📜 Essay as a form of self-expression: from Montaigne to neural networks 2026

When was the last time you wrote a text not for a report, not for social media, and not from a template, but simply to understand what you actually think? The essay genre is almost 450 years old, and in that time it has survived the Reformation, the Enlightenment, two world wars, the internet, and the TikTok generation. In 2026, when a neural network produces grammatically flawless text in seconds, living essay writing reads like a breath of fresh air. The ability to independently build a thought in the first person has stopped being a "nice bonus" and become a competitive advantage. According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 report, analytical thinking holds first place among key skills: seven out of ten employers call it critically important. And essayistic thinking (ask a question, gather facts, arrive at a non-obvious conclusion) trains exactly that skill.

💡 Quick overview:

• Step 1: Choose a topic that gets under your skin. A good essay cannot be written "just to get it done." The topic should trigger an emotion: surprise, disagreement, curiosity. If you don't care, the reader will care even less.
• Step 2: Formulate a question, not a thesis. Instead of "I will prove that X," ask yourself: "Why is X structured this way and not some other way?" An essay is an investigation, not a frontal argument.
• Step 3: Gather material. Even a personal essay benefits from one or two precise figures or references. Look for data in open research, industry reports, quality journalism.
• Step 4: Sketch a structure of three blocks. Introduction (context and question), main body (two to four turns of the topic with examples), conclusion (not a recap, but a new angle: what changed in your view over the course of writing).
• Step 5: Write a draft without stopping. The first pass is for getting thoughts out. No editing, no deleting, no polishing. Editing is a separate next stage.
• Step 6: Set the text aside for a day and come back. With fresh eyes you will see repetitions, weak spots, and places where the thought is not carried through to the end. Cut without mercy: if a paragraph works without that sentence, remove it.

History of the genre: how Montaigne invented thinking on paper

In 1580, the French nobleman Michel de Montaigne withdrew to the tower of his chateau and began to write. Without a plan, without a genre, without looking back at authorities. He asked himself questions and answered them honestly, sometimes painfully. That is how the Essays (Essais) were born. Encyclopedia Britannica calls this collection a work that "established a new literary form." The word essai itself translates from French as "trial," "attempt." Montaigne really was ATTEMPTING to think on paper, not knowing in advance where he would end up. He wrote about friendship, the fear of death, raising children, the cannibals of the New World, and each time he turned the topic through personal experience rather than through quoting Aristotle.

Over four and a half centuries, the genre has spread across the world more widely than any novelistic canon. George Orwell sharpened his political lens on essays (the famous "Politics and the English Language," 1946). Virginia Woolf turned essay writing into a laboratory of modernist prose. James Baldwin used the essay as a weapon against racial injustice. In the 21st century, the format migrated to blogs, Medium, Substack, and Telegram channels. According to Bestwriting data for 2026, 85.1% of content marketers use AI for writing articles, and only 5% still work entirely without AI tools. But the essence of the essay has not changed: it is still a personal attempt to work through a question, not to present a ready-made answer.

Why the essay is in demand right now: numbers you can't wave away

It would be a mistake to consider the essay a dying genre. On the contrary: data on the state of writing in the US and worldwide show that the ability to express thoughts coherently is becoming a scarcity, and therefore a value.

According to fresh literacy statistics for 2026, 54% of American adults have reading and writing skills below a sixth-grade level. Nearly 21% of the adult population is functionally illiterate: they cannot write a coherent email or fill out a basic form. The economic cost of this gap is enormous: $2.2 trillion annually is lost by the US economy due to people's inability to read and write at a level sufficient for work. For comparison, that sum exceeds the GDP of countries such as Italy or Canada.

The school system does not save the situation. The 2025 ACT profile recorded an average English score of 18.4, while the competitive threshold is 20+ and top universities require above 30. The COVID-19 pandemic made the crisis worse: English Language Arts scores dropped by 31% due to lockdowns and the disruption of in-person learning. Researchers note that remote learning deprived students of live text discussion practice, which is a key driver of writing development.

At the other pole, the explosive growth of generative AI. According to an October 2025 College Board study, 84% of high school students use generative AI for school assignments, including writing and revising essays. Among college instructors surveyed by College Board in February 2026, 74% reported that students use AI for essay writing, and 67% for paraphrasing and rewriting finished text. According to 2026 Tesify data, 56% of university students worldwide have used generative AI for at least one written assignment, and only 28% of institutions have a formal AI policy.

The paradox is that this very crisis returns the essay to its original function. When a neural network produces grammatically flawless but empty text in a second, the author's living thought (with its uneven intonation, personal experience, and honest uncertainty) reads like a breath of fresh air. In a world of automated literacy, handmade sincerity becomes a luxury good.

