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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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Nowhere is the conservatism of the Egyptians more clearly displayed than in the tenacity with which they clung to the old forms of the theology, such as -we have essayed to describe.
Early in the 2nd century AD., pagan Egyptians, or perhaps foreigners settled in Egypt, essayed , as yet unskilfully, to write the native language in Greek letters.
In 1611 Captain Hippon in the seventh separate voyage essayed a landing at Pulicat, but was driven off by the Dutch, who were already settled there, and sailed farther up the coast to Pettapoli, where he founded the first madras English settlement in the Bay of Bengal, which ments.
Although many amongst the Angles had, following his example, essayed to compose religious poetry, none of them, in Baeda's opinion, had approached the excellence of Cwdmon's songs.
It was apparently intended by the author as an analytical introduction to the constructive exposition of his system, which he presently essayed in the Ethics.
During the age of Anne various Augustan poets in whom the lyrical faculty was slight, from Congreve and Richard Duke down to Ambrose Philips and William Somerville, essayed the epistle with more or less success, and it was employed by Gay for several exercises in his elegant persiflage.
No imaginable strength of any single man would have sufficed to carry out a hundredth part of what Leonardo essayed .
He soon essayed journalism, first spending a year and a half in the service of a publisher of two Boston newspapers, the Manufacturer, an organ of the Clay protectionists, and the Philanthropist, devoted to humane reform.
On the 10th of December Gatacre essayed a night march and attack upon the enemy's position at Stormberg, and, misled by his guides in unknown ground, was himself surprised and forced to return with a loss of 719.
Hirado That, however, is an achievement of no small consequence, especially since it had never previously been essayed outside China.
He had mastered his manner and, as one may say, learned his trade, in the exercise of criticism and the reflective parts of literature, before he surrendered himself to that powerful creative impulse which had long been tempting him, so that when, in mature life, he essayed the portraiture of invented character he came to it unhampered by any imperfection of language.
The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.
Narrative essays narrate, argumentative essays argue, and expository essays … expose? Explain? (It’s a little of both). While these essays may use narrative, argumentative, and expository writing styles to make their points, they’re not the only types of essays to do so. In fact, there are 15 different types of essays — all of which narrate, argue, or explain something to their readers.
You might think of essays as boring assignments for explaining the themes in Huckleberry Finn or breaking down the characters in The Great Gatsby , but the essay is one of the most timeless forms in all of literature. It’s a genre that includes deep readings of texts, personal essays, and journalistic reports. Before you get to any of that, you need to figure out the basic parts of the essay.
Words near essayed in the dictionary.
Melissa Mitchell, DNP ‘22 was working toward her DNP when she suffered the loss of a good friend. With the support of UW disability services, classmates, staff, and faculty she was able to persevere and graduate despite the challenges and grief. After graduation, she was unsure on what to do next. Diane Cashman, a clinical instructor, suggested she apply for fellowships. There were only two adult gerontology fellowships available in Washington state, leading her to the UW Premera Rural Nursing Health Initiative (RNHI) Fellowship .
“When I got the rural health nursing fellowship, I didn’t even know where Republic was!” laughed Mitchell. “But I found out quickly and it’s a great little town,” she added.
Mitchell joined the primary care clinic during the first year Republic participated in the rural health fellowship. She faced the reality of rural healthcare, where specialists were scarce and resources limited. Yet, she found purpose in serving a population of farmers, miners, and loggers, navigating challenges like access to care and limited resources.
“Practicing in rural areas, you need to have knowledge in multiple specialties because unlike in a larger well-resourced area you can just tap the shoulder of a colleague for a consult, in Republic we frequently have to figure it out on our own,” Mitchell said.
“The specialist rotations and nursing didactic courses, you will use it all in this fellowship. You don’t have to spend a career acquiring knowledge, because you will learn it all in this fellowship,” Mitchell said. “Being in this fellowship and working with this population has taught me to work and do more with less resources, but the rewards are immense,” she added.
