking is dangerous. You will, however, need to cite trusted resources to discuss how this habit affects the lungs.
• Be objective. Make sure your presentation of facts is objective. Avoid exaggeration or understating facts.
• Make it succinct. Avoid unnecessary fillers and repetition.
• Never get stuck during the research stage.
• Avoid reading irrelevant literature.
• Start formatting citations while you research.
• Try free writing (writing without worrying about grammar and punctuation too much) to fight writer’s block if needed.
• Use such distraction-free writing tools as WriteMonkey or OmmWriter .
• Avoid lazy argumentation. Try to find weighty arguments and tackle possible counterarguments.
• Never forget your thesis statement. Remember that your entire essay should be connected to the central point of your paper, which is your thesis statement.
• Avoid jargon. Make sure your readers can easily understand what you write.
• Avoid offensive language. Remember to use “she” or “he” as well as “individuals with limited abilities” instead of “handicapped” or any other variants.
• Never ignore format requirements.
• “It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.” (C.J. Cherryh)
• “Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.” Hunter S. Thompson
• “Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” Larry L. King
• “I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.” Patrick Dennis
• “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it, and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain

It’s your choice whether or not to follow these tips from the best essay writers or find your own way to perfect writing. Anyway, the wisdom of top writers is worth your attention.

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Great tips for writing an essay .. Amazing guidance .Superb blog.

Thanks for your kind words! We look forward to seeing you again!

Excellent tips! Keep Sharing.

Thank you, Mike!

Hey Irene, Thanks for sharing this. It is helpful for college students.

Hey Liza, I’m glad you found the article useful! Thank you!

Nice Article!

Some of the important points discussed in the article. Creating an outline in the mind is very important as it helps the writer to create a checklist of the relevant points and then elaborates them in detail. Thanks for sharing such an article.

Glad you enjoyed the article, William!

Very useful post for every student and professional essay writer. Keep sharing!

Hi Essay Writer,

I’m happy that you find this list helpful. We hope to see you again on our blog!

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Best essay writing services: top 5 websites for custom papers in the u.s..

Have you ever been in a situation where you have an essay due soon, and for some reason, you just can't get started? The deadline is creeping up on you, and every tick of the clock just adds more pressure. I've definitely been in that spot more times than I'd like to admit.

I've checked out over twenty paper writing services to find the best ones out there. I looked at everything that matters: how good the essays were, how fast they got delivered, whether they arrived on time, and, super importantly, if the essays were original and not just copied from somewhere else.

Choose the Best Paper Writing Service

PaperHelp : Top Pick, Best Value for Money (4.88/5)

BBQPapers : Best for Lengthy and Complex Assignments (4.86/5)

EssayPro : Best for Punctuality (4.82/5)

WritePaperForMe : Best for Affordability (4.80/5)

ExtraEssay : Best for Urgent Papers (4.77/5)

In-Depth Review of the Top Essay Writing Services

I didn't just sit back and read through reviews or take their claims at face value. Nope, I went full incognito mode and actually ordered custom essays from these services to see if they could deliver. It was all about seeing firsthand whether they truly lived up to their promises.

PaperHelp: Top Overall Pick

PaperHelp is a top paper writing service that offers a good bang for your buck with high-quality essays and research papers at prices that don't break the bank.

My experience with them was really positive. From the writing quality and the originality of the content to how qualified the paper writers are and their privacy policies, everything was top-notch.

Quality and Timeliness (4.8/5)

I had a chance to try out PaperHelp for a project I needed, and I went with their basic writer option to keep things budget-friendly.

Honestly, the quality blew me away. The essay was well put together, the points made sense, and it was pretty clear to me that whoever wrote it really understood the topic. It’s obvious they have a solid team who knows how to write well and make complex topics easy to understand.

My paper was nearly 100% original, which is impressive. If you're worried about plagiarism, they do offer checks for an extra fee.

One thing I really appreciated was how quickly they delivered my paper. It arrived six hours before the deadline, which gave me plenty of time to go over it and make sure everything was perfect.

Overall, I genuinely think that PaperHelp is the best essay writing service currently available, because it offers a good balance between quality, affordability, and reliability. From what I've seen, they consistently deliver great work without breaking the bank.

Cost (4.8/5)

Talking about cost, I found their prices really reasonable. I mean, starting around $13-14 for simpler papers and up to $23 for more advanced stuff like Master's and Ph.D. level work seems like a good deal to me, especially considering the quality you get.

A basic plagiarism check is $10, and a detailed Turnitin report is $30. I kind of wish these were included for free, but it seems to be a common practice to charge extra.

Confidentiality (5/5)

They only asked for my email to place the order, which is a big thumbs up from me. It's refreshing to see an essay writing website that takes privacy seriously.

Customer Support (5/5)

Their customer support was on point, too. Every time I reached out, I got a quick and helpful response. It’s comforting to know there’s someone ready to help 24/7, whether it’s over the phone, email, or live chat.

Revisions and Refunds (4.6/5)

Their policy on revisions and refunds is pretty straightforward. You get up to three free revisions within a week, which is generous. And if there’s a significant issue like a missed deadline, they offer a full refund, no questions asked. Though it seems getting a refund under other circumstances might be a bit of a hassle.

BBQPapers: Best for Lengthy and Complex Papers

I've used BBQPapers before, and honestly, it felt like a breath of fresh air in the crowded world of academic writing services.

Yes, their prices are a bit on the higher side, but you really get what you pay for here – outstanding service and top-notch quality that just takes the weight off your shoulders.

Quality and Timeliness (5/5)

The essay they delivered to me was nothing short of impressive. It was well-researched, beautifully crafted, and followed my instructions to the letter. The professional essay writers they have are clearly some of the best out there, with a real talent for digging deep into subjects and presenting ideas clearly and convincingly.

Unlike PaperHelp, they don't have different levels of writers to choose from. It's all about ensuring you get a paper written by someone who's either a native English speaker or perfectly fluent in it, without having to pay extra. That approach simplifies things a lot.

They've also been incredibly reliable in terms of turnaround times, even for urgent requests. It's like having a dependable buddy who's always there to help, ensuring you're never stuck without support.

Cost (4.7/5)

The prices start at $14.60 per page for high school essays, which is a bit steep. But considering the peace of mind and the quality you get, I found it worth the investment. Plus, their loyalty program is genuinely helpful, making future orders more budget-friendly. It feels like they're rewarding you for sticking with quality.

Every order comes with a free plagiarism report, which is a huge plus since most other services charge extra for this kind of assurance. It shows they're committed to maintaining high standards of originality.

Confidentiality (4.8/5)

They ask for just the basic details like email, name and phone and do an excellent job of protecting your information. Knowing that my details were secure and only accessible to customer service made me feel a lot more comfortable using their service.

Speaking of customer service, they're really easy to talk to. It never felt like I was just getting standard responses. Whenever I had a question or an issue, I was chatting with a real person who was there to help.

Revisions and Refunds (4.8/5)

Lastly, their revision and refund policy seemed fair to me. You get a chance to ask for revisions within ten days, which is reasonable. And their full refund promise if they ever miss a deadline or if the content isn't original speaks volumes about their confidence in what they offer.

EssayPro: Best for Punctuality

EssayPro isn't your typical college essay writing service. In fact, it's more like an auction where professional paper writers bid to work on your project. This setup really lets you pick someone who seems right for the job based on their proposal and price.

The essay I bought from EssayPro wes top-notch. It hit the mark on every level: well-structured, clear arguments, and the language was just right for a college assignment. Plus, chatting with the online paper writer was easy and convenient.

My essay landed in my inbox 3 hours ahead of the deadline. That level of punctuality is really something I value, and it's one of the reasons I'd say EssayPro is top-notch in this department.

My paper came back with only a 3% similarity score, and they even threw in an originality report for free just like BBQPapers did. This gave me peace of mind about the uniqueness of my essay.

Cost (4.9/5)

Pricing starts at $11.40 per page, which is reasonable and didn't hurt my wallet too much, even for a last-minute request. And speaking of last-minute, they got my essay done way ahead of schedule — three hours before it was due. Their punctuality is a real standout feature for me.

The process to order was straightforward and kept my details under wraps, asking just for an email.

Customer Support (4.6/5)

If there’s one thing that I don’t like about EssayPro is that there is no option to call them up directly. However, there is an email and live chat support that becomes available after you've placed an order.

Being able to ask for unlimited free revisions for up to 30 days after getting your order is a big plus. Additionally, knowing that you could get anywhere from a 50% to a 100% refund depending on your situation adds a lot of reassurance.

WritePaperForMe: Best for Affordability

In my opinion, WritePaperForMe is the best pick if you need help with a small request and don’t want to spend too much money on it.

They're pretty affordable and don't compromise too much on quality, which was exactly what I was looking for. Their team mainly consists of professional writers with advanced degrees, which gave me confidence in their ability to handle my paper.

Quality and Timeliness (4.7/5)

When I chose the "Best available" writer option, I was hoping for a good mix of affordability and expertise, and that's pretty much what I got. The essay I received was detailed and well-researched, really showing off the writer's knowledge on the topic.

There were a few minor grammar mistakes, probably because the essay writer wasn’t a native speaker of English. However, it wasn't a big deal for me.

The fastest turnaround option here is 6 hours, so WritePaperForMe is not the quickest essay service out there. However, they always deliver on time, which is crucial during crunch time.

As for originality, my paper came back with only 3% plagiarism, which is totally fine for college standards.

WritePaperForMe is genuinely affordable, starting at just $6.99 per page for high school-level writing. That's perfect for students like me who are trying to keep expenses low. What I didn’t really like is that they charged an extra $10 for the plagiarism report, which was a bit too much.

I also really appreciated their approach to privacy, as they only needed my email to start processing my order.

Their customer support was another win. I called a couple of times for updates, and everyone I spoke to was super helpful and friendly.

Revisions and Refunds (4.5/5)

They offer three free revisions within a week after delivery, which is handy. The refund policy is a bit strict, but hopefully, you won't need to use it.

ExtraEssay: Best for Urgent Papers

ExtraEssay is probably the fastest essay writing service around. They offer a one-hour delivery for short tasks, which is a lifesaver for college students pressed for time.

Although there's some room for improvement, particularly regarding the cost of originality reports and additional features, it's a solid choice. If you're in need of dependable and quick academic writing assistance, ExtraEssay is a great option to consider based on my experience.

My essay arrived on time, was well-written, clear, and covered all the important points I needed them to cover. I did notice that if you're in a real rush and need something in just a few hours, the quality might dip a little.

From my experience, giving the writer a bit more time can really help make the essay better. In my case, the balance between how fast I got it and the quality was perfect. It seemed like the person writing it knew the topic really well and was good at writing graduate essays.

If you're running out of time, this service can save you a lot of trouble. They can get you an essay in just an hour, which is amazing for those moments when you've either forgotten about an assignment or just couldn't get to it. There's a limit of one page for these super quick orders, which makes sense but is good to keep in mind.

My essay was mostly unique, which is great, but I was a bit surprised to be charged $15 just to see the originality report. Again, the practice of charging extra for plagiarism reports isn't unique to ExtraEssay. However, even though it's important to know your work is original, that extra charge felt a bit much.

About the cost, it was a bit more than what I usually pay, but given how good the essay was and how fast I got it, I think it was worth it. The prices vary depending on what school level you need the paper for, with the prices starting at $9 per page for high school papers.

I also really appreciated how they handle their customers’ privacy. You only need to give them your email to place an order, and leaving a phone number is totally optional. It's great for keeping your information safe.

Their customer support is excellent, too. I reached out via live chat and got a response in just 20 seconds. The person I talked to (her name was Kathie) was really nice and answered all my questions, which made the whole process a lot smoother.

Revisions and Refunds (5/5)

If something isn't right with your essay, their revision and refund policy is very fair. You have 14 days to ask for revisions, which is plenty of time to make sure everything's just how you want it. They also look at refunds on a case-by-case basis, so it feels like they really care about making things right if you're not happy.

Why These Services?

Let me share why I settled on these particular services. It wasn't a random choice; it came from my personal experiences and a lot of research.

Firstly, reliability is key for me. It's comforting to have services that you can rely on time after time. The ones I've chosen have consistently proven themselves, backed by loads of positive reviews.

The quality of the academic papers is another major factor. The recommended services have incredibly skilled writers who don't just write; they craft well-thought-out, original, and engaging papers. You can tell they have a solid quality control process that ensures every paper is up to par.

