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Perfecting the skill of writing topic sentences is essential to successful writing. A topic sentence usually comes at the beginning of a paragraph and lets your reader know what to expect from each paragraph. Think of it as the preview for a movie or a headline in a newspaper, highlighting the “main point” that’s to come in that paragraph.^[1] Make sure your topic sentences are up to par, and the rest of your writing will feel like a breeze.

1
State your main idea clearly. Because your topic sentence is likely the first sentence of the paragraph, it needs to clearly state the subject matter of your paragraph without being wordy or difficult to understand. It must include your topic and an opinion, or your controlling idea.Make sure that the following sentences have details related to your topic sentence.^[2]
- Keep in mind that this is not an invitation to simply announce your topic. «Today I’m going to discuss the benefits of gardening» is not an effective topic sentence. You should be able to make your intentions clear without stating them explicitly.
- The topic sentence in this example states a clear direction (“health benefits of gardening”) that you can then elaborate on in your paragraph.
2
Balance the topic sentence between specifics and general ideas. The topic sentence needs to relate the paragraph to the thesis statement of the essay. However, you need to make sure that your topic sentence strikes a good balance between the broad and the narrow.^[3]^[4]
- Don’t write too vague or general an idea or you will never be able to discuss it in a single paragraph. This is too general: «The United States suffered a lot during the Civil War.»
- Don’t write too narrow of a statement. There’s nothing much to talk about then, because it’s probably a fact. This is too narrow: «Christmas trees are either cedars or firs.»
- Instead, aim for a good balance: “Sherman’s destruction in the South during the Civil War also caused incredible suffering.” This is big enough to relate to the broader idea of an essay, but not so narrow that there’s nothing left to discuss.
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3
Hook your reader. One of the many important roles of a topic sentence is to draw the readers in.^[5] Bring up questions in their minds that you intend to answer. An effective way to do this is to drop them straight into the action. This is possible whether your paper is fiction or nonfiction, and can be done in a number of ways:^[6]
- Describe a character. This can be a physical or emotional description.
- Use dialogue. If there is a relevant conversation that will attract your reader’s attention, consider using part of it to start your paragraph.
- Portray an emotion. Use the opening sentence to portray an emotion to your reader.
- Use detail. While you don’t want to write a run on sentence by creating too much detail, it’s a good idea to create interest using sensory language in your topic sentence.
- Avoid rhetorical questions. While you want your reader to formulate questions in his or her mind, you do not want to formulate the questions yourself.
4

Keep it short and sweet. The topic sentence should put forward your intention without forcing your reader to hunt it down; keeping it short will help keep your intention clear. The topic sentence should act as a middle ground in your paragraph: it should be slightly more specific than your thesis, but it should not encompass the information from your entire paragraph. Keeping the sentence short will also help the flow of your paragraph.^[7]
5
Give a reasonable opinion. The body of your paragraph is meant to prove your topic sentence. Therefore, your topic sentence should state something that you think or believe that can be supported by concrete evidence. You can choose to state an opinion in your topic sentence, but do so only if you are able to back it up in the following paragraph. Take, for example, the topic sentence «Growing herbs will further your appreciation for fresh cooking.» The phrase «further your appreciation» states something that you believe, and you can now spend the rest of the paragraph explaining why you believe what you believe.^[8]
- Avoid presenting only facts in your topic sentence. While facts may be interesting, they do not introduce the reader to your paragraph nor do they draw the reader in. If you wish to include a fact, also include your own input. For example, instead of writing «All dogs need food,» try «All dogs need regular care, including healthy food, and children are the best ones to do it.» Alternatively, save your facts to use as evidence in the body of your paragraph.
6
Use the topic sentence as a transition. Topic sentences that also work as transitions can help guide your readers through your argument, which can keep them from getting lost. Think of this sentence as a “bridge” between the main idea of the previous paragraph and the main idea of this next paragraph.^[9]
- Using transitional elements, such as “In addition” or “In contrast,” is a good way to show the relationship between your ideas.
- For example: “Although gardening has many health benefits, people still need to exercise caution when outside.” This topic sentence establishes a connection to the main idea of the previous paragraph (“health benefits of gardening”) and points to the direction of the new paragraph (“things to be cautious of”).

1
Write an essay outline. Every paragraph of your essay should have a main idea, point, or goal that you’re trying to get across. The topic sentence will identify that main idea. For you to write good topic sentences, you need to know what your paragraphs are going to be about. An outline will help you do that.^[10]
- You don’t have to write a formal outline using Roman numerals and the like. Even a loose, idea-based outline can help you know what you want to discuss.
2
Understand the connection between thesis statements and topic sentences. A thesis statement presents the main idea, goal, or argument of your essay. It may be an analytical thesis, such as “In King Lear, William Shakespeare uses the theme of fate to critique the religious beliefs of his era.” Or, it may be a thesis that attempts to persuade the reader of something, such as “Public funding for education should be expanded.” Topic sentences are like the mini-thesis statements of each paragraph.^[11]
- A topic sentence, unlike a thesis statement, doesn’t have to present an argument. It can present a “preview” of what the paragraph will argue or discuss.
3
Look at some examples. If you are new to writing topic sentences, it can help to look at some examples.^[12] The Purdue OWL has several pages with sample topic sentences.^[13] UNC Chapel Hill has a helpful online handout on paragraph development that includes a “model” paragraph and explains how to develop your own, from topic sentence to conclusion.^[14]
- For example, a topic sentence could look like this: “In addition, increasing funding for public roads in Jackson County will improve local residents’ quality of life.” The rest of the sentences in this paragraph would relate to the main idea of public roads and how they will help benefit local residents.
- This is not as successful a topic sentence: “Increased funding for public roads in Jackson County has decreased traffic by 20%.” While this is probably an interesting fact for your argument, it’s too narrow for a topic sentence. The topic sentence has to direct the whole paragraph.

1
Avoid introducing yourself. Although topic sentences vary in structure and content from person to person, at least two things can be assumed about your paper: 1) that you have a title and entire paper to introduce a topic, and 2) your personal information is present somewhere on your essay. Therefore, never use statements such as “I am going to tell you…” or “My paper is about…” or “I studied [this] which is important because of [this]”. The paragraphs/essay should tell me that information without an awkward topic sentence presentation.^[15]
- Unless it is an opinion piece, avoid using ‘I’ in your topic sentences.
2

Make sure your wording is clear. Although it may sound appealing to fill up your topic sentence with big, formidable vocabulary words, if your topic sentence isn’t clear your effort will simply sound forced and confused. Your reader should be able to tell right away what your paragraph is going to be about. Don’t muddle this by using vague opinions or confusing vocabulary. Keep your sentence clear and clean.^[16]
3
Don’t list off information. Although you want to give your readers a taste of what they can expect in your upcoming paragraph, you don’t want to show all your cards right at the beginning. Don’t make a list of what you’re going to talk about, but instead give a small taste of what is to follow in your paragraph. You don’t need to explain everything in your topic sentence, just mention it so the reader knows what to expect.
- Rather than stating something like “In the story, Amelia did many good things such as help out her friends, talk to her parents, and support her team at school” say something like “As a result of the many activities Amelia participated in, she was recognized for her positive influence on the community.”
4

Avoid starting with a quote. You may have a fantastic quote in mind that perfectly introduces your topic. The problem is…they’re not your words. The topic sentence should introduce the paragraph and hopefully include your opinion, not someone else’s. If the quote is opinion-based, substitute it for your own opinion. If the quote is fact-based, save it and introduce it later in your paragraph.^[17]
5

Don’t mention something you don’t intend to examine further. If you make a statement in your topic sentence, you should be doing so because your paragraph will explain it. Whether you give facts, opinions, or both, you should be clearly analyzing them in the paragraph attached to the topic sentence. Don’t fill up your topic sentence with filler material that you don’t intend to explain further.

Sample Topic Sentences

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What is the best topic sentence for a culture shock essay?

You could say «Due to the unfamiliarity of a culture, many individuals may feel separate from a community that follows different cultural traditions than their own.»
Question

How do I identify topic sentences?

Most of the times, it is the first sentence of the chunk or paragraph. The sentence that contains the main idea of the section/paragraph is called the topic sentence.
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What can I use as a topic sentence for the other uses of marijuana?

You could say «Aside from being a substance for recreational use, marijuana also has some uses in the medical field.»

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Avoid using words like you or we because it implies you know the reader, which you don’t.
In formal writing, avoid contractions such as «don’t,» «can’t,» and «isn’t.» Instead type them out to look like «do not,» «can not» and «is not.»
Type out all numbers under a ten.

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Article SummaryX

If you’re trying to write a good topic sentence, start by clearly stating your main idea, which should include the topic and the position you’re taking on it. Aim to write a sentence that’s broad enough for discussion but narrow enough to be covered in a single paragraph. If you can, start with a hook, like a detail, character, or emotion that would draw in your readers. For more advice from our reviewer on writing a good topic sentence, like how to make it effective while keeping it short and sweet, read on!

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Mercedes Easton

Dec 13, 2022

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When talking about academic writing, essay writing cannot be left out of the loop. It’s one of the most common types of writing exercises for university admissions, international exams, etc. As promised in our earlier article, today we’ll be talking about an opinion essay.

So, we’ll look at:

The structure of writing an “Opinion essay”.
Sample essays.
Useful language to use in the essays.
Tips.

An opinion essay is there to show your viewpoint on a particular topic, to prove your ideas. The structure is the following:

Paragraph 1_Introduction – a good introduction starts with the thesis statement (what the essay is going to be about), it should clearly state your opinion instead of leaving your readers in the dark. It should also include 3 reasons to back your viewpoint and highlight why you think the statement of the essay is true/false.Read more in this article.
Paragraph 2,3,4_Body – this is where you expand on the reasons you had mentioned in the introduction, provide reasons and examples to support them by giving as many valid details and facts as possible. Each paragraph matches 1 reason (3 reasons = 3 body paragraphs).
Paragraph 5_Conclusion – here you summarize your argument by restating the reasons mentioned in the essay. You can end the essay by a “call for action” phrase challenging the readers to take some action and reconsider their opinion if they differ from yours. Read more in this article.

This is what the simplest version looks like. However, depending on the level of language competency of your students you can choose to have 2 reasons.

In the input session, when presenting the structure of the essay, it’s best to work on sample essays to reinforce assimilation while learning on-job. I have been using the one here and it has been quite helpful for the students. Working on sample essays gives the students a chance to grasp the general point and not to get confused when working on the hometask.

It is a good idea to write a short sample essay in class as well, on a topic of your choice, so that you can monitor and see how confident the students feel about the new material. In my classroom the students are always writing the first piece in pairs to help each other and generate ideas for speculation. When doing so, bear in mind that it’s best if you have similar ability students working together, as the stronger one will always take over the writing leaving the weaker one unclear on both the task and the workflow. The recent topic I’ve used has been: “Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.”

Sample essays

Below, we’re going to look at a couple essays my students have come up with together with the feedback they’ve received. The sample you’ll see were the first drafts of the essay.

The task:

Write an Opinion essay on the following topic: “Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer”.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your viewpoint.
Word count 200-250.

Sample 1

You can see the feedback below.

The basic idea in providing feedback here is to try to guide the student to correct their mistakes themselves rather than provide them with the answers. It helps them to better assimilate the material.

As you can see from the essay above, the student had some issues with applying the correct structure together with some language errors. The next step is to work on the second draft and try to improve it following the comments and referring to the background information presented during the class.

Sample 2

When talking about academic writing, essay writing cannot be left out of the loop. It’s one of the most common types of writing exercises for university admissions, international exams, etc. As promised in our earlier article, today we’ll be talking about an opinion essay.

You can see the feedback below:

As you can see, this essay was much better formulated (this is a much stronger student), most of the comments have to do with word choice and formulation. The task for the second draft is the same — improve it based on the comments.

Useful language

To be really brilliant, one should know to use the right language to reach that effect. Apart from a correct structure, the essay should also be rich in linking devices, phrases and expressions that help the speech sound more sophisticated, well thought, cohesive and coherent. Below are some phrases that I’ve been using with my students to make their writing more connected and fluent.

Supporting your argument

Expressing opinion

Expression counter-arguments

Disagreeing with the others’ opinion

Summarizing

For more phrases, I’ve been using the resource here.

Finally, let’s look at some tips I’ve been sharing with my students as a summary of what they should/shouldn’t do when writing an opinion essay.

✓ Introduce each paragraph with a topic sentence, outlining the main ideas.

✓ Write in formal style. Avoid abbreviations and short forms.

✓ Use active voice. An opinion essay is about your opinion. This message won’t get to the reader if you use passive, impersonal structures.

✓ Vary your sentence structure. Change between long and short sentences, use multiple claus structures on one hand and simple sentences on the other. This will keep the reader’s interest.

✓ Use consistent tenses. Use present tenses most of the time besides when talking about past actions (research done, etc.)

✓ Do not write about advantages or disadvantages or points for or against.This is another style.

✓ Don’t use colloquial expressions and/or emotive vocabulary. Keep it professional and formal/semi-formal.

✓ Don’t use archaic terms. “Thus” and “alas” are not terms utilized in common English and hence, should not appear in the academic paper as well. It will sound very bookish and prosaic.

✓ Don’t use clichés. They are easy to use. For example, “too little, too late”, “better late than never”, etc. It is considered vague in an academic paper.

✓ Don’t be redundant. Be careful not to repeat the same ideas. This sometimes happens when you paraphrase the same idea and put it down differently with another wording.

Last but not the list. To make sure the students come up with the perfect piece of writing they need guidelines to follow apart from the background input session. Here is a checklist my students are using to make sure everything is as it is supposed to be.

Let us know how your opinion essay writing sessions go and what other tips do you have to share with your international colleagues :).

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Brainstorming your college essay topic
How to structure & outline a college essay
Montage structure
- The difference between a boring and a stand-out personal statement
- A quick word on “common” or “cliché” topics
- The “home” essay: a quick case study
- Five (more) ways to find a thematic thread for your personal statement
- Montage structure FAQ’s
Narrative structure
- Narrative structure FAQ’s

First, what is the college essay (i.e., the personal statement)?

This is your main essay. Your application centerpiece. The part of your application you’re likely to spend the most time on. But, of course, I’d say that—I’m the College Essay Guy.

The personal statement is likely to be 500-650 words long (so about a page) and many of the colleges you’re applying to will require it.

What’s its purpose? Jennifer Blask, Executive Director for International Admissions at the University of Rochester, puts it beautifully: “So much of the college application is a recounting of things past—past grades, old classes, activities the student has participated in over several years. The essay is a chance for the student to share who they are now and what they will bring to our campus communities.”

Basically, college admission officers are looking for three takeaways in your college essay:

Who is this person?
Will this person contribute something of value to our campus?
Can this person write?

Let’s do this.

Brainstorming your college essay topic

Would you Rather watch instead?

How to structure & outline a college essay

At the start of the essay process, I ask students two questions:

Have you faced significant challenges in your life?
Do you want to write about them?

Because here’s an important qualifier:

Even if you’ve faced challenges, you do not have to write about them in your personal statement.

I mention this now because, in my experience, many students are under the impression that they have to write about challenges—that it’s either expected, or that it’s somehow better to do so.

Neither is true.

I’ve seen many, many incredible essays—ones that got students into every school you’re hoping to get into—that had no central challenge.

If your answer is “Maybe … ?” because you’re not sure what qualifies as a challenge, it’s useful to think of challenges as being on a spectrum. On the weak end of the spectrum would be things like getting a bad grade or not making X sports team. On the strong end of the spectrum would be things like escaping war. Being extremely shy but being responsible for translating for your family might be around a 3 or 4 out of 10.

It’s possible to use Narrative Structure to write about a challenge anywhere on the spectrum, but it’s much, much harder to write an outstanding essay about a weaker challenge.

Sometimes students pick the hardest challenge they’ve been through and try to make it sound worse than it actually was. Beware of pushing yourself to write about a challenge merely because you think these types of essays are inherently “better.” Focusing myopically on one experience can sideline other brilliant and beautiful elements of your character.

If you’re still uncertain, don’t worry. I’ll help you decide what to focus on. But, for the sake of this blog post, answer those first two questions with a gut-level response.

	1. Challenges?	Yes/No
	2. Vision for your future?	Yes/No

In the sections that follow, I’ll introduce you to two structures: Narrative Structure, which works well for describing challenges, and Montage Structure, which works well for essays that aren’t about challenges.

Heads-up: Some students who have faced challenges find after reading that they prefer Montage Structure to Narrative Structure. Or vice versa. If you’re uncertain which approach is best for you, I generally recommend experimenting with montage first; you can always go back and play with narrative.

Montage Structure

A montage is, simply put, a series of moments or story events connected by a common thematic thread.

Well-known examples from movies include “training” montages, like those from Mulan, Rocky, or Footloose, or the “falling in love” montage from most romantic comedies. Or remember the opening to the Pixar movie Up? In just a few minutes, we learn the entire history of Carl and Ellie’s relationship. One purpose is to communicate a lot of information fast. Another is to allow you to share a lot of different kinds of information, as the example essay below shows.

Narrative Structure vs. Montage Structure explained in two sentences:

In Narrative Structure, story events connect chronologically.

In Montage Structure, story events connect thematically.

Here’s a metaphor:

Imagine that each different part of you is a bead and that a select few will show up in your essay. They’re not the kind of beads you’d find on a store-bought bracelet; they’re more like the hand-painted beads on a bracelet your little brother made for you.

The theme of your essay is the thread that connects your beads.

You can find a thread in many, many different ways. One way we’ve seen students find great montage threads is by using the 5 Things Exercise. I’ll get detailed on this a little bit later, but essentially, are there 5 thematically connected things that thread together different experiences/moments/events in your life? For example, are there 5 T-shirts you collected, or 5 homes or identities, or 5 entries in your Happiness Spreadsheet.

And to clarify, your essay may end up using only 4 of the 5 things. Or maybe 8. But 5 is a nice number to aim for initially.

Note the huge range of possible essay threads. To illustrate, here are some different “thread” examples that have worked well:

Sports have had a powerful influence on me, from my understanding of history, to numbers, to my relationships, extracurricular activities, and even my career choice.
I lived with 5 different families as an exchange student, and each one taught me something valuable that I’ll carry with me to college.
Crassulaceae plants, which can reproduce via stem or leaf fragments, are a great analogy for not only how I make art, but how I choose to live each day.
Binary star systems are a metaphor for my relationship with my parents.
I am “trans” in so many ways … let me describe a few.
To understand who I am, you must understand how I cook.
Pranks have shaped my life in a variety of ways.
The number 12 has influenced so much in my life, from my relationship to sports, to how I write, to my self-esteem.

All of these threads stemmed from the brainstorming exercises in this post.

We’ll look at an example essay in a minute, but before we do, a word (well, a bunch of words) on how to build a stronger montage (and the basic concept here also applies to building stronger narratives).

To frame how to think about possible topics …

Imagine you’re interviewing for a position as a fashion designer, and your interviewer asks you what qualities make you right for this position. Oh, and heads-up: That imaginary interviewer has already interviewed a hundred people today, so you’d best not roll up with, “because I’ve always loved clothes” or “because fashion helps me express my creativity.” Why shouldn’t you say those things? Because that’s what everyone says.

Many students are the same in their personal statements—they name cliché qualities/skills/values and don’t push their reflections much further.

Why is this a bad idea?

Let me frame it this way:

The difference between a boring and a stand-out personal statement

A boring personal statement chooses a common topic, makes common connections, and uses common language.

A stand-out personal statement chooses an uncommon topic, makes uncommon connections, and uses uncommon language.

Examples:

Boring personal statement: I want to be a doctor (common topic) because I’m empathetic and I love helping people (common connections) and I really want to make the world a better place (common language).
Better personal statement: I want to run a tech-startup (more uncommon topic) because I value humor, “leading from the battlefield,” and stuff that makes me cry (uncommon connections for an essay on this topic), and because my journey to this place took me from being a scrawny 12-year-old kid to a scrawny 12-year-old man (uncommon language).

Important: I’m not saying you should pick a weird topic/thread just so it’ll help you stand out more on your essay. Be honest. But consider this: The more common your topic is … the more uncommon your connections need to be if you want to stand out.

What do I mean?

For example, tons of students write doctor/lawyer/engineer essays; if you want to stand out, you need to say a few things that others don’t tend to say.

