Essay Writing Guide
Essay writing is an academic endeavor that demands careful organization of ideas in a manner that is not only comprehensible but also logical. Essay writing is essentially crafting one idea after another to support an argument. Therefore, it’s a given that essay writing should have a deliberate structure that organizes the flow of ideas from start to finish in a way that delivers its intended message to the audience.
Getting Started in Writing an Essay
While essay writing follows a structure, it is also worth noting that the structure of the said essay relies on the motive of the writer-that is, how the writer intends to deliver their claim. As such there are various forms of essay writing which fall into any of the following categories;
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Essay Writing Styling and formatting
Regardless of the motive, essay writing must address the three basic parts of an essay that are; the introduction, the body, and finally the conclusion. Good essay writing should be flexible enough to address the author’s argument without compromising the structure that supports its coherence. The format essay writing takes on is especially restrictive in academic circles. For instance, most essays are written in a single-spaced format but double spacing is preferred. Even the font selection is usually confined to several styles. It is typical to find essays written in Times New Roman font or Arial fonts. When writing essays, one is bound to use information that correlates to and supports the argument they intend to pass onto their audience. Academic essay writing is not complete without acknowledging the source of the information used otherwise that amounts to academic fraud. Thus, there are citation styles to be used during essay writing. For instance, the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is used when writing essays in the field of psychology, education, and many sciences. The Modern Language Association (MLA) is mostly used for the humanities while the Chicago style lends itself to essays in history and the fine arts and also business specialties.
Starting Your Essay Writing
Essay writing begins with the essay topic that defines the author’s claim, purpose, or motive. An essay topic can be given or arbitrary. Arbitrary topics require a lot of thought because one has to define the scope of what they would write about. Ordinarily, this type of essay writing requires brainstorming which serves to enrich the topic chosen. Essay writing also requires that one conduct research to glean information that will assist in crafting a formidable argument. There are many ways one can carry out research, especially in this digital age. Apart from conventional research in the school library, there are also online libraries, online websites dedicated to scholarly, peer-reviewed sources, and multimedia information from videos and audios. Where possible, first-hand research methods such as interviewing knowledgeable people can make for a richer experience.
Creating a Thesis for Your Essay
A good essay should have a thesis statement. The thesis statement is a line of the essay that draws the audience’s attention to the author’s motive for writing. As such, the thesis statement is usually found in the introductory part of the essay and provides the basis for everything that comes after. A thesis statement should be precise, covering only the areas that form the author’s focus because sets the essay’s pace. Also, it should be supported by conclusive evidence.
Come up with a Topic
Conducting Research
Developing a Thesis
Creating an Outline
Drafting Your Essay
Writing and Editing
Formatting and Citation
Creating an Essay Outline
From the onset, essay writing has been described as organizing ideas rationally to ensure that the audience will understand. Organizing ideas is the premise of creating an essay outline that will show contents that will go into each of the essay’s constituent parts. The essay outline ensures that essay writing covers all the bases of the argument be it the ideas, the main points, and the evidence to support the argument. An author writing without an outline runs the risk of forgetting important ideas or leaving them out altogether because they have exhausted the length of the essay.
