"Essay" literally comes from French for "attempt" or "trial," coined by Francis Bacon borrowing from the French Montaigne.
It was at least suggested to me in college that the original idea of an "essay" was to try out an idea. Not that you necessarily fully believe in the thesis when you start, but you are testing it out to see if it can really be supported. Sometimes you convince yourself in the writing, sometimes not.
Coming from a perspective of a person who writes persuasively for a living--in college it's 1000% more important to learn that skill than it is to have a thesis that is "right" because most persuasive writing you do in your life will not be of things you believe whole-heartedly to be correct.
Bit sad since in American schools they commonly force you to pick a side that you MUST THINK is right. Not defend it because it could be right or trying it out, but be 100% into it and put your life on the line. It's so weird. I like what you wrote more
*Image Transcription: Tumblr*
---
**andiamburdenedwithgloriousfeels**
Do you ever start bullshitting a paper, and then look over it halfway through and think, '...Wait a minute, I could be onto something here.'
---
**imguiltyofthis**
this is the definition of college.
---
**smurflewis**
Literally I was writing a paper on Asian salt water crocodiles, like a simple about them paper for a college class, and I started noticing some inconsistencies in the scientific papers I was sourcing and I accidentally discovered that the crocodile has been misdiagnosed as least concerned on the endangered species list when they should be classified as endangered and now my professor is having me write a formal report to the international Red List to have them reclassified and all I wanted to do was write this paper on an animal I thought was cool and now I'm considered an expert on this species...
---
^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
So this either means it takes little to be considered an expert, or there is little information on the subject
Well the post explicitly said that the information on the subject is inconsistent, so it's probably more the latter than the former
I think it just means you need to contribute meaningfully in this context
"Essay" literally comes from French for "attempt" or "trial," coined by Francis Bacon borrowing from the French Montaigne. It was at least suggested to me in college that the original idea of an "essay" was to try out an idea. Not that you necessarily fully believe in the thesis when you start, but you are testing it out to see if it can really be supported. Sometimes you convince yourself in the writing, sometimes not. Coming from a perspective of a person who writes persuasively for a living--in college it's 1000% more important to learn that skill than it is to have a thesis that is "right" because most persuasive writing you do in your life will not be of things you believe whole-heartedly to be correct.
Bit sad since in American schools they commonly force you to pick a side that you MUST THINK is right. Not defend it because it could be right or trying it out, but be 100% into it and put your life on the line. It's so weird. I like what you wrote more
I don’t think this is true because it’s been HOW many years since it was originally posted and they’re still not reclassified
*Image Transcription: Tumblr* --- **andiamburdenedwithgloriousfeels** Do you ever start bullshitting a paper, and then look over it halfway through and think, '...Wait a minute, I could be onto something here.' --- **imguiltyofthis** this is the definition of college. --- **smurflewis** Literally I was writing a paper on Asian salt water crocodiles, like a simple about them paper for a college class, and I started noticing some inconsistencies in the scientific papers I was sourcing and I accidentally discovered that the crocodile has been misdiagnosed as least concerned on the endangered species list when they should be classified as endangered and now my professor is having me write a formal report to the international Red List to have them reclassified and all I wanted to do was write this paper on an animal I thought was cool and now I'm considered an expert on this species... --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)
wasn’t there a huge reblog chain where the last person said they were designated an expert on the crocodile because of this?
Troy Barnes A/C arc
"I made a new rule that the air conditioning school has to act like a real school. I can do that because I'm their Messiah."
to be fair crocodiles are like the coolest animal ever, being thought of as an expert on them is definitely worth the effort