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Self-Help Guide

The Self-Help section was created by the Civil Practice Area to be a resource which addresses legal issues and questions that are commonly faced by our clients. The Legal Aid Society appreciates the high demand for its services in New York City and recognizes that it cannot represent every low-income New Yorker. Through this website, we hope to make important legal information available to all visitors a 24/7 basis. This section was created for The Legal Aid Society and its clients by students and faculty of the Columbia University School of Law, Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic.
Criminal Problems

The Criminal Practice represents people who have been arrested in New York City. The Court assigns Legal Aid to represent people after their arrest if they cannot afford to pay a private attorney. The Criminal Practice also represents people who are appealing their convictions and people who are on parole and have been arrested and charged with violating their parole.
Civil Problems

The Civil Practice represents low income families and individuals who have problems involving housing, government benefits, disability, domestic violence and family law, immigration, medical and health law, employment, homelessness and eviction, HIV/AIDS, and prisoners' rights.
Juvenile Rights

The Juvenile Rights Practice represents children who are the subject of child protective proceedings, Persons In Need of Supervision and children who are the subject of juvenile delinquency proceedings.

This resource begins with a general description of essay writing and moves to a discussion of common essay genres students may encounter across the curriculum. The four genres of essays (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. Although these genres, also known as the modes of discourse, have been criticized by some composition scholars, the Purdue OWL recognizes the wide spread use of these genres and students’ need to understand and produce these types of essays. We hope these resources will help.
Overview

The essay is a commonly assigned form of writing that every student will encounter while in academia. Therefore, it is wise for the student to become capable and comfortable with this type of writing early on in her training.

Essays can be a rewarding and challenging type of writing and are often assigned either to be done in class, which requires previous planning and practice (and a bit of creativity) on the part of the student, or as homework, which likewise demands a certain amount of preparation. Many poorly crafted essays have been produced on account of a lack of preparation and confidence. However, students can avoid the discomfort often associated with essay writing by understanding some common genres within essay writing.

Before delving into its various genres, let’s begin with a basic definition of the essay.
What is an essay?

Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere, which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.

Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.

The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting.