How to Write an Essay

Writing an essay might seem hard or overwhelming at first but when you understand how to structure your essay it’s a breeze, and that’s what I’m here to help you with. Let’s start with the most important part (in my opinion), The introduction paragraph. I say it’s the most important because you must give a brief overview of the subject that will be discussed in the essay. But before that you have to get their attention to draw them into your essay and make them interested, and how do you do that? With an attention grabbing first sentence. You should always try and start off strong to draw your reader in for what’s to come, now. The propose of an introduction paragraph is to give your reader a clean idea of what your essay will be on. It should give some background information on the thing you are addressing and should clearly outline your answer. In an essay there are 3 parts to your introduction paragraph, the opening statement, the supporting sentences, and the introductory topic sentences. There are things you shouldn’t do your introduction paragraph. Never apologize not only does it show that you don’t know what you’re talking about or you’re not an expert, it will make your opinion obsolete and even worse, you’ll look stupid. Don’t announce your intentions. Imagine going to a bar and announcing you’re looking for a one-night stand, Dumb right? Don’t out yourself and announce what you are going to talk about in your essay. 

Your body paragraph is any paragraph in the middle of your essay paper, it supports the thesis and brings the main topic more into the light. Your English teacher probably told you that good writing has a good beginning, middle, and end, its true… but what about most of your writing being in the middle? Big game changer huh? I digress. Just like the Avatar (from The Avatar: The Last Airbender) you must master all 4 elements to make a strong body paragraph. The first one, Transitions. These are a few words at the start or end of your paragraph that connect your body paragraph to the others, creating a coherent flow through the entire piece. To master this element just go with the flow. The second one you must master is Topic Sentences. A sentence almost always the first one introduces what the entire paragraph is about. Now onto Supporting Sentences. These make up the body of your paragraph, with up to three sentences that can develop and support the topic sentence’s opinion. And the final one to master is of course, The Conclusion or The Summary. This is your paragraph’s concluding sentences, finishing up or reasserting your original point with the backing of the supporting evidence. Can you master all 4 elements and bring balance to your body paragraph?

The Importance of evidence and citations is very simple, the citation. A citation can be called an reference in your essay, it will take account of the name of the writer and or article you referenced from also with the date. The incorrect citation can destroy you appeal of your essay. Citations offer support and evidence; the main goal of the citation is to present support or evidence to the argument u made in your essay. Always provide proof for what u are saying and the citation will help. It also provides references, sources for more information regarding the sources you used while writing your essay. It will be seen at the end of your document. But the biggest thing it does in my option is avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence and citations can keep you away from it giving you a better essay. Plagiarism will never help you with your essay you should always acknowledge the sources you used. Citations also provide support for your ideas, arguments and claims you made in your essay. Citations assists you a good deal to boost your essays appeal, it provides support to the main statements made in your essay and makes it more believable.

Organizing is another important factor in your essay. Communicating your ideas effectively to your reader requires good structure and organization. Knowing what say and how to guide your reader from one section to another and where to place information and evidence can make your essay go further beyond and look professional, good organization takes your work to the next level. Always list down important details you intend to include to help you stay on track, that way your finished product wont skip anything. Your reader needs to understand so it is quite essential. It also helps keep you from not repeating yourself, especially if you don’t do your essay in one sitting. Revising and editing are the two things you do to significantly improve your essay. They are essential elements of the writing process; you think that a completed first draft means little improvement is needed. Wrong, even experienced writers need to improve upon their drafts and rely on friends during the revising and editing. Just like how basketball players miss their shots or miss passes, the more the practice they better their game will be. Writing has that same capacity to profit from improvement and revision. When you revise, you take a second look at your ideas, maybe add something to make your ideas clearer or interesting or take out something that doesn’t sound right after a second look. When editing, you take another look at how you expressed your ideas. You can change words, fix problems with grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You polish your essay and make the finished product from your best effort.

Writing an essay may seem hard or overwhelming but when you learn how to structure your essay it’ll be a breeze… Recycling your introduction is a good example of a good conclusion paragraph. But for longer essays it will not be enough you will have to go back to all the paragraphs and summarize it in your conclusion like this: “Now that Informed you about how to write an essay, it is up to you to master introductory paragraphs, writing body paragraphs, how to use citations and evidence, organizing your essay and not getting off topic, and most importantly, editing and revision. Its all up to you to master the elements of writing and bring balance and perfection to your essay.” The purpose of an concluding paragraph is to wrap up your whole essay in a nice little neat bow that will leave your reader with satisfaction and fulfillment when they finish it, unlike game of throne… But I digress. What not to do in your conclusion paragraph. Do not start it off with a common introductory phrase that can be avoided like “to sum it up” as it may sound good in a speech, it gives your essay an unnecessary extra feeling of formality like you were just adding words to increase the word count. Also do not introduce new ideas or facts that you have not mentioned in the main body of your essay. Now it’s up to you to take these beginning steps to become an essay writer or a better one. I believe in you.