Essay Genre Research Articles

Future-Oriented, Backward-Looking

The blurb for The Essay at the Limits suggests that ‘in the hands of such writers as Rebecca Solnit, Claudia Rankine, David Shields [and] Zadie Smith, the essay has re-emerged as a powerful literary form for tackling a fractious 21st-century culture’. Mario Aquilina’s selection of these popular authors indicates that he has his finger on the pulse of the essay today. Yet Aquilina, like the authors contributing to this collection, also has the ability to connect contemporary zeitgeist to the history of the essay genre. This is illustrated by the alphabetised list on the book’s back cover, which presents twentieth- and twenty-first-century essayists such as Eliot Weinberger and Audre Lorde alongside earlier practitioners such as William Hazlitt and Francis Bacon. Even Joseph Tabbi situates his forward-looking and contemporary chapter, ‘Is Writing All Over, or Just Dispersed? Digital Essayism in Trina: A Design Fiction’ (pp. 77–97), in relation to earlier essayists such as Henry David Thoreau, Michel de Montaigne, and T. S. Eliot. The ability to move between past, present, and future temporalities is a particular strength of the collection, which was carefully shaped in response to a 2019 conference titled ‘The Essay: Present Histories, Present Futures’ (p. xiv). Inspired by that conference, this collection of fifteen wide-ranging chapters endorses the paradox of looking at the past through the present and thinking about how the essay is oriented towards the future.

Popular Biobibliographic Essay (The Evolution of the Genre in RSL Publications)

The article examines the evolution of the modern genre of recommended bibliographic publications, which is clearly tracked in the publications of the Russian State Library (RSL). The author’s goal is to show how the signs that make the genre popular for modern cultural and educational activities have been formed and consolidated in the process of evolution. The relevance of the research is to identify the opportunities to use recommended bibliographic publications more effectively to promote a book to a reader. The popular biobibliographic essay has become an evolutionary pinnacle for two types of recommended bibliographic products. These are personal indexes, where information about a person is combined with information about literature (publications) plus a detailed review in the genre of «conversations about books». Both types of indexes go back to the list of recommended literature, with the creation of which in the 1920s the recommendation bibliographic activity of the RSL began. In the 1980s, in the RSL there appeared publications, which became the prototype of modern popular biobibliographic essays. The decisive influence on the formation of the genre of popular biobibliographic essay had «perestroika». The recommendation bibliography was actively engaged in navigation in the array of the most popular literature, And in parallel it turned to the little-known and hard-to-access literature. In both cases, new tasks appeared. Some authors had to be selected from the total number, while others, in fact, had to be introduced. A modern essay, accordingly, gives a comprehensive picture of life and work of the person to whom it is dedicated. It creates the image of a person, shows his (her) place in the cultural context, analyzes creativity in general, and characterizes specific book publications.

Essays of Sofia Rusova: Factors Influencing the Choice of Genre Form of Publications

Introduction. During the entire period of her creative activity, S. Rusova published about 500 publications, which are quite diverse in their genre embodiment – from scientific monographs, educational and methodological textbooks and manuals to literary and critical reviews, reviews, notes, articles, biographical, historicalethnographic and travel essays, etc. Relevance of research. Analyzing the life and creative path of the educator, it can be seen that the author’s choice of genre form for her own publications often depended on several important factors that significantly influenced this choice: the specific historical period of S. Rusova’s life, the publishing platforms with the financial support of which the works were published, the audience for which the publishing product was intended; a topic that the author sought to raise in her publications. The purpose of scientific research is to find out how the factors outlined above influenced S. Rusova’s choice of the genre form of the essay for her own publications. The object of the study was the journalistic heritage of S. Rusova, in particular, the works that corresponded to the essay genre in their form. Research methods. The main method is comparative-historical, which is used to examine social and cultural phenomena in the context of the era (mid-19th – early 20th centuries), their relationships with the history of the people, socio-political and economic life. The discursive method helped to determine the connections between a specific publication by S. Rusova and the socio-political situation in the country in a certain historical period. The methods of information selection and its classification were used to select from the entire array of S. Rusova’s journalistic heritage publications written in the essay genre and classify them according to intra-genre varieties – biographical (portrait), historical-ethnographic (problematic) and travel. A problem-thematic analysis of their content was also carried out. The methods of synthesis and generalization made it possible to draw conclusions and outline the prospects for research on a similar topic. Conclusions. Having analyzed the creative heritage of S. Rusova, we can state that the author’s journalistic, and even more so, publishing activity is often directly related to the historical and economic conditions of the time, the state of public opinion, the level of democratization of society, etc. If journalism can be influenced by emotional moments, mental state, appropriate mood, then mostly economic factors contribute to or hinder the implementation of a publishing project. Under the conditions of strict censorship, which prevailed in Right-Bank Ukraine at that time, the young, inexperienced author had to maneuver, searching for and choosing the optimal forms of presenting information. Such an “optimal form in the literary process of the 19th-20th centuries. became essays.

