What's a Good Essay? Other writing guides usually fail to
emphasize a simple point: a great piece of writing is a
meaningful activity between the writer and the reader. An essay
is not simply a beautiful piece of finished prose. It is an
ordered set of paragraphs that does something for the reader. A
great essay is an action with a purpose. Sometimes the choice is
not yours: you might be required to show a single reader that
you understand one thing in particular. But most of the time,
even when you have strict guidelines to follow, you have a lot
of choices. The main actions you can take are (1) to instruct or
teach the reader something; (2) to delight the reader, or to
give the reader something to appreciate or enjoy; (3) to move
the reader, which means to inspire the reader to feel a certain
way or to go out and do something. A good essay accomplishes one
or more of these goals. A bad essay, even when it has a perfect
structure, excellent spelling, and impeccable grammar, does not
accomplish any of these g