As a student, I'm always trying to balance quality with affordability. The services I've picked do just that. They provide excellent work without draining your bank account, which I find pretty impressive.

And let's not forget about meeting deadlines. In school, deadlines are everything, and the services I recommend understand that. They've consistently shown they can handle tight deadlines without ever compromising the quality of their work.

Essay Writing Service FAQs

Are custom paper writing services worth it.

I've used online essay writing services before, and in my experience, they're definitely worth considering, especially if you find a reliable one. They're great for proofreading and editing. You don't just get your writing checked; you also receive valuable feedback and tips to improve.

And if you're looking for someone to write your essay, the benefits are clear. You save so much time that you would have spent on research, not to mention the stress relief from knowing your paper will be plagiarism-free and well-written in terms of formatting, spelling, and grammar.

What I appreciate about these services is the assurance that comes with them. For instance, if there's something about the research paper or a custom essay that's not up to par, you can usually get revisions made. And if things really don't pan out, there's often a money-back guarantee.

The cherry on top? Your essay is delivered on time, just the way you want it. But for me, the biggest perk is the free time you get back. Whether it's for work, spending time with family, taking care of yourself, or pursuing other interests, it's invaluable.

Are essay writing services legal?

There's a bit of a debate around the ethics of using these services, but the fact that there are so many reputable essay writing companies out there doing this work suggests that it's not against the law.

These services do more than just write essays; they also offer proofreading and editing. So, if you write something and want professional feedback, these services can be really helpful. I think it's a great way to get some insight into improving your work.

It's also worth mentioning that nearly every essay writing service guarantees their work will be plagiarism-free. If they don't make this promise, it's a red flag, and you should probably avoid them.

While plagiarism might not always lead to legal trouble, it's definitely something to avoid. So, in my experience, using these services isn't illegal, but it's crucial to choose a trustworthy provider.

Can Turnitin spot the essay that I bought online?

No, Turnitin can't really spot an essay if it's completely original, even if you got it online. It compares your essay against what's available on the internet and what's already in its database to look for any overlaps.

When you go for a legitimate essay writing service, they usually give you a report that shows your essay is original. If an essay makes it through this initial check, it's probably going to be okay on Turnitin too.

But if your essay doesn't pass this test of originality, it means there's a problem. You definitely shouldn't have ended up with that paper, and it might be time to ask for your money back.

Is it safe to use a professional paper writing service?

Yes, they are absolutely safe. But like anything online, you've got to be careful. Some essay writing websites let you see drafts or outlines before you commit, which is helpful because you get a sense of what your essay might look like and judge the writer's skills yourself.

I've learned that picking a website that offers a money-back guarantee is wise. Also, a free plagiarism report is something you should look for. Plagiarism is a big deal, and ensuring your essay is original is crucial.

Safety-wise, choosing a service that uses secure payment methods, including PayPal, is essential to protect your financial info from potential hackers. From my experience, if you stick with reputable sites, especially the ones I've checked out, you should be in good hands.

Side-by-side Comparison of the Paper Writing Websites

Each service has its unique strengths. Your choice will likely depend on what you value most: cost, quality, speed, or a mix of these factors.

PaperHelp is your go-to college paper writing service for getting a lot of quality without spending too much. Their essays come with a side of quick delivery, and you can even check for plagiarism if you're willing to pay a little extra.

Prices are starting from about $13, depending on the complexity of your paper. They keep it simple and secure with just an email needed to get started, and their customer service is always there to help. You'll find their approach to revisions and refunds straightforward and fair.

BBQPapers feels like a premium service without the sticker shock. Yes, their prices are a bit higher, starting at $14.60 per page, but they make it worth your while with top-notch essays and free plagiarism reports at no extra charge. They value your privacy and offer excellent customer support, making sure you feel taken care of. Their loyalty program is a nice touch, rewarding you for choosing quality.

EssayPro offers you to pick the best essay writer based on bids. This adds a personalized touch to the process, often at competitive prices starting at $11.40 per page. They're punctual, delivering essays hours before the deadline, and they include originality reports for free, which is a huge plus. The ordering process is privacy-friendly, requiring just an email, and while their customer support is solid, it's a bit of a bummer you can't call them directly.

WritePaperForMe is a cheap essay writing service and a perfect pick if you're trying to keep expenses low. Prices start at just $6.99 per page. Even though they do charge extra for plagiarism reports, the overall cost remains low. They deliver quality work on time but expect a few grammar hiccups if the writer isn't a native English speaker. The revisions and refunds policy is decent, though it sounds like you might not need to worry about it much.

ExtraEssay is capable of providing a one-hour turnaround for those really tight deadlines. The website requires minimal personal information, and their customer support responds swiftly, making the stress of last-minute assignments a bit more bearable. Prices start at $9 per page.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The 500+ Best Writers of All Time

The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and if you’re a book enthusiast you know that to be true. Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. Writers have shaped human history, capturing some of the most important historical events and reflecting the culture of a changing world around us in a profound way. Who are the best writers of all time? Vote up the authors you think are the best and see how they rank! 

The famous writers on this list are the best in history, writing books, plays, essays, and poetry that has stood the test of time and make up the world's canon of literature and written work. No matter what type of writing you like to read, you can't go wrong with a book by one of these best writers of all time. Simply put, they're easily some of the most famous authors of all time.

This list of authors features the best writers ever, including, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Herman Melleville, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe. Vote up the best authors of all time below or add the writer you think is the best who isn't already on the list.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky, a towering figure in literature, delved into the depths of the human psyche through his novels. His exploration of existentialism and the moral struggles within society earned him a place among the most influential novelists of all time.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, transformed the English language with his timeless plays and sonnets. His profound exploration of the human condition, love, power, and tragedy has left an indelible mark on literature and theater worldwide.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, a Russian literary giant, is best known for epic novels like War and Peace and Anna Karenina . His intricate narratives, philosophical depth, and incisive analysis of societal issues cement his legacy as a master of realistic fiction.

Homer, the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey , stands at the dawn of Western literature. His epic tales of heroes, gods, and warfare have laid the foundation for much of Western narrative tradition and continue to inspire today.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, with his keen observation of Victorian society, brought to life some of literature's most memorable characters and stories. His novels, rich in social commentary and imbued with humor and pathos, remain enduring classics that captivate readers across generations.

J. R. R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy literature, created the unparalleled Middle-earth universe. His The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit not only ignited the genre's popularity but also set a high bar for world-building and linguistic creativity.

George Orwell

George Orwell, renowned for 1984 and Animal Farm , masterfully wielded his pen against totalitarianism and social injustice. His sharp, prescient narratives explore the themes of surveillance, freedom, and the manipulation of truth, remaining profoundly relevant in today's world.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the macabre, revolutionized the horror and detective genres. With his gothic tales of mystery and the supernatural, Poe delved into the human psyche's darkest corners, leaving a lasting impact on literature and popular culture.

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo, a luminary of French literature, is celebrated for classics like Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame . His works, blending social criticism with rich storytelling, highlight the struggles of the marginalized, earning him a revered place in literary history.

Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, is hailed as the father of American literature. With his signature wit and keen observations of society, Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain quintessential American novels.

Jane Austen

Jane Austen, renowned for her sharp wit and keen social commentary, masterfully dissected the British landed gentry's trials and tribulations. Her novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Emma , offer timeless insights into love, class, and women's roles in society.

Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, was a student of Socrates and teacher to Aristotle. Founding the Academy in Athens, his dialogues explored justice, beauty, and equality, laying the groundwork for much of Western philosophical thought.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, known for his economical and understated style, profoundly influenced 20th-century fiction. Author of The Old Man and the Sea and A Farewell to Arms , Hemingway's themes of courage, loss, and existentialism resonate deeply with readers worldwide.

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka, the enigmatic Czech writer, explored the absurdity of existence through his surreal and often nightmarish narratives. His works, including The Metamorphosis and The Trial , delve into themes of alienation, existential dread, and the labyrinth of bureaucracy.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov, a Russian playwright and master of the short story, is celebrated for his intricate character development and concise narrative form. His works, blending humor and tragedy, cast a keen eye on the complexities of the human condition and social dynamics.

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck, a Nobel laureate, captured the American spirit and landscape through his vivid portrayals of the working class. His masterpieces, such as The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men , explore themes of perseverance, poverty, and human dignity.

Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas, with his flair for high adventure and action-packed narratives, penned some of literature's most thrilling tales. The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo showcase Dumas' skill in weaving intricate plots and vibrant characters.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde, the epitome of wit and eloquence, used his sharp tongue and flamboyant style to critique Victorian society. Famous for The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest , Wilde's works blend satire, beauty, and moral questioning.

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes, hailed as the father of the modern novel, immortalized himself with Don Quixote . This groundbreaking work, blending realism with fantasy, satire, and humor, delves into the adventures of a delusional knight and his loyal squire, Sancho Panza.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for creating the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, revolutionized the mystery genre. His stories, featuring Holmes' unparalleled deductive reasoning and the loyal Dr. Watson, have captivated readers for generations with their intricate plots and enduring appeal.

Jules Verne

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

C. S. Lewis

F. Scott Fitzgerald

James Joyce

Brothers Grimm

Robert Louis Stevenson

Hans Christian Andersen

Mary Shelley

Herman Melville

Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens.

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Top 7 Essay Writing Services: Reviews of the Best College Paper Sites

Need help writing a resume or essay? We have unbiased reviews of the highest-rated writing services in 2023! Check them out!

We will compare the prices and features of some top essay writing services in the US. These websites are the most dependable and well-known for hiring professional essay writers. However, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Penning essays appears effortless until you have to craft one yourself. As you already know, academic writing encompasses many complexities, including various types of essays with specific purposes and lengths.

Additionally, many students lack the time to write essays. Fortunately, professional essay writing service are available to ease your workload by handling general academic writing for you. We will evaluate some top paper writing services in the US, comparing their prices and features. These websites are the most dependable and well-known sources for hiring professional essay writers. However, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Here are the 7 best online essay writing services:

EssayPro – Good Essay Writing Service!

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PaperHelp – A great place to buy dissertations and research papers!

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Information about customers is confidential and never disclosed to third parties.

We complete all papers from scratch. You can get a plagiarism report.

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EssayService – For quick delivery, there is no better choice!

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We are ranked Studdit as the best essay writing service in the U.S. overall

Studdit is our top pick for the best essay writing company in the US, offering an impressive combination of benefits.

When searching for an online paper writer, certain elements are crucial and Stddit excels in most of these areas, including high-quality writing, fast turnaround time, and reasonable prices for top-notch services.

Essays come in various forms with unique requirements. While all papers require some research, many essays require extensive research.

If you are short on time, consider using a professional essay writing service that specializes in complex papers such as dissertations. Studdit has higher pricing compared to other websites, but it also provides superior services.

The company also provides originality and editorial check reports for all essays, but has a lengthy registration process and a somewhat cumbersome website, which may inconvenience customers with tight deadlines.

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Other benefits Studdit include good communication with the support team and a discount on your papers.

PaperHepl – Research Papers and Dissertations at the Best Price

PaperHelp offers exceptional research, personalized approach, and a specialization in writing dissertations. Dissertations can often become lengthy, leading to a potential decrease in content quality. PaperHelp ensures consistent quality throughout by paying attention to every detail.

PaperHelp stands at the forefront of quality essay services in the US, with a team of carefully selected, expert academic writers – many of whom are non-native English speakers with proficiency comparable to native writers. Their comprehensive research process, along with editing, proofreading, and formatting, make PaperHelp a premier choice for essay writing service.

Furthermore, PaperHelp is student-friendly, offering substantial discounts and a loyalty program tailored for students. The company provides the best college paper writing services to meet the academic standards for different levels, including high school and college-level essays.

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While PaperHelp is renowned for delivering high-quality essays, it also remains a leading provider of research papers and dissertations.

ExtraEssay – Affordable Service with Best Value for Money

With numerous positive reviews in the US, its writers are carefully selected for their professional and knowledgeable essay writing abilities.

ExtraEssay is known for its fast turnaround time and speedy delivery, as the name suggests. You can hire a reasonably priced essay writer and receive a decent paper on time. While its content quality may not match other affordable essay writing services, ExtraEssay compensates with prompt delivery and exceptional customer service. With numerous positive reviews in the US, its writers are carefully selected for their professional and knowledgeable essay writing abilities.