Literature in the meta dimensions (based on the essays of Hryhoriy Shton)

The article examines the problem of writerly self-reflection using the example of Hryhorii Shton’s self-review and self-understanding. The texts of his reviews, interviews and essays require research in order to choose the appropriate optics for the scientific understanding of artistic heritage. The relevance of the scientific study is twofold: in the historical plane, this is important in order to give a proper assessment of the literary process over the course of two thousand years, and in the theoretical plane — for the purpose of deepening and clarifying correlations between the statements of writers about literature and the artistry of their works. That is why our attention will be focused on two collections of essays by H. Shton, which will be the object, and on the phenomenon of metaliterature, which will be the subject of research. Syncretism as a distinctive stylistic feature of H. Shton’s work has already been noticed by literary critics, but the search for an answer to the problematic question of how the understanding of literature affected the author’s work has not yet been found. For this, a somewhat narrower goal should be achieved — to understand the writer’s understanding of literature, its specifics, artistic tasks, etc., using the methods of receptive aesthetics and hermeneutics. In the course of the research, it was found that self-knowledge was of primary importance for the artist, in which the writer saw an opportunity to understand the context without which it is unthinkable to consider a work of fiction. In a broad context, H. Shton also thought about the mission of literature. At first glance, fiction is a model of life, but H. Shton considered life itself on a large scale — earthly / heavenly, individual / universal. In all his considerations, the author sought to encourage the reader to expand the boundaries of their thinking, therefore he worked on his own self-improvement as an artist, advice on which we find in the texts. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the essays of H. Shton are critically analyzed in terms of metaliterature for the first time. The writer’s essays function as a mediator between the author’s philosophical principles and his work. H. Shton chose the genre of a confessional essay, so reflexivity, self-awareness, and self-awareness become the basic principles. In the future, it is appropriate to investigate literary portraits, thanks to which an assessment of the criteria for the formation of the literary canon according to H. Shton will be highlighted.

ЭССЕ КАК ПРОДУКТ УЧЕБНОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ БУДУЩЕГО СПЕЦИАЛИСТА ПО ЗАЩИТЕ ИНФОРМАЦИИ

The research provides evidence for the importance of essay as a productive form of educational activity of university students. The contradictions between the demand of society for specialists with a high intrinsic motivation, sufficient skills to create new educational and information products, the ability to form professional expert opinions and the unrealized potential of universities in the formation of these skills were revealed. The specific features of the professional activity of future specialists in information security are substantiated that require the use of the essay genre in the educational process. The purpose of the article is to define the features and pedagogical conditions for the use of essays in educational activities of future specialists in information security. The informational approach and the theory of self-determination to productive learning activities were used. The specific factors of choosing an essay as a product of the educational activity of students based on the characteristics of their future professional activities were determined. The author offers pedagogical conditions for the inclusion of essays in the educational process as a result of systematic and internally motivated educational and informational activities for the development of professional disciplines on information security. The implementation of these conditions in the educational process at the university proves the practical significance of the study.

