How to Write an Essay – Steps, Format, and Examples

Are you worried about writing the most basic type of essay? Don’t be. We are here to help you.

Essays are a kind of academic writing that includes general information along with the writer’s personal opinion.

It is the primary part of formal education. Most of the students are assigned to write a college essay in high school and college. Some find it interesting while others just want to get over it.

This blog will offer you a complete format guide about how to write an essay. You will also find some tips and examples at the end for a better understanding.

What is an Essay?

An essay is a piece of writing that introduces or supports an argument. It originated from the Latin word “exagium” which means to present a case. Therefore, the essays include a case that is validated from a different point of view and analysis. Moreover, they also involve critical evaluation, organization, and presentation of facts and figures.

The common types of essays are:

• Argumentative Essay – A writer has to accept or negate the topic statement in this type of essay. Moreover, argumentative essay writing is used to present evidence to support the argument.
• Narrative Essay – It narrates a story or a personal experience and is usually written in the first-person view.
• Descriptive Essay – A descriptivle essay writing is used to describe an object, person, place, or experience
• Analytical Essay – A writer needs to analyze an argument, claim, or a writing piece in this type of essay.
• Persuasive Essay – Persuasive essay writing persuades or convinces people by stating evidence, information, and examples
• Expository Essay – Expository essay writing is used to explain, illustrate and clarify a particular thing. They involve the investigation and evaluation of a subject.
• Compare and Contrast Essay – A compare and contrast essay involves the similarities and differences between the two objects.
• Cause and Effect Essay – This essay discusses the results by looking into the reasons and causes.

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It is beneficial for you to understand the writing process of an essay before starting writing. It will help you to use the writing methodologies and approaches better.

Usually, essay writing begins with selecting a topic. After selecting the right topic, you have to begin the research to narrow down the central argument. Then you need to draft a well-structured outline to organize all your thoughts in one place.

To understand the structure of an essay, read the section below!

Structure of an Essay

A structure or an outline is considered as a road map that lays the foundation of your essay. It provides an idea of what your paper is all about and determines the structure of your essay.

Many professional writers draft an outline to plan their essays. It also offers an idea about the future headings and subheadings of the essay.

Without a well-written outline, you may get distracted and carried away during essay writing.

• Introduction

“How to write an essay introduction?”

The introductory paragraph is the first section of your essay that tells the reader about your central argument. Therefore, it should be written clearly and perfectly to motivate the readers to read more.

Moreover, a good introduction should start with a hook statement. It is an essay’s opening sentence aimed to get the audience’s attention.

People often ask, ‘How to write a hook for an essay?’

Following are the strategies to write essay hooks:

• Start with a thesis statement.
• Write a quote from a famous person.
• Use literary quotes.
• Surprise with an illusion.
• Use a short story
• Tell a personal story.
• Use numerical data.
• Share a fact or a definition.
• Ask a question.
• Thesis Statement

This one to two-line statement comes at the end of your introduction. It presents the central argument of your essay. It mainly states your claim about the topic.

• Body Paragraphs

This section comes after the introduction. It contains a detailed explanation of your topic. These are almost three to five paragraphs depending on the length and topic of your essay.

Moreover, they include information in the form of facts, logic, and research that answers your question. Furthermore, each body paragraph should start with a topic sentence and discuss no more than a single idea to support your thesis statement.

“How to write a book title in an essay?”

You must italicize your book title while mentioning it in your essay.

• Conclusion

“How to write a conclusion for an essay?”

The last section of your essay is as important as the introduction. A similarity between the introduction and conclusion is that they both present the thesis statement. It is preferable to start the conclusion paragraph with a reiterated thesis statement.

A reader reads the entire story to find the results and findings. Therefore, avoid making an abrupt ending that may leave your readers in suspense and confusion. Instead, make it compelling enough to persuade and convince them.

Moreover, introducing any new information is also a bad idea. Only summarize the entire essay by restating the central argument.

Since you have used facts, figures, examples, and other statistical data in your essay to prove your arguments, you need to cite them also. Select a citation style and cite your sources accordingly. This is similar to citing sources in a research paper.

Below-mentioned is an essay outline format for your guidance.

This essay format guide will help you plan your essays more easily.

How to Write an Essay?

Start writing your academic essay after selecting an impressive topic. Every essay follows a basic structure and format that includes an introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Following are the 8 steps to write a good essay:

1. Choose the Essay Type: The first step is to choose the type of essay you have to write on. As mentioned earlier, there are different essays, and you have to choose the best-suited option.

Once the type of essay is decided, then you can decide your topic and structure your essay.