Completing her fellowship, Melissa remains committed to her work in Republic, grateful for the collaborative team that supports her hybrid role. Balancing in-person and virtual patient care, she is grateful for the opportunity to extend herself daily, recognizing the vital role of nurse practitioners in providing primary care. She also encourages other new grads to take the rural fellowship path, serving as an ambassador at recruitment events and helping with recruitment for Republic’s next cohort of ARNP fellows.
This experience has taught her resilience, adaptability, and the immense rewards of serving rural communities, a journey she started thanks to encouragement of her clinical instructor and the opportunity from the UW School of Nursing’s Premera Rural Nursing Health Initiative (RNHI) fellowship.
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In English, many past and present participles of verbs can be used as adjectives. Some of these examples may show the adjective use.
Word of the Day
play for time
to delay until you are ready
Like a bull in a china shop: talking about people who are clumsy
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Are you wondering, “How do I get ChatGPT to write longer?” Well, you’re not the only one.
The chatbot’s word limit is approximately 500 words per answer. Many students use this tool to generate essay samples, and they often need texts that are much longer than the word limit permits.
If you want to know how to overcome this issue, this article is for you. It will examine ways to make ChatGPT come up with longer texts and explain how to utilize AI tools as assistants. Ready? Let’s roll!
Disclaimer: We don’t encourage using ChatGPT to cheat or create academic papers. This article will discuss ethical ways of using AI.
✍️ different essays length (by study level and genre).
The length of an academic paper depends on the topic’s complexity, the essay’s type, and the guidelines given by your instructor. Before you start working on a project, consider these factors to ensure it meets the requirements.
Here’s how an essay’s length differs depending on the academic level:
If we’re talking about essay genres, this is what you should keep in mind:
Essay genre | Length |
---|---|
Argumentative | 1500-4000 words |
Narrative | 800-1500 words |
Compare-contrast | 1000-3000 words |
Descriptive | 500-1000 words |
Expository | 1000-3000 words |
Persuasive | 1000-3000 words |
College admission | 200-650 words |
As you can see, a lot of essay types require the maximum amount of words ChatGPT can produce, and some of them are even longer than that. If you wish to generate a sample essay for inspiration, you’ll have to use hacks and tricks to make the chatbot write more. We’ll tell you all about them in the following sections.
Now, let’s take a look at how to make ChatGPT write longer stories, code, essays, and other forms of content.
ChatGPT’s answers are only as good as your prompts. If you learn how to compose them properly, you will have no problem bypassing the chatbot’s word limit.
Check out the top 11 tried-and-true tips to get longer answers from ChatGPT below:
The scope of the bot’s response depends on how precise your prompt is. Try to use straightforward language and avoid fluff in your requests.
Examples add context and clarity to a text. Ask the algorithm to provide them, and it will add real-life instances and details, extending the response.
One way to get ChatGPT to create more extended essays is to specify a word count. For instance, instead of typing “write an article about France,” you can say “write an 800-word article about the French Revolution.” Additional details will guide the tool and help it produce a longer response.
Another good strategy is to divide your instructions into several parts. This lets the algorithm to take more things into account.
Open-ended questions invite for a deeper discussion. If you use them with ChatGPT, it’ll provide you with a detailed reply instead of a brief answer.
You will get better and more detailed results if you get the chatbot to behave as a particular persona. For instance, if you work on an argumentative essay, you can ask the AI to act as an animal rights activist who argues that animal testing should be banned.
So, you’ve entered a well-written prompt, but you may still need to tweak the response to make it fit your requirements. Here’s what you can do as a follow-up to your query:
Sometimes, to get a lengthier answer, all you need to do is click the “regenerate response” button. If the rewritten version still is too short, regenerate it again.
Another option is to throw in follow-up requests like “elaborate more on this.” The chatbot will give you a more precise answer than the previous one.
If ChatGPT hits its word limit and leaves the answer incomplete, use “continue” or “go on” in your next request to nudge the algorithm to keep generating.
