The final essay on literature in 2020: topics, directions

In December, graduates of 11th grades write a final essay on literature, which will become an admission to the USE in 2020 and it is time to discuss what new directions and topics this time are proposed by FIPI experts.

Recall that in 2019-2020, the first test for graduates will take place December 4th.

Those who will not be able to cope with the task on the first try, or who will be absent on the indicated day for a good reason, will be able to write an essay on reserve days:

• February 5, 2020;
• May 6, 2020.

Exam format

Graduates write the December essay on the basis of their educational institutions. The topics for the final essay for the 2019-2020 school year will be announced when all students take their places in the classroom. As a rule, this happens 15 minutes before the time begins immediately.

For writing work 11-graders will be given 3 hours 55 minutes.

Examiners will be offered a choice of 5 topics (in one of each direction):

1. War and peace (the direction is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the great work of Leo Tolstoy);
2. Hope and despair;
3. Good and evil;
4. Pride and humility;
5. He and she.

Many experts believe that the direction devoted to the novel "War and Peace" is a real gift for graduates who are not too lazy to read this work.

Important! There are no cardinal innovations in the requirements for how the final essay of 2020 should be written, but it is worth considering that the innovations adopted last year remain relevant.

Particular attention should be paid to such points:

1. The minimum amount of text for all directions is 250 words, but experts recommend writing at least 350.
2. The composition should correspond to the chosen topic (you cannot substitute a given topic with another one that is close in meaning).
3. It is necessary to write based on literary material.
4. The text should contain not only dry arguments, but also the personal opinion of the author, his attitude to the problem, and conclusions.

If at least the first 3 points are met, you can count on a “set-off”!

For more information about how you need and, importantly, how you don’t need to write an essay on literature to access the USE 2020 (regardless of the chosen topic), see the video tutorial:

Themes and Directions

In order to cope with the first test of the 2019-2020 exam marathon, experienced teachers recommend that you carefully study all possible topics of the final essay. But, if you understand that you do not have time to prepare well in all five areas, select the two closest and most understandable, and get the most out of it.

Why exactly two? Everything is simple - within each of the areas there are both simple and easy topics, as well as more complex ones with “pitfalls”. If you prepare purposefully in one direction, it is possible that it will not be the most successful topic, but there will be no choice.

So, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the directions and topics that 11-graders can meet in the 2019-2020 exam, as well as a list of references that experts recommend considering as sources of arguments for the final essay.

good and evil

The analysis of topics we do not accidentally begin this particular direction. If you are looking for the simplest way possible, then reasoning about good and evil is your option.

Everything is simple - in almost every literary work, large or small, by a pen of a domestic or foreign author, the problems of the struggle between good and evil are raised. And this means that picking up the arguments will be as simple as possible.

Among the topics of this direction, which can be submitted to the final essay of 2020, are presented:

1. What is good?
2. Is good an objective or subjective concept?
3. Are they born or become good?
4. Why will the theme of good and evil forever excite humanity?
5. Why mankind still can not give up evil and cruelty?
6. How to learn to forgive the evil done to you by others?
7. What role can evil play in a person’s fate?
8. Can evil help a person understand himself?
9. Can evil be justified?
10. Is evil always committed intentionally?
11. Can evil people do good deeds?
12. Why is the older generation so rarely appreciating the good deeds of youth?
13. Are there among the heroes of Russian literature those who possessed boundless kindness?
14. Good truth Sonya Marmeladova: what does it consist of?
15. How Dostoevsky reveals the problem of good and evil in the pages of his works (for 1-2 works).
16. Does evil article by the hero of the novel Crime and Punishment by F. Dostoevsky Rodion Raskolnikov preach evil?
17. As you understand the meaning of the phrase: "Atrocities wear many masks, and the most dangerous is the mask of virtue."
18. Do you agree with Socrates that "the highest wisdom is to distinguish between good and evil"?
19. Do you agree with the statement: “The triumph of evil is the inaction of a good man”?
20. Do you agree with the words of W. Shakespeare "through evil do not reach good?"

The following works can be used as a source of arguments:

For more information on what to pay attention to those who choose the direction of Good and Evil, see the online lesson:

Hope and despair

If you are closer to the areas in which you can talk about the psychological portraits of heroes and analyze their behavior, train in the 2019-2020 season to write a final essay on the following topics:

1. What is hope?
2. Are there hopes in vain?
3. Losing hope means giving up?
4. What are empty hopes?
5. Why hope in nature can be wasteful.
6. Do you agree with the statement of Alexander Dumas the father: “All the wisdom of life is in two words: to wait and hope”?
7. Can a person who does not understand the causes of evil despair?
8. Is it possible to call despair the moment when it seems to a person that the whole world is crumbling.
9. Anyone who has lost a loved one should not fall into despair.
10. How to overcome despair?
11. Do you agree with the statement of Immanuel Kant: “From empty hopes a person dries”?
12. If you knew that despair and hope are the path to the same goal, what would you choose?
13. Was the ancient Greek philosopher Plato right when he asserted: “Hopes are dreams of the waking ones”?
14. Do you agree with the statement of Bernard Shaw: “He who never hoped cannot despair”?
15. Do you agree with the statement of Albert Camus: "True despair always leads either to difficult feelings or to inaction"?
16. How do you understand the words of I. Kant: “From empty hopes a person dries”?
17. Do you agree with the statement of Bernard Shaw: “He who never hoped cannot despair”?
18. How do you understand the words of V. Hugo: “Hope would be the greatest of the forces of the human soul if there were no despair”?
19. Do you really need to rely only on yourself?
20. Do you agree with I. Goethe that “hope is always better than despair”?

