ESSAY STRATEGY BY ESSAY TOPPER
Chandra Mohan Garg, Rank 25
Essay Marks 149
CSE 2015
Essay is the most taken for granted area in civil services preparation. We spend
months preparing for GS-1, 2, 3, 4 but hardly any of us give any dedicated time for
preparation of essay. It is important to understand that one essay paper is equivalent to
almost 1.5 G.S papers in terms or scoring.
In 2014 I went without any preparation and ended up scoring 121 marks. In order to
improve my rank I needed to focus on essay as there was a good scope of 30 plus
marks. I made a strategy and worked on it, this helped me in scoring 149 in this
attempt.
Before I begin, let me do away with few misunderstandings
1. You need to be a champ in English ( your grammar, spelling mistakes, poor
vocabulary cannot stop you from scoring high)
2. Essay does not need preparation. Your GS knowledge can provide fodder but
Essay unlike GS answers need lot more.
3. You cannot improve so easily in essay. I increased 28 marks in Essay despite
the fact that this year essay has been less scoring compared to last year.
Now let me discuss how to approach an essay:
1. Choice of topic
Choice of topic should be clearly based on your holistic understanding of the subject
matter. So choose a topic with which you are most comfortable. At times we think
that the topic is so common that most of the people will choose it, so let me choose
some unconventional topic. This is a totally wrong thinking, many people end up
scoring poor marks due to this. So fight with your best weapons on.
2. Interpretation of the essay topic
Do not be in a hurry to write an essay. Many people see the broader title and start
writing the essay without even understanding the theme of the topic.
Eg- With greater power comes greater responsibility [2014 ].Now the moment people
see power they somehow relate it to politics and bureaucracy and start building their
essay around it, writing all theories, quotes and examples they know related to it. Here
the theme of this topic is philosophical which talks of power present in any
institutional system (family, religion, community, politics, administration etc),
throughout society power is banked from people to a leader so that he can use that
power for a common good. So with greater power comes greater responsibility. In this
context we need to critically analyse the theme of the essay.
3. Brainstorming
After selection of the topic we need to brainstorm to get fodder material that we can
write in the essay. There are various things and various ways to brainstorm.
Key words:- break the topic and look for key words to tinker upon. Example – With
greater power comes greater responsibility we know power and responsibility are key
words. Now you can brainstorm around key words
Past-Present-Future: – Another way to think upon to get points related to the topic.
SPECLIH:-Think from Social, Political, Economic, Cultural, Legal, International,
Humanistic perspective. You can make your own acronym and add more dimensions
to think from
Now what to brainstorm: You can look for quotes, examples, events, illustrations,
case studies, Government initiatives, and facts and figures etc. So anything that can
make the essay more informative and interesting.
4. Structuring the essay
Information is one thing but how to put that information in a structured and systematic
way is very important. So need to focus on few things while structuring your essay
Outline: Create an outline of essay i.e. how will your essay proceed. I feel PAST-
PRESENT- FUTURE is a good technique, you can have other ways to decide the flow
of the essay as well. E.g.- “Dreams that should not let India sleep”, here I discussed
Nehru’s speech of tryst with destiny to explain what those dreams were, Then came
on present why that dream is faltering and then talked of future that what are these
dreams and how can we fulfil it.
Breakup: Break up your essay properly
Once you have brainstormed the points, created an outline and structured your essay,
now you are ready to write the content.
5. Content
Language & Presentation: Write in simple language. No need of flowery
expressions. Keep short sentences and small paragraphs
Explanation of points: Explain through examples or illustrations whatever you are
trying to explain. Mention government Initiatives, policies & plans wherever possible.
International examples or case study wherever possible.
Focus of essay: Throughout the essay the theme should be reflected and flow should
be maintained from beginning to end. Each paragraph should link to the other .Also
do not focus only on covering lot of dimensions in the essay. In this race we lose the
flow of essay. More than knowledge essay should reflect your vision and ideas.
Introduction: Your Introduction should clearly lay down what the essay will entail,
giving a brief idea to the reader. You can always use a story, quote, fact/Information
or abstract way to create a context and then build your introduction over it.
Example:- “Is sting operation an Invasion in Privacy”[2014]. Here you could begin
your Intro with the Tehelka story of Gujarat riots that hit the news and then raise
questions was it good or bad and discuss that in the body.
Body: This part is all about analysis. Here three things are Important. 1.) If the topic
is debatable you need to discuss both sides. If not then it will be straight-forward. 2.)
In any case you will have certain line of arguments to put your case. 3.) Explain each
of them through some examples.
Example: “Is sting operation an Invasion in Privacy”. This is debatable topic. So you
will have both sides. Yes it in an invasion, No it is not an invasion. To discuss both
sides you will have some arguments. Now when you put your arguments substantiate
with the example and illustrations.
Conclusion: In conclusion focus on three things 1.) Summarise the topic 2.) Put your
concluding stand 3.) Tell a way ahead. Try to end your essay on some
positive/visionary note.
6. What preparations you can do for the essay
Read: You need to read some good essays and learn how beautifully people put up
their arguments. These essay don’t have diversity but depth. So reading some good
essays can tell you how to begin an essay, write arguments, and conclude. Most
Important is how to create a structure of essay.
Prepare: I don’t think coaching helps here. It has to be you.
In your daily newspaper reading if you find some good lines or examples then
keep noting them. Especially editorials.
Take up some common/general topics like women, education, healthcare,
internet, science (look at last 20 years essay) and prepare some fodder on it. Like
quotes, imp case studies, examples, factual info, government initiatives etc.
Have a repository of good opening and closing lines. You will find this through
reading newspapers, good essays of others etc.
Write and evaluate: One should write at least 5-6 essays. When you write try to
apply the points I explained above in this article. And most importantly get your
essays evaluated by some teachers, selected candidates or sincere friends. This will
help in making improvements.
7. Time division
There is no hard and fast rule, it is totally your discretion but am telling it as this will
be asked. So am sharing what I used to do.
1. Topic Selection : 5 minutes
2. Brain storming/creating outline/structure of essay : 15 minutes
3. Essay Writing : 1hr to 1hr 5 minutes
4. Revising Essay: 5 minutes
8. Queries?
I have tried to explain to the best of my capabilities. If you still have doubts I have
created a page on FB named CSE Preparation, you can post your queries there. Here
is the link [Link]
9. What I wrote in 2015?
I don’t remember exactly what all I wrote in the essay, but yes I can share a brief
where I can tell on what lines I tried to write my essay.
I wrote essays – 1. Education without values makes us a clever Devil and 2. Dreams
that should not let India Sleep (writing topic in brief)