ESSAY AS A PRIORITY GENRE OF ACADEMIC WRITING

The article is devoted to the understanding of the essay as a genre, which is of exceptional importance for the "Academic Writing" course. It is noted that the origins of the essay genre can be traced in the works of ancient authors (Plato, Isocrates, Marcus Aurelius), famous philosophers of the past (J. Addison, Voltaire, D. Diderot, H.-E. Lessing, J. Locke, O. Goldsmith, G. Frying pan, etc.). Later, the genre received its logical continuation in the work of foreign artists (H. Wells, J. Galsworthy, T.-S. Eliot, A. Camus, G. and T. Mann, J. P. Sartre, B. Shaw, etc.) and Ukrainian authors representing various literary periods and currents (Yu. Andruhovych, V. Vynnycheko, O. Honchar, I. Drach, M. Dochynets, E. Malanyuk, Yu. Lypa, U. Samchuk, T. Shevchenko, Yu. Shereh, etc.). It was determined that in the scientific discourse, an essay is traditionally understood as a prose work with an arbitrary composition, which is characterized by the fictionalization of recorded individual impressions, associations or information obtained from various fields of knowledge, an unsystematic combination of philosophical, literary-critical, popular science, and sometimes specifically scientific elements. The research emphasizes the desire of modern researchers to distinguish the meaning of the terms “essay” and “academic essay”, which is explained by practical needs, since the concepts function in different planes (fiction and teaching methods). The article focuses attention on the integration of the literary concept into the field of methodology. It has been found that in modern scientific studios, attention to the essay as a priority type of work in classes on the “Academic Writing” is increasing. This is explained by the orientation towards foreign models of the organization of the educational process. It is noted that at Sumy State University, during classes on the “Fundamentals of Academic Writing” course, studying the features of the essay genre is a priority. After acquiring theoretical knowledge, students represent creative work, thanks to which written and oral scientific communication is activated, and, therefore, the goal of the educational discipline is realized.

The Art of the Essay in Three Acts

The author relates the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas and James Joyce to the essay genre and developmental phases of student writing.

The Three-Decade Cycle of Lithuanian Prose

In the period of 1989-2020 Lithuanian literature experienced a very dynamic literary development. The aim of the article is to highlight specifics of the new cycle and to analyze the prose trends of each decade of regained independence. The author discusses the literary process more synchronically than diachronically. The first period, i.e. the transition from the Soviet regime to the new system, was especially outstanding as the censorship was eliminated, the previously banned works of deportees and resisters were legalized, the postwar émigré writers returned back to culture and opportunities for innovation opened up.The role of writer as a cultural hero diminished. Former writers loyal to the Soviet regime described this situation as crisis, while the younger generation developed postmodernist way of writing. Many works were based on the cultural and historical memory reckoning with the Soviet era. All genres underwent certain transformations, such as emergence of peculiar essay genre, spread of ego-documentaries, revival of short stories, and flourishing popular literature.Serious changes took place after 2004 when Lithuania joined the European Union, which led to economic emigration and encouraged changes in mentality and expanse of local contexts. Mobile, “transit” type of Lithuanian character emerged who changed his place of residence but felt lonely in the global world. This is a huge innovation, bearing in mind the sedentary agrarian Lithuanian culture and the confines of the iron curtain during the Soviet era. Increased quantity of published books decreased their quality.

