15 Examples of Academic Essays

The academic essay It is a type of text in which a subject is reflected upon and analyzed and interpreted. For this, the author resorts to arguments that are based on the bibliography selected to carry out this writing. His writing is inserted into a certain structure, with an introduction, a development and a conclusion.

It's about a expositive text–argumentative with a flexible structure for the expert author, who can develop broad and varied topics from all areas of the Social and Exact Sciences. The intention is to motivate reflection and critical thinking in its author and readers, and it tends to be brief, compared to other academic writings such as the dissertation or thesis, although its length can also to vary.

Academic essays are made up of different elements:

Structure and organization of academic essays

• Introduction
  • The theme that will be developed is anticipated, to generate expectations in the reader and guide the reading.
  • It is made explicit what cut will be made of the topic of interest.
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  • The problem is exposed, that is, the questions that the essay intends to answer, and that must propose questions or approaches not previously addressed.
  • It makes clear the hypothesis, which will be the provisional answers to the outlined questions, which will be sought to demonstrate throughout the work.
  • It is written in third person, to achieve an effect of objectivity.
  • To assume a certain position in some fragment, the "we of author" can also be used.
  • The sources that were consulted or the theories that are going to be analyzed are indicated.
  • It makes it clear what the objectives pursued by the work are (using verbs in infinitive such as: analyze, explain, respond, contrast, check, etc.).
  • It can also justify the relevance of the topic to be addressed and explain what place the work can occupy in the current context of that disciplinary field.
  • They advance the keywords or concepts that will be central in the proposed analysis. Coincidences and discrepancies between the theoretical lines with which the development will work can also be anticipated.
  • The theoretical line of the authors studied is indicated, that is, the theoretical tradition in which each one is inscribed and the context of production of these theories, because many times they are associated with political or historical events that define their scope and limitations.
  • The organization of the development is advanced, indicating the thematic axes so that the reader knows from the beginning how the text will be structured. For this, expressions such as: First, it will be described... Then, it will be analyzed... On the one hand, it will be contrasted...
• Developing
  • It is the body of work. It is not necessary to introduce it with the subtitle of “Development”.
  • It is organized in parts according to the thematic axes initially proposed, each of which can be introduced with a subtitle that refers to it.
  • In each part, the aspect to be analyzed is first exposed and then the treatment that each of the chosen authors makes of that question is described.
  • It should not be left aside that the interest lies in the contrast or complementation between the authors that are part of the selected bibliography; It is not enough to synthesize the perspective of each one, but relationships must be established between them. For this reason, after exposing the perspective of the authors, their agreements or discrepancies must be made explicit. For this, it is recommended to include connectors or information organizers (In contrast to the above, however, on the other hand, also, like, likewise).
  • Concepts of the same theory or author are also described and related, to make clear the conceptual details and assumptions of each theory and its scope. For this, explanatory resources are introduced such as the definition, the exemplification, the introduction of direct or indirect quotes.
• Conclution
  • is offered a synthesis of the analysis carried out, with a brief review of the postures described in the development.
  • The problem raised in the introduction is taken up again and the answers that had been proposed at the beginning are analyzed.
  • The theoretical contributions that were analyzed and their impact on the current state of the discipline are evaluated.
  • Proposals for future work or new questions that open other lines of research or analysis may be included.
• Bibliographic references
  • They must be presented in the form of a list, in alphabetical order, at the end of the work and under the title "Bibliography".
  • They allow searching for the sources that were addressed and, if required, consulting the original text.
  • The way of referencing the bibliography may vary according to the conventions of the chosen citation system. The most frequent are APA rules, the Harvard system and the Hispano-American manual.

Academic Essay Examples

1. A Brief History of Education and the Mission of Teaching

Education has always played a fundamental role in the transmission and preservation of knowledge from generation to generation. The possibility of teaching, that is, of educating or training, goes far beyond simply offering young people techniques and objective knowledge to memorize and exercise to allow them to acquire a trade. Educating is also transmitting fundamental values, teaching a world view and strengthening behaviors, ways of thinking. It is to perpetuate a system and at the same time sow the seeds of the coming change.

