What is difference between Journalistic and Essay Writing???

To begin with, essay is the result of a struggle between a writer and his or her material, comprising invention, arrangement, drafting and revising, and editing and proof-reading. It is different from report and journalistic writing. Report writing is an up-front ‘executive summary’— a series of discussion, usually with headings and sub-headings and is likely to include ‘bullet points’. Journalistic writing foreground the ‘who, what, where, when and why’ of a story in the first paragraph, the most important information is dispatched immediately with no attempt to summarize findings or provide a conclusion at the end. These features, however, do not constitute salient dynamics of an essay.

On the contrary, essays are structured in a way to be read from beginning to end. The introduction serves to outline or signpost the main body of the essay. Logically, the main body should proceed with a clear, coherent and rational argument that builds throughout. Essay ends with a conclusion that ties the essay together.

The most common errors in essays are: failure to answer the question; not using one’s own words; poor structure; lack of skills of handling theory and evidence; flawed grammar, punctuation and spellings; and criminal failure to observe the word limit.

Pragmatically, four golden rules for writing an academic essay include: answering and understanding the topic holistically; using one’s own words; supporting statement with evidence; and observing the word limit.