You can incorporate follow-up questions to maintain engagement and encourage the AI model to expand on the responses.
This is a handy option when working on an analysis. When you ask ChatGPT to compare two things, the output will likely be comprehensive and detailed. Comparisons involve benefits, drawbacks, and other dimensions that will make the response longer and your study more comprehensive.
The following tools will help you improve your analysis even further:
Now, you might be curious whether there are ways to extend a text without help from ChatGPT. The answer is—there definitely are! More and more tools with great features are being designed to make writing easier. Check out the options below to learn more.
IvyPanda’s essay extender is specifically designed to help users reach the desired number of words. All you need to do is copy the text into the box, choose the word count you want, and press the “extend” button.
The tool can also be used to generate additional segments for an essay. For instance, if you struggle with the conclusion, the tool can create a sample paragraph based on your prompt.
Is IvyPanda’s extender better than ChatGPT? Well, there are plenty of aspects that make our tool a superior option:
Try it and see the benefits for yourself!
IvyPands’s AI question generator from text is super handy whenever you need to extend your text. This tool creates a list of questions related to the text you paste into it. These questions will help you look at the subject from a different perspective and find new ideas with which to lengthen your essay.
Of course, you can also use ChatGPT for this task. However, the chatbot tends to get too general with the topic and may generate irrelevant questions.
In contrast, our question generator will develop just the right number of questions. You can then feed them into ChatGPT to get sample answers and use them to extend your essay.
Feel free to use other smart tools developed by IvyPanda to add parts to your essay:
ChatGPT Playground is powered by Open AI API services. It lets users experiment with natural language models, parameters, and more without writing code.
Here are some of the tool’s main features:
ChatGPT Playground is a fantastic solution, but it’s not free. For the first 3 months, users have $18 of free credits to test the tool. Once they run out of credits, they have to purchase a subscription.
Even though ChatGPT is widely considered the best free generative AI, there are numerous other tools and extensions from which you can benefit. They will assist you when working with the chatbot or help you generate new information for your project.
Some great ChatGPT alternatives are tools like Gemini , Bing , and Perplexity AI . And in case you want to improve your prompts and get more relevant responses, check out services such as AI Prompt Genius , WebChatGPT , Merlin , ChatOnAI , and PromptPerfect .
We will describe some of our favorite solutions below – be sure to check them out!
Gemini is an excellent alternative to ChatGPT if you want to make an essay longer. It has impressive features that simply can’t be overlooked:
Bing search engine has undergone impressive positive changes. Here are the features that make it so attractive:
Perplexity AI is a search engine similar to ChatGPT, but it has some unique features that make all the difference:
You can think of AI Prompt Genius as a cheat sheet for prompts to apply when working with AI. Here are its benefits:
WebChatGPT is an extension that allows users to access ChatGPT through web browsers. It’s a convenient option if you want to use the chatbot’s capabilities while surfing the internet.
Check out its other benefits below:
ChatOnAI extension integrates ChatGPT right into your browsing window. It displays responses from the algorithm alongside search results. This feature lets you quickly gather ideas for additional content and run them through the chatbot, providing you with more content to extend your essay.
Another aspect that makes the tool super convenient is that it gives users access to top ChatGPT prompts for SEO, art, programming, marketing, and more. Templates at hand can significantly boost productivity and help you improve a paper.
PromptPerfect is a must-have tool for students, content creators, AI developers, or engineers.
The primary goal of PromptPerfect is to optimize prompts for language models like LLMs, LMs, and LMOps. Here are its main features and benefits:
Whether you’re a student or a writer, this Chrome extension is perfect if you’re looking to extend your generated text. With this tool, you’ll gain access to meticulously crafted prompt templates. You name a domain, and you get to it in just a click.
What makes AIPRM different from other extensions is the big prompt engineering community. This community has curated an extensive collection that covers various topics and is waiting to be explored.
