What is an Essay?
An essay is a piece of writing that talks about one subject. It can be written to try to convince people or explain things. Students are most commonly assigned a 500-word essay or a 1000 - word essay.
Essays are short pieces of writing that help students work on skills like close reading, analysis, persuasion, compare and contrast, and clarity.
Essays teach people to think critically. Essays are short and concise, so the person writing them has less room to make mistakes. The skills that people learn from writing essays help them when they have big writing assignments in the future.
Stages and Steps of Essay Writing
“How do I Write an Essay?”
There are three major stages of essay writing through which any essay writer writes an apt essay. These are further explained below.
Stage 1: Prewriting
Research, analysis, and interpretation form the basis of an essay. It can be hard for students, especially if they are just beginners. This is a guide for planning and completing an essay successfully. The following steps are followed in the prewriting stage:
1. Understanding the Requirements of the Assignment
To do well on the essay, you need to know what it is about. The requirements and instructions are also important. So, when starting an essay you need to understand the requirements thoroughly.
- Reread your essay, again and again, to see if there is anything confusing. If there is something that you need to talk about, talk to your teacher.
- You are supposed to find the purpose of the assignment, the length specification, what you need it in, and how you can submit it.
2. Selecting the Topic
It is hard to think of ideas for essays. You could brainstorm and write down things and then decide on one. Or you could try freewriting, which means writing about a topic until you find something that you want to say.
Once you decide what your idea is, you should decide the topic. Select the essay topic that is:
- Interesting for you as well as the reader
- Original and not too common
- Wide research scope
- In line with your instructor’s requirements
3. Conduct Preliminary Research
Once you have decided on your topic you need to do initial research. You can use books, journals, and websites for this. This research will help you include all the latest and relevant information in your essay.
4. Draft a Thesis Statement
When writing a college essay, you need to have a clear and strong thesis statement. It is the main argument being presented in your essay, and it is essential for a well-written essay.
5. Form an Essay Outline
An outline is a way to make writing easier. Make an outline for your essay based on the topic and research you have done.
Stage 2: Writing the Essay
When you start writing the essay, follow the outline for your essay. You can divide it into three parts: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Work on those parts one at a time.
Writing assignments can be tough to do and you need practice and creativity. The most significant aspect of writing is patience and interest. The essay should be written according to a proper format and structure.
Stage 3- Proofreading and Revising
Editing the document takes as much time as writing the first draft. Editing is done to make sure that your essay is accurate.
A few writers prefer to edit the essay as they are writing. Others choose to do the editing after they are done writing the whole essay. No matter whenever you choose to do it, consider the following tips:
- Make sure that you write everything that your outline said to write.
- Check for things like connections and transition words between paragraphs and sections.
- Each of your paragraphs should have a topic sentence according to the outline.
- The supporting details should fit the topic sentence and support it.
- Look for phrases that repeat words or sentences. If a phrase is repeating information, remove it!
- Find credible and reliable sources to provide evidence.
- Make sure that you have explained everything well so that people can follow along.
- To help the reader easily follow your essay, make sure that you use transitions to show how one idea connects to another.
Proofread your paper. Then leave it for a day or two before you finally revise it. Proofreading helps you to see the errors on the paper better.
Essay Writing Format
All essays follow a standard format of writing. This includes an introduction paragraph, some body paragraphs, and the last conclusion paragraph. The number of paragraphs in the body section vary, which determines the length of the essay.
Furthermore, the organization of the body paragraph is also very significant in determining the type and structure of the essay. The detailed essay writing format is explained ahead.
1. Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is the main argument of your essay. The main function of a thesis statement is to convey to the reader what the essay is about or what your stance on the topic is. A perfect thesis statement should be concise, coherent, and contentious.
The thesis is most likely to change as you do more research on the topic. The thesis is a guiding statement that should be used for the whole essay. Each paragraph of the essay should support this.
2. Introduction
The first paragraph of the essay is where you will introduce your topic and what it is about. It is a good idea to grab the reader's attention and provide an idea to focus on.
A complete introduction paragraph should have the following information:
- A suitable and interesting attention grabber or hook statement.
- Background information or historical information about the topic.
- A clear and concise thesis statement at the end of the introduction.
There are different ways to start an essay. These include quotes, questions, and anecdotes. They are used in different types of essays and other research papers.
3. Body Paragraphs
This is the most time-consuming part of an essay. It comes after the introduction and before the conclusion. Important information goes here.
There are at least 3 paragraphs in this part of a simple essay, but there may be more depending on what you're writing about. It helps you present evidence and personal data that you want to include in the essay.
A paragraph starts with a topic sentence that says what the paragraph is about. It should be supporting your thesis statement. The topic sentence is followed by explanations, examples, and a concluding sentence.