How do you figure out what to say? By making uncommon connections.

They’re the key to a stand-out essay.

The following two-part exercise will help you do this.

2-minute exercise: Start with the cliché version of your essay.

What would the cliché version of your essay focus on?

If you’re writing a “Why I want to be an engineer” essay, for example, what 3-5 common “engineering” values might other students have mentioned in connection with engineering? Use the Values Exercise for ideas.

Collaboration? Efficiency? Hands-on work? Probably yes to all three.

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

8-Minute Exercise: Brainstorm uncommon connections.

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.

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.

And before you beg me for an “uncommon values” resource, I implore you to use your brilliant brain to dream up these connections. Plus, you aren’t looking for uncommon values in general; you’re looking for values uncommonly associated with your topic/thread.

Don’t get me wrong … I’m not saying you shouldn’t list any common values, since some common values may be an important part of your story! In fact, the great essay examples throughout this book sometimes make use of common connections. I’m simply encouraging you to go beyond the obvious.

Also note that a somewhat-common lesson (e.g., “I found my voice”) can still appear in a stand-out essay. But if you choose this path, you’ll likely need to use either an uncommon structure or next-level craft to create a stand-out essay.

Where can you find ideas for uncommon qualities/skills/values?

Here are four places:

1. The Values Exercise

This is basically a huge list of qualities/skills/values that could serve you in a future career.

2. O*Net Online

Go to www.onetonline.org and use the “occupation quick search” feature to search for your career. Once you do, a huge list will appear containing knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for your career. This is one of my favorite resources for this exercise.

3. School websites

Go to a college’s website and click on a major or group of majors that interest you. Sometimes they’ll briefly summarize a major in terms of what skills it’ll impart or what jobs it might lead to. Students are often surprised to discover how broadly major-related skills can apply.

4. Real humans

Ask 3 people in this profession what unexpected qualities, values, or skills prepared them for their careers. Please don’t simply use their answers as your own; allow their replies to inspire your brainstorming process.

Once you’ve got a list of, say, 7-10 qualities, move on to the next step.

A quick word on “common” or “cliché” topics

Common personal statement topics include extracurricular activities (sports or musical instruments), service trips to foreign countries (aka the “mission trip” essay where the author realizes their privilege), sports injuries, family illnesses, deaths, divorce, the “meta” essay (e.g., “As I sit down to write my college essays, I think about…”), or someone who inspired you (common mistake: This usually ends up being more about them than you).

While I won’t say you should never write about these topics, if you do decide to write about one of these topics, the degree of difficulty goes way up. What do I mean? Essentially, you have to be one of the best “soccer” essays or “mission trip” essays among the hundreds the admission officer has likely read (and depending on the school, maybe the hundreds they’ve read this year). So it makes it much more difficult to stand out.

How do you stand out? A cliché is all in how you tell the story. So, if you do choose a common topic, work to make uncommon connections (i.e., offer unexpected narrative turns or connections to values), provide uncommon insights (i.e., say stuff we don’t expect you to say) or uncommon language (i.e., phrase things in a way we haven’t heard before).

Or explore a different topic. You are infinitely complex and imaginative.

Sample montage essay:

MY LAPTOP STICKERS

My laptop is like a passport. It is plastered with stickers all over the outside, inside, and bottom. Each sticker is a stamp, representing a place I’ve been, a passion I’ve pursued, or community I’ve belonged to. These stickers make for an untraditional first impression at a meeting or presentation, but it’s one I’m proud of. Let me take you on a quick tour:

“We <3 Design,” bottom left corner. Art has been a constant for me for as long as I can remember. Today my primary engagement with art is through design. I’ve spent entire weekends designing websites and social media graphics for my companies. Design means more to me than just branding and marketing; it gives me the opportunity to experiment with texture, perspective, and contrast, helping me refine my professional style.

“Common Threads,” bottom right corner. A rectangular black and red sticker displaying the theme of the 2017 TEDxYouth@Austin event. For years I’ve been interested in the street artists and musicians in downtown Austin who are so unapologetically themselves. As a result, I’ve become more open-minded and appreciative of unconventional lifestyles. TED gives me the opportunity to help other youth understand new perspectives, by exposing them to the diversity of Austin where culture is created, not just consumed.

Poop emoji, middle right. My 13-year-old brother often sends his messages with the poop emoji ‘echo effect,’ so whenever I open a new message from him, hundreds of poops elegantly cascade across my screen. He brings out my goofy side, but also helps me think rationally when I am overwhelmed. We don’t have the typical “I hate you, don’t talk to me” siblinghood (although occasionally it would be nice to get away from him); we’re each other’s best friends. Or at least he’s mine.

“Lol ur not Harry Styles,” upper left corner. Bought in seventh grade and transferred from my old laptop, this sticker is torn but persevering with layers of tape. Despite conveying my fangirl-y infatuation with Harry Styles’ boyband, One Direction, for me Styles embodies an artist-activist who uses his privilege for the betterment of society. As a $42K donor to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, a hair donor to the Little Princess Trust, and promoter of LGBTQ+ equality, he has motivated me to be a more public activist instead of internalizing my beliefs.

“Catapult,” middle right. This is the logo of a startup incubator where I launched my first company, Threading Twine. I learned that business can provide others access to fundamental human needs, such as economic empowerment of minorities and education. In my career, I hope to be a corporate advocate for the empowerment of women, creating large-scale impact and deconstructing institutional boundaries that obstruct women from working in high-level positions. Working as a women’s rights activist will allow me to engage in creating lasting movements for equality, rather than contributing to a cycle that elevates the stances of wealthy individuals.

“Thank God it’s Monday,” sneakily nestled in the upper right corner. Although I attempt to love all my stickers equally (haha), this is one of my favorites. I always want my association with work to be positive.

And there are many others, including the horizontal, yellow stripes of the Human Rights Campaign; “The Team,” a sticker from the Model G20 Economics Summit where I collaborated with youth from around the globe; and stickers from “Kode with Klossy,” a community of girls working to promote women’s involvement in underrepresented fields.

When my computer dies (hopefully not for another few years), it will be like my passport expiring. It’ll be difficult leaving these moments and memories behind, but I probably won’t want these stickers in my 20s anyways (except Harry Styles, that’s never leaving). My next set of stickers will reveal my next set of aspirations. They hold the key to future paths I will navigate, knowledge I will gain, and connections I will make.

— — —

Cool, huh? And see what I mean about how you can write a strong personal statement without focusing on challenges you’ve faced?

Going back to that “thread and beads” metaphor with the “My Laptop Sticker” essay:

The “beads” are the different experiences that link to the values of creativity, open-mindedness, humor, courage, and entrepreneurialism.
The “thread” (i.e., the theme that ties everything together) is her laptop stickers. Each one represents a quality of the author’s personality. Actually, there’s a second thematic thread: Those qualities will also serve her in her women’s rights activism. Bonus!

The outline that got her there

Here’s the outline for the “My Laptop Stickers” essay. Notice how each bullet point discusses a value or values, connected to different experiences via her thread, and sets up the insights she could explore. (Insight, though, is the toughest part of the writing process, and will probably take the most revision, so it’s fine if you don’t have great insights in an outline or first draft. But you’ll want to get to them by your final draft.)

She found this thread essentially by using The Five Things Exercise in conjunction with the other brainstorming exercises.

Thread—Laptop Stickers

We <3 Design → art, design, experimentation
- Ex: spent weekend designing websites, graphics for my companies
- Developed my own style
Common Threads → authenticity, open-mindedness
- Ex: street artists, musicians in Austin
- Creating not just consuming culture
Poop emoji → family, goofy side
- Brother, interactions, thinking rationally
- vuln…
Lol ur not Harry Styles → equality, activism, confidence
- Various activism as motivation/reminder to act vs just internalize
- My growth with acting/speaking up
Catapult → entrepreneurship, social justice, awareness, meaningful work
- Threaded Twine, women’s rights, breaking cycles
- Discovered my career
Thank God it’s Monday → enjoyable work
- Importance of experience/framing
- Want work to always be this way
The Team → collaboration
- Model G20 Econ Summit, group collaboration
Kode with Klossy → community, social justice
- Promoting women in underrepresented fields

Okay, so if you’re on board so far, here’s what you need:

Some stuff to write about (ideally 4-10 things) that will make up the “beads” of your essay, and
Something to connect all the different “beads” (like a connective theme or thread)

First, let’s talk about …

How to generate lots of ‘stuff’ to write about (aka the beads for your bracelet)

Complete all the brainstorming exercises.

Already did that? Great! Move on!

Didn’t do that? Go back, complete the exercises, and then …

Case study: How to find a theme for your personal statement (aka the thread that connects the beads of your bracelet)

Let’s look at an example of how I helped one student find her essay thread, then I’ll offer you some exercises to help you find your own.

The “Home” essay: A quick case study

First, take a look at this student’s Essence Objects and 21 Details:

My Essence Objects

Bojangle’s Tailgate Special/Iced Tea
Light blue fuzzy blanket
A box containing my baby tooth
Band-Aid
Car keys
Gold bracelet from my grandfather
Orange, worn Nike Free Run Sneakers
Duke basketball game ticket
Palestine flag rubber wristband/ISEF Lanyard
Friendship bracelet
A pair of headphones
Smores
Yin-yang symbol
Worn, green Governor’s School East lanyard

My 21 Details

I’ve been known to have terrible spatial awareness despite being a dancer. Just last week, my shoelace got caught in an escalator and I tripped about 20 people.
Zumba and kickboxing are my favorite forms of exercise and I’m hopefully going to become certified to teach Zumba soon.
I have misophonia—sometimes I even have to eat dinner in a different room from my family.
My go-to drinks are Hi-C and Sweet Tea.
I became a pescatarian this year to avoid fried chicken, and I can honestly get a life’s worth of meat out of cod, salmon, tilapia, shrimp, you name it.
I collect funky socks—at this point, I have socks with tacos, snowmen, Santa, and even animals wearing glasses.
I’ve gotten different Myers-Briggs personality types every time I took the test. The most recent ones are ENFJ and ENFP.
I have no immediate relatives in America besides my mom, dad, and sister.
I am a diehard Duke basketball fan, and I can identify all of the Duke basketball fans at my high school on one hand.
I love discussing psychology, but sometimes I psychoanalyze.
Singing while driving is honestly one of my favorite pastimes.
My alarm for school every morning is at 5:42 am.
I hope to complete a half and full marathon within the next four years, despite not having run a 5k yet.
I realized the tooth fairy wasn’t real after I lost my second tooth, but I pretended that I still believed in it until I was in 5th grade for the tooth fairy’s “gifts”.
I could eat fruits for every single meal.
I don’t do well with confrontation.
Airports are hands-down my favorite place to be, but I hate airplanes.
If I’m not busy or working, you can usually find me in my hammock in the backyard.
I find that I form the deepest connections with people after 12am.
Sometimes, I like TV spoilers.

How this author found her thematic thread

When I met with this student for the first time, I began asking questions about her objects and details: “What’s up with the Bojangle’s Iced Tea? What’s meaningful to you about the Governor’s School East lanyard? Tell me about your relationship to dance …”

We were thread-finding … searching for an invisible connective [something] that would allow her to talk about different parts of her life.

Heads-up: Some people are really good at this—counselors are often great at this—while some folks have a more difficult time. Good news: When you practice the skill of thread-finding, you can become better at it rather quickly.

You should also know that sometimes it takes minutes to find a thread and sometimes it can take weeks. With this student, it took less than an hour.

I noticed in our conversation that she kept coming back to things that made her feel comfortable. She also repeated the word “home” several times. When I pointed this out, she asked me, “Do you think I could use ‘home’ as a thread for my essay?”

“I think you could,” I said.

Read her essay below, then I’ll share more about how you can find your own thematic thread.

HOME

As I enter the double doors, the smell of freshly rolled biscuits hits me almost instantly. I trace the fan blades as they swing above me, emitting a low, repetitive hum resembling a faint melody. After bringing our usual order, the “Tailgate Special,” to the table, my father begins discussing the recent performance of Apple stock with my mother, myself, and my older eleven year old sister. Bojangle’s, a Southern establishment well known for its fried chicken and reliable fast food, is my family’s Friday night restaurant, often accompanied by trips to Eva Perry, the nearby library. With one hand on my breaded chicken and the other on Nancy Drew: Mystery of Crocodile Island, I can barely sit still as the thriller unfolds. They’re imprisoned! Reptiles! Not the enemy’s boat! As I delve into the narrative with a sip of sweet tea, I feel at home.

“Five, six, seven, eight!” As I shout the counts, nineteen dancers grab and begin to spin the tassels attached to their swords while walking heel-to-toe to the next formation of the classical Chinese sword dance. A glance at my notebook reveals a collection of worn pages covered with meticulously planned formations, counts, and movements. Through sharing videos of my performances with my relatives or discovering and choreographing the nuances of certain regional dances and their reflection on the region’s distinct culture, I deepen my relationship with my parents, heritage, and community. When I step on stage, the hours I’ve spent choreographing, creating poses, teaching, and polishing are all worthwhile, and the stage becomes my home.

Set temperature. Calibrate. Integrate. Analyze. Set temperature. Calibrate. Integrate. Analyze. This pulse mimics the beating of my heart, a subtle rhythm that persists each day I come into the lab. Whether I am working under the fume hood with platinum nanoparticles, manipulating raw integration data, or spraying a thin platinum film over pieces of copper, it is in Lab 304 in Hudson Hall that I first feel the distinct sensation, and I’m home. After spending several weeks attempting to synthesize platinum nanoparticles with a diameter between 10 and 16 nm, I finally achieve nanoparticles with a diameter of 14.6 nm after carefully monitoring the sulfuric acid bath. That unmistakable tingling sensation dances up my arm as I scribble into my notebook: I am overcome with a feeling of unbridled joy.

Styled in a t-shirt, shorts, and a worn, dark green lanyard, I sprint across the quad from the elective ‘Speaking Arabic through the Rassias Method’ to ‘Knitting Nirvana’. This afternoon is just one of many at Governor’s School East, where I have been transformed from a high school student into a philosopher, a thinker, and an avid learner. While I attend GS at Meredith College for Natural Science, the lessons learned and experiences gained extend far beyond physics concepts, serial dilutions, and toxicity. I learn to trust myself to have difficult yet necessary conversations about the political and economic climate. Governor’s School breeds a culture of inclusivity and multidimensionality, and I am transformed from “girl who is hardworking” or “science girl” to someone who indulges in the sciences, debates about psychology and the economy, and loves to swing and salsa dance. As I form a slip knot and cast on, I’m at home.

My home is a dynamic and eclectic entity. Although I’ve lived in the same house in Cary, North Carolina for 10 years, I have found and carved homes and communities that are filled with and enriched by tradition, artists, researchers, and intellectuals. While I may not always live within a 5 mile radius of a Bojangle’s or in close proximity to Lab 304, learning to become a more perceptive daughter and sister, to share the beauty of my heritage, and to take risks and redefine scientific and personal expectations will continue to impact my sense of home.

— — —

Rad essay, huh?

But here’s the question I get most often about this technique: How do I find my thematic thread?

Five (more) ways to find a thematic thread for your personal statement

1. The “Bead-Making” Exercise (5-8 min.)

In the example above, we started with the beads, and then we searched for a thread. This exercise asks you to start with the thread of something you know well and then create the beads. Here’s how it works:

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

For example, I know a lot about …

Words/language
Games
Productivity
Voices/accents
Self-help books

If you can only think of 3 or 4, that’s okay.

Step 2: Pick one of the things you wrote down, flip your paper over, and write it at the top of your paper, like this:

This is your thread, or a potential thread.

Step 3: Underneath what you wrote down, name 5-6 values you could connect to this. These will serve as the beads of your essay. You can even draw a thread connecting your beads, if you want, like this:

Step 4: For each value, write down a specific example, memory, image, or essence object that connects to that value. Example:

My thread: Games

My beads: Connection, creativity, fun/laughter, family, competition, knowledge

Here are my examples/memories/images/essence objects:

Connection: One memory I have is playing “I love” in a circle at camp with 20 friends and strangers. I still marvel at how quickly it helped us bond.
Creativity: After I understand how a game works, I like to try to improve it by tweaking the rules. Two examples: 1) I remember when I was young trying to find the right amount of money for the Free Parking space in Monopoly, and 2) recently, I learned the game Guesstimation is so much better if you add wagers. I see my 4-year-old daughter tweaks games too, which drives my wife crazy, as she likes to play by the rules of the game.
Fun/laughter: As I’ve aged, so much of my life has become planned/programmed, but I can still enjoy losing track of time with board games. Two weeks ago, for example, I laughed so hard I cried while playing Drawful with Lisa, Andy, and Sage.
Family: We played games like Charades and Jeopardy when I was young. (My dad was the Game Master who would come up with the categories. As I grew older, I took over the role of Game Master.)
Competition: People don’t know this about me because I seem so chill, but I am incredibly competitive. Things I rarely lose at: ping pong, Tetris, foosball, and corn hole. I’ve gotten much better over the years at hiding my competitive side, but it’s still there.
Knowledge: Can’t really think of much on this one—maybe something related to Jeopardy?

This is an actual brainstorm I did using this exercise.

And, as I write these things down, I notice a theme of youth/old age emerging. Games have changed for me as I’ve gotten older. Note that I couldn’t come up with something for the last one, “knowledge,” which is fine.

The point is this: If you know a thing well, odds are good you’ll be able to make a lot of connections to your values. And if you can find specific examples for each value, that can make for interesting paragraphs in your personal statement.

If you’re willing to spend a few more minutes, ask “so what?” of each example to see if a specific insight emerges.

And, in case you want a formula for what I’m describing, here you go:

One bead = value + example + insight

… and all that = one paragraph

Once you’ve written down the values and at least one example (e.g., a memory, image, essence object) for each bead, see if you have enough content for an essay.

Still haven’t found your theme? Here are …

More ways to find a thematic thread for your personal statement

2. The “Five Things” Exercise

(Special thanks to my colleague, Dori Middlebrook, for this one.)

I mentioned this when we first started talking about Montage Structure. Similar to the “bead-making” exercise above, you identify the thread first and then develop the beads.

Step 1: Write down 5 similar things that are meaningful to you in different ways.

Examples: Five Pairs of Shoes I’ve Worn, Five Houses I’ve Lived In, Five Photographs in My Room, Five Ways Cooking Has Influenced Me, etc.

Step 2: Begin by simply naming the 5 different items.

Example: High-top tennis shoes, flip-flops, heels, cleats, bunny slippers

Step 3: Add physical details so we can visualize each one.

Step 4: Add more details. Maybe tell a story for each.

Pro tip: Try connecting each of the 5 to a different value.

Step 5: Expand on each description further and start to connect the ideas to develop them into an essay draft.

3. Thread-finding with a partner

Grab someone who knows you well (e.g., a counselor, friend, family member). Share all your brainstorming content with them and ask them to mirror back to you what they’re seeing. It can be helpful if they use reflective language and ask lots of questions. An example of a reflective observation is: “I’m hearing that ‘building’ has been pretty important in your life … is that right?” You’re hunting together for a thematic thread—something that might connect different parts of your life and self.

4. Thread-finding with photographs

Pick 10 of your favorite photos or social media posts and write a short paragraph on each one. Why’d you pick these photos? What do they say about you? Then ask yourself, “What are some things these photos have in common?” Bonus points: Can you find one thing that connects all of them?

5. Reading lots of montage example essays that work

You’ll find some here, here, and here. While you may be tempted to steal those thematic threads, don’t. Try finding your own. Have the courage to be original. You can do it.

Montage Structure FAQs

Q: How do I work in extracurricular activities in a tasteful way (so it doesn’t seem like I’m bragging)?

A: Some counselors caution, with good reason, against naming extracurricular activities/experiences in your personal statement. (It can feel redundant with your Activities List.) You actually can mention them, just make sure you do so in context of your essay’s theme. Take another look at the eighth paragraph of the “My Laptop Stickers” essay above, for example:

And there are many [other stickers], including the horizontal, yellow stripes of the Human Rights Campaign; “The Team,” a sticker from the Model G20 Economics Summit where I collaborated with youth from around the globe; and stickers from “Kode with Klossy,” a community of girls working to promote women’s involvement in underrepresented fields.

