109-502: Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry ( French: [pɔl valeʁi] ; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist , and philosopher . In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years. Valéry
218-481: A ceremonial sword ( l'épée ). The members bear the cost of their uniforms themselves. The robes cost around $ 50,000, and Amin Maalouf said that his induction cost him some $ 230,000 overall. The swords can be particularly expensive as they are individually designed. Some new members have had funds for them raised by committees. The Académie is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of
327-438: A thesis statement , body paragraphs with arguments linking back to the main thesis, and conclusion. In addition, an argumentative essay may include a refutation section where conflicting ideas are acknowledged, described, and criticized. Each argument of an argumentative essay should be supported with sufficient evidence, relevant to the point. A process essay is used for an explanation of making or breaking something. Often, it
436-484: A basis for a final painting or sculpture, made as a test of the work's composition (this meaning of the term, like several of those following, comes from the word essay' s meaning of "attempt" or "trial"). Acad%C3%A9mie fran%C3%A7aise The Académie Française ( French pronunciation: [akademi fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ), also known as the French Academy , is the principal French council for matters pertaining to
545-629: A chairperson and chief representative of the Académie. The two other officers, a Director and a Chancellor, are elected for three-month terms. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Dean of the Académie. New members are elected by the Académie itself; the original members were appointed. When a seat becomes vacant, a person may apply to the Secretary if they wish to become a candidate. Alternatively, existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate
654-411: A description is the scene. Description uses tools such as denotative language, connotative language, figurative language , metaphor , and simile to arrive at a dominant impression. One university essay guide states that "descriptive writing says what happened or what another author has discussed; it provides an account of the topic". Lyric essays are an important form of descriptive essays. In
763-425: A famous person. The writing of an expository essay often consists of the following steps: organizing thoughts ( brainstorming ), researching a topic, developing a thesis statement , writing the introduction, writing the body of essay, and writing the conclusion. Expository essays are often assigned as a part of SAT and other standardized testing or as homework for high school and college students. Descriptive writing
872-511: A friend of Stéphane Mallarmé 's family, who was also a niece of the painter Berthe Morisot . The wedding was a double ceremony in which the bride's cousin, Berthe Morisot 's daughter, Julie Manet , married the painter Ernest Rouart . Valéry and Gobillard had three children: Claude, Agathe and François. Valéry served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal ,
981-489: A grant given between 1919 and 1954 to young French painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians. Though his earliest publications date from his mid-twenties, Valéry did not become a full-time writer until 1920, when the man for whom he worked as private secretary, a former chief executive of the Havas news agency, Edouard Lebey, died of Parkinson's disease . Until then, Valéry had, briefly, earned his living at
1090-449: A hotbed. Some video essays feature long, documentary style writing and editing, going deep into the research and history of a particular topic. Others are more akin to an argumentative essay in which a single argument is developed and supported throughout the video. Video essay styles have become especially prominent among BreadTube creators such as ContraPoints and PhilosophyTube . In the realm of music, composer Samuel Barber wrote
1199-433: A literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference". These three poles (or worlds in which the essay may exist) are: Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays "...make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist." Montaigne's "attempts" grew out of his commonplacing . Inspired in particular by
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#17328866704701308-787: A literary work), the grand prix du roman (for a novel), the Grand prix de poésie de l'Académie française (for poetry), the Grand prix de philosophie (for a philosophical work), the Grand prix du cinéma (for film), and the grand prix Gobert (for a work on French history). The Académie Française intervened in June 2008 to oppose the French Government's proposal to constitutionally offer recognition and protection to regional languages ( Flemish , Alsatian , Basque , Breton , Catalan , Corsican , Occitan , Gascon , and Arpitan ). The current members of
1417-460: A member is known as l'habit vert , or green clothing. The habit vert , worn at the Académie's formal ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganization of the Institut de France . It consists of a long black coat and black-feathered bicorne , both richly embroidered with green leafy motifs, together with black trousers or skirt. Further, members other than clergy carry
1526-553: A number of official positions eagerly offered to him by an admiring French nation. He represented France on cultural matters at the League of Nations , and he served on several of its committees, including the sub-committee on Arts and Letters of the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation . The English-language collection The Outlook for Intelligence (1989) contains translations of a dozen essays related to these activities. In 1931, he founded
