This essay/article which someone linked to on Freenode's ##programming is a prime example of how you should write essays in this day and age:
http://brikis98.blogspot.in/2014/05/dont-learn-to-code-learn-to-think.html
Mainly it has:
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Many images that are often relevant.
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Short paragraphs.
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Easily skimable text.
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Many text embellishments such as bullets, itemised lists, bold, etc.
This is as opposed to a text with long paragraphs/etc.
This is not a new trend. Russians pride themselves on having the best 19th century and 20th century novelists, but even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment is much less usable and popular than those of French, British and American novelists:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
all novels that aged extremely well.
Even a large part of the Jewish Bible / Tanakh / Old Testament is extremely succinct and to the point (not sure about the so-called New Testament).
Sesame Street was accused of encouraging illiteracy and trying to sugarcoat learning, and other stuff like that, but not only did it not do that, but it improved the standard for television, cinema and the written word considerably.
Similar criticisms had been voiced about Socrates in ancient Greece, and now people say similar things about Twitter, Facebook or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic (♥!).
I however, am pretty sure that the young generation of today which receives many "bad" influences from such social media mediums and popular culture franchises, will grow and mature nicely enough. And as sexualised or violent My Little Pony, the Big Bang Theory or Game of Thrones or whatever are, they've got nothing on the Old Testament... ☺