A Detailed Guide on How to Write a Good Essay

Being a student, you are expected to write a lot of essays of different types. The length and the content greatly depend on the level, discipline, and tutor’s requirements. The primary goal of such a paper is to develop a certain idea or argument with the help of evidence, detailed analysis, and your interpretation. If you want to get a high grade, then you should learn the answer to “How do you write a perfect essay?”. For this, you should follow three main stages of the writing process that are:

Preparation: Choose the topic, investigate it and write an outline.
Writing: Arrange all your ideas in three main sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion.
Revision: Review the structure, spelling, grammar, and essay formatting.

Go on reading this guide to make your writing process easier and more fruitful.

Preparation

It is not recommended to hurry up, take your pen and start writing everything that comes to your mind. Before, you should realize what you want to say and how it is better to do it. The following steps will help you:

Understand the task. Stop and ensure that you understand the goal of your assignment correctly. What length must it have? Do you need to clarify any details with your tutor? What is a deadline?
Choose a topic. If the teacher allows you to select a topic on your own, then do it while considering your own expertise and interests.
Perform research. Find the related sources and study them well. Write down helpful notes and decide which points can act as evidence for key points.
Write a thesis. It is a significant part of any essay, so you should create a clear thesis to be able to refer to it whenever you need it.
Come up with an outline. Having an outline, you will be able to start writing easily and track the entire route without any distractions.

When you understand the topic and have evidence, you are ready to go to the next stage of the writing process.

Writing

All essays have the same writing process, but the effort and time you will spend on a particular paper depend on the assigned essay type. For instance, if you are to prepare an argumentative essay while studying at college, you will need a lot of time to research the given topic and craft an original argument. If you need to write an expository essay made up of five paragraphs for a high school class, then the most amount of time you will spend on the actual writing. What are the 5 parts of an essay? They are an introduction, three main body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction

The introduction plays an important role as exactly it sets the overall tone of your essay. A good introductory part always grabs the target audience’s attention and lets readers know what to expect from the paper in general. It occupies about 10-20% of the essay. If you want to write a winning introduction, then follow these steps:

Hook the readers. The first sentence must grab the readers’ attention and raise their curiosity. Such a sentence is called a hook and may be presented in the form of unexpected facts, intriguing questions, bold statements, etc. For instance, you are going to write a paper about Braille development. You can start your essay with such a hook as “The creation of Braille was the decisive point in the history of a person’s disability”.
Set a background. Next, you should provide a context that will help the readers understand the arguments. It may be an overview of related resources or explaining difficult phrases. However, be careful and do not include too much information as you should present it in the main body.
Create a thesis statement. Now you are expected to formulate and present a thesis statement. It is a key argument that you plan to make. A thesis statement introduces the focus and tells about your position within the topic. Usually, it takes not more than two sentences.
Map the structure. If you are writing a long essay, a description of further covered points will be a great idea to finish your introduction. Thanks to it, the readers will understand the way that your argument will develop.

Main body

It is the largest part of every essay, and usually, it takes up to 60-80% of the entire paper. If you are writing an essay for high school, then in most cases, it occupies three paragraphs, but if you are at graduate school, then be ready to write 8-10 pages of top-quality content. The purpose of the main body is to introduce, interpret and analyze all data that you have successfully collected to support the argument. It also must provide evidence and give the development of all your ideas.

As for the paragraph structure, you should arrange all information into the paragraphs. Every paragraph must be concentrated around the key idea/point. This idea is presented in a topic sentence. The latter must guarantee a smooth transition between paragraphs by using special transition words to ensure a perfect connection. Usually, some quotes, examples, or data go after the topic sentence. You should do your best to explain the evidence and demonstrate how it assists in developing a general argument.

Conclusion

Eventually, you come to the final part of your essay that is called the conclusion. Generally, it should take about 10-15 % of the text. A strong conclusion always meets the following criteria:

Return to the thesis statement
Unites all key points
Demonstrates the significance of your argument

You can say that your conclusion is a successful end of the entire paper if it sets an unforgettable impression on the target audience. To achieve such an outcome, make sure that you do not include: new evidence or arguments in the final essay part or concluding phrases (in conclusion, to sum up, etc.)

Revision

At last, when you have written the essay, you can breathe with relief. Still, there is something that you should do. Revision is an essential part of the entire writing process. First of all, you should rest a little bit, and only then start checking the paper. Using different tools will be helpful to make sure that the essay lacks grammar, spelling, or punctual mistakes. It would be great if there is somebody who you can ask to read your paper. This will let you find another point of view and correct some weak points if necessary. Also, you need to go back to the assignment requirements and make sure that you have met all of them successfully.

Effective Tips on How to Write a Good Essay

If you want to make your essay not just good but perfect, then have a look at the following tips:

Be careful with quoting. Plagiarism issues are not the most pleasant issue that you may face while writing an essay. Hence, you should carefully cite all sources you use in your paper rather than paraphrase the sentences.
Use the right vocabulary. The language that you use for your paper matters. It is not recommended to mention words that are too difficult to understand to the target audience. At the same time, you should adhere to an academic style and make sure that your paper has the right tone and voice.
Find a ‘study buddy.’ This approach is often underestimated by students. Finding the person with whom you have common views may end up in an efficient synergy. It doesn’t mean that you should write the essay together. Instead, you exchange the papers and help each other improve them.
Follow a logical structure. Once you have a clear outline, you should follow it strictly. Do not distract, and start the next part only when the previous is done. Some experts recommend reading the introduction and the conclusion together to check whether you realized your initial goals.
Read widely. It is impossible to write a stunning paper without studying previous sources that are related to the discussed topic. Read as much as you can to look at the same issue from different angles.

Example of a Good Essay

It is possible to write a good essay for hours or even days, but it is better to look at some great examples at once and easily get the overall idea. As you already know, there are four types of essays: narrative, argumentative, expository, and descriptive. Let’s look at the example of the most common paper that all students are expected to create during their study, a narrative essay:

“Looking back at the times of my childhood, I can’t find only one event that makes me warm. My family and I constantly moved from place to place because my father was an Air Force major. I saw the places that most people only dream about. Grand Canyon and Sequoia National Forest are only a few destinations.

There is one day that I will remember forever. I picked up a dog from the pound and found my best friend on that very day. First, I planned just to visit a pound, but when I saw those eyes full of hope, I couldn’t resist anymore.

Then I remembered how we looked for the house. We supposed it to be a funny and interesting process, but then we felt disappointed. No house seemed to be able to meet our expectations. They were too close to neighbors or too impersonal, and we thought that there was not simply a perfect one for us…”

Final Thoughts

What are the 5 steps to writing an essay? They are preparation, writing an introduction, arranging the main body, crafting a conclusion, and revising the entire paper. All these steps may seem to be difficult for you if you are writing an essay for the first time and have no skills at all. Remember that practice makes perfect, and soon you will boost your expertise for sure. However, if you have no inspiration or time to prepare the task independently, you can place an order on a dedicated writing website. The assistance of experienced writers proves to be a great alternative to the waste of time and effort that you may face.