Some Reflexions on Jan Čep’s Short Stories in Exile

This article focuses on the six short stories that the Czech writer Jan Čep wrote during his exile in France, when he fled the new Czechoslovak communist regime after 1948. These texts are as follows: Les Tziganes [The Gypsies], which was written in French and published in the journal Terre humaine in 1952, Tajemství Kláry Bendové [The Secret of Klára Benda], Před zavřenými dveřmi [In Front of the Closed Door], Ostrov Ré [Ré Island], Květnové dni [Days of May], and Tři pocestní [Three Pilgrims]. These short stories are interesting for several reasons. First of all, they present a changing point in Čep’s themes, for they take place during the more recent events – the Second World War and the arrival to power of the communist regime, – and evoke a humanity who has been destroyed. The existential drama of the individual, which had previously been predominant in Čep’s work, is now extended to the entire human community. Fear has separated people from each other, and every genuine personal relation has become impossible. What’s more, language is incapable of bringing together human beings. True communication implies a form of silence, in which God can speak to the heart of man, and where the possibility of communion with the others still exists. At the same time, Čep’s characters have to face this recent history, which obliges them to make a choice, in particular as far as exile is concerned. As a consequence, a new form of anguish appears, and is superimposed on Čep’s original one. It gives rise to a feeling of guilt over those who stayed in Czechoslovakia, especially his mother, but also confronts Čep with the inability to write, since he doesn’t manage to find a publisher in France and can no longer write in Czech. As a “pilgrim on the earth”, he endures his suffering and the suffering of the world united to Christ, in communion with Him. Eventually, these later short stories represent a transition for Čep, and reveal that he accepts, as painful as this decision can be, to abandon fiction and to engage in the genre of essay, above all for Radio Free Europe. He will thus manage to give hope to people who suffer behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, while expressing his intimate concerns in a very personal way.

Культурно-исторический хронотоп в дискурсе Д. И. Стахеева

The research objectives are as follows: to reveal the specificity of cultural-historical chronotope in D. I. Stakheyev’s discourse by the material of the travelling essay “Behind Baikal and on the Amur River”, to identify the appropriate linguistic means. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of D. I. Stakheyev’s chronotope with its basic component “road”. The road chronotope allows the narrator to create an accurate representation of the spatial-temporal events he witnessed. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that creative work of the distinctive XIX-century writer is for the first time analyzed from the viewpoint of representation of the Far Eastern cultures and economic events of the mentioned period. The research findings are as follows: the author reveals the structure and content of the cultural-historical chronotope taking into account the peculiarities of the travelling essay genre, identifies text fragments containing spatial-temporal information, singles out lexical expressive means (toponyms, dialectal words) contributing to historical colour formation.

A politikai filozófia a világjárványról

Összefoglaló. Ez a filozófiai esszé arra tesz kísérletet, hogy megpróbálja nyomon követni a világjárvány kibontakozását, a változatos védelmi stratégiákat, valamint a mégiscsak bekövetkező tragédiákat a politikai filozófia perspektívájából. Mégpedig valós időben. Az esszé abból a hipotézisből indul ki, hogy az emberiséget váratlanul érte ugyan a járvány, mégis igen gyorsan tudott reagálni (lásd az oltóanyag előállításának gyorsaságát), az egyes emberek azonban nem tudtak kilépni saját természetük korlátai közül. Ennek megfelelően a hatalom ismét elkövette a szokásos hibákat, a lázadók lázadtak, és a politika továbbra is a konfliktusok kezelésének művészete maradt. A politikával foglalkozóknak azonban kincsesbánya ez a korszak a politika természetének elemzéséhez. Summary. This paper, written in the genre of the literary essay, tries to keep track of the birth and development of the pandemic, the various defence strategies and the tragedies that took place anyhow, from the perspective of the discipline of political philosophy. Now political philosophy is not characteristically ready to react promptly to the events of the day. It has got a long term perspective, and therefore has no intention to keep an eye on the headlines of the online news portals. It has got long term debits, which cannot be easily paid back in cash. And yet the claim of the paper is that in fact we are confronted by a state of affairs when political philosophy is obliged to take note of contemporary events. And it has to try to respond to those events almost “real time” or directly. We are aware of 4 million dead, by now, which is an unacceptable number. To tackle states of emergency parliaments are usually ready to offer exceptional measures for government action, even in parliamentary democracies. Yet politicians do not necessarily want to take on board the struggle with the virus – they can easily drop it out from the issues of the day –, claiming that public health should not be politicized. Yet by leaving the stage to let professional experts make the decisions, they give up their chance to unite the camp. Statesmen can only unite their camp behind them, if they make use of the window of opportunity opened by an emergency situation, and if they are able to make use of the phobias and anxieties of everyday people, in the fashionable populist, plebeian manner. The essay analyses two basic relationships influenced by the pandemic. One is claimed to be the intergovernmental, or global scene. Here, the great and developing powers are competing with each other, through the still mostly acceptable international norms of taking advantage of inequality. The other is the inner political scene, where there is a growing distrust between the authorities and the ordinary people, fuelled by restrictions, fake news, and forms either of controlling society by illegal means, or of influencing leaders by indirect means. The last part of the essay presents three major aspects from where one can analyse the happenings: a social, a communicational and an economic perspective on its effects. The essay finishes with some cautionary, sceptical notes on human nature, in order to keep vigilance in emergency situations on the loss of balance, either internal or external, to avoid the major dangers.

