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Ask for help > Difference between an essay and a composition???
Difference between an essay and a composition???
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Dianna Madrigal
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Difference between an essay and a composition???
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Hi all! Could somebody please explain me the difference between an essay and a composition??? Thanks in advance.....
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30 Jan 2009
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penbwl
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One way to look at it is that "composition" is a super-category, whereas "essay" would be a sub-category of composition.
Another way would be to say that "composition" can have many forms e.g. musical composition or chemical composition etc., whereas "essay", as you mean it, is purely a literary composition.
Hope this helps you somewhat...
*Update*
These links bring out the same points:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/composition
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/essay
You can also see that essay has some older uses that are not so commonly used these days.
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30 Jan 2009
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douglas
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An essay usually deals with an analysis or interpretation and has a more limited point of view.
A composition is "a piece of writing, especially a school exercise in the form of a brief essay" (Webster�s)
I usually use them interchangeably ,but believe that "composition" is a wider term than "essay", it doesn�t have to be analytical or interpretive..
Douglas |
30 Jan 2009
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BRAHIM S
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Like Douglas, I usually use both terms interchangeably, although I use "essay" much more often |
30 Jan 2009
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alien boy
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As the other posters have said, you can use either composition or essay. A lot depends on how precisely you wish to define the piece of written work.
A composition can be any piece of organised work - music, language, scientific or art work, just to name a few fields!
An essay is a specific form of analytical or interprative work and is usually in a written format.
Cheers! |
30 Jan 2009
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