🎬 Essay in 15 minutes: video guide to academic writing

Before diving into the technique, watch this short video guide: twelve specific tips from an experienced instructor that work for any type of essay, from admissions to analytical:

What the essay skill really gives you: from the classroom to your paycheck

Beyond its academic and creative value, the essayistic skill has a direct, measurable impact on your career. A lawyer writing a memorandum, an entrepreneur articulating a product vision, a programmer running a technical blog, all of them are essentially doing essayistic work: building an argument, selecting facts, holding the reader's attention. In each of these situations, the winner is not the one who knows more, but the one who thinks more clearly on paper.

A College Board survey of more than 3,000 educators (February 2026) revealed an alarming but telling pattern: 88% of educators are concerned about students' overreliance on automation, and 84% believe AI reduces critical thinking and depth of engagement with course material. At the same time, 92% are concerned about plagiarism, which becomes trivial with AI tools. In other words, the industry is already registering a shortage of independent thinking and is ready to pay for it.

The gap between disciplines is especially interesting. Humanities educators (English, history, philosophy) are significantly more likely to notice students using AI and view it sharply negatively. STEM and business educators, by contrast, are more likely to use AI themselves and see it as a practical tool. This divide is not just an academic curiosity, but a market signal: those who can think without a neural network are becoming rarer and more expensive.

According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the median salary for writers and authors in the US was $72,270 in 2024, and employment in the profession is projected to grow 4% by 2034. Meanwhile, according to Tesify research, humanities and social science students who use AI thoughtfully (with substantial personal revision) show grade improvements of 0.4 to 0.5 standard deviations. Those who rely on AI without their own reworking lose an average of 0.2 SD. The difference lies in the ability to ask a question and critically evaluate the answer. Exactly what the essay teaches.

A real case: how the essayistic approach changed a career

The story of Alexey K., a software engineer from Minsk, is illustrative. Three years ago he worked as an outsourced programmer: writing code to specification, without participating in product discussions. His income was stable, but there was no career growth. Alexey started a technical blog in essay format: once every two weeks, one piece of 1,200 to 1,500 words, in which he examined an engineering problem through personal experience, industry data, and a non-obvious conclusion.

Six months later, one of his essays (an analysis of an architectural mistake in a distributed system) was cited by a major tech publication. A year later, he received an offer for a solution architect position with a salary twice his previous income. During the hiring process, the CTO said directly: "We read your blog. You don't just write code, you think about systems. You're exactly the person we need." Alexey continues to write today: according to him, the essayistic habit of formulating a problem before solving it has become his main professional tool.

This case illustrates a simple truth: the essay is not a genre for philologists. It is a tool for anyone who wants their thoughts to be noticed and paid for.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions about the essay

How is an essay different from an article?

An essay is an author's perspective and a process of reflection; an article is a presentation of facts. In an essay, "I don't know" is acceptable; in an article, it is not. An essay is valued for its tone and honesty, an article for completeness and objectivity. In practice, the boundary is blurred: a strong analytical article often uses essayistic techniques, and a good essay relies on facts.

Does an essay have to have a rigid structure?

The traditional "introduction, body, conclusion" model works, but it is not a template. Montaigne jumped from topic to topic, following the movement of his thought. The main thing is not structure, but the presence of a question and an honest attempt to answer it. If the reader feels that the author is genuinely thinking rather than imitating, the form can be anything.

Can you write essays without a literary education?

Yes, and more importantly: some of the best essayists had no formal training in literature. Orwell attended Eton but did not study literature academically. Joan Didion started as a journalist. The essay is a practicing genre: you learn to write by writing. Life experience, observation, and a willingness to ask uncomfortable questions matter more.

How often should you write to develop the skill?

The optimal regimen is one essay per week of 800 to 1,500 words. This provides enough practice for growth and enough time for reflection between pieces. The key condition: each essay must go through editing the day after the draft. Without this step, you reinforce the same mistakes instead of growing.

Can you use AI when writing an essay?

Yes, but only as an assistant, not as the author. AI is useful for finding sources, checking facts, and draft structuring. However, the final text must be yours: only you know what experience, tone, and conclusion make an essay come alive. According to Tesify data, papers written entirely by AI receive lower grades than texts where AI was used only for structure and research.

What if you feel you have nothing to say?

This is the most common misconception among beginning essayists. Everyone has something to write about: your profession, your relationship with technology, the city you live in, a decision you made five years ago. Start small: describe one incident from your life and try to understand why it happened the way it did. The essay does not require global themes; it requires an honest perspective.

Takeaways: why 2026 is the best time to start writing

The essay has survived the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the internet. Now it is being tested by artificial intelligence, and paradoxically, AI itself is becoming the best argument in favor of essay writing. When 56% of students use neural networks for written assignments, and 85.1% of marketers use them for articles, the ability to independently construct a thought becomes not just a skill, but an identifier: people read you not because you write well (a machine can do that now), but because you think interestingly (a machine cannot do that).

Montaigne began writing the Essays at 38, with no literary education. His example shows: the essay is not an elite genre for the chosen few, but a tool of inquiry available to everyone. Start with one text. Ask yourself a question you don't have a ready answer for. Gather facts. Write honestly. Set it aside for a day and reread it. You will be surprised by what you discover.