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Shakespeare might have said, “The pen is mightier than the sword”, but the pen might not always be enough to become a great writer, especially when it comes to academic writing. Students are expected to demonstrate excellent writing and communication skills for essay assignments. It might sound simple, but there is a lot that goes into writing a brilliant essay. As a beginner, the struggle of writing an essay without any help or guidance is real. If this is your first time working on essays, you must pay attention to this guide as it will guide you through the right approach.
There are different types of essays, and students must have good knowledge of them. Thus, before telling you how to write an impactful essay, take a look at all the common types of essay:
- Descriptive essays
- Narrative essays
- Expository essays
- Exclamatory essays
- Persuasive essays
Let us now take a look at the guide to make your essay writing journey easier.
The essay writing process includes three critical steps: Preparation, writing, and revision.
These three processes become the core features of essay writing. The total time and effort spent are determined by the type and level of essay you write. We will break down the steps for you.
Essay Preparation Process
You do not go headfirst to the writing part when asked to write an essay. There is a lot to prepare before starting to work on essay writing. First, you need to have a clear idea of where to focus, what ideas to be arranged, what to include, and consider the topic’s vastness.
- Understand the goal and choose a topic accordingly
Get clarity as much as possible on the goals from the person who assigns you the topic. While picking up your topic, make sure to pick a subject area that interest and captures your readers most. Also, consider the total time given to you while deciding the length of the essay.
- Do thorough research on the topic
After choosing the topic, you must conduct thorough research on the paper research topic. While researching, take detailed notes on relevant information, ideas, and any questions that you may explore further. Add citation to any information you find as the right fit for your paper must be written. Organize notes into different categories to identify specific ideas where you may want to focus.
- Create an outline
The outline will form the skeleton of your overall essay paper. It will help you maintain a logical flow. As a result, you will have a well-organized essay paper. It will become the overall blueprint of the structure of the essay. Write the thesis statement at the top, followed by a topic sentence for every paragraph that comes after. This helps you understand the exact number of paragraphs to include in the essay.
That gets us to the next step in the process, which is:
1. Write the Body Paragraph
After planning for your essay, it is time to start writing an essay. Keep the outline in mind to keep your ideas on track. By writing your body paragraphs first, you will develop the main points. Most people go for introduction first. But this way, the risk for re-writing is introduced if your ideas get changed. Even most professional essay typers will this tip to you.
- Add one idea per paragraph
Squeezing too many ideas into one paragraph is never really a good idea. Thus, to maintain clarity with the chai of thoughts and ideas, make sure to introduce each idea in one paragraph. This will ensure your essay is easy to follow.
2. Creating an Introduction
The introduction will set the tone of your overall essay. It should impact the interest of the reader and create some kind of curiosity among readers. Share some glimpse of what to expect so that they are more inclined to read the whole thing.
- Hook sentence
Readers should find your essay intriguing right from the first sentence.
It must pique their interest and curiosity. The hook sentence must be a surprising fact, an intriguing question, or a bold statement that emphasizes the relevance of the topic.
- Present background of the essay topic
It is essential to present some context to readers that help them understand your arguments. It may include background information, explain complex terms or present an overview of crucial debates on the topic. However, avoid giving away too many details.
- Add a precise thesis statement
Formulate the central argument you are going to make in the essay. It accurately signals the position on the essay topic. The thesis will summarise your entire argument, so make sure to spend a major part of your time developing your thesis. It should not be more than a sentence or two. It must answer the main question that you like to address in the essay.
3. Create an Appealing Conclusion
The concluding paragraph in your essay reminds readers about your topic statements and the main points that support the ideas you are trying to convey. Add all your supporting arguments in a concise version. Tie your thesis, arguments, and evidence together in the paragraph. It should be convincing and in favor of the main idea of your essay. Avoid adding any new discussions in your essay.
The concluding paragraph should have three critical sections:
- Restate this statement
- Summarise all your important points
- End with a strong and impactful concluding statement
The final step for writing a compelling essay is revision. One must never neglect this step if one intends to create stellar essay writing. Just a touch of modification can distinguish your essay from others. This step will include multiple times of editing followed by proofreading. Another mandatory step is plagiarism checking. Use a plagiarism checker to check for the originality of the essay. Finally, follow a specific citation style for your essay.
Summary:
Essay writing is something you need to master when you are in secondary school or college. If you are unsure how to approach our essay, make sure to use a guide for your essay. The simple guide will help you understand how to convey your paragraphs’ ideas in a readable format. On the other hand, if you require help with writing a concise essay, it is necessary to follow the step-by-step essay writing process.