As it happens, most students and schoolchildren are afraid to write essays.
Just the word “essay” itself is a signal to start panicking. Learning how to write an essay correctly also seems to many to be an intolerably difficult task. However, it doesn’t have to seem so unfeasible and annoying. It’s enough to grasp a few important points for yourself, and you’ll stop dreading the word. You will be surprised, but everything is much simpler than it seems. And the most important thing is that this scheme really works and brings results.
10 steps to writing a good essay
1. Research. Start writing an essay with your own research on the topic, show yourself as an expert on the subject. Read other people’s work. You can use other sources of information – the Internet, various academic writings, libraries. Take brief notes, gather information, immerse yourself in the thoughts of great scientists, thinkers, and just smart people.
2. Analysis. Now that you have a sufficient knowledge base, begin to analyze the arguments and arguments presented in the essays you read. Clearly define the requirements, write out the grounds and obvious points. Try to find weak and strong points in the authors’ logic. Remember: to learn how to write an essay, you must analyze the work written by others.
3. “Brainstorming”. Your essay requires you to understand your own genius. Ask yourself some questions and answer them. Meditate, with pen in hand. You can walk around the room, and remember to think and think and think until an original idea strikes you that you can express in your essay.
4. Abstracts. Pick your best ideas, thoughts, and catch yourself saying that around this you can develop your thought. These are your anchor points, your main thoughts condensed into concise sentences that allow the reader to understand where your thoughts are coming from and why. You can’t write an essay without highlighting clear talking points.
5. Outline. Make an outline of your work on paper. Use draft sentences to describe the paragraphs and the main idea those paragraphs will express. Play with the order of paragraphs and thoughts in your essay. Map your arguments and make sure the paragraphs are connected by meaning.
6. Introduction. Now sit down and start writing the clean version of your essay. The introduction should interest the reader. Establish the problem (the main question, the theme of the essay) and follow it in your thesis statement. The introduction is simply the beginning of the unfolding of the topic itself, a way of leading the reader to the main arguments.
(Note: The title and first paragraph are the most important elements of any essay. It is an important point in writing a paper that is sometimes forgotten or ignored by students. You will either “catch” the reader in the first paragraph or lose them. Of course, the teacher who teaches you how to write an essay will read your paper from beginning to end, since he or she is paid to do so. But the real world is such that regular readers understand whether or not to read your work just by looking at its title).
7. Paragraphs. Each individual paragraph should focus on a particular thought, an idea that supports the thesis statement. Begin paragraphs with sentences on the topic, support the statements with illustrative examples, and state your thoughts most clearly and reasonably possible. Talk to the reader as if he were sitting in front of you. In other words, try not to write, but to speak in essay form.
8. Conclusion. Gracefully end your essay with a brief summary, a conclusion. Then set the point with some memorable thought, perhaps a quote or an interesting twist of thought, or even a call to action. Do you want the reader to go and do something? Let him or her know what it is.
9. Don’t forget the accepted MLA format. Format your essay according to accepted citation rules. All ideas and quotations taken from other people’s work should be referenced in the text and a list of references should be attached to the paper.
10. Language. You need to be sure to follow all the rules and the correct use of words. Watch the spelling, punctuation, stylistics of the text. Do not make too long sentences with too many punctuation marks. Get rid of those words and expressions, in the correct use of which you are not sure. Your essay is ready. Feel free to send it in for review.