Essay writing

Essay writing daunts many people. It is often perceived as being hard. Well, it is not. I will help you to write essays painlessly and joyfully. Let me first of all venture to answer a few general questions about the essay.

 What is an essay?

To put it simply, an essay is a non-fictitious short piece of prose in which the author presents her views or findings on a selected topic.

 

How is it formatted?

 

A typical essay consists of the following parts:

 

Thesis Statement:

It is a summary of what your essay is about. It usually consists of between 100-150 words.

 

Introduction:

This part introduces the topic and the author works to arouse the interest of the reader to consider the information he is about to present.

Body:

This is the major part of the essay, where you develop your topic in detail.

Conclusion:

A summary of the main points or a thought provoking statement which closes the essay.

 

How can I write a good essay?

A good essay is one which achieves its purpose. Therefore, to write a good one, you have first of all to know clearly what your essay has to achieve.

Is it a descriptive essay?

Do you want to present an argument for or against something?

Do you want to outline the advantages or disadvantages of something?

Perhaps you want to provide step-by-step information on how to carry out a certain task.

Once you determine the purpose of your essay, the next important thing to do is:

Plan your work.

Often planning involves brainstorming.

Look at the topic you have to write about. How much do you know about it? Do you need to do research (often, you do have to do research, even if you know much about your topic).

As you plan your work, make a draft or outline.

Your draft should consist of the following headings: introduction, body, and conclusion. Under these headings, jot down in point form all the points relevant to your topic.

Next, remove unnecessary points until you remain with the most relevant points.

 

Once your draft is complete, start writing your essay, beginning with the introduction.

An effective introduction is one that arouses interest and prods the reader to read the rest of the essay. Therefore, make your introduction as interesting as possible. Often, you can do this by presenting a surprising statement, an apt illustration or story, a quote or conversation.

Your interest arousing introduction should smoothly lead to the thesis or summary of the main points, which should just be a sentence or two.

In your body, expand each main point.

It is best that each main point takes its own paragraph. Introduce the main point in the topic sentence and then follow this up with supporting sentences.

Ensure that your thoughts flow in a logical manner.  Bridge your thoughts with transition words such as hence, therefore, in addition, etc.

 

Your conclusion should not just be a blunt summary. You must say something significant that will leave an impression on the mind of your reader. Often, it should be a call to action on what they have just read.

Once you have written your essay, have a friend or someone else read it to correct any errors or to see if it makes sense.

I am certain these few guidelines will help you to write a good essay.

Of course this is not all there is to essay writing. There is a lot more.

Future articles will discuss the following about essay writing:

 

• Essay Cover Page



• How to do a cover Page




The APA format

1. Over view of the APA format


2. Title Page


3. Copyrights page


4. Dedication page


5. Author’s note


6. Abstract


7. Table of contents


8. List of Tables and figures


9. Main Text


10. Reference


11. Appendix




• Essay Samples

• Essay Samples

 

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