German C2 · Genre-Specific Styles
Der Essay – C2 German Grammar
The essay
The essay (from French essai = attempt) is a free, personal and reflective form of writing. The author reflects on a topic, weighs things up, asks questions and develops their own position – without claiming the completeness of an academic paper.
Features
| feature | description |
|---|---|
| perspective | often first person: Ich frage mich, ob … (I wonder whether …) |
| stance | subjective, but argued |
| structure | free, associative, "circling" around a guiding question |
| style | sophisticated, pointed, figurative |
| rhetorical devices | rhetorical questions, metaphors, antitheses, quotations, examples |
| aim | to stimulate thought, not to prove conclusively |
Typical phrases
Opening:
- Wer hätte gedacht, dass …? (Who would have thought that …?)
- „…", schrieb einst Goethe. Doch gilt das heute noch? ("…", Goethe once wrote. But is that still true today?)
- Es gibt Fragen, die man sich erst stellt, wenn … (There are questions you only ask yourself when …)
Reflecting and weighing up:
- Man könnte einwenden, dass … (One might object that …)
- Auf den ersten Blick scheint …, bei genauerem Hinsehen jedoch … (At first glance … seems …, but on closer inspection …)
- Ist es nicht vielmehr so, dass …? (Isn't it rather the case that …?)
- Mir scheint, dass … (It seems to me that …)
Pointed conclusion:
- Vielleicht liegt die Antwort gerade darin, dass … (Perhaps the answer lies precisely in …)
- Am Ende bleibt die Frage: … (In the end the question remains: …)
- Es wäre an der Zeit, … (It's high time …)
Essay vs. argumentative essay (Erörterung)
| essay | Erörterung |
|---|---|
| subjective, first-person | objective, rather impersonal |
| free structure | fixed structure (pro – con – conclusion) |
| stylistically creative | sober, clear |
| may leave questions open | ends with a clear verdict |
Sample paragraph: Wir leben im Zeitalter der Vernetzung – und doch fühlen sich viele Menschen einsamer denn je. Ist das nicht paradox? Ich glaube, das Problem liegt nicht in der Technik selbst, sondern in unserem Umgang mit ihr. Wir sammeln Kontakte wie Briefmarken, doch echte Begegnungen werden seltener. Vielleicht sollten wir das Smartphone öfter einmal beiseitelegen. (We live in the age of connectivity – and yet many people feel lonelier than ever. Isn't that paradoxical? I believe the problem lies not in technology itself but in how we use it. We collect contacts like stamps, yet real encounters are becoming rarer. Perhaps we should put our smartphones aside more often.)