Writing an essay transcends both the educational and business spheres in society. While most people might associate writing essays with college students, it is also a common requirement for students in high school and middle school. The benefits of writing a good essay are not only limited to schools but may also come in handy at the career level (i.e., the business world).
What is an Essay?
An essay refers to a piece of writing which informs a given audience about a particular topic/issue/subject (information) while simultaneously presenting the opinion of the author/writer.
Writing a Good Essay in 8 Steps
Writing an essay requires good planning. Like every other activity in which people indulge, writing essays may seem easier for some people to handle compared to others. Writing an essay might seem daunting at first, especially when you need to score high grades on your assignments. Worry not, however, because you may very well overcome such obstacles by learning how to write a good essay in 8 simple steps as listed below:
- Pick an essay type
- brainstorm your topic
- Carry out research on your chosen topic
- Select a style of writing
- Develop a concise and appropriate thesis statement
- Provide an outline for writing your essay
- Writing the essay
- Spelling and grammar check
1. Choosing Your Preferred Essay Type
Before delving forth into writing an essay, it is prudent to choose the type of essay you may want to use in expressing your ideas. Essays may be classified into four main groups as listed below:
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Argumentative essay
Writing argumentative essays requires you to choose a particular stance/claim/opinion on any given issue and provide valid reasons for supporting such claims using reputable evidence. As such, an argumentative essay requires you to examine both the negative and positive aspects of your chosen issue.
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Expository essay
This type of essay informs your readers on how to carry out a particular process. In particular, expository essays discuss, explore, and compare problems.
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Descriptive essay
This type of essay lays emphasis on the characteristics of events, people, and objects. In particular, such essays aim to provide in-depth details about the emotions of people, and the characteristics of an object, or provide a detailed description of an event.
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Narrative essay
This kind of essay imparts or provides your audience with information about your chosen topic or subject of discussion.
2. Brainstorming Your Chosen Topic
Brainstorming denotes the process wherein a writer selects his or her essay topic. Now, this process might seem tedious, but hey, here are some pointers on how to go about this important step in essay writing.
- First off, write every idea that flushes through your mind. This is called brainstorming.
- A good way to brainstorm ideas entails writing your preferred idea(s) on a sheet of paper. After jotting down all the ideas you might have, it is recommendable to extrapolate (break down) your main idea into smaller components using arrows and bubbles
- When brainstorming, it is important to choose a topic that is neither too narrow nor too broad
3. Carrying out Research on your Chosen Topic
The next step after brainstorming ideas is carrying out thorough research on your chosen topic. To carry out this third step effectively, you can either choose to carry out research on your chosen topic or idea online or decide to visit a public library. You may also seek to interview experts who might have some insights on your chosen topic using interviews and several other techniques.
4. Choose your Preferred Format for Writing
The format for your essay is often dictated by your chosen essay topic or instructor/tutor/teacher. While you may write your essays using a variety of formats, there are three common formatting styles used by college and high school students. These include:
- Chicago Manual of Style – This style of writing is also referred to as Turabian. It has two forms of representation – that is, notes-bibliography and author-date. The notes-bibliography style is most commonly used in humanities and art papers, whereas the author-date style mostly applies when writing scientific research papers.
- American Psychological Association (APA) – This writing format utilizes the author-date style of citation. Its application is mostly common among psychology and social science researchers. It is the second most common citation style after MLA.
- Modern Language of Association (MLA) – This writing format widely applies in writing language arts and humanities essays. Most college and high school students use this style of writing in their various essays. It is the most widely used citation style in research.
5. Developing a Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is a one-sentence summary of the main points you wish to discuss in your essay. It appears at the end of your introduction paragraph. A good thesis statement should not be vague (i.e., not concise and failing to highlight the main points of discussion) or too broad. A good thesis statement informs the reader about the major points you intend to discuss throughout your essay. For instance, “consumption of junk food is harmful to your health,” is an example of a vague thesis statement. It is vague because it fails to inform your readers about the effects affiliated with the consumption of junk food. Comparatively, however, this other version, “Consumption of junk food poses deleterious health effects such as obesity, heart disease, and high blood cholesterol” is an example of a valid thesis statement. This is because the latter version informs the readers about the effects, and by extension, the major points of discussion in the essay.
6. Developing your Essay’s Outline
After brainstorming, carrying out research, and developing a thesis statement, the next step is to develop a proper outline of your paper. An outline offers a ‘sneak-peek’ into what your essay will look like. It is more of a skeleton structure of the human body. Writing an outline for your paper enables you to develop an essay with a proper flow and excellent organization. You can write a good outline in the following steps:
- Write a thesis statement at the top
- Write topic sentences for every single body paragraph in your essay after the thesis statement
- Develop transitions between different body paragraphs to enable readers’ understanding of your essay’s content
- Provide supporting evidence or facts related to your research topic in each paragraph
7. Writing the Essay
You are in a better position to begin writing your essay after developing a proper outline. You should tailor your writing in accordance with your established outline. Writing an essay based on an established outline will enable you to write with much clarity and coherence.
While this last step sounds rather easier, however, it is important that you remember to carry out the following steps in a bid to ensure that your essay is perfect.
- First off, remember to revise and edit for structure, consistency, and clarity
- Check again whether the ideas presented in your body paragraphs align with those expressed in your thesis statement stated at the end of your introductory paragraph.
- Recheck the essay to affirm (and reaffirm again) whether your sentence structures have flow. Improving flow in an essay requires the use of transition words between different sentences.
8. Spelling and Grammar Check
The last and final step undertaken by anyone who needs to write a good essay is carrying out a rigorous check for grammatical and spelling mistakes. The steps shown below shed insights on how to go about rectifying grammatical and spelling errors (intended or otherwise).
- Check and review any errors
- Assess spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes. It is always advisable not to rely solely on the spellcheck add-on embedded in Microsoft Word or any other word-processing program. This is because certain misspelled words might actually be real words, as in the case of ‘form and from’.
