SCIENTIFIC ESSAY: CHARACTERISTICS, STRUCTURE, THEMES, STAGES - LITERATURE - 2025

A scientific essay is a relatively short, prose text on a particular science-related topic. It expresses a personal point of view on the topic addressed based on information collected and presented in an objective manner. The author develops ideas in an organized way and using technical language.

The noun essay comes from the French essai, which means "attempt", and also from the verb essayer, which means "to try something." These, in turn, are derived from the Latin exagium with the meaning "weight" or "measure" and from requirment which means "investigate" or "make sure".

In general, essay production involves the measurement, evaluation, comparison and weighing of the themes that originate it. As a literary genre, the essay had its origin in the Essais (Essays, 1580) of the French philosopher and writer Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592).

On the other hand, in the particular case of a scientific essay, although a researcher may have several purposes when writing an essay, his objective is ultimately to persuade the readers. For example, by comparing and contrasting two theories, the writer hopes to convince readers of the superiority of one over the other.

Likewise, the production of a scientific essay may have as its goal the personal opinion of the author in relation to the topic developed. This, to be valid, must be supported with sufficient and valid arguments. Likewise, it is very frequent that this is contrasted with ideas previously published by other researchers.

As for the subject, it is broad. His field is scientific human knowledge. In this sense, there is no topic of human knowledge that cannot be the subject of an investigation and subsequent publication of an essay. Among others, any topic in the medical, social and nature fields can be the subject of a scientific essay.

Characteristics of the scientific trial

Brevity and uniqueness

The scientific essay is short and unique. Thus, without abusing the discourse, it presents a novel theme that is the central axis of the essay. Simultaneously, it must comply with the requirement of brevity, but without ignoring the relevant data that are the structural basis of the trial.

On the other hand, the uniqueness also extends to the subject. The scientific essay addresses only one topic per work. It can be supplemented with secondary themes, for the main theme it is only one.

Personal character

A scientific essay is a writing of a fundamentally personal nature in which the author's own ideas are exposed. These are supported throughout the essay by evidence provided by own research and ideas and those of other essayists. The ideas taken from other authors are duly indicated and the credits are respected.

Variety of themes

In general, this type of essay can cover an infinite number of topics. Practically, there is no area of ​​science that is prohibited for the production of these research works.

Areas such as mathematics, physics, or natural sciences, among many others, are very often subjects of scientific essays.

Sufficiency in the contents

The contents of the scientific essay are written with the sufficiency necessary to support their own ideas and refute those that oppose them.

During the process, the essayist mixes natural logic with his intellectual capacity at work. On the other hand, it abounds in details to ensure understanding of the ideas presented.

Logical thinking and argumentation

The logical thinking of the essayist is reflected in his work. Both the way the subject is presented and the sequence of its development are based on rational and reasonable schemes. In this way, the defense of their own positions is facilitated.

However, the author adapts the content according to his preferences and intentions, but always favoring reason and methodical integrity.

For the purpose of enriching the discourse, he may occasionally drift towards accessory ideas, but at all times he maintains the line of the main idea.

On the other hand, the argumentation is made with intelligence and logic. Vagueness is avoided at all times. Ideas are the product of processes of discernment and reflection. The author tries to anticipate possible doubts and argues in order to clarify as many of them from the beginning.

Originality of content

The contents of scientific essays are generally innovative and controversial in content. Plagiarism is - in all cases - very frowned upon and - sometimes - even legally condemned. Although essays can be found that deal with ideas previously discussed by other essayists, the angle of approach is always novel.

Idea evaluation

The scientific essay invites the reader to evaluate ideas, seek additional information, and reflect. The originality of the ideas presented by the essayist encourages quality thinking. Readers feel in the essay a source of reference and critical consultation.

High rigor

The research and analysis process is produced following the canons of high rigor. It must strictly conform to reality and not omit any type of information. The author presents the contents avoiding any type of trend and maintaining objectivity.

Professional and entertaining speech

The main readers of a scientific essay are the specialists in the area that are the central theme. In light of that, the speech should be specialized, objective and elegant, but entertaining enough not to lose your attention. An appropriate type of discourse is one that encourages input and feedback of ideas.

Structure (parts)

Title

The title of a scientific essay informs the reader about its content. This should be simultaneously concise but informative.

It should also contain as few words as possible without affecting the accuracy and clarity of your information. For these purposes, the author must take care of the syntax and select words that catch the reader's attention.

Summary

In the abstract of the scientific essay, the author indicates the usefulness of the topic addressed. Similarly, it indicates the main subtopics that may appear and outlines other concepts that are covered in the work. The ideas proposed by the essayist are briefly explained in this part.

The abstract is also known as an abstract. This name derives from the Latin “abstractum”, which means “condensed form of a text”.

In this section, interest in essay work is created using keywords. In general, this section is limited to a maximum number of words. This limit ranges from 250 to 300.

Introduction

In the introduction, the essayist gives a condensed vision of the subject he will deal with in the writing. To this end, it indicates the preliminary points of the subject and the conditions of the origin.

Similarly, address the question you want to answer with the essay or give a description that helps the reader to know what the work is about. Next, describe what is going to be discussed; the reasons why the essay topic is important and which specific cases you are going to argue about.

