A. Go to Quotidiana. Read two short essays such as Montaigne's "Of Thumbs," Alice Meynell's "The Rhythm of Life," etc. Choose a favorite paragraph from the essay and write it in your journal post. (Be sure to cite the source in MLA--there are examples at the end of each essay, lucky you!) Then write your own musings on a topic of your choice copying the author's style.
B. Go to Brevity Magazine and read three essays. Pay particular attention to how the author crafts a short essay. Write a short essay draft with what you learned in mind.
C. Go to the HBLL website and look up an essay in the journal Fourth Genre or River Teeth (the hardcopies of these can also be found in the periodicals section of the library: second floor). Choose an essay with an interesting title and write your own short essay with the same title. Then read the original essay.
The Father of the Essay
There is no desire more natural than that of knowledge. We try all ways that can lead us to it; where reason is wanting, we therein employ experience, more weak and cheap; but truth is so great a thing that we ought not to disdain any mediation that will guide us to it. --Michel de Montaigne