Fundamentals of Essay and Answer Writing

Preface

My UPSC journey was long and brutal, consisting of three failures, five attempts, and six long years. Throughout the journey, there were moments of absolute despair and deep disappointment. But, what agonised me the most was that I couldn't figure out the reason why I was failing. It was only in my fifth attempt that I understood my inadequacy: I wasn't able to write good answers in the exam. Once I realised it, I worked on my answer writing skills. As my answers became better, so did my marks, ultimately helping me secure All India Rank 1.

If I knew back in 2012, what I now know about the exam, my journey surely would have been shorter and sweeter. Though I have no regrets, I wouldn’t wish anybody else to go through the same agony solely because there is no guidance. So, after the result, I felt the urge to share these learnings with the aspirants who are struggling with this exam and this led to me blogging about my UPSC journey. What I posted had one common theme: They not only mention the resources and book lists, but also illustrate how to write effective answers.

I believe that this practical perspective resonated with a lot of aspirants. I received a lot of mails telling me how those posts have helped them write better answers and score well. Every time I read a thankful message or comment, it has filled me with happiness and reinforced my motive to provide guidance on answer writing to as many aspirants as possible.

There are tons of resources on the web telling aspirants what to read and where to read from. But, there is hardly any book that tells you how to apply what you read in the exam hall. In the UPSC exam preparation, which source you refer to does not make much of a difference. Whether it’s Indian Express or the Hindu, Spectrum or Bipin Chandra — they cover almost the same content. What makes the difference is how an aspirant is able to apply that learning in the actual exam. The examiner checking your copy will have no idea about the number of books you’ve read or the number of hours you’ve slogged. Your answers are all that he has to judge you on. So, it makes sense to learn, practice, and perfect the art of answer writing.

It is this specific addition on the topic of answer and essay writing that this book seeks to make. In the following pages, I have refined and condensed everything I learnt about essay and answer writing. This is a book I wish someone gave me when I started my preparation in 2012.

HOW SHOULD YOU USE THIS BOOK?

No two aspirants are the same. Some might be just starting out with Prelims, while others may be struggling with scoring well in Mains. Given this diversity, I tried my best to make this book relatable to everyone.

Given the practical nature of the book, I’ve made an effort to include many examples to drive home the point I am making. Though many would be tempted to use the same examples in your exam, I urge you to desist from it. The best way is to understand the principles and try to come up with your own examples.

Moreover, it would be a mistake to think that reading this book alone would be sufficient to write great answers. This book is merely a compass. Don’t just read this book. Get into the habit of writing consistently, and incorporate the learning as you write. Doing is the best form of learning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

No idea is entirely unique or original. Every idea is inspired from something or someone else. The same goes for this book. Over the years, I have benefited immensely from the works of great authors whose writings have helped me become a better writer, a better thinker, and a better person. In the book, I’ve given due credit wherever I referred to their work.

For their advice and assistance, my sincere thanks to Varun Reddy (IAS 2019), Koya Sree Harsha (IAS 2018), and Apurva Pandey (IAS 2018).

I am grateful to my friends and family for their love, support, and understanding.

This book is a personal project. It has no professional editor, proofreader, marketer or a distributor. I just wanted to write and share the knowledge. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

PART I: Essay Writing

1. How to Prepare for the Essay

Essay paper carries the same marks as any GS paper, yet it does not get the equivalent attention that it deserves from aspirants— first timers and experienced aspirants alike. They believe that since they have already studied a ton for the GS papers, it would be sufficient to write a good essay. This is a miscalculation. Knowledge from GS papers is necessary but not sufficient to score well in the essay paper.

In my initial attempts, I did not allot much time for Essay preparation. Therefore, it is not a coincidence that in all of those years, my essay scores hovered around just 100. Once I realised my failings, I started collecting useful quotes, preparing notes, and even making rough drafts for frequently asked topics in the essay paper. All this effort helped me score 155, much higher than in any GS paper.

Below are some tips necessary to conquer the essay paper.

MASTER GS TOPICS

The core content of your Essay will come from your GS preparation. For example, to write an essay on a topic like NAM and its relevance, you need to have a solid grip on India’s foreign policy, how it has evolved, what its core tenets are, and which major treaties we’ve signed. Without such knowledge, any essay you write will sound shallow and unimpressive. Therefore, it should be clear that being good at GS is a necessary prerequisite for writing good essays. Along with this core knowledge, other components of essay such as anecdotes, quotes, good command over language provide a backbone in making your essay persuasive. Therefore, your GS preparation indirectly helps in your Essay preparation. However, as mentioned above, it does not suffice to just prepare for GS papers and expect to get a great score in the essay. There are other aspects (mentioned below) that are equally important.

DEVELOP A HOBBY OF READING NON-FICTION BOOKS

Reading non-fiction books helps you develop a mature thought process. Apart from imparting knowledge, they will also familiarise you with good figures of speech, art of argumentation, powerful rhetoric and unique content. For example, in an essay on Artificial Intelligence, I took ideas from Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus to argue that AI is an imminent threat to humanity. Or if you read a book like Why Nations Fail, you will understand the importance of innovation, political and economic freedoms in propelling a nation forward. So apart from UPSC related material, develop the hobby of reading non-fiction books. It is not to suggest that you should read one non-fiction book per topic to get good scores in Essay, but reading them occasionally in your free time will benefit you in the long run, even after you become a civil servant.

