HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY: Essay Topics

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

An essay can have many purposes, but the basic struc­ture is the same no matter what. When writing an essay to it may be to argue for a particular point of view or to explain the steps necessary to complete a task. Some of the steps nec­essary to take in order to accomplish a better essay are by supporting the thesis. For example, that would be brainstorm­ing and organizing information has to be used in order to be­gin. Secondly support the thesis in the body paragraphs. Lastly when finished revise and edit by adding material. Either way, essays will have the same basic format. If following a few simple steps, an essay almost writes itself. Supplying ideas for the essay are the important part of the essay anyway.

When preparing to write an essay brainstorming for ideas that support your thesis statement is one of the few simple steps to follow in order to start the essay. Whether brainstorm­ing on a piece of paper or a few pieces of papers narrow all brainstorming down by restating what is written down or just restate what you have written down to make it sound better. Organize the ideas into an outline, keeping in mind the method or methods of paragraph development (details, examples, rea­sons, cause and effect, comparison/contrast). Using an out­line, begin a rough draft. Make sure that every sentence is directly related to the assigned topic (as stated in your thesis statement). Again, do not stray off the topic.

When writing an essay support for the thesis will appear in the body of the essay, which is the “illustrating” part of the paper. In the body, it is very important to show facts about what is going on in the essay and what point wants to be crossed. To do this examples are going to be needed. Being as specific as possible is one of the main things. Give several carefully chosen examples; provide very detailed accounts of them. If the examples are well described, it will be clear to the reader that the writer has excellent reason.

When finished with the rough copy, revise and edit it by adding, deleting, rearranging, and substituting material (use a dictionary and a thesaurus). First read the essay over slowly to yourself (or even aloud) and catch any mistakes seen. As well, correct errors in spelling (use the spell-checking feature in word processing program), capitalization, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, verb tense consistency, pronoun agreement, sentence errors, and usage. Edit out anything in the paper that seems to be going in a different direction. The paper shouldn’t contradict itself.

In conclusion essays have lots of purposes, but supply­ing ideas is what makes the essay complete. You must always remember to make sure there are smooth transitions between parts of the essay. The essay should have each paragraph fol­low from the previous one, so the whole essay flows along. There’s a simple way to do this: make the last sentence in each paragraph reflect or echo the first sentence in the next.