Another Attempt to Discuss the Essay

After reading the other two things about essays, I think I understand a little better what one is. For one thing, it isn't fiction. You can tweak or invent minor details as part of your literary license when writing a personal essay, but you can't just make the whole thing up. It also needs to possess some sort of literary quality that allows it to transcend one particular topic or event and appeal to a wide range of people. We read essays that were written over 200 years ago and still consider them to be great, because we can appreciate the way they deal with a subject even if that subject isn't relvent anymore in today's culture.
My other main conclusion is that you could ask ten writers to write an essay, sit down with the final products, and still have no real clue what specifically an "essay" is. Each one of the ten could be very different from the others. It would be like trying to use a generic description of a dog (furry, wet nose, has 4 legs and a tail) to find a specific breed of dog in a pound. Every one is very different, yet every one of them still fits the general description.
Probably the most important thing I drew from the readings that could be used for my essay is that a good essay is able to deal with the readers on a personal level. You feel, as you're reading the essay, as though you are actually conversing with the author and getting to know them. I'm not always sure my writing has a very personal touch, and so I will make sure to look into this as I revise.