about familiar essay

What is a Familiar Essay in Composition?

Definition and Examples

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A familiar essay is a short prose composition (a type of creative nonfiction ) characterized by the personal quality of the writing and the distinctive voice or persona of the essayist. Also known as an informal essay .

"The subject matter," says  G. Douglas Atkins, "largely makes the familiar essay what it is: it is recognizable by human being qua human being, shared by her and him, and common to us all, requiring no arcane, specialized, or professional knowledge—an amateur's haven" ( On the Familiar Essay: Challenging Academic Orthodoxies , 2009).

Highly regarded familiar essayists in English include Charles Lamb , Virginia Woolf, George Orwell , James Baldwin, E.B. White , Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Alice Walker , and  Richard Rodriguez .

Examples of Classic Familiar Essays

• Blakesmoor in H-----shire, by Charles Lamb
• Crooked Streets, by Hilaire Belloc
• Going Out for a Walk, by Max Beerbohm
• Getting Up on Cold Mornings, by Leigh Hunt
• On Going a Journey, by William Hazlitt
• The Town Week by E.V. Lucas

Observation

• "Post-Montaigne, the essay split into two distinct modalities: one remained informal, personal, intimate, relaxed, conversational, and often humorous; the other, dogmatic, impersonal, systematic, and expository ." (Michele Richman in The Barthes Effect by R. Bensmaia. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1987)

Familiar Essays and Familiar Essayists

• - " Familiar essays . . . have traditionally been highly informal in tone , often humorous, valuing lightness of touch above all else. They have been filled with intimate personal observations and reflections, and have emphasized the concrete and tangible, the sensual enjoyment of everyday pleasures. . . .
• "Nowadays the familiar essay is often seen as a form particularly well suited to modern rhetorical purposes, able to reach an otherwise suspicious or uninterested audience through personal discourse , which reunites the appeals of ethos (the force and charm of the writer's character) and pathos (the emotional engagement of the reader) with the intellectual appeal of logos ." (Dan Roche, "Familiar Essay." Encyclopedia of the Essay , ed. by Tracy Chevalier. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997)
• - "[T]he familiar essayist lives, and takes his professional sustenance, in the everyday flow of things. Familiar is his style and familiar, too, is the territory he writes about. . . .
• "In the end the true job of the familiar essayist is to write what is on his mind and in his heart in the hope that, in doing so, he will say what others have sensed only inchoately." (Joseph Epstein, preface to Familiar Territory: Observations on American Life . Oxford University Press, 1979)

Familiar Essays and Personal Essays

• " [Francis] Bacon 's influence continues today, often in familiar essays , whereas [Michel de] Montaigne's enjoys greater popularity as personal essays . The difference is neither precious nor sophistical, although it is subtle. Although the personal and the familiar are the two main sorts of essays, essays are, truth to tell, often both familiar and personal, the difference at least nowadays residing mainly in the degree to which a particular instance emphasizes the tiny prepositions that we find in Montaigne and Bacon alike: 'on' and 'of.' If the essay tips toward being about a topic--books, say, or solitude--it may be termed 'familiar,' whereas if it focuses a bit less on the general or universal and more on the character of 'the speaking voice,' it is likely a 'personal' essay." (G. Douglas Atkins, Reading Essays: An Invitation . University of Georgia Press, 2007)

Revival of the Familiar Essay

• "Equally problematic are conventional divisions of the essay into formal and informal, impersonal and familiar , expository and conversational . Though imprecise and potentially contradictory, such labels not only serve as a form of critical shorthand but also point to what is often the most powerful organizing force in the essay: the rhetorical voice or projected character [ ethos ] of the essayist. . . .
• "The modernist era, that period of fragmentation and innovation at the beginning of the 20th century, is best known to students of literature for the radical transformations that occurred in poetry and fiction. But the essay, too, experienced dramatic changes during this time. Divested of its self-conscious literariness and reinvested with the colloquial vigor of popular journalism, the essay was reborn in such cosmopolitan magazines as The Smart Set , The American Mercury , and The New Yorker .
• "This 'new' brand of essay—exuberant, witty, and often contentious—was in fact more faithful to the journalistic traditions of Addison and Steele, Lamb and Hazlitt than the often preciously lambent writings of those who had deliberately mimicked the English essayists. Recognizing the power of a combative narrative voice to attract readers' attention and impose on a journal a distinctive style , magazine editors recruited writers with forceful rhetorical presences." (Richard Nordquist, "Essay," in Encylopedia of American Literature , ed. S. R. Serafin. Continuum, 1999)

Organs of Personality

• - "The  familiar essay in prose and the lyric in poetry are alike essentially literary organs of personality. In discussing the nature and the character of these two forms of literature, it is well-nigh impossible to consider separately the subject, the author and the style ." (W. M. Tanner, Essays and Essay-Writing . Atlantic Monthly Company, 1917)
• - "The true essay, then, is a tentative and personal treatment of a subject; it is a kind of improvisation on a delicate theme; a species of soliloquy." (A.C. Benson, "On Essays at Large." The Living Age , Feb. 12, 1910)

The Familiar Essay as Chat

• "A familiar essay is not an authoritative discourse, emphasizing the inferiority of the reader; and neither the learned, the superior, the clever nor overwitty, is the man who can "pull it off." An exhibition of pyrotechnics is all very fine; but a chat by a wood fire with a friend who can listen, as well as talk, who can even sit with you by the hour in congenial silence—this is better. When, therefore, we find a writer who chats with us familiarly about the little things that in the aggregate go to make up our experience in life, when he talks with you, not to show off, not to set you right, not to argue, above all not to preach, but to share his thoughts and sentiments, to laugh with you, moralize a bit with you, though not too much, take out of his pocket, so to speak, a curious little anecdote, or run across an odd little experience and share it pleasantly, enjoying it unaffectedly and anxious to have you enjoy it, too —when we have all this, we have the daintiest, the purest and the most delightful of all the forms of literature—the familiar essay." (Felix Emmanuel Schelling, "The Familiar Essay." Appraisements and Asperities as to Some Contemporary Writers . J.B. Lippincott, 1922)
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• Genres in Literature
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Familiar Essay: Definition and Writing Recommendations

Usually secondary and high school students know nothing about familiar essays because it is considered as a challenging assignment. A familiar essay is focused on one’s own reflection and exploration of a topic such as “Deceiving Oneself” or “Giving Advice”.

What is a Familiar Essay?

Let us define a familiar essay. A familiar essay is a type of nonfiction short story writing in which the author shares a life experience and uses a personal or voice unique to themselves. It is known for being written in an informal manner.

Popular Classic Familiar Essays

• Death of a Pig, by E.B. White
• An Apology for Idlers, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• A Piece of Chalk, by G. K.Chesterton
• The Indian Jugglers, by William Hazlitt
• Getting Up on Cold Mornings, by Leigh Hunt
• Imperfect Sympathies, by Charles Lamb

How to Write a Familiar Essay

The familiar essay uses a unique literary device that involves addressing the reader directly as if they were an acquaintance. When executed properly, this keeps the audience interested and engaged as they read the story. As you begin to define a familiar essay writing process, think about how you can frame the narrative in a way that takes into account the needs of the reader. Using the first-person can be effective, although you should first ask your instructor if it is permitted for the assignment.

The good news when it comes to writing a familiar essay is that it is a far easier assignment than a research paper or most other academic work. Rather than requiring you to seek out sources or read up on a topic, all you really have to do is use your imagination. Of course, coming up with familiar essay topics that the reader would find interesting can be a challenge. In addition, if you lack creativity or the ability to find colorful ways to express yourself, you might struggle with this paper. One way to get started is to think about a passion in your life or a memorable event that you think would make for an interesting narrative. Usually casual slang – typically frowned upon in conventional academic writing – is perfectly acceptable. If you can get the reader to laugh or even cry, you have accomplished your goals.

