HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

By Frank G. on Thu May 16 2024

Writing your essay could be a daunting process, especially if you are on a time crunch. Mastering the correct chronology of how to write an essay could save you quality time in your essay writing and improve your grades.

Let us jump into the essential steps of how to write your argumentative essay, any essay, or other types of academic papers.

Assessing the Academic Paper/Essay Requirements

Analyzing your academic paper requirements is among the most critical steps in writing your essay. This could be the essay instructions or rubric to understand the grading criteria for your essay.

Your grading criteria are your roadmap while writing your academic paper. It determines the topic of your essay and what you will need to cover.

The criteria also determine the scope and focus of your essay writing. This helps you narrow down your academic paper, for instance, an argumentative essay topic, to the key elements that will be assessed. Moreover, this enables you to design your essay in a manner that meets the specific requirements, aiding you in scoring higher grades on your academic paper.

Assessing your academic paper requirements also aids in creating clarity of expectations. By analyzing and understanding your essay requirements, you gain clarity of your examiner's or instructor's expectations when grading your essay.

Practical organization is also a product of understanding your essay requirements. In most instances, the grading criteria or rubric outlines the required structure of your essay. For example, you may be required to organize your ideas or paragraphs using subheadings where the essay is too long, while in other cases, you may need to adhere to the five-paragraph standard.

This understanding aids you in organizing your essay ideas in a manner that is coherent with the examiner's top criteria, making it easier for them to read through your academic paper and award your top grades. Still, in most instances, grades are awarded for the excellent organization of your essay.

A good understanding of your essay requirements aids in demonstrating specific skills and competencies while effectively communicating to the examiner that you mastered what was required. These skills include critical thinking and analytical skills, helping you graduate top of the class.

Boosting your confidence and preparation. Academic papers, including essays, are designed to test your mastery or prowess of particular topics and subjects. That is why grades are consistently awarded for the best academic papers, and those that fail to meet those standards are marked as failed.

As such, preparing an academic paper like an essay, research project, proposal, report, or any other type of academic writing can be a daunting task. However, with a good understanding of the requirements, you can approach the academic paper with confidence that you know and will address all the central elements being assessed. That way, you quickly reduce anxiety and boost your overall academic performance.

Research your Academic Paper/Essay Topic

There is no easy way to explain why researching your academic paper or essay topic should be the next step in your essay-writing process.

Thorough research enables you to;

Develop an in-depth mastery of your topic and analyze the credibility of information.

It helps you to consider diverse perspectives on your topic and demonstrate critical and analytical thinking in your final essay.

It strengthens your critical points with reliable information, further aiding you in meeting your essay requirements.

It helps you to prevent the unintentional reproduction or misrepresentation of related works by previous authors, thus helping you to avoid unintentional plagiarism and demonstrate high academic standards and integrity.

Develop a Thesis Statement for your Essay

A thesis statement is the most essential part of your essay or academic paper. In most cases, the thesis statement is your essay's foundation.

It is a brief but concise summary of the central theme of an essay, research paper, or any other type of academic writing. It is typically found as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph of an academic paper.

The primary purpose of a thesis statement in an academic paper is to present an author's position or main claim regarding the primary topic of study.

A thesis statement provides direction and a clear focus through which an academic paper is developed. The single sentence should be straightforward, debatable, and empirical and serve as the backbone of an academic paper.

Prepare a Detailed Outline and Structure for your Essay

Assuming you are building a house. An outline is an external structure indicating the main pillars of your construction project. It indicates where the house's foundation is situated, the supporting pillars, and where the main door and windows will be. If you have a walk around, you can already envision where every piece of your construction will be laid.

Similarly, an outline details every brick of your essay. The thesis statement is the foundation of your project, and it helps you organize your ideas and critical elements.

A paper outline should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Write a Draft Paper for your Essay/Academic Paper

After preparing an outline for your essay, it is time to add material. Below is a basic structure to prepare a draft for your essay or academic paper.

Your essay's introduction section should begin with a captivating hook to keep the reader curious about reading what you mean to present in your academic writing. The hook introduces your essay topic. It should then be followed with general information about your topic. The last paragraph of your introduction is typically the thesis statement, which is the backbone of your essay.

Body Paragraphs are succeeding paragraphs that carry the highest weight of your essay. They are comprised of topic sentences, followed by evidence within which borrowed information is presented with relevant citations and accreditations.

The Conclusion sums up your academic paper. You are required to restate your thesis without repeating it directly.

Writing your Final Essay/Academic Paper

Read through the draft and cross-check against the required writing criteria as you make the necessary amendments.

Proofread to ensure your essay writing skills are marked with the highest grammatical standards, eliminating syntax and related errors. You can use essential grammar-checking tools like Grammarly.