Essay writing is a must item for students worldwide. Unfortunately, making your first steps into essay writing can prove a daunting task. With many rules to follow and approaches for efficient writing, you may find essays as tedious tasks meant to torment you.
If you are confused about how to write an essay, this essay writing guide should come in handy. Here, we will highlight the basic essay structure and offer some crucial tips you may apply along the way.
Parts of writing an essay
Scheduling for the entire essay may prove a difficult task and limit your ability to address each section of the essay. As such, essay writing should be divided into phases, each dedicated to completing an essential milestone of the essay.
Essay writing should be divided into five phases. These phases include research, outlining, drafting, writing, and editing.
How to write an essay step by step
1. Research
Failure to plan for your essay is a clear plan for failure. Before jumping into writing your essay you must read the assignment question and highlight various trigger words that may inform you of what is required of you by the tutor.
Next, brainstorm various ideas relating to the general topic and determine the intriguing ideas you can focus on within the scope of the question. Jot down various topic ideas you have gathered and research on the available resources to determine how well you can exhaust the topic.
Finally, think of your thesis statement and plan a map of your ideas to interlink various ideas you’ve gained from your research.
2. Outlining
After your research, organize your ideas into various categories and determine the elements to feature in the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. An essay outline will help you gauge your argument and determine various loopholes that should be catered for before you start writing your essay.
The outline should have a structure with a topic sentence, supportive information, and end with a summary that links it to the thesis statement.
3. Prepare your first draft
After you’ve written your outline, prepare your first draft and gauge it for various errors. The first draft is often far from the complete piece and thus guides you on various issues to iron out before you prepare your final draft.
The draft can be offered to your tutors for guidance on the areas that require more research to solidify your argument.
4. Writing your essay
Now that you’ve catered for the structural errors in your essay, go ahead and write your essay. Be keen on the word count, grammatical correctness, and the presentation of sections within your paper.
This section can be delegated to an expert to save on time without compromising the overall quality of your paper.
5. Editing and proofreading
The final stage of writing your essay is checking the paper for various grammatical issues. Preferably, take some time off your paper and resume editing at a time when you have are fresh.
Also, read each sentence out loud to gauge how well your ideas are articulated within your essay. Alternatively, consider delegating the editing of your paper to friends or a writing service. These parties are detached from the paper as compared to you and can thus easily pinpoint various errors in your essay.
How long should an essay be?
The length of an essay may vary depending on your tutors’ guidelines and the amount of research needed to exhaust the essay. If the essay word count has not been prescribed, settle for the standard 5-paragraph essay.
This essay format ranges between a thousand to fifteen hundred words as each section carries between 200-250 words. You may however consider consulting your tutor for guidance on the preferred word count before diving into the writing process.
Essay Writing for Dummies: Crucial Tips for Beginners
- Always avoid topics that have been exhausted in existing research and opt for a less popular emerging issue. Selecting a popular topic may limit your argument and result in plagiarism, limiting your performance.
- Schedule your paper as soon as you receive it to avoid heaping pressure as you approach the due date.
- Chunk your session into twenty-five-minute sessions and space them with five-minute breaks to curb mental burnout and ensure maximum productivity per session.
- Take ample time to understand all instructions to avoid various errors that may limit your performance.
Final Take
Essay writing for beginners can prove to be a daunting task. We hope that this essay writing guide has helped you gain some direction for your essay. Feel free to engage our team of experts for custom guidance on your academic tasks.
