What is an Essay? What is a Composition?

Here at Hofstra, we are constantly writing. We write long academic papers, short homework assignments, text messages, emails, journals, blogs, facebook comments and tweets. Are all of these writings the same? Of course not, academic papers are long, tedious and structured, while text messages are fast, messy and full of abbreviations such as "brb" and "lol". However all forms of writing, I believe, have one commonality: they are compositions. When I first began investigating what a composition was, and how it differs from an essay, I turned to Webster's Dictionary for a definition. The dictionary listed seven different possible definitions for the term, and left me with the impression that it is not concrete; a composition is an abstract idea that composers use to define their creations. Therefore, I expanded my thinking to not only how compositions and essays differ, but how they relate to one another.

Essays are scary. Everyday, students pray that the word doesn't escape their professor's lips, for they know what is in store for them once the essay is issued: endless researching and procrastinating, followed by writer's block and attempts to drag out a boring subject to fulfill a five page quota. However, if you were to take any of these students phones and accumulate all of the text messgaes they sent over the past day, there is a high probability there would be enough text to fill 5 pages. And yet, this form of writing comes so easy, so what is it about essays that cause such hardship? There are several reasons, primarily the structure of the writing. With an academic paper, there is little room for creativity and imagination. Your task is to write five pages about a subject that , most of the time, has little to no interest to you. Furthermore, you are also bound by guidelines. Perhaps you are writing an essay on the Swine Flu Pandemic and have to discuss the ways the virus infiltrates and affects the human body. However, as a Public Relations major, you are far more interested on the affect of the Swine Flu on our daily lives, such as school closings and other preventative measure that have been taken. Unfortunately, you are bound by the guidelines of your professor and cannot write about an aspect of your topic that truly interests and engages you. Therefore, the biggest problem with essays is that you are not the authority. Essays oppress students' free will to write about what they truly desire. And as we have learned throughout history, people to not enjoy being oppressed. We like to be free to do, feel, and write, as we please. The rigid structure and oppressive nature of essays not only makes writing them more difficult, but on some level creates a resentful attitude towards essay writing that is not found in compositions.

A composition is any creation that is assembled by seperate parts to create one complete piece of work. It is also free of form and medium. Unlike an essay, a composition, has less guidelines, leaving the composer free to create something original and satisfying. There is no dictator in composing; you are the authority; you decide when, what, and how you will compose. Additionally, compositions are not constrained to paper and pen. A composition can be a film, a piece of music, a poem, a play, or even an epic novel. There is no limits to the possibilities of compositions. However, having total authority also gives you total responsibility. In an essay, there is structure and you know that you have completed the task when you have reached the assigned guidelines. However, in a composition, you are only bound by the limits you set for yourself. While this may be freeing for some, it may also put pressure on those who are accustomed to relying on others to tell them how to complete an assignment.

While comparing the differences between essays and compositions I realized that, based off my definition, an essay is simply a form of a composition. Each individual letter, makes up words, which make up sentences, which make up paragraphs which makes up the essay. Therefore, every-time a teacher asks for an essay, they are also asking for a composition. Unfortunately for the students, the essay is probably the most rigidly structured and least creative of all of the forms of composition, however it is a composition all the same.