Audience and Tone of Writing

While writing a familiar essay, imagine that your audience is one person only. Your reader is educated enough to understand the topic and there is no need to prove additional clarifications or explanations. Think that your audience is enthusiastic to hear your opinion on the topic. You can even interact with the reader by using personal pronouns.

Make a Plan

Even if a familiar essay refers to personal writing, you still need to organize your ideas before writing. You can begin with freewriting and create a paper with all ideas that appear in your mind during several minutes. Do not worry about the content. You will extract the most valuable and significant ideas for your outline, which will further transform into a real essay.

Writing a Familiar Essay

Now it is time to use your outline and create the essay itself. Do not underestimate the importance of creating an outline and following it during the writing stage. Since familiar essays are deeply personal in their nature, students often go off the track and forget about the initial topics they tried to address. One of the easiest ways to write a familiar essay is to produce it at once (in one session). It will help you not to lose the focus.

Usage of Sources

Most of the teachers ask students not to use any references in familiar essays. However, please read carefully your instructions to be sure. If allowed, you can rely on the quote of a famous philosopher to prove your point. However, there is no need to introduce an outside argument because the focus of discussion should be your personal reflection.

Revise Your Paper

Always re-read your familiar essay before submission and revise its content. The reader should have a clear understanding of your personal standpoint. You should check the tone and style of writing. Be sure to get rid of all stylistic inconsistencies. For example, if you begin your essay with an enthusiastic tone, the same should be seen in the concluding paragraph. Check your paper for unity and coherence as well.

High Quality Academic Help

Although the familiar essay does not involve doing outside research or collecting data, it is nonetheless a difficult paper if you have trouble expressing your ideas in an entertaining way. Fortunately, when you are feeling stuck you can always buy a familiar essay from the experts at WeWriteOnline.com!

Buy Custom Essay Papers

Sometimes downloading an example of a familiar essay just will not cut it, especially when your own paper has to reflect on aspects of your life. This is why ordering a high quality custom familiar essay is the perfect solution. But where should you shop for paper? With so many writing services to choose from, it is not always easy to know which one is right for you. Here are a few traits that a reputable writing service should always possess:

• The company has developed a solid reputation for creating high quality content and has a high review score.
• The company does not merely send you the same familiar essay examples that they give to all their clients, they provide custom work that cannot be found anywhere else.
• The company understands the importance of keeping their prices low so that their services are accessible to all students.
• The company delivers their work by the deadline, even on the tightest of time frames.

When you look at the custom writing company websites, you will find that many of them are poorly written; containing grammar mistakes and typos. If they cannot even get their webpages right, how can they be expected to deliver an essay that gets you an A? Other websites look perfectly fine, but that also is not an automatic sign that they are reputable. Ultimately, it is important to choose the company carefully.

We at WeWriteOnline.com are the company that you can trust. Whether you need a familiar essay, movie review or even a dissertation, we have talented writers to handle all of your academic and professional needs. Every paper that we produce is original and follows your instructions to the letter. You are free to provide us some information about yourself that your writer will then craft into an entertaining, beautifully written familiar essay that keeps the reader’s attention. Alternatively, you can send us the general requirements of the assignment and we will use our creativity and imagination to do the rest! They will craft a purposeful, coherent story that leaves the audience feeling satisfied. Of course, the ultimate judge (your instructor) is sure to give it a high grade.

You never have to worry about plagiarism either. We scan all of our papers through the latest in plagiarism detection technology, guaranteeing one-of-a-kind work that you cannot find anywhere else. We also understand the importance of receiving your assignments on time. After all, receiving an amazing essay does you no good if your professor is not willing to accept it late.

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Guide: How to write a familiar essay

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The  familiar essay  is a type of essay that has fallen by the wayside in most primary and secondary school curricula because it is difficult to write. The familiar essay is a personal reflection on an elevated topic, such as  “people worth knowing,”  or  “How religion informs morality.”

It is similar to a personal essay because the observations are unique to the author and research is not required. However, the familiar essay diverges from the personal essay because of the philosophical nature of the topics.

Tone and Audience

The author of a  familiar essay  writes as if they have an audience consisting of one person. They may even interact with their audience by using “you” or phrases such as “dear reader.” Because of the lofty nature of the topics for a familiar essay, the tone for this type of essay is typically elevated and geared toward an educated reader.

Planning the Essay

Even though the familiar essay is personal in nature, it is important to gather your thoughts before you begin writing. Many professors and instructors recommend freewriting about the topic or clustering as useful activities for planning a familiar essay. From the freewriting activity, the author can then create an outline to use as a general guide for organizing the essay.

Writing the Familiar Essay

As you write, use the outline you created during the planning phase. Working from an outline is important for any essay that is personal in nature because writers have the greatest tendency to ramble or get off topic when they are writing about their observations. Many authors find that writing the familiar essay is easiest if it is written in one session. This helps the writer to stay on track and prevents them from losing their focus.

Most familiar essays do not cite other essays or use references. However, you might make an exception to this rule by discussing a famous author, philosopher, or politician’s point to illuminate your point or to serve as a counterpoint to your assertions. In that instance, you would need to cite the reference.

Revising the Essay

Like other types of essays, the familiar essay should be carefully revised before it is turned in. Pay close attention to the tone of the essay. The tone should remain consistent. For example, if you began the essay with a light-hearted tone, make sure to continue that tone to the end of the essay for consistency. The exception would be if you have good reason to dampen the tone of the essay.

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Familiar Essay Writing: 10 Tips That Will Make Your Work Easier

• How to structure it?
• What should you write about?
• What writing style should you settle on?

If you have to write a familiar essay, and these or other questions are whirling around in your brain, you have come to the right place. Yes, in this article, you will find all the tips to write a high-quality familiar essay on any topic.

Table of Contents

1. Get a Familiar Essay Example to Get You Started

A familiar essay is a very peculiar genre of the creative writing with some characteristics that are not shared by any other essay type. To simplify a bit, it is a short-form nonfiction text primarily characterized by a strong personal touch, a voice of the author’s persona. Normally, no matter what you write about – be it a book you’ve read, the current state of education industry or environmental protection, you are expected to be fully objective and avoid emotionally colored words (and anything else showing your subjectivity). In an informal essay, you don’t have these limitations – if you need to be emotional to demonstrate your unique take on the problem, so be it. In fact, the more personal your style is, the better it is for you – you can be as witty, funny, and quirky as you like.

To better understand what is expected of you, it would be a good idea to read a few examples of familiar essays. This can be quite informative and will give you the better understanding of how you can go about developing your own writing style – the most important prerequisite of a quality familiar essay. Be careful about the place where you get your writing sample – you cannot just visit any online writing service and say “ Write my familiar essay ” – specialists in this kind of work are relatively rare and are not easy to come by.

2. Look at Familiar Essay Topics That Are Acceptable

Another feature of writing familiar essays is the kind of topics that are covered in them. They should not require any professional or specialized knowledge and have universal human appeal – in other words, they should be understandable and relatable for anybody who would read them simply because they are just as human as the essay’s author. Such topics, for example, include:

• Books Getting Replaced with Digital Sources of Information and What It Means for Every One of Us;
• Community-Conscious Business: Is It Possible in Current Economic Climate?
• Is Writing a Doctoral or MBA Dissertation to Obtain a PhD Degree Worth the Trouble One Has to Go for Its Sake?
• Does History Repeat Itself and Is It a Good Enough Reason to Study It?
• War on Drugs and Its Connection to Teenage Crime Rates;
• Security Concerns vs. the Rights of Individuals in the UK;
• The Most Important Traits Associated with True Leadership.

