Author:
Louise Ward
Date Of Creation:
9 February 2021
Update Date:
26 June 2024
Content
When studying English in high school or university, you will most likely have to write an essay. Writing an English essay seems like a challenge, but it's not really that difficult. If you spend enough time planning and developing your essay, you won't have to stress about it.
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Get started
Take time to write. You cannot write a quality essay in 10 minutes. Best to spend a lot of time writing and correcting. Try to arrange rest time during the drafting process. However, if the deadline is close, you must make the most of your remaining time.
Sit down and put pen to write. While preparation is also important, once you have reached this step, you need to start putting your content on paper. Remember that you can always go back and improve your essay - editing is one step in the writing process.
Draft proposed discussion. This is one of the most important elements of the article. The thesis will summarize the main thesis or position of the article in just one sentence, letting the reader know about the content shown or proved in the essay. All content in the essay must be directly related to the thesis.
- Your instructor will want to see a well-rounded thesis at the beginning of the essay. Organize your thesis at the end of the first paragraph.
- If you don't know how to write a thesis, ask your teacher. Thesis is an important concept and will frequently appear in essay-writing courses.
Develop open post. Once you have a compelling thesis, build the rest of your opening around that thesis. If you're worried about how to get started, you can also write an opening after drafting the body. Excellent opening essays capture the attention of the reader and make them want to continue reading the essay. Here are some effective tactics for opening writing:- Tell a personal story
- Mention about a surprising fact or metric
- Overthrow a common misconception
- Challenge the reader to reconsider their prejudices
Prepare an outline for the rest of your essay. Drafting outlines is also developing the basic layout of the article, helping you to avoid going off topic when drafting. Review your notes and creative ideas to consider how to organize information in outlines. Think about what information to include first, second, third, and so on.- You can number the ideas in outlines using typing software or write them down.
- Don't worry about the level of detail in your outline. Just try to jot down all the main ideas on paper.
Method 2 of 4: Draft essay
Gather all notes and documents. Before you write, put together all of the notes, books, and references you need to write an effective essay. References are crucial to an impressive English essay, so don't write your essay without them. If you have time, you should read through the notes before placing your pen.
- Make sure you have your outline with you too. You can develop the outline by expanding the analysis of the ideas in the order listed.
Write the topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph. The topic sentence informs the reader of what the paragraph will comment on. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence so that the teacher can see your ideas develop clearly and coherently.
- Consider the topic sentence as your way to introduce readers to the content of the paragraph. In your topic sentence, you don't need to summarize the paragraph, you just need to evoke a bit of the "flavor" of the paragraph.
- For example, in Okonkwo's description of the ups and downs in "The Disbanded Homeland" you could start with the sentence: "Okonkwo was born poor, but he was wealthy."
Develop your ideas as much as possible. Make sure you have plenty of detail in your essay. Remember that adding nonsense or verbose sentences is not an effective strategy for essay writing, as your teacher can immediately spot your trick. They have read hundreds of student essays throughout their teaching life, so they will know when the essay is "augmented". Add in depth and purpose your essay. Here are some of the following ideas for developing ideas when you're stuck:
- Back to the creative step. To develop as much of your idea as possible, go back to creative exercises like freelance writing, listing, or connecting ideas. You can also review your notes and books to check if you have forgotten or missed any.
- Go to the school's writing lab. If your school has a writing lab, consider bringing an essay there. In the United States you can find writing lab in the majority of universities. Writing lab is free for all students of the university, and staff can assist you in improving your essay at every step of the writing process.
- Talk to the teacher. Some teachers will be more than happy to meet and assist students in writing essays. Take advantage of the method of communication with the teacher if they are regularly in the office or allow students to meet up and talk one-on-one. Meet with your teacher and discuss ways to improve your essay before submitting it.
Citing references in MLA format. If you are using references in your essay, you should quote them in the format your teacher requires. MLA is the most popular citation format in English language courses, so you need to know how to apply it. Cite the source in your essay and create a reference page at the end of the article.
- References in MLA format will start on a new page right after the conclusion of the article. On this page, please specify each document that you have used, giving the necessary information to help readers easily identify the document. For example, information about a reference book would include the author's full name, the title of the work, the publication information, the year of publication, and the book's framework.
- Citing the source in an essay in MLA format (also called a quote in parentheses) tells the reader about the author's last name as well as the page number associated with the information in question. You need to cite the source in your essay when mentioning, summarizing or changing the wording of certain information. This excerpt will immediately follow the information, including the author's last name and the page number in parentheses. For example, the way of extracting the source of a statement from "The Disbanded Homeland" would be as follows: "..." (Achebe 57).