Even though AI is getting smarter and may one day take over the world, it still remains a technology that carries out human requests and instructions. That’s also one of the reasons why it’s essential to create high-quality prompts to get relevant results when working with ChatGPT.
Whenever you work with the chatbot, make sure to avoid these widespread mistakes:
So, we’ve talked about how to get ChatGPT to write more extended essays or use other AI tools to do the task. But what do you do if you need to lengthen a text without having access to any software?
Well, that’s not a problem at all! Check out this list of bonus tips that’ll help you create longer papers on your own:
Whenever you work on a writing assignment, you can improve the outcome with the help of our study tools:
Now, you know all about generating longer texts and extending essays with or without AI. Here’s a quick recap:
And once your sample essay is ready, you can edit and improve it. Want to know how? Check out our guide on using ChatGPT to edit essays .
Remember to only use AI as assistance! Artificial intelligence can be a great helper for those who want to improve their work rather than generate entire papers. You can always use bots ethically and without breaking the school’s rules.
If you need help to make your essay reach the required word count, check out IvyPanda essay extender or other tools suggested in this article. Good luck with your future projects!
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Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script.
by Alexandra Plakias + BIO
A man knows he should speak up about the sexist behaviour of his coworkers, but doesn’t, because they’re his friends and he doesn’t want to make it awkward. A tenured professor is bothered by her colleague’s flirtatious remarks, but says nothing, because it would be awkward to bring it up. A person runs into a recently bereaved coworker, and wonders whether to address their loss, but doesn’t know what to say, so doesn’t mention it.
We often joke about awkwardness; it’s a staple of contemporary comedy. The exclamation ‘Awkward!’ functions as a light-hearted deflection, defusing social tension. The reality is heavier. Awkwardness can be funny, but it can also be serious – it inhibits our ability to act even when we know we should, and it can shut down or pre-empt conversations about important topics like menstruation, money, menopause, mortality. The desire to avoid awkwardness acts as a powerful social inhibition, preventing people from speaking up, and motivating compliance with problematic social and moral norms. So, which is it, then? Is awkwardness a funny, quirky, everyday occurrence, something we should learn to live with and even embrace? Is it a serious social inhibitor with negative implications for moral decision-making and social change? Or – in truly awkward fashion – might it be both?
It often seems that awkwardness is a personal problem. Indeed, one of the most surprising things I discovered while writing my book Awkwardness (2024) was just how many people self-identify as awkward – and how attached people become to this label. Movies and popular culture reinforce the idea of awkward people, typically portrayed as socially inept misfits who stick out and don’t fit in with trends or social norms. This focus on individuals suggests that the best way to avoid awkwardness is through silence and conformity – to imitate others, blend in, and say nothing.
But this is only part of the story, and it gets awkwardness wrong in important ways. Yes, awkwardness is caused by a failure to conform to existing social norms. But this failure isn’t individual and, rather than think in terms of awkward people, we ought to think in terms of awkward situations. And yes, awkwardness can be painful, and unpleasant. But it’s not embarrassing, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Contrary to popular belief, our awkward moments aren’t cringeworthy. Rather than cringing inwardly about them, we ought to examine them more closely. Because once we realise the true nature of awkwardness, we can stop seeing it as an individual failure and start seeing it as an opportunity for social change. In short: we should take awkwardness less personally, and more seriously.
W hat is awkwardness? This turns out to be a tricky question. Most of us know it when we see it (or experience it), but definitions are hard to come by. Partly that’s because empirical work on awkwardness tends to treat it as a type or symptom of embarrassment. But this is a mistake. Embarrassment happens when an individual commits a social gaffe; its characteristic facial and bodily expressions involve a kind of apology. Embarrassment is thus a kind of social repair. But awkwardness is different: it’s not something an individual causes, and it’s not something an individual can resolve on their own; it’s a social rupture. The failure involved in embarrassment is a failure to conform to existing norms. Awkwardness is different: it happens when we don’t have a social script to conform to. In other words, embarrassment happens when we violate socially prescribed scripts; awkwardness happens when we lack prescriptions to guide us.