A description of these extracurricular activities may have sounded like a laundry list of the author’s accomplishments. But because she’s naming other stickers (which connects them to the essay’s thematic thread), she basically gets to name-drop those activities while showing other parts of her life. Nice.

One more way to emphasize a value is to combine or disguise it with humor. Example: “Nothing teaches patience (and how to tie shoes really fast) like trying to wrangle 30 first-graders by yourself for 10 hours per week,” or “I’ve worked three jobs, but I’ve never had to take more crap from my bosses than I did this past summer while working at my local veterinarian’s office.”

In each of these examples, the little bit of humor covers the brag. Each is basically pointing out that the author had to work a lot and it wasn’t always fun. No need to push this humor thing, though. Essays don’t need to be funny to be relatable, and if the joke doesn’t come naturally, it might come across as trying too hard.

Q: How do I transition between examples so my essay “flows” well?

A: The transitions are the toughest part of this essay type. Fine-tuning them will take some time, so be patient. One exercise I love is called Revising Your Essay in 5 Steps, and it basically works like this:

Highlight the first sentence of each of your paragraphs in bold, then read each one aloud in order. Do they connect, creating a short version of your essay? If not:
Rewrite the bold sentences so that they do connect (i.e., flow) together. Once you’ve done that …
Rewrite each paragraph so it flows from those bolded sentences.
Read them aloud again. Wash, rinse, repeat until the ideas flow together.

This is a great way to figure out the “bones” (i.e., structure) of your essay.

Q: What am I looking for again?

A: You’re looking for two things:

Parts of yourself that are essential to who you are (e.g., values or “islands of your personality”), and
A theme that connects them all.

Your theme could be something mundane (like your desk) or something everyone can relate to (like the concept of home), but make sure that it is elastic (i.e. can connect to many different parts of you) and visual, as storytelling made richer with images.

Each of the values creates an island of your personality and a paragraph for your essay.

Montage step-by-step recap:

Review your brainstorming exercises and look for threads that connect 4-7 different values through 4-7 different experiences.
Choose an order for your examples. Consider describing one example per paragraph.
Create an outline.
Write a first draft. Once you do …
Consider using the Revising Your Essay in 5 Steps Exercise to clarify your transitions.

Q: This is hard! I’m not finding it yet and I want to give up. What should I do?

A: Don’t give up! Remember: be patient. This takes time. If you need inspiration, or assurance that you’re on the right track, check out Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk, “Your Elusive Creative Genius.”

All right, moving on.

Narrative Structure

If you answered “yes” to both questions at the beginning of this guide, I recommend exploring Narrative Structure. I’ll explain this in more detail below.

My favorite content-generating exercise for Narrative Structure is the Feelings and Needs Exercise. It takes about 20 minutes (but do feel free to take longer—more time brainstorming and outlining leads to better, faster writing). Here’s how it works:

The Feelings and Needs Exercise

Time: 15-20 minutes

Instructions: You’ll find them here.

If you haven’t completed the exercise, please do it now.

(And this is a dramatic pause before I tell you the coolest thing about what you just did.)

…

You may notice that your completed Feelings and Needs chart maps out a potential structure for your personal statement. If you’re not seeing it, try turning your paper so that the challenges are at the top of your page and the effects are below them.

Voila. A rough outline for a narrative essay.

To clarify, this isn’t a perfect way to outline an essay. You may not want to spend an entire paragraph describing your feelings, for example, or you may choose to describe your needs in just one sentence. And now that you see how it frames the story, you may want to expand on certain columns. However, the sideways Feelings and Needs chart can help you think about how the chronology of your experiences might translate into a personal statement.

Here’s an essay that one student wrote after completing this exercise:

The Birth of Sher Khan

The narrow alleys of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan where I spent the first 7 years of my life were infiltrated with the stench of blood and helplessness. I grew up with Geo news channel, with graphic images of amputated limbs and the lifeless corpses of uncles, neighbors, and friends. I grew up with hurried visits to the bazaar, my grandmother in her veil and five-year-old me, outrunning spontaneous bomb blasts. On the open rooftop of our home, where the hustle and bustle of the city were loudest, I grew up listening to calls to prayer, funeral announcements, gunshots. I grew up in the aftermath of 9/11, confused.

Like the faint scent of mustard oil in my hair, the war followed me to the United States. Here, I was the villain, responsible for causing pain. In the streets, in school, and in Baba’s taxi cab, my family and I were equated with the same Taliban who had pillaged our neighborhood and preyed on our loved ones.

War followed me to freshman year of high school when I wanted more than anything to start new and check off to-dos in my bullet journal. Every time news of a terror attack spread, I could hear the whispers, visualize the stares. Instead of mourning victims of horrible crimes, I felt personally responsible, only capable of focusing on my guilt. The war had manifested itself in my racing thoughts and bitten nails when I decided that I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let it win.

A mission to uncover parts of me that I’d buried in the war gave birth to a persona: Sher Khan, the tiger king, my radio name. As media head at my high school, I spend most mornings mastering the art of speaking and writing lighthearted puns into serious announcements. Laughter, I’ve learned, is one of the oldest forms of healing, a survival tactic necessary in war, and peace too.

During sophomore year, I found myself in International Human Rights, a summer course at Cornell University that I attended through a local scholarship. I went into class eager to learn about laws that protect freedom and came out knowledgeable about ratified conventions, The International Court of Justice, and the repercussions of the Srebrenica massacre. To apply our newfound insight, three of my classmates and I founded our own organization dedicated to youth activism and spreading awareness about human rights violations: Fight for Human Rights. Today, we have seven state chapters led by students across the U.S and a chapter in Turkey too. Although I take pride in being Editor of the Golden State’s chapter, I enjoy having written articles about topics that aren’t limited to violations within California. Addressing and acknowledging social issues everywhere is the first step to preventing war.

Earlier this year, through KQED, a Bay Area broadcasting network, I was involved in a youth takeover program, and I co-hosted a Friday news segment about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, the travel ban, and the vaping epidemic. Within a few weeks, my panel and interview were accessible worldwide, watched by my peers in school, and family thousands of miles away in Pakistan. Although the idea of being so vulnerable initially made me nervous, I soon realized that this vulnerability was essential to my growth.

I never fully escaped war; it’s evident in the chills that run down my spine whenever an untimely call reaches us from family members in Pakistan and in the funerals still playing on Geo News. But I’m working towards a war-free life, internally and externally, for me and the individuals who can share in my experiences, for my family, and for the forgotten Pashtun tribes from which I hail. For now, I have everything to be grateful for. War has taught me to recognize the power of representation, to find courage in vulnerability, and best of all, to celebrate humor.

— — —

Fun fact: This essay was written by a student in one of my online courses who, as she shared this version with me, called it a “super rough draft.”

I wish my super rough drafts were this good.

I share this essay with you not only because it’s a super awesome essay that was inspired by the Feelings and Needs Exercise, but also because it offers a beautiful example of what I call the …

Narrative Structure

You can think of a narrative essay as having three basic sections: Challenges + Effects; What I Did About It; What I Learned. Your word count will be pretty evenly split between the three, so for a 650-word personal statement, 200ish each.

To get a little more nuanced, within those three basic sections, a narrative often has a few specific story beats. There are plenty of narratives that employ different elements (for example, collectivist societies often tell stories in which there isn’t one central main character/hero, but it seems hard to write a college personal statement that way, since you’re the focus here). You’ve seen these beats before—most Hollywood films use elements of this structure, for example.

Status Quo: The starting point of the story. This briefly describes the life or world of the main character (in your essay, that’s you).
The Inciting Incident: The event that disrupts the Status Quo. Often it’s the worst thing that could happen to the main character. It gets us to wonder: Uh-oh … what will they do next? or How will they solve this problem?
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.
Moment of Truth: The climax. Often this is when our main character must make a choice.
New Status Quo: The denouement or falling action. This often tells us why the story matters or what our main character has learned. Think of these insights or lessons as the answer to the big “so what?” question.

For example, take a look at “The Birth of Sher Khan” essay above.

Notice that roughly the first third focuses on the challenges she faced and the effects of those challenges.

Roughly the next third focuses on actions she took regarding those challenges. (Though she also sprinkles in lessons and insight here.)

The final third contains lessons and insights she learned through those actions, reflecting on how her experiences have shaped her. (Again, with the caveat that What She Did and What She Learned are somewhat interwoven, and yours likely will be as well. But the middle third is more heavily focused on actions, and the final third more heavily focused on insight.)

And within those three sections, notice the beats of her story: Status Quo, The Inciting Incident, Raising the Stakes/Rising Action, Moment of Truth, New Status Quo.

How does the Feelings and Needs Exercise map onto those sections?

Pretty directly.

At the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, The Challenges and Effects columns of the Feelings and Needs Exercise … are the Challenges + Effects portion of your essay. Same with What I Did and What I Learned.

The details in your Feelings and Needs columns can be spread throughout the essay. And it’s important to note that it’s useful to discuss some of your feelings and needs directly, but some will be implied.

For example, here’s the Feelings and Needs Exercise map of the “Sher Khan” essay. And I know I just mentioned this, but I want you to notice something that’s so important, I’m writing it in bold: The author doesn’t explicitly name every single effect, feeling, or need in her essay. Why not? First, she’s working within a 650-word limit. Second, she makes room for her reader’s inferences, which can often make a story more powerful. Take a look:

Challenge 1: She grows up surrounded by war, which is explicitly stated.
Challenge 2: She comes to the U.S. to find safety (a need), which is implied, but instead, she is villainized, which is explicitly stated.
Effects: She is ostracized after arriving in the U.S. “Every time news of a terror attack spread,” she writes, “I could hear the whispers, visualize the stares.” Other effects are implied, and we are left to imagine—and feel for ourselves—the kind of impact this might have had on her, and on us. Vulnerability creates connection.
Feelings: Growing up in the aftermath of 9/11 leaves her feeling confused, and after she is shunned, she describes being unable to mourn the victims of horrible crimes, instead feeling “personally responsible, only capable of focusing on [her] own guilt.” She explicitly names confusion and guilt, but she doesn’t name all the things she felt, of course, as there’s no need. Here, naming 1-2 key emotions helps us understand her inner world. If you choose to do the same in your essay, it’ll help readers understand yours.
Needs: As I read this essay, I can imagine the author needed safety, order, love, respect, reassurance, connection, and many more. But these are implied by the story events and need not be explicitly stated. In fact, spelling these things out might have made the essay sound weird. Imagine if she’d said, “I needed safety and order” at the end of the first paragraph and “I needed respect, reassurance, and connection” at the end of the second paragraph. That might sound awkward or too obvious, right? While identifying your needs is a great tool for understanding your story (and self) on a deeper level, there’s no need to explicitly state them at each juncture.
What She Did About It: The author developed a radio persona called Sher Khan, attended a summer course on human rights, founded an organization dedicated to youth activism, wrote articles on restrictive blasphemy laws and the forced repatriation of refugees, and probably other things that weren’t even mentioned.
What She’s Learned/Gained: She found a sense of purpose and discovered “everything [she has] to be grateful for.” She writes: “War has taught me to never take an education or a story for granted, to find beauty in vulnerability, to remain critical of authority figures, to question what’s socially accepted, and best of all, to celebrate humor.”

Got it?

Cool. Here’s another narrative example:

What Had to Be Done

At six years old, I stood locked away in the restroom. I held tightly to a tube of toothpaste because I’d been sent to brush my teeth to distract me from the commotion. Regardless, I knew what was happening: my dad was being put under arrest for domestic abuse. He’d hurt my mom physically and mentally, and my brother Jose and I had shared the mental strain. It’s what had to be done.

Living without a father meant money was tight, mom worked two jobs, and my brother and I took care of each other when she worked. For a brief period of time the quality of our lives slowly started to improve as our soon-to-be step-dad became an integral part of our family. He paid attention to the needs of my mom, my brother, and me. But our prosperity was short-lived as my step dad’s chronic alcoholism became more and more recurrent. When I was eight, my younger brother Fernando’s birth complicated things even further. As my step-dad slipped away, my mom continued working, and Fernando’s care was left to Jose and me. I cooked, Jose cleaned, I dressed Fernando, Jose put him to bed. We did what we had to do.

As undocumented immigrants and with little to no family around us, we had to rely on each other. Fearing that any disclosure of our status would risk deportation, we kept to ourselves when dealing with any financial and medical issues. I avoided going on certain school trips, and at times I was discouraged to even meet new people. I felt isolated and at times disillusioned; my grades started to slip.

Over time, however, I grew determined to improve the quality of life for my family and myself.

Without a father figure to teach me the things a father could, I became my own teacher. I learned how to fix a bike, how to swim, and even how to talk to girls. I became resourceful, fixing shoes with strips of duct tape, and I even found a job to help pay bills. I became as independent as I could to lessen the time and money mom had to spend raising me.

I also worked to apply myself constructively in other ways. I worked hard and took my grades from Bs and Cs to consecutive straight A’s. I shattered my school’s 1ooM breaststroke record, and learned how to play the clarinet, saxophone, and the oboe. Plus, I not only became the first student in my school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam, I’m currently pioneering my school’s first AP Physics 2 course ever.

These changes inspired me to help others. I became president of the California Scholarship Federation, providing students with information to prepare them for college, while creating opportunities for my peers to play a bigger part in our community. I began tutoring kids, teens, and adults on a variety of subjects ranging from basic English to home improvement and even Calculus. As the captain of the water polo and swim team I’ve led practices crafted to individually push my comrades to their limits, and I’ve counseled friends through circumstances similar to mine. I’ve done tons, and I can finally say I’m proud of that.

But I’m excited to say that there’s so much I have yet to do. I haven’t danced the tango, solved a Rubix Cube, explored how perpetual motion might fuel space exploration, or seen the World Trade Center. And I have yet to see the person that Fernando will become.

I’ll do as much as I can from now on. Not because I have to. Because I choose to.

— — —

There’s so much to love about this essay.

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

First, the author brainstormed the content of his essay using the Feelings and Needs Exercise.

Did you spot the elements of that exercise? If not, here they are:

Challenges: Domestic abuse, alcoholic step-dad, little brother Fernando’s birth, family’s undocumented status
Effects: Author and his brother shared the mental strain, father was arrested, funds were tight, mom worked two jobs, brothers took care of one another, they kept to themselves when dealing with financial and medical issues, avoided going on certain school trips, at times author was discouraged from meeting new people, grades started to slip
Feelings: Confused yet understanding, anxious, worried, relieved, alone, lost, vulnerable, lonely, disconnected, alone, heartbroken, ashamed, disillusioned
Needs: Order, autonomy, reassurance, growth, safety, understanding, empathy, hope, support, self-acceptance
What He Did About It: Took care of his youngest brother; became his own teacher; learned how to fix a bike, swim, socialize; found a job to help pay bills; improved his grades; broke a school swimming record; learned to play instruments; became the first student in his school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam; took a leadership role in clubs; and tutored and counseled friends and peers
What He Learned: He’s proud of what he’s done, but wants to do more: dance the tango, solve a Rubix Cube, explore perpetual motion, see the World Trade Center, see his little brother grow up … and do you notice the value here? Hunger. That was his number one value, by the way. And he ends by saying he’ll do these things not because he has to, but because he chooses to. This sounds like autonomy. Another one of his top values.

That’s why I love beginning with this exercise. With just 15-20 minutes of focused work, you can map out your whole story.

Next, the author used Narrative Structure to give shape to his essay.

Did you spot the Narrative Structure elements? If not, here they are:

Inciting Incident: While the author is brushing his teeth, his father is arrested for domestic abuse.
Status Quo: His father had hurt his mom physically and mentally, and the author and his brother had shared the mental strain. “It’s what had to be done,” he writes.
Raising the Stakes: The entire second and third paragraphs, which describe how living without a father meant money was tight. Things improved for a while after his mother remarried, but his stepdad’s chronic alcoholism (raise the stakes) plus a new little brother (raise the stakes again) made things even tougher. As if that weren’t enough, the author raises the stakes even further by revealing that his family was undocumented at the time.
Moment of Truth: At his lowest point, he decides to do something about it. “I grew determined to improve the quality of life for my family and myself,” he writes, then goes on to tell us all the amazing things he taught himself, the skills he learned, and interests he pursued. It’s inspiring.
New Status Quo: Remember that the initial Status Quo was the author doing “what had to be done.” Not so, by the end of the essay. In the final lines, he writes, “I’ll do as much as I can from now on. Not because I have to. Because I choose to.”

And again, notice that those fit within the framework of:

⅓: Challenges he faced and their impacts on him
⅓: What he did to work through them
⅓: What he learned through the process

Montage Structure FAQs

Q: Are there any situations where I may not want to write about my life struggles?

A: Yes. Sometimes it can be too difficult to discuss them. Or you may be actively dealing with a challenge. If this is the case, reach out to your counselor, a trusted mentor, or, if possible, a therapist.

If money is an issue (i.e., you feel you can’t afford a therapist) and you don’t feel comfortable sharing your struggles with your counselor, ask them if they can refer you to a therapist or counselor who works on a sliding scale. Many mental health professionals work with clients at low rates or for free.

You may also choose to write about the struggles you’ve faced without getting into all the details. Saying, for example, that you experienced verbal abuse from your father, for example, may be enough; you don’t necessarily need to share the specifics.

Q: Should I write about mental health challenges?

A: Mental health can be very difficult to write about for a few reasons:

If a student is still very much struggling through the challenges they describe, the admission reader may wonder if the student is ready for college.
In some cases, the admission officer may feel that a student is ready for college, but their institution may not be adequately equipped to help them thrive (not all colleges have the same kinds of resources, unfortunately).
Unfortunately, mental health challenges have become so common these days that many students write personal statements about them, and so it can be difficult to stand out. If you’re feeling compelled to write about a mental health challenge, consider brainstorming some uncommon connections.

Questions to ask yourself if you’re considering writing about mental health challenges:

Do I have any other topics I could write on? Are there other interesting parts of myself I’d like to share that could reveal important skills, qualities, and values? Or must I write about this? (Beware the trap discussed earlier of feeling like you must write about a challenge to write a great personal statement—it’s not true! The authors of the “My Laptop Stickers” essay the «Home” essay were students who faced challenges but chose not to write about them.)
Have I truly worked through this? Am I able to devote the middle third of my essay to actions I’ve taken to work through the challenge and the final third to what I’ve learned? (You may not know the answers to these questions until you’ve done some writing. Maybe run your challenge through the Feelings and Needs Exercise to see what surfaces. Even if this doesn’t end up being your personal statement topic, you might learn something important about yourself.)
If I were an admission officer reading this essay, would I feel like this student has their situation handled and they are truly ready for college? (If you’re unsure, it’s a great idea to have 2-3 folks read it who have a good understanding of what colleges are looking for.)
Could the mental health challenge be a brief explanation in the Additional Info section? To see if this might work for you, see how briefly you can describe your mental health challenge using factual bullet points. Devote one bullet point to the challenge, another bullet point to what you’ve done about it, and a final bullet point describing briefly what you’ve learned.

Important: If you have a counselor, I strongly recommend consulting with them as you decide whether to discuss a mental health challenge in your personal statement. If your counselor is writing a letter on your behalf, some of the information you’d like to share may already be accounted for. Talk to them and find out.

Q: Are there any situations where I may not want to write about my career in my personal statement … even if I know what it is?

A: For sure. Say you’re interested in becoming a doctor, but you’re applying to a medical program with a supplemental prompt asking why you want to become a doctor. If you want to avoid repetition, you might not explicitly mention becoming a doctor at the end of your personal statement (you don’t have to discuss your career at all in a personal statement; many students are unsure.). Instead, you might describe how you’ve developed qualities that will equip you for a career as a doctor (e.g., creativity, for example, or the ability to lead a team).

Narrative Structure step-by-step recap:

Complete the brainstorming exercises, as these will help no matter which structure you choose. Take special care to complete the Feelings and Needs Exercise, as it will help you outline your essay.
Create an outline using the Narrative Structure described above.
Write a first draft.

Check out my blog for more Narrative Structure examples.

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Writing a one-paragraph essay can be a daunting task because you get to explain your ideas in a limited amount of words. You, therefore, have to choose what to include or leave out from large amounts of information. Most assignments you get in college require you to write standard essays and not one-paragraph essays. Therefore, most people have no idea how to craft one in case the need arises.

Worry no more because the following article will give you a detailed review of the format, process, and crucial tips to follow when crafting a one-paragraph essay. Kindly read on and get enlightened.