1635-410: A particular order—or they may consist of non-ordered photographs viewed all at once or in an order that the viewer chooses. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events. In the visual arts , an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch that forms
1744-494: A proliferation of great essayists in English— William Hazlitt , Charles Lamb , Leigh Hunt and Thomas De Quincey all penned numerous essays on diverse subjects, reviving the earlier graceful style. Thomas Carlyle 's essays were highly influential, and one of his readers, Ralph Waldo Emerson , became a prominent essayist himself. Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson also raised the form's literary level. In
1853-468: A set of "Essays for Orchestra", relying on the form and content of the music to guide the listener's ear, rather than any extra-musical plot or story . A photographic essay strives to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs . Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full-text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in
1962-541: A setting dominated by the sea, the sky, stars, rocky cliffs, and the rising sun. However, it is also possible to read the poem as an allegory on the way fate moves human affairs or as an attempt to comprehend the horrific violence in Europe at the time of the poem's composition. The poem is not about World War I , but it does try to address the relationships between destruction and beauty, and, in this sense, it resonates with ancient Greek meditations on these matters, especially in
2071-583: A single body called the Institut de France . Napoleon Bonaparte , as First Consul , decided to restore the former academies, but only as "classes" or divisions of the Institut de France . The second class of the Institut was responsible for the French language, and corresponded to the former Académie Française . When King Louis XVIII came to the throne in 1816, each class regained the title of "Académie"; accordingly,
2180-421: A speech to the Académie, which includes a eulogy for the member being replaced. This is followed by a speech made by one of the members. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking their colleagues for their election. On one occasion, one newly installed member, Georges de Porto-Riche , was not accorded a reception, as the eulogy he made of his predecessor
2289-415: Is a critical piece of writing, aimed at presenting objective analysis of the subject matter, narrowed down to a single topic. The main idea of all the criticism is to provide an opinion either of positive or negative implication. As such, a critical essay requires research and analysis, strong internal logic and sharp structure. Its structure normally builds around introduction with a topic's relevance and
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#17328866704702398-590: Is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud , universities and colleges may investigate papers they suspect are from an essay mill by using plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers. Essays often appear in magazines, especially magazines with an intellectual bent, such as The Atlantic and Harpers . Magazine and newspaper essays use many of
2507-455: Is a "prose composition with a focused subject of discussion" or a "long, systematic discourse". It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley , a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject. He notes that "the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything", and adds that "by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece". Furthermore, Huxley argues that "essays belong to
2616-556: Is a series of narrative statements that are required when applying to Federal government job openings in the United States. KSAs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the successful performance of a position are contained on each job vacancy announcement. KSAs are brief and focused essays about one's career and educational background that presumably qualify one to perform
2725-543: Is assigned a separate number. Candidates make their applications for a specific seat, not to the Académie in general: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. Since a newly elected member is required to eulogize their predecessor in the installation ceremony, it is not uncommon that potential candidates refuse to apply for particular seats because they dislike the predecessors. Members are known as "les immortels" ("the Immortals") in reference to
2834-474: Is characterized by sensory details, which appeal to the physical senses, and details that appeal to a reader's emotional, physical, or intellectual sensibilities. Determining the purpose, considering the audience, creating a dominant impression, using descriptive language, and organizing the description are the rhetorical choices to consider when using a description. A description is usually arranged spatially but can also be chronological or emphatic. The focus of
2943-487: Is characterized by a generalization and relevant, representative, and believable examples including anecdotes . Writers need to consider their subject, determine their purpose, consider their audience, decide on specific examples, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification essay. An essayist writes a familiar essay if speaking to a single reader, writing about both themselves, and about particular subjects. Anne Fadiman notes that "the genre's heyday
3052-434: Is continuing work on the ninth edition, of which the first volume ( A to Enzyme ) appeared in 1992, Éocène to Mappemonde was published in 2000, and Maquereau to Quotité in 2011. In 1778, the Académie attempted to compile a "historical dictionary" of the French language; this idea was later abandoned, the work never progressing past the letter A . As the use of English terms by media increased over