THE KEY FEATURES OF THE ESSAY GENRE: MODERN COLUMNS AS A TYPE OF MEDIA ESSAY

In this study, we examined the specific features and transformations of the essay genre in the modern media space. Particular attention is paid to modern columns in the Internet media, as they combine elements of classic, literary essays.

ПРАГМАСТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЙ ХАРАКТЕР ОТНОШЕНИЙ В ЖАНРАХ ВСТУПИТЕЛЬНОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТСКОГО ЭССЕ И АКАДЕМИЧЕСКОГО ЭССЕ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ: ДИСКУРСИВНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ

The genres of English-speaking academic communication have a pragmatic orientation, which is directly dependent on its functions. It can be proved by means of a pragmastylistic analysis. The strategy of academic communication includes certain conditions for communication, the personality of communicants and the implementation of a communication plan. The article analyses the identification of communicative tactics in the genres of the admission and academic essays in modern English. In the genre of the admission essay “tactics of expression of desire and hope”, “tactics of comparison”, “tactics of self-remembering”, and some others have been distinguished. Among the communicative tactics in the texts of an academic essay we can mention “tactics of emotional impact”, “tactics of bringing examples”, etc. The basic setting of the genre of the admission essay is to try to persuade the admission committee to accept the entrant to university. In the academic essay, pragmatic attitudes are reflected in the student’s intention to demonstrate the horizons, ways of thinking, knowledge of the material, etc. The author comes to the conclusion that the units of the language are chosen by the producer of speech and depend on his intentions, conditions of communication and norms of using the language in the given genre.

«КАРМАННАЯ КНИЖКА ДЛЯ ПРИЕЗЖАЮЩИХ НА ЗИМУ В МОСКВУ» Н. И. СТРАХОВА: ПОЭТИКА САТИРЫ

“A Handbook for Winter Moscow Visitors” is an example of late Enlightenment satire. Nikolai Strakhov exposes the vices and follies of high society fops obsessed with fashion and ignoring reason. This is a usual topic of 18th-century satire. Why the “Handbook” deserves attention is mostly because of its form rather than content. Its primary source is the genre of satirical essay embodied in moral weeklies. But in comparison to essays Strakhov greatly widens the scope of his work. The book’s plot follows the calendar, embracing several months showing fops arriving to Moscow, indulging in all ways of entertainment and finally leaving for their estates in spring. For the fops, this means the whole year circle, as life in the country, out of high society, has no value for them. The satirist’s view is, however, opposite: in his opinion, fops waste all their time, as their lifestyle is nonsensical. The characters are nameless, which is a method of generalization. Narrative modes are extremely various. The major mode is a rare form of narration in the imperative, the story presented as advice to fops. The satirist recommends them to indulge in unreasonable behavior. The reader is sure to understand that such advice should not be taken seriously and must not be followed, irony being the predominant principle in the book. Advice in the imperative alternates with narration and description in the indicative. In this case the characters are often addressed in the second person or spoken of in the third person. There is also first-person narration where the author pretends to identify with the characters. The book’s syntax is characterized by parallel constructions, particularly based on anaphora.

