How to prepare Essay for opsc OAS Exam

Essay Writing Tips

GENERAL INSTRUCTION

Candidates will be required to write an Essay on a specific topic. The choice of subjects will be given. They will be expected to keep closely to the subject of the essay to arrange their ideas in orderly fashion and to write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.

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According to the New Pattern, Essay will be bilingual. You can write the essay either in Odia or English Language. The question paper will be both in Odia and English Language.

Some tips to write a good 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 much higher than before. 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.

Let's read What Anudeep Durishetty( AIR 1, UPSC CSE, 2017) says about the following points

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.

You can read Anudeep Durishetty's( AIR 1, UPSC CSE, 2017) book on Essay and Answer writing.

You can Read the Answer Writing Manual by Srushti Jayant Deshmukh(All India Rank 5, CSE 2018)

The Answer Writing Manual is a step by step guide for Civil service Mains Examination which has both preparation and Answer Writing strategies in detail. The book is written to address all categories of aspirants, as a complete guide for the beginners and as a tool to help improve marks substantially for the veterans.

These are very Nice and eye opener.