With a wide range of expertise, you have a high chance of finding a suitable writer for your essays, even with tight deadlines. SpeedyPaper pays close attention to detail, despite its speed, and prioritizes confidentiality and privacy through its data policy and privacy protection.

Reliable with deadlines

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Cheap essay writing service, affordable pricing

Minimum $9 per page

Other ExtraEssay benefits include good communication with the support team and a discount on your papers.

EssayPro – Having the best online reputation

EssayPro is a great option for college essay help, with a streamlined process for customers to find the perfect writer for their needs. These factors make EssayPro one of the most reliable and trustworthy essay services available.

Are you hesitant to hire a college essay writing service due to trust concerns? EssayPro is here to provide the assistance you need. With so many unreliable companies, it’s important to choose wisely.

As a student, time is often limited, especially when it comes to critical essays with tight deadlines. Delays, low-quality content, and scams are the last things you want to worry about.

The reputation of a custom essay writing service is crucial, especially with the risks of plagiarism and improper source citation.

Writer bidding

Fast turnaround time of as little as 6 hours

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The minimum price per page is $11.40 (275 words, college level, two-week deadline)

EssayPro offers a flexible process for both writers and clients, making it a cost-effective option for students on a budget. You can choose a professional writer based on your needs and budget and select from three main paper types: high school, university, and doctorate. You can also quickly review professional writers’ qualifications before hiring.

MyAdmissionsEssay – The Biggest First-Order Discount

MyAdmissionEssay is a recommended option for those seeking a college paper writing service in the U.S. with fast turnaround and affordable prices.

MyAdmissionEssay is a top choice for a college essay writing service in the U.S. offering quick turnaround at an affordable price. Although it may not be the best option for high-quality college-grade essays, it is suitable for simpler essays and tight deadlines.

With consistent discounts for both new and returning customers, MyAdmissionEssay provides a fast and low-priced option compared to other paper writing services. Despite mainly having ESL writers, they are carefully selected to have skills comparable to native English speakers.

Good reputation

Fast response and support

Quality work for the price

Minimum $10 per page

(275 words, college level, two-week deadline)

MyAdmissionEssay also offers a money-back guarantee, showing their confidence in the quality, customer service, and integrity of their service.

GradeMiners – Personal statements at their best

GradeMiners may not have top-notch essay writers, but it has been improving its services over the past few years. As a result, it has become one of the most sought-after online essay writing services in the US. Its quick turnaround time appeals to customers with tight deadlines.

The essays from GradeMiners require minimal editing due to its vast pool of knowledgeable and experienced writers. They are able to handle various writing projects, including bulk orders, while still maintaining their fast turnaround time.

Not only does GradeMiners offer writing services, but it also assists students of various academic levels with homework, such as problem-solving, making it the ideal essay writing service for high school and college students.

With fast turnaround times to meet pressing deadlines, GradeMiners is a great option for students in demanding courses with multiple projects and limited time. Its experienced writers provide high-quality essays that meet assignment requirements.

Exemplary customer support

Fast turnaround time

Flexible revision and report policies

Discounts for new and returning customers

Minimum $17 per page (275 words, college level, two-week deadline)

The professional paper writers on the site are mostly non-native English speakers, available to hire at student-friendly rates. They cater to a wide range of academic papers, including essays, theses, and issertations.

EssayService – The Fastest Essay Writing Service

There are various essay types with varying specifications and requirements, some of which are more complex and require specialized skills. Personal statement essays are one such example.

Unfortunately, not all essay services in the US can provide top-quality personal statements. However, EssayService is a trustworthy option. EssayService ensures quality by assigning writers who have a degree in the relevant field or a related field to write personal statements.

Personal statements are customized to your needs. This essay writing service has over 300 professional college essay writers who can produce top-notch personal statements. All essays are original and undergo multiple checks to eliminate plagiarism. At EssayService, you can have your paper completed in under 8 hours with minimal editing required.

In addition, EssayService offers free services such as formatting, referencing, and revisions that comply with its revision policy.

Free add-on features

Top-notch personal statement writeups

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Minimum $11 per page for an admission essay / personal statement (275 words, college level, two-week deadline)

Moreover, the tracking feature of EssayService sets it apart from others, allowing you to monitor the progress of your paper in real-time. EssayService can handle virtually any subject within any time frame.

How long does it take a writer to write my essay for me?

The time it takes to complete an essay varies, as different types of essays have different requirements and deadlines. Custom specifications often accompany assignments, particularly for important documents like personal statements for scholarships and applications, or for academic writing like research papers and dissertations. Thus, providing a definite time frame without considering all the details can be difficult. The type of essay affects the time required to complete it. However, some reputable essay writing services are willing to go above and beyond to deliver high-quality essays even under tight deadlines. Some websites offer a turnaround time as short as 3-8 hours, but it’s important to note that these companies may not be the most affordable options. They charge a premium fee to deliver within the specified short time frame. However, even for essays with tight deadlines, essay writing services typically still process orders quickly and efficiently.

Does a professional writer write my essay?

Reputable and trustworthy academic writing companies recognize the importance of producing high-quality essays, and as a result, only hire experienced and knowledgeable experts to handle their writing projects. These writers, who are either native English speakers or skilled English as a Second Language (ESL) specialists, possess skills comparable to those of native speakers. Some essay writing services allow you to choose who will work on your project, providing you with the opportunity to review writers’ credentials and select the one best suited for your essay. Other paper writing websites are transparent about their writer screening and selection process, ensuring customers are aware of the measures the company takes to guarantee the quality of its services. While not all essay writing companies in the U.S. require a degree, many do. This means that professionals with degrees in the relevant field or a related field often write your essay, ensuring a high level of expertise.

Is buying essays online a secure and confidential process?

Buying anything online comes with a risk as there is no guarantee. The online space is prone to scams, so it’s important to be cautious. However, there are many trustworthy companies available, you just need to know where to look. Reputable companies prioritize their customer service as it reflects on their reputation. The reliability and reputation of a paper writing service speaks to its confidentiality and safety for purchasing essays. Look for websites that place high importance on confidentiality and privacy. To find a trustworthy service, read independent reviews from reputable agencies and avoid the reviews on a company’s official site, as negative feedback is unlikely to be posted there. When choosing a legitimate essay writing service, consider its policies, offerings, and core values, as well as the emphasis they place on confidentiality, originality, and privacy.

Are essay writing services legit?

Using a paid essay writing service is both legitimate and safe. It is legal to pay someone to write essays for you, as long as you don’t turn in a plagiarized paper. Reputable companies focus on originality and run multiple plagiarism checks, ensuring you have nothing to worry about in terms of authenticity. However, it’s important to review the website’s Terms and Conditions before hiring an online essay writer. Some services allow you to use the work as your own, while others are intended solely for research and as examples and cannot be submitted as your own work. In this case, you may face legal issues. When searching for a reliable essay writing service, thoroughly review their policies and ask questions about your specific purpose and rights to use the essay.

Can I request a revision if I am not satisfied with my paper?

These writing websites design their services to minimize customer dissatisfaction with their work. They often include free revisions as a value-add to ensure customer satisfaction. These revisions provide an opportunity for the writer to address any concerns and make necessary changes to the paper. However, in the unlikely event of dissatisfaction, it is important to review the company’s policies and guarantees before making a payment. Some services offer limited revisions, and any changes must comply with their policy. Meanwhile, others offer a money-back guarantee in case of customer dissatisfaction. To ensure a positive experience, it is best to avoid low-priced writing services with unclear policies regarding revisions and satisfaction.

Which are the main drawbacks of essay writing sites?

There are potential downsides to hiring an essay ghostwriter, especially if you don’t choose a reputable one. One issue is receiving a paper filled with errors, typos, and grammar mistakes. Not all essay writing companies thoroughly screen and select their writers, which can lead to subpar work. Research and data accuracy are also important factors in essay writing and can pose risks if not done properly. Organization and flow are also crucial in essays, but some companies may divide the work among multiple writers to meet tight deadlines, leading to a disjointed essay. Plagiarism is a common concern in the essay writing industry, but most reputable companies have measures in place to prevent it. This is often reflected in their pricing.

When selecting an essay writing service for your college papers, certain crucial factors should not be overlooked, such as turnaround time, originality, revisions, customer service, pricing, and content quality.

On our list of the best companies, we have Studdit as the overall best essay writing service. Considering its quality writing, quick turnaround time, and fair pricing, it is the most popular and versatile option.

Studdit’s solid research process, editing, proofreading, and formatting make it a top-tier choice. If you are also looking for specific services like personal statement writing and high school homework help, we also cover that in this list.

Gig workers are writing essays for AI to learn from

• Companies are hiring highly educated gig workers to write training content for AI models .
• The shift toward more sophisticated trainers comes as tech giants scramble for new data sources.
• AI could run out of data to learn from by 2026, one research institute has warned. 

As artificial intelligence models run out of data to train themselves on, AI companies are increasingly turning to actual humans to write training content.

For years, companies have used gig workers to help train AI models on simple tasks like photo identification , data annotation, and labelling. But the rapidly advancing technology now requires more advanced people to train it.

Companies such as Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring part-timers with graduate degrees to write essays and creative prompts for the bots to gobble up, The New York Times reported . Scale AI, for example, posted a job last year looking for people with Master's degrees or PhDs, who are fluent in either English, Hindi, or Japanese and have professional writing experience in fields like poetry, journalism, and publishing.

Related stories

Their mission? To help AI bots "become better writers," Scale AI wrote in the posting.

And an army of workers are needed to do this kind of work. Scale AI has as many as tens of thousands of contractors working on its platform at a time, per the Times.

"What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent," Willow Primack, the vice president of data operations at Scale AI, told the New York Times. "We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result."

The shift toward more sophisticated gig trainers comes as tech giants scramble to find new data to train their technology on. That's because the programs learn so incredibly fast that they're already running out of available resources to learn from. The vast trove of online information — everything from scientific papers to news articles to Wikipedia pages — is drying up.

Epoch, an AI research institute, has warned that AI could run out of data by 2026.

So, companies are finding more and more creative ways to make sure their systems never stop learning. Google has considered accessing its customers' data in Google Docs , Sheets, and Slides while Meta even thought about buying publishing house Simon & Schuster to harvest its book collection, Business Insider previously reported.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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For Caleb Carr, Salvation Arrived on Little Cat’s Feet

As he struggled with writing and illness, the “Alienist” author found comfort in the feline companions he recalls in a new memoir, “My Beloved Monster.”

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By Alexandra Jacobs

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MY BELOVED MONSTER: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me, by Caleb Carr

J. Alfred Prufrock measured his life out in coffee spoons . Caleb Carr has done so in cats.

Carr is best known for his 1994 best-selling novel “ The Alienist ,” about the search for a serial killer of boy prostitutes, and his work as a military historian. You have to prod the old brain folds a little more to remember that he is the middle son of Lucien Carr , the Beat Generation figure convicted of manslaughter as a 19-year-old Columbia student after stabbing his infatuated former Boy Scout leader and rolling the body into the Hudson.

This crime is only fleetingly alluded to in “My Beloved Monster,” which tracks Carr’s intimate relationship with a blond Siberian feline he names Masha — but his father haunts the book, as fathers will, more sinisterly than most.

After a short prison term, Lucien went on to become a respectable longtime editor for United Press International. He was a drunk — no surprise there, with famous dissolute-author pals like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg hanging around the house. But that he regularly beat Caleb and threw him down flights of stairs, causing not just psychological but physical injuries that persist into adult life, adds further dark shadings to this particular chapter of literary history.

In a boyhood marred by abuse, neglect and the upheaval of his parents’ divorce, cats were there to comfort and commune with Caleb. Indeed, he long believed he was one in a previous life, “ imperfectly or incompletely reincarnated ” as human, he writes.

Before you summon Shirley MacLaine to convene 2024’s weirdest author panel, consider the new ground “My Beloved Monster” breaks just by existing. Even leaving aside the countless novels about them, dogs have long been thought valid subjects for book-length treatment, from Virginia Woolf’s “ Flush ,” about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, to John Grogan’s “ Marley and Me .” Meow-moirs are thinner on the ground.

It’s taken a younger generation of feminists, and probably the boredom and anxiety of quarantine, to destigmatize (and in some cases monetize ) being owned by a cat. Male cat fanciers, however, have long been stereotyped as epicene or eccentric, though their number has included such national pillars of machismo as Ernest Hemingway and Marlon Brando . When one male lawyer accidentally showed up to a civil forfeiture hearing behind a kitten filter on Zoom in 2021, America went wild with the incongruity.