3161-487: Is elected by a majority of votes from voting members. A quorum is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be performed at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Académie, the President of France, grants their approval. The President's approbation is only a formality. The new member is then installed at a meeting of the Académie. The new member must deliver
3270-640: Is from Valéry's Writing at the Yalu River (1895): "Your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time". In the book "El laberinto de la soledad" from Octavio Paz there are three verses of one of Valéry's poems: Je pense, sur le bord doré de l’univers A ce gout de périr qui prend la Pythonisse En qui mugit l’espoir que le monde finisse. Oscar-winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki 's 2013 film The Wind Rises and
3379-417: Is grouped by the object (chunking) or by point (sequential). The comparison highlights the similarities between two or more similar objects while contrasting highlights the differences between two or more objects. When writing a compare/contrast essay, writers need to determine their purpose, consider their audience, consider the basis and points of comparison, consider their thesis statement, arrange and develop
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3488-449: Is not necessary to be a member of the literary profession to become a member. The Académie has included numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and senior Roman Catholic clergymen. Five French heads of state have been members – Adolphe Thiers , Raymond Poincaré , Paul Deschanel , Philippe Pétain , and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing – and one foreign head of state, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal , who
3597-493: Is often considered one of the greatest French poems of the twentieth century. The title was chosen late in the poem's gestation; it refers to the youngest of the three Parcae (the minor Roman deities also called The Fates ), though for some readers the connection with that mythological figure is tenuous and problematic. The poem is written in the first person, and is the soliloquy of a young woman contemplating life and death, engagement and withdrawal, love and estrangement, in
3706-669: Is that women have traditionally written in Japan, though the more formal, Chinese-influenced writings of male writers were more prized at the time. The eight-legged essay ( Chinese : 八股文; pinyin : bāgǔwén ; lit. 'eight bone text') was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those test takers in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, often focusing on Confucian thought and knowledge of
3815-452: Is written in chronological order or numerical order to show step-by-step processes. It has all the qualities of a technical document with the only difference is that it is often written in descriptive mood , while a technical document is mostly in imperative mood . An economic essay can start with a thesis, or it can start with a theme. It can take a narrative course and a descriptive course. It can even become an argumentative essay if
3924-667: The Cahiers have been published in their entirety only as photostatic reproductions, and only since 1980 have they begun to receive scholarly scrutiny. The Cahiers have been translated into English in five volumes published by Peter Lang with the title Cahiers/Notebooks . In recent decades Valéry's thought has been considered a touchstone in the field of constructivist epistemology , as noted, for instance, by Jean-Louis Le Moigne in his description of constructivist history. One of three epigraphs in Cormac McCarthy 's novel Blood Meridian
4033-487: The Collège International de Cannes , a private institution teaching French language and civilization. The Collège is still operating today, offering professional courses for native speakers (for educational certification, law and business) as well as courses for foreign students. He gave the keynote address at the 1932 German national celebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of Johann Wolfgang Goethe . This
4142-458: The Four Books and Five Classics , in relation to governmental ideals. Test takers could not write in innovative or creative ways, but needed to conform to the standards of the eight-legged essay. Various skills were examined, including the ability to write coherently and to display basic logic. In certain times, the candidates were expected to spontaneously compose poetry upon a set theme, whose value
4251-512: The French language . The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister to King Louis XIII . Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution , it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte . It is the oldest of the five académies of the institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on
4360-509: The Japanese novel of the same name (on which the film was partially based) take their title from Valéry's verse "Le vent se lève... il faut tenter de vivre !" ("The wind rises… We must try to live!") in the poem "Le Cimetière marin" ( The Graveyard by the Sea ). The same quote is used in the closing sentences of Anthony Burgess 's 1962 novel The Wanting Seed . "Le Cimetière marin" is also quoted in
4469-541: The United States and the United Kingdom , essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants ( see admissions essay ). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge
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4578-429: The audience , think critically about different causes or consequences, consider a thesis statement, arrange the parts, consider the language , and decide on a conclusion. Classification is the categorization of objects into a larger whole while division is the breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts. Compare and contrast essays are characterized by a basis for comparison, points of comparison, and analogies. It
