Whatever reason you are writing your paper, you always have to make sure you stick to the proper format. There are many possible purposes for an essay. You could be trying to argue or persuade, explain a process, or tell a story. Details aside, following these steps will help you do a better and more effective job at writing a good essay.
Organize your ideas
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Write down some ideas about your topic. If you choose a specific writing style and have specific facts you want to reference in your paper, write them down first. If you are writing a fairly long paper or a paper with a fairly broad topic, you can use this step. Again, jot down your ideas and write something about each idea or subtopic.
Make your outline page
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Now that you have your ideas down on paper, it's time to choose which ones
you're going to write about. Choose several of your strongest points, depending
on how long your essay is going to be, and try to think of them as little topics.
Each of these topics will be a section in your essay. These sections will have subtopics,
each taking up one paragraph. Don't worry if this seems overwhelming at first,
its not that hard. Your outline page should start with
- I. Introduction
on the first line. You would then put headings for all of your topic and subtopics,
and end with a conclusion.
For example:
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I. Intro
II. Topic 1
1. Subtopic
2. Subtopic
III. Topic 2
IV. Topic 3
1.Subtopic
2.Subtopic
3.Subtopic
V. Conclusion
These should all be formatted as directed by your teacher. Now that you know what you're going to be writing about, you can actually start writing.
Compose your Thesis Statement and Introduction
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Your thesis statement is the core of your essay. It should sum up in one short, concise
statement what the point of your essay is and essentially what it's all about.
For example, if you were writing your essay about the endangered spotted purple panda,
your thesis statement might sound something like, "The spotted purple panda
is rapidly becoming an endangered species". You then want to write the introduction.
The introduction usually starts with something to get the reader's attention.
You could open your intro with a startling statistic, an anecdote, or a quick
summary of your essay. After the attention grabber, write anothe few sentences that
relate your attention grabber to your topic, then stick your thesis statement
on the end and you're done.
Write the Body Paragraphs
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Contrary to what most people think, this is actually one of the easiest parts.
You should now take all of your subtopics on your outline page and write a
paragraph about each of them. Each paragraph should start by stating what that paragraph will be telling the reader, then using facts to prove the point the paragraph is trying to make. This is why research is important. The paragraphs must contain facts to back up what your essay is trying to say, and the paragraps and subtopics must be clear, strong and convincing to your reader. Once you have a good number of paragraphs that are all clearly written, you can move onto writing the conclusion. If your essay isn't long enough, you should find some more subtopics to write about, then add them to your outline.
Write a Conclusion
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Just when you think you're done, now you have to write another paragraph.
Oh no. Actually, this part requires little or no effort or thinking, so you
can relax. To write the conclusion, you simply have to sum up all of the
points you made in the body paragraphs. There are no prerequisites or set formulas, just
summarize your body paragraphs, and, if you want, give your opinion on the subject as a whole.
After you get done writing the conclusion, just proofread and spellcheck and you're
completely done of your essay.
Revision!
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Okay, I know I said you were done. But there's always time to review your work.
Quickly glance over your paper, and if you find anything you think you can
improve, go back and change the order of the paragraphs, reword sentences, or
anything else you can do to improve your essay. Make sure your sentences are logical and flow smoothly, and above all, make sure your
format is correct as specified by your teacher. Then just slap on a cover page and pass it in.
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