How to write essays for UPSC Civil Services Exams? This is one of the most popular questions among aspirants. In UPSC Essentials’ special series UPSC Essays Simplified, we take you through various steps of writing a good essay. While there is no set formula or fixed criteria prescribed, Manas Srivastava talks to Ravi Kapoor, our expert, in this new series who guides the aspirants with a simplified framework on how to write a good essay. Don’t miss ‘The Essay Exercise’ towards the end of the article. Ravi Kapoor focuses on the following steps of pre-writing and writing stages which will help aspirants to write a ‘good essay’. PRE-WRITING STAGE (Steps 1-3) Step 1: Understanding and Deconstructing the topic (Previous article: Click here) Step 2: Ideation and Brainstorming (Today’s article) Step 3: Structure and Flow WRITING STAGE (Steps 4-8) Step 4: How to write an introduction Step 5: What goes in the body? Step 6: How to conclude Step 7: Essay Extras Step 8: Types of content Today, we will focus on Step 2. About our Expert: Ravi Kapoor, an IRS officer, has now ditched his coveted rank of deputy commissioner and has offered free quality mentorship to UPSC aspirants, drawing upon his ten years of experience to create customised and productive curriculum. Through a free mentorship programme, he integrates tailored educational materials, psychological principles, visual learning techniques, and a strong emphasis on mental well-being into his teaching skills granting aspirants a chance to learn from his expertise. What is the second step to write a 'good essay' and techniques to achieve it? Once you have deconstructed the essay topic into its core themes and have understood its essence, the next step is to brainstorm and create the content required for writing the essay. Needless to say, ideation and brainstorming should be done in the pre-writing stage before you put pen to paper and write the actual essay. Here is what all to consider while doing so: 1. Everyone has a few content ideas about an essay topic, but this does not mean that those ideas will be enough. There are times when we miss critical dimensions of an essay. For instance, consider a recently asked essay topic: Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. While this essay topic can be written about in a generic sense but is perhaps not ideal unless Indian poets who raised awareness about British oppression during the Indian National Movement are mentioned. 2. Ideation and brainstorming are not only about examples and anecdotes, they form the basis of arguments and counter-arguments that form the most substantive part of the essay and should therefore be done systematically. 3. Systematic ideation helps organise your thoughts which later aids in creating superior structure and adds flow to your writing. What follows are techniques and strategies to brainstorm and ideate most systematically and comprehensively as possible. 12 QC technique As the title suggests, these questions are 12 Question based clues (12 QC) that lead you to the important content ideas about a topic. The 12QC is designed to force you to think widely about any topic by stimulating your knowledge networks in a structured way. 1. Where have you heard or read about the core concept of the essay before? 2. What is the importance of the concept for human beings? 3. Is the word made up of smaller words? What do they mean? 4. What is the opposite of the word? 5. What do you already know about it? 6. Is there an Ethical question or debate associated with it? What could it be? 7. What is the pessimistic side of the word? Can you use the word in a sentence to express something negative and depressing? 8. What happened in the past which is a good example of it? 9. Who does it affect? Why should anyone care about it? 10. Can you Think of an Indian example associated with it? 11. Is there something happening in the world right now which is an example of it? 12. What is the optimistic side? Can you use the word in a sentence to express something positive and hopeful? Simply ask the 12 questions listed below about the core themes in the essay topic (Refer to Deconstruction - the first step article) and write down one or two words which come to your mind as possible answers to the questions. Here are some things to remember before putting this technique into practice: – Please note that this exercise should be done for each of the main themes of an essay topic. – Consider the theme in isolation while ideating, ignoring the essay topic for the time being. – There may be more than 1 core theme in an essay topic. – Not every single question in the list needs to be answered. Remember that the questions are to stimulate thinking to generate ideas from what you already know. It's not a quiz. – Not all ideas you generate need to be included in the essay. The Essay Exercise The 12 QC technique above may help you in brainstorming after deconstruction. Here is an exercise to put this into practice: 12 QC Technique ESSAY TOPIC (example) “Forests are the best-case studies for economic excellence.” Core Theme 1: Forests ESSAY TOPIC (example) “Forests are the best-case studies for economic excellence.” Core Theme 2: Economic Excellence ESSAY TOPIC (exercise) “A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.” Core Theme 1: ‘SOCIETY’ Core Theme 2: 'JUSTICE' Core Theme 3: 'CHARITY' Where have you heard or read about core concept of the essay before? National reserves, Project Tiger, Forest Cover Indian Economy, World Trade, GDP What is the importance of the concept for human beings? Subsistence for tribes, environmental diversity, economic value, carbon banks, landslides, mudslides, natural disasters Employment, human capital, growth, standard of living Is the word made up of smaller words? What do they mean? Economic + excellence What is the opposite of the word? Desert, arid, lifeless Economic mismanagement/disaster What do you already know about it? Amazon rainforests, mangroves Scandinavian countries, Bhutan (Gross Happiness Index) Is there an Ethical question or debate associated with it? What could it be? Environmental protection, engendered species, forest fires Inequality, Materialism, Unregulated Capitalism, Erosion of human values What is pessimistic or negative side of the word? Can you use the word in a sentence to express something negative and depressing? Species extinction, endangered species Inflation, tax-evasion, black money, unregulated crypto currencies What happened in the past which is a good example of it? Forest fires, forest covers, species extinction India’s economic growth forecast, one of the worlds largest economies. Who does it effect? Why should anyone care about it? Critical ecosystem for species, Recycle nutrient Subsistence for all, governments get tax, poor elevated out of poverty Can you think of an Indian example associated with it? Project Tiger, Forest department, Sandalwood smuggling, declaration of national parks UPI, Micro-finance, PSUs, Start-ups unicorns Is there something happening in the world right now which is an example of it? Heat waves, forest fires, global warming, Amazon Green economy, India becoming manufacturing hub, Start up economy, gig economy. What is the optimistic side? Forest cover recently increased in India Universal Basic Income, Developed countries standard of living. Important points to note: 1. Don’t worry about a bit of repetition. If a word is being repeated, it is probably central to the topic you are brainstorming about. 2. Your ideas and examples are your own and will be different from those of others. The only important thing is how well you use them to strengthen your arguments in your essay-answers. 3. You can also disagree with points mentioned in these articles and think of other ones. The only thing to take care of is to give reasons and examples for your opinions in the essay because that is what will fetch you a good score at the end of the day. Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week. The UPSC articles of Indian Express is now on Telegram. Join our Telegram channel- Indian Express UPSC Hub and stay updated with the latest Updates. For your answers, queries and suggestions write at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com.
