How to Write an Essay | Useful Tips And Tricks

An essay is a brief piece of writing or composition developed on a specific subject or theme. Students often write it to form part of their academic workload, making it essential to every student’s school life.

Here are valuable tips on how to write an essay that wins:

Stages of Essay Writing

The essay writing process consists of 3 key steps. These are the preparation process, the writing process, and the revision process. However, the time and effort spent on each process vary depending on the type of essay and its contents.

The Preparation Process

As the name suggests, the preparation process involves one getting ready for the actual essay writing. It is the most critical stage of essay writing as it lays the ground. Pay attention to the following things when preparing to write an essay;

Choose your Essay Format

Here, you need to decide on the essay format you will write. Four major essay writing formats include descriptive, persuasive, informative, and explanatory.

Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing occurs when a writer is describing a particular situation or topic. Here, the goal is to paint a picture of the event in the reader’s mind. Descriptive writing calls for the writer to pay closer attention to details in the story they are describing.

Persuasive Writing

Contrarily, persuasive writing occurs when the writer tries to influence or convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion or point of view.

Educative/ Informative Writing

Informative writing involves presenting information that the reader did not know. The writer educates the reader by passing detailed or factual information on a specific topic.

Explanatory Writing

Explanatory writing involves explaining a particular topic to the reader. It consists of the analysis and evaluation of information. Besides, it requires in-depth research and understanding of the topic on the writer’s part to interpret the said information in a manner that makes sense to the reader.

Choose the Type of Essay to Write

There are different types of essays to write, and some get their influence from the said essay format. These include persuasive writing, cause and effect, creative writing, narrative, process, expository, descriptive, compare and contrast, and the 5-paragraph essay.

Here is an elaboration of some common types of essay writing:

Story/ Narrative Writing

Judging from the name, story writing involves creating a story that can be either fictional or non-fictional. However, it follows specific instructions on formatting.

Creative Writing

Here, the writer comes up with their essay topic and style and then uses it to write an exciting story. It involves using imagination and invention to bring out real happenings.

Cause-and-effect Writing

Writing this essay involves a clear presentation ensued by a thorough analysis of the findings.

Process Writing

Process writing focuses on the step-by-step presentation of the ‘how’. The goal is to show you how to arrive at the end goal.

Analytical Writing

In academic writing, analytical writing often involves an in-depth analysis of an area or topic. An analytical essay requires critical thinking, investigation, inferences, evaluation, and factual interpretation.

Most academic writing requires you to use specific citations. These include APA style, MLA style, or Chicago/ Turabian style.

Choose a Topic

This is a time to brainstorm a topic. You are set to go if one has already been provided for you. However, if you are the one picking it, start by noting down what comes to mind then you will get to the elimination process later. This process allows you to analyze your topic deeply beforehand.

When deciding on a topic for your essay, choose one familiar to you, so you don’t run out of content later on. Also, define the purpose. Do you want to inform, describe, persuade, or explain? How deep do you want to go? Ensure all these are in check.

Do Extensive Research

Here is where you gather as much information on the topic as possible. Ask people questions, go online and research about it, read books, etc.

The Writing Process

Writing a good essay does not occur by chance. Follow the following steps to write an excellent essay:

Come up with a Thesis

Come up with a thesis statement which often is one sentence that says what the said essay will be about. The thesis statement should be specific and inviting to the reader.

Outline your Essay

Create a map or a rough sketch of how you want your essay to flow. The essay outline highlights the structure and allows for a free flow of ideas during the actual writing. It also eliminates the chances of you leaving out important points.

A proper essay outline includes the introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction highlights the hook statement, the preview of subtopics, and a thesis statement. Contrarily, the body outline highlights the topic sentence, the claim, the evidence, an explanation, and the concluding sentence.

Thereafter, the conclusion highlights a restatement of your thesis statement, a rephrasing of the main subtopics, and a closing statement.

Write your Essay

Now that you have a visual and written outline of how the actual essay writing will be, it is time to write your essay. Here are a few things to have in mind when writing your essay:

The Introduction

First, treat your introduction as your hook. It is your chance to capture the reader’s attention or lose them forever. Grab the reader’s attention and convince them to keep reading by making the first line catchy, providing appropriate background information on your topic of choice, and revealing the thesis statement.

The body of the essay

Next, the essay’s body involves you explaining and developing the key ideas of your topic. It is often the longest part of an essay and always carries weight. Ensure that your body has a clear and concise topic sentence, detailed evidence, and supporting information. It should also have clear and leading transitions from one paragraph or sentence to another and a concluding sentence that ties the evidence back to your main point, bringing that segment to a logical end.

The Conclusion

Lastly, your conclusion should summarize the essay and remind the reader of the thesis. It should also leave them with lingering final thoughts or remarks.

The Revision Process

When you are writing an essay, you often treat it as your first draft. It means that you accept that you will make some mistakes that you can correct later.

During the revision process, check for structural, grammatical, and plagiarism errors. Here is your chance to proofread and correct those typos, font type and size, misplaced punctuation marks, and spelling mistakes. Also, ensure that the transitions are free-flowing and lead to the following sentence or paragraph.

Go through your essay one more time to ensure everything makes sense before submitting your essay.

Conclusion

Writing an essay requires you to plan for the actual writing beforehand. Ensure that you pick the suitable essay format and topic and do extensive research before coming up with an outline. Once done writing, read through, check, and rectify possible errors like grammatical and structural mistakes before submitting your final copy of the essay.

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