Paper I
of the DJS exam can be divided into two parts- General Knowledge carrying a
maximum of 100 marks and Language and Translation consisting of 150 marks.
Essay writing happens to be one of the most important topics you shall need to
focus on in your preparation for the exam as it carries a considerable number
of marks in Paper I. You will be required to write 1 essay carrying a
game-changing 50 marks and 2 short notes carrying 25 marks each. Essay writing
is a very subjective component of the exam and hence, could play an important
part in helping you clear the Mains Exam or holding you back. If the basics of
writing a good essay are understood, writing a good essay will just require
some practice.
Lets us
start with the basics and the components that you are going to be marked on:
1.
Structure- it should be coherent and
consistent. The best way to achieve this is to write the major point that you
wish to include in the essay on the side of your paper using a pencil. It helps
you avoid missing important points and also making your paper untidy due to unnecessary
cuttings.
2.
Content-
content is definitely the key to any essay and thus, when you are to choose a
topic you will be writing on, you need to carefully weigh the content your mind
has on that particular topic. Newspaper reading is a very helpful medium to
form good content.
3.
Language- contrary to popular perception,
using flowery language does not better your chances of writing a good essay.
One should use simple language to assert their point strongly and make sure the
delivery of his view point is correct.
4.
Be
solution oriented- the
fact is that everyone knows the problems but giving a solution or rather,
giving a practical solution can display great understanding of the topic.
Always write a paragraph providing solutions only and how a problem may be
tackled with.
5.
Statistics- the best way for your essay to
shine among many others is to include a few statistics that you can prepare
before hand. Make sure you have the latest statistics from an authentic source
and it would be better if you could remember the source and pen it down.
6.
Balance- balancing an essay is of
utmost importance as an essay is differentiated from an opinioned answer or a
debate. The whole idea behind including essay writing is to test a candidate’s
skill on being able to think from different perspectives and not solely voicing
his opinion vehemently. The concluding paragraph should bring out all the sides
discussed by you and then perhaps a reason as to why you think one may work
better than the others.
7.
Word limit- this
one is most often talked about and is one where people face varied problems. As
the essay is required to be around 1000 words, make sure you keep it in between
950-1100 words. In order to achieve this, you will have to analyse your
handwriting, the number of words you can fit in one line and the number of
lines per page. Once you have that information handy, make a rough sketch in
your mind about how many pages will keep you in the safe zone and accordingly
assign an approximate number of lines to each paragraph while making the rough
structure.
Well,
now that you know what constitutes a good essay, let me share with you a few
tricks that can make your essay stand out. This is the most important part of
this article, so make sure you got this covered-
1.
Start
your essay with a quote that relates to the topic- you may
think that it is a difficult task to memorize quotes related to every topic. That’s
where you are wrong. You need to strategize. There are a few scenarios for
essays that are most likely to feature in a judicial services paper. You must have quotes memorized relating to
women empowerment, environment and pollution, democracy, literacy &
education, judicial environment, justice, morality, terrorism and technology. Something
in and around these topics is most likely to make its way to the final topics. Certain
current topics of utmost importance for example, privacy, personal laws etc.
too may be prepared.
You need to understand that the
quotes you memorize must be the most basic ones dealing with the topic so that
you can use them wherever required. I ll share a few examples with you and you
can add to the list on your own:
These are just a few examples. Try to memorize one quote per day and you ll be surprised with the mass you shall possess by the Mains.
a. “Educating the
mind without educating the heart is no education at all”- Aristotle
b. “Justice will
not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who
are”- Benjamin Franklin
c. “I measure the
progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have
achieved”- B.R. Ambedkar
d. “Earth provides
enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed” – Mahatma
Gandhi
These are just a few examples. Try to memorize one quote per day and you ll be surprised with the mass you shall possess by the Mains.
2.
Include
latest Statistics- always remember that for your law papers, you
shall be required to memorized a great deal of names and section etc. and your
mind shall be burdened already. So for essay, memorize statistics that are most
common and arise from an authentic source so that it can be made use of even if the
topic remotely relates to the statistics u have prepared. For eg- literacy rate
of women in India, pendency of cases, number of cases of IT registered,
statistics on environmental degradation etc. Make sure they are the latest
statistics before your exam.
3.
Case
Laws- considering the essay is for a judicial services exam, you
can also learn and include certain common case laws. For eg- the M.C. Mehta ones, Keshavnanda Bharti,
Vishakha judgment etc. These cases can be used in any topic relating to
environment, democracy, women empowerment respectively. That’s the trick. Memorize
a few things but let them be general so that they can be used widely.
4.
Don’t take
sides- always remember never to make an essay a debate. Don’t over-criticize
one side. Give a very balanced view.
5.
Structure
your essay well- in any general essay, the structure should be
as below:
---------Introduction with any
definition if required
---------Historical background,
if any
---------Current scenario
---------The problem-criticism
---------Solution
---------Conclusion
Make sure that the bifurcation is
well noticeable. Do not merge paragraphs.
6.
Conclusion- the
concluding paragraph must sum up the entire essay and must reflect your own
point of view in a single line. Also, any practical solution suggested by you
must be highlighted and the concluding line must always be positive.
Now
that you know all these basics and tricks of the essay writing, all you need is
a little practice so that they become inherent in your writing style and I am
confident that your essay will be outstanding. Happy writing! J
