5-7 page work

Features of a General Audience Essay

(Note: the following list of features of an effective General Audience Essay is based on our in-class discussion and reading posts related to three general audience essays about Bartleby.)

Personal opinion and personal experience can be included -- and also feel free to include other people's opinions and experiences -- but remember that you want to build credibility, so choose carefully.

Relate the story to a modern situation, example, or experience.

Language can be popular / informal to describe the literary text, so as to render the text more accessible.

Plot summary is important, because you have to assume that most or all of your audience has not read the book. But how do you know what's too much summary and what's too little? And where should this plot summary appear? (Note how Gersen chooses to devote an entire, middle section to plot summary).

Textual evidence can be included, but be selective, and include lots of context for the quote, remembering that your audience may not know the original work.

Structure still matters. But you can be less formal / conventional here, using subheadings or numbers, for example, rather than transitional sentences between sections.

Tone can be conversational: a conversational tone may be more engaging for a broader audience.

First person is fine to use, along with other pronouns you might not use in a formal essay (for example, "us" -- see Greenberg).

Opening sentences are especially crucial, because you want to hook as many potential readers as possible, asap, by answering the question "why should I care?" (see Gersen's first few sentences; also see Greenberg's).

YOU STILL NEED A THESIS! But you don't need to frame it as a thesis (in other words, avoid set ups like "This essay argues..."), and the thesis need not be fully elaborated in the introduction (though it should be previewed in some way). What matters most in the intro is the question, why care?

Questions: feel free to ask questions of your readers -- and then answer them. This could engage more readers and keep them reading.

Challenge to the reader, particularly toward the conclusion, because this will keep them thinking after the essay ends.

Humor / personality are sometimes useful.

Remember that readers will generally be more pressed for time than your professor.