2. Brainstorming Your Topic: Brainstorming about your essay topic will help you in the overall process of essay writing. You have to think about the plethora of ideas that you could incorporate into the chosen topic:

• Jot down the points that are coming to your mind. Then, you can omit the unnecessary ones later.
• Use mind-mapping or clustering to develop an idea for an essay. You will write the main idea in the middle of the page and create relevant ideas in the form of bubbles surrounding the main idea.
• Brainstorming will help develop a deep understanding of the topic. In addition, you will make connections with the relevant ideas.
• Once the ideas have been brainstormed, you will choose the best topic and its ideas to begin writing an essay.

3. Research the Topic: Once the brainstorming is completed, you have to begin your research to write an essay. You can search the web, visit libraries, or interview subject specialists to get an insight into a topic.

Organizing your research will help you refer back to it easily!

4. Choose a Writing Style: The writing style to write an essay is usually instructed by the teacher. Following are the three styles of writing that you can choose to write an essay:

• MLA (Modern Language Association) is usually used to write arts or humanities essays. This format has no separate title page and has author-page number style of citation. College and high school students mostly use MLA.
• APA (American Psychological Association) is usually used to write psychology and social sciences essays and research papers. It uses an author-date style of citation.
• Chicago Manual of Style is mostly used by professionals and college students. It uses notes-bibliography and author-date styles of citation.

Each of the above-mentioned writing styles has its own format for the reference list and in-text citations.

5. Develop a Thesis Statement: You have to develop a thesis statement as it will be the main point of your essay. It is usually a sentence long and is strong enough to write an entire essay on.

For Example, “Cats are descended from Lions” is a thesis statement.

A thesis statement is usually mentioned in the introductory paragraph. Thesis statement examples can help you write a great thesis statement.

6. Outline Your Essay: Creating an essay outline is one of the most important steps for writing an essay. It will help your essay or paper be organized and will give a flow to it.

As mentioned earlier, the structure or outline of your essay consists of the following components:

• Introduction
• Thesis statement
• Body Paragraphs
• Conclusion.

7. Write the Essay: Once you have created an outline, write your first rough draft. You have to put flesh on the skeleton you created while developing an outline of your essay.

After writing your first draft, re-read and edit your essay. Consider the following points while editing your rough or first draft:

• Revise your essay and check for consistency, clarity, and structure.
• Add enough information to support your thesis.
• Look for a nice flow and make connections in your essay. Use transition words to help glue the content together.
• Thoroughly read the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Ask yourself whether the reader will benefit from reading your essay?

8. Proofread and Edit: Once the essay is written, you will be looking for typos and mistakes.

Follow the guidelines below to proofread your essay:

• Check for punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Look closely for the spelling errors that are not highlighted by spell check, such as spelling “then” as “the.”
• Check the sentence structures and re-write sentences if there is a need for improvement.
• Also, check for quotation marks, especially in the citations. Do not forget to cite your sources properly.
• Remove unnecessary, vague, and repetitive text from your essay.

Structure of Essay’s Body Paragraphs

A paragraph consists of a group of sentences that are related to each other. These sentences develop one main idea of the essay.

Following are some important components that each body paragraph must contain. Consider these while composing your body paragraphs:

• A topic sentence that provides the main idea.
• Supporting sentences to make connections in the paragraphs.
• Evidence from sources.
• The impact of the evidence with a critical conclusion.
• A concluding sentence that restates the main idea of the essay.

Furthermore, if you want to learn how to become a good essay writer, read the blog to get acquainted!

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Good Essay Examples

Writing is a skill that needs to be practiced more and more to get better. Moreover, it also helps to improve the writing style and techniques. Language experts and essay professionals have provided some great examples of different types of essays.

Go through them to get a better understanding of producing your own essay.

Read the examples given below:

Essay Writing Tips

“How do you write a good essay?”

The following are some essential writing tips to make your essay even better.

• Read A Lot – Reading different materials gives you the knowledge and expands your vocabulary.
• Try to Be Creative – Always choose a unique angle to grab the audience’s attention.
• Grammar and Spellings - Make sure that you have used proper grammar and spelling in your essays.
• Correct Vocabulary – Proper vocabulary and the use of good words add meaning to your writing piece.
• Punctuation – Remember to use proper punctuation.
• Write Precise but Powerful Information – Long sentences are often boring for people to read. Therefore, try to write short sentences. Also, avoid adding irrelevant details.
• Check Plagiarism – Always check plagiarism before submitting a writing assignment because it adds authenticity to your work.

This blog offers a complete guideline on how to write an essay. However, if you still find it an uphill task, don’t worry!

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