Talk:essay

isn't an essay also a short publication? -- polyglot


 * We had to write many essays in high school and none of mine were ever published (: &mdash; Hippietrail 05:44, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

According to Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English and acewriters essay means either a short piece of writing on a particular topic by a student as a part of a course or a short piece giving someone's ideas on politics, society, etc. And both can be either published or unpublished. Actually, I think being published has nothing much to do with the meaning of 'essay'