As you can see, familiar essays can be written about virtually anything – you simply have to avoid topics that require specialized technical knowledge. When choosing what to write about, ask yourself: can it be understood by a person who does not study this subject but has background knowledge of an intelligent, generally well-educated amateur?

3. Use a Proper Familiar Essay Structure

• The hook – the first sentence or two, aimed at grabbing the reader’s attention and smoothly transferring it to the rest of the paper. It plays a special role in a familiar essay because of its high degree of informality – meaning that you have much more freedom of expression than usual. Let your wit roam free and don’t worry about going out of line – it is a part of the course when it comes to informal essays;
• The thesis statement. Nothing special about this – it is no different from what it is in any other type of essay, i.e., an explanatory sentence containing the gist of your entire paper in a definite and clear form.

4. Talk to Your Reader While Writing a Familiar Essay

A familiar essay, the way it evolved in English literature, is a very personal experience, not just a piece of writing but an informal chat between two people: the writer and the reader. By a reader, we mean not just the grader responsible for reading and evaluating your work, but anybody whom this text will come to hand. So, be personal, address directly to the individual reading your paper, be friendly and don’t try to show yourself as superior to your audience. Demonstrate that your essay is a labour of love, not of pride. Usually familiar essays are written in a way that presupposes the audience of a single reader, which further emphasizes the personal nature of this genre.

5. Use the Simple Language, but Don’t Oversimplify

Your writing should be closer to the everyday speech than in the formal types of essays. But don’t treat this genre’s informality as an excuse to use slang, jargon or rude language. If it is of any help, imagine yourself writing a letter to a good yet somewhat distant friend. Think of how you would report about the latest happenings in your life in such a situation. Then, start writing.

6. Try Freewriting as a Good Method of Preparation

Although familiar essay writing is personal and informal in nature, it doesn’t mean that you should approach working on it haphazardly. Just like with any other kind of writing, it is extremely important to gather your thoughts before you start typing. However, in this case, you may give yourself a certain amount of freedom and start not with a rigid academic plan that looks almost like a thesis proposal, but with freewriting on the general topic you are dealing with.

7. Prepare an Essay Outline

It is especially important if you have to do some research being not very familiar with the essay topic. Having a clear-cut outline before you start working on an essay prevents you from rambling and omitting important points you have intended to mention. Some students resent the idea of writing an informal essay from an outline, but in fact, this stage is even more important in this type of writing than it is for other, more formal essays. The fact is that people are much more prone to steering off the course when they write about something personal in nature. Having a definite plan will help you keep your thoughts collected and cover everything you want but no more. Try it, it will save you a lot of time.

8. Try Finishing Your Work in One Session

9. Use of Some References in Your Familiar Essays

Most familiar essays do without any references at all – they are personal discussions on specific topics, not research assignments. However, you may have been given a task to introduce a certain amount of references in your assignment. Or you can make your own decision to discuss a famous author, and in this case, it will be impossible to avoid using quotations.

10. Don’t Forget to Revise and Proofread

Just like with any other type of academic writing, revising and proofreading are extremely important when it comes to familiar essays. However, in addition to the usual things – checking up on formatting, spelling, grammar, and syntax – here you should pay special attention to the tone of your writing.

• It shouldn’t be overly dry and academic. Think of the way you would talk about a good acquaintance of yours – eliminate overly complex words and structures, divide longer sentences into shorter ones and so on;
• It should be consistent. If you begin writing in a light-hearted tone, keep it this way throughout the whole essay – that is, unless you have a very good reason to change the way you speak and a way to demonstrate that you do it intentionally and not as a slip.
• Give your essay the right emotional vibe. Use informal, sometimes emotional language – the way you would discuss the topic with a living human being, not an abstract audience. At the same time, make sure you are respectful both towards your reader and viewpoints you discuss.

If possible, get an external proofreader – somebody you can trust, somebody who is interested in your success. Ask him/her to give you some feedback on the following aspects of your writing:

• Logic. Are all points connected to each other in a logical and consistent manner?
• Style. Is your style consistent throughout the essay? Are there any words or expressions that seem to be out of place?
• Grammar and syntax. Are there any glaring mistakes you’ve missed during your revision?

Familiar essays are rarely written by college students these days and are considered to be a difficult task. That’s why if you experience difficulties, there is nothing unusual about it – but we hope that these tips will get you through!

Too busy to write your paper by yourself?

Definition and Recommendations on Writing a Familiar Essay

The  familiar essay  is mostly given as home task in primary and secondary school curricula. This type of essay is indeed difficult to write. If you have to deal with a familiar essay, writing a personal reflection on a certain topic will be your main task. Another difficulty in the way of writing this essay is the following: you can easily fall into confusion, because the familiar essay in pretty similar to the personal essay. The observations are unique to the author and research is not required. This challenging assignment is often unfamiliar to the pupils. It is considered as a pretty hard and challenging writing because you have to focus on your own reflection and exploration of a topic. There is no way in which you can rely on facts and other investigators in this field. Don’t worry though, you can write it with our help. Say to yourself: «I can write my essay  nicely and fast! »

Here are some pieces of advice that will make your essay look more elevated:

• When writing your essay, imagine that your audience consists of only one person. Your reader is enthusiastic about hearing your opinion on the topic. In this type of essay, there is no need for adding different explanations in order to prove your point of view. You only need to interact with one imaginary reader. You can even try to use personal pronouns.
• Organize your ideas before writing by making a plan. Familiar or not, it is still a piece of writing that has to be well-structured.
• Do not underestimate an outline. it is an important part of essay writing. Make sure to follow it during the writing process. The problem is that students often go off the track and forget about the initial topics they tried to address. That is why it will be good to write your familiar essay in one sitting.
• In familiar essays, teachers will ask you not to use any references or sources. However, you can rely on one quote to prove your point.

10 tips for your familiar essay

We can assure you – the progress will be visible with these tips! Use them to create a nice familiar essay, better than your classmate’s.

– Read the examples of another familiar essay to understand the process. A familiar essay is a pretty peculiar genre of creative writing. Hence, some characteristics might be different than in any other essay type. It would be a good idea to read the few examples of familiar essays to better understand what is expected of you.

– The topic is very important. Topics should not require any professional or specialized knowledge. Try to make them understandable and relatable. Familiar essays can be written about anything – you just have to avoid the issues that require specialized technical knowledge. Make your essay familiar.

– You should use a proper familiar essay structure. Familiar essay is not extremely different from any other type of paper. Usually, an introduction comes first. It consists of the so-called hook (the first sentence or two, aimed at grabbing the reader’s attention) and the thesis statement.

– Remember to talk to your reader while writing a familiar essay. You can use simple language, but remember not to oversimplify. Slang, jargon or rude language will not be acceptable.

– Freewriting can help you, as it is a good method of preparation. Simply sit down, take a sheet of paper and write everything that comes to your head. Free your mind. Don’t worry if the quality of writing is low, you can later improve it.

– Essay outline preparation. If you have to do some research and aren’t very familiar with the essay topic – do the outline. Having a clear-cut prevents you from rambling and omitting important points you need to mention.

– References in your familiar essay. It is a good idea to add them. It will not be a mistake to show your own decision in order to discuss a famous author, and in this case, it will be impossible not to use some quotations.

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On the Familiar Essay

Challenging Academic Orthodoxies

• G. Douglas Atkins

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

Front matter, the observing self, or writing upon something: the character, art, and distinctiveness of the familiar essay, on time, the familiar, and the essay, envisioning the stranger’s heart, e.b. white and the poetics of participation, “the way life should be,” or the maine-ing of existence: e.b. white as familiar essayist, the limits of the familiar: e.b. white and t.s. eliot, toward a familiar literary criticism, of swords, ploughshares, and pens: the return of/to civility, against winning, and the art of peace, the essay in the academy: between “literature” and “creative writing”, essaying to be: higher education, the vocation of teaching, and the making of persons, back matter.