People often feel like awkwardness is about them – that they are awkward, or not. But awkwardness is a collective production. More accurately, it’s a collective failure. Awkwardness is a kind of normative negative space, offering what Adam Kotsko calls ‘insight through breakdown’. It arises when people find themselves suddenly without a social script to guide them through an interaction or an event. The term ‘script’ carries associations of playacting, and that’s not a bad way to understand awkwardness. But the lesson of awkwardness is that, in the dramedy of life, we’re not just the actors, we’re the writers.
Is this a date, or a work dinner? When two people land on different answers: awkward!
The sociologist Erving Goffman recognised that social interaction is a kind of performance in which we occupy various roles. When a performance fails, the actor feels discredited – to use Goffman’s term, he loses ‘face’. Maybe he’s trying to play a role his audience won’t grant him (for example, a failed attempt to flirt, or a rejected marriage proposal) or he loses his composure and botches the performance. We usually perform one self at a time: our roles and our audiences are ‘ segregated ’, thereby preventing the kind of uncomfortable clash that can happen when, say, you run into your boss while out on a date, or have to talk about sex with your parents. But sometimes this clash is unavoidable, and things can get awkward. A character on the TV show My So-Called Life (1994-5) summed up the problem: ‘What I, like, dread is when people who know you in completely different ways end up in the same area. And you have to develop this, like, combination you on the spot.’
The ‘on the spot’ nature of social performance marks a disanalogy with theatre: unlike an actor memorising a script, the social scripts that guide everyday interactions are highly flexible and shift quickly, without explicit negotiation or reflection. A single person will play many roles in the course of a day, or even a single afternoon. In this sense, our interactions are more like social improvisation than scripted drama. And like improvisation, successful social interaction depends on a cooperative partner willing to go along with the scene.
The social cues by which we navigate the world range from the explicit – a dress code; the ‘no presents’ written on a party invitation – to the nearly imperceptible. Even where cues are explicit, there are often unspoken understandings in place: what counts as ‘black tie’ or ‘festive cocktail attire’? Is the request ‘no presents’ really to be taken literally, or is it merely a polite pretence that everyone will ignore? Slight changes in a conversational partner’s speech pattern; a gaze held just a little too long; a centimetre of physical distance – any of these can shift people’s understanding of the interaction taking place. Is this a date, or a work dinner? Are they about to hug, kiss or shake hands? When two people land on different answers: awkward!
A wkwardness thrives in uncertainty. This explains the link between awkwardness and silence: since silence can mean so many things, it makes it difficult to coordinate on and curate an interpretation of a situation. For example, is no one speaking up because no one else has a problem with the sexist comment someone just made? Or is everyone as uncomfortable as I am, but equally unsure how to act? Sometimes silence is acquiescence; other times, it’s a form of protest. In contrast to an explicitly voiced objection, the silence on an issue can be hard to read.
Indeed, awkwardness is fundamentally a kind of social disorientation. There’s a certain comfort in being able to socially situate oneself. That’s not to say that hierarchies are comfortable or beneficial for everyone – far from it. But even as social rejection and downranking hurt, there is a different kind of discomfort that comes along with being socially lost and disoriented, and this is the discomfort associated with awkwardness. This disorientation is built into the very etymology of the term: it derives from the Middle English ‘awk’, meaning ‘wrong’ or ‘clumsy’, and the English suffix ‘-ward’, denoting direction or orientation – yielding ‘facing the wrong way’. But just like passing someone on a road, facing the right way depends on knowing how things are done around here.
Awkwardness requires the presence of others: individuals aren’t awkward, interactions are
Knowing social scripts is one thing; truly internalising them is another. From the Italian sprezzatura to the French nonchalance to the Chinese concept of wu wei , various traditions have admired the ability ‘to practise in everything a certain nonchalance that shall conceal design and show that what is done and said is done without effort’, as the 16th-century Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione put it. By contrast, contemporary putdowns like ‘try-hard’ or ‘pick me’ show that it’s not enough to know the social script; its execution should look effortless.