Develop articles towards conclusions. The general layout of the essay often goes from general to specific. Think of this trend as an inverted pyramid or a funnel. The essay must feel as if the ending content is a matter of course. Basically, the role of conclusion summarizes all the ideas that you have tried to prove in the whole article. However, it is also possible that the conclusion will be used for other purposes. You may want to use conclusions to:
- Limit or complicate the information in your essay
- Mention the need for more extensive research
- Speculation about changes in the status quo in the future
Method 3 of 4: Correcting essay
Take a lot of time for this step. "Water to the feet to jump" is a bad idea. Try to take a few days to correct your essay. It is also important to take a 1-2 day break after completing your essay, as it will help you get back to editing with a fresh perspective.
Focus on improving essay content. Some people only pay attention to grammar and punctuation when correcting, but they are not as important as the content of the essay. Please give as detailed an answer as possible to the question posed in the problem. Re-read the question or problem request and consider whether:
- Is your answer complete yet?
- Is your thesis clear? Is that thesis the focus of the article?
- Have you provided enough support for your points? What can be added?
- Is your essay logical? Do ideas follow each other? If not, how can you improve the post logic?
Ask a friend to read the essay. It can be very helpful to ask a friend or classmate to read you an essay. People will see the simple mistakes you make, or notice other points you missed (because you've read the essay too many times).
- Change lessons with classmates. You can read and comment on each other to make sure you both do the best you can.
- Make sure you change your cards at least one day before the deadline so that you have time to correct the mistakes the other person finds.
Read the essay aloud. Reading your essay will help you catch simple errors you didn't notice before. Read aloud, slowly, and have a pencil at hand to correct (or be computer ready).
- As you read, correct the mistakes you find and make note of what could be improved, such as adding details or clarifying the wording.
Method 4 of 4: Make an essay plan
Analyze the topic or question in the topic. Take time to carefully read the question or instruction sheet and think about what it requires. You should underline keywords like description, comparison, contrast, explanation, argument or suggestion. You should also underline key topics or ideas for commenting like freedom, family, failure, love, etc.
- If you do not understand the assignment requirements, ask your teacher. It is important that you understand your teacher's requirements before starting the test.
Consider your audience. Your instructors will be your primary audience, so consider their needs and expectations before writing. They may ask for and expect the following from your post:
- a detailed answer that meets the requirements of the post
- an essay that is clear, clear, and easy to follow
- an essay that is fluent, with no minor errors, such as misspellings
Think about the points you need to cover in the article. After considering the teacher's expectations, take some time to think about how those goals will be achieved. Consider what you need to mention in the article.
- For example, if the topic asks you to write about a character in a book, you will need to provide a lot of details about that character. This will require you to re-read some passages from the book and review the class notes.
- To make your essay easy to follow, you need to ensure the logical order of the sections. This can be achieved by spending time on the outline and examining the logic on completion.
- When you start writing early and spend more time correcting before submitting your essay, it will be easier for you to have a more fluid and complete writing. If possible, try to complete your first draft one week before the deadline.
Develop your ideas. Creative exercises will help you develop the details you already know and "kick start" your essay writing. Some useful creative exercises include:
- Freely write. With this exercise, you simply write as much as you can without stopping. Even if you can't think of anything, write "I can't think of anything to write" until you get a new idea. Once complete, reread what you wrote, underline or highlight useful information for your essay.
- Listed. Listing is the making of listing of details and information pertaining to the topic. After listing everything you can think of, reread and circle the most important information for the essay.
- Connect ideas. Connecting ideas is when you connect ideas with lines and circles on paper. For example, you can start with the topic in the center of the paper, from that center on drawing branches associated with other ideas. Continue drawing the branch until you cannot connect any more.
Study topics as needed. If your essay's requirements require research for essay writing, you will want to do this step before your draft. Use the databases at the school library and other sources to find the best information for your writing.
- Highly rated sources of information for English essays include books, articles in scientific journals, articles in trusted news sites (NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, etc.), websites. of a government agency or university.
- Many instructors consider "research quality" one of the grading criteria, so using poor quality resources such as a personal blog can lead to poor marks.
- If you are unsure about the quality of your news feed, consult your teacher or librarian.
Advice
- When choosing the essay reviewer, you should find someone who is suitable for the audience for the essay to target. You cannot improve your literary analysis on "Killing a Mockingbird" if you give the essay to someone who has never read it.
Warning
- Don't delay writing and developing essay. Good writing takes time and requires a careful writing plan.
