How to Write an Essay

[Faryal Shah]

An essay is a short piece of writing that generally shows the author's view on a particular subject. There are many different kinds of essays, including narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. The following steps, however, can be used to write any kind of essay.


Establish your topic »
Organize your ideas »
Write a first draft »
Revise the first draft »
Proofread the final draft »


Establish Your Topic

Your examiner may assign you a topic or ask you to choose from among a few topics. The assignment may contain certain key words that will suggest the content and structure of your essay. For example, you may be asked to

Analyze
Argue
Compare and contrast
Describe
Discuss
Summarize

You may be asked to find a topic on your own. Most people find this difficult. Give yourself plenty of time to think about what you'd like to do. Trying to answer questions you have about a particular subject may lead you to a good paper idea.

What subject(s) are you interested in?

What interests you most about a particular subject?

Is there anything you wonder about or are puzzled about with regard to that subject?


Be sure your topic is narrow enough so that you can write about it in detail in the number of pages that you are allowed. For example, say you are asked to write a 1-page essay about someone in your family. Since you only have a limited number of pages, you may want to focus on one particular characteristic of that person, or one particular incident from that person's life, rather than trying to write about that person's entire life. Having a narrow focus will help you write a more interesting paper.

Too general: My sister.
Revised: My sister is my best friend.
Similarly, you may be asked to write a 25-page paper about volcanoes. Again, since you only have a limited number of pages, you may choose to focus on one particular volcano or one particular eruption, rather than trying to talk about volcanoes in general.
Too general: Volcanoes of the world.
Revised: The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991.


One method for narrowing down your topic is called brainstorming. Brainstorming is a useful way to let ideas you didn't know you had come to the surface.

Sit down with a pencil and paper, or at your computer, and write whatever comes into your head about your topic, no matter how confused or disorganized.

Keep writing for a short but specific amount of time, say 3–5 minutes. Don't stop to change what you've written or to correct spelling or grammar errors.

After a few minutes, read through what you have written. You will probably throw out most of it, but some of what you've written may give you an idea you can develop.

Do some more brainstorming and see what else you can come up with.



Organize Your Ideas

Develop an outline to organize your ideas. An outline shows your main ideas and the order in which you are going to write about them.Write down all the main ideas.

List the subordinate ideas below the main ideas.

Avoid any repetition of ideas.



Write a First Draft

Every essay or paper is made up of three parts:

Introduction
Body
Conclusion

The introduction is the first paragraph of the paper. It often begins with a general statement about the topic and ends with a more specific statement of the main idea of your paper. The purpose of the introduction is to

let the reader know what the topic is

inform the reader about your point of view

arouse the reader's curiosity so that he or she will want to read about your topic


The body of the paper follows the introduction. It consists of a number of paragraphs in which you develop your ideas in detail.

Limit each paragraph to one main idea. (Don't try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.)

Prove your points continually by using specific examples and quotations.

Use transition words to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph


The conclusion is the last paragraph of the paper. Its purpose is to

summarize your main points, leaving out specific examples

restate the main idea of the paper



Revise the First Draft


Try to set aside your draft for a day or two before revising. This makes it easier to view your work objectively and see any gaps or problems.

Revising involves rethinking your ideas, refining your arguments, reorganizing paragraphs, and rewording sentences. You may need to develop your ideas in more detail, give more evidence to support your claims, or delete material that is unnecessary.

Read your paper out loud. This sometimes makes it easier to identify writing that is awkward or unclear.

Have somebody else read the paper and tell you if there's anything that's unclear or confusing.



Proofread the Final Draft

Look for careless errors such as misspelled words and incorrect punctuation and capitalization.

Errors are harder to spot on a computer screen than on paper. If you type your paper on a computer, print out a copy to proofread. Remember, spell checkers and grammar checkers don't always catch errors, so it is best not to rely on them too much.

[Faryal Shah]

following are the different kind of essays

Narrative Essays
Narrative Building Blocks
Descriptive Essays
Descriptive Writing
Persuasive Essays
Cause and Effect Essays
Comparison and Contrast Essays


Narrative Essays


The first important thing to remember about a narrative essay is that it tells a story. The author may write about
an experience or event from his or her past
a recent or an ongoing experience or event
something that happened to somebody else, such as a parent or a grandparent
The second important thing about a narrative essay is that the story should have a point. In the final paragraph, the author should come to an important conclusion about the experience that has just been described.
The sample essay begins with a general statement, "Learning something new can be a scary experience." This statement introduces the subject of the essay, which is a particular learning experience that the author had. The use of "I" in the essay indicates that what is being described is a personal experience.

The essay is essentially a story about something that happened. The author gives sufficient details about the people, place, and events so that the reader gets a clear idea of how the author feels about them. In the essay, the author "stood timidly" and the teacher "smiled" and was "patient." These words indicate the author's fears and the sense of security provided by the teacher who helped the author get over her fear.