COLLECT INFORMATION FROM SPECIFIC MAGAZINE ISSUES

Specific issues of Yojana are useful in preparing for topics like tribal development, disaster management etc. These magazines will also help you know the positives and criticisms of govt policies in that sector. Apart from magazines, Economic Survey is a rich resource for latest statistics and schemes in a particular sector. Make a note of these in a separate notebook and revise them from time to time.

READ NEWSPAPERS DAILY

Regular newspaper reading helps in two ways. One, your language and vocabulary will improve over time. Second, newspapers contain many good real life stories, anecdotes, and quotes which can be used in the essay paper. When you come across these in papers, note them in a book or your computer. If you are reading online and you find something useful— a quote, a phrase or a story— use Evernote or some online note making tool to file it in the Essay section and revise before the exam. Use this notebook for noting down the latest statistics and findings of important reports in sectors such as health, economy, education, judiciary etc.

PREPARE A ROUGH DRAFT OF MAJOR ESSAY THEMES

A useful exercise in your essay preparation is to pore over previous year essays and understand major themes which are asked in the essay. You’d find common themes such as education, agriculture, women empowerment, science & tech, innovation, foreign policy, security, health, economic reforms etc., For these frequently asked topics, prepare rough essay drafts. This draft need not necessarily be a complete essay, but an outline in which you jot down major points and roughly think of what you will write in the introduction, main body and conclusion. This exercise helps immensely in getting rid of the writer's block and developing the habit of brainstorming and preparing a quick framework for a topic.

PRACTICE WRITING FULL LENGTH ESSAYS

You’d not learn how to write good essays by merely reading this book. You get better only when you actually write them. Write as many essays as you can and then analyse for yourself as to what you have missed. Try to implement the ideas that you find useful here in the mock tests. Learn from your peers. If it helps, join a test series for essay to get into the habit of consistently writing full length essays within the given time limit. As for evaluation, take a look at some of the toppers’ essays and check how your essay compares with theirs. You can also rely on coaching institutes, but most of their work is substandard. So, take their feedback with caution.

Getting good at essay writing is going to be a gradual process. But once you learn it, the essay paper will reward you well.

2. Essay Introduction

The movie Inglorious Basterds opens with a glorious scene. The shot doesn’t reveal much about the story or the characters, but it’s so engrossing that once you watch it, you are hooked. That scene accurately captures the importance of a great introduction to a film.

Introduction to an essay is like an opening scene to a movie. It should start strong, give a brief idea of what’s coming ahead, and make your audience wanting for more. A well-crafted introduction creates that urgency and curiosity in the minds of the readers, captivating them into reading the rest of the write-up. A splendid introduction is, therefore, a prerequisite for a splendid essay.

An effective introduction to the UPSC essay should be around 120-150 words and should meet three basic conditions:

a. It must generate interest in the reader

b. It must be relevant to the question

c. It must be concise.

Now the question is ‘How do we meet these conditions and make the essay impactful?’ We can accomplish it in the following ways:

TELL A STORY

It’s a fundamental psychological principle that humans are fascinated by stories. Create characters, give them fictitious names and weave a narrative relevant to the question asked. For an essay on healthcare reform in India, you can create a character from a rural village who is neglected by the PHC, misguided by the private clinics and fleeced by the local medical store. A short story on it powerfully brings out the problems of our public health sector. Similarly, for a topic such as Fifty Golds in Olympics: Can this be a reality for India?, you can introduce your essay with a short narration of India winning fifty Olympic gold medals in 2032. You can then transition to the main body discussing how to make that a reality. So, with topics where you feel that a story can accurately bring out the core theme of your essay, go ahead with this method. Just be mindful of keeping your story short and relevant.

Topic: Cyberspace is the new battlefield

Introduction: It is a fine winter morning in 2025. As commuters travel to work, the metro rail crashes to a grinding halt. Concurrently, planes in the airspace lose communication with the ground control. Banks report breach of confidential data from their servers. Government websites are hacked with threatening messages splashed all across the screens. The energy and nuclear power plants control systems are infected with strange viruses. In 30 minutes, the country’s critical infrastructure collapses and within an hour, it becomes clear that the country has become a victim of a coordinated cyberattack-cyberwar.

This scary scenario, confined earlier to sci-fi movies is now a potential reality. With increasing networking and interconnectedness, cyberspace is emerging as a new arena for warfare in the 21st century. How India prepares for this combat is a critical challenge of our times.

NARRATE AN ANECDOTE

Write about an incident or story you’ve read in the newspapers or books. Or write a historical anecdote related to the question. This is merely a variant of the fictitious story mentioned in the first category. The only difference is that, here, it’s a real- life incident. Care must be taken to ensure that you pick an incident that’s widely known. Do not write about an obscure event that the examiner might not have heard of. For instance, if there’s a question on women's empowerment or gender justice, one can start with the Nirbhaya episode or PV Sindhu’s rise to the top of Badminton.

Topic: Be the change you wish to see

Introduction: It was 1893. A bright, young lawyer was travelling first class on a train in the British colony of South Africa. During the journey, a white man objected to his presence in the compartment, despite the lawyer possessing a valid ticket. The white man insisted that ‘coloured’ men like him were supposed to ride in the third class and not in the first class. When the lawyer refused to give