How to Write an Essay

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learn how to write an essay.
How to Write an Essay:

The basis of most academic work is the ability to construct a good essay. Although this sounds obvious, it is
a skill which most students need to develop as none of us is born with the natural ability to write an essay,
never mind one which will both address a given topic effectively and adequately support an argument with
evidence.
It is possible to learn how to do this, however, and this guide sets out to define the major skills which need
to be acquired in order to see the writing of an essay through, from the moment you are given or select your
essay topic to its conclusion.
Clearly, the type of essay you are required to write will be determined to some extent by the particular field
in which you are engaged but the general points of construction will hold good for all subjects.
Getting Started:
The first and most important aspect of writing a good essay is to examine the essay question. The
importance of close analysis of the question as the basis of a good essay cannot be overestimated. Despite
this, it is surprising how many students simply write down everything they know about a subject without
reference to what the question is actually asking you to do.
Whether you have chosen the topic yourself or it has been assigned to you, look carefully at the key words
which the question contains, as these will give you the pointers you need to begin to think carefully about
how to proceed with your essay. Examples of key words might be: examine, develop, analyse,
influence, compare. All these words offer a way into discussion of the topic in hand and give you a good
idea of the way your essay should be written.
For example, if you were asked to compare how two poets address a similar theme, you would know that the
reader was expecting to see close analysis of the words used and how theme and structure differ in each.
However, if you were asked to examine the causes of the outbreak of a war, you would adopt quite a
different approach, balancing fact and opinion.
Add to this an awareness of whether the question is asking you to give your own opinion in isolation or
whether it requires you to assess the previous and current thinking on a subject and follow this up with a
conclusion summarising your own thoughts (the latter of these is more usual).
As you develop your argument, ensure that you continue to check back to see that you are answering the
question and not just reeling of everything you know about a given topic.
If you have been assigned a topic, then things such as choice of texts, word count and style will have been
outlined for you but if you are starting from scratch then you will need to make these decisions for yourself
and this is when you should make your choices, only altering them later if your research suggests that other
areas than what you originally planned need to be covered. Whether you have selected the topic or not, you
will need to research critical opinion on it before you begin to write.
Researching your topic:
Having thought carefully about what you are being asked to do, the next stage is to gather your evidence. It
is worth saying straight away that you should jot down the details of all and any resources to which you refer
either directly or indirectly because plagiarism is a major concern and it is easy to plagiarise without
meaning to. Its simple to forget where your ideas start, and someone elses end.
It is a good idea to begin to compile an alphabetical list of all books used at this stage as this will save you
time with your referencing and bibliography later, as well as helping you to keep track of where you sourced
your evidence. Remember to present this in the academic style required, as there is considerable difference
between the requirements of say, Harvard referencing and MLA - seek advice on the referencing style
required before beginning. (Most referencing styles will allow for the use of abbreviations but the first time
a book is quoted the full details should be given.)
Try to strike a balance between the evidence that supports your own ideas and those which appear to
contradict you. Remember, a good essay presents a balanced case and displays an awareness of all points of
view (within reason), not just those that agree with your own!
Planning:
It is very tempting to omit this stage dont! Thorough planning saves time although it might seem to be
wasting it at this point when you just want to start writing. However, even in an examination essay, a plan is
essential to complete a structured, reasoned and researched response on any given topic.
Begin by looking back over the question and those key words that you selected. Next, consider the
evidence you have collected and consider how the two complement each other: if you have followed the
instructions above carefully, this should be easy, as you will have been keeping the question in mind all the
time you were conducting your research.
Nevertheless, it can be difficult to know which pieces of evidence best support your topic points as you cant
include everything. Make decisions now as to what you will use and what you will discard. This is harder
than you might think because often interesting evidence you have unearthed has to be omitted simply
because it isnt relevant. Increasingly, students are penalized for exceeding the specified word count so
ensure that all your evidence is really related to the points you are making and to the topic concerned.
It is useful to make a rough plan or diagram of your essay at this stage where you write down paragraph
headings and which evidence you will use where. Later, when you are actually writing your essay, you will
be able to look back at this to remind you of how your thoughts actually progressed and why you made the
choices that you did. Structuring your essay in this way will also help with coherence as your argument will
be more clearly developed and concise, with paragraphs flowing naturally to your conclusion. Doing this
will also reveal any gaps in your evidence or linking which you can sort out before beginning to write.
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Writing your essay:
At last, the moment has arrived when you begin to write. If you have followed through carefully all the
stages above, then this should be the easy part but if the notes are your evidence then the essay is your case
and you should present this with as much attention to detail as you paid to your research.
It should go without saying that your spelling, grammar and punctuation should be perfect. Nothing makes a
worse impression on examiners than bad spelling and punctuation, especially if you misspell an authors
name or the title of a book. You are simply throwing marks away by making mistakes in presentation and
with all the assistance that is available today via modern technology there is really no excuse for it. Having
said that, dont rely on your computers spell and grammar check as it is not by any means infallible. If
you are unsure, check with other resources and, at the end, go back and carefully proof-read your work
better still, get someone else to do this as another pair of eyes will often spot mistakes you may have
overlooked.
Now you have a choice to make: either write the main body of your essay first then go back to construct
your introduction or write the introduction first, followed by the main body of your essay. Both have
advantages and disadvantages, primarily based on how well you can stick closely to your stated thesis.
