Essays are the most common assignments in schools, colleges, and universities. You must have already written a few of them. Teachers commonly use essays to assess the critical thinking of students. An essay tells the reader about your ability to put your ideas into a written form. As a high school or college student, it is quite likely you know how to write a good essay. However, many students still struggle to craft good essays despite years of practice. So, if the idea of essay writing is new to you, or you struggle to write great essays, then this blog is for you. You will learn some excellent tips and tricks for writing a basic essay in this blog.
How to Write an Essay – 12 Tips from Experts
Here are some tips to help you write a great essay.
1. Know the Purpose of Your Essay
It is important to understand the purpose of your essay before you begin crafting one. Are you writing an essay in response to a task or assignment given to you by your professor? If yes, you need to ensure you understand what you’ve been asked to write about and understand the assignment’s requirements in detail. If you are writing your essay for any other reason, you must figure out and understand your goals. Do you want to use the essay to share your experiences with your readers? Do you want to share an important piece of information with them? Do you want to persuade them to change their mind about something? Whatever the case may be, you need to have a clear purpose for your essay before you start writing.
2. Write for Your Audience
One of the basic essay writing rules is to understand your audience. The more you know about who will be reading your essay, the better you will be able to write for them. Are you writing for the readers who already have an idea and background knowledge about the topic? If yes, you don’t need to get too much into the basics. On the other hand, if you don’t know anything about your audience, you will need to explain everything. You will have to provide context for everything and define terms in detail with examples. This will make it easy for your readers to understand your point.
3. Create an Outline
When you have a clear idea about the goal of your essay, the next step is to create an outline. Don’t start writing without a clear outline, as it will only lead to a disaster. Planning an essay is very important if you wish to write a great essay. It will also reduce the time it will take for you to compile the document. Here are some things you should consider when creating an outline for your essay:
- The main idea you want to put across to your audience.
- Your thoughts about the topic.
- The data, examples, and statistics you want to include in the essay.
- The structure of your essay.
4. Follow the Basic Essay Writing Structure
Here is a step-by-step basic essay writing structure you can follow:
- Title page
- Introduction
- Thesis statement
- Introduction to the topic
- Background information on the topic
- Body
- Argument
- Counter argument
- Examples
- Detailed statistics
- Relevant information
- The research you may have conducted
- Conclusion
- Provide the thesis statement again
- Reiterate your arguments
- Provide a call to action
- References
5. Include all Parts of Essay in Your Document
An essay has three main parts. Make sure your essay has these:
Introduction
The first part is the introduction. It introduces your topic to your reader and provides background about it. It is necessary to set the ground for your essay. The more interesting the introduction, the better the chances of your audience reading through the entire essay.
Body
This is the section where you will provide your arguments and viewpoints regarding the topic. Depending on the kind of manuscript you are writing, you can use this section to persuade the reader or provide them with information about the essay topic.
Conclusion
This is the last part of the essay. Use this part to conclude and summarise what you have written in the essay. It should give the readers some key takeaways and give them some ideas to think about. This section should be interesting and intriguing.
6. Start Writing
Once you have a clear structure for your essay and have collected all the relevant and latest information, it is time to start writing. Create a thesis statements which tells your readers the purpose and goal of writing this essay. It will tell your readers about to expect in the essay. Make sure your thesis statement is a part of your introduction. However, you may have to refer back to it throughout your essay.
7. Write the Introduction
Now that you have a thesis statement, you need to put it into a paragraph to introduce your readers to it. The introduction section is the first part of the essay. It should grab the attention of your readers. One great way to do it is by starting the essay with some interesting or shocking piece of information or anecdote. You can be as creative as you like but make sure whatever you write is relevant to the topic.
8. Write the Body
The body of the essay discusses the essay topic in detail. You will also be able to include your thoughts on the topic using ideas and arguments. Make sure each paragraph links with the other through ideas. This will help you build flow in your essay. You can also include examples in the body section of your essay. Moreover, it is advised to back up your ideas and arguments by including relevant statistics, data, and information in your essay.
9. Create a Topic Sentence for Each Paragraph
A great idea is to start each new paragraph with a topic sentence. This sentence will express the main idea the readers should expect in that particular paragraph. Make sure each paragraph is interesting and contains contextual information and quotes to defend your argument.
10. Write the Conclusion
Now that you have detailed all your ideas and arguments in the body, the next step is to write a conclusion paragraph to summarise everything. All the arguments and ideas should point towards your thesis statement and reiterate it. This will help readers understand your position regarding the essay topic.
11. Use Credible Sources
Whether you are writing an argumentative essay or a persuasive essay, you will need to use sources to include in your essay. Make sure you only use credible sources. Firstly, it will help you avoid plagiarism. You cannot just copy something from someone without citing the sources. It can get you into serious consequences and may also lead to a straight ‘F’ grade. Therefore, you must cite your sources and provide a list of references at the end.
Secondly, when you make a statement in your essay, you should have some sources to back it up. Contextual information and quotes are important to establish your point of view and build credibility for the information you have provided in the essay. Therefore, try to use scholarly sources in your essay and cite them properly.
12. Edit and Proofread
Editing, reviewing, and proofreading your essay is critical if you want to write a great essay. Your essay should be grammatically correct and free from any spelling errors and typos. Therefore, make sure you take some time out to edit and proofread your work. Here are a few issues and points to keep an eye out for when editing your essay:
- Conjunctions
- Spelling errors
- Typos
- Grammatical errors
- Sentence structure issues
- Factual mistakes
- Proper citations and references
- Proper formatting
FAQs
How do you write a basic essay?
Follow the tips mentioned above to find out how to write a basic essay. If you need essay help, you can always talk to the professionals at British Assignment Writers.
What are the guidelines for writing a basic essay?
A basic essay should have an introduction, body, and conclusion section. In addition, it should be grammatically and factually correct.
What are the five parts to write a basic essay?
The five parts of a basic essay include:
- Introduction
- Arguments of the writer
- Counter arguments
- Refutation
- Conclusion
Writing a basic essay is not tough. However, it does require time, effort, and research. Follow the tips mentioned above if you want to write a great essay. If you are running out of time or cannot complete your essay, you can always turn to academic help services for assistance. These services provide essay help, coursework help, and assignment help. British Assignment Writers is one of the leading academic help services in the UK. Get help with your essays at affordable rates today.
