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 How
To Write An Essay
What is an essay?
- An essay is an argument
on paper in which you provide reasons to support your side of
the argument. In other words, you back up your opinion with facts.
- Essays begin with an opening
paragraph which hooks the reader by making an interesting comment,
briefly states the important supporting ideas, and states the
argument or main idea (thesis statement)
for the essay.
- The rest of the essay, the
body or middle paragraphs, presents convincing reasons and plenty
of evidence to support the main argument (thesis). Each reason
is presented in a separate paragraph where it is expanded with
details, examples, and facts. A typical essay in high school contains
three or more middle paragraphs in which the writer provides the
main reasons he or she has chosen to support the position that
he or she has taken as stated in the thesis.
- In the concluding paragraph,
the writer reviews the thesis and the argument's main supporting
ideas, and provides a final, general comment on the essay's topic
or position.
How do I write an essay?
Introduction
Introduce
the essay topic in the first few sentences. Make the opening sentence
a general statement about the theme or topic of your thesis. Make
it catch the readers' attention and have them want to continue
reading. Then briefly introduce the important supporting ideas
to be developed and discussed in the middle paragraphs. Make these
sentences flow from the opening statement to the thesis by using
transitional words and phrases such as "first", "additionally",
and so on. Finally, provide your thesis statement/main idea as
your final sentence in your introduction.
Middle Paragraphs
Each of the
supporting ideas introduced in the first paragraph is now developed
in a separate paragraph and forms the content of each of these
middle paragraphs. Each paragraph begins with a topic sentence
which announces the supporting idea to be developed. The remainder
of the paragraph develops and expands the topic sentence by providing
factual evidence, examples, reasons, and details. The paragraph
ends with a suitable general sentence that brings closure to the
idea and leads smoothly into the next middle paragraph.
Concluding Paragraph
In some ways,
the last paragraph of an essay is a mirror image of the first
paragraph. Begin your conclusion by reiterating your thesis, review
the important supporting ideas developed in your middle paragraphs,
and conclude with remarks that comment on the essay as a whole
and/or broaden the context of the information.
Referencing your Sources
Remember
that every time you use information from another source to support
the ideas in your essay, you need to cite those sources. Whether
you use direct quotations or simply paraphrase the information,
you need to reference your sources both in the text of your essay
and on a separate reference page at the end of your essay.
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