文章and论文 - essay

[Andy-Ru]

When I asked my teacher the difference between 文章 and 论文, as both mean essay, I got a little confused. Does anyone know a clear explanation? Are there certain situations when you would use one and not the other?

[Kenny同志]

文章 is generally a piece of writing, no matter what its nature is. It supposedly consists of hundreds of words. If it’s too short, I would call it 几句话.

论文 is usually a scholarly article on a certain subject.

[Andy-Ru]

Thanks for that Kenny, it helps a lot. :-)

[JenniferW]

My understanding is also that there's a difference in the length of the piece of writing, but also that there are differences in form, in the nature of the content - that one is a more serious, deeper, more far-reaching piece of writing than the other.

I see 文章 translated as article as well as essay, and I think that gives an indication of the range of pieces of writing it can cover - though I don't think it's the word you'd use in the context of journalism. So it would cover school essays for a range of subjects, including things in British school English you'd call a composition, not an essay. It could involve quite a bit of reading up as preparation, but it wouldn't be a piece of writing that was assessed as part of your course grade. For that, I think you talk about a 论文.

A Chinese friend told me to think of 论文 as an academic paper.

Add into this 散文 for a literary type of essay!

[tooironic]

論文 = thesis or academic paper

文章 = article

There isn't really an exact word for "essay" in Mandarin, though using 作文 or 文章 comes close.

[doraemon]

文章：article, essay

论文：dissertation (a lot more academically oriented)