Strong Satire Essay Writing Tips and Strategies

Strong Satire Essay Writing Tips and Strategies If you are wondering how to write a perfect satire essay step by step, this article is for you. We are going to explore various tips for writing a satire essay and look at some great examples to guide your interest in how to write a strong satire essay. What is a satire essay? While covering the course of Literature, you have definitely read some satirical works which were very popular in the 18th-19th centuries. The constant changes in society, from the age of industrialization to a modern era of technological advances, has brought a lot of controversies and different opinions on various topics. The term “satire” means the literal technique which helps writers to criticize and expose different phenomena through sarcasm, exaggeration, irony, hyperbole, grotesque, allegory, and parody. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, satire is “a mode of writing that exposes the failings of individuals, institutions, or societies to ridicule and scorn.” This way, a satire essay is the form of expression ridicule through those elements. It’s imperative to remember that the satire essay doesn’t aim to humiliate personalities or individuals; a satire essay is produced to show a constructive and objective criticism to bring improvement in society or change the attitude to the topic discussed. How to write a perfect satire essay? Writing satire essay doesn’t have a strict format, however, there are some general requirements to be met while outlining it. How to write a satire essay outline? Here is step by step guide about how to write a satirical essay: Make a choice. Choose the topic you want to address, whether it’s a political debate or social movements, it’s up to you to choose. Whatever you choose, ask yourself “Why?” Why do you want to discuss this problem? Why is it personally important to you? To what extent does it matter? In this way, you’ll help yourself to identify the goal and aim of your satire essay writing. Make a choice to know your goal. The format and structure of satire essay. Writing a satire essay outline will include five sections. They are introduction, body with three paragraphs, and conclusion. Introduction. Introduce your topic in the most effective way to attract readers. Start with a rhetorical question, personal anecdote, quote, or humorous story. In this part, you have to clearly state your opinion and your thesis. Explain why you chose this topic. Your goal in this section is to challenge the reader’s beliefs and evoke their emotions. Make your topic choice be relevant to your audience. Introduce three arguments to support your main claim. Body: Ethos. Describe and define the issue. Explain the importance to an audience by using satirical techniques to expose hypocrisy. Describe your first argument. Use humor and irony to reveal your personal attitude to the issue. Logos. The audience needs evidence! Introduce your second argument Employ facts and statistical analysis. Exaggeration will perfectly work in this part because by exaggerating numbers you will make an emphasis on the topic. Pathos. Emotions and feelings are very important! In the third paragraph try to evoke emotional appeal in the audience making them laugh to tears, or cry laughing. Conclusion. There is no need to imply humor or satire in this part It is a great opportunity for you to call the audience on actions. Your thesis should be restated. Propose a possible solution to the problem. This should be realistic. Tips for writing a satire essay There are several tips on how to write a good satire essay that will help you to be directed in the satirical mood, and inspire you to employ humor techniques in the most tolerant fashion: ELP. Use ethos, logos, and pathos for every argument you present to persuade the audience in your main thesis you started in the introduction part. Ethos informs people of their beliefs and issue. Logos prove the audience with facts and statistics. Pathos evokes feelings and appropriate emotions to the issue: sympathy, empathy, sadness etc. In an essay, your goal will have to persuade and convince the audience. ELP is a great technique, which you can use not only in the writing of a satire essay but also in your work, college life, to high school essays. Tolerance. You have to learn to employ satire and irony in the most tolerant way without any offensive remarks. There is the boundary between irony and offense. To know the end of each is a great art which will take years of practice and deep understanding of human psychology. Learn to integrate irony, oxymoron, understatement in the most natural and “organic” way, so that it will naturally flow in the context. Don’t make an audience distinguish between the satire and realistic argument. Counterclaims. Use counter argument as a great opportunity for you to challenge and persuade the audience. First of all, it will make readers think of you as a professional writer because you present an objective criticism, not sticking to only your opinion. Counterclaim will help you to look at the issue from the different perspective. It’s imperative for you as a writer to prove why the counterclaim will not work. Credible sources. How to write a satire essay example? Quotes, stats, and facts require credible sources. Anything you provide evidence for your sub-arguments needs a credible source. So, check your sources, cite them and present it to an audience. Learn your audience. It’s imperative to define which specific message you want the audience to get. Determine which type of audience you are trying to get: age, gender, occupation, social status etc. Moreover, you need to be ready for criticism. People have different opinions and thoughts, but you should stay true to your opinions. The reader’s interest is not in ensuring that evil is bad, but in working through the implications given by moral positions and controversies in your satire essay. The best satire essay topics How to write a satire essay topics? What is the example to look for? There is no “the best” or “the worst” essay topics to write. It’s more of how you will manage to deliver your message in the most effective way to an audience. Everything depends on you. However, here is the list of some great topics for a satire essay to start with: High rates of suicide commitments Global warming Teen depression Gender inequality The concepts of feminism The ideal image of a woman created by mass media Globalization E-government Racial discrimination LGBTQ rights Social Media Addiction The list can go forever, but these are the topics which most controversial, most important, and most relevant to the society we live in. I would like to present several great examples of satire essays before writing a satire essay. Here are some great satire novels of classical literature: Voltaire “Candide” Orwell “Animal Farm” Johnathan Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” Mark Twain “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Miguel de Cervantes “Don Quixote” Oscar Wilde “The Importance of Being Earnest” The tone of satire might vary from tolerant humor and amusement as was in the works by Horace to a bitter indignation as it can be seen in the works by Moliere, Byron, and Voltaire. If you want to read more in the form of articles and news report, here is a great example: “Fun boy banned because of three stupid dead kids”. In addition, one of the most prominent magazines that work in the sphere of humor and satire is The New Yorker, where you will find so much inspiration and great resources to explore and practice. There is a great discrepancy between the usage of satire in literature and in journalism. That’s where you need to pay a close attention to understand it properly. Satire in literature is tended to parade or imitate other genres or literary models. For example, the travel book imitated by Gulliver’s Travels, or the conversation in Horace’s Satires. In contrast, you need to pay your attention to the fact that satire essays published in magazines and newspapers have a more direct conversation with the audience. It’s important to remember that satire sharpens our moral faculties and suggests applications of our moral knowledge. Satire essay has to raise moral dilemmas and express the moral viewpoint. In conclusion, before writing the satire essay you need to know your goal, learn the target audience, and look over other people’s satire essays which inspired you. You should conduct a decent research on the topic and type of essay that you are going to cover. Do your best to find your writing style and determine what part you want to make an emphasis on, whether it’s the subject of the argument, evidence, moral dilemma, or your word choices. Use ethos, logos, and pathos in order to persuade and convince the audience in your argument. But also, remember to integrate stylistic figures with humor, oxymoron, irony, or understatement, so that you’ll be able to express your moral viewpoint.