Essays are a word that all students seem to hate. As soon as a teacher mentions it you can feel the whole class sigh. It's a word associated with frustration, stress, and anger. nobody  wants to read pages on pages of writing on a bland page with no style whatsoever. What if I told you that reading a long 3-page article/essay could be entertaining? That's where I introduce the concept and the style of an online essay that goes by the name of visual essays. Some companies have already mastered the art of visual essays, like ESPN, the New York Post, and even some websites specifically focused on visual essays. This makes reading entertaining, like incorporating quizzes, moving words, interactive graphs, games, and the list goes on and on. So with all of that being said, let's take a closer look at what a visual essay really is and the steps of making one if you ever feel inspired by this article. 

 

Step one: Brainstorm/think of ideas to make your essay about sharing a story, expressing your opinion, and thinking of things that inspire you to write an essay.You can also write an opinion essay as well/ 

 

Step two: Take pictures/video drawings you made or someone else on the internet, and let you use them with their permission and make sure to cite or credit them.  (make sure that you add text or these images incorporate well in your story)

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Step three: Put it together using any software that lets you combine photos and videos. It can be as simple as Imovie. 

 

Yes, that's it; now keep in mind this is the base of visual essays, and you can easily work your way up from here. Since the best of the best visual essays have coders, designers, artists etc...  This is the starting point, and you can work your way up as you progress like any other skill. Learning a skill involves patience and practice and visual essays are no different. 

 

Now let's answer the real question and main point of this article: Are these so-called visual essays really the future of articles and writing pieces? Well, if you ask me, I say yes and here is why. First, with social media shortening people's attention spans, no one can even read a couple of paragraphs of writing. Nonetheless, I read a few pages without getting bored and deciding to take a break. Due to the fact that all social media have a jackpot type formula to where you scroll up to refresh the page waiting for something new, it is a dopamine hub.  With visual essays being so interactive, using videos, pictures, using transitions while you read through it is entertaining and makes you want to read more to see what happens next. Especially when it asks you to be a part of a survey or poll since humans love to feel when they are a part of something. If you want to see the highest level of visual essays, I recently found a website called The Pudding. No, this is not sponsored or anything, but they have some great articles, and their coding team is out of this world, setting the prime example for the modern visual essay. If you want to check them out, here is their website:https://pudding.cool/ . That said, thank you for reading this article and consider making a little visual essay if you have any extra free time. 

 

Here are some examples of my favourite visual essays:https://pudding.cool/2017/05/song-repetition/ 

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25516960/lebron-james-los-angeles-never-seen-before#!staples-center 

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/34839671/how-helmet-decals-tell-story-michigan-ohio-state