The Five Steps of Writing an Essay, steps on writing an essay.

Before you can start writing, you must have an idea to write about. If you haven't been assigned a topic, it's easier than you might think to come up with one of your own.

Choose the top three ideas and write each one at the top of a clean page. Now go through your notes again and pull out supporting ideas for each key point. You don't need a lot, just two or three for each one.

Some people will tell you to wait until you have finished writing to choose a title. Other people find that writing a title helps them stay focused. You can always review your title when you've finished the essay to ensure that it's as effective as it can be.

You've almost finished. The last paragraph of your essay is your conclusion. It, too, can be short, and it must tie back to your introduction.

Mastering these steps will make your words more compelling

• By observing the balance of nature in her gardens, listening to lectures, and reading everything she can get her hands on about insects and native plants, Lucinda has grown passionate about natural balance. "It's easy to get passionate if you just take time to look," she says.

Put your idea into a single sentence. This is your thesis statement, your main idea.

1. Purpose and Thesis
2. Title
3. Introduction
4. Body of Information
5. Conclusion

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay. It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

More examples of essay introductions

1. An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
2. Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
3. A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis—the central point of your essay.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement, a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

Step 1: On a blank sheet of paper, make a list of five or six things you know a lot about.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the author wrote this essay so you can figure out how to write yours:

Below are the five exercises I have every student complete before I meet with them:

In a minute, we’ll look at the “Laptop Stickers” essay. One thing that author discusses is activism. A typical “activist” essay might discuss public speaking or how the author learned to find their voice. A stand-out essay would go further, demonstrating, say, how a sense of humor supports activism. Perhaps it would describe a childhood community that prioritized culture-creation over culture-consumption, reflecting on how these experiences shaped the author’s political views.

MY LAPTOP STICKERS

Raising the Stakes/Rising Action: Builds suspense. The situation becomes more and more tense, decisions become more important, and our main character has more and more to lose.

Once you’ve spent 2 minutes thinking up some common/cliché values, move onto the next step.

For example, if your thread is “food” (which can lead to great essays, but is also a really common topic), push yourself beyond the common value of “health” and strive for unexpected values. How has cooking taught you about “accountability,” for example, or “social change”? Why do this? We’ve already read the essay on how cooking helped the author become more aware of their health. An essay on how cooking allowed the author to become more accountable or socially aware would be less common.

There are no images in this kind of essays. Even if you have to explain economic and social reasons for famine in an African nation, you can't make your paper more vivid by picturing the everyday life of starving people. If you have to write about global warming, never make predictions about what awaits the humankind. The history of your country described in your essay can't be enriched with the pictures of your grandfathers' great deeds. The ultimate goal of these essays as a high-school and college assignment is to teach you to present the information as it is and in an unemotional manner, for lack of a better word. So, you will never find the inspiration in novels and writers' experience, which are great for other essay types, by the way. To understand how to write an expository essay, read research articles from the credible scientific journals. You can also find the best expository essay examples in your library. Searching online is not prohibited either. But, please, mind that some of them are only ‘the best' because website admins claim so.

Just like any other type of academic writing, these essays require reliable sources. Don't use any free encyclopedias, blogs, and forums. They are only allowed in the very first stages of your research when you are trying to understand what your topic is about and how you can present it. Besides, you can only use them for the insight into the subject matter, and you can't cite them, even if you could imagine what an impression it would make on your teacher! If a student uses someone's superficial judgments (which are, in most cases, contained in blogs and, sometimes, even in Wiki) to create something ‘unprejudiced,' he or she hardly understands the expository essay definition and its aims.

• Short forms and colloquial language

  Now, it is time to conduct a profound research and put your ideas into words. While writing, use short sentences. Choose the proper vocabulary. Exclude the following:

  Find the Right Source of Inspiration

  • A topic sentence.
  • The main arguments. They are not necessary for your outline, but thinking about them now will save you lots of time later.
  • A transition sentence. These are written in your expository essay and indicated in the outline to make your essay smooth and coherent.
  • Paragraph #2
  • A topic sentence. Mind that topic sentences are not connected with each other. They can in no way result from each other either. These are independent statements contributing to exploring the subject matter of your expository essay.
  • The main arguments.
  • A transition sentence.
  • Paragraph #3
  • A topic sentence.
  • The main arguments.

  Sadly, outlining is considered as unnecessary by many students. While some of them merely enumerate the parts of the essay in their so-called outlines, others just skip it. As a result, their papers are unstructured and often pointless. Besides, writing them takes plenty of time. An experienced essay writer will never neglect the outline, as it has been proven to be one of the most potent tools in writing anything. An expository essay outline presupposes a clear structure, which is not hard to embody.

  • Define expository essay. The first thing you have to pay attention to when you are assigned to write an such an essay is to answer the question ‘What is an expository essay?' Unlike many other types of academic papers, there is nothing tricky about the definition here: this is an essay that explains the object or phenomenon under consideration. In such an essay, you are to describe something without being metaphoric. None of the reader's senses should be involved when he or she reads your essay. The expository essay definition may be complemented with some features. In most cases, this is a five-paragraph paper. It is quite convenient because the introduction and conclusion that are very concise don't allow you to give a lot of unnecessary details.
  • Find out what citation style to use. Before you proceed to write, make sure you understand the format in which you are to submit your essay, whether it is APA, MLA, Harvard or any other style.
  • Make sure you understand your topic. An essay has to be clear and unbiased. So, you should understand every single word in your topic. Usually, it is not enough to google the term you don’t know. Its essence may lie in the etymology of the word. Consult trusted dictionaries. Turn to your teacher or ask a fellow student to help you.

  

  1. An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
  2. Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
  3. A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

  Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

  This introduction to a literary analysis essay, about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

  You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

  Well done!

  For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

  As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

  • It gives your writing direction and focus.
  • It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

  To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.