The Essay Engineering curriculum is grounded in a theoretical redefinition of the humanities as evidence-based thinking, which is applied to the pragmatic fundamentals of textual analysis and essay composition. The theoretical element defines the essence of analysis and the purpose of essay composition as the creation of conceptual frameworks for understanding empirical reality. The practical element gives students a manual for the essential principles and practice of all parts of the essay, in terms of their treatment of empirical evidence and the construction of a conceptual framework: single-paragraph structure, multiple-paragraph organization, unifying thesis, introductory paragraph, conclusion. These principles are demonstrated in two ways: first, with instructions for developing a high-quality first draft from the very start of passage identification and textual analysis through the formulation of paragraphs, thesis, etc, with all intermediate stages clearly explained; secondly, with a complete set of examples that show students how to identify and remedy the different types of errors and deficiencies that arise in the inadequate first draft. This complete manual for practical essay composition constitutes a new concept in education: the Essay-Writing Textbook, for high school and college students.

The practical element is grounded in the notion of Essay Engineering as both methodology and “qualitative algorithm for thinking”. The algorithm consists in i) the sorting and organizing of non-quantitative empirical evidence into qualitative data sets; ii) the use of inductive reasoning to create conceptual frameworks that are “fitted” to the qualitative data sets. Whereby “thinking” denotes the basic form and content of the human sciences. The form being the devising of conceptual frameworks from & for empirical evidence; the content being hypotheses about the nature of mechanisms of human experience and historical events, and thus causality; i.e. what is the causal path that leads from point A to point B, from origin to outcome? Or, as Ludwig von Mises conceived of the human sciences, the study of human plans and purposes. (Boettke, Coyne, Leeson. “Man as Machine: The Plight of 20th Century Economics.” 2003)

What are students saying about studying English literature with Essay Engineering?

“Before I learned how to read novels using Essay Engineering methods, I didn’t understand anything about literature. Now I realize this is the only way to study English literature.” (Linda, 19, New York City)

“When I look at the essays that my friends have written, I can see the obvious mistakes they make, and how they just don’t get the essential meaning of what happens in the chapter they are writing about, there’s some really important meaning that they just never saw. But for me, it’s obvious what’s going on in a chapter, because Essay Engineering teaches me how to make sense of it all, and I can write a really good essay that my teacher likes.” (Eric, 16, New York City)

But how can you study literature like it’s a lifeless, technical matter? What about the “aesthetic experience”? How can there be any experience of beauty with all this rigor and systematicity?

The rigor and systematicity of the Essay Engineering methodology is not at all contrary to the aesthetic experience of the literary work and its emotional richness – quite the contrary, the rigorous methodology’s ultimate purpose is to most clearly see the meaning of sentences, in order to most fully experience the literary work as an aesthetic artifact.

For further discussion of theoretical aspects of Essay Engineering and the “aesthetic experience” of the literary work, see the “Theory & Beauty” page on the menu above, or click here.

Where did Essay Engineering come from?

The founder of Essay Engineering combined the results-oriented pragmatism of the private sector with the intellectual sophistication of academia to develop this novel methodology and curriculum. After taking his undergraduate degree at Harvard College, he worked in investment banking in New York. He subsequently undertook graduate studies and doctoral research at Stanford University, before returning to the private sector to work in private tutoring and geopolitics research, while continuing humanities research in various subfields of history.

What else is Essay Engineering and the “qualitative algorithm for thinking” good for?

A technical manual for geopolitics research and financial markets analysis is being developed, alongside applied history studies. These volumes are part of the Square One Thinking series of titles, on the application of Essay Engineering methodologies for applied history, geopolitics, and financial markets analysis. The notion of “applied history” indicates a different scale and scope in considering history.

The first volume in the series is A History of European Political Structures: from middle ages to twentieth century; from aristocracy and democracy, to liberal democracy and illiberal ideology. This volume treats the three decisive events of twentieth-century European diplomatic history and their disjunctive break with a preceding millennia and a half of European political institutions. These events are bookended with a brief sketch of twentieth-century pre-history in the post-Rome middle ages, and in aristocratic regimes constituting the multipolar European continent of the Modern period; and with Europe’s evolution in the early 21st century, in geopolitics and continued great-power conflict alongside its defining elements of the unintended consequences of illiberal bureaucracy and the absent hegemon.

For more information see the Glaux Press publication announcement for A History of European Political Structures: from antiquity to twentieth century; from aristocracy and democracy, to liberal democracy and illiberal ideology. www.glauxpress.com/european-political-structures

A second volume will discuss quantitative and qualitative elements of financial markets analysis; as demonstrated in Fed interest-rate policy determination, credit and equity market securities pricing, etc. The purpose of these demonstrations is to provide lessons in methodology of analysis, i.e. thinking about a geopolitics or financial market topic, and drawing conclusions that bear directly upon market level expectations. These lessons can then be applied as general principles to specific analyses.

The “Essay Engineering” Manual for Troubleshooting Essay-Writing: in English Literature and History – book out summer/fall 2024.