4687-434: The dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophy , the writer makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument (with a counterargument), but then counters the counterargument with a final and novel argument. This form benefits from presenting a broader perspective while countering a possible flaw that some may present. This type is sometimes called an ethics paper. An exemplification essay
4796-524: The 17th century, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián wrote about the theme of wisdom. In England, during the Age of Enlightenment , essays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literature , as seen in the works of Joseph Addison , Richard Steele and Samuel Johnson . Addison and Steele used
4905-476: The 20th century, a number of essayists, such as T.S. Eliot , tried to explain the new movements in art and culture by using essays. Virginia Woolf , Edmund Wilson , and Charles du Bos wrote literary criticism essays. In France, several writers produced longer works with the title of essai that were not true examples of the form. However, by the mid-19th century, the Causeries du lundi , newspaper columns by
5014-552: The Académie's motto , À l'immortalité ("To Immortality"), which is inscribed on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu. One of the immortels is chosen by their colleagues to be the Académie's Perpetual Secretary. The Secretary is called "Perpetual", as though the holder serves for life, but holds the ability to resign; they may thereafter be styled as "Honorary Perpetual Secretary", with three post- World War II Perpetual Secretaries having previously resigned due to old age. The Perpetual Secretary acts as
5123-554: The Académie, either because their candidacies were rejected, because they were never candidates, or because they died before appropriate vacancies arose. Notable French authors who never became academicians include Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Jean-Paul Sartre , Joseph de Maistre , Honoré de Balzac , René Descartes , Denis Diderot , Romain Rolland , Charles Baudelaire , Gustave Flaubert , Molière , Marcel Proust , Jules Verne , Théophile Gautier , and Émile Zola . The official uniform of
5232-642: The Chair of Poetics at the Collège de France . During World War II , the Vichy regime stripped him of some of these jobs and distinctions because of his quiet refusal to collaborate with Vichy and the German occupation, but Valéry continued, throughout these troubled years, to publish and to be active in French cultural life, especially as a member of the Académie française . Valéry
5341-507: The French comic "Le concombre masqué: Comment devenir maître du monde?", authored by Mandryka and published in 1980. Essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument , but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter , a paper , an article , a pamphlet , and a short story . Essays have been sub-classified as formal and informal: formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas
5450-630: The French head of state has always served as the Académie's protector. From 1672 to 1805, the official meetings of the Académie were in the Louvre ; since 1805, the Académie Française has met in the Collège des Quatre-Nations (known now as the Palais de l'Institut). The remaining academies of the Institut de France also meet in the Palais de l'Institut. The Académie Française has forty seats, each of which
5559-429: The French infinitive essayer , "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing. Subsequently, essay has been defined in a variety of ways. One definition
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#17328866704705668-506: The French language since the 1700s, and has criticized the view that anglicisms present an "invasion" on the French language. It distinguishes anglicisms into three categories: some that are useful to the French language and introduced vocabulary which did not have a French equivalent at the time (the Académie cites the word " confortable " as an example, from the English "comfortable"); others that are detrimental and only establish more confusion as
5777-582: The French language. The Académie publishes a dictionary of the French language, known as the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française , which is regarded as official in France. A special commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Académie compiles the work. The Académie has published thirteen editions of the dictionary, of which three were preliminary, eight were complete, and two were supplements for specialised words. These are: The Académie
5886-544: The Ministry of War before assuming the relatively flexible post as assistant to the increasingly impaired Lebey, a job he held for some twenty years. Also in 1920, he began a tumultuous affair with a fellow poet, Catherine Pozzi , which lasted for eight years. After his election to the Académie française in 1925, Valéry became a tireless public speaker and intellectual figure in French society, touring Europe and giving lectures on cultural and social issues as well as assuming
5995-467: The Principle of Population are counterexamples. In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education . Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing
6104-537: The Senior Executive Service must demonstrate. A film essay (also essay film or cinematic essay ) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay. From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where