Carr, though he’s a big one for research, doesn’t waste much time, as I just have, throat-clearing about cats’ perch in the culture. He’s suffered from one painful illness after another — neuropathy, pancreatitis, peritonitis, Covid or something Covid-like, cancer; and endured multiple treatments and surgeries, some “botched” — and his writing has the forthrightness and gravity of someone who wants to maximize his remaining time on Earth.

He capitalizes not only Earth, but the Sun, the Moon and the roles played by various important anonymous humans in his life, which gives his story a sometimes ponderous mythic tone: there’s the Mentor, the Lady Vet (a homage to Preston Sturges’ “The Lady Eve”; Carr is a classic movie buff), the Spinal Guru and so forth.

Names are reserved for a succession of cats, who have seemingly been as important to Carr as lovers or human friends, if not more so. (At least one ex felt shortchanged by comparison.) Masha is his spirit animal, a feminine counterpart better than any you could find in the old New York Review of Books personals . She eats, he notes admiringly, “like a barbarian queen”; she enjoys the music of Mahler, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff and Wagner (“nothing — and I’ll include catnip in this statement,” he writes, “made her as visibly overjoyed as the Prelude from ‘Das Rheingold’”); she has a really great set of whiskers.

Before Masha there was Suki, blond as well, but a bewitching emerald-eyed shorthair who chomped delicately around rodents’ organs and disappeared one night. Suki was preceded by Echo, a part-Abyssinian with an adorable-sounding penchant for sticking his head in Carr’s shirtfront pocket. Echo was preceded by Chimene, a tabby-splotched white tomcat the adolescent Caleb nurses miraculously through distemper. Chimene was preceded by Ching-ling, whose third litter of kittens suffer a deeply upsetting fate. And before Ching-ling there was Zorro, a white-socked “superlative mouser” who once stole an entire roast chicken from the top of the Carr family’s refrigerator.

To put it mildly, “My Beloved Monster” is no Fancy Feast commercial. All of the cats in it, city and country — Carr has lived in both, though the action is centered at his house on a foothill of Misery Mountain in Rensselaer County, N.Y— are semi-feral creatures themselves at constant risk of gruesome predation. Masha, rescued from a shelter, had also been likely abused, at the very least abandoned in a locked apartment, and Carr is immediately, keenly attuned to her need for wandering free.

This, of course, will put her at risk. The tension between keeping her safe and allowing her to roam, out there with bears, coyotes and fearsome-sounding creatures called fisher weasels, is the central vein of “My Beloved Monster,” and the foreboding is as thick as her triple-layered fur coat. More so when you learn Carr keeps a hunting rifle by one of his easy chairs.

But the book is also about Carr’s devotion to a line of work he likens to “professional gambling.” Despite his best sellers, Hollywood commissions and conscious decision not to have children to stop the “cycle of abuse,” Carr has faced money troubles. The I.R.S. comes to tape a placard to his door and he’s forced to sell vintage guitars to afford Masha’s medications, for she has begun in eerie parallel to develop ailments of her own.

“My Beloved Monster’ is a loving and lovely, lay-it-all-on-the-line explication of one man’s fierce attachment. If you love cats and feel slightly sheepish about it, it’s a sturdy defense weapon. If you hate them, well, there’s no hope for you.

MY BELOVED MONSTER : Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me | By Caleb Carr | Little, Brown | 352 pp. | $32

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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What can fiction tell us about the apocalypse? The writer Ayana Mathis finds unexpected hope in novels of crisis by Ling Ma, Jenny Offill and Jesmyn Ward .

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The 6 best tablets for handwritten notes in 2024

Finding a good tablet for handwritten notes can be a frustrating task. Tablets are a dime a dozen nowadays, but only a select few are designed specifically for taking notes. Most opt for vibrant screens for streaming movies or try to serve as laptop replacements. That means if you're looking for a spiral notebook replacement, you've got your work cut out for you.

Thankfully, once you know where to look, you'll find plenty of incredible tablets for notetaking. Many of these are custom-built for the task, offering displays that simulate paper as best as possible while also cutting out glare. Most also come with their own pen, allowing you to get as close to "real" notetaking as possible on their digital screen.

Need help sifting through your options? Here's a look at the best tablets for handwritten notes, which includes products from Amazon, Remarkable, Boox, and other traditional tablets that work well for this task. If you're looking for something a bit different than a tablet, be sure to check out the best smart notebooks of 2024 for more great options.

Kindle Scribe

The best tablet for handwritten notes.

• Slim and lightweight design
• E-ink screen looks fantastic
• Tried-and-true Kindle reading
• Superb writing experience
• Weeks of battery life
• Very competitive pricing
• Few formatting tools for writing
• Limited Kindle app integration

The Kindle lineup is primarily seen as a premium class of eReaders, but you might consider the Kindle Scribe to be an "eWriter." While it still functions as an eReader, the big draw of the Kindle Scribe is the ability to take notes on the screen with the included Basic Pen, making it easy to jot down your ideas without any fuss.

Not only do you have the option to take down notes on a screen styled after traditional, physical notebooks, but you can even take handwritten notes directly in books or on blank pages. That gives you impressive versatility to write the way you like. Your notes can then be converted to text and shared with contacts via email. If you need to edit your notes, the Scribe lets you use a Lasso tool to cut, copy, paste, or move them.

Other highlights include a variety of brush types (including a fountain pen for calligraphy or a pencil for sketching), the ability to import documents from Microsoft Word, a two-column layout so you can see multiple pages, and a useful Folders and Subfolders feature to help keep everything organized. The device doesn't support cellular networks, is not waterproof, and doesn't support color images, but if you need a tablet that excels at taking notes, the Scribe is hard to beat.

ReMarkable 2

The best premium tablet for handwritten notes.

• Thin design
• Realistic writing experience
• Responsive screen and software
• Limited storage
• Doesn't support color images

The ReMarkable 2 is one of the main competitors of the Kindle Scribe, offering a paper-thin display and premium Marker Plus pen that makes taking digital notes feel shockingly natural. Part of what makes the ReMarkable 2 so compelling is its luxurious design, which is just 0.19-inches thick and comes extremely close to simulating a "real" writing experience on paper.

Aside from its cool design, the ReMarkable 2 gets nearly everything else right. This includes a distraction-free design that uses no pop-ups or pesky notifications, a UI that lets you quickly organize all your files, and a pen that comes with a built-in eraser. You can even convert your handwritten notes into typed text. And since the tablet integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, you should never have a problem accessing all your files.

As you'd expect, the ReMarkable 2 includes standard features such as the ability to undo your last action, resize objects, or set up layers to better manage your note taking. But one notable drawback is its built-in storage, which caps out at just 8GB. That means you'll want to make use of cloud storage options if you're an avid notetaker. But beyond that caveat, there's little to knock about this remarkable tablet.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S9

The best galaxy tablet for handwritten notes.

• Vibrant AMOLED display
• Premium hardware
• Water and dust resistant
• Doesn't use an e-ink display

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 isn't built specifically for taking notes. But with an included S Pen and large 11-inch display, it’s a versatile machine that does much more than let you jot down your thoughts. It's also shockingly thin despite all the tech packed inside, clocking in at 0.23-inches thick.

For a full-fledged tablet, that's a pretty tiny footprint. Samsung equipped the Tab S9 with an 11-inch AMOLED display – which is a big departure from the displays on the ReMarkable 2 and Kindle Scribe. That makes this tablet not just great for taking notes, but also watching movies, playing games, or surfing the web. It also means that it's not quite as fun to write on as the other tablets, but for users who want their tablet to pull double duty as an entertainment center, it's nice to have all those other options.

Rounding out the Tab S9 is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset for blistering fast performance, and option for up to 512GB SSD, and an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. That last feature could make this mighty compelling if you plan to bring it with on vacation, as trying to take notes by the pool with a device lacking waterproofing could be a disaster.

If you want something bigger, you'll find the Tab S9+ and Tab S9 Ultra available with larger displays.

Boox Tab Ultra C Pro

The best android tablet for handwritten notes.

• Lightweight design
• Built-in camera
• Supports black and white and color images
• Expensive for what it offers

It may not be as popular as the Scribe or ReMarkable 2, but the Boox Tab Ultra C Pro is a great Android tablet for handwritten notes. Part of its allure is support for both black and white and color images, while its Android operating system makes it great for diving into third-party apps.

Clocking in at just 450 grams, the Tab Ultra C Pro is light and portable. It boasts a striking exterior chassis, which is largely a matte black and looks both refined and professional. The only object breaking up its smooth exterior is a camera block, which can function as a scanner. And while the touchscreen should be fine for most folks, you'll find an optional keyboard attachment available that turns the tablet into a bonafide laptop replacement.

Taking notes on the Tab Ultra C Pro is similar to most other tablets on this list, as it offers an anti-glare display, a split-screen mode for multitasking, and supports multiple document formats. There's even a microSD card slot if you need extra storage for all your files.

The Android operating system isn't quite as exciting as Windows, but it works well with the Tab Ultra C Pro and turns the device into a multifaceted tablet. Be sure to give it a look if you want something off the beaten path that excels at taking notes but doesn't forgo other conveniences.

Apple iPad Pro

The best mac tablet for handwritten notes.

• Sleek and modern design
• Bright, vivid, gorgeous display
• Wild performance from the M2 chip
• Apple Pencil hover feature
• iPadOS 16 is super robust
• Stage Manager needs more work
• Lackluster, awkward front camera
• Prohibitively expensive

Apple is known for making expensive, yet premium, products, and the iPad Pro is no exception. A variety of models are up for grabs, but the 12.9-inch model with support for Wi-Fi and cellular is one of the best available, making it a well-rounded tablet for almost every task.

Unfortunately, the Apple Pencil is not included with the iPad Pro. But if you do pick it up, you'll get a powerful note-taking tool that offers low latency, tilt sensitivity, and a cool feature that lets you double tap to quickly change the writing utensil you're using. And while the iPad Pro doesn't have an e-ink display, its Liquid Retina display is so vibrant and responsive that taking handwritten notes shouldn't be an issue.

This tablet is powered by the M2 chip, resulting in short load times and applications that are quick to respond to your input. You'll also be able to save your files to iCloud for easy access and download various other apps through the popular App Store. It's not cheap, but the iPad Pro is a luxurious tablet that does a bit of everything – so if you don’t need the unique e-ink display of a dedicated writing tablet, this one is worth a closer look.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9

The best windows tablet for handwritten notes.

• New colors look great
• Design and build quality are top notch
• SQ3 is a solid alternative
• Type Cover keyboard is excellent
• High resolution webcam
• No headphone jack
• Upgrades still too expensive
• Limited performance improvements

The Surface Pro 9 is a nice all-around tablet that works well for handwritten notes. It's primarily designed as a laptop replacement, equipped with high-end hardware that's ideal for businesses, schoolwork, or even some light gaming, but if you add on a Slim Pen (sold separately, unfortunately), you'll have a smooth way to take digital notes.

Inside this model of the Surface Pro 9 you'll find an Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB SSD, and 16GB RAM, making it one of the most powerful tablets on the market. The tablet is built with a 13-inch touchscreen that offers a 2880 x 1920 resolution, along with a slim profile so you can easily lug it around with you to meetings or lectures.

If you plan on taking notes, you'll need to tack on the Slim Pen 2. The unique stylus includes a haptic motor for tactile feedback, registers over 4,000 pressure levels, and gets up to 15 hours of use before needing a recharge. It's unfortunate that it's not bundled with the tablet, but at least it gets you plenty of cool features if you do decide to pick one up.

How we chose the best tablet for handwritten notes

There are a ton of tablets floating around in the market, but not all of them offer a great writing experience. Some are designed to be alternatives to laptops, while others are designed primarily for reading or consuming content. That means you'll need to pay close attention to the product you pick out, as each tablet comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. With that in mind, here's how we chose the best tablets for handwritten notes.

Smooth writing experience

Above all else, a tablet for taking notes needs to work as a suitable replacement for pen and paper. Whether you're drawing diagrams, writing out a journal entry, or anything in between, writing on the tablet's screen needs to be an enjoyable experience. Ideally, a pen is included with your purchase – but if it's not, the company should at least offer one as a standalone product. Along with writing, going back and reviewing your notes should be simple, as should erasing sections of your work or deleting entire pages.