Format of a one-paragraph essay

Your one-paragraph essay should feature a thesis, a body point, concrete detail, commentary, and conclusion. Let’s take a look at what each entails;

Thesis Statement

Commence your exposition using a thesis statement that outlines your position. Ensure you include the proposition in the main sentence without using many words because the essay should be short and precise.

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The thesis statement should be dazzling and exact to make the reader aware of the structure.

Body Point

In a standard exposition, the body point assumes the role of the topic sentence. In a one-paragraph essay, it is the significant point you write to explain the thesis statement straightforwardly.

Ensure the sentence upholds your proposal and directs the reader’s focus toward the proof you will use in solid detail.

Concrete Detail

Support your thesis statement and body point using relevant examples, preferably from the source you obtain your information. The concrete detail section should have at least one of the following;

Examples of happenings and facts to support your thesis
A basic outline of a process or procedure
Discussions regarding cause and effects
Information about people, events, or places relevant to the paper
Data and statistical evidence to explain the main argument

Make use of direct citation or rewording from the work to render your one-paragraph essay original. Incorporating an incidental reference to the main body helps add quality to your work.

Also see: Can an Essay Be One Paragraph?

Afterward, acknowledge the sources used by writing the author’s name and the various pages you acquire the information.

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Commentary

The commentary is the section where you clarify and translate the concrete detail. Use your own words to explain what the content means or the relevance of the theory.

You may make use of examination, translation, contention, knowledge, or reflection.

Concluding Sentence

The concluding sentence wraps up the passage. It ensures you finalize your one-paragraph essay with a meaningful conclusion. Do not introduce new facts in this section.

Instead, end the paragraph with a fitting summary that persuades your audience about the exactness of the explanation. Make sure the reader does not ask “so what?” after reading your work.

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Note: you need to incorporate a minimum of two concrete subtleties. Additionally, each solid detail should have two critiques. Consequently, your one-paragraph essay will feature around 10-14 sentences.

An Alternative Approach to Crafting a One Paragraph Essay

Following the above format may prove to be overwhelming. Especially if you have numerous pieces of content that you consider relevant for your one-paragraph essay. To help ease the process, first, write a long paper and afterward trim it down. However, removing information that you may have previously deemed essential is inevitable.

When you choose this method, highlight the key points as you proceed. After writing the long paper, review the content to ensure every sentence provides a different contributing point. If you find two or more sentences conveying the same idea, merge them into one sentence.

The next step is conducting the necessity test. Carry out this step if you still have trouble shortening the composition. You remove one sentence at a time and check whether your point remains relevant. If you remove a sentence and it does not affect your writing, consider it an unnecessary inclusion.

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A quality one-paragraph essay should have one or two arguments with detailed explanations. It eliminates the probability of having not well-evidenced multiple points.

Primary Stages of Crafting a One Paragraph Essay

You are now aware of what consists of a one-paragraph essay. Let us shift our focus to the elaborate process you should follow when composing one.

Preparation

Use the preparation phase to decide on your subject, examine the relevance of the topic, and make a paper layout to help ease the process of writing.

Ensure you conduct thorough research on the idea at hand so that you can have enough content to refer to when composing the main essay. Use the research to create a draft.

Here are some additional tips you can utilize to make the preparation phase straightforward;

Comprehend your task by outlining the objective of the essay
Allocate time for each section depending on topic complexity and the allocated time
Think of a thesis

When you get a reasonable idea of what you need to address, the order to follow, and the proof that you will utilize, go ahead and start composing.

Composing

Here, set out your contention in the main body, use solid proof to explain the relevance of your topic, and wrap it up with a definitive conclusion.

Remember that you are composing the main thing, and you should follow all the above-stated guidelines without fail. Consequently, you attract a higher grade.

Revision

Check your essay and ensure you have addressed the main point without straying. Remember that a one-paragraph essay is short. You should, therefore, get to the point and avoid too much fluff. Afterward, proofread your work and check for spelling and punctuation mistakes.

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Ensure your essay is well organized for the reader to have an easy time going through your work.

You now have the format and stages you should adhere to when crafting your one-paragraph essay. How about some tips that you can use to write an excellent one-paragraph essay.

Craft the Body First

You may have no idea how to start your essay and end up wasting a lot of time on the section. Avoid this setback by first crafting the main body as you have already researched the key points.

You will notice that when you write down the main body, crafting your introduction and conclusion becomes a straightforward task.

Avoid Generalizations and Overstatements

Getting straight to the point when crafting a one-paragraph essay is vital because it does not feature a lot of words or content. To protect your evaluation, do not put down unclear articulations.

Qualify your clarifications and use short and precise statements to remain relevant.

Use Strong Transitions

Some of the strong transitions you can use are also, therefore, furthermore, thereby, and so on. They help construct and join your sentences so that the reader can have an easy time when reading.

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They also make your writing look more aesthetic. Resist using weak transitions such as this shows that or I think that. Additionally, do not overly depend on listing words such as next, first, secondly, etc.

Conclusion

The above information will help you craft a one-paragraph essay if you get an assignment requiring you to do so. Prior research, developing an outline, proper citation, and following the recommended format are the most crucial steps to follow.

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How to write an essay in English — outline, structure, topics, phrases

All eleventh graders who take the exam are interested in writing essays and for good reason: writing an essay is a whole science that is better to master in advance. And if the rest of the tasks can be dealt with in a fairly short period of time, then in order to correctly formulate and stylistically correctly write an essay, you need to train hard. So how to write an essay in English?

English essay outline

In order to write the correct essay, you need to stick to a clear plan. If you need to express «pros and cons», you should pay attention to the following outline of an essay in English:

introduction (here you need to clearly define the problem, and also touch on the aspect of duality of opinions);
expression of your own opinion (here it is necessary to express your opinion in support of the above issue, not forgetting to argue);
expressing the opposite opinion (express an opinion opposite to yours, approach the issue from different angles, pointing out the shortcomings);
conclusion (at the end of the essay, the above is always summarized, contradictions and possible solutions are indicated).

Essay structure in English

The structure of an essay in English can be defined as follows. The first paragraph always requires a problem statement, as well as two opposing points of view. You can express everything in three sentences, which must be combined with introductory constructions.

The second paragraph is an expression of the author’s personal opinion, as well as several arguments in support. The third paragraph is the opposite opinion and several arguments, usually no more than two. In the fourth paragraph, it is necessary to present counterarguments, and those that have not been named earlier.

In conclusion, pay attention to the problem posed in the first paragraph and express your opinion in other words.

Essay Topics in English

In order to prepare for writing an essay, you need to know the essay topics in English:

books — books;
education — education;
environmental problems — environmental problems;
fashion — fashion;
food — food;
global problems — global problems;
mass media — mass media;
shopping — purchases;
traveling — travel;
youth problems — youth problems;
work and career — work and career;
friendship and love — friendship and love;
family problems — family problems;
money — money.

Often on the exam, students are faced with the most common topics, which they certainly have something to tell.

The main thing to remember is that you should not use the simplest vocabulary that does not correspond to a higher level of language proficiency; you do not need to speak in simple sentences, try to combine them into complex structures, introduce speech turns.

(I think this topic is very difficult / I consider this topic to be extremely difficult / I am convinced this topic can be described as matter of paramount importance)

Essay phrases in English

In order to cope with an essay, you need to own phrases that help build a detailed sentence. We recommend using these phrases for essays:

There are different opinions on the problem
There is no doubt that
Some people consider that / Other people are sure that
In my opinion / In my view / I also believe that / I strongly believe / What is more / Moreover / First and foremost Many people think / Besides / On the other hand / However / Actually
In conclusion / Finally / To sum up

The following phrases will help you express your own opinion:

As far as I am concerned — as for me
As far as I know — as far as I know

Source: https://lim-english.com/posts/kak-pisat-esse-po-angliiskomy-yaziky/

How to write an essay in English for the exam-2019

In 2018, 80% of graduates from the Sverdlovsk region received 0 points for their essays from the Unified State Exam in English. According to the FIPI, students traditionally perform the written part of the exam worse. And it is she who gives the greatest number of points — 14 for the error-free task number 40, the essay «My opinion». In the material, we share tips that will help you avoid stupid mistakes when writing an essay with elements of reasoning.

Follow the plan

In 2019, graduates will be given two statements to choose from. For one of them, you need to write a written composition with elements of reasoning.

An example from the demo version of the control measuring materials of the 2019 unified state exam in English

The essay must strictly comply with the plan:

introduction — paraphrase the selected statement;
your opinion on the topic and 2-3 arguments in its defense;
opposite opinion and 1-2 arguments in its defense;
an explanation of why you disagree with the opposite opinion;
a conclusion in which you rephrase your position from point 2.

Each part of the text should begin with a new paragraph, as a result, the essay should have 5 paragraphs.

A problem when writing an essay can be not only poor knowledge of a foreign language, but also vice versa — too good. A graduate can write an essay in a more free form and move away from the template, but the commission will not appreciate such an impulse. Therefore, we advise you to write an essay strictly according to the plan and in accordance with the criteria.

Let’s consider what mistakes were made by graduates of past years and how to avoid them.

Keep track of the volume

The text of the answer must contain at least 200 and no more than 250 words, a deviation of 10% is allowed. According to the rules, if the volume of the essay is less than 180 words, 0 is given for the entire work, if more than 275, part of the essay is checked up to the 250th word.

How to avoid mistakes:

Write your essay at home on an unlined sheet of paper. After 10-20 essays, you will understand how much of the sheet is occupied by the required amount of text. This will help you navigate the exam.
Count the words correctly. For one word they consider:

Source: https://blog.teachmeplease.ru/posts/kak-pisat-esse-po-angliyskonu-v-2019-godu

How to write an essay correctly in English

The ability to write an essay presupposes a fairly high level of knowledge of the language. And few people own this art. We will give you some very useful tips for writing an essay or essay in English, which will come in handy more than once in your life.

Prepare

It’s difficult, but — start early. The sooner you start thinking about the topic of the essay, the more time you will have to collect material. When your brain is tuned into thinking about a question, the information seems to catch your eye.

The same thing happens when you memorize a new word: it begins to seem that it occurs more often in the text. The point is that you become more receptive to a certain type of information, paying more attention to it.

The best place to start is to sketch what you know about the essay topic: you may know even more than you thought. This will give you ideas on which direction to go next. To act in a targeted manner, make a plan and formulate a preliminary set of questions. As you begin to study the material, you will have new, more specific questions, and you can already look for answers to them.

How to overcome the «fear of a blank slate»

Even the most experienced writer at the beginning of work on a new work is sometimes visited by feelings of indecision and fear. But, as they say, the main thing is not desire or skill: just start writing. It doesn’t matter where you start, the main thing is to keep writing, and for the time being, don’t worry about style and spelling. Make preliminary sketches of the main ideas of the story and only after that move on to the design of the structure of your future creation.

If you write on a computer, it will not be difficult for you to swap the places of what you have written, grouping them in different ways. If you prefer paper and pen, leave a line or two between the abstract so that you can add something later.

You can even take scissors and cut the sheet into strips to make this process easier. Try to arrange the future essay in order of development of the main idea. If, as a result, you get a «golden three»: beginning (introduction), middle (the main part of the essay) and ending (conclusion), then you did everything right.

Introduction

The introduction should contain some kind of essay on the topic — perhaps a definition of key concepts or an explanation, as you understand the question. This section also needs to list which aspects of the topic you will be looking at and why.

Remember that an essay is not a novel, so you only need to choose a few basic arguments to cover the topic. The introduction should give a clear idea of what will be discussed next, and the trainer should see that you are answering a specific set of questions posed.

So a good introduction should:

demonstrate your intention to answer the question posed;
show that you understand the topic;
outline the structure of your response and the main aspects that you will consider (your plan);
confirm that you have done some research and cite one of your sources;
fully correspond to the topic;
be laconic and occupy about 8-9% of the total volume of the text (for example, 120 words in an essay of 1500 words).

Note: For those who find it easier to navigate not in the number of words, but in the number of characters, the following formula will come in handy: one English word is taken on average for 6 characters (including spaces), that is, an essay of 500 words contains approximately 3000 characters with spaces.

Start your essay with a key phrase that will indicate the direction of your response. For example:

This essay deals with
This assignment will examine
This report will analyze

Use the same or similar wording as in the essay topic.

If the question sounds like “Discuss recent developments in communication technology”, then in the introduction you could write: “This essay will consider recent developments in the field of communication technology”. modern developments in the field of communication technology «). More certainty: leave the reader no room for doubt.

You can also use these words and phrases to highlight your work plan, for example:

The essay is divided into four sections
It will first consider
It will then continue to describe
The third part compares
Finally, some conclusions will be drawn as to

Main part

The main body should explain each of the arguments using examples and illustrations. Information should be clearly divided logically (for this, the text is divided into paragraphs). You need to think through the structure of your essay and make sure that the body leads to a conclusion logically.

Conclusion

The conclusion should summarize the ideas expressed. Here it is necessary to answer the question formulated in the essay topic. Or, depending on the topic, indicate the prospects or consequences of the problem under consideration.

Also, in this section, you can formulate related topics worthy of further reflection and express personal views — if they are supported by the arguments that you gave earlier.

A good conclusion is:

not just a summary. The conclusion should be a thoughtful completion of the work, for example, applying what was written to a real situation.
quintessence, that is, a short list of the main ideas. It is worth referring to the introduction and drawing parallels using the same keywords or imagery, but using a different wording. Don’t repeat yourself word for word.
reinforcing the ideas of the main part of the work. Different types of essays require different conclusions. In a short work, you do not need a detailed repetition of the main ideas, but in a longer one it may be necessary.
perhaps a thought-provoking question, a vivid, showy image, a quote, if appropriate.
as an option — a forecast of results or consequences, a possible solution, a call to action.

However, there are points that should be avoided in the conclusion of an essay:

come up with completely new ideas. If they are really important, include them in the body.
use a justifiable tone. Be confident in your statements. Avoid phrases like “I may not be an expert” or “At least this is my opinion” (“I may not be an expert” or “At least I think so”).
focus on too small details.
refute the validity of the previous arguments.

According to many educators, the conclusion is the most important part of an essay. In it, you demonstrate that you have a good command of the material and thoughtfully approached the problem. Don’t worry if the conclusion forces you to rewrite other parts of the text. In fact, this is a good sign!

As a general idea of the length of each section, you can use the following formula (this is a guideline, but not a hard and fast rule):

Introduction — 7-8% of the volume of the essay
Conclusion — 12-15% of the volume of the essay

Style guidelines

Do not overuse complex words and expressions, but avoid slang and abbreviations. In general, try to write short, simple sentences, diluting them with longer ones from time to time. The goal is to present the essence clearly and clearly so that the reader can easily follow the train of thought and not be distracted by extraneous reasoning (also read about styles in English in our article).

Recommendations for registration

Needless to say, there should be no grammar or spelling mistakes in your essay — make every effort to do so. In addition, you need to remember that you are not writing for yourself, but for another person, therefore punctuation, division into sentences and paragraphs, general structure — all this should help the reader.

Avoid elements of colloquial speech:

Source: https://skyeng.ru/articles/kak-pravilno-pisat-esse-na-anglijskom-yazyke

Enjoy learning English online with Puzzle English for free

Are you waiting for the international TOEFL, IELTS or other exam, where one of the stages is writing an essay? Or maybe you are applying for admission to a university and you need to tell about yourself, your achievements and plans in the essay? Either way, your goal is to write a great essay in English. This is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance, and we will help you figure it out.

This article will talk about how to write an essay in English, what types of essays are in English, how to write an introduction to an essay, and what linking words to use in the text.

What is an essay?

Essay in English is a short essay in which you express your point of view on a given topic. Writing a quality essay in English requires a high level of language proficiency, a rich vocabulary and the ability to clearly and concisely state your thoughts.

The formal style of storytelling is one of the features of the English essay, which distinguishes it from essays on a free topic, to which we are used to in Russian. The British are serious about the style of presenting thoughts in an essay, so it is not recommended to use abbreviations and, in general, allow yourself to be frivolous in the text. Also, any essay, regardless of the topic, has a certain structure. But first things first.

Essay types

There are three main types of essays in English:

For and against essay

The name of this type speaks for itself: in it it is necessary to provide arguments «for and against» on a given topic.

Writing plan: in the introduction, you lead the reader to the problem; in the main part, describe the pros and cons in a neutral manner, without expressing your own opinion; in conclusion — express your opinion about the problem and make a conclusion.

Opinion essay (opinion essay)

Unlike pros and cons, opinion essays are meant to express your thoughts on a topic. The peculiarity of opinion essay is that you need not only to express your own opinion on the problem, but to reflect other points of view in the essay. So to speak, look at the topic from a different angle.

Writing plan: in the introduction, indicate the topic of reasoning; in the main part — express your opinion on the problem, supporting it with confident arguments, and also describe what other points of view there are; Finally, you summarize the results that support your views on the issue.

Suggesting solutions to a problem essay

Usually, in such essays, you are given some kind of global problem, and your task is to suggest the most possible and relevant ways to solve it.

Writing plan: introduction describes the problem and the reasons for it; in the main part, you need to offer several options for solving the described problem and the possible consequences of each of them; the conclusion summarizes the results and the final decision or recommendations.

Usually the type of essay depends on the chosen topic and is often indicated directly in the assignment. If there are no recommendations on the type, then use any one that, in your opinion, is best suited to the given topic.

The above types of English essays are the most common, but there are others. Sometimes you need to write about your accomplishments and plans for the future (for example, when going to university or college), and sometimes — a free-form essay about what excites you right now (that is, without a given topic).

On whatever topic, whatever the essay, when writing it, you should adhere to a certain generally accepted structure.

Structure

Usually an exam essay should be 180-320 words in length, but this framework is not rigid and must be indicated in the assignment along with the topic.

Before writing, it is worth remembering that an essay is not a detailed essay-reasoning on a free topic, but only a clear and capacious expression of thoughts on a given problem. Therefore, all essays in English have a common structure:

Title

The title of the essay that reflects the topic or problem that will be covered in the text. The title should be as concise and understandable as possible. In fact, the title of the essay is similar to the title of the article: it should contain the main idea, which will be disclosed in more detail in the text.

Introduction

It should indicate what will be discussed in the main part. The introduction should explain the topic of reasoning and how you understand it, be concise (occupy about 5-10% of the text), briefly outline the outline of the essay and refer to sources or other data if necessary. Main part

This is the main part of the essay in English, which reveals the problem and your opinion on it, depending on the type of presentation chosen. Arguments and examples are provided here, as well as other points of view on the topic. At the end of the main part, the text should smoothly lead the reader to the conclusion.

This part of the essay occupies approximately 75-85% of the total volume of the text.

Conclusion

At the end, you need to summarize all the thoughts revealed in the main body of the essay.

A good conclusion is not just a dry listing of all the above facts, but a well-reasoned conclusion on the topic. It may echo or refer to the introduction, but in different wording. In conclusion, you should not put forward completely new ideas or refute those already expressed, and also, use an apologetic tone for your opinion. Be confident in your point of view and just state it again. Acceptable amount of text in the conclusion — 10-15%.

Recommendations, advice

If you have an exam on the horizon, then our recommendations and tips on how to write an essay in English will come in handy.

Tips:

1. Sketch a draft

If time for writing is limited, then use a draft. Throw a plan on it and write down the main thoughts. This will help you write your essay faster and avoid making mistakes in the final version.

2. Stick to structure

Follow the general guidelines for structure and do not exceed the volume of each section.

3. Be concise

Express your thoughts briefly, without delving into reasoning.

4. Argument

Provide clear confirmation of the words when expressing your own or someone else’s point of view on the topic. Based on these arguments, draw a conclusion and conclusion.

5. Stick to a formal style

Formal writing is the best choice for an essay, unless otherwise noted. Do not use abbreviations, slang and colloquial expressions.

6. Use linking words

Special words will help you consistently express thoughts, lead the reader to a conclusion and build the correct structure in the text.

7. Diversify vocabulary and grammar

Despite the fact that the essay is written in a formal style, it does not hurt to add a little flavor to it to give the text a personality. If appropriate, use synonymous words and nice words. As for grammar and complex sentences, use them only if you are confident in your knowledge. Otherwise, mistakes or misuse of time will not play into your hands.