6213-612: The already dominant position of the Tuscan dialect of Florence as the model for Italian ; the Florentine academy had published its Vocabolario in 1612. During the French Revolution , the National Convention suppressed all royal academies, including the Académie Française . In 1792, the election of new members to replace those who died was prohibited; in 1793, the academies were themselves abolished. They were all replaced in 1795 by
6322-411: The argument is supported by evidence and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities. One of the challenges facing universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays purchased from an essay mill (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill"
6431-414: The author feels the need. After the introduction, the author has to do his/her best to expose the economic matter at hand, to analyze it, evaluate it, and draw a conclusion. If the essay takes more of a narrative form then the author has to expose each aspect of the economic puzzle in a way that makes it clear and understandable for the reader A reflective essay is an analytical piece of writing in which
6540-466: The beginnings of Japanese literature. Many of the most noted early works of Japanese literature are in this genre. Notable examples include The Pillow Book (c. 1000), by court lady Sei Shōnagon , and Tsurezuregusa (1330), by particularly renowned Japanese Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō . Kenkō described his short writings similarly to Montaigne, referring to them as "nonsensical thoughts" written in "idle hours". Another noteworthy difference from Europe
6649-519: The care and diligence possible, to give exact rules to our language, to render it capable of treating the arts and sciences". The Académie Française has remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature. Richelieu's model, the first academy devoted to eliminating the "impurities" of a language, was the Accademia della Crusca , founded in Florence in 1582, which formalized
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#17328866704706758-470: The chief minister of France, made himself protector of the group, and in anticipation of the formal creation of the academy, new members were appointed in 1634. On 22 February 1635, at Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII granted letters patent formally establishing the council; according to the letters patent registered at the Parlement de Paris on 10 July 1637, the Académie Française was "to labor with all
6867-480: The comparison, and reach a conclusion. Compare and contrast is arranged emphatically. An expository essay is used to inform, describe or explain a topic, using important facts to teach the reader about a topic. Mostly written in third-person , using "it", "he", "she", "they," the expository essay uses formal language to discuss someone or something. Examples of expository essays are: a medical or biological condition, social or technological process, life or character of
6976-414: The critic Sainte-Beuve , are literary essays in the original sense. Other French writers followed suit, including Théophile Gautier , Anatole France , Jules Lemaître and Émile Faguet . As with the novel , essays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu —loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas. Zuihitsu have existed since almost
7085-551: The cynical. His view of state power was broadly liberal insofar as he believed that state power and infringements on the individual should be severely limited. Although he had flirted with nationalist ideas during the 1890s, he moved away from them by 1899, and believed that European culture owed its greatness to the ethnic diversity and universalism of the Roman Empire. He denounced the myth of "racial purity" and argued that such purity, if it existed, would only lead to stagnation—thus
7194-609: The death of Montaigne, containing the first ten of his essays), 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays . Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary . Other English essayists included Sir William Cornwallis , who published essays in 1600 and 1617 that were popular at the time, Robert Burton (1577–1641) and Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione wrote about courtly manners in his essay Il Cortigiano . In
7303-405: The death of his mentor, Stéphane Mallarmé . When, in 1917, he finally broke his 'great silence' with the publication of La Jeune Parque , he was forty-six years of age. This obscure, but sublimely musical, masterpiece, of 512 alexandrine lines in rhyming couplets, had taken him four years to complete, and it immediately secured his fame. With "Le Cimetière marin" and "L'Ébauche d'un serpent," it
7412-415: The different forms and styles of essay writing. These are used by an array of authors, including university students and professional essayists . The defining features of a "cause and effect" essay are causal chains that connect from a cause to an effect, careful language, and chronological or emphatic order. A writer using this rhetorical method must consider the subject , determine the purpose , consider
7521-571: The duties of the position being applied for. An Executive Core Qualification, or ECQ, is a narrative statement that is required when applying to Senior Executive Service positions within the US Federal government. Like the KSAs, ECQs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The Office of Personnel Management has established five executive core qualifications that all applicants seeking to enter
7630-574: The end of World War II : Philippe Pétain , Abel Bonnard , Abel Hermant , and Charles Maurras were all excluded for their association with the Vichy regime . In total, 20 members have been expelled from the Académie. There have been a total of 742 immortels , of whom eleven have been women; Marguerite Yourcenar was the first woman to be elected, in 1980, but there have been 25 unsuccessful female candidacies, dating from 1874. Individuals who are not citizens of France may be, and have been, elected. Moreover, although most academicians are writers, it
