UPSC Essays Simplified: Understanding and Deconstructing the Essay topics – the first step

Ravi Kapoor: UPSC Essay topics can be deceptively hard at times. Some topics are deeply reflective and philosophical like the recently asked topic “Mathematics is the music of reasons.” Others can have social and ethical connotations such as “A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.” Regardless of the type of essay topic the UPSC asks, aspirants must know that the first step before beginning writing is to understand the essay’s core thoroughly. We call this step ‘Understanding and Deconstructing the Essay topic’. What follows is a series of checklists and advice to aid — the 5 elements of the first step. Let’s understand with examples.

5 elements to understand and deconstruct the essay topic:

1. Check your prior knowledge- Context

Even though UPSC essay topics seem generic, some of them require substantial understanding and prior knowledge of the topic to do justice. It is critical to be deeply honest with yourself about your prior knowledge of the topic before delving into it.

For instance, “History is a series of victories won by the scientific man over the romantic man” might seem like a generic debate about rational thinking and idealism but the essay will not be of any value unless you can illustrate your arguments via concrete historical examples traversing the dark ages, the Copernican revolution, Renaissance, the industrial age etc.

It might be a wise decision to altogether skip writing on essay topics about which you have limited or half-baked knowledge, even if it seems appealing.

2. Isolate the core themes- Deconstruction

Deconstruction Method is a powerful analytical tool where a statement is broken up into its basic building blocks for analysis. It means that you must look at the individual parts of the UPSC essay topic separately first, and later see how they combine to form the essay topic statement. It is a bottom-up approach where you start with the small and build up to the big Essay topic.

For instance, “Forests are the best-case studies for economic excellence” speaks of 2 core themes or concepts- ‘Forests’ and ‘Economic Excellence’.

Another example- “Visionary decision-making happens at the intersection of intuition and logic.” It consists of 3 main themes or concepts- “Visionary decision-making”, “Intuition” and “Logic”.

It is critical to mention that the statement in the essay topic may have to be temporarily ignored to isolate the core themes. Once isolated, the core themes can be considered in more detail. This makes for superior ideation and brainstorming when the essay topic is read as a whole. It also helps to ensure that the content in the body of the essay is comprehensive.

3. Consider the counterarguments – Balance

A mistake aspirants often make is to simply agree with the essay topic and elaborate on the contents without realizing that an essay topic does not always have to be agreed upon. Regardless of how definitively correct an essay topic may appear, it always has counterarguments that deserve to be highlighted.

Like two sides of a coin, an essay topic has two sides that need to be appreciated in depth.

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For example- “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” It seems straightforward and correct. The statement highlights the need for preparedness and serves as a call to be vigilant when times are good.

Counter-argument- While preparedness for the future has solid strategic merit, life is short and when times are good, it is perhaps also the ideal time to appreciate the present moment, count one’s blessings, be grateful and “stop and smell the roses”, so to speak.

An essay that elaborates blindly without appreciating the other side of the topic will not be good enough and will reflect your restricted vision and wisdom. Considering the counter-arguments will bring balance and lend a more mature perspective to your writing.

4. Penetrate the depth

Think after looking at the essay topic: Is the statement superficial, or metaphorical or does it lead to a much deeper issue at hand?

It might be tempting to look at an ambiguous and open-ended statement like “You cannot step twice in the same river” and try and interpret it with your own understanding. While it is possible to superimpose your understanding based on common sense on such topics, it might not be the best way forward because the depth of some topics can be elusive.

“You cannot step twice in the same river” is a deeply philosophical quote by Heraclitus that underscores the ever-changing nature of the universe. It is a metaphysical statement that uses the metaphor of the river to illustrate that constancy is an illusion as the river always moves and is never really the same, except in our minds. It also speaks to the ever-changing nature of beings such as humans whose experiences, personalities and even bodies are slowly changing with each passing moment. In fact, the complete quote by Heraclitus is “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

The idea of impermanence is central to religions such as Buddhism (Annica), philosophy, psychology, and even science (Entropy, thermodynamics). To write effectively on this topic you would need to penetrate its depth which is no small feat to do on the spot in the examination hall. Therefore, while thinking about essay topics, be cautious and proceed only when you are certain about the topic’s intellectual depth.

5. Map the width

Think after looking at the essay topic: What are all the dimensions that are important for the essay topic?

Often, you may get the feeling of familiarity with an essay topic because it is abstract and generic like “Smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities”. That means you know something about it but not most of all there is to know about it.

In the above essay topic, for instance, one can easily make out that the essay topic is about smiling as a deceptive signal that can be used to convey or disguise genuine emotions. While this topic revolves predominantly around social psychology, that’s not all there is to it. To be comprehensive would be to highlight various dimensions along with examples associated with it such as:

· A smile can be used to convey or disguise- confusion, malice, jealousy, joy, surprise, love, hate, disgust etc.

· Other themes and ideas worth touching upon include- Non-verbal communication, empathy, compassion, relationships, emotional intelligence, mental health, social media, depression etc.

· Used by marketing agencies, politicians etc. to appear more likeable.

· Ethical dimension of how deception is normalized in our society.

This underscores the need for being comprehensive from the point of view of content while writing the essay.

The Essay Exercise

The 5 elements above are essential considerations before choosing and writing the essay. Here is an exercise to put this into practice:

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