8. Be correct

Often topics for essays are acute social issues, the opinion on which can be sharply polarized. When expressing your thoughts on ambiguous reasons, you should be as correct as possible and do not forget about elementary delicacy, tolerance and politeness.

9. Check for errors

Obvious but extremely important advice. Run a glance over the finished essay to check it for all kinds of mistakes and typos.

Recommendations for the text of the essay:

Remember that you are writing an essay for another person who is not your friend or colleague, which means stick to neutral expressions, use standard phrases, write to the point and stay on topic.

Do not overuse adjectives, exclamation marks and avoid general words (all, any, every). Also, you do not need to use phrasal verbs (put it, get off, etc.) and abbreviations (can’t instead of cannot, don’t instead of don not, etc.). Adhere to an academic-informational style of presentation: avoid personal pronouns (I, my, we, our) and prefer the active voice instead of the passive one.

Source: https://puzzle-english.com/directory/essay-in-english

How to write an essay in English perfectly: questions and answers to an excellent language: questions and answers, a sample essay

This article describes the rules and principles for writing essays in English. Recommendations are given on how to complete this task, as well as common mistakes encountered when writing an essay with elements of reasoning are analyzed.

Provides step-by-step guidance and recommendations for those looking to get the highest grade for an assignment. Check out the «Base of Essays in English for the Unified State Exam — 120 Essays».

This will allow you to expand your database of arguments «behind и против»On various topics, as well as listen to compositions dictated by a native speaker.

Why do you need to learn to write essays in English?

Essay writing is a good and versatile skill that will help you successfully pass Unified State Examination in English and Russian. You will also be able to apply this skill when passing international exams, such as TOELF, IELTS, FCE etc.

To write good essay in english the language must have a deeper level of language proficiency than is required for writing letters to a friend… Also, you need to be well versed in many worldview issues.

Due to the lack of such experience, it is difficult for students to reveal the topic of essays even in Russian, let alone English. We invite you to read and listen to 120 USE essays written on various topics and voiced by a native speaker George Dol and Neil Geitz.

We also offer you a way to analyze and memorize them, to create your own personal database, where you will already have an answer to any topic or it will be easy to synthesize.

MATERIAL-SPIRITUAL

What is the structure of the article?

1. Structure of the essay

2. Recommendations for the implementation of task 40 (12 recommendations with examples)

3. Typical mistakes encountered when writing an essay with elements of reasoning (26 mistakes by 5 criteria)

What are the criteria for evaluating the Unified State Exam in English?

The maximum number of points you can score for an essay is 14 points.

Your essay must contain 200 – 250 words plus or minus 10%. What does 180 – 275 the words.

BANK OF IDEAS ESSAY USE

What happens if you write more?

The examiner will count 275 words, the rest will not be checked.

How to count words?

All words are counted, including articles, auxiliary verbs, particles. If it is a personal letter, then the address, date and signature are also considered.

What is the purpose of writing an essay?

The purpose of writing an essay in English is to show that you are able to think analytically and reason on various topics, as well as know the vocabulary and grammar necessary to achieve the assigned tasks.

To better prepare for the essay, we recommend that you work through each of its sections, see the structure of the essay.

Where to begin ?

Getting started is one of the hardest parts of writing an essay. Psychological fear does not allow you to sit down at the table or computer and start discussing the proposed topic.

Sometimes the very theme of the composition scares. After reading it, you think: “Oh my God, what can I say about this? I wouldn’t even write anything in Russian! «

Don’t try to write an essay first in mind, then write it down to paper or a computer. You will never start that way.

Start writing with “bullshit«. Write down the first thoughts that come to your mind, feel free to be funny. Gradually, your mind will tune in to the right wave and everything will go faster and more beautifully. Word for word and you will fully cope with the task.

What is the best way to write an essay: on paper or typing on a computer?

It is better to prepare in the same format in which you will have the exam. If you write a letter with a pen on a piece of paper, then it is better to prepare that way. If you have to type it on a computer, then it is better to practice on a computer as well. The pen and keyboard have their own motor memory, therefore, it is better to prepare in the exam format.

What is the structure of the Essay?

Part 1.make an introduction (state the problem)

Part 2.express your personal opinion and give 2-3 reasons for your opinion

Source: https://your-teachers.ru/pravila-napisaniya-essay-c2

Essay on the English exam cliche, outline, necessary phrases and words

›Learning a language› Vocabulary ›Writings and Essays› Clichés for Essays in English Unified State Exam — outline, general phrases, introductory words

Requirements for knowledge of a foreign language are put forward at the faculties of many prestigious universities, so an increasing number of graduates choose to take the Unified State Exam in English. The exam consists of several parts, and the most difficult part is the final section — writing an essay.

So today in the article we will help the graduates and give advice on how to cope with the writing of the text part of the exam. In the material, we will show the work plan, we will give clichés for compiling an essay in English (USE) and tell you the tricks for typing the required volume of words.

Join the reading if you want to seriously prepare and show the maximum of your abilities on the exam.

What are clichés for essays in English on the exam

Let’s start with a short digression that will help us get a clear idea of the topic of the article. So what exactly are speech clichés for essays in English? To answer this question, let’s compare exams in Russian and foreign languages.

Look, the Unified State Exam in Russian also ends with a mandatory written part. The only difference is that it is written on the basis of a large author’s text.

At the same time, students need to voice the problems of the given text, express their opinion on this matter and support their position with arguments.

So teachers, already knowing all the criteria for evaluating such an essay, teach schoolchildren to express their thoughts correctly throughout the year. So, for the disclosure of each item, students are asked to use standard phrases, such as:

I agree / disagree with the author;
This problem is very relevant these days because;
An example is;
This text prompts you to think about.

Such expressions help to easily formulate a thought, correctly link all the points into one text and type the required volume of the essay.

We also suggest using these techniques, but already when writing an essay for the state exam in English. Why not? Moreover, this technique greatly simplifies the writing of the exam, and increases the chances of successful passing. And all you need to do is learn speech cliches for essays in English, i.e. memorize the same standard phrases and expressions, only characteristic of the speech of the British. Want to write essays in English easily? Try this technique!

Essay plan for the exam in English 2020

So, we figured out the role of speech clichés for writing in English, and it’s time to move from theory to practice. Now we will consider popular phrases and expressions for composing a text, but we will do it in a systematic way.

Any example of an essay in English on the exam is drawn up according to a standard plan, which we will study simultaneously with speech clichés. Thus, by the end of the lesson we will have a complete understanding of the structure and content of the English essay for the state exam.

Your point of view on the problem

The introductory part brings us to the next section — the formulation of our own opinion. This paragraph English essay template suggests starting with the following combinations.

Phrases for part of an essay My opinion (My opinion)
As far as I am concerned	As for me, I believe
in my mind,	In my opinion,
In my view / judgment	In my opinion / in my judgment
I believe that	I suppose that
My personal view is that	My personal point of view is that
I also believe it would be a good idea to	I also think it would be nice
It is true that	Is it true that
I completely agree with this statement	I completely agree with this statement.
It is a well-known fact that	It is a well-known fact that
In my experience	In my experience
It is undeniable that	It’s impossible to deny that
Personally, I strongly object to this statement.	Personally, I strongly disagree with this position.
There is a great deal of truth in	There is a lot of truth in
I would support my point of view with an example	I would like to confirm my point of view with an example.

Arguments for»

In the third paragraph of the essay on the exam in English, we write arguments confirming our point of view. These can be life situations, logical reflections, links to expert opinion or statistics.

Note that according to the approved regulations for the examination essay, it is necessary to bring at least 2-3 arguments in support of your position. On the one hand, this moment complicates the drafting of the text, but on the other hand, it allows the widespread use of enumerations and introductory constructions. For example, here are what you can use in this part of the essay on English speech clichés for the Unified State Exam (USE).

Expressing the reasons for our opinion (reasons for my opinion)
For example / for instance	For example, as an example
Let us start by considering the facts.	Let’s start by analyzing the facts.
to begin with,	Start with
One argument in support of	One of the arguments in support
The first thing that needs to be said is	First of all, it must be said that
One should note here	First of all, I will note that
Experts say that	Experts claim that
Experts point out that	Experts note that
Experts are convinced that	Experts are convinced of
According to some experts	According to some experts
That is proof that	It is proved that
We cannot ignore the fact that	We cannot ignore the fact that
Another example is	The next example is
Another good thing about is that.	Another positive point is hidden in the fact that

Source: https://speakenglishwell.ru/esse-po-anglijskomu-ege-klishe-plan-obshhie-frazy-slova/

How to write an essay in English

What kind of beast is this «essay» and how to deal with it? By far the best thing to do is tame it. School of English EnglishDom offers to sort everything out and figure out how to write an essay in English in order to pass any exam and be proud of your work.

An essay in English is a kind of creative work with an arbitrary composition, which reveals the author’s opinion on a particular problem of a social, cultural or historical plan. This is not an essay, article, abstract.

An essay is very similar to a reasoning essay, the main difference being the purpose of the writing. The essay always contains a conclusion, and the essay only encourages the reader to think and make his own. In the essay, the author only discusses, raises relevant topics, but does not draw a final conclusion, unlike the essay. An article is indeed very similar to an essay, but the article is a work of journalism.

It is this factor that makes the article the only one in the world of the journalistic genre. And so that you do not have the slightest desire to compare the essay with the abstract, consider the last differences. First of all, the abstract is larger in volume — about five pages, while the essay usually takes one and a half or two pages.

And in an essay, the narration comes on behalf of the author, and the abstract is a report on a clearly defined topic.

Where the essay comes in handy:

When passing school examinations in English.
To pass the international exam in English.
For entering university.
For employment.

In addition, essay writing develops imagination and helps develop analytical thinking skills. Therefore, if you want to develop, write an essay.

Types of essays

For & Against Essays.
Points to consider.
Opinion Essays.

«Pros and cons»

The main task is to consider two existing points of view. It is important to objectively evaluate both positions and express your understanding of each of the parties.

Structure

1. Introduction — you need to characterize the topic that will be discussed without expressing your own opinion.

2. The main part — you need to write your opinion about the problem, give examples and proofs.

3. Conclusion — you summarize and summarize all of the above. Remember that in this type of essay, you should not draw a specific conclusion, you can only distribute all the arguments in two bowls.

Important: the words I think, I believe, In my opinion, etc. can only be used at the end where you express your position.

Useful phrases

When considering the points of view (beginning of the essay): firstly — firstly, in the first place — in the first place, to begin with — let’s start with secondly — secondly, finally — in the end.

To indicate the advantages: another is another, an additional advantage of is is an additional advantage of something, the main advantage of is is an additional advantage of something.

To indicate disadvantages: a further is the next a major disadvantage / drawback of is the main disadvantage, the greatest / most serious / first disadvantage is the main disadvantage another negative side of is the other negative side of this

To represent each point of view: one point / argument in favor of — one argument in favor of one point / argument against — one argument against it could be argued that — there is controversy that

When reasoning: moreover — moreover, in addition — in addition, furthermore — besides — besides, apart from — except, as well as — the same as also — also, both — both, there is another side to the question — there is another side to this question

In order to express the contrast: however — however, on the other hand — on the other hand, still — still, yet — still, but — but, nevertheless — nevertheless, it may be said / claimed that — they say that although — although, while — while despite / in spite of — despite

“My Way”

It is important here to express your position on a particular problem. Give examples, arguments in favor of your opinion and transparently express your position.

Structure

1. Introduction — indicate the issue to be considered, as well as your position.

2. The main part — you need to indicate the opinions opposite to yours, explain why they have a right to exist, and also give arguments in favor of your opinion.

3. Conclusion — you once again express your point of view in other words.

Useful phrases

In order to express my own opinion: to my mind — my opinion, in my opinion / view — I believe I firmly believe — I firmly believe I am (not) convinced that — I am not sure that I (definitely) feel / think that — I definitely think it seems / appears to me — looks like

«Problem and solution»

The Problem and Solutions essay is written in a formal style. It is important to pose the problem, then consider ways to solve it.

Structure

1. Introduction (you are reporting a problem).

2. The main part (you need to show possible ways to solve the problem and its consequences).

3. Conclusion (you express your own opinion about the solution to the problem).

Useful phrases

Source: https://mel.fm/blog/maksim-sundalov/19860-kak-pisat-esse-na-anglyskom

English essay writing, finished essays

A foreign language essay requires high-quality content and a good organizational structure, as well as competent language design.

Writing an essay in English is one of the most challenging tasks when passing the unified state exam. In terms of complexity, only listening can compete with him. Therefore, the training in writing an essay should be especially intensified and intense.

Since 2012, the time allotted for the entire foreign language exam has been increased to 180 minutes. Since the rest of the exam tasks have not been changed, we recommend that you spend the extra time on the writing part (80 minutes). Moreover, the plan for the tasks is being clarified, which can facilitate the task of writing.

Like writing a letter in English, the essay is included in part C. In task C2 in the USE in English, you need to write an essay with elements of reasoning on this statement. This task will not be difficult if you follow the tips below from 5-ege.ru.

Use a formal writing style:

do not use abbreviations (do not, can’t, I’m, it’s),
do not use parentheses or exclamation marks — this is characteristic of an informal writing style;
don’t start sentences with words and, but or Also; in spoken language, you can use them, but avoid it in the composition;
do not use introductory words typical for informal style (well, to tell the truth and others);
avoid too simple sentences; combine them into complex ones using logical means of communication.

— in detail about writing an essay

Divide the text into meaningful paragraphs in accordance with the plan proposed in the assignment.

In the first paragraph, state the problemthat you will be discussing, but do not repeat the topic of the essay word for word. Imagine that your reader does not know what this is about, and try to explain the problem to him in other words.
Highlight the positive and negative sides of the problem, think about reasonable arguments supporting both points of view. Remember that you must express not only your point of view, but also the opposite. Also, be sure to explain why you disagree with the other point of view. Try to maintain a balance between paragraphs.
Use linking wordsto help the reader follow the logic of your reasoning. Remember that introductory words are separated by commas.
In the last paragraph, draw a general conclusion on this issue. You can also finally formulate your opinion or suggest ways to solve this problem.

Structure by parts

Title — The title of the essay, which reflects the theme of the story.
Introduction — 2-4 short sentences that cover the topic of the essay.
The main part — 2-3 paragraphs, which describe the essence of the essay. Expand the topic as fully and competently as possible, give reasons and reason for them.
Conclusion — 2-4 sentences that summarize. General conclusion on the topic.

In the main part of the essay, all paragraphs begin with an introductory sentence (Topic Sentence) — an introduction.

Further, Topic Sentence is developed and confirmed.

The length of the essay should be 200-250 words. At the same time, the article is also a word, so do not get too carried away with the development of ideas, try to stay within the given framework.

Essay clichés

Expressions of opinion:

I agree / disagree
In my opinion, / From my point of view, / As far as I am concerned,
I believe that / It seems to me that
I am in favor of / I am against the idea of
According to
Some people say that
It is said / believed that
There is no doubt that
It cannot be denied that
It goes without saying that
We must admit that

Argument presentation:

The main argument against / in favor is
First of all, I would consider
The first thing I would consider is
To begin with, / To start with,
Despite the fact that / In spite of the fact that
On the one hand, / On the other hand,
Besides, / In addition,
What is more, / Moreover, / More than that,
Finally,
However, /, though
Although
Nevertheless,

Logic connectives:

for this reason
therefore / that is why
thus sth happened because of / as a result of / owing to / due to / as a consequence of

examples:

For example
Par exemple
such as

Conclusion:

to sum up,
To conclude, I would argue that
On this basis, I can conclude that
In conclusion, I would stress that
All in all, I believe that

One language for the whole planet. Pros and cons

No doubt that learning languages takes up a lot of time. That is why some people think that it would be better to have only one language on our planet. But will it be really beneficial for mankind?

In my opinion, the reduction of the number of languages is a disaster because it will totally destroy our great cultural heritage.

With each loss of a language comes a loss of a culture, a loss of a way of life that deserves to be protected and treated as valuable.

I also believe that leaving one language for communication will greatly reduce the linguistic of our planet, which is the key to our survival. What is more, it will be rather difficult to choose which language to use and it may even lead to wars.

Many people think that if we have only one language, communication will become easier and there will be no need to learn foreign languages. I cannot agree with them because knowledge of foreign languages makes a person educated and well rounded. You cannot broaden your mind if you see the world only from the perspective of your own culture. Besides, people are a lot more helpful if you speak their language.

In conclusion, I would argue that we should try our best to preserve the linguistic diversity of our planet. I think that larger cultures should have a respect for minority languages, but first of all the younger generation must want to preserve their native language.

Animals in the zoo. What do you think about it. Is it fair

There are a lot of zoos in the world and millions of people visit them every year. But are zoos harmful or helpful to animals which are caged there?

I strongly believe that we should not keep animals in zoos because captivity is not natural for them and it is a constant stress to a wild animal. Keeping animals in zoos harms them by denying them freedom of movement and association. What is more, zoos are prisons for animals as they live in small cages and do not get necessary food. In addition, animals become very aggressive and unpredictable as they get older and often attack zoo keepers and other people.

Source: https://5-ege.ru/napisanie-sochineniya-po-anglijskomu-yazyku/

Ege in English. essay

Without too much embellishment, it can be said that in the USE exam in English, the essay is the most difficult task. How can you correctly express your thought, give it logical arguments, support them with examples and explanations, and at the same time correctly and without errors arrange the text, and even not go beyond the number of words? In this article we will try to disassemble the structure of the essay and give tips on improving the quality of your essay.

Let’s start at the end. Your essay will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Aspect Maximum Points

Solution of a communication problem (content)	3
Organization of text (structure)	3
Vocabulary	3
Grammar	3
Spelling and punctuation	2

The maximum number of points you can get for an essay is 14 points.

Before we start thinking about fulfilling each criterion correctly, first let’s make our English essay testable. The most important thing here is volume.

Formally, your essay in English should be within 200-250 words. You don’t have to take it literally and panic if you’ve written 198 words. However, keep in mind that an essay will not be validated if it contains less than 180 words.

If you get more than 275 words, then the examiner will count 250 words from the beginning of the essay, trace the rest and check everything down to the line.

That is, in the first scenario, you lose the entire essay; with the second, you will most likely lose the conclusion, which is also important.

and structure of the essay

First of all, your English essay should cover ALL aspects of the assignment, and should also be written in an appropriate (neutral) style. It should be logically divided into paragraphs and correspond to the plan proposed in the assignment.

In order not to get confused in the process of writing your essay, you need to spend 5-7 minutes thinking about the plan and preparing all the arguments. Traditionally, we will divide the essay into five paragraphs.

Paragraph 1. Introduction

There must be a statement of the problem. Since the statement of the problem has already been set out in the assignment, your task is to correctly retell it. Precisely to RELATE, not to paraphrase.

Tip: Do not re-read the assignment 10 times until the wording is hammered into your head. Then it will be very, very difficult to write the introduction in your own words. Read the situation given in the assignment once or twice, make sure you understand it correctly. Close the finished situation and try to retell it in English exactly as you understood it, as if you were telling a friend about it who did not understand what was being discussed there. ATTENTION: after you have done this, be sure to open the situation and make sure that your retelling essentially coincides with the situation given to you. Now you can go further.

Instead of banal “Some people think, Others think, » can be used:

Some people claim that, while others argue that

After you have described the essence of the problem, you can ask the question directly, which you will answer in your essay. For example: “What is better: or?”, “What should we do: or?” etc. In 2018, a clarification was released that classified rhetorical questions as stylistic errors. Therefore, we do not use them.

The last sentence of your opening paragraph should be the purpose of your essay. This can be done, for example, like this:

In this essay I will try to look upon this issue.
In this essay I will try to express my opinion on this issue.
In this essay I would express my point of view on this issue.
In this essay I will try to answer this question. (This is the simplest option, if it will be difficult for you to remember the previous two, remember it)

Paragraph 2. Your opinion

It is most logical to start this paragraph with the statement of your position on this issue. Useful phrases (be sure to follow this punctuation!):

in my mind,
From my point of view
To my mind
Personally, I think that
I am certain that (Note! We do not abbreviate: we write I am)
As far as I am concerned,

Next, you need to give 2-3 arguments to support your point of view. Arguments can be any, if you interpret them correctly. That is, such that it would be difficult to argue with them (within reasonable limits, of course).