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"In this timely revalorization of the form, Atkins shows the unexpected depths of the familiar essay. Far from being the lightweight pieces dismissed by their detractors as trivial, he shows how, at their best, such essays are exquisitely crafted intersections of time and timelessness. Their indirectness, individuality and warmth suggest a way of knowing that at once challenges and complements the clinical prose of conventional academic articles. Essayists, says Atkins, are endeavoring to write personally and artfully about the familiar and through it to approach the universal. His study calls for a meticulous reading of their work in order, ultimately, for the reader to learn from it how to make the most of the short time we have on earth." Quoting extensively from acknowledged masters of this neglected mode of writing, Atkins provocatively questions the adequacy of established educational procedures and champions a pedagogy informed by essayistic ideals." - Chris Arthur, author of Irish Nocturnes, Irish Willow, Irish Haiku and Irish Elegies

"In these pages, Atkins richly models the exploratory, revelatory pursuit that he calls the familiar essay. The essays he celebrates range outward from personal experience to impersonal, even cosmic concerns. They marry literature and philosophy, wisdom and wit. Through illuminating readings of figures as diverse as E. B. White and T. S. Eliot, Atkins confirms his position as the leading interpreter of this various and vital mode of art." - Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe

"In these deeply felt and elegantly expressed thoughts about the essay, Atkins offers a moving account of the hard work of self examination in a difficult world. His book is also both an apologia for and a gentle critique of Atkins s own vocation to an academic life. But unlike Marxist or disciplinary commentaries on the profession, this essay invokes the much rarer language of spirituality - of value - to engage, disturb, and inspire its readers." - Patricia Harkin, Professor, English and Communication Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

Book Title : On the Familiar Essay

Book Subtitle : Challenging Academic Orthodoxies

Authors : G. Douglas Atkins

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101241

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan New York

eBook Packages : Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : G. Douglas Atkins 2009

Hardcover ISBN : 978-0-230-62000-1 Published: 18 November 2009

Softcover ISBN : 978-1-349-38259-0 Published: 18 November 2009

eBook ISBN : 978-0-230-10124-1 Published: 26 October 2009

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XIV, 204

Topics : Literary Theory , Social Sciences, general

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Author Interviews

Essayist fadiman revives familiar literary art.

Anne Fadiman's latest book is a collection of familiar essays, At Large and At Small . Connie Miller hide caption

Read, hear an excerpt.

Whether she is exploring a medical culture clash in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down , or negotiating the fraught terrain of merging her books with her husband's in Ex Libris , author Anne Fadiman clearly has a big crush on the English language.

She also has a big crush on Romantic-era essayist Charles Lamb, which is evident in her new book, a collection of familiar essays called At Large and At Small .

The familiar essay, Fadiman tells Rebecca Roberts, is a subset of the personal essay – but not as personal as the personal essay familiar to 21st-century readers.

In the early 19th century, writers such as Lamb and William Hazlett wrote about themselves, but at the same time about a subject that they knew their readers knew, too. Among Lamb's topics, for instance, were tailors, drunkards and annoying relatives.

"The hallmark of the familiar essay is that it is autobiographical, but also about the world," Fadiman says.

Fadiman, who writes about everything from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to ice cream, shares her thoughts on why it was so enjoyable to pen a familiar essay about coffee, blogging as a literary genre and why many of her readers think of her as being a good friend.

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Excerpt: 'At Large and At Small'

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Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Your subscription makes our work possible.

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The familiar essay: a delight in the hands of Anne Fadiman

Head and heart join together beautifully in 'At Large and At Small.'

• By Heller McAlpin

July 3, 2007

Would someone please hire Anne Fadiman to edit another magazine so she'll keep writing essays?

As editor at large of Civilization magazine, Fadiman produced the wonderful pieces, mainly about books, collected in 1998 in "Ex Libris," a volume I've probably bought for more people than any other in my life.

She wrote 11 of the 12 essays in At Large and At Small for The American Scholar, which she edited from 1997 to 2004. Their publication in book form is cause for rejoicing.

But it's also a cause for concern, since the flow of essays stopped when (in a move that demonstrates that good grades do not always equal great smarts), the Phi Beta Kappa Society, publisher of The American Scholar, let her go.

Fadiman, a self-proclaimed "enthusiastic amateur, not a scholar," writes so knowledgeably and charmingly about her passions – which include Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, circadian biorhythms and disruption of same by coffee, and "the compulsion to order experience" – manifested in her youthful butterfly collecting – that her readers become passionate about her.

Originally published under the apt pseudonym Philonoë – "lover of intellect" – these essays will be familiar to readers of The American Scholar, though that is not what Fadiman means by "familiar essays." The familiar essay is a genre that reached its heyday in the early 19th century with one of her great crushes, Charles Lamb. His legacy, she laments in "The Unfuzzy Lamb," is kept alive mainly by university English departments, "the ICUs of literature."

Fadiman explains her devotion to the familiar form in the book's lovely Preface: "Today's readers encounter plenty of critical essays (more brain than heart) and plenty of personal – very personal – essays (more heart than brain), but not many familiar essays (equal measures of both)."

A typical Fadiman essay begins with an engaging personal anecdote before branching out into the history of the subject in question. As her extensive bibliography indicates, research aplenty goes into each piece. But it's all so delightful, it's like eating a meal that is both good for you and delicious.

"Mail," for example, opens with a portrait of her father, writer Clifton Fadiman, waiting for his day to really start with the arrival of the daily post. From there, she examines British postal history, noting that mail was delivered 10-12 times a day in pretelephonic 17th-century central London. She recounts her own struggles with e-mail and concludes that we get the level of service we need.

"A Piece of Cotton" is a sensitive meditation on the American flag and Fadiman's newfound respect for it after 9/11. Before tracing its Latin roots to vexillum, she explains that the old farmhouse she and her husband bought the summer before 9/11 came with an American flag.

"On September 13, two days after the attacks, we raised it, with our children's help, to half staff." Being a Fadiman, she adds, "We'd read up on half-masting protocol, which dictates raising the flag briskly to the peak and then slowly bringing it halfway down."

Another classic Fadiman line, in her essay on ice cream, again folds in information as deliciously as blend-ins: "I recently calculated (assuming an average consumption of one pint of ice cream per week, at 1,000 calories per pint, and the American Medical Association's reckoning of 3,500 calories per pound of stored body fat) that had I eaten no ice cream since the age of 18, I would currently weigh –416 pounds."

Then she adds the clincher: "I might be lighter than air, but I would be miserable."

A confessed "loquacious workaholic" and lover of sesquipedalians – long words – Fadiman shares her prodigious vocabulary with her readers, always carefully defining her more abstruse mots justes (such as polysemous, defined as "having multiple meanings") for the less lexicographically lubricated among us.

She also confesses that "in the spirit of participatory journalism," several essays were "written under the influence," though not of alcohol, since she long ago decided she preferred caffeine.

She notes, "I ingested a shocking amount of Häagen-Dazs while I wrote about ice cream. I sustained a terrific caffeine buzz while I wrote about coffee. I wrote every word of the night-owl essay between midnight and dawn."

Would that every writer were so thorough – and half as entertaining.

• Heller McAlpin is a freelance writer in New York .

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Stefon Diggs Pays Teammate Hefty Amount to Wear New Texans Jersey Number, per Report

• Author: Tom Dierberger

In this story:

Stefon Diggs is getting a fresh start in Houston after the Buffalo Bills traded the star receiver to the Texans on Wednesday.

He'll have a new number, too.

