NCERT Class 12 English Grammar Essay: an essay is a short piece of writing which is set around a specific topic or subject. The piece of writing will give information surrounding the topic but will also display the opinions and thoughts of the author. Often times, an essay is used in an academic sense by way of examination to determine whether a student has understood their studies and as a way of testing their knowledge on a specific subject. An essay is also used in education as a way of encouraging a student to develop their writing skills.

An essay is a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. There are many different types of essays, but they are often defined in four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays. Argumentative and expository essays are focused on conveying information and making clear points, while narrative and descriptive essays are about exercising creativity and writing in an interesting way. At the university level, argumentative essays are the most common type.

Types of Essay Writing

When it comes to writing an essay, there is not simply one type, there are, quite a few types of essay, and each of them has its purpose and function which are as follows:

Narrative Essays

A narrative essay details a story, oftentimes from a particular point of view. When writing a narrative essay, you should include a set of characters, a location, a good plot, and a climax to the story. It is vital that when writing this type of essay you use fine details which will allow the reader to feel the emotion and use their senses but also give the story the chance to make a point.

Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay will describe something in great detail. The subject can be anything from people and places to objects and events but the main point is to go into depth. You might describe the item’s color, where it came from, what it looks like, smells like, tastes like, or how it feels. It is very important to allow the reader to sense what you are writing about and allow them to feel some sort of emotion whilst reading. That being said, the information should be concise and easy to understand, the use of imagery is widely used in this style of essay.

Expository Essay

An expository essay is used as a way to look into a problem and therefore compare it and explore it. For the expository essay, there is a little bit of storytelling involved but this type of essay goes beyond that. The main idea is that it should explain an idea giving information and explanation. Your expository essay should be simple and easy to understand as well as give a variety of viewpoints on the subject that is being discussed. Often this type of essay is used as a way to detail a subject which is usually more difficult for people to understand, clearly and concisely.

Argumentative Essay

When writing an argumentative essay, you will be attempting to convince your reader about an opinion or point of view. The idea is to show the reader whether the topic is true or false along with giving your own opinion. You must use facts and data to back up any claims made within the essay.

Format of Essay Writing

Now there is no rigid format of an essay. It is a creative process so it should not be confined within boundaries. However, there is a basic structure that is generally followed while writing essays.

Introduction

This is the first paragraph of your essay. This is where the writer introduces his topic for the very first time. You can give a very brief synopsis of your essay in the introductory paragraph. Generally, it is not very long, about 4-6 lines.

Body

This is the main crux of your essays. The body is the meat of your essay sandwiched between the introduction and the conclusion. So the most vital content of the essay will be here. This need not be confined to one paragraph. It can extend to two or more paragraphs according to the content.

Conclusion

This is the last paragraph of the essay. Sometimes a conclusion will just mirror the introductory paragraph but make sure the words and syntax are different. A conclusion is also a great place, to sum up, a story or an argument. You can round up your essay by providing some morals or wrapping up a story. Make sure you complete your essays with the conclusion, leave no hanging threads.

Writing Tips

• Give your essays an interesting and appropriate title. It will help draw the attention of the reader and pique their curiosity
• Keep it between 300-500 words. This is the ideal length, you can take creative license to increase or decrease it
• Keep your language simple and crisp. Unnecessary complicated and difficult words break the flow of the sentence.
• Do not make grammar mistakes, use correct punctuation and spelling five-paragraph. If this is not done it will distract the reader from the content
• Before beginning the essay, organize your thoughts and plot a rough draft. This way you can ensure the story will flow and not be an unorganized mess.
• Understand the Topic Thoroughly-Sometimes we jump to a conclusion just by reading the topic once and later we realize that the topic was different than what we wrote about. Read the topic as many times as it takes for you to align your opinion and understanding about the topic.
• Make Pointers-It is a daunting task to write an essay inflow as sometimes we tend to lose our way of explaining and get off-topic, missing important details. Thinking about all points you want to discuss and then writing them down somewhere helps in covering everything you hoped to convey in your essay.
• Develop a Plan and Do The Math-Essays have word limits and you have to plan your content in such a way that it is accurate, well-described, and meets the word limit given. Keep a track of your words while writing so that you always have an idea of how much to write more or less.

NCERT Class 12 English Grammar Essay Sample

Sample 1:

‘Corruption in India’

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

It is not easy to define corruption. But in a narrow sense, corruption is mostly concerned with “bribery” and it takes several forms. Corruption today is a world-wide phenomenon and India is one of the most corrupt nations in the world.

Corruption is an indication of decadence. A corrupt person is termed immoral and dishonest. Only a person with greatly eroded values indulges in corruption.