1. On the importance of eradicating bullying or bullying in our societies

The word "bullying” —borrowed from English— is no longer foreign to anyone: neither to those who suffered it before, with other names, or even without them, nor to those who today dedicate their efforts to eradicate it. This is an embarrassingly common phenomenon in our modern societies, despite the fact that its effects on the individual and collective psyche are terrible, as is the case with almost all forms of violence.

1. Notes for a history of human rights

Today it is common to talk about the human rights and taking for granted the promise that, no matter where and when, violators of fundamental rights will eventually be prosecuted and punished. However, a concept such as human rights did not always exist, or at least not in the same terms in which it exists today, and for this reason it is often considers that human rights are the result of a painful understanding of the history of suffering and tragedies that is characteristic of civilization human.

More examples of academic essays

1. “Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx: a comparative study of two critiques of the market economy”. Andres Alvarez and Jimena Hurtado.
2. “The politics of political science: disciplinary introspection essay from Latin America today”. Paul Ravenca.
3. “The importance of the social sciences”. Paola Mendieta
4. “The name of science. Essay on a summer debate”. Florencia Cendali, Magali Coppo, Carla Wainsztok.
5. “How is the notion of Latin American social science constructed from Scopus?” Claudio Diaz Herrera.
6. Communication as an object of study: between human relations and the media. Miriam Herrera Aguilar.
7. Teaching communication in the framework of social development. Ivan Lello.
8. “Psychology as a science. Theoretical reflection essay with emphasis on Costa Rica”. Cristina Paniagua Esquivel.
9. “The psychological reality: An essay on what happens in consciousness”. Dante Bobadilla.
10. “Essay on education, pedagogy and their interrelation”. Martin Leonardo Bull Runner.
11. “Pedagogy in education”. Gustavo Adolfo Romero Berea.
12. “Seven essays on the Philosophy and Politics of the Liberation of Enrique Dussel”. Federico Ledesma Zaldívar and Juan Diego Ortiz Acosta (coordinators).
13. “Philosophy, thought and political ideas. Terminological clarification essay”. Fernando Prieto.
14. “The social worker as social educator”. Kassandra Yanque Colanque, Lidia Conde Atamari, Carlos Coaquira Hualpa.
15. “Decide, Judge, Persuade. An essay on the formation of the lawyer”. Eric Eduardo Palma.

Differences between expert essays and essays for undergraduate students

Expert tests:

• They are texts that are published in specialized journals, in conference proceedings of the disciplinary field to which the author belongs, if it was a paper, for example.
• Its objective is to present to the scientific community an original text that addresses a topic in a different way, in articulation with the chosen theoretical sources.
• The recipients are peers of the scientific community, therefore they share with the author the knowledge of that discipline and it is not necessary to explain the basic concepts in the body of the text.
• As in any academic genre, the relevant knowledge for the analysis of the problems that are developed must be clearly defined and the content must also be made explicit. theoretical framework from which the subject is approached.

Essays for undergraduate students:

• They have an evaluative function and are part of the training of students.
• They are intended to check the degree of understanding of the theoretical material and the ability of students to make relationships and contrasts between concepts.
• They require a series of comprehension operations: selection of relevant information, identification of ideas principles, recognition of the perspective of each author, pointing out points of contact and discrepancies between the sources.
• They require writing skills: precise use of the lexicon, adequacy of register, correct organization of information.
• Given its function as an evaluation, the participants are not on an equal footing: the author is a student and the reader the teacher who will evaluate how he carried out the critical work that implies the writing of the text.
• The author must expose all the sources consulted, even when the professor knows them, because he must demonstrate their own knowledge of the topic addressed and clearly substantiate the relationships that establishes.

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