Ebook: Model Expansions - The Students' Guide to Creative Writing

Model Expansions by Ananta Charan Sukla

Expansion: What is it and how to write it

Expansion means detailed explanation of an idea with illustrations and examples. It means amplification. The ideas given are generally moral maxims or epigrammatic expressions.

In amplifying one should:

• Read it with care and find out its inner meaning.
• Write the literal meaning first in a few words, then the inner meaning.
• Exemplify it with appropriate illustrations showing especially its application to human life.
• Try to use the exact number of words asked. Schools and colleges have fixed 150 words with a margin of 5-10 words.
• Make the paragraphs compact, the lines of which must be coherent.
• Recapitulate the whole thought in the last one or two lines.
• Take care of grammatical and spelling mistakes.
• Do not try to comment upon the idea simply expand it showing its wide or narrow application.

Ananta Charan Shukla (6 Nov 1942-30 Sep 2020) was an eminent literary critic, aesthetician, and philosopher of art, religion, and language. He retired as a Professor of English from Sambalpur University in 2002. He had an MA degree in three subjects – English, Philosophy, and Sanskrit – and earned his PhD in comparative literature from Jadavpur University. He was a comparative literary scholar of global repute. He specialized in comparative aesthetics (Sanskrit and Western). He founded Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute and the "Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics" in 1977 to promote studies and research in comparative philosophy and edited and published the journal single-handedly for 40 years. His works have been published by Praeger, Bloomsbury, Brill, Rubbettino, Rupa, and Sahitya Akademi. His books “The Concept of Imitation in Greek and Indian Aesthetics” (1974) and "Contemporary Indian Aesthetics" (1994) are seminal works in the field. His edited volumes "Art and Representation" (2001), "Art and Experience" (2002), "Art and Essence" (2003), "Art and Expression" (2011), "Fiction and Art" (2015), and "Imagination and Art" (2020) are a solid contribution in the area. His monograph "Classical Indian Tradition and the Philosophy of Art: Essays in Comparative Aesthetics and Literary Theory" (2016) is taught in Indian universities. He was a visiting professor at the Universities of Liverpool, Cambridge, Cardiff, Lampeter, Uppsala, Siena, and Helsinki. He was also a noted translator and had translated Aristotle's "Poetics" and some Greek plays into Oriya. He had also published short stories and poetry collections in Oriya. He had also translated into Oriya select songs of Rabindranath Tagore and Bhupen Hazarika which were recorded and released in the form of studio albums.