Reading Gordon Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic Essay” this weekend, was a very helpful article for helping me to better understand the best way to write an academic essay for our first assignment on Frankenstein. From reading this article I got that the most important part of the academic essay is your thesis. Every point that Gordon Harvey lists as the elements of the academic essay all refer back in some way to the thesis. It is, as if his own article is an academic essay. It runs smoothly and is very detailed and always points back to the thesis statement.
I think that this checklist of elements however, can be applied to any kind of writing not just for academic essays because when writing even for our own pleasure, one always has these elements that Harvey lists, such as a motive and an audience in mind. I think that all of these elements that Harvey lists come to us naturally as writers. As if it were something that were a part of us.
The element that comes the easiest to me is reflecting. I think that reflecting is a very important part of the essay as it helps you keep your reader grounded in your argument and not loose sight of what you are trying to prove by always taking time to refer back to it in order for the reader to understand it. Again, I think that reflecting is another element that can be used in any type of writing especially in types such as creative writing.
I am sure that many authors used similar elements such as these of the academic essay to write their own works or texts. Do you think that all of these elements that Gordon Harvey lists for the academic essay, can also be used in other styles of writing?