In the same way, the author glimpses in this part the conclusions he is going to reach. By rules already agreed in the middle, the introduction represents around 10% of the essay.

Content (body of essay)

The content or body of the essay includes an in-depth discussion of the chosen topic. Each of the sections of the exhibition is developed following the selected criteria. This development should have sufficient content, depth and follow an easily understood style, as far as possible.

The main part of this section is the personal presentation and its argumentation. In the same way, it is the confrontation of the essayist's ideas with those of other authors who have dealt with the same subject. In this part, an inductive, deductive or any other type of validated reasoning style is used.

On the other hand, the proposals developed in this section are supported by evidence. It is customary to end this section by making a synthesis with new questions for future work. The development of this part of the essay usually constitutes 80% of the work.

Conclusions

In the conclusions of the scientific essays, the essayists mention the most interesting results of the work developed. Many tend to emphasize that the topic of their essay is still under discussion. Later, they recapitulate what was argued.

They also explain the type of methodology that was used to reach such conclusions and point out how to achieve a deeper understanding of the subject. In closing, the author indicates to the readers of his work the fields of practical application of the study carried out and presented in the essay.

References or sources

In this final part of the scientific essay, the author cites all the sources consulted for the development of his essay. These are cited following internationally agreed standards. Frequently, these data include title of the works, authors, year of publication, among others.

Frequent Topics

Although the subject of a scientific essay can be practically any, the most frequently used are those that, in some way, cause a stir. This shock may stem from some global or regional problem that needs a quick solution.

Also, they can come from recent discoveries that update knowledge in some field of science. Likewise, they may be the result of evaluations made by the essayist that contrast with previous conceptions on the subject.

Stages

Topic selection

In this part of the production, the essayist selects the topic within a certain discipline that, generally, is his field of specialization.

Many times, the selection is the product of your reflections during your professional performance. It can also be related to solving a problem within the researcher's area of ​​interest.

Delimitation of the topic

Once the topic has been selected, the next step is the delimitation of its study. At this level of research, the author makes initial hypotheses. Likewise, he asks himself questions about the feasibility of solving the problem and establishes the scope of his work.

Information gathering

The compilation of the information corresponds to the step in which the author proceeds to the location and reading of different informative material referring to the selected topic. To do this, they go to different sources such as books, the internet, and magazines.

Once the material has been collected, the essayist proceeds to review, read and summarize it, selecting the most pertinent information. All of this compiled material will help the author of the essay to later affirm or refute his own initial conclusions.

Determination of the argumentative line

At this stage of the scientific essay, a line of argument is chosen. This consists of establishing the sequence in which you will present the work. In addition, the material (bibliographies, experiments, results, interviews) is organized to incorporate them at the appropriate time.

Selection of information

Depending on the line of argument chosen, the essayist selects the information that will serve to support his main thesis. In this phase, the researcher links the information collected with the objectives of his work and with the results of his investigations or experiments.

Description of sources

This part of the essay consists of the outline of the possible bibliography that will be included at the end of the work. In this sense, all the information of details such as title of the work, author, date of publication and others is collected.

The description criteria depends on the citation and reference format chosen. Among the formats available for scientific essays, the APA (American Psychology Association) format can be mentioned.

Preparation of the draft of the text

The preparation of the draft of the text consists of assembling the information. At this stage, all the data from the consulted texts, the author's own ideas and the results of the tests carried out are condensed in the writing. The main criterion in this section of the essay is fluency and comprehension of the text.

Draft correction

Once the draft of the scientific essay is completed, it should be reviewed. This review is done paying attention to the argumentative and expository line. At the same time, citations and paraphrases, parenthetical references, footnotes and final references are also reviewed.

The draft correction process is done in two phases:

1. The first consists of a first review in which both the contents and the organization of the essay are checked. It is vitally important at this level that the content communicates its purpose to the reader and that there is cohesion between its parts.
2. The second review focuses on the grammatical aspects. Among them, attention is paid to punctuation marks, accentuation, agreement between gender and number, and spelling.

Final edition of the essay

The final edition of the scientific essay corresponds to the formal and aesthetic part of the written work. On the formality side, the author decides who will be in charge of preparing the presentation or prologue. Generally, they are professionals in the area of ​​the subject of the essay with proven experience in the topic discussed.

On the aesthetic side, the author chooses the visual form of his essay. The type of paper, cover, colors, among other attributes are selected at this stage. The main criterion that prevails in this choice is economic.

Example

In general, any scientific essay is important due to the degree of knowledge and progress that is generated with its publication. However, there are special works that have marked a before and after for the scientific community. This was the case in the essay entitled The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1809-1882).

Its original title in English was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. It was published on November 24, 1859.

This work introduced the scientific theory according to which populations evolved from generation to generation over time through a process that was baptized with the name of natural selection. This was baptized as the Theory of Evolution, and it totally changed the way in which the origin of the human race was approached.

In this scientific essay, Darwin presented a great deal of evidence to show that different forms of life arose from common descent. The diversity of life was a later process that followed a branching pattern of evolution.

References

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