The A to Z Challenge asks bloggers to post 26 articles on a themed topic. It’s supposed to be every day except Sundays during the month of April but I find that too busy and decided to post mine ‘about’ once a month. Yes, it’ll take me a couple of years. Sigh.
My topic, like the last three times, is writing genres.
This genre:
Informal Essay
Definition
written for pleasure to help organize thoughts on a topic, to reflect on readings, to express different points of view. Also known as ‘personal essay’ and ‘familiar essay’.
Tips
- These are short writings curated by theme.
- This is often about personal experience but not always.
- The format is traditional–introduction, body, and concluding paragraphs–but flexible.
- It may be fiction but still follows general informal essay rules.
- It may be reflective rather than informational.
- Can be any length though they do tend to be shorter than longer.
- By their nature, they don’t have to be published in a traditional book. Any method of publishing is fine as long as it collects the themed essays into one easy-to-access spot. Andrew at Andrew’s View of the Week suggested informational informal blogs
- Be well familiar with your topic.
- Writing should show your personality and attitudes.
- An example of topics:
- The Best Journey of My Life
- The Point in My Life Where I Would Start Over
- The Perfect Woman/Man, Marriage and Divorce
- My Religion
- The Celebrities Give Us Bad/Good Examples
- Reincarnation
- The “Delights” of Our School Cafeteria
Popular
I confess, I struggled with examples of this genre. Any additional ideas?
- Libre Paley by Libre
- Nature Tails by Gabychops
- Essays of E.B. White by E.B. White
- Essays of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Woolf
- Franklin as a Chess Player by Anonymous
- Portraits and Observations by Truman Capote
BTW: If the book you’ve written fits into any of these genres, let me know in the comments and I’ll include you, the book title, and where to purchase it.
Click for complete list of these 26 genres
Click for a complete list of all genres I’ve written about
More I Genres:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Man vs. Nature saga, and the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Laws of Nature, Summer 2021.
Just stopped by to say hey and hope your day is filled with plenty of ideas and words for your WiP.
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Well aren’t you wonderful. I’m writing today, got our home generator installed yesterday. My hip hurts from walking too much. Overall, a glorious day, Sandra. And you?
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This is a favorite genre for me to read and write. I am more trained to write in the 1500-2500 word category :)… I would throw in David Sedaris, the non-fiction of Edward Abbey and some of Wendell Berry, Rick Bragg, among others. It seems to be a great genre for writing about nature.
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This does seem perfect for you. In fact, I’d classify several of the posts I’ve read on your site as this type. Easy to read, friendly, pithy.
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I can’t think of too many examples either, but I used to write what I called personal essays back in the day when I was also writing a lot of short fiction. I was fortunate to find homes for them in small press publications, which reminds me, the Chicken Soup series (where I had an essay published years ago) is all about personal essays, as far as I recall.
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Good one. I think you’re right–about the Chicken Soup stories.
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I think a lot of my “I” pieces/stories on my blog would be called personal essay. Your description is so helpful. So, as I read them, I guess my new book Flashes of Life, that contains personal stories – short 1-2 pages – about a personal experience in each one would be called a book of informal essays!
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Yes, I think so. This is really a wonderfully broad genre.
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And in my writing heart, a broad genre is a GOOD genre. 🙂
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Excellent tips, Jacqui. It’s been many years since I’ve written an essay and these blew the cobwebs from the old noggin about them. 🙂
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I don’t write essays but this reminds me why they are so popular. Well-developed thoughts from a personal perspective–I could read those.
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Me too. 🙂
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Someone mentioned Orwell, and what about James Baldwin, such as The Creative Process?
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Good addition. I’m only vaguely familiar with Baldwin.
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You gave a name to the genre of writing that I often write on my blog. It’s also the genre of the story that The Braid Theatre is producing next month. I feel like I just met myself and I’m legitimate – thank you!
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Yes! You do–I’d forgotten that. I felt that way about Quiet Memoirs and so many of those I’ve read.
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Are these the kind of essays that are required as part of applications for colleges in the US? As you know, I grew up elsewhere and never really understood what exactly an essay is. Apparently, there are different kinds… I’m trying to relate to what it would be in Belgium when I was a student.
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No, not really. This would be too informal but the topics could be similar. Essays are typically nonfiction discussions on a topic of the writer’s choice like exercise routines or even a nomadic lifestyle.
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How about blog posts (in general), are those called informal essays? Still truing to grasp it. Thank you for the explanation.
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Yes, I think so, those that are self-contained in one post. A lot of yours could be, that explore your travels to this area or that.
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I do a lot of informal essays – I never have them were a suit and tie … most jeans and Hawaiian shirts …
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I think you do. I have noticed that more lately than you used to. Maybe because you are retired?
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Yup, now I have more time for writing.
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This reminded me of teachers asking us to write an essay on the first day back at school – “What I did on my summer vacation.”