In the final paragraph of the essay, the author reflects on the larger meaning or importance of the experience described. The author concludes that learning to swim has helped her to feel more confident about herself in other new situations. The idea that self-confidence comes from conquering your fears is something that all people can relate to. This is the point of the story.

The essay is well-organized. After the introduction, the author describes the experience as it happened in time -- going to the pool the first day, having the first lesson, and the result of the subsequent lessons. The author might have chosen, however, to talk about the things she learned in order of their importance or difficulty.

The writing in an essay should be lively and interesting. Try to engage the reader's interest by adding details or personal observations. Sharing personal thoughts and details invites the reader into author's world and makes the story more personal and more interesting.

[Faryal Shah]

Persuasive Essay


The purpose of a persuasive essay is to convince the reader to agree with your viewpoint or to accept your recommendation for a course of action. For instance, you might argue that the salaries of professional athletes are too high. Or you might recommend that vending machines be banned from your school cafeteria. A successful persuasive essay will use evidence to support your viewpoint, consider opposing views and present a strong conclusion.
Some people worry that adopting a school uniform policy would be too expensive. However, there are ways to lessen the cost. For example, in Seattle, Washington, local businesses help to pay for uniforms at South Shore Middle School. In Long Beach, California, graduating students donate or sell their old uniforms.
Use evidence to support your viewpoint. Statistics, facts, quotations from experts and examples will help you to build a strong case for your argument. Appeal to the reader’s sense of logic by presenting specific and relevant evidence in a well-organized manner.
Consider opposing views. Try to anticipate the concerns and questions that a reader might have about your subject. Responding to these points will give you the chance to explain why your viewpoint or recommendation is the best one.
Present a strong conclusion. All your evidence and explanations should build toward a strong ending in which you summarize your view in a clear and memorable way. The conclusion in a persuasive essay might include a call to action.
TIP: Use a pleasant and reasonable tone in your essay. Sarcasm and name-calling weaken an argument. Logic and fairness will help to keep it strong.

Descriptive Essays


The purpose of a descriptive essay is to describe a person, place, or thing in such vivid detail that the reader can easily form a precise mental picture of what is being written about. The author may accomplish this by using imaginative language, interesting comparisons, and images that appeal to the senses.

The subject of the sample essay is fairly ordinary—a ride on a Ferris wheel. The author makes it interesting, however, by comparing the Ferris wheel to a monstrous creature.

The author makes good use of fresh and varied vocabulary. For example, in the first paragraph alone, she uses verbs that create excitement like "fascinate," "amaze," and "terrify." In the second paragraph she uses a variety of terms to describe the machine such as "monstrosity," "mythical beast," "amazing dinosaur," "fire-breathing dragon."

The author uses her senses to describe the scene—how the ride looks, sounds, smells, and feels. The ride is "huge, smoky, noisy" and its engines "drone" like the roar of a dragon. On the ride, she gets a "rush of adrenaline" and a "lump in her throat," she feels immobile and then weightless.

The essay is well organized. The introduction begins with a general statement, "I have always been fascinated by carnival rides," and ends with a more specific statement of what the essay will be about, "the thrill and excitement of a carnival ride keeps me coming back for more." The body of the essay is composed of several paragraphs that describe the Ferris wheel, the way it seems from the ground and the way it feels to ride on one. The conclusion restates the main idea of the essay, that the author continues to find carnival rides thrilling and exciting.


Cause and Effect Essays

A perfect example of a cause-and-effect relationship. The cause is why something happens; the effect is result, what happens due to the cause. Therefore, cause-and-effect essays establish a relationship between events.
Cause and effect usually (but not always) happen in time order: The cause comes first, creating an effect.
How can you make sure you're on target when you write cause-and-effect papers? Use this checklist:
I've shown a clear cause-and-effect relationship between events.

Just because one event occurred before the other doesn't mean that causality exists. Perhaps there's another explanation for the events—coincidence, accident, and so on. Here's false causality: “24 hours in a day … 24 beers in a case … coincidence?” The answer is, yes, it is. Don't push the envelope; if there's no causality, don't invent it.
The cause-and-effect relationship I describe is valid.

Just because something happened once doesn't mean that true causality exists. For the relationship to be valid, it has to be repeated. That's why you wait at least a week before you take that toilet-trained toddler out of diapers.
I've included all relevant causes and effects.

Look beneath the surface to find every factor that affects your analysis. When you omit one or more pertinent causes and effects, you weaken your writing (but you do keep your readers busy poking holes in your thesis).

Comparison and Contrast

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? When you compare, you show how things are alike. When you contrast, you show how they are different. Comparison and contrast is a useful way to organize many term papers, research reports, and feature articles.
Comparison-contrast essays can be organized two ways: point-by-point or chunk. In a point-by-point structure, you deal with each point in turn. In a chunk structure, you discuss one point completely before moving on to the next one