Below, we'll go through that structure and how you may apply it to any type of essay. But first, let's get to the heart of any good essay: the topic.
A thesis statement is required for your essay.
Before you begin writing your essay, examine the following three factors: thesis, type, and audience. The most crucial of them is your thesis, or the central point of your essay.
The essential argument you're attempting to make is summarised in your thesis statement. The argument of Bertrand Russell's article "In Praise of Idleness," for example, is that people are overly focused on work and do not respect leisure time. Essays may occasionally veer off into related tangents, but they always return to the thesis's central point.
Before you begin writing, you should always define your thesis. If you're stuck, ask yourself, "What is the one thing I want my reader to remember after they've finished reading my essay?"
It's preferable to mention your thesis as early as possible, perhaps in your topic phrase if feasible. You should repeat it throughout the essay, especially when you're summing everything up in the end.
The rest of your essay should then back up your argument. You can use scientific proof, testimonies, logical conclusions, or even compelling speech to get your point through. The key is that you are expanding on your initial premise rather than going to an entirely other topic.
Types of Essays
Essays, like any other genre of writing, come in a variety of formats. Sometimes the kind is dictated by the assignment, like with admissions essays, and other times by the thesis. Regardless, knowing your alternatives is useful, so here are some of the most prevalent essay types:
Argumentative Essays
Argumentative essays state or defend a point of view. Keep in mind that this is the most popular form of school assignment while writing your first college essay.
Admission essay
Most universities need an admissions essay in applications, which often focuses on why you want to attend that institution.
Persuasive essay
A persuasive essay is exactly what it sounds like: an essay written to persuade or convince the reader of a particular topic. It's similar to an argumentative essay in that they both firmly support a certain point of view, but the difference is that argumentative essays just have to give their case, but persuasive essays have to offer their case and win over the reader.
Compare-and-contrast essay
When you wish to provide equal emphasis to two conflicting ideas, a compare-and-contrast essay is preferable than argumentative or persuasive essays, which favour one side over the other.
Personal essay
Personal essays, such as those by David Sedaris, are frequently anecdotal or true-life anecdotes of the writers. The thesis might be flexible or interpretative since they tend to follow narrative forms.
Expository essay
An expository essay clearly discusses a certain topic in order to broaden the reader's understanding. The framework is similar to that of an argumentative or persuasive essay, with one major difference: expository essays do not contain a slant.
Know your essay’s audience
Finally, consider who will read your essay: a teacher, an admissions counsellor, your peers, the internet at large, and so on.
Your audience should affect your language regardless of what you're writing. For starters, your readers will evaluate if the essay is official or informal, which will have a significant influence on vocabulary, word choice, and style. Consider the following emoji: They may be acceptable in a casual essay, but they are not the best choice for academic writing.
The tone of your essay, or how you sound emotionally, is also affected by your audience (enthusiastic, cautious, confident, etc.). If you want to learn more, you may read about the ten most frequent forms of tone here.
The essay writing process
When writing an essay, research paper, term paper, book, short story, poetry, screenplay, blog piece about essay writing, or anything else, it's critical to use an effective writing approach. Even if you like to write your rough copy in a stream of consciousness style, you still need an ordered framework that allows you to rewrite and sharpen.
We propose the typical five-step writing method for essays:
1. Brainstorming
It is usually beneficial to brainstorm your ideas before beginning to write. Try to produce as many ideas for your essay as possible based on your topic or argument. Consider as many as time permits, understanding that you'll be able to discard those that don't work afterwards.
2. Preparing
Look for empirical proof or supplementary citations right now. The format of your citations is determined by the style guide you're following. MLA, APA, and Chicago are the three most prominent academic style guides, and each has its own set of rules and standards for referencing almost every type of source, including newspaper articles, websites, speeches, and YouTube videos.
3. Drafting
This is the key stage of essay writing in which you roll up your sleeves and begin composing your first draught. Remember that not everything has to be flawless; this is your first draught, not your final draught, so allow yourself to make mistakes. You'll miss the broader picture if you focus on getting every single word correct.
4. Revising
The revisions stage involves your second, third, or even twelfth draught, if required. Address any nuances or subtleties that you missed in the initial draught.