In short, taking notes on the tablet should be just as intuitive and second nature as taking notes in a traditional spiral notebook. If not, then you'll want to keep searching.

Easy to read display

A display can make or break a tablet. After all, a tablet is essentially just one big touchscreen display. For this list, we looked for products that offered high-quality resolutions and provided users with a great viewing experience. The list is primairily composed of two types of products – ones that use some sort of "e-ink" display and ones that use a traditional, high-resolution display. For example, the Kindle Scribe uses a black and white display with excellent anti-glare properties, making it great for taking notes. However, the iPad Pro is also solid as a note-taking machine, though it uses a Liquid Retina display that works well for movies or gaming.

Products like the Kindle Scribe are typically better for taking handwritten notes, but users who prefer versatility might enjoy the vibrant display offered by the iPad Pro. Be sure to consider how you're going to use your tablet, and if you're using it for more than just notes, screen quality needs to be a consideration.

Portability

Whether you're bringing your tablet to a conference call, lecture, or the library, a good tablet is lightweight and easy to toss into your backpack. We made sure that all the products on this list are streamlined and won't weigh you down with extra baggage. They're also durable and built to last a long time before needing to be upgraded or replaced. Some also offer additional products such as covers or carrying cases, allowing you to personalize their appearance and make them better withstand demanding travel schedules.

Design quality and additional features

Tablets aren't just for taking notes. And if you're spending hundreds of dollars on one, there's a good chance you'll want it to do more than just serve as a digital pen and paper. While the most important factor we considered on this list was the handwritten note experience, we also looked at what other features were available on the device. This includes things like access to the internet, the ability to download apps, or even the option to use it as a traditional PC.

Overall design quality was also considered, as there's no point shelling out cash for a tablet that'll break down within the year. Every tablet on this list is manufactured by a trusted brand like Microsoft, Amazon, or Apple, ensuring that you're all but guaranteed to get a premium device free of defects.

Operating system

Tablets run on all sorts of operating systems, from custom-built Linux systems to Windows or Android. All of these are perfectly suitable choices for a note-taking tablet, but each works different from the next. Products built with custom operating systems are typically the best for note taking, as they've been optimized for this feature. However, products running Android or Windows might offer better access to other applications, allowing you to branch out beyond taking notes.

Pricing and performance

There are some remarkably expensive tablets available in 2024, and not all of them have earned their price tags. We made sure that all our picks have enough firepower and the performance to back up their price. Of course, that doesn't mean this list is loaded with budget picks. Some products earn their hefty price tags by packing in robust processors, incredible displays, and a smooth writing experience. But the items on this list all give you a good bang for your buck, whether they cost $200 or $2,000.

This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial team.

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Jon Bitner is a writer covering consumer electronics, technology, and gaming. His work has been published on various websites beyond Digital Trends, including The Wall Street Journal , Metacritic , GameSpot , and Slickdeals . He holds a degree in Biology and previously worked as a Medical Editor.

When not playing video games, he can be found running, reading, or checking out the latest series on Netflix.

Whether you’re struggling with lagging internet speeds or curious to know how your internet provider stacks up, it’s impossible to know just how fast your internet speed is without using a precise test. Top-quality internet speed tests can clear up any confusion quickly and easily. But you'll need to know what the best internet speed test website are. Check out the following internet speed tests to learn more about your upload and download speeds, as well as other exciting information about your internet connection.

As much as we love having the best smartphones in our pockets, there are times when those small screens don't cut it and we just need a larger display. That's when you turn to a tablet, which is great for being productive on the go and can be a awesome way to unwind and relax too. While the tablet market really took off after the iPad, it has grown to be quite diverse with a huge variety of products — from great budget options to powerhouses for professionals.

We've tried out a lot of tablets here at Digital Trends, from the workhorses for pros to tablets that are made for kids and even seniors -- there's a tablet for every person and every budget. For most people, though, we think Apple's iPad Air is the best overall tablet — especially if you're already invested in the Apple ecosystem. But if you're not an Apple user, that's fine too; there are plenty of other great options that you'll find in this roundup.

While the RTX 4090 is easily one of the most powerful cards on the market, it's important to note that GPU makers are a little bit 'sneaky' when it comes to naming GPUs. You see when any brand uses a mobile Nvidia GPU, that is, a smaller form-factor version, it is usually appended by the letter M. So if you're buying an RTX 4090 on a laptop, it's actually an RTX 4090M, and that means it's actually not an RTX 4090, but an RTX 4080 instead. In that way, all laptop GPUs are one step down, so an RTX 4080M on a laptop would be an RTX 4070, an RTX 4070M on a laptop would be an RTX 4060, and so on.

And that may seem a bit . . . peculiar, but AMD does a similar thing too. That's mostly because it's easier for a company like Nvidia to say, "the RTX 4090 is the best GPU you can buy on any device" instead of going into detail by saying, "The RTX 4090 is the best we can do on desktop, while the RTX 4080 is the best we can do on a laptop". And the fact that you're not getting an RTX 4090 on a laptop isn't a bad thing because even the RTX 4090M (AKA, the RTX 4080) already has to be throttled sometimes due to heat. So, if you got an actual RTX 4090 in your laptop, you'd basically never get to use it to its full potential.

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Writing Survey Questions

Perhaps the most important part of the survey process is the creation of questions that accurately measure the opinions, experiences and behaviors of the public. Accurate random sampling will be wasted if the information gathered is built on a shaky foundation of ambiguous or biased questions. Creating good measures involves both writing good questions and organizing them to form the questionnaire.

Questionnaire design is a multistage process that requires attention to many details at once. Designing the questionnaire is complicated because surveys can ask about topics in varying degrees of detail, questions can be asked in different ways, and questions asked earlier in a survey may influence how people respond to later questions. Researchers are also often interested in measuring change over time and therefore must be attentive to how opinions or behaviors have been measured in prior surveys.

Surveyors may conduct pilot tests or focus groups in the early stages of questionnaire development in order to better understand how people think about an issue or comprehend a question. Pretesting a survey is an essential step in the questionnaire design process to evaluate how people respond to the overall questionnaire and specific questions, especially when questions are being introduced for the first time.

For many years, surveyors approached questionnaire design as an art, but substantial research over the past forty years has demonstrated that there is a lot of science involved in crafting a good survey questionnaire. Here, we discuss the pitfalls and best practices of designing questionnaires.

Question development

There are several steps involved in developing a survey questionnaire. The first is identifying what topics will be covered in the survey. For Pew Research Center surveys, this involves thinking about what is happening in our nation and the world and what will be relevant to the public, policymakers and the media. We also track opinion on a variety of issues over time so we often ensure that we update these trends on a regular basis to better understand whether people’s opinions are changing.

At Pew Research Center, questionnaire development is a collaborative and iterative process where staff meet to discuss drafts of the questionnaire several times over the course of its development. We frequently test new survey questions ahead of time through qualitative research methods such as  focus groups , cognitive interviews, pretesting (often using an  online, opt-in sample ), or a combination of these approaches. Researchers use insights from this testing to refine questions before they are asked in a production survey, such as on the ATP.

Measuring change over time

Many surveyors want to track changes over time in people’s attitudes, opinions and behaviors. To measure change, questions are asked at two or more points in time. A cross-sectional design surveys different people in the same population at multiple points in time. A panel, such as the ATP, surveys the same people over time. However, it is common for the set of people in survey panels to change over time as new panelists are added and some prior panelists drop out. Many of the questions in Pew Research Center surveys have been asked in prior polls. Asking the same questions at different points in time allows us to report on changes in the overall views of the general public (or a subset of the public, such as registered voters, men or Black Americans), or what we call “trending the data”.

When measuring change over time, it is important to use the same question wording and to be sensitive to where the question is asked in the questionnaire to maintain a similar context as when the question was asked previously (see  question wording  and  question order  for further information). All of our survey reports include a topline questionnaire that provides the exact question wording and sequencing, along with results from the current survey and previous surveys in which we asked the question.

The Center’s transition from conducting U.S. surveys by live telephone interviewing to an online panel (around 2014 to 2020) complicated some opinion trends, but not others. Opinion trends that ask about sensitive topics (e.g., personal finances or attending religious services ) or that elicited volunteered answers (e.g., “neither” or “don’t know”) over the phone tended to show larger differences than other trends when shifting from phone polls to the online ATP. The Center adopted several strategies for coping with changes to data trends that may be related to this change in methodology. If there is evidence suggesting that a change in a trend stems from switching from phone to online measurement, Center reports flag that possibility for readers to try to head off confusion or erroneous conclusions.

Open- and closed-ended questions

One of the most significant decisions that can affect how people answer questions is whether the question is posed as an open-ended question, where respondents provide a response in their own words, or a closed-ended question, where they are asked to choose from a list of answer choices.

For example, in a poll conducted after the 2008 presidential election, people responded very differently to two versions of the question: “What one issue mattered most to you in deciding how you voted for president?” One was closed-ended and the other open-ended. In the closed-ended version, respondents were provided five options and could volunteer an option not on the list.

When explicitly offered the economy as a response, more than half of respondents (58%) chose this answer; only 35% of those who responded to the open-ended version volunteered the economy. Moreover, among those asked the closed-ended version, fewer than one-in-ten (8%) provided a response other than the five they were read. By contrast, fully 43% of those asked the open-ended version provided a response not listed in the closed-ended version of the question. All of the other issues were chosen at least slightly more often when explicitly offered in the closed-ended version than in the open-ended version. (Also see  “High Marks for the Campaign, a High Bar for Obama”  for more information.)

Researchers will sometimes conduct a pilot study using open-ended questions to discover which answers are most common. They will then develop closed-ended questions based off that pilot study that include the most common responses as answer choices. In this way, the questions may better reflect what the public is thinking, how they view a particular issue, or bring certain issues to light that the researchers may not have been aware of.

When asking closed-ended questions, the choice of options provided, how each option is described, the number of response options offered, and the order in which options are read can all influence how people respond. One example of the impact of how categories are defined can be found in a Pew Research Center poll conducted in January 2002. When half of the sample was asked whether it was “more important for President Bush to focus on domestic policy or foreign policy,” 52% chose domestic policy while only 34% said foreign policy. When the category “foreign policy” was narrowed to a specific aspect – “the war on terrorism” – far more people chose it; only 33% chose domestic policy while 52% chose the war on terrorism.

In most circumstances, the number of answer choices should be kept to a relatively small number – just four or perhaps five at most – especially in telephone surveys. Psychological research indicates that people have a hard time keeping more than this number of choices in mind at one time. When the question is asking about an objective fact and/or demographics, such as the religious affiliation of the respondent, more categories can be used. In fact, they are encouraged to ensure inclusivity. For example, Pew Research Center’s standard religion questions include more than 12 different categories, beginning with the most common affiliations (Protestant and Catholic). Most respondents have no trouble with this question because they can expect to see their religious group within that list in a self-administered survey.

In addition to the number and choice of response options offered, the order of answer categories can influence how people respond to closed-ended questions. Research suggests that in telephone surveys respondents more frequently choose items heard later in a list (a “recency effect”), and in self-administered surveys, they tend to choose items at the top of the list (a “primacy” effect).

Because of concerns about the effects of category order on responses to closed-ended questions, many sets of response options in Pew Research Center’s surveys are programmed to be randomized to ensure that the options are not asked in the same order for each respondent. Rotating or randomizing means that questions or items in a list are not asked in the same order to each respondent. Answers to questions are sometimes affected by questions that precede them. By presenting questions in a different order to each respondent, we ensure that each question gets asked in the same context as every other question the same number of times (e.g., first, last or any position in between). This does not eliminate the potential impact of previous questions on the current question, but it does ensure that this bias is spread randomly across all of the questions or items in the list. For instance, in the example discussed above about what issue mattered most in people’s vote, the order of the five issues in the closed-ended version of the question was randomized so that no one issue appeared early or late in the list for all respondents. Randomization of response items does not eliminate order effects, but it does ensure that this type of bias is spread randomly.

Questions with ordinal response categories – those with an underlying order (e.g., excellent, good, only fair, poor OR very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, very unfavorable) – are generally not randomized because the order of the categories conveys important information to help respondents answer the question. Generally, these types of scales should be presented in order so respondents can easily place their responses along the continuum, but the order can be reversed for some respondents. For example, in one of Pew Research Center’s questions about abortion, half of the sample is asked whether abortion should be “legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, illegal in all cases,” while the other half of the sample is asked the same question with the response categories read in reverse order, starting with “illegal in all cases.” Again, reversing the order does not eliminate the recency effect but distributes it randomly across the population.