The problem with corruption is that it threatens the very existence of the society . Corruption is like a leech draining the blood of the society. The worst part is that it affects every part of human life: the flourishing black market in essential commodities, adulteration of even food, bribe, fraud and economic, political and administrative manipulations etc. have made the people feel greatly miserable and helpless.

We can trace corruption to ancient times. Kautilya, the author of the Arthasastra pointed out corruption of his times. He also talked about the inevitability of corruption. He had said, “Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey or the poison that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the king’s revenue. These in the postwar world became only bolder while eating up government money and accepting bribes.

Today, although India is free, the government officials have enslaved the general public with their corruption. Most of them are hand in gloves with businessmen and thus the whole system is corrupt. What starts at the top percolates down to the lowest rungs of the society. It has thus become widespread even in villages.

The situation is so bad that it looks like India will never get rid of corruption.

Sample 2:

‘Secular State’

We all know that India is a secular State, and that a secular state has nothing to do with religion; but, what exactly does this mean. Secularism, if properly implemented, can control extremism, religious bigotry and other negative forces.

As said above, a secular state does not recognize any religion, which means a secular State, in essence, should not discriminate against any a citizen belonging to any religion.

Earlier things were different; even a hundred years ago in India, people were discriminated against based on religion, faith, caste, etc. There were many such undemocratic, non-secular things in existence. This led to the persecution of people. The harassed would leave their homeland, their country and suffer a lot. This was also true of the world in general. Parsis, for instance, came to India from Iran.

Now, thankfully, that is a thing of the past. Due to great thinkers, philosophers and scholars, things have changed. Politics and the government are being kept away from religion. These days almost all the civilized countries are secular.

That does not mean religions are banned. Everyone has a right to follow whatever faith he or she wants. The only thing is that, the government is neutral in this regard. This is because, if religious ceremonies are encouraged openly, the government will come to be identified with a particular religion. India is a good example in this regard. Though Hindus form a large majority, no Hindu festival is State sponsored.

Secularism in the State has, thus, extreme importance. A society tends to be equal, homogeneous and peaceful with secularism.

Sample 3:

How to control population explosion in India?

As we all know, we Indians have the dubious distinction of being the second most populated country in the world. And, very soon we will be ranked number one in terms of population. Well, that’s not a cause for celebration!

A large population is a liability and not an asset. In our country, population explosion is the main obstacle to the development in all aspects. Since this problem is getting severe by the day, it is better to take appropriate measures to keep it under control before it is too late.

Unlike what most people think, population is not an advantage in any manner. Demographic history of various advanced countries shows that there is an inverse relationship between a country’s overall happiness and the country’s birth rate. When per-capita income increases, people don’t desire more children in order to supplement their income. In other words, with increase in per-capita income, people feel more secure and do not want to depend on their children. Therefore, rapid economic development is very much essential to control the already high birth rate. However, this increase in per-capita income will have its positive impact on birth rate after a period of time.

In the Indian society we have joint family system. In joint families, in general a high birth rate is encouraged. Hence this joint family has to be replaced by nucleur family. A nucleur family is generally found in an urbanized and industrialized economies. Hence our efforts should be to industrialize and urbanize our economy to reduce the high birth rate and thereby control the population growth.

Sample 4:

‘Science in everyday life’

Science is a part of our everyday life. In its broadest meaning science means ‘knowledge’. And, as knowledge, it had entered life of even the most primitive human beings. They knew, in protein and carbohydrate and containing vitamins. The result is a healthy prolonged life. One can imagine how life must have been in pre-scientific days. Science has also improved clothing and made it more appropriate for climatic and working conditions. Man-made fibers and versatile spinning machines, today enable us to dress in clothes both comfortable and smart without being expensive.

We can’t think of our everyday life without science. For instance, the safe from the poisonous berry. They knew some rudimentary ideas about building a hut, sharpening a spear, and fishing in the river. This is what is science which distinguishes man from the animals which rely on their instinct.

Yet, for most people ‘science’ means a number of abstract subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics, to quote a few, which have to be learnt as part of ‘education’, yet which seem to have little bearing on everyday living. This is all wrong. Our way of life is completely dependent on science and its inventions and discoveries surround us on all sides.

Since the Renaissance science has b in protein and carbohydrate and containing vitamins. The result is a healthy prolonged life. One can imagine how life must have been in pre-scientific days. Science has also improved clothing and made it more appropriate for climatic and working conditions. Man-mo the present.

Today, we have many consumer goods from the simple frying-pan to the and aeroplane, from the alarm-clock to the laptop. All these things serve to make life easier and more pleasant. Science gives us safe food, free of harmful germs, in hygienic tins. The result is a healthy prolonged life. One can imagine how life must have been in pre-scientific days. Science has also improved clothing and made it more appropriate for climatic and working conditions.

We can’t think of our everyday life without science.