Tip: It is better to give 2 arguments and justify them in detail and give examples to support them than 3 short and not fully disclosed ones. Remember that the number of words in an essay is limited.

Here we should not forget about the means of logical connection of sentences. The first argument is a good place to start with:

Firstly,
to start with,
to begin with,
First of all,

After you have formulated the first argument, you need to confirm it and / or give an example in support. Here are the simplest models for how to do this:

because
… That is why
. For example,

If you started with a word «Firstly,», then the second argument should start with the word Secondly,

If the first argument came with the phrases “To start with,”, “To begin with,”, then the second can be started with the following words:

Moreover,
Furthermore,
Besides,
In addition,

The second argument must also be supported by an example or proof.

Paragraph 3. Opposite opinion

You will begin a paragraph by stating an opposite opinion on the proposed topic or question. You can do it like this:

Others believe that
Some people argue that
However, some people think that

This is followed by 1-2 arguments confirming the opposite opinion. I advise you to initially think of two. And how much to write in the end: 1 or 2 — decide in the process, based on the resulting size of your essay.

Advice: You will then have to dispute the opposite arguments, therefore, coming up with them initially, think over how you will dispute them. If you have nothing to object to the invented argument, it is better to immediately replace it with another, so as not to do it while writing the essay. It is also limited! Tip: When challenging arguments, you should not repeat anything written in the second paragraph. So if you can’t come up with a counterargument without repeating yourself, try coming up with something else. Alternatively, you can think of other pros while the essay is not yet written. In any case, it is better to think it over initially, while you are drawing up the outline of the essay, rather than during the writing process!

Paragraph 4. Your counterarguments

The point of this paragraph is to explain why you disagree with the opposite opinion. You can start a paragraph, for example, with a sentence:

I cannot agree with this opinion because
I am afraid I cannot agree with this idea because

Source: https://realstudy.ru/articles/51-ege-po-anglijskomu/82-ege-po-anglijskomu-essay.html

Essays in English: how to write an essay on the topic of computer technology or the Internet and ready-made templates with translation for this

Nobody likes exams, but everyone has to take them. Are you going to write an essay in English for the Unified State Exam? We are ready to help: tips, examples and even a ready-made template. Writing or essays in English is one of the main tasks in the exams. It is being written from year to year as part of the Unified State Exam, and new generations of graduates will write it.

According to rumors, big changes are approaching in attestation in foreign languages: in 2020, all Russian schools are going to hold a trial USE in the Chinese language. But there are no plans to cancel the essay in English, so let’s focus on writing it in 2018.

Essay structure in English

In English-speaking countries there are analogues of the USE: in the UK, these are A-level exams, in the USA — SAT and ACT. The tests are not easy, but quite doable. Before writing an essay in English, read this article — we tried to make it as useful and practical as possible. And if you had to take a break from learning English, be sure to check out this post.

Is it easy for you to write essays? Unfortunately, this will hardly help in writing an English essay. On the other hand, this is not bad, because you do not have to show creative originality at all costs — it is much more important to know and follow the rules and criteria for writing an essay in English. And the structure, or, more simply, the outline of an essay in English is known:

Title… Essay title. Directly depends on the topic given in the ticket. The title of the essay should be short, but expressive and succinct. Practice using English essay topics from years past.
Introduction… The introductory part of the essay, the task of which is to briefly describe its essence. Briefly — these are usually 2 to 4 simple sentences.
Main part… The most voluminous and substantial part of the essay. This is where the main objectives of the essay are revealed. The main part assesses your ability to cover the topic using logical arguments. The approximate volume of this part is 2-3 paragraphs of 3-4 sentences each.
Conclusion… The final of the essay, in which you need to draw conclusions based on the reasoning of the main part. A couple of sentences are enough to summarize and finish the text beautifully.

An essay outline is a written reflection of the structure of an essay. Just next to each item, from 1 to 4, write a suitable title for this section. And in writing, separate the structural parts with paragraphs. Write the title in the center of the sheet; start the introduction on a new line; divide the main part into 2-3 paragraphs according to the meaning; summarize the conclusion in the last paragraph of the text: For example:

(colored markers are used for clarity; they do not need to be used in the examination paper).

Topics and types of essays in English with examples

The types of essays in English are essentially their styles. Usually, the exam card contains a detailed description of the assignment: the topic and style of the essay. There are three possible styles, and we will consider each of them in detail.

Opinion essays, or opinion essays

The main feature of this text is a first-person narration, during which you must reasonably defend your specific point of view on the subject of the topic. the task is to demonstrate your own thoughts and the ability to substantiate them:

Introduction: state the topic (problematics) of the essay in your own words.
The main part: clearly formulate your view of the problem and / or offer a solution. In the following sentences of the main part, expand your thought and justify your position.
Conclusion: Summarize by once again expressing your opinion on the topic, but using a slightly different wording (show knowledge of synonyms).

For and against essays, or essays «for and against»

This is the same type of essay, which in Russian we are accustomed to call «writing-reasoning». Its main feature is the presence of arguments that reveal the topic from different (preferably opposite) points of view. The plan is this:

Introduction: state the topic (problematics) of the essay in your own words.
Body: Formulate at least two opposing views of the problem. You should not express your own opinion, speak neutrally, put verbs in the second person form.
Conclusion: you can end the essay with your own conclusion, or briefly confirm that the problem raised does not have an unambiguous solution, and each approach has a right to exist.

Suggesting solutions to problem essays, or solving a problem

The easiest and at the same time the most difficult type of essay in English. Its job is to test your vocabulary. The topic of such an essay is some global, well-known problem. You need to tell how you can solve it and / or how to put up with it. In terms of it, it looks something like this:

Introduction: retell the topic (problem) of the essay in your own words.
Main part: state the information that you own on this issue. Explain why a particular solution is the preferred solution to the problem. Show that you can understand and explain cause and effect in English.
Conclusion: Summarize, once again arguing the chosen point of view.

Even if there is no direct indication of the style of the text in the exam, you will immediately understand how to write an essay, depending on the topic. For example, on a sports topic, an essay may contain arguments for (health) and against (injury). The topic related to ecology will be maximally disclosed in a problem-solving essay.

Speech clichés for essays in English

There are certain phrases, even phrases, that help you write an essay in English. Their first advantage is that you have certain «fulcrum points», guidelines for building sentences.

And second, they let the examiners understand that you own these speech constructions and can correctly apply them in the text. Here are examples of basic word clichés for essays in English:

This essay deals with
This assignment will examine
This report will analyze
First (ly) second (ly) third (ly)
To begin with then to conclude (First, then finally)
Owing to / owing to the fact that
It is believed that
It cannot be argued that.

Try not to repeat the same words. It will be great if you can enrich the synonyms with emotional words from this list. Even if sentences are similar in structure, use synonyms.

For example, to contrast: but, however, on the other hand, yet; for examples: for example, that is; for additions: similarly, moreover, furthermore, in addition; for enumerations: then, after that, ultimately; in conclusion: therefore, consequently, as a result, thus.

And remember — clean and concise speech is always preferable to florid and complex, in which you yourself are confused. Think and structure first to understand exactly how to write an essay in English. Then the text on paper will turn out to be foldable and without errors. Good luck on your exam!

Source: https://rgiufa.ru/sochineniya/kak-napisat-esse-po-anglijskomu-yazyku.html

Flawless Essay in English

Nobody likes exams, but everyone has to take them. Are you going to write an essay in English for the Unified State Exam? We are ready to help: tips, examples and even a ready-made template.

Writing or essays in English is one of the main tasks in the exams. It is being written from year to year as part of the Unified State Exam, and new generations of graduates will write it. According to rumors, big changes are approaching in attestation in foreign languages: in 2020, all Russian schools are going to hold a trial USE in the Chinese language. But there are no plans to cancel the essay in English, so let’s focus on writing it in 2018.

Opinion essays, or opinion essays.

Introduction: state the topic (problematics) of the essay in your own words.
The main part: clearly formulate your view of the problem and / or offer a solution. In the following sentences of the main part, expand your thought and justify your position.
Conclusion: Summarize by once again expressing your opinion on the topic, but using a slightly different wording (show knowledge of synonyms).

Suggesting solutions to problem essays, or solving a problem.

Introduction: retell the topic (problem) of the essay in your own words.
Main part: state the information that you own on this issue. Explain why a particular solution is the preferred solution to the problem. Show that you can understand and explain cause and effect in English.
Conclusion: Summarize, once again arguing the chosen point of view.

How to write an Essay in English for the exam 2020?

An essay in English for the Unified State Exam is the most voluminous and responsible task in the entire exam. Successful writing of an essay gives as many as 14 points, and therefore you need to approach its preparation as seriously as possible. The examiners recommend that 40 minutes be devoted to solving the grammar alone, but the essay seems to be a more time-consuming task that requires special attention from the students.

Essay requirements in 2020

The essay is written in task 40, or C2, and it takes about 60 minutes to complete it. The average length of an essay is 200-250 words, but not less than 180 and not more than 275, otherwise the work will not be counted.

The Unified State Exam assesses the content and structure of the essay, the accuracy of the selected lexical units and grammatical structures, spelling and punctuation. Therefore, you need to write not only logically consistently and correctly, but also extremely competently — for the absence of errors and correctly placed punctuation marks, the student receives 5 points out of a possible 14.

Essay evaluation criteria in English

If we analyze each aspect separately, the solution of the communicative problem in the text gives 3 points, the organization of the essay, vocabulary and grammar — also 3 points, punctuation — 2 points.

Solution of a communication problem — consists in a clear, consistent statement of the position on a given topic, in the specified volume of words, using a neutral style of presentation.
Organization — provides for the correct division of the essay into fragments, logically connected by introductory constructions and linking words. Stick to the law: One paragraph, one key thought.
Vocabulary — prepare a long list of lexical units in advance so as not to repeat the same template constructions from sentence to sentence. Choose words according to meaning, use synonyms and explanations, build sentences of different lengths, but do not overload the text with heavy explanations.
Grammar — mistakes in an essay in English are unacceptable. Articles, verb tense forms, singular and plural nouns must be used correctly.
Spelling and punctuation — write the words correctly and clearly. If a specialist cannot understand what was written, the questionable word or construction will be considered an error. Strikethroughs, corrections, blots and misspellings deduct points from the precious 14 you can get in this section.

English essay outline with answer templates

Before you start writing an essay, it is important to draw up a detailed and specific plan. It will help you not to get lost in thought and not go far away from the given topic. We offer a visual outline of an essay in English for the Unified State Exam with applied lexical constructions for each individual paragraph and fragment of the text.

Entry

Here it is necessary to briefly outline the key problem of the text, without going into details, but also not limited to the title of the essay.

1.1. Problem identification.

Nowadays, the problem of causes is great argument and controversy.

In today’s world, the issue of is considered to be a matter of common concern / the main concern of

1.2. Commentary on the problem.

Source: https://tetrika-school.ru/blog/esse-po-anglijskomu-po-ege/

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An essay is a common type of writing and assignment that high-school and college students have to deal with. Essay writing can be a pretty daunting task, especially when you lack creative writing skills or don’t enjoy writing at all, or both.

Most of the students are not aware of the essential steps to write an essay. Read on and master how to write an essay on any topic that is well-researched, detailed, and tailored for an A grade.

What is an Essay?

Let’s begin by learning the definition of an essay. So, what is an essay? An essay is a brief composition based on a certain topic or subject that students do as part of their schoolwork or university coursework.

Essays are one of the most common assignments handed out by colleges and institutions since they are an excellent tool for improving many essential skills including analytical thinking, research, creative skills, and so on.

Let’s look at writing strategies that can help you get an A in your essay. Let’s start at the beginning and work our way through these steps to write a good essay:

Choose the Essay Type
Choose an Interesting Topic
Create an Essay Outline
Write Your First Draft
Write an Essay Introduction
Develop a Thesis Statement
Compose Body Paragraphs
Write a Strong Conclusion
Review Your Essay

Let’s take a look at each step of learning how to create an excellent essay in depth.

Here is the basic structure that you need to follow for writing an academic essay:

1. Choose the Essay Type

The first step is to choose the type of essay that you are writing. Choosing the right type of essay also plays an important role in the overall success of your paper.

Here are the basic types of papers in which academic essays can be divided.

Narrative essay
Persuasive essay
Descriptive essay
Analytical essay
Argumentative essay
Expository essay

Knowing the type of essay will eventually help you decide on the topic and the overall structure of your essay in the best possible way.

2. Choose an Interesting Topic

If you are given the topic, skip to the next step, create an outline and start the writing process.

If you are not given a topic, you have a little more work to do and choose your topic first.

The key to choosing a good topic is to think of what interests you and what you can relate to, the most.

Also, make sure that the topic you choose has sufficient research material available. Search either on the internet or in books for the topic you have chosen to write on.

You can also find a list of interesting essay topics that you can explore and choose the one to write your essay on.

3. Create an Essay Outline

Creating an outline is very important if you want to compose an impressive piece of paper. By putting all the ideas on the paper, you can easily see connections and links between ideas in a more clear manner.

If you don’t know how to write an essay outline, here are the following steps that you need to follow for structuring your essay properly.

Write your topic at the top of the page
List down all the main ideas
Leave space under each idea
In this space, list down smaller ideas that relates to the main idea

Following these steps for writing an essay outline will give you a complete idea of the themes required to be discussed in your paper.

4. Write your First Draft

Your first writing draft will help you do the following;

Set the framework and structure of your essay.
The way you will answer the main question.
The kind of examples and evidence you will use in the essay.
The way you will structure your argument

The first draft is not your final essay. Consider it your essay’s raw material that you can edit and proofread later.

5. Write an Essay Introduction

The introductory paragraph of an essay should be both attention-grabbing and informative.

To learn how to write an essay introduction, you first need all the necessary information required to tell the reader about the main idea of your essay.

A vague or boring introduction will give off the wrong impression, and your reader might decide not to read it any further.

Here are the steps in which you can start your essay introduction that is both interesting and informative.

Use a hook sentence and add informative or shocking revelations.
Provide background information and context on your topic
Define the objective of your essay
Provide an overview of the whole essay structure

6. Develop a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement defines the main purpose and claims of your essay. It is typically defined in one or two sentences and is added at the end of your introductory paragraph.

A perfect thesis statement has two parts. The first part states the topic and the latter states the main point of the essay.

Let’s have a look at examples of thesis statements and distinguish between strong and weak thesis statements.

A: “The technological advancement has revolutionized human interaction, medical progress, scientific invention, and economic ventures but also manifested insecurities and privacy issues.”

B: “The Internet has assisted humans in numerous ways but also affected them.”

A or B?

Without any doubt, A is a perfectly crafted thesis statement.

7. Compose Body Paragraphs

The body of an essay describes or explains your topic. Each idea that you write in the outline will be a separate paragraph within the body of the essay.

Since the body is made up of multiple paragraphs, it is important that they are consistent with one another.

Each body paragraph starts with a topic sentence. For those who don’t know what is a topic sentence, it is the first sentence that describes the main purpose of each paragraph. The topic sentence forms a transition between the body paragraphs.

Use transitions to introduce new paragraphs such as “firstly.. secondly… thirdly…, finally, moreover, furthermore, in addition”, etc.

It is a good idea to refer to the transition words for essays to introduce new paragraphs in an impressive manner.

The main aim of body paragraphs is to support your thesis by presenting evidence, facts and figures, statistics, quotes, examples, and other strong evidence.

Here are the tips that you should follow for writing each body paragraph.

Write a clear topic sentence
Provide solid evidence to support your argumen
Provide examples
Make sure the paragraph information is consistent
Use transitions between paragraphs
Conclude each paragraph by linking the evidence to your main point

8. Write a Strong Conclusion

The conclusion sums up the overall ideas and provides a final perspective on the topic. Concluding your essay holds the same importance as the introductory paragraph.

For writing a perfect essay conclusion, provide a futuristic overview, persuade your reader about your point of view and restate the thesis statement.

If you have no idea about how to write a conclusion for an essay, here are the key points that you should include.

Draw connections between the arguments mentioned in the body section
State the outcomes
Show the relevance and significance of the thesis statement
Mention the broader implications of the topic

Here is the information that you should avoid writing in a conclusion:

Don’t introduce new ideas or arguments at this stage.
Do not undermine your arguments
Do not write phrases like ‘in conclusion, or ‘to conclude’

9. Review Your Essay

If you think that you are done with your essay after writing your conclusion, you are wrong. Before considering that your work is finished, you need to do some final touches.

Review your essay and make sure it follows the essay format properly. Double-check your essay instructions and make sure your essay is in the desired format.

Don’t forget to check your paper for grammar and spelling mistakes as well.

How to Structure an Essay Paragraph?

Here are the factors that are included in each body paragraph of the essay.

A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. It sets the tone for the paragraph.
Supporting sentences that help to explain the main idea and topic of the paragraph.
Evidence that you have gathered with research, and supports your point of view.
Analysis of the given evidence and a critical conclusion of the paragraph.
A conclusion or a concluding sentence that sums up the entire paragraph.

All of these components make up a perfect paragraph for any essay.

Essay Example

The best practice is to learn from the essay examples written by expert writers to avoid common essay writing problems. The examples can help you know the purpose of each type of essay and how to write a perfect one.

Imitate their writing style, argument construction, and structure.

As you read, highlight the important parts of an essay to learn how they did it. Keep in mind that the length of an essay depends on the level and complexity of the topic.

Here is a well-written sample essay from one of our expert writers that you can have a look at.

Essay Writing Tips

Here are the expert tips that you should follow for writing a perfect essay.

Start writing your essay early
Remember the main question or idea in your mind.
Brainstorm ideas
Research your topic in-depth
Break down the essay into different sections and do not try to finish it in a single sitting.
Write and add the introduction and conclusion after finishing the essay.
Use transition words to create a coherent flow between the paragraphs.
Connect the evidence with the main idea carefully.
Do not copy-paste the content.
Ensure flawless grammar and punctuation.
Cite the references properly.
Edit and revise relentlessly.
Put the essay away for a few days and check again.

Essay writing can be made easier if you follow a certain pattern and master the steps we have provided you with. Moreover, the tips given above will help you improve your essay-writing skills also.

Try practicing as much as you can and impress your teacher with a well-written essay.

Writing essays can be difficult but the fact is, you can’t escape academic writing no matter what.

This is where the best essay writing service like MyPerfectWords.com comes in to help students save their academic grades. We are an online essay and paper writing service that offers customer support to high school, college, and university students.

Here are the academic papers in which you can get help from expert writers here.

College essays (narrative essays, persuasive essays, compare and contrast essays, etc.)
Custom papers
Book reviews/book report
Case studies
Research papers
College papers

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An opinion essay is a formal piece of writing in which you share your thoughts on a specific topic. You should express your opinion clearly and give reasons and examples to support your point of view.

Remember that when we write in formal style, we must not use contractions or informal words or expressions.

Parts of an opinion essay

An opinion essay must have 3 parts:

1. Introduction

In this paragraph you have to introduce the topic. You introduce the topic by restating the question or the title of the essay in your own words. Here you have to say if you agree or not with the question or the title of the essay. You can agree, disagree or partially agree.

2. Body

In this section you have to support your opinion with reasons and examples. You must include at least three reasons. Break it into several paragraphs. Write one paragraph for each supporting reason. Don’t forget to include examples or facts.

3. Conclusion

Summarize your ideas and restate your opinion using different words.

Transition words and phrases

In your essay you have to organize all your ideas in a logical and coherent way. You can use different transition words or phrases to connect your ideas. Transition words and phrases help the reader understand your point of view easily.

In the table below there is a list of common transition words that you can use in your opinion essays.

Transition words and phrases for opinion essays

EXAMPLE

Essay question: A1/B2 English learners should learn how to write an opinion essay. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Example of an opinion essay A2/B1

Here you can download a simple template that you can use to organize your ideas. You can replace the red words with other transition or linking words from the chart. You can also add more transition words to connect your ideas more clearly.

Opinion Essay simple template

PRACTICE TIME

Dogs are better pets than cats. Do you agree or disagree. Why?

Write your answer in the comments below.

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Are you a high school or college student residing in America, the UK, or Australia?

You are not alone, and we are here to help you understand how to write a good essay. Writing an essay could be tough, but a detailed essay writing guide will help you understand its basics easily and properly.

Essay writing is very common in high school and college, and you cannot get rid of this task at any cost. However, you often have to write an essay in the business world which is often called a report.

