How to write an essay: expert guidelines for beginners
6 Tips for Those Who Want to Know How to Write an Essay
If you do not know how to write an essay, your studying is going to be complicated as this task will be your regular challenge. What you need to do is craft a perfect statement and then compose a good argument on a particular opinion or topic. Do you feel that you are already good at that? If you are still hesitant, try not to postpone your learning as all your future classes will demand more and more essay writing. Our experienced and qualified writers from the best service have decided to help you learn. So, we have a great action plan for you that can help you learn step by step and get to your desired goal. Mastering it, you may easily cope with your research papers, essays, scholarship papers, and other types of writing.
Professional Guide on Essay Writing
1. Getting Ready
Write down the first sentence of your essay only after you have decided which ideas you are going to develop and how you are planning to do that. These are key steps to write an essay that you can use for your preparation:
- Gain an insight into your task: Have you understood which goal you want to achieve? How long should your paper be? What is the exact deadline for submission? Do you need any clarifications from your professor?
- Be specific about the topic: If you have not got a definite topic from your professor, you can choose it yourself. So, you need to select the area you are knowledgeable about. It should be interesting for you to continue your research in this direction.
- Do research: Ensure that you have read a considerable number of primary and secondary sources. Get the evidence you need to support your arguments, taking notes from your readings.
- Develop a good thesis: Consider that it is the key argument for your paper. Your essay may be focused only if you have managed to make a solid thesis to refer to it in every of your claims and arguments.
You should be ready to start writing only after you have decided on the idea to present. Also, you should be aware of the order of giving your arguments, and the evidence you are going to use to support your ideas.
2. Making the Structure of the Essay Clear
While planning your future work, try to focus on the structure of your future essay. You can think of it as of a speech that requires a logical flow. Thus, you need to compose a text with the issues that could give a reasonable answer to the asked question. Try to start with the basics. You should develop a few main paragraphs in the body of your essay. So, try to figure out which ideas you could use for those parts. An exam essay does not need more than three key paragraphs as you maydoubtfully write more within the limited exam time.
Use the following pattern of organizing your ideas:
– if you agree with the question: YES (you agree) – AND (you add one more ‘YES’ point) – BUT (you disagree or make the matter more complicated)
– if you disagree with the question: YES – BUT – AND.
This pattern can make sure that you are focused on the main idea, and it does not let you get away from it.
If that is not an exam essay and you are not limited in time, you can include some extra paragraphs into your writing under the category ‘YES/AND.’ It is possible to add some ‘BUT’ paragraphs to make the essay longer.
There is no universal approach to answering the essay questions. Consider that the key thing is to give a solid back-up to the issues with textual evidence and take the standpoint that could impress the audience of your writing.
3. Working on an Introduction
It is time to get focused on writing. Grab the attention of your potential readers from the first words of your paper. Lead them into the thesis, having made a solid set-up for the issue. View your introductory paragraph as an effective build-up of the raised problem or an important stage that could bring your audience into the essay arguments.
Do not disregard the importance of the first paragraph. Mind the title as it is also one of the most essential elements of your writing. This is the aspect which determines whether you gain the interest of your readers or you lose it completely. If your only reader is your professor, he or she reads throughout the essay no matter whether it excites his or her interest. What you do is getting ready for real-life writing, in which your readers only glance at the title to decide whether they want to read on.
4. Writing the Body
You develop your main arguments and build-up your story in the body paragraphs. Having finalized your work, you can go on making notes. After then, you may choose the most relevant aspects and highlight them as your outline.
Take a new page and write down three main ideas you have chosen. Now, it is high time to go through the notes and decide on the supporting arguments and ideas. It is not necessary to use more than three for each of the paragraphs.
Now think about each of the aspects and devote a separate paragraph to each of them. Use the information you have collected in your notes. Do extra research if you realize that some of the paragraphs need more evidence. Check on the requirement on the number of sources. It is always sound to use a few more of them than to take fewer.
5. Making an Effective Conclusion
Now you are ready to work on the final part of your essay. Your conclusion lets you finalize your writing with valuable insights. So, it is smart of you to get back to the main goal of your writing to remind your readers about it. Restate your thesis and check whether your essay is entirely focused on the main points.
Give a note of some fresh understanding to your thesis. You cannot just copy-paste it from the initial paragraph without any paraphrasing. Now, it is time to refer to the supporting aspects again. Wrap them up, getting back to every argument of your work and highlight the importance of all the included ideas in brief.
Use your intuition to make the conclusion of your paper impressive. The nature of writing in this part depends on the required length of the assignment; so, try to avoid turning your conclusion into a summary. View your conclusion as an attempt to convey the entire sense of closing the topic. Give it a larger meaning and open up all opportunities this topic grants.
6. Draft editing
What you have written so far is not the final work to submit. It is the first draft that still requires more editing and reviewing the ideas. Do the proofreading. Check on the requirements for the format and general structure again and ensure that you have met the standards. Check whether you have introduced the strongest points in the initial paragraphs and the final part of your paper. The central body paragraphs should contain less important ideas.
Make sure that the paragraphs flow and the sentences make sense, while rereading the paper. Make corrections in punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Delete all kinds of irrelevancies. Change the words if you understand that you can present the ideas smarter with less or more sophisticated vocabulary. After you have double checked on the appropriate word count of your paper, you are ready to submit your final draft.
Things to Avoid in Your Essay
Those students, who are unsure how to write an essay, tend to make numerous mistakes in their writing. One of the most common mistakes is using contractions. If you write ‘wanna’ and ‘gonna’ instead of ‘want to’ or going to,’ the teacher may understand the idea but reduce the score for grammar. The students use slang words, which are not appropriate for academic writing at all. In using them, you give your readers an idea that you lack literacy skills or take not a serious approach to your tasks.
Avoid using the pronoun “I” as it makes the spectrum of an essay narrower and your writing non-academic. Your sweeping statements and exaggeration are not good for essay writing as well. The best way is to present the facts and solid arguments without any assumptions, unless they are needed following the instructions.
It is not that tough to work on the essays. The most important thing is to structure your ideas and present them in clearly divided paragraphs focused on a single issue. Ensure that your work demonstrates logical progression and your argument support the thesis throughout the text. All that may help your readers get a clear understanding of your viewpoint of the covered question.