Question wording

The choice of words and phrases in a question is critical in expressing the meaning and intent of the question to the respondent and ensuring that all respondents interpret the question the same way. Even small wording differences can substantially affect the answers people provide.

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An example of a wording difference that had a significant impact on responses comes from a January 2003 Pew Research Center survey. When people were asked whether they would “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule,” 68% said they favored military action while 25% said they opposed military action. However, when asked whether they would “favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule  even if it meant that U.S. forces might suffer thousands of casualties, ” responses were dramatically different; only 43% said they favored military action, while 48% said they opposed it. The introduction of U.S. casualties altered the context of the question and influenced whether people favored or opposed military action in Iraq.

There has been a substantial amount of research to gauge the impact of different ways of asking questions and how to minimize differences in the way respondents interpret what is being asked. The issues related to question wording are more numerous than can be treated adequately in this short space, but below are a few of the important things to consider:

First, it is important to ask questions that are clear and specific and that each respondent will be able to answer. If a question is open-ended, it should be evident to respondents that they can answer in their own words and what type of response they should provide (an issue or problem, a month, number of days, etc.). Closed-ended questions should include all reasonable responses (i.e., the list of options is exhaustive) and the response categories should not overlap (i.e., response options should be mutually exclusive). Further, it is important to discern when it is best to use forced-choice close-ended questions (often denoted with a radio button in online surveys) versus “select-all-that-apply” lists (or check-all boxes). A 2019 Center study found that forced-choice questions tend to yield more accurate responses, especially for sensitive questions.  Based on that research, the Center generally avoids using select-all-that-apply questions.

It is also important to ask only one question at a time. Questions that ask respondents to evaluate more than one concept (known as double-barreled questions) – such as “How much confidence do you have in President Obama to handle domestic and foreign policy?” – are difficult for respondents to answer and often lead to responses that are difficult to interpret. In this example, it would be more effective to ask two separate questions, one about domestic policy and another about foreign policy.

In general, questions that use simple and concrete language are more easily understood by respondents. It is especially important to consider the education level of the survey population when thinking about how easy it will be for respondents to interpret and answer a question. Double negatives (e.g., do you favor or oppose  not  allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry) or unfamiliar abbreviations or jargon (e.g., ANWR instead of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) can result in respondent confusion and should be avoided.

Similarly, it is important to consider whether certain words may be viewed as biased or potentially offensive to some respondents, as well as the emotional reaction that some words may provoke. For example, in a 2005 Pew Research Center survey, 51% of respondents said they favored “making it legal for doctors to give terminally ill patients the means to end their lives,” but only 44% said they favored “making it legal for doctors to assist terminally ill patients in committing suicide.” Although both versions of the question are asking about the same thing, the reaction of respondents was different. In another example, respondents have reacted differently to questions using the word “welfare” as opposed to the more generic “assistance to the poor.” Several experiments have shown that there is much greater public support for expanding “assistance to the poor” than for expanding “welfare.”

We often write two versions of a question and ask half of the survey sample one version of the question and the other half the second version. Thus, we say we have two  forms  of the questionnaire. Respondents are assigned randomly to receive either form, so we can assume that the two groups of respondents are essentially identical. On questions where two versions are used, significant differences in the answers between the two forms tell us that the difference is a result of the way we worded the two versions.

One of the most common formats used in survey questions is the “agree-disagree” format. In this type of question, respondents are asked whether they agree or disagree with a particular statement. Research has shown that, compared with the better educated and better informed, less educated and less informed respondents have a greater tendency to agree with such statements. This is sometimes called an “acquiescence bias” (since some kinds of respondents are more likely to acquiesce to the assertion than are others). This behavior is even more pronounced when there’s an interviewer present, rather than when the survey is self-administered. A better practice is to offer respondents a choice between alternative statements. A Pew Research Center experiment with one of its routinely asked values questions illustrates the difference that question format can make. Not only does the forced choice format yield a very different result overall from the agree-disagree format, but the pattern of answers between respondents with more or less formal education also tends to be very different.

One other challenge in developing questionnaires is what is called “social desirability bias.” People have a natural tendency to want to be accepted and liked, and this may lead people to provide inaccurate answers to questions that deal with sensitive subjects. Research has shown that respondents understate alcohol and drug use, tax evasion and racial bias. They also may overstate church attendance, charitable contributions and the likelihood that they will vote in an election. Researchers attempt to account for this potential bias in crafting questions about these topics. For instance, when Pew Research Center surveys ask about past voting behavior, it is important to note that circumstances may have prevented the respondent from voting: “In the 2012 presidential election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, did things come up that kept you from voting, or did you happen to vote?” The choice of response options can also make it easier for people to be honest. For example, a question about church attendance might include three of six response options that indicate infrequent attendance. Research has also shown that social desirability bias can be greater when an interviewer is present (e.g., telephone and face-to-face surveys) than when respondents complete the survey themselves (e.g., paper and web surveys).

Lastly, because slight modifications in question wording can affect responses, identical question wording should be used when the intention is to compare results to those from earlier surveys. Similarly, because question wording and responses can vary based on the mode used to survey respondents, researchers should carefully evaluate the likely effects on trend measurements if a different survey mode will be used to assess change in opinion over time.

Question order

Once the survey questions are developed, particular attention should be paid to how they are ordered in the questionnaire. Surveyors must be attentive to how questions early in a questionnaire may have unintended effects on how respondents answer subsequent questions. Researchers have demonstrated that the order in which questions are asked can influence how people respond; earlier questions can unintentionally provide context for the questions that follow (these effects are called “order effects”).

One kind of order effect can be seen in responses to open-ended questions. Pew Research Center surveys generally ask open-ended questions about national problems, opinions about leaders and similar topics near the beginning of the questionnaire. If closed-ended questions that relate to the topic are placed before the open-ended question, respondents are much more likely to mention concepts or considerations raised in those earlier questions when responding to the open-ended question.

For closed-ended opinion questions, there are two main types of order effects: contrast effects ( where the order results in greater differences in responses), and assimilation effects (where responses are more similar as a result of their order).

An example of a contrast effect can be seen in a Pew Research Center poll conducted in October 2003, a dozen years before same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. That poll found that people were more likely to favor allowing gays and lesbians to enter into legal agreements that give them the same rights as married couples when this question was asked after one about whether they favored or opposed allowing gays and lesbians to marry (45% favored legal agreements when asked after the marriage question, but 37% favored legal agreements without the immediate preceding context of a question about same-sex marriage). Responses to the question about same-sex marriage, meanwhile, were not significantly affected by its placement before or after the legal agreements question.

Another experiment embedded in a December 2008 Pew Research Center poll also resulted in a contrast effect. When people were asked “All in all, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country today?” immediately after having been asked “Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?”; 88% said they were dissatisfied, compared with only 78% without the context of the prior question.

Responses to presidential approval remained relatively unchanged whether national satisfaction was asked before or after it. A similar finding occurred in December 2004 when both satisfaction and presidential approval were much higher (57% were dissatisfied when Bush approval was asked first vs. 51% when general satisfaction was asked first).

Several studies also have shown that asking a more specific question before a more general question (e.g., asking about happiness with one’s marriage before asking about one’s overall happiness) can result in a contrast effect. Although some exceptions have been found, people tend to avoid redundancy by excluding the more specific question from the general rating.

Assimilation effects occur when responses to two questions are more consistent or closer together because of their placement in the questionnaire. We found an example of an assimilation effect in a Pew Research Center poll conducted in November 2008 when we asked whether Republican leaders should work with Obama or stand up to him on important issues and whether Democratic leaders should work with Republican leaders or stand up to them on important issues. People were more likely to say that Republican leaders should work with Obama when the question was preceded by the one asking what Democratic leaders should do in working with Republican leaders (81% vs. 66%). However, when people were first asked about Republican leaders working with Obama, fewer said that Democratic leaders should work with Republican leaders (71% vs. 82%).

The order questions are asked is of particular importance when tracking trends over time. As a result, care should be taken to ensure that the context is similar each time a question is asked. Modifying the context of the question could call into question any observed changes over time (see  measuring change over time  for more information).

A questionnaire, like a conversation, should be grouped by topic and unfold in a logical order. It is often helpful to begin the survey with simple questions that respondents will find interesting and engaging. Throughout the survey, an effort should be made to keep the survey interesting and not overburden respondents with several difficult questions right after one another. Demographic questions such as income, education or age should not be asked near the beginning of a survey unless they are needed to determine eligibility for the survey or for routing respondents through particular sections of the questionnaire. Even then, it is best to precede such items with more interesting and engaging questions. One virtue of survey panels like the ATP is that demographic questions usually only need to be asked once a year, not in each survey.

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Why Writing Down Angry Thoughts and Shredding Them May Help You Process Emotions in a Healthy Way

A new study in Japan found that the physical disposal of the paper itself played a key role in eliminating the anger

Erin Clack is a Staff Editor for PEOPLE. She has been writing about fashion, parenting and pop culture for more than 15 years.

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Managing your anger could be as simple as putting pen to paper — followed by one extra key step — according to a new study.

In the findings, published on April 9 in Nature 's Scientific Reports, researchers in Japan found that writing down your thoughts and feelings after a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding it or crumbling it into a ball and throwing it out in a trash bin can dispel anger. Specifically, it was the act of disposing of the paper — rather than just writing down feelings — that eliminated anger in the study participants.

"This study shows that physical disposal of a piece of paper containing one’s written thoughts on the cause of a provocative event neutralizes anger, while holding the paper did not," the study's authors, Yuta Kanaya and Nobuyuki Kawai, wrote.

To conduct the study, a group of 57 students from a local university were asked to write brief opinions about an important social problem, such as smoking in public. Their handwritten responses were deliberately given low evaluations (according to criteria such as intelligence, rationality, logic and friendliness) and even some insulting comments.

The provoked participants then wrote down their angry thoughts about the negative feedback they received. One group of participants disposed of their paper in either the trash can or the shredder, while the other group kept their paper in a file or a plastic box on their desk.

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While all of the participants demonstrated an increased subjective rating of anger in response to the negative feedback, those who discarded their paper in the trash can or shredded it returned to their baseline state. However, those people who retained their paper experienced only a small reduction in their overall anger.

"The meaning (interpretation) of disposal plays a critical role," the researchers concluded. "These results are consistent with other studies which showed that the meaning of disposal was critical for determining its impact, not the action itself."

The study's authors noted that the results may be connected to the phenomenon of "backward magical contagion," which is "the belief that actions taken on an object (e.g. hair) associated with an individual can affect the individuals themselves."

"The phenomenon of ‘magical contagion’ or ‘celebrity contagion’ refers to the belief that the ‘essence’ of an individual can be transferred to their possessions," they continued. "This backward magical contagion operates in a reversed process, where manipulating an object associated with a person is thought to impact the individuals themselves."

The elimination of anger through the disposal of an object may be achieved by recognizing that the physical entity — in this case, the piece of paper — has been diminished, causing the anger to also disappear.

Kanaya and Kawai noted that the study reveals a "convenient" and "cost-effective" way to manage anger in a variety of settings, including childcare, business meetings and clinical applications.

"The building blocks of this method (e.g. applying it to a digital device or creating a specific application) could be useful in various daily situations as well as behavioral therapies. In particular, for someone who has difficulty suppressing their anger in their homes," they wrote.

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• Insufficient customization options
• Restricted refund policy
• User-friendly interface: ResumeSpice boasts an intuitive and user-friendly platform, simplifying the resume creation process and offering a seamless experience to users.
• Extensive template library: The platform offers a vast selection of professionally designed templates tailored to various industries and job positions. Users can explore different styles and layouts to find the perfect match for their needs.
• Import and export options: ResumeSpice enables users to import their existing resumes in formats like PDF or Word for easy editing and updates. Users can conveniently export their finalized resumes in multiple formats, facilitating sharing with employers or uploading to job portals.
• Mobile-friendly design: ResumeSpice is optimized for mobile devices, allowing users to create and modify their resumes using smartphones or tablets.
• Cloud storage: The platform provides secure cloud storage for users’ resumes, ensuring accessibility and updates from any device with an internet connection.
• Resume tracking: ResumeSpice includes tools for tracking the performance of submitted resumes, such as monitoring views, downloads, and application outcomes. These features empower users to evaluate their progress and make data-driven enhancements to their job search strategies.
• Entry Level Resume : $479
• Professional Resume : $589
• Executive Resume : $699

>> Use ResumeSpice to Secure Your Dream Job

TopResume - Best Resume Builder for Customer Service

Star Rating: 3.6/5

TopResume is an outstanding resume builder explicitly tailored for customer service professionals. It offers a seamless and user-friendly experience, enabling users to create exceptional resumes effortlessly. The platform goes beyond just providing a basic resume template, offering valuable suggestions and tips to optimize the content.

