How to Write an Essay
For those of us in school, essays are a huge part of many classes. Whether you are enrolled in a literature class, history class or even studying the social sciences such as psychology, sociology or archeology, an essay is a prime tool by which your professor can evaluate your thought process and ideas.
What is an Essay?
Before learning how to write an essay, most students should be more aware of what an essay exactly is. Yes, it is a paper, but while similar to a research paper, an essay requests that you organize and write about your own ideas. These ideas about a specific topic should be easy to read and understand and presented in a professional and literary manner, including specific sources that you used to formulate your opinions and thoughts. Essays are not supposed to be easy papers to write, they generally require lots of thought and hard work. If you have been asked to write an essay, do not fret, you can save a lot of time, energy and worries by knowing how to write an essay, being organized and streamlining the process. Here are some tips.
Why an Essay
Essays are a great way for professors to see your insight, your thinking process and how you structure thoughts onto paper. While learning how to write an essay might not sound so practical for the many things you will do later in life, it does provide you with essential practice on thinking, talking and writing clearly, which many students must have, especially in today’s competitive market place. Learning how to write an essay paper will not only help you to ace English class, but may later on help you communicate your ideas to your boss and help you get a raise or promotion.
The Essay Topic and Specifications
The first thing you should know about the essay is the topic and specifications. Obviously, the topic you will be writing your essay on will determine your research, resources and other key aspects of your essay. In addition to knowing your topic, some professors require specifics that may differ from general essay writing. For instance, your professor may want you to only use certain resources, not include a bibliography, choose a certain length or require special font and letter type. Whatever these specifications may be, it is always best to follow them. Along the way, you will notice many professors have their own specs, but in the long run, the fundamentals of essay writing stay intact.
Collecting Resources
Now that you know your essay topic and understand the specifications that your professor would like you to follow, you can start collecting the materials and resources that you will use to write your essay. Essay writing, although based on your own thoughts and feelings requires lots of information to incite these reactions and also back up your ideas. The better your resources, the better will be your essay. Keep in mind that collecting resources can be time consuming and even worse, choosing the wrong resources can cause numerous hours of unproductive reading. One of the keys to streamlining the time it takes to write an essay is to choose your resources wisely. Talk to a librarian about choosing resources wisely. There are tools such as abstracts, reviews and indexes that can help one get a jump on which resources are higher quality or more closely targeted to the type of essay paper you wish to write.
Tips on Choosing Resources
Resources are the fuel for your essay, they are the information that you should refer to and cite for examples and criticism. One of the important tips to remember when choosing resources is to always choose to use the original source over critiques. For instance, if you are writing an essay paper regarding Shakespeare, refer primarily to the original works instead of only critics. Many times a professor might think that if you only cite critics, you may not have delved deep enough into the original piece. Regarding the internet, many students love the internet, especially for research, however while the internet is a phenomenal tool for research, for essay purposes stick primarily to real world books, articles, journal copies, etc. Professors tend to be traditional in their research methods and may think that more thought and effort went into a paper that is developed from hard sources instead of Joe’s Shakespeare page on the internet.
In Depth Thinking and Analysis
essay writingOnce you have gathered your resources you will be using for your essay, you can now start the process of writing it. However, before you ever touch pen to paper, you must think and analyze your topic intensely. This is possibly the most important part of the essay paper- the thought behind it. Anyone can write a neat, presentable essay, but those that have solid ideas with true insight always score higher.
Insightful thinking and analysis takes lots of hard work and some practice. Give yourself a few days to juggle ideas in your head and truly think about the essay you want to write. During your reading of resources, you should be taking good notes that spur your thought process. Once you have read the many materials and are looking over the notes, analysis should be your objective. It might not come easy at first, but it is like putting together a mental puzzle or picture in your head. Take time to formulate your question you aim and back it up with lots of thought, insight and emotion.
Organizing and Structuring Your Essay
Once you have a clear picture of what you would like to write and express in your essay, it is time to put it down in writing. Most students quickly try to write their entire paper, however, a more effective strategy is to first plan out your essay and organize it with structure. One of the tools that are helpful in organizing and structuring your essay is an outline. Outlines are easy to use, keep you on track and can help you streamline the entire writing process.
First Draft
Writing a first draft is a great way to start your essay paper and note that you will be calling your paper at this time a “draft”. This takes a lot of the pressure off to make it perfect from the get go. A first draft should have lots of your thoughts and criticisms on paper; however it doesn’t have to be perfect. Later revisions can help you tweak your paper to make it perfect.
Revising and Tweaking Your Paper
At this point, your paper should start looking 80% complete with your thoughts, insight and emotions written down; however, no essay should be complete without some tweaking and revising. Go through your paper in great detail. Make sure that it flows smoothly and expresses your opinions. If your thoughts are vague, change the wording, if something does not seem effective in your paper, remove it. This part of the essay writing process is time consuming, but it will ultimately help in coming up with the finished product.
Proofread Your Essay
Once you think your essay is complete or very close to completion, start proofreading your paper as if it is a final draft. Proofreading includes fixing spelling and grammatical errors, rearranging sentences and making sure it flows well. Another set of eyeballs at this time would be extremely helpful. Others might notice things that have slipped your mind. One of the best people to proofread your paper are fellow students, since they are going through similar processes and may know what to look for with regard to the assignment. Another invaluable resource is your school’s writing lab. A writing lab member can help you bring out weaker ideas and help you structure your paper making it more presentable to your professor.
Create Your Final Essay
Essays not only need to be printed out, but sources and other information must be included. Sources, bibliography, foot notes, a title page, etc should be included in your essay. Check to see if your professor has the necessary guidelines before presenting the final paper to him or her.
Hand in Your Paper
Now that your essay is complete, you can print it out and present it to your professor. However, before doing so, make sure everything is perfect; make sure that the essay is formatted correctly. This includes checking to see if the right font is used, printing is done on one side of the page only, page numbers are printed and a bibliography is added. When printing out your paper try not to get too fancy. You should only print it out on white paper and the best packaging a student should consider is a generic report cover. Going overboard and adding bows and ribbons can detract from your overall paper and might be frowned upon by your professor.