Essay Writing and the English Curriculum

Essay Writing and the English CurriculumNot too long ago I started writing an essay on Australian curriculum for a class on American history. Being a history major myself, I naturally considered myself rather knowledgeable in the subject area.English is one of the most important subjects in a classroom, whether it is American or British, and Australia has long had a strong emphasis on English. I began my paper by declaring that my approach to essay writing was based upon the analogy with the American curriculum.As I pondered this, it occurred to me that I would be writing a small number of essays, in which an essayist would apply a large number of different methods of essay writing. How could I possibly do that in the first place? It made little sense to me.I realized that I would be writing an essay covering a small number of topics and covering each of them in turn, in order to make an argument for a particular theme. I realized that, at the very least, I would have to be able to w rite down the topic of each essay in order to review it later. I also realized that writing these essays was going to be quite a bit more difficult than an essay on the American curriculum. There would be a great deal more footwork involved.My first thought was to start by being thorough and to then make my case to the class. I started by writing an essay on the history of Australia. After reading a number of different essays on various topics related to Australia, I realized that it was time to move on to something a little more complex. That got me thinking, of course, about essays on the English curriculum.Writing about the curriculum is no different from writing about the curriculum itself. Like the curriculum itself, essays can be intricate, specific about a subject, and written quite clearly. Indeed, one of the interesting aspects of writing essays on the English curriculum is that there is an implied tone of assertion.Reading, reviewing, and then writing are only part of the equation. After some reflection, I realized that a good essay, like a good essay on curriculum, can also be rhetorical. After all, writing is not always written in the form of a written essay. There is a significant difference between a novel and a movie.