When the Texans officially announced the move Thursday, they posted a picture of Diggs wearing a No. 1 Houston jersey. Diggs wore No. 14 over his five years with the Minnesota Vikings and four seasons with the Bills.

KPRC Houston's Aaron Wilson reported Thursday, citing a league source, that Diggs paid teammate Jimmie Ward roughly $100,000 to obtain the No. 1 jersey number from him. Ward will switch from No. 1 to No. 20, which he wore in three of his nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers.

Sometimes when there's a jersey number change in #NFL , it comes at a price. New #Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs obtained the No. 1 jersey from veteran safety Jimmie Ward, for roughly $100,000, per league sources @KPRC2 And Ward is back to No. 20, his old #49ers number @KPRC2 — Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 4, 2024

Diggs joins a talented receiving corps in Houston, featuring promising youngsters in Nico Collins and Tank Dell. The Texans are looking to build off a 10–7 campaign in 2023, which included a playoff win over the Cleveland Browns in the wild-card round.

Latest NFL News

Dolphins Using FA Recruiting Advantages

Cowboys vs. Dak Problem Solved - by Stephen A. Smith?!

What Could Cowboys Ex Michael Gallup Bring to Ravens Offense?

Browns to Host Wide Receiver Malachi Corley Before April Draft

ESPN's 'Best Fit' for Colts in Free Agency Looks Familiar

A dangerous return to denial: Trump's threats against Biden met by familiar media shrug

One of the many reasons why the mainstream news media has lost credibility with huge swaths of the public, by chauncey devega.

Donald Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be a very dangerous man. As seen on Jan. 6 with his coup attempt and the lethal assault by his MAGA followers on the Capitol, he appears to have an erotic attachment to violence. 

Last Friday, Trump shared an image of President Biden bound and gag, hog-tied, in the back of a pickup truck. Michael Tyler, who is the Biden campaign’s communications director, condemned Trump’s most recent threat. “[He] is regularly inciting political violence, and it's time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6. Donald Trump is perfectly comfortable with violence when he thinks it benefits him. In fact, he encourages it. Put simply, his campaign is about itself. It's about revenge. It's about retribution….Political violence has been and continues to be central to Donald Trump's brand of politics .”

In a video post on X/Twitter historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is one of the world’s leading experts on fascism and authoritarianism, offered this context : "Being life-size, this image is allowing Americans to imagine a fate that Biden would have if he were removed in a violent way….And so it's continuing the coup of January 6."

We must be the hope and salvation we are looking for because the elites will not save us or this country.

Explaining how coups involve harm being done to the deposed leader, Ben-Ghiat warns that Trump’s incitements of violence against President Biden are an “emergency” that should be taken very seriously.

Trump, for his part, claimed the video image of Biden being hog-tied by one of the MAGA people was filmed on Thursday while he was attending the wake of a New York police officer who died in the line of duty. This is no coincidence: Trump views America’s police and other law enforcement as his personal enforcers who will do the bidding of his regime when/if he becomes the country’s first dictator. That loyalty appears to be reciprocated, as Donald Trump seems to enjoy a large amount of support from many of the country’s police, immigration and border agents, members of the military and other violence workers. To that end, Trump has promised the police that he will empower them to act with impunity and to not be held responsible when they abuse the public (in practice this means unlimited thuggery and abuse against black and brown people and members of other marginalized communities). 

Trump’s repeated threat(s) against President Biden’s life and safety are likely a crime. In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann explained , “ A standard condition of being out on bail applies in New York and in the D.C. federal case and in the Georgia state case: that you not commit a crime while you are out on bail….Threatening the president of the United States is a crime, so the question would be the legal and factual question whether what he has engaged in with respect to posting the image of Joe Biden bound and gagged....”

Predictably, Donald Trump’s threats of murder and other violence against President Biden are now being mostly ignored and willfully forgotten by the mainstream news media. By mostly ignoring Trump and his agent’s and followers’ threats of (and real acts of) violence against President Biden, leading Democrats, and other people deemed to be the “enemy”, the mainstream news media is enabling and encouraging such behavior – and by implication undermining American democracy and civil society.

Clearly documenting Trump’s years (and decades) of violent and other antisocial behavior is a form of essential testimony and witnessing for the truth and the facts in an era when such basic concepts are being smeared, blotted out, if not wholly erased by ascendant American fascism and the larger global anti-democracy movement.

Donald Trump attempted a coup against American democracy (and specifically multiracial democracy) on Jan. 6, threatened to kill an American general who dared to be more loyal to the Constitution than to him, used stochastic terrorism, de facto commanding his MAGA people to assassinate President Biden, President Obama, Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats, led a COVID democide, channeled Hitler and the Nazis with his threats of mass extermination for the human “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood” of America, continues public statements of admiration for murderous tyrants such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, promises to have Biden and other Democrats put on trials and punished for “treason” when/if he becomes the country’s first dictator, plans to put non-white undocumented residents, migrants and refugees in concentration camps, repeats acts of harassment and intimidation against the judges, prosecutors, district attorneys and other members of law enforcement (and their families) who are daring to hold him responsible under the law for his obvious crimes, has been credibly accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment, sexual assault and even more serious crimes, and claims to be a type of prophet and messiah chosen by God and Jesus Christ. 

Once again, none of this is normal. The Trumpocene is a state of malignant normality , where all the wrongness in the form of American fascism, the culture of cruelty, gangster capitalism, massive violence both domestically and internationally, collective pathology, and so many other bad things manifest in both the corporeal form of Donald Trump and what he represents and has channeled with his MAGA movement have now become normalized and a type of background noise in America life.

As I explained in a previous essay here at Salon , those of us who can see clearly through the miasma and other poisoned air of the Trumpocene have an obligation to keep doing so and sounding the alarm about the monsters lurking inside. We must be the hope and salvation we are looking for because the elites will not save us or this country .

We need your help to stay independent

In an essay several days ago at the New Republic , Michael Tomasky, who is one of the few prominent public voices who has consistently and directly warned of the extreme dangers of normalizing the Trumpocene, called out the American mainstream news media for their role in nurturing the disaster:

Republicans have gotten away with this for ages. The mainstream media has come to expect and tolerate this state of affairs for two reasons. It’s simple human nature: If a parent has a well-behaved kid and an unruly kid, the parent naturally over time expects more of the former and lowers the bar for the latter. And once something has happened a thousand times, it isn’t really news anymore. The result has been this: House Republicans utter outlandish lies about Obama or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or whomever, and it gets reported, but we hardly bat an eye. That’s what we expect of them. Then, once in a while, a Democrat says something that crosses the normal lines of discourse….and a massive hubbub ensues, leaving the casual viewer with the impression that both sides are equally guilty of extreme rhetoric, or indeed that the Democrats are worse. When it comes to Trump—well, he has so thoroughly corrupted our standards of discourse that nothing he says is shocking anymore. So of course he posted a video of a hog-tied Joe Biden. What else is new? The news stories on Sunday reporting the event were brief and kind of ho-hum. Whereas, if Biden posted a video of a hog-tied Trump … you can just imagine the faux outrage on the right. And high-ranking Democrats, who would be genuinely kind of offended to see their standard-bearer for the presidency behave in such a tawdry way, would indeed rebuke Biden for having done so…. This is the advantage to the debaser of debasing standards of behavior. He is eventually held to no standard in the media, which just rolls its collective eyes. I would like to think, though, that voters, or at least enough of them, still have standards. Trump will do things between now and November to make this Biden video look mild, and the voters will finally say enough.   

