Tips in Essay Writing
Tips in Essay Writing
What is an Essay?
Before we proceed to the tips in essay writing, let us first define what an essay is.
An essay is a brief composition that informs, entertains, clarifies a certain topic, describes or analyzes something, or argues a specific issue. It is non-fiction which consists of an Introduction, Thesis Statement, Body, and Conclusion. It always has a core topic, and the subtopics elaborate, expound, and revolve around the main topic. In essay writing the 3.5 paper form or style is quite popular.
Students oftentimes encounter essay writing assignments in school. The essay could be as simple and short as a narration of a grade school student’s favorite pet, or it could be as complex and profound as a graduate student’s essay.
General Procedure and Tips in Essay Writing:
Here is a general step-by-step procedure and some tips in essay writing. It is the same as in feature writing, except that it does not put that much emphasis or importance on the thesis statement compared to essay writing. Sometimes a thesis statement is only an option in feature writing. The feature writer unintentionally writes a thesis statement.
1. Choose a topic
2. Decide on the Angle
3. Brainstorm and Narrow Down Topic
4. Write the Thesis statement
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body
7. Write the Conclusion
8. Proofread and Revise
9. Write Final Draft
Choose a topic for your essay
If the topic is already assigned, proceed to the next tip. Otherwise, choose a topic that would interest your target readers, something they could understand, and relate with. Choose something your intended readers will find useful, entertaining, and important.
Usually interesting topics are timely or current. Check out the news, you may find something interesting to write about. If it is not a current event, issues that happened in the past could also be catchy. It all depends on your essay writing style. The events in your life, those that do not happen everyday are good essay writing topics.
Just like in feature writing, you can write anything under the sun.
Decide on the Angle
Once you have chosen your topic, angle your essay. Angling is a critical move before the actual essay writing. This should be done with a wise sense of decision. For example, your essay writing topic is “a personal vacation.” Choose an angle or a side of the whole vacation experience. It is unwise to write about everything about what happened during that vacation, from the packing of your things before leaving to the unpacking when you arrived home. Even if you are writing a narrative essay try avoiding that style.
A good angle in essay writing could be writing about something you learned or realized when you are in vacation, something you considered an eye opening experience while you are on your way, or something you took for granted but then loved after your escapade. If there were any untoward incidents, or any unexpected, or note-worthy happenings during your vacation, that would be a good essay writing angle.
Brainstorm and Narrow Down Topic
After you have angled your essay, brainstorm. Randomly write down anything you could think of that is related to the topic with a specific angle. Your ideas could be in words or short phrases. Then lean back and take a closer look at the paper; look at the bigger picture and narrow down your topic.
Omit some ideas that are a little off focused from the topic and its angle. Of course, all of the ideas in your brainstorming sheet are related to your topic and angle, but surely some of them may be unnecessary.
Deleting ideas is considered a skill, I call it the “Art of Omission.” This is also a critical activity before the actual essay writing because once it is done poorly or it is not done at all, you will not be successful in putting a finality in your essay or any article you write, because a raw topic which is too broad will lead you to an endless course. Your essay will only be a piece of paper with too much scattered information on it, or an essay with a hanging ending.
Write the Thesis statement
The thesis statement is a one- or two-sentence with a single idea to which all of the remaining sentences in your whole essay refer to or connect with.
It should be concise, and tightly-written statement which asserts a point, or carries an argument.
In essay writing, the thesis statement could be considered as a summary. If you could tell or relate your essay in one or two sentences, that would be the thesis statement.
Most of the time it is found at the Introduction.
Write the Introduction
Just like in journalism, the introduction in essay writing should be a “bang!” For one reason: to grab your readers’ interest. Since it is the first material your target readers will encounter it should be strong enough to urge them to continue on reading your essay. But for narrative type of essays, the introduction is not really that explosive. But it should still be catchy.
Write the Body:
The Body in essay writing is the part where you expound, stretch, or explain the thesis statement or the ideas in the Introduction. This is the longest part in essay writing. This is where you lay down examples in connection with your thesis statement.
Write the Conclusion
The Conclusion most of the time is considered equally important with the Introduction,therefore it should be as catchy, interesting, and explosive as the Introduction. But I believe it is “more important” if not the “most important” part in essay writing or in any written article. Since it is the last material your readers will encounter, its content will be the freshest in their memories. It is the Conclusion that your readers will remember the most. In fact, if you ask somebody to say something about what he just read, the tendency would be, he will refer to the what’s written in the conclusion.
This part is where you summarize your essay or restate your thesis statement.
Proofread and Revise:
Proofreading simply connotes leaving a “proof” that you have “read” your essay after writing the conclusion. That “proof” are basic corrections on spelling, punctuations, capitalization, and basic grammar. Revising on the other hand is a more careful and in-depth alteration or correction of major errors on grammar, sentence and paragraph construction or syntax, diction or the choice of words, etc. Revision could also include improvement of vocabulary.
Revising is very important. Even seasoned writers rewrite and revise their essays. No body really gets it perfectly on the first draft.
This is the best time to review and check your thesis statement. You can review, improve, and strengthen it.
Write Final Draft
After proofreading and revising your essay, finalize it. This is where final touches and polishing are done. This is where the least work is done.
Additional Tips in Essay Writing:
Remember, this is just a general procedure in essay writing. Some writers may not follow this procedure. Some may already have written a rough conclusion before they could even write the introduction, or some may be more comfortable drafting the body before anything else. Some may start with the thesis statement. One useful tip in essay writing, or in any journalistic writing: study how you write, because every writer is different, then start where you are most comfortable with.
These are just but some tips in essay writing, study harder, do more researches, ask or interview other essayists, read and study well-written essays so you can learn more tips in essay writing and be a better writer.
