I got my first college essay back yesterday, and I failed. Not just a bad grade—an actual F. The professor's comment said: 'This is a summary, not an essay. You haven't made an argument.' And I realized I genuinely don't understand the difference. I thought an essay was just a longer, more detailed version of the book reports I wrote in high school. I thought if I summarized the sources accurately and organized the information clearly, that was enough. Apparently not.
So what is an essay supposed to do that a summary doesn't? How do I move from telling the reader what happened or what someone said to actually making a point about it? My professor said I need to 'enter the conversation,' but I don't know what that means. The conversation between who? About what? I'm sitting in the library right now with my failed essay and a blank notebook, and I have no idea how to fix this. Can someone explain, like I'm five, what the actual job of an essay is?
So what is an essay supposed to do that a summary doesn't? How do I move from telling the reader what happened or what someone said to actually making a point about it? My professor said I need to 'enter the conversation,' but I don't know what that means. The conversation between who? About what? I'm sitting in the library right now with my failed essay and a blank notebook, and I have no idea how to fix this. Can someone explain, like I'm five, what the actual job of an essay is?