One of the great errors of the American mainstream news media in the Age of Trump is an assumption that democracy is a settled matter in this country and that Republicans and Democrats are both equally invested in normal politics and consensus where the differences are just “partisan” and not existential. In the Age of Trump (and the years and decades that brought us here), that is manifestly not true. Public opinion polls and other research show that today’s Republican Party and larger “conservative” movement no longer support pluralistic multiracial democracy. Any members of the news media who conclude “everyone already knows” about Donald Trump's violence so “why keep reminding them, it is old news,” is committing a number of gross errors in logic and inference.

Most Americans do not follow the news and current events closely. Moreover, political scientists and other experts have repeatedly shown that the mass public is ignorant and not highly sophisticated in terms of their political decision-making and knowledge. Even worse, public opinion polls now show that a larger percentage of Americans are possessed by collective amnesia and are actually yearning for a return to the horrible years when Donald Trump was in the White House.

This refusal to adapt and change for the better in service to real pro-democracy journalism and its dictate to pursue the real truth and not just what is comfortable and the “consensus”, is one of the many reasons why the mainstream news media has lost credibility with huge swaths of the American public.

Channeling Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Donald Trump and many of his MAGA followers have already targeted the American mainstream news media and its reporters and journalists as “enemies of the people." To that end, Trump and his enforcers are threatening and planning (as publicly documented in Project 2025, Agenda 47, and elsewhere) how they are going to put "disloyal” and “non-complaint” (in their words “unpatriotic”) reporters, journalists, and other truth-tellers in the back of those pickup trucks right next to President Biden and their other enemies. Those threats are not metaphorical. They are literal.

When the autocrat, fascist, or some other enemy of democracy tells you what they are going to do you should always believe them. They are not kidding. Unfortunately, too many members of the American news media refuse to do so — and it will only be their undoing. They were repeatedly warned. Denial will not save them.

about this topic

• "Perfectly predictable": Dr. John Gartner on why "a malignant narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles
• The "martyrdom" of Donald J. Trump
• "A blueprint for a Trump autocracy": Authoritarianism expert on which global dictators Trump models

Chauncey DeVega is a senior politics writer for Salon. His essays can also be found at  Chaunceydevega.com . He also hosts a weekly podcast,  The Chauncey DeVega Show . Chauncey can be followed on  Twitter  and  Facebook .

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A familiar American goes to Italy to live his best life in the bloody Netflix series ‘Ripley’

Over the years, the iconic criminal character of Tom Ripley has been played by Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Ian Hart and Dennis Hopper. Now, Irish actor Andrew Scott gets a turn in the Netflix limited-series “Ripley,” opposite Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn. (April 3)

Johnny Flynn, from left, Andrew Scott, and Dakota Fanning pose for a portrait to promote the television miniseries “Ripley” on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

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This image released by Netflix shows Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley in a scene from “Ripley.” (Netflix via AP)

Andrew Scott poses for a portrait to promote the television miniseries “Ripley” on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Dakota Fanning in a scene from “Ripley.” (Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Johnny Flynn in a scene from “Ripley.” (Netflix via AP)

Johnny Flynn poses for a portrait to promote the television miniseries “Ripley” on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

Dakota Fanning poses for a portrait to promote the television miniseries “Ripley” on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s time to take another trip to Italy, to the charming, cobblestoned streets of the Amalfi Coast, sipping coffee at cafes and looking for the la dolce vita. And it just wouldn’t be fun without our favorite serial killer, right?

Tom Ripley is back for another turn at wearing dressing gowns and having Champagne on the terrace in “Ripley,” a thrilling new Netflix series based on the enduring character created by novelist Patricia Highsmith in “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” It premieres April 4.

“The idea that we know we’re not supposed to like him, but we do want to see him get away with it is very interesting. What’s it say about us?” asks Steven Zaillian, who created, directed and wrote the eight-episode adaptation.

Andrew Scott steps up to play Ripley, a scrappy check fraudster in grimy New York who is hired to locate a rich dilettante in Italy, but kills him and then impersonates him, leading to more murders and scams.

“Like with any sort of iconic literary character like that, people have very strong opinions — he’s a psychopath, he’s a serial killer,” says Scott. “Part of the challenge was how do you make an audience feel like what it’s like to be Tom Ripley, rather than what is usually done, which is to want to feel like to be a victim of Tom Ripley.”

The eight-hour canvas allows viewers time to watch him figure out how to get out of jams in real time, like a murder he commits in his apartment in the fifth episode. He needs to find the victim’s car, clean up the crime scene, move the body and make it all seem like an alcohol-induced accident.

“I think because we sort of see every little step of how he figures things out and does things that we take part in them,” says Zaillian. “He often doesn’t know what he should do next, and neither do we. And so we become part of the process in that way.”

Scott, known for his stage work, the Emmy-winning “Fleabag” and recent film “All of Us Strangers,” says it may take some viewers raised on TikTok a little while to adjust to a more sedate, deliberate storytelling pace — one in which characters climb staircases, look at waves and make small talk. There is time to watch where an ashtray is bought before it’s later used to bludgeon someone to death.

“You have to teach the audience how to watch it to a certain degree,” he says. “There’s certain times the pacing is really quite fast and there’s certain times where you think this would take time and you have to stay with the agony and the thrill and the tension when things aren’t going right. That’s the way life is.”

Zaillian, an Oscar winner for the screenplay of “Schindler’s List,” refused a suggestion to update Highsmith’s book series and is careful to keep everything very early 1960s, even filming it all in black and white, like “Schindler’s List.”

“It puts us in that time period effortlessly and immediately. But more than that, I did not want what I would call a color postcard sort of Italy for this story, with sunny blue skies and lots of colorful outfits. That was not something I saw in my mind when I read the book and not something that I wanted to do in the show,” he says.

If other TV shows are dialogue-driven, “Ripley” is more interested in the spaces between dialogue. It’s all about suspicious looks, wary interactions and putting on a brave face with police inspectors and hotel clerks.

“I was so excited by getting to communicate so much with micro-movements in the face and a look — that thing where you can read someone’s thoughts through their eyes,” says Dakota Fanning, who plays the suspicious girlfriend of the rich dilettante Dickie Greenleaf.

Zaillian is faithful to Highsmith’s novels but adds some of himself into the series, like making Ripley a fan of Italian painter Caravaggio, who worked with intense and unsettling realism and was also a killer.

“I found as I was writing it there’s actually a connection between him and Caravaggio. They were both these sort of rascals and both ended up killing somebody. So it sort of grew from a personal moment that I had into a motif and then kind of into an aspect of his character,” he says.

Like Caravaggio, the series is grounded in realism, from the rusty showerheads and the gritty, screeching subways of New York to the crumbling walls and pigeon poop-streaked statues in Italy. Cleaning up blood takes what seems like hours.

Ripley, who over the years has been portrayed by, among others, Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Ian Hart and Dennis Hopper, is played understated by Scott as a killer who makes mistakes, improvises and must double back to correct errors.

Zaillian thought of Scott for the role very early in the casting process, aware of his work in “Fleabag” and as Moriarty on the BBC series “Sherlock.” He was smitten.

“I just found him really sort of watchable,” Zaillian says. “I knew that since we spend so much time with somebody alone — there’s a lot of scenes where it’s just us and him — that he has to be watchable. We have to be able to see him think and express himself in a way that lets us know what he’s thinking. And I found that Andrew was able to do that.”

Johnny Flynn, who plays the golden boy Greenleaf, says filming in Italy took him to some of the most beautiful places on the planet but ones that got darker as the summer tourists left and the sun got lower, perfect for a noirish vibe. He and the cast were also reminded that many small Italian towns built on cliffs have many, many steps.

“We were just out of breath all the time,” he says, laughing.

Which is what can be said for lots of people who meet Ripley.

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Essay about Family: What It Is and How to Nail It

Humans naturally seek belonging within families, finding comfort in knowing someone always cares. Yet, families can also stir up insecurities and mental health struggles.