7739-565: The essay types described in the section on forms and styles (e.g., descriptive essays, narrative essays, etc.). Some newspapers also print essays in the op-ed section. Employment essays detailing experience in a certain occupational field are required when applying for some jobs, especially government jobs in the United States. Essays known as Knowledge Skills and Executive Core Qualifications are required when applying to certain US federal government positions. A KSA, or "Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities",
7848-447: The essay's topic. Most academic institutions require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other supporting material in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention helps others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of facts and quotations the author uses to support the essay's argument. The bibliography also helps readers evaluate to what extent
7957-725: The informal essay is characterized by "the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc. Essays are commonly used as literary criticism , political manifestos , learned arguments , observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose , but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope 's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man ). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke 's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus 's An Essay on
8066-456: The journal Tatler (founded in 1709 by Steele) and its successors as storehouses of their work, and they became the most celebrated eighteenth-century essayists in England. Johnson's essays appear during the 1750s in various similar publications. As a result of the focus on journals, the term also acquired a meaning synonymous with " article ", although the content may not the strict definition. On
8175-471: The language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language. The Académie comprises forty members, known as les immortels ("the immortals"). New members are elected by the members of the Académie itself . Academicians normally hold office for life, but they may resign or be dismissed for misconduct. Philippe Pétain , named Marshal of France after the Battle of Verdun of World War I ,
8284-413: The last of the French symbolists . However, he published fewer than a hundred poems, and none of them drew much attention. On the night of 4 October 1892, during a heavy storm, Paul Valéry underwent an existential crisis , an event that made a huge impact on his writing career. Eventually, around 1898, he quit writing altogether, publishing not a word for nearly twenty years. This hiatus was in part due to
8393-425: The life of the mind, I thereby earn the right to be stupid for the rest of the day." The subjects of his Cahiers entries often were, surprisingly, reflections on science and mathematics. In fact, arcane topics in these domains appear to have commanded far more of his considered attention than his celebrated poetry. The Cahiers also contain the first drafts of many aphorisms he later included in his books. To date,
8502-553: The mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses, university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences, mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours. In these countries, so-called academic essays, also called papers , are usually more formal than literary ones. They may still allow
8611-691: The mixing of races was necessary for progress and cultural development. In "America as a Projection of the European Mind", Valéry remarked that whenever he despaired about Europe's situation, he could "restore some degree of hope only by thinking of the New World" and mused on the "happy variations" which could result from European "aesthetic ideas filtering into the powerful character of native Mexican art." Raymond Poincaré , Louis de Broglie , André Gide , Henri Bergson , and Albert Einstein all respected Valéry's thinking and became friendly correspondents. Valéry
8720-485: The modernization of the French orthography , has sometimes been criticized by many linguists for allegedly behaving in an overly conservative manner. For instance, in 1997, Lionel Jospin 's government began using the feminine noun " la ministre " to refer to a female minister, following the official practice of Canada , Belgium and Switzerland and a frequent, though until then unofficial, practice in France. The Académie insisted, in accordance with French grammar rules on
8829-621: The original meaning of the word is distorted in translation; and others still that are useless or avoidable, a category of anglicisms used by "snobs" who use words from an English provenance to demarcate themselves from society and appear "in vogue". For the last category of anglicisms, the Académie writes that those words are typically short-lived in French parlance. The Académie Française has informed government officials to stop using English gaming terms like "e-sports", it should be "jeu video de competition". Likewise "streamer" should be "joueur-animateur en direct". The Académie, despite working on
8938-410: The other hand, Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not an essay at all, or cluster of essays, in the technical sense, but still it refers to the experimental and tentative nature of the inquiry which the philosopher was undertaking. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote essays for the general public. The early 19th century, in particular, saw
9047-413: The performance of students during final exams. The concept of an "essay" has been extended to other media beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary filmmaking styles and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions . The word essay derives from
