If your topic calls for it and if time allows, you may want to consider conducting quick interviews with experts on the subject. These will serve as a primary source for your essay.
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Nothing is more daunting for a writer than staring at a blank page. This is why you need to have an action plan for starting your essay.
One common structure for an essay is the Five-Paragraph Essay, with the following parts:
2. Brainstorm and research the topic you’ve chosen.
After you have brainstormed and researched, write down your thesis statement. A thesis statement consists of one or two sentences that sum up the primary subject or argument of your essay.
Next, use the proper citations. Plagiarism does not only constitute copying the idea verbatim, but you also have to reference the source of the idea itself, if possible. Depending on your teacher’s preferences, you can use the APA in-text citation style or the MLA style.
In ancient Greece, using other people’s ideas was seen as the mark of a smart person. But in this day and age, plagiarism is a serious offense, so you need to be careful when citing other people’s work.
Writing may be the core task, but reading is equally important. Before you start writing your essay, you should conduct a broad search for relevant literature. Learning how to sift through a large amount of data is an important academic skill. You should start by searching through databases – Google Scholar is a great tool for this – using key words related to your research topic. Once you find an article that sounds promising, read through the abstract to ensure that it’s relevant.
This essay explores the role of cultural capital in the consumption of art, and the impact of cultural capital on consumers’ perception of artistic expressions.
If you are asked to evaluate the usefulness of something, however, you don’t necessarily need to go into as much critical depth. Yes, you should still acknowledge alternative approaches, and yes, you should still note some strengths and weaknesses – but the bulk of the work must emphasise the concepts practical usefulness. Perhaps the best approach is to find one, or a few, case studies where the theory has been used – what was the outcome of this? Does the application of the theory reveal any particular shortcomings, or strengths?
How you present your argument is nearly as important as the argument itself, which is why it is imperative that your essay follows a logical structure. A classic piece of advice is to "tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and tell them what you told them". This, in essence, summarises the core introduction, main body, and conclusion structure of your essay.
3. Read widely
If you are still not a hundred percent sure, it is usually a good idea to skip to the conclusion – this usually contains a detailed summary of the study, which will help determine whether you should read the article as a whole. You don’t want to waste time reading through and endless number of articles simply to find that they aren’t actually relevant. Once you have identified a few solid articles, you should (a) go through their bibliographies and take note of who they are citing, as these articles will likely be of value for your own research
Properly citing the sources upon which you draw also ensures that you will not be accused of plagiarism, which is a serious offence in academia. In fact, repeated and grievous plagiarism can lead to the suspension of your studies at the majority of academic institutions!
Paraphrase: Unlike economic capital, the amassing of which requires some conscious effort, cultural capital can be built simply by existing and consuming (Bourdieu, 1986).
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Once you’ve chosen your topic, brainstorm all the different supporting ideas that you can talk about for the topic. Start with the basic facts about your idea, asking questions such as what, where, who, when, why, and how.
Keep practicing and you will find that it’s much easier to get your thoughts on paper and present a coherent piece for your readers.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a wordsmith, you don’t have to be intimidated by essays and writing assignments. When you learn the basic steps and the most common structures, you will find that it becomes easier to write down your thoughts on any given subject.
Tips for Writing Essays
Nothing is more daunting for a writer than staring at a blank page. This is why you need to have an action plan for starting your essay.
To avoid plagiarism, be sure to paraphrase any ideas you collect from your research instead of copying them word for word. If you do use them as is, put them in quotes.
Although this structure is made up of five paragraphs, we can easily use the same model and make it into a Five-Part Essay Structure. This means that we will stay within the pattern, but each main point may have more than one paragraph.
Using your outline, you can now begin writing your essay. Some writers choose to write their paragraphs in order, beginning with the hook. The hook is the first few lines in your essay that will grab the readers’ attention.
This is your summary. Here, you’ll conclude your essay and bring closure to your argument by summarizing your essay in one final paragraph of 5 or so sentences. You want to summarize the gist of your arguments here and provide your final thoughts on the topic.
- Narrative: Where the writer tells a story.
- Descriptive: Where the writer describes a person, place, thing or event.
- Expository: The writer presents an informative, fact-based piece.
- Persuasive: The writer must convince the reader to accept their point of view.
Don’t skimp here. The introduction is where you’ll grab the reader’s attention. Your first sentence should reach out to your reader, such as “Last year alone over 3.5 million dogs and cats were euthanized in the United States”. Continue your train of thought until you reach your thesis statement.
Learning how to compose a proper essay is known as a ‘transferable skill’. This means that the skill involved in writing an essay can be transferred to other areas of your life. Essays teach you how to organize your thoughts, ideas and arguments. You might not wish to enter politics or run your own company now, but in the future, you might be. Learning how to organize your thoughts into a persuasive argument for a reader can go a long way in helping you organize your thoughts in a political debate or dealing with customers and clients.
Complete the Process
Next, know the type of essay you are to write. By knowing the type of essay to write, you’ll already have a structure to follow. The types of essays are:
At this point, it’s time to put pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard and begin writing. Your essay will have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. The order in which you write depends on you. However, many people begin with the body.
This is the sentence by which your entire essay revolves around. A thesis sentence is not a question, but a statement. Your thesis statement will contain your topic and the argument you wish to make. For instance, in a persuasive thesis you would present your point of view and why your point of view is true:
Making smoothies is the best way to get your recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, as they are easy to make, delicious to drink, and contain fiber as well as nutrients.
These are some of the common phrases found in essay questions, and each indicates a different set of expectations. If you are asked to critically evaluate a particular theoretical approach, for instance, you have to gain an understanding not only of said theory, but also other common approaches. They must all be weighed against each other, highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of each theory and, importantly, you must come to a well-justified and confident conclusion. Is the theory good? What are its flaws? How can it be improved?
Another common issue – particularly amongst first and second-year undergraduates – is that they tend to use rather non-academic language:
How you present your argument is nearly as important as the argument itself, which is why it is imperative that your essay follows a logical structure. A classic piece of advice is to "tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and tell them what you told them". This, in essence, summarises the core introduction, main body, and conclusion structure of your essay.
Instead, you should exchange essays with each other once you are both done with the first draft. It is immensely difficult to proofread your own work – one goes blind to minor grammatical issues in a text after reading it repeatedly for days on end. It is similarly easy to overlook gaps in flow and logic of argument. Having a friend read through the work will address both of these issues, assuming that they, too, are high achieving.
1. Understand the question
Writing may be the core task, but reading is equally important. Before you start writing your essay, you should conduct a broad search for relevant literature. Learning how to sift through a large amount of data is an important academic skill. You should start by searching through databases – Google Scholar is a great tool for this – using key words related to your research topic. Once you find an article that sounds promising, read through the abstract to ensure that it’s relevant.
In case you are unsure about the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, we’ve included an example below:
Having a similarly ambitious 'study buddy' is often undervalued by students, but the synergy achieved by working together can help both of you achieve considerably higher grades. It is important to note that you shouldn’t write your essays together, nor necessarily agree on the approach to be taken beforehand, as this leads to the risk of submitting two papers that are too similar – again linking back to the issue of plagiarism.