Family dynamics continue to intrigue researchers across different fields. Every year, new studies explore how these relationships shape our minds and emotions.

In this article, our dissertation service will guide you through writing a family essay. You can also dive into our list of topics for inspiration and explore some standout examples to spark your creativity.

What is Family Essay

A family essay takes a close look at the bonds and experiences within families. It's a common academic assignment, especially in subjects like sociology, psychology, and literature.

So, what's involved exactly? Simply put, it's an exploration of what family signifies to you. You might reflect on cherished family memories or contemplate the portrayal of families in various media.

What sets a family essay apart is its personal touch. It allows you to express your own thoughts and experiences. Moreover, it's versatile – you can analyze family dynamics, reminisce about family customs, or explore other facets of familial life.

If you're feeling uncertain about how to write an essay about family, don't worry; you can explore different perspectives and select topics that resonate with various aspects of family life.

Tips For Writing An Essay On Family Topics

A family essay typically follows a free-form style, unless specified otherwise, and adheres to the classic 5-paragraph structure. As you jot down your thoughts, aim to infuse your essay with inspiration and the essence of creative writing, unless your family essay topics lean towards complexity or science.

Here are some easy-to-follow tips from our essay service experts:

• Focus on a Specific Aspect: Instead of a broad overview, delve into a specific angle that piques your interest, such as exploring how birth order influences sibling dynamics or examining the evolving role of grandparents in modern families.
• Share Personal Anecdotes: Start your family essay introduction with a personal touch by sharing stories from your own experiences. Whether it's about a favorite tradition, a special trip, or a tough time, these stories make your writing more interesting.
• Use Real-life Examples: Illustrate your points with concrete examples or anecdotes. Draw from sources like movies, books, historical events, or personal interviews to bring your ideas to life.
• Explore Cultural Diversity: Consider the diverse array of family structures across different cultures. Compare traditional values, extended family systems, or the unique hurdles faced by multicultural families.
• Take a Stance: Engage with contentious topics such as homeschooling, reproductive technologies, or governmental policies impacting families. Ensure your arguments are supported by solid evidence.
• Delve into Psychology: Explore the psychological underpinnings of family dynamics, touching on concepts like attachment theory, childhood trauma, or patterns of dysfunction within families.
• Emphasize Positivity: Share uplifting stories of families overcoming adversity or discuss strategies for nurturing strong, supportive family bonds.
• Offer Practical Solutions: Wrap up your essay by proposing actionable solutions to common family challenges, such as fostering better communication, achieving work-life balance, or advocating for family-friendly policies.

Family Essay Topics

When it comes to writing, essay topics about family are often considered easier because we're intimately familiar with our own families. The more you understand about your family dynamics, traditions, and experiences, the clearer your ideas become.

If you're feeling uninspired or unsure of where to start, don't worry! Below, we have compiled a list of good family essay topics to help get your creative juices flowing. Whether you're assigned this type of essay or simply want to explore the topic, these suggestions from our history essay writer are tailored to spark your imagination and prompt meaningful reflection on different aspects of family life.

So, take a moment to peruse the list. Choose the essay topics about family that resonate most with you. Then, dive in and start exploring your family's stories, traditions, and connections through your writing.

• Supporting Family Through Tough Times
• Staying Connected with Relatives
• Empathy and Compassion in Family Life
• Strengthening Bonds Through Family Gatherings
• Quality Time with Family: How Vital Is It?
• Navigating Family Relationships Across Generations
• Learning Kindness and Generosity in a Large Family
• Communication in Healthy Family Dynamics
• Forgiveness in Family Conflict Resolution
• Building Trust Among Extended Family
• Defining Family in Today's World
• Understanding Nuclear Family: Various Views and Cultural Differences
• Understanding Family Dynamics: Relationships Within the Family Unit
• What Defines a Family Member?
• Modernizing the Nuclear Family Concept
• Exploring Shared Beliefs Among Family Members
• Evolution of the Concept of Family Love Over Time
• Examining Family Expectations
• Modern Standards and the Idea of an Ideal Family
• Life Experiences and Perceptions of Family Life
• Genetics and Extended Family Connections
• Utilizing Family Trees for Ancestral Links
• The Role of Younger Siblings in Family Dynamics
• Tracing Family History Through Oral Tradition and Genealogy
• Tracing Family Values Through Your Family Tree
• Exploring Your Elder Sister's Legacy in the Family Tree
• Connecting Daily Habits to Family History
• Documenting and Preserving Your Family's Legacy
• Navigating Online Records and DNA Testing for Family History
• Tradition as a Tool for Family Resilience
• Involving Family in Daily Life to Maintain Traditions
• Creating New Traditions for a Small Family
• The Role of Traditions in Family Happiness
• Family Recipes and Bonding at House Parties
• Quality Time: The Secret Tradition for Family Happiness
• The Joy of Cousins Visiting for Christmas
• Including Family in Birthday Celebrations
• Balancing Traditions and Unconditional Love
• Building Family Bonds Through Traditions

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Family Essay Example

For a better grasp of the essay on family, our team of skilled writers has crafted a great example. It looks into the subject matter, allowing you to explore and understand the intricacies involved in creating compelling family essays. So, check out our meticulously crafted sample to discover how to craft essays that are not only well-written but also thought-provoking and impactful.

Final Outlook

In wrapping up, let's remember: a family essay gives students a chance to showcase their academic skills and creativity by sharing personal stories. However, it's important to stick to academic standards when writing about these topics. We hope our list of topics sparked your creativity and got you on your way to a reflective journey. And if you hit a rough patch, you can just ask us to ' do my essay for me ' for top-notch results!

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FAQs on Writing an Essay about Family

Family essays seem like something school children could be assigned at elementary schools, but family is no less important than climate change for our society today, and therefore it is one of the most central research themes.

Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions on family-related topics. Before you conduct research, scroll through them and find out how to write an essay about your family.

How to Write an Essay About Your Family History?

How to write an essay about a family member, how to write an essay about family and roots, how to write an essay about the importance of family, related articles.

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Alabama RB room restocked in 2024: Familiar faces and high expectations

• Updated: Apr. 05, 2024, 12:05 p.m. |
• Published: Apr. 05, 2024, 11:54 a.m.

• Nick Alvarez | [email protected]

Alabama’s offseason was one of turnover, but not in the offensive backfield. Jalen Milroe will still be at quarterback. And despite losing two senior running backs this offseason, the Tide has a strong position group aligned for 2024. It’s already gotten a glimpse this spring.

“You always want to have guys that can do different things. You obviously have to have toughness, have to have speed, vision. But the personalities are the fun part. I think everybody in the room brings something different to the table,” coach Robert Gillespie said.

Gone are the 1,600 yards and 14 touchdowns produced by Jase McClellan and Roydell Williams. Instead, third-year running back Jam Miller and second-year player Justice Haynes are expected to carry the load with Richard Young, freshmen Daniel Hill, and summer-enrolee Kevin Riley working in special teams roles while waiting to touch the ball.

Both Miller and Haynes recognize the leadership role that’s fallen onto them. Miller, who rushed for 201 yards and caught four other passes for 73 more, is trying to get everyone’s roles aligned “in order to dominate.” Haynes said he learned the value of patience last season. He tallied four of his 25 carries during the Rose Bowl against Michigan, sparking the Tide with 31 total yards. Miller caught his lone touchdown against the Bulldogs in the league title game.

When asked if Haynes did something to prove himself between the SEC Championship and College Football Playoff semifinal, played one month apart, Gillespie said Haynes just displayed a better understanding of the scheme. It ended the season on a high note for the former five-star recruit. After UA players flooded the transfer portal following Nick Saban’s retirement, both Haynes and Miller valued Gillespie’s retention on Kalen DeBoer’s staff.