An essay is a piece of writing that develops a coherent set of ideas into a well-structured logical argument. Writing a good and properly formatted essay is not an easy task. Most of the students struggle with crafting flawless essays.

Essay writing is fundamental at the secondary and post-secondary levels. But, without good writing skills, students are at a serious disadvantage.

If you find yourself staring at a blank paper or screen, not knowing what to write. And wondering how to begin your essay, then you can learn it here.

For writing an organized and structured essay, you need to follow the steps in proper order. Here are the ten easy steps to writing a good academic essay.

1. Choose the Type of Essay

The first step to writing an essay is to decide which type of essay you need to write. Choosing the correct type of essay is the first step toward your successful essay.

Here are the main types of essays in which every academic essay can be categorized.

Descriptive Essay — A descriptive essay discusses the topic in detail so that it becomes easy to understand for the reader.
Narrative Essay — A narrative essay is a narration of a story in the form of an essay.
Persuasive Essay — A persuasive essay convinces the reader to accept your perspective about the essay topic.
Expository Essay — An expository essay explains and clarifies the topic with great details and examples.

Knowing what type of essay you are required to write can help you choose the topic and draft the essay. Here are the other types of essays that you should also be familiar with.

Argumentative essay
Analytical essay
Cause and effect essay
Classification essay
Synthesis essay

2. Pick a Topic

Choosing a good topic is an essential step toward writing an effective essay. If you are already given an essay topic, you can skip this step. But, if you are required to select a prompt for your essay, you need to do some brainstorming.

When you search for a subject, you’ll find several essay topics for every kind of essay. Picking up the right topic from a huge list is the most daunting and challenging task. Because the essay prompt decides what impact your essay will make. Therefore, it is important to select a topic that is original, unique, fresh, and interests you the most.

3. Choose the Writing Style

The type of essay and essay topic tells you which citation style you need to follow for your essay. More often, the professors dictate the formatting and writing style of your essay. Generally, the following are some common essay writing styles that high school and college students come across.

APA (American Psychological Association) — An Author-Date citation style designed for psychology and social science discipline.
MLA (Modern Language Association) — An Author-Page number citation style designed for language and humanities disciplines.
CMS (Chicago Manual of Style) — A Notes-bibliography or Author-Date citation style, also known as Turabian Style. It is applicable to both scientific and non-scientific disciplines.

Each citation style has its unique format for the reference list and in-text citation. These styles guide you on how to organize the information and properly format your essay. All these citation styles are also applicable to research papers.

4. Research the Topic

After choosing the topic, it’s time to do some research to collect sufficient material for writing the essay. You can go to the library to read books or search online and collect information from credible sources. You can discuss the topics with your peers and teachers to have different perspectives about your topic.

Spend some time researching your topic so that you can easily write an essay full of unique and informative details.

5. Create an Essay Outline

‘How to write an essay outline?’

Creating an outline is very important. It does not just help you organize the data but also helps you make a logical connection between the information.

A typical essay commonly follows a five-paragraph essay format. The basic essay outline structure applies to all essay types. However, the length of the central body paragraphs may differ for complex and longer essays.

Here is a 5 paragraph essay outline structure.

Paragraph 1	Introduction
Paragraph 2	Body 1
Paragraph 3	Body 2
Paragraph 4	Body 3
Paragraph 5	Conclusion

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6. Develop a Thesis

A thesis statement is a brief one or two sentences highlighting the main idea of the essay. Everything that follows will support your thesis statement and proves its essence. For example, “The opioid crisis can only be solved by the government” is a thesis statement. This statement becomes the basic premise of your essay, and every point will lead back to this statement.

It is written at the end of the introduction paragraph and tells the reader what the essay is about. It should not be broad enough that you can’t be thorough, nor narrow enough that you have nothing to discuss.

7. Write the Introduction

‘How to write an essay introduction?’

An introduction paragraph is the first paragraph of your essay. Sometimes starting an essay in an effective way tends to be a bit tricky.

The purpose of the introduction is to inform your reader about the topic that you will discuss in the essay. State it simply and clearly.

A good introduction paragraph should contain the following things:

Start writing the introduction paragraph with a strong hook statement to catch the reader’s attention in the beginning.
‘How to write a hook for an essay?’

Quotations, stories, jokes, phrases, and facts can work as a good idea for your hook statement.
Provide a few sentences explaining your topic in general terms.
Discuss some relevant background information so that the reader can get familiar with the topic.
The introduction paragraph should not be too broad or too narrow.
It should grab the reader’s attention and convince them that it’s worth their time to go through the whole essay.

8. Draft the Body

Body paragraphs are the linking paragraphs between the conclusion and introduction. All the information, examples, facts, and details about the topic being discussed are in the body section.

Use consistent arguments and points of view throughout the body of your essay. Make sure that you add a topic sentence and a single idea in each paragraph. Only one cause should be stated and elaborated on in one paragraph. Additional causes should be discussed in the following paragraphs.

When you want to express a contradictory opinion or perspective, write it in a new and separate paragraph. Do not discuss opposing ideas in the same paragraph; it will only minimize your essay’s effectiveness.

Use transition words to lead the reader from one idea to the other. Effective phrases include: in between, for example, in addition to, moreover, furthermore, firstly, lastly, however, etc.

9. Write the Conclusion

‘How to write a conclusion for an essay?’

The conclusion is the last paragraph that summarizes the main theme of the essay and its outcomes.

In the concluding paragraph, you should include a call for action (if required). For example, “Based upon all the evidence, we should impeach the sitting President.” And offer your final opinion in the light of all arguments that you have given in the body.

Again, make sure that it is appealing and leaves an impact on the reader’s mind.

10. Revise the Essay

Once you are done with the writing process, the next step is revision and proofreading. Check your essay for grammatical and spelling mistakes. Make sure the information is presented in a logical flow.

Proofread your essay at least three times to ensure no mistake or error is left behind. Reading and writing both are part of essay writing tasks; you can’t skip any of them.

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How to Write an Essay — Examples

There are several different categories of essays, each with its unique requirements. Each essay presents different information in different ways. Here are some useful examples of different types of essays that will help you write your essay.

If you follow these examples, you can easily learn to write a good essay. These examples will also let you know how to present a point or argument that intrigues the reader’s curiosity.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing an Essay

As a beginner, there are high chances that you make mistakes while writing your essay. However, you can avoid them by working on some basics. Below we have mentioned some common errors made by non-natives.

Using passive voice
Adding complex sentences
Adding improper or no transitional sentences
Plagiarism
Failing to follow the assignment instructions
Ignoring pronoun subjective-objective agreement
Improper or missing citation references
Citing unreliable resources

Make sure you avoid these mistakes to make your essay impactful. However, if you are not sure about your essay writing skills, get professional help.

Getting help from professional and native essay writers at 5StarEssays.com is the best way to learn how to write an essay. When working with our do essay for me service, you will learn exactly what you need to know about essay writing assignments.

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Essay writing is an academic skill that requires the writer to convert a particular set of ideas into an argument. Since they are linear, essays provide one idea at a time. There should be a continuous flow of ideas to attend to the reader’s logic and to make them understand the argument under discussion.

The thesis statement dictates the information that will be covered and predicts the structure of the essay.

What is an essay?
How to write an essay
Understand the topic
Understand the type of essay you are supposed to cover
- Persuasive and argumentative essay
- Critical Essay
- Descriptive essay
- Compare and contrast essay
- Cause and effect essay
- Creative essay writing
- Analytical Essay
- Process Essay
- Resources:
- Expository Essay
- Narrative Essay
Understand your target audience
Essay Writing Process – How To
- Brainstorming:
- Preparing
- Drafting
- Revising
- Proofreading
Essay structure
- Introduction
- Body paragraphs
- Tips to consider when writing the body paragraphs
- Conclusion
Video: Writing an academic essay step by step
Good Essay writing tips
- Create an essay outline
- Conduct extensive research
- Acquire a deep understanding of basic punctuation, style, and grammar
- Understand your thesis
What is an academic essay?
Basic academic essay format
Academic essay structure
Best Academic Essay Writing Services
What is a comprehensive essay?
What is the purpose of a comprehensive essay?
How is a comprehensive essay formatted?
What are the different types of comprehensive essays?
What type of sources must be used in a comprehensive paper?
What are some examples of comprehensive papers?
How is a comprehensive paper different from an informative paper?
How can a writer compose a comprehensive college paper?
Comprehensive essay outline
Can I hire someone to do my academic essay for me?

What is an essay?

An essay can be defined as a short piece of writing, which is often written to express one’s thoughts or ideas on a particular subject. It can be found in most of the disciplines in arts and literature and it is also discussed in the social sciences, history, law and theology. An essay usually incorporates arguments supported by evidence through a series of informative paragraphs-the longer essays are generally divided into sections such as introduction, main body etc.

When you write an essay, your main purpose is not to share experience or create something beautiful; instead you want to come up with an answer which supports your ideas based on facts and prove them through logical arguments supported by evidence. These facts and evidence can be family history, personal experience and many other things.

The essay is different from a research paper for several reasons; some of them are listed below:

An essay is short. It does not contain more than 10 pages. A research paper on the other hand can have up to 100 pages or even more in length.
In an essay you use your own words in order to clarify your thoughts while in a research paper you have to go through certain rules such as formatting and data analysis because you will be writing a report on someone else’s work.
An essay is more of literary genre than a research paper that falls under science. Thus, the argument supporting an essay has to be logical while for a research paper it doesn’t always have to be so.

In order to write essays one must pay attention on some important aspects such as:

Well developed thesis statements – they help readers focus on what you want them to notice and understand.
Good topic statement- in other words it should flow well from one topic to another without any contradictions or confusion.
A good introduction that catches reader’s interest and makes him start reading your work with interest. It should also answer the questions what are you going to discuss your essay about? and what is your point of view?
An outline that would help you to make sure that you cover all important things.
Effective closing sentences- they should contain main point/argument supported by evidence. If there is no such evidence, then you have to add one more sentence informing the readers where did you find it or how do you know for sure.

Essay writing is not an easy task if one doesn’t follow any structure in his work . It takes time and more importantly enough hard work.

But if done right, them it provides a good sense of accomplishment which motivates the student to achieve better results through hard work.

How to write an essay

Although there is no set formula, certain classic essay types such as comparative analysis follow specific guidelines.

Before writing an essay, there are five things you should clearly understand which are:

Understand the topic you are covering
Understand the type of essay you are supposed to write
Identify and understand your reader
Familiarize yourself with the essay writing process
Understand the essay structure

Understand the topic

Before writing your essay, there are three main factors you should consider which include: thesis, type, and audience. The thesis is an important component that determines the type of essay and the target audience.

It’s important to understand the topic you are supposed to cover. Make sure you understand the objectives the essay is supposed to meet. The topic dictates the language you are going to use and the type of essay you will be required to use.

For instance, an essay on “Compare and Contrast the Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Versailles” will require the writer to extensively use compare and contrast phrases.

If the goal of the essay is to provide a substantive analysis of a topic, then you will be using the language of an analytical essay.

Resource: How to write a problem and solution essay

Understand the type of essay you are supposed to cover

The type of essay you are supposed to cover is determined by the topic and the objectives you want to meet. There are various types of essays that you are likely to come across which include:

Here are the 10 most popular essays that you can cover:

Persuasive and argumentative essay

Persuasive essay persuades the audience to adopt a particular idea. You are supposed to select a specific topic and support your claims with well-researched information from credible sources.

For argumentative essays, you can just explain why you have chosen a certain point of view on a given topic.

Although it should support the thesis statement with detailed, well-presented arguments, argumentative essays should mention both sides of the thesis statement.

For instance, if you are focusing on the positive side of the story on “should marijuana be legalized in the United States,” you should highlight several reasons why marijuana has not been legalized.

Resources:

How to write an argumentative essay
How to write a persuasive essay

A few topics for persuasive/argumentative essay you can cover include:

Should marijuana be legalized in the United States?
Should young people be allowed in drinking areas?

Critical Essay

This is a type of essay that evaluates and criticizes artistic works, books, films, movies, or speeches, events, scholarly works, and scientific advancements.

A writer is expected to provide engaging and informative content to the audience criticizing whether a book, artistic work, or film managed to convey the message or how well the work was done.

Critical thinking skills are required when tackling this type of essay. You need to think deeply to get the main reason why you are criticizing something. Besides, you need to support your opinion with evidence from credible sources. For instance, when criticizing a portrait, various questions can guide you.

These critical questions include:

Do you think the painting was great?
What aspects of the painting bothered you?
Are there any identifiable faults that bothered you?
Do you have evidence to support your claims?

Some topics on critical types of essays that you can write on include:

Discuss the ending of the first season of the Marvel series “The Punisher”
What are the benefits of embracing climate-smart agriculture?
Discuss how Napoleon is presented in the War and Peace

Resources:

How to write a short essay
How to write an illustration essay
How to write a reflective analysis essay

Descriptive essay

This type of essay provides a detailed overview of a certain situation or topic. It’s a common type of essay in high schools, colleges, and universities. Various tips can help you when writing a descriptive essay that include:

Brainstorm and describe your feelings in the essay
Rely on your senses and use them to express your feelings
Use descriptive words such as bright, persistent, tenacious, flexible, luxurious, dynamic, mellow, committed…

Resource: How to write a descriptive essay

Compare and contrast essay

This type of essay provides a critical analysis of the similarities and differences of two events, objects, or things. You are supposed to present a clear comparison of two events or things to the reader. For instance, you can be told to compare and contrast the League of Nations and the United Nations.

At times, a compare and contrast essay might require the writer to compare two things. Also, a writer might be required to contrast two things, providing detailed information on how the two things differ. However, in most cases, both parts might be combined into a single essay, requiring the writer to compare and contrast two things in one essay.

Some examples of compare and contrast essays include:

Compare and contrast the Congress of Vienna and the Versailles Treaty
What’s better between homemade and restaurant meals?
What are the similarities and differences between traditional juicers and modern juicers?

Resources: How to write a compare and contrast essay

Cause and effect essay

In this type of essay, a situation is presented and supported by thoroughly analyzed results. This type of essay is common in history and literature classes. A cause and effect essay concentrate on how a cause and an effect relate.

A few topics that you can write on include:

The causes and effects of World War I
The causes and effects of air and water pollution in urban areas
The causes and effects of the Cold War

Resource: How to write a compare and contrast essay

Creative essay writing

In this type of essay, you are supposed to choose a topic and merge various styles and ideas to come up with an enticing story. Creative essays require a chronological flow of events that took place at a given period. These essays cover a fictional event that took place. For instance, you can write a creative essay on “the day I will never forget.”

Analytical Essay

This type of essay combines the implementation of personal preferences and critical thinking to provide a detailed analysis of an idea, event, or topic. Although they are slightly similar to descriptive essays, analytical essays are more detailed. They use a descriptive style but have a specific outline. Since they involve classifications, you should strictly follow the detailed format for analytical essays. Various tips can help you when writing analytical essays which include:

All paragraphs must be clear and only one category should be mentioned in each category.
Identify various categories and mention the advantages and disadvantages for each.
You can go beyond the 5-paragraph format if you have more categories to cover. However, your essay should be within the recommended word count.

A few topic suggestions for an analytical essay include:

Political systems in the United States and Canada
Drugs in sports
Technological advancements in the biotechnology industry
Cultural analysis essay writing

Resources:

How to write a literary analysis essay
How to write an analytical essay
How to write an analytical history essay
How to write a classification and division essay

Process Essay

This is the type of essay that explains a step-by-step structure of how something happens or how it should be done. Process analysis essay provide detailed instructions that are performed in a specific series. For instance, you can be told to write an essay on “how to make soap” or “how petrol is extracted from crude oil”

When writing process essays, proper transitional words must be used. This helps the reader to understand the process discussion faster. Phrases such as: in the first place, next, in conclusion, initially, after the, and eventually should be used.

Resources:

How to write a process analysis essay
How to write a process essay with examples

Expository Essay

This type of essay educates the audience on different ideas or topics. On most occasions, it doesn’t use personal opinions and doesn’t convince the reader to adopt a certain idea. Since it requires one to research an idea and evaluate the evidence from different sources, expository essays are quite challenging compared to descriptive essays. Ideas must be supported with evidence from credible sources.

Some expository essay topics that you can write on include:

Pros and cons of organic farming
Six reasons why people need to go to school
Which place do you admire and why?

Resource:
How to write an expository essay
How to write an explanatory essay
How to write a deductive essay
How to write a rhetorical analysis essay.

Narrative Essay

Although it’s similar to creative writing, writing a narrative essay follow specific formatting styles to form a story. A continuous flow of ideas or events is required in this essay. Narrative writing is common in high schools, colleges, and universities. In simple terms, narrative writing tells a story about a certain event or activity that took place at a given time. Narrative essays do not require much research since they are personal types of essays. However, unlike creative essays, narrative essays need a point that should be clarifying.

Some suggestions for narrative writing include:

A tragic experience that transformed you into the person you are today
Your mother’s life journey
Your memorable childhood memories
The moment you met your life partner

Resource:

How to write a narrative essay step by step with examples
How to write a profile essay with examples
How to write a personal essay
How to write a self-identity essay

Understand your target audience

Before writing down the essay, your final consideration is to understand your target audience. It can be either the admission counsellor, a teacher, a researcher, your peers, or the general public.

The targeted audience influences the language you will use regardless of the type of essay you are writing.

They influence the style, word choice, and language and determine whether the essay will be casual or formal. Besides, the audience influences how emotions like ultimate confidence and cautiousness are expressed in the essay and affect the tone.

Essay Writing Process – How To

To craft engaging and high quality essays, blog articles about essay writing, poems, screenplays, short stories, term papers, research papers, and dissertations, it’s important to follow an orderly writing system.

An efficient writing process helps you organize your thoughts, prepare, create an outline for the essay, draft your ideas, address all the subtleties, and polish your essay before presenting it to the reader.

When writing your essay, you should consider following the five-step essay writing process:

Brainstorming:

Brainstorming is a crucial step that helps you gather a wide range of ideas that are based on your thesis or prompt before you begin writing. Generating many thoughts provides a clear image of what should be used in the essay and helps you set aside ideas that won’t fit in the paper.

Preparing

In this phase, you are required to create an outline for your essay and collect adequate information from different resources that should be used in the essay. Next, thoughts that were gathered during the brainstorming phase and ideas collected from different sources are isolated and placed in different categories. They are then organized in a logical and progressive order to ensure a continuous flow of ideas supporting your thesis. The essay structure, contemporary citations, and empirical evidence are incorporated in this step.

Drafting

This is the main stage where the collected ideas, evidence, and in text citations are put into writing. To avoid missing the big picture, ideas should be well-organized in your first draft. Omitted ideas should be included and any errors rectified before getting to the final draft. The fact that there is no specific number of times that you should draft the essay gives you the freedom to make and correct errors within the allocated timeframe.

Revising

This stage involves addressing all the errors and subtleties glossed in the first and subsequent drafts. Catch and rectify common mistakes in the sentence structure such as passive voice, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and wordiness. Be keen on word choice and clarity and revise any use of sophisticated writing techniques.

Proofreading

After completing the main revisions such as correcting sentence fragments and passive voice, your last step should be to proofread your essay to correct minor issues such as grammatical errors, formatting issues, misspellings, punctuation, and technical issues. Check whether proper transitional words are used between paragraphs to ensure a smooth flow of ideas throughout the essay.

Essay structure

As a writer, it is important to understand the outline of an informative essay. Coming up with a well-structured and organized essay is easy although it requires the writer to do extensive research and practice on the outline. The basic essay structure contains three sections which are:

Introduction
Body
Conclusion

Learn more about how to structure an essay.

Introduction

First impressions matter in essay writing. A catchy introduction plays an important role in grabbing the reader’s attention and persuades them to read the entire essay. A good essay introduction must:

Contain a hook to grab the reader’s attention;
Reveal the thesis statement or the main argument;
Provide a brief overview of the main ideas discussed in the essay.

A strong attention-grabber convinces the reader to go through the entire essay. Depending on the target audience and the type of essay, attention-grabbers can either be informative or anecdotal.

The thesis statement of an essay shows the main argument that will be covered in the essay.

Background information on the main argument of the essay enables the reader to understand the essay from a writer’s point of view.