A Corpus of Czech Essays from the Turn of the 1900s

Abstract A literary essay is an interesting unit for language analyses, as its stylistic means often exceed the boundaries of the genre of an artistic essay. The article presents a new corpus of Czech literary essays covering approximately fifty years from 1890 to 1940. Along with the characterisation of the corpus and its annotation, the paper focuses on the TxM corpus tool: In the second part of the study, we use selected texts to conduct an analysis of seven various authors through multidimensional cluster analysis, factorial correspondence analysis and a specificity score. The main parameter of the analyses was usage of parts of speech in texts by individual authors. At present, the Corpus of Czech Essays contains 40 essayist titles written by 15 authors covering various topics (music, visual arts, theatre, literature, etc.).

The originality of the author’s chronotope in essay writing of Kazakh Russian-speaking writers

The article deals with the essayism of Kazakh Russian-speaking writers. The authors note that theessay is one of the most productive genres in the expression of philosophical thought, that is, knowledgeabout the most common aspects of the world and man. The structure-forming principle of the essay isthe leading role of the author’s personality. Another, no less important feature of the style of the essayis the presence of imagery, expressiveness – that is, the expression of artistry and journalism. Anotherfeature of the essay genre is myth – making. The writer builds his own theories, creating a kind of myth,which is based on imaginary forms. In this regard, according to the authors of this article, the questionarises about the spatial and temporal boundaries of the work, the specifics of the author’s chronotope.The purpose of the article is to try to reveal the originality of the author’s chronotope in the works ofA. Zhaksylykov and B. Kairbekov. The article analyzes the features of the chronotope, the characteristicfeatures of its narrative structure. The authors of the article note that the artistic chronotope is a complexsign system, consisting of several levels and carrying certain information, which is revealed throughcodes and lexicodes.As a result of the analysis, the authors formulate conclusions that in the essayistics of Kazakh Russian-speaking writers, the category of artistic chronotope is a “set of pluralities”. Its content combinesuniversal, national, collective, and private concepts and theories of time-space. The authors of the articleclaim that B. Kairbekov’s essayism traces the clearly expressed ethno-cultural nature of images and motives.Key concepts and lexicodes of the works of A. Zhaksylykov reflect the everyday life of the East,being the most significant components of space and time.Key words: essay, chronotope, myth-making, expressiveness, concept.

Critical Thinking in Academic Writing amongst Rukwangali Students: Lecturers‘ Perspectives

This article is a part of a larger study that explored the perspectives of Rukwangali education lecturers towards Rukwangali students’ critical thinking in academic writing. The main aim is not only to bring into focus the strategies towards lecturing for critical thinking in academic writing but also to highlight some of the barriers to successful integration by Rukwangali language education students in academic writing and also to elicit perceptions that would impede Rukwangali language lecturers to lecture for critical thinking. On the basis of a critical review of literature, claims about the role of critical thinking in higher education are discussed and the synergies concerning critical thinking and academics are discussed. With the growing enthusiasm for critical thinking and academic writing in higher institutions of learning, a plethora of authors around critical thinking and academic writing have claimed that critical thinking and academic writing have a pivotal role in shaping students. Indeed, these concepts are useful for different solicitations. However, there are certain barriers that can prevent students from utilizing critical thinking in academic writing and lecturers from incorporating critical thinking in their content delivery and assessments even if the definitions and approaches exist. A qualitative design was used in the process of data collection and analysis. A purposive sample of four Rukwangali language education lecturers participated in the study. The findings of the study have led to the acknowledgement that the inability of critical thinking in academic writing by students is influenced by a combination of factors such as subject knowledge, authorial voice, the essay genre, parental education, lack of enough efforts from colleges and universities, teacher competence, nature of students, type of learning environment, organizational ethos and resources, content-driven curricula, assessment criteria, inability to translate content and language barrier. Whereas, a lack of training, lack of information, personal beliefs and preconceptions, and time constraints are singled out to be stumbling blocks for Rukwangali lecturers in implementing critical thinking strategies into their lectures. The article concludes by making recommendations that a closer look at these factors and their solutions would be beneficial in making the skill of critical thinking in academic writing more effective in mitigating the inability of students’ critical thinking in Rukwangali academic writing at Unam’s Rundu campus.