This ensures that each resume created on TopResume is unique and attention-grabbing in the highly competitive job market.

Besides its user-friendly interface, TopResume provides expert review services. These services allow skilled professionals to provide personalized feedback on resumes, helping enhance their overall quality further. By leveraging this feedback and incorporating attention to detail, customer service professionals can create compelling resumes that effectively capture the attention of potential employers.

• Streamlined registration process
• Well-designed and formatted one-page resume
• The summary and Job Scope sections were overly extended
• The training section needed to have prominence
• Skill-based sections: The resume builder features dedicated sections highlighting essential customer service skills, including communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and relationship building.
• Expert review services: TopResume provides expert review services where experienced professionals offer personalized feedback and recommendations to enhance the overall quality of your resume.
• ATS compatibility: The platform ensures that the resumes created are compatible with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which employers commonly use for scanning and filtering resumes.
• Download and sharing options: Users can download their resumes in various formats, such as PDF or Word, and easily share them with potential employers or upload them to job portals.
• Industry-Specific Tips: TopResume offers industry-specific tips and guidance to assist users in tailoring their resumes to the customer service field, helping them stand out among competitors.
• Cover letter builder: Besides resume building, TopResume provides a builder that empowers users to craft professional and compelling cover letters customized for customer service roles.
• Mobile accessibility: The platform is mobile-friendly, allowing users to create, edit, and update their resumes while on the go, using their smartphones or tablets.
• Entry level : Up to 200$.
• Professional level : Up to 200$-400$.
• Executive level : Up to $350-$700.

>> Use TopResume to Secure Your Dream Job

Resume Writing Services - Best Resume Builder for Affordability

Star Rating: 3.3/5

While Resumewritingservices.org may be a different size than its competitors, it stands out due to its team of talented and experienced resume writers. The website is user-friendly and provides exceptional service. However, this service’s true strength lies in its writers’ expertise.

Resumewritingservices.org sets itself apart by offering a comprehensive consultation process and goes beyond expectations by providing unlimited calls with its resume writers. This personalized approach distinguishes them from other companies and guarantees each client receives individual attention and support.

• Experienced resume writers of the highest caliber
• Unlimited phone consultations and revisions
• More expensive than rival services
• A limited range of products
• Skilled and experienced resume writers: Resumewritingservices.org takes pride in its team of highly trained and professional resume writers who possess a deep understanding of crafting effective resumes.
• Personalized service: Resumewritingservices.org offers a personal touch by providing unlimited calls with their resume writers. This unique feature allows clients to engage in direct communication and close collaboration with the writers throughout the resume creation process.
• Competitive job market expertise: The writers at Resumewritingservices.org have knowledge of current job market trends. This ensures that the resumes they create are optimized to excel in today’s fiercely competitive job market.
• Quality Assurance: The service maintains a rigorous quality assurance process to guarantee that the resumes delivered to clients meet the highest standards and align with their expectations.
• Timely delivery: Resumewritingservices.org is committed to delivering resumes within the agreed-upon timeframe, ensuring clients receive their documents promptly.
• Client satisfaction guarantee: Resumewritingservices.org offers a client satisfaction guarantee, assuring clients are fully content with the final resume. The service is ready to provide revisions if necessary.
• Affordable pricing: Resumewritingservices.org provides pricing options that are competitive and transparent, making professional resume writing accessible to a wide range of job seekers.

Resumewritingservices.org employs a pricing system that is clear and easy to understand for their resume-building services. The initial package begins at $270 , including a comprehensive consultation with a skilled resume writer and developing an individualized resume.

They offer extra options that enable customers to personalize their packages based on their unique preferences. This adaptable pricing strategy guarantees that clients can choose the services that align with their requirements and financial constraints.

>> Use Resume Writing Services to Secure Your Dream Job

Craft Resumes - Best Resume Builder for Quick-Turnaround

Star Rating: 3/5

Craft Resumes stand out as a well-established writing and editing service known for its ability to deliver effective outcomes. Our dedication to providing a 24-hour turnaround guarantees you’ll receive the initial version of your resume promptly.

Navigating our user-friendly website is effortless, making it easy to use our services. At Craft Resumes, we specialize in crafting customized resumes to match your skills, qualifications, and aspirations for your career.

• Speedy completion
• Customized CVs
• Intuitive site
• Insufficient details
• Absence of assurances
• Quick turnaround: Craft Resumes commits to delivering the initial draft of your resume within 24 hours, ensuring a speedy and efficient service.
• Expert Writers: Craft Resumes prides itself on its team of experienced writers who possess expertise across various industries and stay up-to-date with current hiring trends. They’re dedicated to making your resume stand out and catch the attention of potential employers.
• Unlimited revisions: We provide unlimited revisions to guarantee your complete satisfaction. If you have specific changes or additions in mind, our team will collaborate with you closely to implement the modifications.
• Confidentiality and Privacy: At Craft Resumes, we prioritize the confidentiality and privacy of your personal information. You can trust that your data will be handled securely and with the utmost discretion.
• Tailored resumes: We specialize in tailoring resumes to align with your career objectives, industry, and job requirements. Each resume is personalized to accentuate your unique strengths and qualifications.
• Resume Writing : $229.00
• Basic : $279.99
• Optimal : $339.99
• All-In-One : $499.99

>> Use Craft Resumes to Secure Your Dream Job

Resume Companion - Best Value Resume Builder

Star Rating: 2.8/5

Resume Companion is a virtual platform and service that specializes in aiding individuals in creating resumes that are professional and impactful. It offers an array of resources and tools to assist job seekers in crafting interesting resumes that effectively showcase their skills, experiences, and qualifications.

A prominent feature of Resume Companion is its user-friendly resume builder. This tool allows users to select from various professionally designed templates and personalize them based on their specific requirements.

Users can effortlessly incorporate their personal information, employment history, educational background, skill set, and other pertinent details to produce a customized resume tailored to their needs.

• Intuitive user interface
• High-quality templates
• Efficiency-boosting functions
• Cost-effective choice
• Restricted editing features without subscription
• Absence of extensive customization options
• Limited availability of extra services
• Cover letter builder: Resume Companion goes beyond resumes and provides users with a tool for crafting customized cover letters tailored to specific job applications. This feature guides users through the process, helping them effectively present their qualifications and make a compelling case to prospective employers.
• ATS optimization: In today’s job market, many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen resumes. Resume Companion helps users ensure their resumes are ATS-friendly. The platform offers valuable tips and insights on incorporating relevant keywords, formatting the document correctly, and increasing the likelihood of passing through the ATS screening process.
• Educational resources: Resume Companion extends its services by offering an informative blog and educational materials that cover various aspects of resume writing, job search strategies, interview techniques, and career development guidance. These resources provide users with valuable insights and advice to help them create impressive resumes and enhance their job search efforts.
• Download and sharing options: Upon completing their resumes, users can conveniently download their documents in multiple formats, including PDF and Word. Resume Companion also makes it easy for users to share their resumes online or print them offline.
• Customer support: Resume Companion values user satisfaction and offers customer support to assist with users’ questions or concerns while utilizing the platform. Users can access support through email or the platform’s contact form.

Resume Companion provides a cost-effective solution for individuals seeking an all-inclusive service. It’s vital to remember subscription renewal is required to access future editing services. In summary, Resume Companion offers a wallet-friendly option for those who desire a user-friendly resume-building experience without needing advanced writing abilities.

>> Use Resume Companion to Secure Your Dream Job

Our Ranking Methodology for Best Resume Writing Services

To comprehensively and objectively rank the top resume writing services, it is essential to have a thorough methodology. The first step in this process was conducting extensive research and analysis. This involved gathering a comprehensive list of reputable resume-writing services from multiple sources such as online searches, customer reviews, industry directories, and personal recommendations.

• Feature analysis: Evaluate the functionalities provided by each resume builder, considering elements like template variety and quality, customization flexibility, user-friendly editing and formatting options, import/export capabilities, spell check and grammar tools, and integration with job search platforms and professional networks.
• Template collection: Examine the assortment and quality of templates. Look for a wide range that suits various industries, job levels, and design preferences, considering these templates’ aesthetics, readability, and contemporary design.
• Editing and customization: Scrutinize the adaptability and user-friendliness of the editing and customization tools each resume builder provides. Assess the capacity to add or modify sections, reorganize content, and tailor resumes to specific job requirements.
• User interface and experience: Analyze the user interface and the overall user experience each resume builder offers. Evaluate the ease of navigation, instruction clarity, guidance or prompts, and the platform’s responsiveness.
• Integration with job search platforms: Determine whether resume builders offer seamless integration with popular job search platforms and professional networks like LinkedIn or ATS systems. Consider how well the resumes can be transferred and their compatibility with these platforms.
• Additional resources: Evaluate if the resume builders provide extra resources such as sample resumes, tools for creating cover letters, interview tips, or career advice. Consider the breadth and practicality of these supplementary resources.
• Mobile-friendliness: Gauge the mobile-friendliness and responsiveness of the resume builders, recognizing the growing trend of mobile job searching and application processes.
• Customer support: Reflect on the accessibility and quality of customer support services, encompassing options like live chat, email support, or knowledge bases. Assess the responsiveness and helpfulness of the support team.
• Pricing and value for money: Appraise the pricing plans presented by the resume builders in terms of the value they offer based on features, usability, and overall service quality.
• Industry reputation: Consider the standing and trustworthiness of the resume builders, considering factors such as awards, recognition, partnerships, and user feedback from reputable sources.

Buyer’s Guide: Why Use a Resume Builder?

Crafting a well-crafted CV comes naturally to particular job seekers. However, even the most seasoned experts may need help in resume writing. If you find yourself in need of help with creating a compelling resume, here are several ways in which the best online resume builder can be beneficial:

Resume builders provide users with pre-designed templates and helpful tips, streamlining the process of writing a resume and alleviating stress.

Offers Writing Tips

Promoting oneself requires considerable effort. Only some people possess writing skills, even if they enjoy self-promotion. To showcase one’s experience and knowledge effectively, a resume builder can help select the most appropriate words and phrases.

Improves Design

In every field, there are unique standards for an impressive resume. If you need to gain knowledge in design or the tools, resume builders can provide free templates to enhance your resume’s visual appeal and quality.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Recruiters often use ATS systems to scan resumes. A good resume builder will help with formatting to ensure that your resume is easy for these systems to read.

What’s the Best Resume Builder?

The ideal resume builder for each individual may differ according to their specific requirements. If you prefer a tool that offers step-by-step guidance in creating your resume, we suggest using a builder that provides helpful tips and recommendations. If you prefer a resume builder that auto-generates a summary, we recommend using a tool that extracts information from your LinkedIn profile.

For those who enjoy having creative control over their resumes, we suggest using a platform with features. By selecting the resume builder that aligns with your needs and suits your industry and personal style, you’ll significantly increase your chances of capturing the attention of hiring managers.

Resume Builder vs. Resume Writing Service: What Matters for You

When it comes to crafting a resume, there are three options available. You can opt to create it independently, use a resume builder tool, or enlist the services of a professional resume writer. Your best choice will depend on your writing abilities, available time, and financial resources.

Do-It-Yourself

You have the choice to construct a resume entirely by yourself. The benefit of this option is that it costs nothing but requires a significant amount of effort. Along with composing all the information, you must possess graphic design skills.

This approach works well if you have these abilities, but with them, your options for creating a resume are unlimited. To overcome this limitation, you can use a resume builder or enlist the help of a resume writing service.

Resume Builder

A tool for creating resumes allows you to input your details into a template, resulting in an original appearance and layout with no design work. The top resume building tools also offer suggestions on enhancing your resume and tailoring it to match the specific job you are applying for.

While you are still responsible for writing the content, once it is written, you can quickly transfer that information into any other template with just a few simple clicks. Some of these services are free and many like to promote themselves as such, but most require a small payment to download your finished resume.