An essay-composition handbook has been developed for students to learn the basic Essay Engineering principles where they are most needed and most useful – for completing high-school and college level essay assignments. The focus of the book’s instruction and examples is English literature. But the same principles apply equally to essay composition for all other fields in the humanities and social sciences, and appendices provide brief examples of essays for history and political science topics. This pragmatic reconceptualizing of essay composition was developed in the course of highly demanding academic training and real-world work experience, including: undergraduate studies at Harvard College and PhD research at Stanford University; investment banking, geopolitics consulting, and private tutoring in New York.

The handbook is called The “Essay Engineering” Manual for Troubleshooting Essay-Writing. This comprehensive title gives concise explanations of the nature of essay structuring and organization, and demonstrates all elements and parts of the standard essay structure with multiple detailed examples. By demonstrating exactly how each essay element is constituted and what its essential analytical function is, the Manual for Troubleshooting Essay-Writing provides complete, step-by-step guidance for both composing a high-quality first draft and revising an existing, unsuccessful first draft. Essay Engineering was developed in the course of private tutoring, and its basic principles and methods of one-on-one instruction translate naturally into effective self-study and student-guided work on major assignments.

Sign up for email notification of availability of the book excerpt & the complete manual:

The Crash Course in Essay Engineering: how to fix your English literature essay – preview book excerpt (summer/fall 2024).

In spring 2024, look for the book excerpt (on the Essay Engineering web site) that gives a “crash course” in the Essay Engineering approach to essay writing, with an excerpt from the Troubleshooting Manual. While not exhaustive, the Crash Course in Essay Engineering addresses the most pressing challenges of essay composition – namely, the Crash Course describes the basic mechanics of the paragraph for an English literature analytical essay in two parts; first, instructions for composing a paragraph from start to finish, and secondly, troubleshooting of the most common mistakes that are found in the unsatisfactory first draft. The paragraph and its constituent elements are described in detail on the “Essay Writing Manual” page on the menu above, or click here.

To receive notification by email of availability of the Crash Course book excerpt (spring 2024) and the Troubleshooting Manual (summer/fall 2024), sign up for the free Essay Engineering mailing list here: https://essayengineering.substack.com. (This is the same mailing list as the button above.)

How is high-level theory relevant to high school and college students?

As for the general relevance of Essay Engineering, students, at both secondary school and university level, can use this novel formulation of essay composition to orient themselves to the means required to not only complete their schoolwork, but to produce work of the very highest quality – of rigor, of insight, of careful analysis. The whole point of the Essay Engineering methodology is help students better understand what precisely essay composition entails and what precisely is required to complete their school assignments to the highest standard. With student mastery of the intellectual task, the most demanding and rigorous coursework can be confidently approached – a confidence stemming from a correct, complete understanding of both material and methodology. Students can reach the ultimate goal of elite-level academic capability.

What are the major elements of Essay Engineering?

Essay Engineering is a dual-purpose curriculum. First, it teaches knowledge of the Western literary canon, through representative works from all major epochs, from Classical Antiquity to Literary Modernism; the works are carefully selected to be both accessible and challenging, and to allow students to gradually work their way up to the most sophisticated, complex works of the canon. Secondly it provides a systematic and rigorous framework for analysis by teaching students how to understand the determinate meaning of the literary work, at the level of sentence, paragraph, chapter, and analysis of the complete work; students learn an evidence- and process-based methodology which is derived from the academic discipline of intellectual history (or history of ideas), which studies literary works, but otherwise has little in common with standard literary studies curricula & methodologies. For more information, see “the Humanities” page on the menu above, or click here.

How can I learn more about Essay Engineering, and how can I use it for my school assignments?

An Essay Engineering textbook series for primary school, middle school, and high school is under development and will be published at a later date. The subject matter is primarily English literature, and the major practice is of rigorous analytical essay composition. This textbook series is intended for both classroom use and self-study, and will allow students to develop from their earliest primary school lessons in reading, through the intermediate stage of middle school, and the advanced stage of high school and college. The contents of the “Essay Engineering” Manual for Troubleshooting Essay-Writing are a highly compressed version of this curriculum sequence for primary and secondary school.

The Essay Engineering textbook series for primary and secondary school will provide instruction in the academic discipline of English literature as practiced in textual analysis and essay composition –  much as textbook series in mathematics provide a sequence of instruction for primary and secondary school. The Essay Engineering textbook series begins with the very basics of semantic literacy in primary school, continuing with textual analysis in middle school and essay composition in high school. Just as mathematics textbooks begin with arithmetic in primary school, continue with fractions, decimals, percentages, exponents, irrational numbers, algebra in middle school, and then conclude with high-school level work in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus.

As described above, the first essay-writing textbook is forthcoming in 2024. The “Essay Engineering” Manual for Troubleshooting Essay-Writing will help high school and college students with both composing a high-quality first draft and revising an existing, unsuccessful first draft. . For more information, see the “Essay-Writing Manual” page on the menu above, or click here.

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