EXPRESSIVILITY IN ESSAYS - ON THE EXAMPLE OF UZBEK AND WORLD ESSAYS

In this article you will read about the requirements for the essay genre, the differences between the essay and the essay, the importance of expressiveness in the essay genre, the analysis of large-scale essays in world and Uzbek literature and press.

СВІТОГЛЯДНА ПУБЛІЦИСТИКА: ВІД ЗБІРКИ «НЕРВИ ЛАНЦЮГА» (2003) ДО ZBRUC-ЕСЕЇСТИКИ

<p><strong><em>Purpose of the study</em></strong><em>. Comparative analysis of essays by Ukrainian writers-publicists, in which the philosophical category «freedom» is investigated by literary methods (collection «Nerves of the chain», 2003); further development of the ideas of political and personal freedom formulated by the authors is investigated (the section «Discourses» of the Internet edition «Zbruc», founded in 2013).</em></p><p><strong><em>Research methodology.</em></strong><em> The texts of the collection of essays «Nevras of the chain» (2003) in thematic and semantic unity were subject to analytical research. Additionally, in order to create an appropriate context for a deeper study of the topic, the texts of the «Discourses» section of the Internet edition «Zbruc» were analyzed. In the course of the study, the following general scientific methods were used: descriptive, analysis, synthesis and generalization, which made it possible to study the retrospective and current state of the issue of the genre specificity of the essay. The semantic factors of the author's interpretations of the category «freedom» are considered in the national communicative context. </em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Results.</em></strong><em> At present, the essay genre, which has long been on the margins of journalism, is dynamically developing and is one of the most popular genres in the system of journalistic genres. Essay writing has become the most common form of journalistic writing in modern Ukraine. The genre nature of the essay presupposes an accentuated originality of thought, which does not allow works to get lost in the information space filled with texts. Analysis of modern Ukrainian essays from the collection «Nerves of the chain» (2003) and the rubric «Discourses» of the Internet edition «Zbruc» made it possible to talk about the literary and philosophical nature of these texts. Twenty-five variants of the interpretation of the theme of freedom, which are presented in the collection Nerves of the Chain (2003), are primarily due to different author's experience, differences in their social environment. Comprehension of the category of «freedom» in its correlation with the national specifics of history and modernity generates an endless discussion, which, in turn, generates new directions in the development of the eternal theme of freedom. A space of two-level dialogue is formed (writer - writer, writer - reader), in the process of which freedom of thought is brought up. </em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Novelty.</em></strong><em> An attempt was made to study the ideological evolution of the Ukrainian essay discourse. A comparative analysis of the texts of popular authors (Y. Andrukhovych, O. Zabuzhko, Y. Vinnychuk, etc.) made it possible to «construct» an inter-author dialogue in which one of the fundamental problems of Ukrainian culture is discussed - freedom. The results of the analysis make it possible to determine the «key» author's questions and permanent theses with which they go to the intellectual audience.</em></p><p><strong><em>Practical value.</em></strong><em> The results of the research can be used by journalists when writing journalistic texts on worldview issues, by teachers when developing specialized special courses.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words</em></strong><em>: journalism, essay, category «freedom», discourse, generational conflict.</em></p>

The Implementation of Flipped Classroom Approach in an Academic English Course

Since flipped classroom (FC) approach was first implemented over a decade ago, it has been gathering great momentum with more and more research conducted in different fields over the past years. As an attempt to better understand this promising new model, this study aimed to apply it in an academic English language course and examine its effects on student’s perception and the quality of their assignment together with the instructor’s self-reflection. The participants were 21 sophomores attending an academic English course (integrated reading and writing section) at a state university in Hanoi, Vietnam. Combining both quantitative data from survey and qualitative data from feedback forms together with the instructor’s reflection and analysis of students’ work, findings of the study indicated positive perception towards flipping learning mode from both the students and instructor’s perspective and the analysis of the submitted end-of-course assignments showed a good mastery of essay genres, argument development and text selection. However, synthesizing skill as well as the use of APA in-text citations and references needed more guidance and required more practice. The study also pointed out some limitations and recommendations which further research should take into consideration for a better implementation of a flipped classroom.