During the study of these topics, you can rely on the texts of the works:

You can find more tips on writing an essay in the direction “Hope and Despair” in the video tutorial:

Pride and humility

Another interesting area in which FIPI can offer many interesting topics, both understandable and affordable, and relatively complex, in which it will be easy to make mistakes.

In this direction, for essays on literature in the 2019-2020 academic year, experts suggest the following topics for careful study:

1. Pride and pride: what is the difference?
2. What does it mean to be proud?
3. Is pride a positive or negative quality?
4. What is pride in the homeland?
5. Which person is called proud?
6. Do you agree that pride is the ability to move forward no matter what?
7. Does humility help me understand myself?
8. When can humility be unjustified?
9. Does pride or humility enrich a person?
10. What is the difference between pride and humility?
11. The hero of the novel by M. Lermontov “Hero of our time” Grigory Pechorin said: “Pleasures have disgusted me, society has also bothered me ... love only irritated my vanity, but my heart was empty ...”. Do these words characterize him as a proud person?
12. Do you agree with the statement: “Pride as a manifestation of egoism, narcissism, prevents a person from being happy.”
13. How was Larra, the hero of the story of Maxim Gorky, punished?
14. Does a person need to come to terms with fate?
15. What is humility?
16. Can pride harm a person?
17. Comment on the statement of L. Vovenarg: "Pride is the comforter of the weak."
18. How do you understand the words of F. Bacon “Pride is deprived of the best quality of vices - it is unable to hide”?
19. Can it be argued that it makes no sense to extol the humble and meek, because when they are extolled, they cease to be humble and meek?
20. What is the connection between pride and selfishness?

Indeed, many of the topics suggested may seem difficult for an 11th grader. But, if you understand the concepts of "pride" and "humility" in more detail, you can find many examples for argumentation on the pages of such literary works as:

For more information about what is interesting in this area and what works are worth reading in the first place, see the detailed video analysis:

He and she

In this direction, social and personal relationships between a man and a woman will be affected: love, friendship, spiritual connection, betrayal, betrayal, mutual rejection, conflicts. The explanations to the directions also stipulate that the topic may affect not only the relations between the sexes, but also the relations between generations (in particular, children and parents).

As preparation in this area, you can use the topics that were proposed in 2015-2016 as part of the direction of "love". But, it is worth paying attention specifically to topics affecting relations between the sexes, which is as close as possible to the direction proposed in 2020 for the final essay.

Also, experts recommend preparing material for argumentation in advance on such topics:

1. Why is it important to be able to control your emotions in relationships with the opposite sex?
2. Is there a friendship between a man and a woman?
3. Should compromises be sought in relationships with the opposite sex?
4. What can you sacrifice for a loved one?
5. What mistakes can a loved one warn us?
6. When love does not bring joy and satisfaction?
7. When can you forgive a betrayal of love?
8. Is it easy to be loved?
9. Better to be alone or in a pair?
10. Is it true that from love to hate is one step?
11. What is more important in a relationship: love, friendship or mutual understanding?
12. What moral standards govern the relationship between a man and a woman?
13. What is important to win in yourself in order to build an ideal relationship with the opposite sex?
14. Do you agree with Leo Tolstoy’s statement: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”?
15. Is it easy to be loved?
16. Why is the relationship between a man and a woman terminated?
17. Can a man and a woman be together, not loving each other?
18. What is most important in relationships with the opposite sex?
19. Should there be rules in the relationship between a man and a woman?

Educators recommend looking for examples and arguments in such works:

For more information about what features of this direction it takes to take into account and what to pay attention to first, practicing writing the final essay 2019-2020 on the topics of the He and She block, see the video tutorial:

War and Peace

Graduates who choose this direction will have to disassemble the work in as much detail as possible. In the comments published on the FIPI website it is stated that topics related to the novel “War and Peace” will make the examinees comprehend the most important historical and moral-philosophical lessons presented by the author. Most likely, the proposed topics will also require reflection on the eternal, difficult relationship between the characters, as well as on the ambiguity of the concepts of “war” and “peace”.

Here are just a few of the possible topics:

1. “War and Peace” as an epic novel.
2. What problems in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” are most interesting to you?
3. Do you agree with the statement of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya: “... one must be condescending to small weaknesses; who do not have them ... ".
4. The moral quest path of Andrei Bolkonsky Pierre Bezukhov.
5. Leo Tolstoy: “I tried to write the history of the people,” do you agree with the statement of the author of the epic novel?
6. What is the work of L.N. Tolstoy may be interesting to the modern reader? (Based on the novel "War and Peace")
7. Features of psychological analysis in the novel "War and Peace."
8. Moscow and Petersburg in the image of Tolstoy in the novel War and Peace.
9. Realism of Tolstoy in the image of war in the novel "War and Peace."
10. Do you agree with the opinion: “War and Peace” is the greatest bestseller, regularly read, reprinted, screened and provoked controversy and various interpretations even a century and a half after the first publication.

We also recommend that you look for tutoring tips:

Conclusion

In fact, you should not be afraid of the first test, because getting a “credit” is not at all difficult. The main thing is to familiarize yourself with the requirements that put forward the methodological recommendations for the final essay, compiled for 2019-2020, and read the literary minimum, first of all, turning to universal works, in which you can find a lot of arguments for a variety of directions.

Which of the works can be classified as universal, see the video tutorial of an experienced tutor:

Read also:

• The scale for the transfer of exam points in assessment
• ICSC: monitoring and diagnostics in 2019-2020
• The USE 2020 Paronyms: List and Meaning

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