This is one way awkwardness functions to distinguish insiders and outsiders. It’s also why we should be wary of labelling others ‘awkward’. This gets awkwardness wrong – it’s not a personality or character trait, but something that emerges from social interactions. Awkwardness requires the presence of others: individuals aren’t awkward, interactions are. This might seem surprising: people often describe themselves (or others) as ‘awkward’, and it seems that some people do have more difficulty navigating social interactions than others. But there are practical as well as theoretical reasons for resisting the idea that awkwardness is an individual trait. The label ‘awkward’ is not as innocuous as it seems: it’s ambiguous, and it obscures more than it reveals.
For example, suppose I describe my colleague Rob as ‘awkward at parties’. This is ambiguous: am I saying that he feels awkward at parties, or that he makes me feel awkward at parties? Or both? This ambiguity creates a dangerous space for bias or even ostracism: I may mistake my own discomfort at Rob’s presence for a property of Rob – projecting my own feelings of awkwardness on to him in a sort of pathetic fallacy. For example, suppose Rob is in a wheelchair, and I have little experience interacting with wheelchair users. I might feel some uncertainty about how to approach the situation, worrying about saying ‘the wrong thing’ or not knowing whether to stand or kneel while speaking with him. Using the term ‘awkward’ risks placing responsibility for my discomfort on to Rob. Not only is this fundamentally unfair, but it means that I’m less likely to try to remedy my ignorance – what arrangement would make Rob most comfortable? And since I’ve now classified Rob (in my own mind, if not to others) as ‘awkward’, I may be less likely to seek out interactions with him in the future. As the feminist scholar Sara Ahmed writes in The Promise of Happiness (2010): ‘To create awkwardness is to be read as being awkward. Maintaining public comfort requires that certain bodies “go along with it’’.’
W e can now begin to see how awkwardness becomes threatening, and how it can be weaponised, as Megan Garber has argued in The Atlantic . Because awkwardness is often aversive, those perceived as causing it risk ostracism. Changing social norms and rituals isn’t easy; adopting new ones can be costly. The person whose presence reveals the inadequacy of the status quo thus presents a threat. For example, in a department where the men routinely take clients to a strip club after dinner, or tell sexually explicit jokes in meetings, the presence of women colleagues might make things awkward, as they are forced to confront the clash between their workplace rituals and professional norms. One option would be to accept this conflict as of their own making, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. But too often, it’s the presence of the women that is blamed: now it’s awkward to tell those jokes, because there are women here. Blame falls on those perceived as different for ‘making’ things awkward. In many cases, though, it was awkward all along: that awkwardness was just being borne by someone else, as they tried to conform to others’ expectations.
Understood in these terms, awkwardness won’t necessarily become any less unpleasant to experience. But it’s worth paying more attention to when and where it arises, and be more willing to tackle it head-on. An unspoken expectation in many social interactions is that people already know how to navigate them. People avoid admitting social ignorance, and we are embarrassed by those who do, as if they’ve violated some unspoken social norm. But why should not knowing which pronoun, title or fork to use be any different from not knowing where the bathroom is, or what time the café opens? The reluctance to ask that social norms be made explicit reveals a deeper expectation: that social interaction should appear effortless. Awkwardness highlights the fact that our interactions are scripted. Its aversiveness shows the extent to which people prefer not to be reminded of this fact. And the lucky among us may not have to be.
We engage with physical infrastructure daily, often without thinking about it. That thoughtlessness is a privilege: when I walk into the lecture theatre and reach for the light switch, it’s more or less at arm’s reach, and I expect that to be the case in every room I walk into. Sometimes, the cord that pulls down the screen is a bit too high for me and I have to stand on a chair, and this is mildly annoying, embarrassing even. At that point I begin to feel irritated with the design of the room. I might wonder, who is it made for? Social scripts are like light switches and cords – we reach for them automatically, only really noticing their placement or existence when they’re not where we expect or need them to be. Of course, that’s not true for everyone. For many people, navigating the demands of daily life requires giving a good deal of thought to the placement of light switches, doorknobs and the like. For people who are neurodivergent, who struggle with reading facial cues, or who find themselves in unfamiliar social settings, the world is full of rooms with unpredictable, unreachable infrastructure. Awkwardness is a reminder that social infrastructure exists and that it is not equally accessible to everyone.