Consider word choice and clarity, as well as complex writing methods such as avoiding the passive voice. If you're not yet confident in your writing abilities, the Grammarly Editor guarantees that your work is legible, clear, and succinct by suggesting sentence structure and word choice, as well as clarity adjustments as you write. Grammarly detects typical sentence construction errors such as run-on sentences, phrase fragments, passive voice, and more.
5 Proofreading
After all of the heavy-duty modifications have been completed, it is time for the final polish. Correct any misspellings, formatting difficulties, or grammatical flaws in your essay. This is also a good time to use Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistance, which may help you detect these typical errors. Alternatively, copy and paste your writing to check your grammar and receive fast comments on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other errors you may have overlooked.
Structure of an essay
A straightforward beginning-middle-end framework, or in this example, an introduction-body-conclusion format, is usually always followed by essay structure. What is contained within those parts, though, makes all the difference.
Introduction
Essay openers follow the same standards as any other piece of writing, with a focus on presenting the thesis prominently, ideally in the main phrase. Your reader should know what your essay is about at the end of your opening paragraph. Then, use the standard best practises for writing an introduction.
Body Paragraphs
The majority of your essay is made up of body paragraphs that all support your thesis and provide proof.
Pay particular attention to how your body paragraphs are organised. Some arguments benefit from logical progression, in which one point leads to the next, and the next point leads to the third. Remember that the reader does not understand the issue as well as you do (which is why you're writing the essay), so order your paragraphs accordingly.
What if you're writing an argumentative essay comparing and contrasting two or more points of view? Do you start with your argument and then give alternative viewpoints, or do you start with your opponent's argument and then dispute it?
Serious writers may become rather technical when it comes to organising an argumentative essay. There are three techniques that are frequently used: Aristotlian (classical), Rogerian, and Toulmin. However, this can get quite sophisticated, therefore for a brief essay, the following format would suffice:
- Your point
- Counterpoint
- Evidence confirming your claim and/or refuting the opposing point
Conclusion
Essay conclusions wrap up or summarise your point in an easy-to-digest manner. You can provide a fresh viewpoint or context for comprehending your thesis if you have the opportunity, but in general, the conclusion should not give any new evidence or supporting data. It's more of a refresher. Read about how to create an essay conclusion for more precise advice.
Essay of five paragraphs
You don't need to be too sophisticated with your essay format for short and easy writings. In a pinch, the five-paragraph essay style works nicely. This includes:
> One paragraph for the introduction
> There are three body paragraphs
> One paragraph for the conclusion
While this essay style may not be flexible enough for more sophisticated themes, it is useful when time is of the essence, such as during timed assessments.
Tips for Writing an Essay
Master the five fundamentals
Your reader will evaluate how effectively you manage the essentials, especially in school essays. It's one thing to comprehend essay structure and the writing process, but can you demonstrate an understanding of language style? Can you build your thesis in a logical and cohesive manner? Are your references and citations reliable?
When you're ready to go on to the next stage of essay writing, consider the five concepts you must understand in order to create superior essays. The advice there continues where this guide stops off.
See kout another pair of eyes
This isn't only for essays; it's always a good idea to have someone else check through your work before you finalise it. We sometimes overlook the forest for the trees, and spending too much time thinking about the same thing can lead to tunnel vision. The remedy is to gain a new perspective from someone experiencing it for the first time.
You may usually switch with a buddy and edit each other's work. If that isn't an option, you may also visit a writing centre or join an online writing club. At the absolute least, you should sleep on it and come back to it rejuvenated.
Remember that grammar and form are critical.
What you say isn't always as important as how you say it. You may have the most apparent, objectively pleasing idea in the world, but it will be difficult to interest your reader if your writing is unclear, confused, and riddled with errors.
Grammarly Premium enables full-sentence rewrites for problematic sentences, such as breaking long sentences, eliminating superfluous words, or reordering essential phrases, in addition to spotting typical grammatical faults. It also suggests readability-focused layout so you know your content is clear. It also assists people wishing to enhance their English writing skills by providing alternatives for often overused words and phrases.
Honing your writing with these factors in mind is critical to properly communicating your message to your reader and stating your thesis.
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