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Essay Tip For Newcomers What To Write Amp What Not To Write in Mains IAS Exam
Essay Tip For Newcomers What To Write Amp What Not To Write in Mains IAS Exam
org
http://mrunal.org/2011/09/essay-tip-for-newcomers-what-towrite.html
After 1 hour of writing, I realize that I forgot mention about Champarans Indigo Struggle when
Gandhi got actively involved in Indian Freedom struggle for the first time! Now I cant add it.
Because there is no space in initial pages. However I can still try to add it in the conclusion like
But when Examiner doesnt find the mention of Champaran in the initial pages, then he gets an
impression you forgot it = less marks. Hence everything has to be written in its place.
Thats why you must..
Think f or 30-45 minut es bef ore you st art t he Essay writ ing
Youve 3 hours to write the essay. Dont immediately start
Do you remember any?
1. Positive
2. Current events
2. Negative sides
3. People
3. obstacles
4. Historical events
8. Conclusion
everything has to be written in its place.
Gandhis Champaran must come in the beginning not in the end.
Now SOME DONTs
An officers trait is to remain anonymous, faceless and neutral- meaning your essay
should look like it has been written by a graduate.
Same applies for
1. Religion / culture/ language-literature (in philosophical essays)
2. States (in polity / federalism / Development)
Im not saying you should transform into a sterile person writing the essay with out having any
personal view/ opinion or righteous anger but, you mustnt become too much passionate about
certain things.
Im saying all this because you can never be sure about what will be the political / ideological /
religious / regional alignment of the examiner.
This suggestion also applies while dealing with Public Administration (optional subject).
Tip#5: Quotes
1. Dont make mistakes in writing who said what. E.g. you quote Abraham Lincons sentence and
write George Washington said it. nothing will make you look more stupid in the eyes of the
examiner than that.
2.Quote Exactly as it was said. Mao said Power flows from the barrel of a gun so you should not
write it as
You must quote the quote verbatim. If youre not sure then dont quote it.
Ex. you picked up Do we need nuclear power So you start with how thermal powerstations create pollution, there is huge demand and low supply of electricity, nuke power is
cheap, and
then the dangers such as Japanese Tsunami etc.
After 4 pages, your thoughts and ideas are exhausted-youve nothing more to say and
assuming that you write 100 words per page, you realise that only 400 words wont get you
any marks ! now you cant scratch those pages and write a new essay on new topic, youve
wasted enough time on this one.
So you decide to continue with this nuke-power essay and start rewriting the same stuff
you already stated in different ways and then youll deviate from the main topic- like nuke
power is unsafe as we saw in Japan
so we need to switch to renewable energy source like Sun, Wind and Water -> then 4 pages
on advantages of renewable energy as if this is an essay on the benefits of Non-renewable
energyand not on nuke power, you write about the pro-cons of hydro-electricity like dams
and displacement of people.
Then you realise omg, displacement of people also applies while making nukepowerplants like in Maharashtra!so you come back to the topic -half page written but still
youve not filled up enough pages so you start talking about to land-acquisition policy and
start writing the pro-cons..another half page on it. Then you think oh i must talk something
about the Indo-US nuke dealso you go on talking about how we havent signed the CTBT
and yet N.S.G gave us clearance and China-Pakistan couldnt stop it so we are a global
power now and we deserve a permanent seat in UNSC! This kind of padding goes on until
time is up.
Youve messed up the whole thing, you totally deviated from the subject. Your essay
doesnt have any flow of thoughts or proper rhythm. The seasoned examiners immediatly
sniff out this padding and they dont give much marks for it, your expected score for this kind
of garbage writing is less than 50/200, means even with decent score in all other papers, your
chances of getting interview call is close to zero. Youve jeopardised your chances
of selection in IAS, youve digged your own grave. That s why
1. take great care in picking up the subject
2. first 30-40 minutes for thorough thinking.
3. stick to the subject
Same applies while dealing with the big 60 marker question in GS and optional papers. (not 30
minutes of thinking but atleast 5-7 minutes!)
Suggested Reading
Essay is not something that can be learned reading one book or reading for 1 month.
Its a continuous and long process takes some diverse reading before youve enough content to
write something decent and something big enough to fill 20 pages to fetch 100+ marks.
1. Editorials of english newspapers ( but dont get swayed about by either leftist
or capitalist stuff preched by both sides)
2. Magazines like Frontline,
yojana, Kurukshetra. (it gives you the fodder material: statistical data to quote like how many
% illiterate and so on but again dont use too much statistical data for paddingand most
importantly dont invent your own case studies and stat.data)
3. Watch English news channel discussions / debates.
4. See the old question papers and try to make an outline of each and every Essay asked so
far.
But then again you need enough content to write 1500+ words else the padding route=digging
your own grave. And there are enough toppers who wrote the non-technical essay and still got in
the top-merit list so as usual for every generalisation made about UPSC, youll find a counter
example!
International relations
Preparedness of our society for Indias global leadership role. 2010
Are we a soft state? 2009
Good Fences make good neighbors. 2009
One more bad news: in 1997 to 2006 era, UPSC gave 6 subjects and you had to write one essay, in
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September 21st, 2011 | Category: Uncategorized