Because awkwardness is felt as a form of social discomfort, it doesn’t attach to everyone equally
The good news is that with effort and attention, social resources can be made more accessible. Awkwardness highlights where that work needs to happen. Understanding the social origins of awkwardness also helps reconceptualise it. Instead of thinking about it as a personal failure – a cringeworthy source of personal embarrassment, or shame – it can be recognised for what it is: the result of collective ignorance or absence.
And this is where the trope of the awkward misfit does a disservice. When awkwardness is understood as an individual failure to fit in, the response is supposed to be: do better; conform; learn the script. But that’s not always possible. Nor is it always desirable. In some cases, those norms are not serving everyone – or anyone. For example, many job interviews now eschew small talk and follow-up questions, following a scripted formula in which candidates are all asked the same questions with no follow-ups. This may feel awkward, especially for interviewers used to casual chit-chat. But that same chit-chat might unfairly skew the process by emphasising considerations of ‘fit’ and disadvantaging candidates who have less in common with interviewers. Professors may feel awkward asking students to share their pronouns, but this takes the burden of awkwardness off the students who might otherwise have had to jump in and correct people’s assumptions.
The upshot is that awkwardness isn’t something an individual should, or even can, fix on their own. To view awkwardness as shameful, or embarrassing, is therefore not just a philosophical mistake but a practical one: it is to miss out on an opportunity to repair the social infrastructure. Take the case of pronouns again: someone who finds it awkward to state their pronouns, but understands this awkwardness in terms of shame, might see the problem as stemming from a lack of courage or assertiveness, and feel bad about their failure to speak up. This puts the burden on them, going into new social or professional situations, to summon up the courage to change how they introduce themselves, which can make new interactions a source of stress or anxiety. If we understand awkwardness in terms of social scripts, things are different: the person might work with friends or colleagues to think about ways to build pronouns into introductions, or emails, or the structure of meetings.
But it’s important, too, to be mindful of who’s doing this work. Because awkwardness is felt as a form of social discomfort, it doesn’t attach to everyone equally. Social expectations of who does the work to make others feel comfortable – and correspondingly, who is held accountable when people feel uncomfortable – intersect with scripts around gender and social status. Women are often tasked with managing others’ moods and are expected to get along with others; this ‘emotional labour’ includes the work of repairing social interactions that become awkward. There’s a privilege in not worrying about others’ discomfort.
All of this might seem like a lot to put on a minor, everyday irritation. If we’re used to thinking of awkwardness as the kind of thing that crops up on bad dates, or a minor annoyance of office life, then what I’ve been saying so far might seem a bit overblown. Doesn’t everyone have awkward moments, and is it really such a big deal? The answer is that some of us have more awkward moments than others. And some awkward moments are a big deal: it matters that we have social scripts to talk about grief, or harassment, or race, because not talking about these topics erases an important part of people’s experiences. The silence associated with awkwardness can function to erase important parts of people’s experiences. But if we listen to it carefully, it can also tell us where more work is needed. The work of building our social infrastructure often goes unremarked upon. Awkwardness alerts us to the fact that our social norms are under construction. It’s an opportunity to examine the work that goes into our social lives, and why that work so often remains invisible.
In the drama of life, we don’t have to settle for being actors – we can be writers, too. Not everyone can afford to do this work. Not everyone’s contributions receive equal credit. But for those of us willing and able, awkward moments are an alert that our current social scripts are not working, and an opportunity to get to work writing better ones.
