In the pages that follow are sample essays which demonstrate the broad range of this literary form. Following the four essays is a writing assignment which will ask you to write about these works. While the term is relatively new, the form is ancient. Among the first known essays are the works of Plato and Theophrastus. Among the early essayists, Plato's analogy of the cave , and Bacon's Essays prime examples of the style from 300 BC to the late 16th century.
Essay writers explore a wide variety of topics.
Individuals such as Virginia Woolf and Joan Didion explore feminist issues. Susan Sontag used the essay form to question the way we see and characterize illness in Illness as Metaphor and AIDS as Metaphor .