9156-668: The personal voice of a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices". The University of Wisconsin Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray's comments; it calls a film essay an "intimate and allusive" genre that "catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins between fiction and documentary" in a manner that is "refreshingly inventive, playful, and idiosyncratic". Video essays are an emerging media type similar to film essays. Video essays have gained significant prominence on YouTube , as YouTube's policies on free uploads of arbitrary lengths have made it
9265-426: The plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus . There are, therefore, evident links with le Cimetière marin , which is also a seaside meditation on comparably large themes. Before la Jeune Parque , Valéry's only publications of note were dialogues, articles, some poems, and a study of Leonardo da Vinci . In 1920 and 1922, he published two slim collections of verses. The first, Album des vers anciens (Album of old verses),
9374-493: The predecessor of the modern essay. While Montaigne's philosophy was admired and copied in France, none of his most immediate disciples tried to write essays. But Montaigne, who liked to fancy that his family (the Eyquem line) was of English extraction, had spoken of the English people as his "cousins", and he was early read in England, notably by Francis Bacon . Bacon's essays , published in book form in 1597 (only five years after
9483-491: The presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words) are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review . Longer essays may also contain an introductory page that defines words and phrases of
9592-416: The prizes were created during the twentieth century, and only two prizes were awarded before 1780. In total, the Académie awards more than sixty prizes, most of them annually. The most important prize is the Grand prix de la francophonie , which was instituted in 1986, and is funded by the governments of France, Canada, Monaco, and Morocco. Other important prizes include the Grand prix de littérature (for
9701-444: The reader why the argument or claim is as such. A narrative uses tools such as flashbacks , flash-forwards , and transitions that often build to a climax. The focus of a narrative is the plot . When creating a narrative, authors must determine their purpose, consider their audience, establish their point of view, use dialogue, and organize the narrative. A narrative is usually arranged chronologically. An argumentative essay
9810-441: The rest of the author's life. The logical progression and organizational structure of an essay can take many forms. Understanding how the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound impact on its overall cogency and ability to impress. A number of alternative logical structures for essays have been visualized as diagrams, making them easy to implement or adapt in the construction of an argument. In countries like
9919-483: The second class of the Institut became the Académie Française . Since 1816, the existence of the Académie Française has been uninterrupted. The President of France is the "protector" or patron of the Académie. Cardinal Richelieu originally adopted this role; upon his death in 1642, Pierre Séguier , the Chancellor of France , succeeded him. King Louis XIV adopted the function when Séguier died in 1672; since then,
10028-689: The signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends documentary , fiction , and experimental film making using tones and editing styles. The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early Soviet filmmakers like Dziga Vertov , present-day filmmakers including Chris Marker , Michael Moore ( Roger & Me , Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 ), Errol Morris ( The Thin Blue Line ), Morgan Spurlock ( Supersize Me ) and Agnès Varda . Jean-Luc Godard describes his recent work as "film-essays". Two filmmakers whose work
10137-537: The themes of deception, "fakery", and authenticity in general. David Winks Gray's article "The essay film in action" states that the "essay film became an identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s". He states that since that time, essay films have tended to be "on the margins" of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a "peculiar searching, questioning tone ... between documentary and fiction" but without "fitting comfortably" into either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films "tend to marry
10246-474: The traditional use of the masculine noun, on the use of " le ministre " for a minister of either gender. In 2017, 77 linguists retaliated with an opinion column to denounce the "incompetence and anachronism of the Académie". Use of either form remains highly controversial. The Académie Française is responsible for awarding several different prizes in various fields (including literature, painting, poetry, theatre, cinema, history, and translation). Almost all of
10355-548: The work of Mallarmé . His poem, Palme , inspired James Merrill 's celebrated 1974 poem Lost in Translation , and his cerebral lyricism also influenced the American poet, Edgar Bowers . Valéry described his “true oeuvre” to be prose, and he filled more than 28,000 notebook pages over his lifetime. His far more ample prose writings, peppered with many aphorisms and bons mots , reveal a skeptical outlook on human nature, verging on
10464-463: The works of Plutarch , a translation of whose Œuvres Morales ( Moral works ) into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot , Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais , was published in two volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life, he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. A third volume was published posthumously; together, their over 100 examples are widely regarded as