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COMMENTS
ESSAYED definition: 1. past simple and past participle of essay 2. to try to do something: . Learn more.
The meaning of ESSAY is an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view. How to use essay in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Essay.
To 'Essay' or To 'Assay'? | Merriam- ...
Synonyms for ESSAYED: tried, attempted, sought, endeavored, assayed, strived, strove, wrought; Antonyms of ESSAYED: dropped, quit, gave up, quitted
Find 32 different ways to say ESSAYED, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.
Essayed definition: Simple past tense and past participle of essay. .
Define essayed. essayed synonyms, essayed pronunciation, essayed translation, English dictionary definition of essayed. try; subject to a test; a short literary composition: She wrote an essay for her final exam.
Britannica Dictionary definition of ESSAY. [+ object] formal. : to try to do, perform, or deal with (something) He at first essayed [= tried, attempted] a career as a writer. There is no hint as to which of the approaches essayed in this book will prove most useful. — sometimes followed by to + verb. He essayed [= tried, attempted] to restore ...
past participle essayed ... Word Origin late 15th cent. (as a verb in the sense 'test the quality of'): alteration of assay, by association with Old French essayer, based on late Latin exagium 'weighing', from the base of exigere 'ascertain, weigh'; the noun (late 16th cent.) is from Old French essai 'trial'.
ESSAY meaning: 1. a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the…. Learn more.
The modern meanings for essay and assay are almost unrelated. One essays a difficult task; one assays an ore or other material to objectively measure its value. A essayist is a writer; an assayer is a metallurgist. By clicking "Post Your Answer", you agree to our and acknowledge you have read our .
noun. 1. a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative. 2. anything resembling such a composition. a picture essay. 3. an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt. 4.
A composition that is usually short and has a literary theme is called an essay. You should probably start writing your essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" sometime before the bus ride to school the day it is due.
Essay definition: a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.. See examples of ESSAY used in a sentence.
ESSAYED meaning: 1. past simple and past participle of essay 2. to try to do something: . Learn more.
Essay definition: A testing or trial of the value or nature of a thing.
essay - WordReference English dictionary, questions, discussion and forums. All Free.
The Oxford Learner's Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary app 2 essay (on something) a short piece of writing on a particular subject, written in order to be published The book contains a number of interesting essays on women in society.
Word Origin late 15th cent. (as a verb in the sense 'test the quality of'): alteration of assay, by association with Old French essayer, based on late Latin exagium 'weighing', from the base of exigere 'ascertain, weigh'; the noun (late 16th cent.) is from Old French essai 'trial'.
ESSAY definition: 1. a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the…. Learn more.
Synonyms. Sentences. Of those who essayed to cross the waterless Haud more than one lost his life. 12. 4. Menant have done useful work in distinguishing word-groups, and have essayed partial interpretations. 3. 0. In 1645 he essayed a reformation of the calendar, but his plan was not adopted.
Melissa Mitchell, DNP '22 was working toward her DNP when she suffered the loss of a good friend. With the support of UW disability services, classmates, staff, and faculty she was able to persevere and graduate despite the challenges and grief. After graduation, she was unsure on what to do next. Diane Cashman, a clinical instructor, suggested she apply for fellowships. There were only two ...
In law school, essays come in various forms, each demanding a unique approach. However, they all share a common structure: they require analysis, the formation of a thesis, and a well-organised outline. Law essays generally fall into three broad categories: legal theory, legal reforms, and legal history.
ESSAYING definition: 1. present participle of essay 2. to try to do something: . Learn more.
3. Provide Specific Word Count. One way to get ChatGPT to create more extended essays is to specify a word count. For instance, instead of typing "write an article about France," you can say "write an 800-word article about the French Revolution." Additional details will guide the tool and help it produce a longer response. 4.
In other words, embarrassment happens when we violate socially prescribed scripts; awkwardness happens when we lack prescriptions to guide us. People often feel like awkwardness is about them - that they are awkward, or not. But awkwardness is a collective production. More accurately, it's a collective failure.