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That would qualify! And they were always informal, more like journaling, don’t you think?
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A lot like it, yes. Now that I think of it in that light, I’m thinking how I record events in my journals that I always keep when we’re on any kind of trip. I find that I want to make it short, but I want to be sure to include the main points. It’s good practice for when we write our synopses of our novels.
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I know I’ve written some blog posts that would fit into this category. I think your example, “The Point in My Life Where I Would Start Over,” would be interesting, but I never could write it because it implies that the writer is dissatisfied with everything in his/her life. A topic I have considered writing about along the same lines is “Things I Wish I Could Do-Over.”
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Well, if you wrote each of the topics in your book as an essay, that would qualify. ‘Discipline in the classroom’–lots of readers!
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An interesting genre. I like reading essays.
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Do you? I don’t really except for people I know.
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This is a tough one but you came up with some good examples, Jacqui!
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Thanks, Denise! It made me think.
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First thing that came to mind was an article I wrote in 2013. Here’s a link in case you’ld like to take a look… http://ishistorytheagreeduponlie.blogspot.com/2013/10/poverty-prejudice-yesterday-today.html
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Yes, exactly like that. Your perspective on poverty and prejudice.
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Thanks for checking it out, Jacqui! 🙂 Have a great day! xo
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As some of the other comments have mentioned, this reminds me of some of the blog posts that I’ve read, Jacqui. They can be pretty entertaining. Another fascinating genre selection. 🙂
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It really does. If we presented many blog posts as a published short document, they would become informal essays. Or maybe a collection in a book like we often do for short stories.
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I’ve sometimes considered taking (what I consider to be) the best posts from my own blog and reediting them for a collection of published essays. I treat every post I write with the same seriousness I invest in my long-form fiction.
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Hi Jacqui, this is an interesting genre. I do believe A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift would fit in here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm
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I think these were a lot more popular in bygone eras than now. I’ll check out this one by Swift.
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I must warn you that it is heavy going. The content is horrible, but it is excellent and very famous.
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I appreciate the warning, Robbie. Not what I usually select for casual reading.
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A shocker!
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I think many blogs fit this genre.
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I do enjoy your blog. I’m going over to read your latest post with the thought in mind of an ‘informal essay’.
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Thank you so much for your encouraging words.
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This is another interesting genre. I definitely think some blog posts would qualify as this genre, such as Debby Gies. Thanks for sharing, Jacqui!
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Yes–she would definitely qualify!
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I have to say I have never read any informal essays, unless blog posts count, as Ankur said. This was a challenging letter, Jacqui. Great job on topic.
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I stumbled on this genre looking for an I genre and it is definitely unique. There are some blogs that qualify (Hilary’s comes to mind, as does Libre’s) but I haven’t read any of the others.
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I didn’t realize that there was a distinction between formal and informal essays.
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Makes sense though, doesn’t it? Like styles of writing, they vary and it opens the door to the non-academic pursuit of non-fictional discussions.
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Sweet Marjoram: Notes and Essays by DeWitt Henry would be another good example of the personal essay genre.
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Oooh, good addition. I’ll check it out.
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Oh, good! DeWitt is a master of the personal essay.
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I need to whisper this so lean in close: I’ve never heard of him before! Yikes!
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He is one of the founding editors of Ploughshares, the literary magazine we struggling fiction workshoppers aspired to be published in. (The rejection slips I have from them couldn’t wallpaper a room, but they’re still quite a lot!)
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I had never heard of DeWitt until now. Sounds like one I need to read. Just ordered a copy of Sweet Marjoram, Liz.
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Hi Jacqui – I think you’ll find there are lots … I know I’ve a few here … George Orwell’s spring to mind – I expect I’ll find others by scanning my books … but for now Orwell will have to do. Looking forward to seeing others’ ideas – great genre though – cheers Hilary
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I agree, Hilary. It’s a genre that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
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Like Ankur, I guess my series for A to Z? But this is a tricky one!
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That’s a really good point, Anita. I think, yes, and a lot of AtoZ lists probably qualify.
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I can see why you struggles with examples. Thanks for sharing, Jacqui.
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I need to broaden my lens!
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I suppose my blogposts might qualify too?
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That’s an interesting point. If we bundled blog posts and published them in an anthology, would they count? (Do they have to be officially “published” as a book or ebook?) Or are they too casual, possibly lacking the formal structure of an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusions? (But then again, possibly not lacking those things at all.)
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Why not? The only thing that may need to be added if published as a book is a bit of perspective as posts are over a period of time and in a certain context.
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You keep coming up with genres I wouldn’t have thought of. Good job!
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A lot of them these weeks are subgenres but I love them. Such a great way to categorize writing so it’s easier to find.
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I wish I’d thought of that. Yes, they definitely do. You cover a specific topic with your ideas in an informal way. Did you know you were an informal essayist and not just a blogger?
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Thank you Jacqui for the additional honorific!
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