“Great guy, great coach. It’s hard love. (Gillespie’s) gonna love you, he’s gonna rip you a couple times. That’s what you need as a coach. He’s gonna push you to where you want to go,” Haynes said.

Alabama running backs coach Robert Gillespie talks with Alabama running back Roydell Williams (5) before an NCAA college football game against Utah State, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt) AP

The Tide offense will look different under DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan. But “football is football,” per Gillespie, so it’s more about becoming a well-rounded player. Both running backs have practiced catching the ball more out of the backfield and being a good enough route runner to be motioned outside for empty sets, creating a potential mismatch on a linebacker.

Haynes’ vision was apparent in his limited snaps last fall. Miller exploded for 6.1 yards whenever he had a catch or run. At times, though, both did struggle with pass protection and Saban and Tommy Rees optioned for veteran pieces. Alabama flashed its running backs as pass-catchers on wheel routes, but they should be able to do more in a DeBoer offense predicated on timing and speed when it’s not driving behind the offensive line.

“For these guys, there is a downhill physicality that I think they really have, but they have the ability to also make the jumpcut, get to the outside, turn on the speed. In the backfield, come out and we just find a way to get them touches and that’s what our offense really does is find ways to get the ball to its best players in space. The running back position, especially right now, for us, is certainly a strength when it comes to the athleticism, DeBoer said.

See more from AL.com's Crimson Tide beat writers

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• Nate Oats, Dan Hurley talk friendship before Alabama faces UConn in Final Four
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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter  @nick_a_alvarez  or email him at  [email protected] .

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Trump, Attending Wake of Slain N.Y.P.D. Officer, Pushes Campaign Message on Crime

Mr. Trump called the officer’s death a horrible tragedy and, as he often does on the trail, broadly called for a crackdown on violent crime without mentioning specific policies.

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By Michael Gold

Reporting from Massapequa Park, N.Y.

• March 28, 2024

As hundreds of police officers and family members stood outside a Long Island funeral home, former President Donald J. Trump attended on Thursday the wake of a New York City police officer who was killed in the line of duty days earlier.

Then, Mr. Trump, who is facing four criminal cases, including one in Manhattan that is going to trial in less than three weeks, stood in front of more than a dozen police officers and proclaimed the need for the country to “get back to law and order.”

Mr. Trump’s visit with the family of Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Monday, was not a campaign event, though he did take the opportunity to emphasize his message on crime.

After being greeted by New York City’s police commissioner, Mr. Trump met privately with Officer Diller’s widow and 1-year-old son, then viewed the officer’s coffin, said Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, who accompanied Mr. Trump.

Afterward, as rain poured down outside, Mr. Trump said the officer’s death was a horrible tragedy and, as he often does on the campaign trail, broadly called for a crackdown on violent crime without mentioning specific policies. “The only thing we can say is maybe something is going to be learned,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve got to toughen it up. We’ve got to strengthen it up.”

But the former president’s attendance at the wake was reflective of a balancing act that has come to define his campaign. Even as Mr. Trump faces 88 felony charges, he has continued to court police officers and style himself as a tough-on-crime candidate in stark contrast to Democrats whose policies he says encourage violence.

While a somber Mr. Trump did not engage in the finger-pointing typical of his appearances on the trail, his top campaign aides and allies emphasized a contrast between his visit to New York with another being made on Thursday by President Biden for a campaign fund-raising event with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

“President Trump will be honoring the legacy of Officer Diller,” Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said on social media. He added, “Meanwhile, the Three Stooges — Biden, Obama, and Clinton — will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.”

A spokesman for the Biden campaign, T.J. Ducklo, said “another Donald Trump presidency would make Americans far less safe.” He added, “Trump’s presidency saw murders increase faster than at any point in history. He has promised to pardon violent rioters who attacked law enforcement because of his 2020 election lies and calls them ‘hostages.’ And he’s proposed massive cuts to law enforcement budgets repeatedly.”

Mayor Eric Adams of New York, who attended the wake after Mr. Trump, told reporters earlier on Thursday that Mr. Biden had called him to offer condolences that Mr. Adams said he would relay to the family. The White House told reporters that Mr. Biden had also offered the city and its police department his support.

Since his first presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has portrayed himself as a “law and order” candidate, stoking fears about violent crime and then promoting his unwavering support for the police and their efforts to tackle it.

Even as he contends with his criminal cases, he has made unqualified support of rank-and-file officers a central part of his bid to reclaim the White House.

Before Mr. Trump spoke to reporters, a line of police officers, some uniformed and some in tactical gear, were deliberately posed behind him. The former president often takes pictures with the police who accompany his motorcade on the campaign trail, and his aides regularly share videos of the interactions on social media to highlight the officers’ support.

At the same time, Mr. Trump routinely blasts liberal prosecutors and Democratic mayors for being ineffective at addressing violent crime, depicting their cities as lawless and dangerous. Such attacks have been politically successful on Long Island, where they helped Republicans make gains in the 2022 midterms.

Mr. Trump has focused particular ire on New York’s district attorney, who is prosecuting the former president on charges that he falsified business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign. Jury selection in the case is set to begin on April 15.

Across the street from the funeral home, many onlookers straining for a glimpse of Mr. Trump voiced anger at progressive policies that they said they believed had led to an increase in crime in the country, even as data has shown crime declining across the United States .

They pointed to the man accused in Officer Diller’s killing, Guy Rivera, 34, who was arrested on a gun charge last year and had at least 21 prior arrests. Mr. Rivera was charged on Thursday with first-degree murder in the shooting.

Deborah Geis, a retired police officer from Massapequa, N.Y., said Officer Diller was “senselessly killed by a man who should’ve been in jail.”

Mr. Trump did not elaborate on specific policies he would enact to prevent deaths like Officer Diller’s. He has previously swatted down calls for police reform, arguing that it would keep officers from properly fighting crime. On the campaign trail last year, he said shoplifters should be shot.

As part of his stump speech, Mr. Trump also vows to help police officers act more freely by indemnifying them from the financial consequences of lawsuits accusing them of misconduct, legal protections that they largely already possess.

Yet even as Mr. Trump proclaims his allegiance to police officers, he has recently voiced support for those imprisoned in connection with their roles during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of his supporters, motivated by his lies about the 2020 election, stormed past police barricades.

Some of those supporters were convicted of brutally attacking local and Capitol Police officers.

Corey Kilgannon and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.

Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about Michael Gold

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News and Analysis

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emerged as a wild card in the 2024 election , attracting a motley mix of ideologically diverse supporters, raising piles of cash and drawing legal attacks from Democrats and verbal barrages from former President Donald Trump.

Melania Trump, who has been mostly absent from public view while her husband campaigns for president, will appear at a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago , marking a return of sorts to the political arena.

The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run a presidential ticket in the 2024 election, having failed to recruit a candidate. The group had suffered a string of rejections recently  as prominent Republicans and Democrats declined to run on its ticket.

Florida court rulings on abortion have all but guaranteed that voters will have the issue on their minds in November, bringing potential risks for two anti-abortion Republicans  in the state whose districts aren’t solidly red.

Trump’s falsehoods about mail voting have created a strategic disadvantage for Republicans, who must rely on Election Day turnout . The group Turning Point Action has a $100 million plan to change voters’ habits to encourage early voting.

The focus of Trump’s hotel business is shifting from big cities to his golf resorts,  after a deal to host tournaments for LIV Golf , the upstart league sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, another example of the ties between the Saudis and the Trump family.

Biden and Trump are the oldest people ever to seek the presidency , challenging norms about what the public should know about candidates’ health.

Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist and consultant, has spent the past two years telling Democrats they need to calm down. His Biden-will-win prediction is his next big test .