10573-425: The writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, or form—adding a personal reflection on the meaning of the topic in the author's life. Thus, the focus is not merely descriptive. The writer doesn't just describe the situation, but revisits the scene with more detail and emotion to examine what went well, or reveal a need for additional learning—and may relate what transpired to
10682-536: The years, the Académie has tried to prevent the Anglicization of the French language. For example, the Académie has recommended the avoidance of loanwords from modern English (such as walkman , computer , software and e-mail ), in favour of neologisms, i.e. newly coined French words derived from existing ones ( baladeur , ordinateur , logiciel , and courriel respectively). The Académie has also noted that anglicisms have been present in
10791-560: Was a fitting choice, as Valéry shared Goethe's fascination with science (specifically, biology and optics ). In addition to his activities as a member of the Académie française , he was also a member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon , and of the Front national des Ecrivains . In 1937, he was appointed chief executive of what later became the University of Nice . He was the inaugural holder of
10900-550: Was a revision of early but beautifully wrought smaller poems, some of which had been published individually before 1900. The second, Charmes (from the Latin carmina , meaning "songs" and also "incantations"), further confirmed his reputation as a major French poet. The collection includes le Cimetière marin , and many smaller poems with diverse structures. Valéry's technique is quite orthodox in its essentials. His verse rhymes and scans in conventional ways, and it has much in common with
11009-413: Was also sometimes questioned, or eliminated as part of the test material. This was a major argument in favor of the eight-legged essay, arguing that it were better to eliminate creative art in favor of prosaic literacy. In the history of Chinese literature, the eight-legged essay is often said to have caused China's "cultural stagnation and economic backwardness" in the 19th century. This section describes
11118-432: Was also the first African elected, in 1983. Other famous members include Voltaire ; Montesquieu ; Victor Hugo ; Alexandre Dumas, fils ; Émile Littré ; Louis Pasteur ; Louis de Broglie ; and Henri Poincaré . Many notable French writers have not become members of the Académie Française . In 1855, the writer Arsène Houssaye devised the expression "forty-first seat" for deserving individuals who were never elected to
11227-699: Was born to a Corsican father and Genoese - Istrian mother in Sète , a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Hérault , but he was raised in Montpellier , a larger urban center close by. After a traditional Roman Catholic education, he studied law at university and then resided in Paris for most of the remainder of his life, where he was, for a while, part of the circle of Stéphane Mallarmé . In 1900, he married Jeannine Gobillard,
11336-406: Was considered unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it. Georges Clemenceau refused to be received, as he feared being received by his enemy, Raymond Poincaré . Members remain in the Académie for life. The council may dismiss an academician for grave misconduct. The first dismissal occurred in 1638, when Auger de Moléon de Granier was expelled for theft. The most recent dismissals occurred at
11445-581: Was elected to the Académie in 1931 and, after his governorship of Vichy France in World War II , was forced to resign his seat in 1945. The Académie had its origins in an informal literary group deriving from the salons held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet during the late 1620s and early 1630s. The group began meeting at Valentin Conrart 's house, seeking informality. There were then nine members. Cardinal Richelieu ,
11554-513: Was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twelve times. It is believed that the Swedish Academy intended to award Valéry the prize in 1945, had he not died that year. Valéry died in Paris in July 1945. He is buried in the cemetery of his native town, Sète, the same cemetery celebrated in his famous poem Le Cimetière marin . Valéry is best known as a poet, and he is sometimes considered to be
11663-408: Was often asked to write articles on topics not of his choosing; the resulting intellectual journalism was collected in five volumes titled Variétés . Valéry's most striking achievement is perhaps his monumental intellectual diary, called the Cahiers (Notebooks). Early every morning of his adult life, he contributed something to the Cahiers , prompting him to write: "Having dedicated those hours to
11772-551: Was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include Georges Méliès and Bertolt Brecht . Méliès made a short film ( The Coronation of Edward VII (1902)) about the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII , which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into some of his plays. Orson Welles made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974, called F for Fake , which dealt specifically with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with
11881-476: Was the early nineteenth century," and that its greatest exponent was Charles Lamb . She also suggests that while critical essays have more brain than the heart, and personal essays have more heart than brain, familiar essays have equal measures of both. A history essay sometimes referred to as a thesis essay describes an argument or claim about one or more historical events and supports that claim with evidence, arguments, and references. The text makes it clear to
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