Today you’re going to learn how to write an essay step by step.
In fact, this guide includes simple tips that you can use write now to create a perfect copy of your essay in less than a week.
It’s important to understand that the ability to write a good academic essay, such as a theory of knowledge essay, is an important skill for university and college students like you. This skill will continue to be of immense importance if you aim to proceed into an academic career.
And even if you want to pursue a career in a field that requires analytical or persuasive writing, you’ll appreciate nurturing strong writing skills.
Writing a proper essay requires that you start by carefully sticking to any assigned instructions. Use good reputable sources to research your topic before you can start writing.
Make sure your essay is organized clearly and your arguments supported with strong evidence and examples. After making a rough draft of your essay, go over your essay to ensure that you hand in a tidy piece of work.
How to Write a Good Essay Without Trying So Hard
Here is a blow-by-blow guide on how to write a killer essay:
1. Pre-writing
You cannot just start writing your essay from off of the top of your head. A lot of detailed planning and research will be required to make the process flawless. And that’s why pre-writing is the first and the most important step to focus on.
So here are things you need to do before you move to the writing stage:
Read the Instructions Carefully
Make sure you properly understand what your task is before you start writing. This will enable you to determine if there are any special rules that you should follow.
Read your assignment and figure out what you need. Use the tips below:
The key takeaway here is that you should understand the question first, and then you can proceed to writing.
Check if the Essay Requires Special Formatting
Check the assignment to ensure that you know the formatting guidelines that the essay demands.
Some of the things you want to pay attention to include line spacing, font size, the total length of the essay whether in words, paragraphs or pages, cover page requirements, page numbers, and headings.
Research Your Topic
Research is an important part of writing a successful essay.
Fortunately, your school library has resources that you can take advantage of right away. Finding good sources is extremely important in writing an academic essay.
Visit your library’s website and search for keywords that are relevant to your topic. Another option includes using digital scholarly resources such as JSTOR, Google Scholar, WorldCat, and Research Gate.
Choose Suitable Sources
Use well-sourced, reputable, and up-to-date sources. Most sources you use should have been published between 5-10 years ago.
Don’t hesitate to use peer-reviewed articles, scholarly books, and even articles from respectable news organizations. Try as much as possible to avoid user-edited websites and popular publications such as Wikipedia.
Read Your Sources Critically
Just because you’ll get information from a reliable source doesn’t automatically make it correct. So you should ask yourself the following questions when doing your research.
Use Primary Sources, Where Applicable
A primary source refers to any direct evidence or first-hand information about your topic.
It could be something like data from a lab experiment, an eyewitness interview, or a historical document such as a work of art, monument, or memoir.
Carefully Evaluate Your Sources
There is no doubt that the internet offers a huge database of useful information that researchers can rely on. But separating good-quality sources from crappy ones isn’t always easy.
The rule of thumb is to use sources published on scholarly websites, by respectable news organizations, or by government agencies
2. Writing
Writing a good essay that will grab the attention of your instructor is simply a three-step process that focuses on an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
Let’s look at each section, one at a time.
a). The Introduction
The role of the introduction is to grab the attention of your reader and also to offer a brief explanation of what you’ll be talking about in the essay.
Generally, the introduction accounts for 10-20 of your whole text. Here are some of the tips for writing a great introduction:
Provide Background and Context on Your Topic
Once you’ve hooked in your reader, offer context that makes it easy for them to understand your argument.
It might mean providing a summary of academic work, debates on the topic, or providing background information.
However, avoid cluttering your introduction with too much detail. You can preserve that for the body.
Define the Objective and Write a Thesis Statement
The thesis is your central argument. And is the most critical part of the essay.
A thesis statement shows your position on the subject matter. It can be one or two sentences long. It gives you an opportunity to explain clearly and concisely the main arguments you will be making in your essay.
Provide a Roadmap of the Essay
Conclude the introduction with an overview of the essay structure. This will give the reader an idea of what each section will cover.
b) The Body of the Essay
The body of the essay gives you an opportunity to make arguments to support your thesis statement, substantiate your arguments, and build upon your ideas.
The central purpose of the body is to present, analyze, and interpret the information and sources you have put together in support of your argument.
Length of the Body Text
This usually depends on the essay type you are writing. The body constitutes 60-80% of your essay.
It could be as little as three paragraphs in case of a high school paper. However, a graduate school essay can be as long as 10 pages.
Paragraph Structure
Paragraphs and headings help to give your work a clear structure. It also makes your content easy to scan and digest. Normally, each paragraph contains one idea or argument.
Introduce the purpose of a paragraph using a topic sentence. This not only forms a transition from the previous paragraph but also introduces the main argument in the paragraph. Use connectors to create seamless transitions between sentences.
Next, present evidence via examples, data, or quotes. Make sure you interpret and expand the evidence, as well as show the role the paragraph plays in developing your overall argument.
c). Writing the Conclusion
Having presented your arguments and supported them with evidence, the next thing is to tie everything together using a concise summary.
Confidently and clearly, state why you believe your argument has supported your thesis successfully.
Summarize the important points or things you have discovered. Also, if you have final thoughts, like questions that still require answering or further reading ideas, you can state them here.
Don’t just summarize what you already wrote in the introduction. Use one or two sentences to reflect on the importance of your argument as well as how it might affect future studies on this topic.
3. Revision
The revision work doesn’t just aim at correcting grammatical errors. This is the time to review the organization of your work, check each paragraph’s content, and proofread your work for grammar and spelling errors.
Moreover, you want to ensure that your work isn’t copied from someone else’s by checking for plagiarism.
Another important thing is to ask someone to check your work for you. Two sets of eyes are obviously better than one pair when it comes to the revision of your work.
Talk to your friend, classmate, or a family member to go through your work before you submit it. Since they didn’t write it, they are likely to catch errors you may have missed.
Final Thought on How to Write a Good Essay
An essay is an important part of activities in colleges and universities. And you’ll be called upon more than a couple times to write it.
This is why it’s important that you master how to write a perfect essay without trying so hard.
Before beginning to write your essay, you need to understand the most important details of the task. This will enable you to know the approach that you need to take to make the essay the best it can be.