How to start an essay

Body paragraphs

This section supports the paper’s thesis statement and discusses the ideas in a detailed and well-organized manner.

A topic sentence is required to introduce each paragraph. Proper transitional words should be used to ensure a smooth flow of ideas.

All ideas should be supported by well-researched primary and secondary sources to enrich the thesis statement.

Each paragraph should contain its point that relates to the main argument in the essay.

Precise language and robust vocabulary should be used to illustrate different ideas.

Tips to consider when writing the body paragraphs

Various tips can help you professionally craft your body paragraphs. They include:

The body should only discuss points that relate to the thesis statement
A continuous flow of ideas should be maintained throughout the body
The second paragraph should explain the second point while the third paragraph discusses the third idea.

The body paragraphs should contain:

A clear topic sentence;
Well-researched supporting detail and evidence;
A proper transition between body sentences and paragraphs;
A concluding sentence to bring the paragraph to an end and to tie the arguments to the thesis statement.

Review: How to write a 5 paragraph essay step by step

Conclusion

In an essay conclusion, you summarize the different points discussed in the essay, remind your audience of the objective of the paper, and mirror your final thoughts. However, new ideas should not be introduced in the conclusion. A good conclusion should:

Provide the specifics in your introduction;
Rephrase your thesis – this makes it more meaningful and enables the reader to understand the main objectives of the essay;
Remind the reader about the main objectives of the essay and make them understand why the ideas presented in the essay are important;
Conclude the essay with either a general statement or a final thought.

The last step in writing a comprehensive college essay is proofreading , and don’t forget to use it! A poorly constructed sentence with spelling errors or grammar mistakes can ruin an otherwise good paper.

Remember that people are not interested in reading papers full of such errors; they read them because they want to know more about the topic covered or find help with their problems.

Do not let yourself down by wasting time on trivial errors; focus instead on making sure your arguments flow well together and that each piece of information has a place in your overall argument.

Video: Writing an academic essay step by step

Good Essay writing tips

Certain tips can help you enrich your essay and improve your writing skills. They include:

Create an essay outline

Your essay should be well-organized with a continuous flow of ideas. It should follow an introduction, body, conclusion format. For instance, if you are writing a process essay, the steps should be organized chronologically and no step should be omitted. Analytical, process, compare and contrast, and expository essays have a specific format that should be followed to present ideas in a chronological format. For instance, mixing up points in a process essay explaining “the process of manufacturing Sulphuric Acid using the Contact Process” can ruin the entire process being explained.

Conduct extensive research

Extensive research is required when covering analytical, persuasive, cause-and-effect, and compare and contrast essays. Essays should be source-rich and the ideas should be supported by information from credible sources. However, referencing information from other sources should be done moderately.

Acquire a deep understanding of basic punctuation, style, and grammar

A high-quality essay with engaging content uses incredible grammar and style. Before writing an essay, you should develop a solid understanding of grammar basics. Your sentences should be well-formed and proper pronoun and article usage should be ensured. Avoid wordiness and use of passive voice. Active voice enriches the tone of your essay and makes it stronger.

Understand your thesis

Before writing your essay, ensure you understand your thesis to avoid being out of topic. It can be quite frustrating to write down a 7-page essay only to be told you are out of topic. Once you understand the main argument, critically analyze the evidence you are planning to include in your essay. Ideas and sources that that doesn’t support your main argument should be excluded.

Stuck with your essay? Please review our essay writing help online for students.

What is an academic essay?

An academic essay is something that is written by a student who has to undergo academic activity. It is always related to education, which is the main task of the students. There are several types of academic essays: research paper, assignment, term paper and dissertation.

All these different papers fall under one category — an academic essay. Essays have many features in common with each other, especially with research papers and term papers.

In academic essay writing, it should contain a title page, introduction; references may also be required in some situations (depending on your teacher’s expectations).

You need to explain why you chose this project and what motivated you to conduct it as well as the methodology which was used during the research process (how did you conduct your research, make observations and perform experiments).

Also, you should thoroughly discuss the results of your work as well as clearly explain how they will be applied in practice.

The main difference between an essay assignment and other types of academic paper is that it is much easier to write an essay than a term paper or a dissertation.

It does not contain so many details like the previous two papers require. Thus, some students use this type of assignment only for improving their writing skills without considering its educational purposes too seriously.

No matter if this essay is written by a student who intends to apply all his knowledge and abilities into it or with no serious intentions at all – a useful piece of text must always have several specific traits: relevance (the goal), significance (importance), coherence (clear connection between all parts of the work, good structure), correctness (grammar and spelling) and readability.

All essays are written on some definite topic that is assigned by your teacher. Your task is to explain what you know about it, prove your thoughts using materials from different sources, evaluate some ideas expressed in these sources and make your own conclusions based on them.

You should always write an essay with a specific purpose: to persuade readers that your goal is correct or to provide information they need for performing their tasks. Your essay will be considered as having no value if you fail to either convince readers about the validity of your views or inform them about something new they will not find useful at all.

In this case, the only way to avoid negative assessment is to choose an appropriate subject and find a proper approach to your readers.

Any type of academic assignment requires serious attitude towards your work. This means that you should pay enough attention not only to its general features but also to each separate paragraph and sentence.

Your essay’s readability highly depends on whether or not it has unity – all paragraphs clearly relate to each other and form the whole body of information about one certain topic. To achieve this effect, use transitional words between paragraphs (e.g., finally etc.), organize main ideas by using outlines, diagrams or tables, make sure that every word contributes something valuable towards completing the whole meaning of this part.

Also, do not forget about punctuation marks: make sure that every sentence is formed properly by using spaces between words, commas between independent clauses and full stops at the end of each sentence.

Every good essay is written under some specific rules. The main rule here is to choose a proper style which you will then use throughout the entire work. To determine this style, take into account what your teacher expects from you (whether he wants an essay written in MLA format or APA one) as well as which type of opinion he wants to know: whether his students support him or not.

Basic academic essay format

What is the format of an academic essay?

A good academic essay should always follow a specific format so that readers can understand what your paper is about. Here are some basic tips for how to write an academic essay (basis format of an academic essay):

Introduce your topic by using an introductory sentence.
Use specific and relevant examples or cases to illustrate your ideas.
State the three most important points of your work at the beginning of each paragraph.
Develop each point using logical arguments and facts that support them.
Keep it interesting by adding visuals, quotes, or brief stories if possible.
Stay in the allotted word limit depending on what kind of academic essay writing you are working on (e.g., a term paper might need up to 10,000 words).
Use proper English, as it makes your writing more interesting and credible.
Make sure that all necessary information is included (e.g., references or a bibliography).

Read more on essay format for details about academic essay writing format.

Academic essay structure

The structure of an academic essay includes three sections: Introduction, Body, and conclusion.

The introduction of an academic essay includes the thesis statement, which is the main idea or thought to be communicated to the reader. The conclusion of an academic essay usually contains a summary of what has previously been said in the body paragraphs (the main part of an essay), along with any final thoughts you may have about your subject matter.

Writing an academic paper requires good knowledge of its structure and style rules . Thus, pay attention to the following elements: presentation (as it sets one’s position towards the topic), facts and examples (use them to support your point of view) and conclusion (sum up all discussed statements).

The use of quotation from famous people may add credibility to one’s thesis.

The last thing to consider here is the length of your work . Usually most academic essay writing papers should be no longer than 5-6 pages (i.e., 1500-2000 words) except for dissertation and long research papers . So, keep in mind that the best academic work is not to be too long or too short.

Academic writing resources:

Havard college writing center
UNSW Sydney
Purdue Online Writing Lab
UVU Writing Center

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What is a comprehensive essay?

A comprehensive essay is a type of academic writing that covers a subject in detail. The goal of writing a comprehensive essay is to make the reader feel as though they have learned enough about the topic to discuss it intelligently. The writer uses sources to back up facts, figures and pieces of information in the essay.

The term “comprehensive” can be defined in many ways. It can refer to a report or essay that covers a lot of information, explains something fully or examines on topic from different angles. In other words, comprehensive means complete and thorough when writing college papers. Sometimes a writer may have trouble deciding what type of paper they should write. That is why this article focuses on how to create a comprehensive college essay based on examples and ideas about topics one could cover when writing such an assignment.

A comprehensive essay is a written assignment, which needs to be prepared by every university or college student. The reason why you have to write it is that this type of an essay clearly demonstrates your skills in the subject related to science and art field. In addition, it allows the teacher to analyze what areas are difficult for you and how advanced are you in this particular subject.

What is the purpose of a comprehensive essay?

The purpose of a comprehensive essay is to inform the reader about something that they may forget or overlook. The essay should give evidence on why a particular topic has meaning to society. A thorough explanation on how an event or person affects others can be contained within this type of paper. It provides reliable information to help people have clearer insight into their decisions and concerns. Writers also use this technique when proposing new ideas for changes in institutions that affect large groups of people. They give all sides in order for those who are opposed to feel more comfortable with the proposed change(s). Conclusions must be supported by facts and figures to eliminate incorrect information.

How is a comprehensive essay formatted?

The format of a comprehensive essay should be very similar to that of a research paper, or term paper. The difference between the two types of papers is the amount of detail included in them.

A research paper typically focuses only on one topic throughout the entire document, while a comprehensive essay covers multiple topics within one piece. In order for an extensive piece of writing to flow properly, it should have a clear introduction, body and conclusion like any other type of academic writing.

They also use subheading categories that divide the main point into smaller sections to make it easier for readers to comprehend what they have read in-between headlines.

This helps writers prove their points in a way that is easy to understand and follow.

What are the different types of comprehensive essays?

There are many different types of papers that could be considered “comprehensive.”

For example, a writer could write a comprehensive essay about how the Great Depression affected American culture. This paper would not only discuss how it impacted the economy , but also on art and literature.

One can write an informative paper examining all the facts and figures relating to why social security has become such an important issue in America even today. This type of paper can be written for students who have difficulty deciding which major they should choose at college. The advantages and disadvantages of choosing one career over another should be stated with good reasons as evidence to support both sides. This will help the student decide what career path is best for them to take and why. When writing a comprehensive essay, writers consider all possibilities of how an event or person affected other people within their society .

What type of sources must be used in a comprehensive paper?

All types of credible resources can be used when writing a comprehensive essay. Sources such as encyclopedias, books, periodicals and the Internet can all be cited. However, it is important to use reliable resources that do not contain irrelevant or misleading information . All sources must be cited properly in order for readers to easily find where you obtained your information.

What are some examples of comprehensive papers?

A short essay about depression could include a wide range of topics related directly and indirectly with depression.

For example: how the mental illness has affected people’s lives , the treatment options available and organizations dedicated to helping those with depression.

It is also possible to write a paper on why children under two years old should have mandatory health checkups.

This topic would focus more on current events related to the subject instead of something like depression, which could have more of a history behind it. Another example would be to write an essay about how the actions of one person can affect so many others around them.

How is a comprehensive paper different from an informative paper?

An informative paper is similar to a comprehensive college essay in that it must have a clear thesis and supporting details.

The main difference between these two types of papers is that with an informative piece, writers focus on specific topics while leaving out others.

Unlike a comprehensive essay where one writes about everything and anything related to the topic given.

Source materials used in this type of college writing should also be strictly limited to credible sources that contain only fact-based information without any personal feelings or beliefs added into the paper.

How can a writer compose a comprehensive college paper?

Writing a comprehensive essay of this kind requires the use of several steps:

Research and find all relevant information about the topic at hand,
Collect all sources used to support your arguments,
Organize these ideas into an easily readable hierarchy that is both organized and easy to follow.

The introduction should flow from one point to another as you move toward your conclusion. This will help readers have a clear understanding of what topics are being discussed in each section. Once completed, remember to footnote or annotate any source material in order for readers who wish to do further research on the subject may find where it was obtained . Make sure not slip up with anytime you cite text because if you do it will be hard for readers to find the right citation among all of your sources .

Making sure your thesis introduces the essay

Your choice of topic has a direct impact on how you structure your introduction.

If you are writing about a topic that has been covered before, such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, it may be best to introduce your essay with a brief overview of what most people think about this subject.

However if you are writing a paper on a more obscure issue like metaphysical poetry in Canada between 1910 and 1915 , you should provide your reader with more detail. Perhaps write an outline or chart of information that summarizes what little is known about this movement so the reader will be able to quickly understand how little there is known without having to read through several paragraphs.

Either way make sure you tell readers why they should care enough to read the rest of your comprehensive college essay .

The body needs an introduction too!

Once all sources have been properly cited make sure the information that you collected is in some type of order.

This can be difficult for a writer, but if you do not organize your arguments properly then readers may have difficulty understanding how each source supports your thesis. It may also help to create an outline before beginning work on the body.

Pay particular attention to introduction and conclusion statements ; make sure they refer back to what is stated in the introduction so there will be a sense of unity throughout your paper.

Tailor your supporting details to fit

One thing that determines whether or not a writer has done comprehensive college essay is making his or her supporting details relevant enough that they actually support their thesis ; they need to add something important by this I mean facts , figures and helpful statistics that will make your paper stand out as different. If you have done all the steps mentioned so far, then there should be no problem at all.

When writing a comprehensive examination essay, there are some important rules that need to be followed:

Comprehensive essays will always include a thesis statement. This part should help create anticipation as readers want to know more about what they can expect with rest of your paper. Well-written thesis statements usually supply enough information regarding the topic at hand but also leaves room for curiosity of the reader because it is not clear in what direction your essay will be headed.

Also, you should make sure that the thesis statement includes a narrow topic so that it can be analyzed and evaluated effectively within the given time frame. In addition to this, if you end up writing one long sentence as a thesis statement then it can prove to be quite problematic for readers as they will need to skim through it first before deciding whether or not they would read the rest of your paper. A comprehensive examination essay is usually divided into several parts where each part focuses on one particular aspect of the main issue which has been mentioned in your thesis statement. Therefore, if you are planning to write about two or more topics then it is very important that you divide them separately.

Another important aspect of writing a comprehensive essay is that you provide an introduction, which gives readers an idea about what to expect in the rest of your paper.

Comprehensive writing should contain every kind of evaluation techniques and strategies which are associated with it. Usually instructors require their students to use critical analysis as well as analytical methods of examination so make sure to use them all if necessary.

Comprehensive essays have more content than other kinds of papers since they consist of diverse aspects such as historical analysis, social evaluation, cultural exploration etc. Therefore, if you are planning to write about only one topic then make sure to divide it into several parts where each part will be dedicated exclusively to one particular aspect of the subject being discussed in your paper. Then provide an introduction which includes information regarding the source you used for your research and when did you use secondary sources vs primary ones.

In order to make your essay sound convincing, you need to provide strong arguments and references for your claims. In addition, it is very important that you structure your paper correctly as this also plays an important role in the overall quality of the assignment.

It is a good idea to use some transition words such as however, moreover etc so make sure that you don’t misuse them since they can weaken the overall quality of your writing assignment. Furthermore, we encourage students who are planning to submit their work online through our website to insert some relevant links within the text if possible so readers would be able to find more information on topics which have been discussed in detail throughout your writing assignment.

Comprehensive examination essays vary from topic to topic so always read through the instructions carefully and make sure that you follow them to the best of your abilities. As mentioned above, if you are in college and have to write a comprehensive essay then follow our steps in order to get the highest possible grade.

If you made any mistakes while writing a comprehensive paper then do not hesitate to use proper editing methodologies in order to fix them all. If after reading through your final version you still feel that it is not good enough, then we strongly suggest that you order professional essay assistance online today! However, don’t forget that no matter how hard this process might seem now, once you start writing the first sentence everything will fall into place very easily.

Comprehensive essay outline

A good comprehensive essay outline should consist of a introduction (thesis statement), some major supporting points in body section and conclusion. Students who have never written a paper before can refer to this simple comprehensive essay outline:

Detailed instructions on how to write each section of a comprehensive essay:

Thesis Statement – It is the most important part of your writing assignment because it will determine the overall quality of content in your writing assignment. Therefore make sure that you include only relevant information within it since if you fail to do so this can lead to failure in college despite all other excellent scores that you might have achieved until now. Furthermore, if you are wondering how teachers decide whether text is relevant or not, then we suggest that students read through this article for more details about it. If you don’t clicking the link, then here are a few good ways to make your thesis statement relevant: Use transition words such as for example, therefore etc and when you use them properly they can make your writing assignment look much more professional than before. Furthermore, it is a good idea to always start phrases with this or that because while reading through the text students will get an idea about what kind of examples are being used within each paragraph. Use statistics if possible but make sure that they are reliable otherwise this might lead to failure in college despite all other excellent scores that you might have achieved until now.

Comprehensive Essay Paragraphs – In order for the reader to understand the topic better, make sure that you divide each paragraph into smaller parts so readers would be able to understand the main idea much better. Furthermore, it is a good idea to start each sub-topic with an introductory phrase and then use the rest of the paragraph for providing strong arguments in order to prove that each statement made within the introduction can be true. Usually, students have to write between 3-5 paragraphs depending on how many points teachers want them to address within their writing assignment. A general comprehensive essay outline includes at least 3 paragraphs so make sure that you divide them into smaller parts in order for readers to understand all major concepts which are being described throughout your paper.

Comprehensive Essay Formatting – If you are wondering about how formatting plays an important role in improving overall quality of content then read through this article and find out all the details. Most teachers suggest that college students use MLA format in order to write their papers but if you are not sure about how it works then read this article and find out everything you need!

Comprehensive Essay Conclusion – If after writing a comprehensive paper a student is left with some extra time, then it would be a good idea research on what essay conclusion should include and how to format it properly. If you did your best while writing a comprehensive paper, but just cannot seem to come up with an amazing conclusion make sure that do not hesitate to seek professional help online because there are many highly-qualified writers who can offer assistance at any time of the day. Overall, even though these steps might seem very overwhelming right now, you will be able to master them if you have an unlimited access to the internet.

The article outline above is just a basic one, but you can always change it and add more details if needed.

Conclusion, final thoughts and takeaways

As you can see from this article that a comprehensive paper is not so hard to write. The key thing would be to stick to the topic and give it all you got.

One more tip I would like to throw at you is do not forget about formatting!

Do your best; use reliable sources and cite them properly and as mentioned earlier make sure to have plenty of time left when writing up such paper or research project for your college because last minute rush never works out well.

Once again good luck with that college essay! You will need it- trust me ; they are tricky things if done wrong!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Brainstorming your college essay topic

Would you Rather watch instead?

How to structure & outline a college essay

Montage Structure

The difference between a boring and a stand-out personal statement

A quick word on “common” or “cliché” topics

MY LAPTOP STICKERS

The “Home” essay: A quick case study

HOME

Five (more) ways to find a thematic thread for your personal statement

More ways to find a thematic thread for your personal statement

Montage Structure FAQs

Narrative Structure

The Feelings and Needs Exercise

The Birth of Sher Khan

Narrative Structure

What Had to Be Done

Montage Structure FAQs

Format of a one-paragraph essay

Thesis Statement

Body Point

Concrete Detail

Commentary

Concluding Sentence

An Alternative Approach to Crafting a One Paragraph Essay

Primary Stages of Crafting a One Paragraph Essay

Preparation

Composing

Revision

Craft the Body First

Avoid Generalizations and Overstatements

Use Strong Transitions

How to write an essay in English — outline, structure, topics, phrases

English essay outline

Essay structure in English

Essay Topics in English

Essay phrases in English

How to write an essay in English for the exam-2019

Follow the plan

Keep track of the volume

How to write an essay correctly in English

Prepare

How to overcome the «fear of a blank slate»

Introduction

Main part

Conclusion

Style guidelines

Recommendations for registration

Avoid elements of colloquial speech:

Enjoy learning English online with Puzzle English for free

What is an essay?

Essay types

Structure

Recommendations, advice

How to write an essay in English perfectly: questions and answers to an excellent language: questions and answers, a sample essay

MATERIAL-SPIRITUAL

BANK OF IDEAS ESSAY USE

Essay on the English exam cliche, outline, necessary phrases and words

What are clichés for essays in English on the exam

Essay plan for the exam in English 2020

Your point of view on the problem

Arguments for»

How to write an essay in English

«Pros and cons»

“My Way”

«Problem and solution»

English essay writing, finished essays

— in detail about writing an essay

Structure by parts

Essay clichés

One language for the whole planet. Pros and cons

Animals in the zoo. What do you think about it. Is it fair

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