An impressive paragraph in the body section by incorporating the following components:
- A topic sentence that briefs the reader about the content or point being discussed in the specific paragraph.
- Supporting details that further clarify the topic sentence.
- Examples, facts, or quotes that prove your topic sentence.
- Concluding sentence that sums up your paragraph.
Body paragraphs need to have transitioned. These are words that show how one sentence relates to the next and the one before it. They also show how a paragraph relates to another one.
4. Conclusion
It is the last paragraph in an essay. It summarizes the whole essay. Writing a strong conclusion can be hard. But it does not matter what type of essay you are writing, here is how you can make a good one:
- Reiterate the points previously stated in the body paragraphs.
- Draw a conclusion of all those points and arguments.
- Relate them to the thesis statement.
- Provide future interventions.
Briefly, an essay writing format is outlined below:
Essay Writing Format
1. Introduction
- Attention grabber
- Background information
- Thesis statement
2. Body Paragraphs
- Topic sentence
- Supporting Details
- Examples
- Concluding sentence
3. Conclusion
- Reiterate the thesis statement
- Rephrased points of body paragraphs
- Future interventions
Major Types of Essay
There are different types of essays. The content and length will vary by subject, level, and course. But all essays have the same goal: to persuade readers with arguments and evidence.
Here is a list of these types of essays:
Descriptive Essay
The purpose of a descriptive essay is to make people feel like they are there with you in the story that you are narrating through the essay. You will use all of the details and descriptions to help them imagine what the story is like.
Narrative Essay
A narrative essay is an important type of academic essay. The events are written from the perspective of someone who was there. It is not always in chronological order.
When you write a narrative essay, you might think about it as storytelling. It can be based on your personal experiences and express what you learned in creative ways.
Expository Essay
A type of academic essay is an expository essay. It is based on a thorough analysis. A student investigates the topic and then presents their findings in a logical way.
The more knowledge you have about the subject, the better your argument will be. There is no room for emotions or feelings in this type of essay.
Argumentative Essay
An argumentative essay is an essay that uses evidence and examples to convince the reader to agree with the writer. While writing an argumentative essay, you need to ensure that you explain your stance thoroughly and give reasons to the reader to agree with you.
Persuasive Essay
In a persuasive essay, the writer tries to persuade the readers to believe in a subject or the writer’s stance. The writer has to prove that this is true and does their research. The writer needs to understand both sides of an argument before they write it.
Analytical Essay
An analytical essay is an explanation of something. The purpose of writing one is to explain the topic in detail so that other people can make decisions based on what they know. They are usually written about texts, processes, or ideas, but could be about anything.
Reflective Essay
A reflective essay is an essay where you talk about your life. You can also write about how you've changed or grown from the things that have happened to you. A reflective essay is different from most essays because they focus on personal experiences and don't need research.
These are the different types of essays which you should be aware of if you want to score well. This is special because the requirements of each essay type vary and it is important to write them accordingly.
Essay Writing Examples
Here are a few examples of writing an essay to help you understand better.
Essay Writing Topic Ideas
Here are some topics for essay writing that you may consider for writing your next essay:
- Should Facebook be banned?
- Reasons why smoking is not allowed in public places
- Draw a comparison between PC and MAC
- Explain the merits and demerits of dieting
- Write about the effects of earthquakes
- Write about the pros and cons of globalization
- Pros and cons of monarchy
- Are people transforming into technological zombies?
- Explain the effect of cross-cultural marriages on racial tolerance.
- Online dating - Safe or not?
Essential Essay Writing Tips
To write an essay, you need to know some tips. This is because writing an essay can be hard. You can use these tips if you want to make it easier for yourself.
- Choose an interesting topic for your essay. It will help you get people to read it. They will be curious about what you are writing.
- You should make your essay about 300-500 words. That is the most common length. You can make it a little bit longer or shorter depending on how complicated your topic is.
- In your essay, try to use simple and easy-to-understand language. If you use complicated words, readers might not understand what you have written.
- Make sure that your essay has no grammar, punctuation, spelling mistakes, or other common essay writing problems. It will confuse and distract the reader from your paper.
- Before you write your essay, you should plan it. Make an outline of your thoughts and ideas. This will help you know how to organize the paper well.
- Good writing includes the right words and sentence structure. It is good to know how to write different types sentences so that your essay is readable. Also, keep in mind the writing conventions while writing an essay.
There are many problems for students who want to write an essay. Some don't like writing essays, some lack essay writing skills, or don’t have enough time, which makes it hard to get anything done.
If you find yourself in this difficult situation, use the best essay writing service that will help you with your essay. Be it an admission essay or a term paper, a good writing service like EssayWriterNow.com can help you with all.
