I haven’t written essays since high school. That was 45 years ago. Since then, I’ve experimented with fiction and poetry. My observation skills are non-existent, because of my vision impairment. This would explain my lack of interest in and aptitude for narration and description.

I’ve been told that I have a gift for teaching and I’ve written some technical manuals while working for Statistics Canada that were well-received by my colleagues. I’ve a strong interest in truth, logic, argument structure and critical thinking. Based on this, expository and persuasive essays would be my best fit.

Last year when I first became interested in blogging, I thought blog posts were a new type of essay. When I googled “why write”, I found and read quite a few posts. Each had something unique, along with a repetition of what all the others said. It’s an effortless task to gather these reasons in a single post. Coming up with reasons to write that aren’t in any of those posts would be difficult, if not impossible. There are only so many reasons people write. So what can I add that’s unique?

Beyond a college degree in accounting, I’ve no other education. Some topics require a high level of education and very specialized knowledge to even understand some posts, much less add to the conversation. I’ve tried reading some on neuroscience and others on philosophy. I don’t have any background in either of these. I did well in languages but was a dismal failure in science during high school.

In your example about lowering the drinking age, I could read every article available on the topic on both sides of the issue. I’d probably not have any trouble understanding all the points made, but I can’t imagine having anything new to say. On pretty much every topic there is, hasn’t everything already been said by someone else already? How would I even start coming up with something unique that would “add to or advance the conversation”?

It would take lots of research to find out what others are saying. I could list each of these points and state why I agree or disagree with each one. But what I say wouldn’t be unique because other people will have also agreed and disagreed with the same points and for the same reasons. Even if I made a claim that was controversial and reasonable, it wouldn’t be unique because someone else has probably made that exact claim before.

Thank you for your mention of Toulin logic. I found some videos about it on YouTube and look forward to exploring it further. When I write something, I often do a mind map even before a first draft. In Chapter 2 of “Writing the Natural Way”. the author suggests “clustering” before writing.