Essay Writing
An essay is a short piece of writing that generally shows the author’s view on a particular subject. There are many different kinds of essays, including narrative, descriptive, and persuasive.
Tips to Writing a Good Essay
A. Choose Your Topic
1. Your teacher may assign you a topic or ask you to choose from among a few topics. The assignment may contain certain key words that will suggest the content and structure of your essay. For example, you may be asked to analyse, argue, summarise, describe, compare/contrast e.t.c If you do not understand what you are being asked to do, ask your teacher.
2. Sometimes you might need to find a topic on your own. This can be difficult. Give yourself plenty of time to think about what you’d like to do. Ask yourself these questions.
What subject am I interested in?
What’s my most interesting topic?
What puzzles me?
3. Be sure your topic is narrow enough so that you can write about it in detail in the number of pages that you are allowed. For example, assuming you are asked to write a 1-page essay about your any of your friends, picking a particular one and writing about the qualities you like about that person is better that just writing generally about your friends. Having a narrow focus will help you write a more interesting paper.
Too general: My Friend.
Revised: My best friend.
4. Brainstorming is a useful way to let ideas you didn’t know you had come to the surface.
- Sit down with a pencil and paper, and write whatever comes into your head about your topic, no matter how confused or disorganised.
- Keep writing for a short but specific amount of time, say 3–5 minutes. Don’t stop to change what you’ve written or to correct spelling or grammar errors.
- After a few minutes, read through what you have written. You will probably throw out most of it, but some of what you’ve written may give you an idea you can develop.
B. Sort out Your Ideas
Develop an outline to organise your ideas. An outline shows your main ideas and the order in which you are going to write about them.
- Write down all the main ideas.
- List the subordinate ideas below the main ideas.
- Avoid any repetition of ideas.
C. Write a First Draft
Every essay or paper is made up of three parts:
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Introductory Paragraph
The introductory paragraph should include the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the paper: it tells the reader what the essay is about. The last sentence of this paragraph must also contain a transitional “hook” which moves the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the paper.
Body:
Body — First paragraph
The first paragraph of the body should contain the strongest argument, most significant example, cleverest illustration, or an obvious beginning point. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the “reverse hook” which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the introductory paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the second paragraph of the body.
Body
Second paragraph
The second paragraph of the body should contain the second strongest argument, second most significant example, second cleverest illustration, or an obvious follow up the first paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the first paragraph of the body. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the third paragraph of the body.
Body
Third paragraph
The third paragraph of the body should contain the weakest argument, weakest example, weakest illustration, or an obvious follow up to the second paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the second paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional concluding hook that signals the reader that this is the final major point being made in this paper. This hook also leads into the last, or concluding, paragraph.
Conclusion:
Concluding paragraph
This paragraph should include the following:
- an allusion to the pattern used in the introductory paragraph,
- a restatement of the thesis statement, using some of the original language or language that “echoes” the original language. (The restatement, however, must not be a duplicate thesis statement.)
- a summary of the three main points from the body of the paper.
- a final statement that gives the reader signals that the discussion has come to an end. (This final statement may be a “call to action” in an persuasive paper.)
D. Edit the Final Draft
- Search for indiscreet mistakes, for example, incorrectly spelled words, incorrect and erroneous punctuation and capitalization.
- Errors are harder to spot on a computer screen than on paper. If you type your paper on a computer, print out a copy to proofread. Remember, spell checkers and grammar checkers don’t always catch errors, so it is best not to rely on them too much.
Summary of Essay Writing.
Introduction Paragraph
- An attention-grabbing “hook”
- A thesis statement
- A preview of the three subtopics you will discuss in the body paragraphs.
The purpose of the introduction is to
- let the reader know what the topic is
- inform the reader about your point of view
- arouse the reader’s curiosity so that he or she will want to read about your topic
Body Paragraph
- Limit each paragraph to one main idea. (Don’t try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.) Example – First body paragraph, second body paragraph and third body paragraph, depending on how many body paragraph you wish to have.
First Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence which states the first subtopic and opens with a transition
- Supporting details or examples
- An explanation of how this example proves your thesis
Second Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence which states the second subtopic and opens with a transition
- Supporting details or examples
- An explanation of how this example proves your thesis
Third Body Paragraph
- Topic sentence which states the third subtopic and opens with a transition
- Supporting details or examples
- An explanation of how this example proves your thesis
Concluding Paragraph
- Concluding Transition, Reverse “hook,” and restatement of thesis i.e restate the main idea of the essay.
- Rephrasing main topic and subtopics.
- Global statement or call to action.
The Importance of Writing
- To communicate
- To convey a message or information with clarity
- For record keeping
- To solve problems
Characteristics of a Good Essay
A good essay is:
- Focused. The essay gets straight to the point and utilizes clear arguments. The writing doesn’t deviate from the given topic.
- Organized. The most successful writers don’t make up the essay as they go along, they must have planned the essay in notes and points. Brainstorming before writing can help. They consider the structure and the order in which they will present their points before they start to write.
- Supported. Good essays include points that can be supported by facts or by statements within the text that is being analyzed.
- Lucid. Good essays use proper grammar, syntax, concord, spelling and punctuation.