If you feel confident that the argument can be stated simply in your introduction and developed coherently
then write the introduction first; if you feel you might deviate from the introduction then it might be best to
write the introduction later because then you can adapt your thesis accordingly.
Structure:
Introduction
Whichever approach you choose, remember that your introduction is the first statement your examiner will
read. Again, this sounds obvious but many students are careless about introductions, saying either too much
or too little. A good introduction sets out clearly your response to the topic and how you are going to present
that response. Its as simple as that. It is commonly agreed that quotation should be omitted from your
introduction as this is where you are going to say what your response is not that of others. Remember to
keep your introduction short and to the point ending with a feed into the opening paragraph of the main
body of your essay.
Main Body
In the main body of your essay, each paragraph should be based on a separate but related aspect of the main
topic of the essay. Following the plan you made earlier, write each paragraph almost as though it were under
a sub-heading to the main title and supplement each of your points with the evidence you have collected.
Students are often unsure about the length of paragraphs but though there is no hard and fast rule, it is a
good idea to keep them to four or five sentences.
Supporting your statements is vital and, in the case of a literary essay, this evidence should also be analysed.
This means that you should comment on individual words and/or phrases that seem to you to be of particular
interest or importance. Analysis of this kind will not only get you extra marks but will also sometimes
suggest additional lines of thought which may be helpful, if relevant to the main argument.
Quotations should not be too long, never more than a few lines at most, except in exceptional circumstances,
and should adhere to the referencing style you have been requested to use. It is usual to indent longer
quotations and set them out on a separate line, single-spaced, following a colon. Shorter quotations (i.e. a
line or less) should be incorporated within the text and enclosed within quotation marks.
Try to end each paragraph in the main body of the essay with a hook to the next i.e. an idea that introduces
the topic of the subsequent paragraph; follow this up by opening the next paragraph with reference to the
link. This will help your essay to flow better and seem to be establishing a pattern which will ultimately lead
to your conclusion.
Paragraphs should move on using the basis of furthering the argument. This can be achieved in several
ways:
Sequential writing, where one event follows naturally from another
Elaborative writing, where you develop a point made previously
Contrasting/comparing, where an idea contradicts or questions a point in a preceding paragraph
These are just a few ideas, there are many more and your choice may be determined by the type of
essay/argument you are constructing.
Conclusion
The conclusion should be a summation of your argument. Students often lose marks for presenting an abrupt
conclusion which overlooks the implications of the overall argument, its future development and
unavoidable contractions/omissions due to shortage of space. It is acceptable to use quotations in
conclusions but not to introduce new ideas at this stage. By now, your reader should have been given such a
strong sense of your central argument that no further information is necessary anyway. In your conclusion,
you are just giving a more generic context to your specific thesis and tying up any loose ends which you feel
have occurred during the writing of the essay.
General points:
Style
The importance of following the required referencing style has already been stated. However, there are other
stylistic features which should be adhered to and these will normally be set out in the instructions you are
given when an essay is set. As a general rule, do not write in the first person unless specifically asked to do
so i.e. avoid the use of phrases such as I think or in this essay I am going to. Rather, allow your essay to
reflect a personal perception whilst being presented in an objective manner. It is useful to look at how
professional writers construct essays to gain style tips (though remember, do not plagiarise under any
circumstances as this is sure to be detected, is unfair on the writer whose ideas you are stealing and
ultimately self-defeating). Most essays are required to be typed and double-spaced using size 12 font in
Times New Roman but it is advisable to check on this as requirements vary. Do not use colloquial
expressions, stick to Standard English throughout. Lists are not a good idea unless the essay specifically
requires them, as they can appear to be rushed, a truncated way of presenting a lot of information without
sufficient explanation.
Final checks
When your essay is completed, read it through to check for errors. As mentioned above, it can be useful to
ask someone who has not seen your work to proof-read it for you, maybe even reading it aloud, as we tend
to see what we expect to see and typographical errors can easily be overlooked. Correct any errors before
handing in your work otherwise you are throwing marks away.
Ensure that you have correctly referenced all quotations and completed a bibliography according to the
stylistic requirements to which you have been asked to adhere. Your bibliography is very important, as
evidence of your research and wider reading and to demonstrate that you recognise the importance of
acknowledging sources. A bibliography should never be a rushed, last-minute task but rather should evolve
naturally, as your research does. As previously stated, noting full publication details of every book you
consult at the time will help enormously with this.
And finally...
Remember that your essay is essentially a response to a suggested idea. Different academic disciplines will,
of course, require different content but no matter what you are writing about your argument should be clear,
coherent, well-referenced and appropriately structured. You need to follow any instructions carefully,
especially those relating to style and word count.
Bear in mind that although you are answering a question, you are also writing to engage your readers
interest so try to combine thorough, factual research with an engaging, interesting style; it is your aim to
compile an essay that will both inform and entertain. Think of the engagement of your readers interest as a
challenge which your essay will meet; remember, your essay will be one of many to be read by your
tutor/teacher/examiner and making your work stand out as impressive is quite an obstacle to overcome!
The ability to write a good essay is a skill that is difficult to acquire but not impossible and, once acquired,
can even be enjoyable: good luck!