Professional Resume Writing Service

Professional resume writing services are expensive, but they offer the convenience of handling all the work for you. An experienced writer will gather relevant information about your background and transform it into a unique and engaging resume.

The process typically takes a few days, and the level of originality in the outcome largely relies on your choice of company and writer. However, we will not delve into these services further in this guide.

Are Resume Builders Worth It?

Definitely, without a doubt. An effective resume creator will guarantee that your CV is formatted correctly to navigate Applicant Tracking Systems and ultimately reach the hands of recruiters.

Is It Unprofessional to Use a Microsoft Word Resume Template?

Relying on a template will not set you apart, and there is a high likelihood that your application will be dismissed because your resume is identical to those of other job seekers.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right resume builder is crucial in today’s competitive job market. Creating a professional and impactful resume that stands out from the crowd can significantly impact your job search. With the right tool, you can save time, improve your chances of landing an interview, and ultimately secure your dream job.

When selecting a resume builder, consider your specific needs and priorities. Look for features like customizable templates, industry-specific examples, and the ability to export your resume in different formats. Consider user reviews and ratings to ensure you choose a reputable and reliable platform.

Remember, an exceptional tool for crafting resumes should give you the power to present your skills, experience, and accomplishments effectively. It should simplify and expedite creating a resume without hassle. Investing in a reliable resume builder is investing in your professional future.

Therefore, explore the different options available for resume builders. Test out their free trials or demos and choose the best fit for your objectives. Our top recommendation is Super Star Resume . This meticulously designed resume can open doors to exciting career prospects and be a dependable companion on your journey toward success.

Ahad Waseem is a business, blockchain, and cybersecurity writer who often takes on art, politics, and economics too. As a linguistic engineer who writes to solve problems, he’s written for various tech and business publications. When he’s not writing, he’s probably on horseback, caring for his houseplants, or training Bonsai trees. He can be reached at [email protected] . McClatchy’s newsrooms were not involved in the creation of this content. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links.

©2023 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Dickey Betts on writing ‘Ramblin' Man’ and more Allman Brothers Band hit songs

In honor of rock legend and sarasota resident dickey betts, who died april 18, we revisit interviews we conducted with him about writing of some of the allman brothers band's biggest hit songs..

A bunch of wildly talented Florida boys, including Dickey Betts , the guitar-wielding hellion from Bradenton, formed the Allman Brothers Band in Jacksonville in 1969. They were rock stars in the ’70s, nearly became a rock footnote in the ’80s, and then rose again in the ’90s en route to their rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On Thursday, April 18, Betts passed away peacefully , surrounded by loved ones, in Sarasota County, just off the Highway 41 he sings about in the Allman Brothers’ best-known song. In honor of Betts, I revisited the interview we did in 2020 about the real Allman Brothers stories behind the film “Almost Famous, ” as well as past ones, including our lengthy conversation from 2014 that took place in Betts’ den over glasses of what he called “hippie wine.”

One of these days, I hope to present all of the great quotes Betts gave me during the past decade-plus as one (very) long Q&A. For now, let’s take a look at Betts talking about five of the songs that were crucial in the Allman Brothers’ rise to stardom and the start of the Southern rock movement. They also happen to be five of my all-time favorite songs. Dickey Betts will be greatly missed, by myself and millions of fans around the world.

RIP: Dickey Betts, influential Allman Brothers Band singer and guitarist, dies at Sarasota home

Who lives here? Most famous celebrities with homes in Sarasota and Bradenton area

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‘Revival’ from ‘Idlewild South’ (1970)

Betts’ first writing credit for the Allman Brothers finds the band at their blissful best, with an ebullient melody and lyrics to match (“love is everywhere,” goes the chorus). Featuring the twin lead guitar beauty of Betts and Duane Allman, with Gregg Allman on lead vocals, “Revival” became the first Allman Brothers song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The band rarely performed the song in concert upon its release but welcomed “Revival” back after reforming in 1990. A fine version, again featuring Gregg Allman on lead vocals and with Betts now sharing lead guitar duties with Warren Haynes, can be heard on the ’92 live album “An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set.”

Betts:  “I think with my dad being a fiddle player I kind of naturally liked the uplifting aspects of music. But I was in a band with Gregg Allman, who is basically a melancholy kind of writer, the beautiful melancholy that Gregg would come with. So, I’m looking at what we have here and I’m thinking how do you balance this out? I don’t want to write a song that makes you want to go hang yourself in the bathroom. So, I would really make an effort to write more  up  songs, to balance the band out. That kind of influenced the way I wrote.”  

Interview: Dickey Betts reveals the true Allman Brothers stories behind the cult classic film "Almost Famous"

‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’ from ‘At Fillmore East’ (1971)

“This song Dickey Betts wrote from our second album, ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,’” Duane Allman announces on the band’s landmark live album “At Fillmore East,” before Betts starts bending his guitar strings to sound like enchanting violins. The original studio recording of Betts’ masterful instrumental appears in a truncated form on “Idlewild South,” clocking in at just under seven minutes. This version on “At Fillmore East” clocks in at nearly twice that, and Betts would continue to explore the composition — often approaching 20 minutes, with one of his solo band’s live recordings from 1974 topping 40 minutes — throughout his career.

With the Allman Brothers, Betts reinvented the song as a more meditative jazz rendition on tour in ’73 while acting as the sole guitarist and sharing lead playing with keyboardist Chuck Leavell (captured on “Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas”). Nearly two decades later, Betts offered a delicate acoustic rendition with accompaniment by co-lead guitarist Haynes for a performance included on the 1995 live album “An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set.”

Betts:  “Duane and I had an understanding, like an old soul kind of understanding, of let’s play together. Duane would say, ‘Man, I get so jealous of you sometimes when you burn (a guitar solo) off and I have to follow it,’ and we would joke about it. So that’s kind of Duane and mine’s relationship. It was a real understanding. Like, ‘Come on, this is a helluva band, let’s not hotdog it up’ and that was our understanding, and it was an understanding from previous years of experience. That’s kind of amateur s---, you know, when you start trying to upstage everybody? That was kind of the way the thing built momentum. And then I wrote ‘Elizabeth Reed’ and instead of Duane being jealous of it he said, ‘That is the greatest thing, man.’"

“(When composing ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’) I was thinking of Benny Goodman. I was thinking of how he used melody and then I got all these Western swing influences from my buddy Dave Liles, who passed away about four years ago. But the thing came about, see, I was dating, I was slipping around, back-dooring Boz Scaggs’ girlfriend, live-in girlfriend, they weren’t married, but (laughs). She was a beautiful Italian girl. I wrote this song and I wanted to call it ‘Carmella’ but couldn’t. So the place we would meet, in this old 1800s graveyard, Rose Hill, there was this old tombstone that said on it ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.’

"What I love about that song is if you have a bunch of top-shelf players, they can express themselves beautifully in that song, once they learn it. I don’t have a favorite version but my least favorite is the studio version that we did. It was real stock and we cut it real short.”

More: Sarasota's Dickey Betts celebrated in new Allman Brothers Band book 'Brothers and Sisters'

‘Blue Sky’ from ‘Eat a Peach’ (1972)

The first Allman Brothers song to feature Betts on lead vocals, “Blue Sky,” is also one of the final recordings made by Duane Allman before his death in a motorcycle accident. Betts and Allman alternate on lead guitar and then share the sweet, country-influenced melody lines. Joan Baez included a version of the song on her hit 1975 album “Diamonds & Rust” and a live version by the Allman Brothers would finally be officially released as part of their ’92 live disc “An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: First Set.” In 2003, the Allman Brothers released the outstanding retrospective live album “S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71.” It contains an 11-minute rendition of “Blue Sky” with Betts sharing lead guitar with Duane Allman, and Gregg Allman clearly heard backing Betts on vocals. Following the death of Jerry Garcia, Betts started opening “Blue Sky” with an homage to the Garcia-composed Grateful Dead song “Franklin’s Tower.”  

Betts:  “I guess from listening to The Dead every now and then I remembered the riff and it was a good way to set the tone for that song. The band, the drummers especially, tended to get too fast and kind of play too much like ‘Johnny B. Goode’ or something. And I was trying to get that real, like, loping feeling to it, so I started doing ‘Franklin’s Tower’ in front of it to kind of set the tone for it.

“(Blue Sky) is a cool song. I wrote that for, I was married to an Indian girl whose last name was Wabegijig, which means ‘clear blue sky,’ so I was writing it for her and I was writing it as, ‘She’s my blue sky, she’s my sunny day’ (Betts sings). And I thought, nah, this would be a better song if I just sang it to the sky instead of to a woman. That was a very good move that could make or break that song. It made it more universal. If you’re a songwriter, that’s not a big jump. In fact, in ‘Ramblin’ Man,’ the original line to that was, ‘Playing my music and doing the best I can.’ Everybody doesn’t play music, but everybody works for a living. 

“I sang some with (my previous band) Second Coming but I never saw myself as a singer and still don’t. I sing because it’s necessary (laughs). I asked Gregg to sing ‘Blue Sky’ and actually the producer, Tom Dowd, he said, ‘No, why don’t you sing it.’”

Interview: Dickey Betts on Allman Brothers' 50th anniversary and new Allman Betts Band

‘Jessica’ from ‘Brothers and Sisters’ (1973)

A positively joyful musical statement, “Jessica” is the rare instrumental to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 (at No. 65). Originally clocking in at seven minutes-plus with a four-minute single version, a brilliant, 16-minute live rendition Betts worked up for the Allman Brothers’ album “An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set,” would win a Grammy in 1996 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Another favorite of mine is the rowdy rendition with co-lead guitarist “Dangerous” Dan Toler (and his sibling David “Frankie” Toler on drums) captured on the Dickey Betts and Great Southern live album “Southern Jam: New York 1978.” It’s “Jessica” as a speeding locomotive with a “Southbound” detour in the middle. Betts has a blast with the lusty traveling man lyrics (originally penned for Gregg Allman to sing) before returning to a fabulously frantic “Jessica.” 

Betts:  “I was in a room like this (his den in Sarasota County) but it wasn’t as extravagantly furnished. It was a rented apartment, I had been writing for ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ and it was not clean or anything. I’m in there trying to write and Jessica, my daughter, she was like a year and a half, two years old, she comes crawling in the room and I started playing to her and I was thinking of Django Reinhardt, and that’s the way it came out.”

‘Ramblin’ Man’ from ‘Brothers and Sisters’ (1973)

A charming country rocker with a top-shelf guitar hook and singalong chorus, “Ramblin’ Man,” from the Allman Brothers’ blockbuster 1973 “Brothers and Sisters” album, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 on the Cashbox Top 100 and remains the lone Allman Brothers single to crack the Top 10 on either pop chart.

Fellow Floridian Gary Stewart would record a version of “Ramblin’ Man” for his debut single in ’73 and it reached No. 63 on the country chart, paving the way for a string of much bigger hits for Stewart in the ’70s. “Ramblin’ Man” would appear on numerous live Allman Brothers and solo Betts albums over the years including The Dickey Betts Band’s 2019 release  “Ramblin’ Man Live at the St. George Theatre.”  

Betts:  “I was going to send ‘Ramblin’ Man’ to Johnny Cash. This was when Johnny Cash was really vital in his younger days. I thought it was a great song for him. But everybody liked that song. Even my dad liked the song, before we recorded it or anything. And I’m thinking I’m going to send this to Johnny Cash and see if he wanted to do it. The producer (Johnny Sandlin) said we needed another song for the record and asked if I had anything. I said, ‘Well, I got one but I was going to send it to Nashville for Cash to record.’ He said, ‘Let’s hear it.’ And then, ‘No! we gotta do that.’ 

“What pissed me off, though, I still got my feathers up about it, is the producer sped it up. He didn’t think we had the tempo up enough so he sped it up, which makes my voice sound (sings ‘Lord, I was born’) you know, they speed something up, your voice goes up. But it was a hit. But it was not the way we cut it. I cut it just a little bit slower and my voice sounds more like this. I heard it and thought that doesn’t sound quite like my voice. Then I found out later they sped it up. I said, ‘You son of a bitch’ (laughs). But they do that (stuff) to you.”

Liner notes by Wade Tatangelo: Dickey Betts ‘Official Bootleg Vol. 1’ album

Wade Tatangelo  is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on  Twitter ,  Facebook  and  Instagram . He can be reached by email at [email protected]. Support local journalism by  subscribing .​​​​​​