Simple Essay Writing Techniques
Writing an essay sometimes becomes havoc for some students whether it is an assignment or a scholarship winning essay. Even though writing an essay is a project that needs dedication of patience and time, following a simplified procedure seem to be beneficial in breaking the task into manageable sections.
The detailed below procedure will, therefore, help you write a quality paper that meets your objective.
1. Pick a topic
In some cases, students are normally assigned topics to write. You need to think about the type of paper you want to produce whether the paper is a general overview, a review or an analysis. Consequently, ensure that you narrow your focus to a specific area. However, in cases that you are given a free reign to choose a topic, you have to do an extra work besides choosing a subject that is interesting and relevant. Then define the purpose of writing the essay whether your assignment would be informative or persuasive.
After determining the purpose, conduct a thorough research on the chosen topic in relation to your interests, and about life among others. Note these subjects down. Consequently, ensure that you thoroughly evaluate the various options. For example, if your essay is an educative work, then choose a subject you have a vast knowledge on or a subject that you have studied. If the purpose of the essay is to persuade, ensure that you choose a passionate subject besides it being an interesting subject. Examples of the interesting topic can be “Does Google Makes Us Stupid?”
2. Develop an outline
A high-quality essay can only be achieved when thoughts are organized. Therefore, ensure that all the idea that you have gathered are noted in a paper. This will enable you to easily link the ideas in a chronological order. The structure will provide you with an outline or a diagram that will enable you to note the ideas in a well-organized form.
If you choose to create a diagram, then write a topic in the middle of a page. Construct about five lines branching away from the topic and note down the main ideas at the end of each line. Draw more lines from the main ideas and add more thought about these ideas. However, in any case, you have decided to use an outline and then write the topic at the top of the page. Then list your main ideas leaving spaces under each idea. In the spaces left, note down sub-ideas that relate to each idea. This will help you see the connection between the ideas and sub-ideas besides enabling you organizing your work.
Example of an outline:
Topic: Is Google Making Us Stupid?
First idea: Intellectually lazy not stupid.
Second idea: Ability to solve arithmetic problems.
Third idea: Google usage results to brain amnesia.
Fourth idea: Socialization.
Fifth idea: Google make people smart and enhance brain power and activity.
3. Develop a thesis statement
After choosing the topic with ideas in categories, then create a well-thought thesis statement. The thesis statement should tell the reader or the audience the main point to be discussed in the essay. Refer to the outline developed and note the main ideas. Ensure that the thesis statement has two sections. The first part should state the topic while the second part should elaborate on the point of the essay. For example, if your essay is about technology and its impact on the current generation, then a good thesis statement would be, social media has impacted the behavior of the current generation through the use of video conferencing and Instagram.
Another example of a thesis statement would be:
“Learning English language and communication skills in the linguistic lectures have enabled me to develop well argumentative statement as well as communication in the forums”.
Or
“People depend on Google due to the abundance information as well as increasing the development numerous skills to handle difficult problems.”
4. Develop the body
The body of the essay should detail the explanations, describe or argue the topic. The main ideas that you have noted in the outline should be in separate sections or paragraphs individually with the same structure. Even though these main ideas elaborate each and every point uniquely on the topic, they should be linked together and should be related to the thesis statement and the topic. Next, elaborate your supporting ideas in the sentence format and detail the ideas with examples that back up your main position. Consequently, link these sub-ideas to form coherency and ensure that the paragraphs flow.
5. Write your introduction
Upon completion of your thesis statement and overall body of the essay, you should write the introduction. Ensure that your introduction attracts the reader. The introduction should have a hook or attention grabber and then focus on the main idea. Such hooks should have shocking information, a story, dialogue, a quote, simple summary, or a question. In any way you have chosen, ensure that the introduction is connected with the thesis statement which should be the last statement of the introduction.
An example of a hook can be “Are you stupid or intellectually lazy?”
6. Develop a conclusion
Your conclusion should bring the essay to closure. Ensure that you summarize your ideas besides elaborating on the final perspective of the topic. The conclusion should be about three to five statements. Review your main points and reinforce the thesis statement. Therefore, the concluding paragraph should have insinuation of the pattern used in the introduction, is should reword the thesis statement with a language that gives more information on the thesis statement but not the same original words. In addition, it should summarize the main points of the essay from the essay and a final statement that notes the reader on the closure of the paper.
7. Add finishing details
After finishing the task, ensure that you organize your paragraph. Ensure that the essay body commences with strongest points as well as concluding with the last paragraphs. The paragraphs should make sense, especially when elaborating on processes. In addition, review the instructions given regarding the format the essay and ensure that you include correct in-text citations as well as reference lists if requested in the instruction. Read the essay that you have written and check for grammar, spelling and any other errors that may occur during writing.
